Unit 34 - Image Manipulation Computer Applications

Image manipulation

Paul M Smith

Paul M Smith is a photographer and course director for the BA Hons photography course within the Coventry University Department of Media and communication. At the age of 16, Smith joined the army into the Royal Engineers for 5 years. This was due to the inspiration of his older brother who had joined already.

Smith then went on to focus on the stereotypical views of masculinity and femininity through a series of photographs which had been manipulated to show mainly himself just in different positions. These series were Artist Rifles, Make My Night, This is Not Pornography and Robbie Williams. 

Artish Rifles

This series of manipulated images are his most personal images as it delves into ideas from his childhood and his own personal experiences in the army. These photographs are also his first chapter into his interrogation of masculinity and what it means to be a man. 

The photographs were taken at a military base in Warminster, Salisbury Plain.

Smith elected to assume every role in the photographs which fulfil both the military ideal of war and the fantasy role-play ideal of war. The images take away the visceral reality of war, while retaining the drama and egocentricity of childhood games.

 "Television presents us with the clean war, one suitable for viewing over dinner and regurgitating as history in the form of the latest console game"

My Own Image Manipulation

This was my first attempt at a Paul M Smith style photograph. As you can see there are four of me in the image. To do this I had to take four different photographs and then using photoshop I had to place one on top of the other to create the effect of four of me in one photo. For my final attempt at a Paul M Smith style photo I need to be interacting with myself.                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Image manipulation in the media

Image manipulation, also called photoshopping or airbrushing, is the application of image editing techniques to photographs in order to create an illusion or deception after the original photographing took place.

Image manipulation is very common within the media, with most media outlets editing images to change the perception of the image. The most recent image manipulation controversy in the UK is to do with airbrushed models and how unrealistically perfect they are made to look.

In 2011 L'Oréal were forced to pull their ad campaigns featuring Julia Roberts because the images were overly airbrushed. The Advertising Standards Authority upheld complaints lodged by Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson.

It is clear that the images have been extremely airbrushed to make Julia Roberts look flawless when in reality she is no where near as perfect as she is in the images. Her face seems to have been made narrower and her skin perfect without any sign of wrinkles or blemishes. Although this image was for an anti-wrinkle product it is obvious that the "results" in the image are unrealistic and false.

The ethics of image manipulation

Image manipulation is a very hot topic within the world of media, with a lot of people questioning how ethical it is to edit an image to create a false and unrealistic image of either a person or a past event.

Image manipulation within the fashion industry raises a lot of questions regarding how ethical it is to create an unrealistic view of someone. Almost every fashion company manipulates images of models and celebrities to make them look flawless and unrealistically perfect. They do this by airbrushing out any blemishes or wrinkles and toning down the person to make them look slim. Morally this isn’t acceptable because a lot of young girls look to these airbrushed models and celebrities for inspiration on how they should look but when these models and celebrities are unrealistically slim and look “perfect” it leads to many health issues in young girls and boys. These health issues include bulimia and anorexia.

Although image manipulation raises many ethical questions, it’s difficult to completely stop it altogether. One country that understands this is Australia. They are considering making it compulsory for all magazines to have a photoshop warning label on all manipulated or airbrushed images. This is good in the sense that it will help young people to understand that what they see in magazines is often unrealistic. Also it may aid in helping to reduce the number of bulimia and anorexia sufferers.

I personally feel that image manipulation is acceptable within reason. As soon as it becomes unrealistic and false, for me, it ruins the image and also takes away the natural beauty of models and celebrities.

Photoshop Techniques - Levels & Curves

 Using photoshop we had to edit photographs to increase the brightness and exposure of the image using the levels and curves function.

 Here is the original image I have chosen to use. The image is slightly under exposed in some places.

I increased the exposure of the image using the curves function on photoshop. I did this by pulling the slider upwards which made the image brighter. The only problem with using curves is that it increases the brightness of everything in the image which can lead to parts of the image becoming too bright or too dark and so is only really effective when the image is mostly one colour.

I increased the exposure of this image using the levels function on photoshop. I did this by moving the grey scale slider so that it increased. This was good for this image because it allows you to increase the brightness of only certain colours in the image and so is more effective in an image that has many different colours.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Photoshop - Hand Coloured Black and White Images

For this exercise we had to go out and take a photograph of something colourful. We then had to edit the photo on photoshop to make it part black and white and part colour.

This is my original image taken down at the Bristol Docks. As you can see the colours are really vibrant which is perfect for this exercise.

 I started by adding the image to photoshop and then duplicating it to create an identical layer. After that I went into image > adjustments > hue/saturation and turned down the saturation to -100 make the image black and white.

 I then added a vector mask to the layer.

















I then made sure the foreground colour was set to black and selected the brush tool. I then began colouring the areas of the image I wanted in colour. A you can see I've chosen to colour in the bridge and a red sign on the post.




Once I had finished colouring in the bridge and the red sign post I went on to image > adjustments > levels and increased the black slider to 80 so that the colours would be toned down slightly.





I then went went to the layer palette and decreased the opacity so that there was a slight bit of colour added to the background.

This is my final image. As you can see the colour of the bridge isn't as vibrant as the original picture but it works well with the image especially with a small amount of colour added to the background.

The Warhol Effect

The Warhol effect was created by Andy Warhol who was a an American visionary artist and also a leading figure in the visual art movement called Pop Art. Warhol's work explored the relationship between artistic expression, celebrity culture and advertisement which all flourished in the 1960s. 

Warhol's most famous piece is of Marilyn Monroe which was created after her death in 1962. Warhol chose to use Marilyn Monroe as one of his subjects as she was a representation of two of his consistent themes, death and the cult of celebrity.

Our task was to create our own Warhol image. To do this we had to take a photo of either ourselves or someone else and then use photoshop to change the colour of the image and resize the image.

This is the original image I used for my Warhol effect.

 I then opened the image in photoshop and turned down the saturation so that the image became black and white.

 I then cut down the image so that it was a perfect square. The measurements for this image is 40x40.







I then went into the filter option and chose a filter that makes the image look more like a drawing and so less realistic.








Once that was done I saved the image as a jpeg so that I could re-use it.

 I then made nine copies of the image but each time changing the colour of the image.

 I then opened a blank A3 page on photoshop and place each image onto the page and aligning them so that they created a large square. I then cropped the left over space off of the page.





This is the final result. It is not exactly the same as Warhol's image because he uses more than one colour in his squares but it is very similar in style.

Summer to Winter landscapes

 For this exercise we had to change a summer landscape to a winter landscape. I went up to the top of Cabot Tower to capture this image as I figured I would get the best landscape view. When taking this photo I tried to include as much of the park and city as well as making the horizon fall in the centre of the photo to give the landscape and the sky an even divide.

I started by making a copy of the original image.

Next I went on select > colour range. This option selects how heavy and how much snow will cover the photograph. 

Once I chose how much I wanted I created another layer and titled it snow. This layer only contains the selected areas that will be covered in snow.

The next step was to go on to edit > fill. This option filled the selected areas in white which made it look like snow. This was a bit of a trial and error phase as it took a few attempts to get the snow how I wanted it.

I then created a new layer and made it grey. I then added noise to the photograph as this eventually creates the effect of falling snow.  

I then went in to gaussian blur and blurred the noise I made previously so that it looked more like snow fall .

I then went into motion blur and made the blurred noise go downwards at an angle which made it look more like a snow fall and more realistic. 

This is my final image. As you can see it looks quite realistic because the ground and the tops of buildings are covered in "snow" and also the clouds have gone a grey colour which is similar to the colour they go when there is a snow fall. Also the effect of the noise makes it seem more realistic as it looks like the snow is falling.

Vignette

Photographic vignette 

Vignette featured in a book

A vignette is where the image's brightness or saturation is reduced around the edge of the image but the centre is still completely in colour. Vignette's originated as being a decorative border in a book but evolved into being a photographic word used to describe an image that is clear in the centre but fades around the edges.

Own Vignette

For this task we had to go out and take a photograph of either an object or a person