Research - Hand colouring of photographs

Hand colouring refers to the method of manually applying paint to black and white (or sepia) photographs. This was very popular in the mid to late 19th century. Photographers would use water-colours, oils, crayons and other paints or dyes and they would apply them with brushes, fingers or cotton swabs.  Depending on how much paint you want to use, the time and focus on it could vary, whether you want to paint small areas or the whole thing. If you decide to paint the whole image, it would take a lot of and effort, particularly if the image has a lot of detail. The process is different to mine, because I did not spend a lot of time on mine, whereas the other photographers have. The difference is their detail and colouring are much more elaborate and my detail and colouring looks rather shabby.

I do like this method, however, because it's a rather creative and imaginative way of making your images look unique. For example, if you have a picture of a person, you could paint their hair green, or their skin purple or their eyes orange, whatever you like. It's your photograph.



Here are a few examples of hand coloured photographs.

Hand painting images

Today I went out with a group and took 1 portrait of Georgie. I then downloaded them and picked the best one and then I edited them on Photoshop, turning the image black and white. I then printed it out and painted over certain areas.

Original

Black and white

Final image

Photoshop workshop - Photograph reproduction

For the next two weeks. I am going to try to reproduce an iconic photograph of Audrey Hepburn. The photographs in question are shown below. 

Out of the five images shown here, I will be choosing the one with Audrey wearing a black polar neck. The reason being is because the image itself is simple, yet striking on the grounds that it almost looks like a silhouette. The person I'm going to choose for this particular photograph is my friend Danielle Levell. The reason is because she looks similar to Audrey Hepburn and is therefore the perfect choice. 

Photoshop workshop - 3d images - colour

Here, I'm going to show you how to create a 3D image.

First open the image by clicking 'File' and select 'Open'. 

Choose the image you want and click 'Open'.

After you've opened the image, go to 'Layer' and click 'Duplicate Layer'

Your picture should now have a duplicate layer.

Next, make sure the TOP layer is selected, then go on to 'Image', 'Adjustments', and click 'Levels'

Click on 'Channel and change it to red, then adjust the output levels to 0 s that the image will turn blue. then click OK.

Next, click the bottom layer and do exactly the same as before, only this time you change the channel to green and adjust the output to 0 so the image turns purple.

Then you change the channel to blue and adjust the output to 0 so the image turns red.
Then click OK.

The layers should look like this.

Click the top layer again and then click the layers button and select 'Screen'.

The image should look normal again. Click on the 'Move tool' from the left hand side of the screen and move the top layer down and right. the image should now look like this:

Photoshop workshop - Radial Blur

Here, I'm going to show you how to create an image manipulation using Radial Blur.

First, open up Photoshop, then click on 'File' and select 'Open'.

A new window should come up with your images. Select the one you want, then click 'Open'.

Once the image has been opened, go onto the toolbar and click "Elliptical Marquee Tool'.

Select the area you want and a circle will appear in the centre of the image, as shown here.

Then click on 'Select' and click "inverse' so the the whole image will be highlighted apart from the middle. 

Next, click on 'Select' again and select 'Modify' and click 'Feather'

Then, adjust the feather radius up to 150 pixels and click 'Ok'.

After that, you click 'Filter', select 'Blur', and then click on 'Radial Blur'.

Adjust how much zoom or spin you want and click 'Ok'.

The image should look like this.

And finally, save your image. Click on 'File', select 'Save As' and a small box will appear on the screen.

Change the format to 'JPEG',

Then click Save.

Research - Mark Winkley - images

Mark Winkley is a professional photographer who photographs people, landscapes and objects for a living. He even digitally manipulates some of them to make them more abstract, darker, brighter or more colourful.

Here is an example of his work. Here we have a woodland path that looks as if it's been taken after dark and is lit up by headlights. What he's done here is that he's manipulated the image to make it more colourful and a sort of fantasy image. The sky has been turned pink and the ground have been turned a more vivid shade of green. 

Digital image manipulation - Introduction

Over the next six weeks I will be continuing the second part of my photo manipulation assignment. For this part I will be asked to research the history of photo manipulation, Photoshop workshops, research a few artists of my choice, experiment with different methods and produce a final image. I am also asked to evaluate my work and to identify any strengths and weaknesses and work out what to improve on, evaluate a few examples of other people's work and prepare and digitise source materials. Finally I will present my work with my own design outcome, demonstrating an opinion of the use of image manipulation techniques, against a given theme or assignment brief.