Graphic Design Basics

Photoshop Tutorials

Scope of Project

To begin with, we had tutorials to teach us more of Photoshop skills and review ones from last year. The process was generally watching certain videos to one of the 6 tutorials, then working alongside with it to edit the given images. To make the edits, we used the Content Aware Fill, Patch Tool, Clone Stamp, Healing Brush, and Spot Healing Brush, all of which will be mentioned below. These skills that we worked on would be great for photographers and magazines as they are able to fix what was missed and provide necessary adjustments for publication. Out of all of them, my favorite tutorial was the original Patch Tool. Though we jumped right into working on the computers, these tutorials will make future projects easier and more understandable.

Content Aware Fill

The first of the videos was the content aware fill, which uses a selected area's surroundings to replace it. There were 4 photos to do of these, and they only worked if given enough space to copy from. This skill is used for minor edits, like an unseemly background blemish or a logo that can't be used. If the Fill didn't come out exact, you are able to change the layer's lighting for a more even look or choose from smaller areas. I can already tell that this will be used often in the future for quick fixes.

Patch Tool

Next comes the Patch Tool, do go even beyond what the Content Aware Fill can do. On some areas, like the man's shirt from before my version, the Fill doesn't have enough area to mimic the shirt. So, with selecting the desired area, you can then drag it away to bring in the portion of the shirt you want. You can also copy shadows and texture this way to give it a natural look. If one area was too bright or didn't, you can continue to drag smaller areas for precise adjustments.

Clone Stamp and Healing Brush

After that, we went onto something harder: removing a tag while preserving texture of the item. To do this, we had the clone sections of the coat nearby the tag in the pocket to continue on the shadows and pattern we'd see from the clothes. Then, we had the find sections of the pocket to copy and layer. With the Healing Brush and some Filter editing, we removed the soft and blurry look that had occurred and made the coat lose its natural look. The Filter was able to add back Noise that creates the texture, and the Brush fixed small problems. This was the first usage of the Clone Stamp, but it plays a huge role in the following tutorials, being one of the easiest ways to continuously fix an image once removing an object from the
photo.

Clone Stamp and Patch Tool

This next tutorial combines the previous ones to erase a larger part of an image with a more complex background. First, we had to clone out most of a pole which was coming from the man's head. There was a small section of Content Aware that you could do, also. Then, you had to fix his hairline and patch the sky back in. Once that was finished, we had to blend out the sky to keep the original gradient and a smooth finish, making it seem like there was nothing to interrupt the background at all.

Spot Healing Brush

For this tutorial, we worked on quickly removing blemishes, in this case it was dirt, and over large expanses of a photo. At first, we used this brush to individually clean up the image, but it was difficult to get all of them since we had to work with a smaller brush as to not cause inconsistencies with the skin. To combat this, there were masks and layer additions to be added to the end result, and the results were immediate after using a normal brush set to black on the mask itself: a picture perfect kid that no one would have guessed was just outside. 

Building a Portrait Collage

This final tutorial was the most engaging and time consuming of them all. In one way or another, we used all of the previous skills to create the collage. To begin with, we set up the photos in the order they would be in, then edited the one of the left to be near the same height. Then, we extended the background by first cleaning up the branches with the Clone Stamp and patching the sky and making a new layer to extend the background so that the center image had a place to rest. Any transparency above the head was fixed later on by cloning sections on all layers.

I think the hardest part of this tutorial was working with the middle girl. There were constant revisions to the hair and clothing; to make the sleeves, we had to take them from a different image and line it up, then work with filters and various brushes and masks to have it look natural. Once the center image was ready, we had cropped the image and finished the placements for every layer. The final touches were done by editing the color and tone. We had the background be muted so that the extra saturation on the center really popped. By finishing this collage, we concluded the first set of Photoshop tutorials.

Reflection

Before doing these basics, I had no idea what Photoshop was truly capable of. I now know how to fix problem areas, how to merge two different images, what masks can do and to use black or white brushes to affect them, and especially the importance of all the brushes and selection tools. Also, I have become aware of how time consuming and precise the process must be. I'm no expert yet, not even close to it, but these have forced me to always be problem solving and to bring together all the skills I have to work on one issue. Looking back, I can already see what I need to work on, and plan to continue using the next set of tutorials as a way to refine and develop my abilities.