Week 14 - Double Self Portrait and Multiple Exposures Interior

Overview

This is a great week for Photoshop you can not ask for better projects to do and tutorials to watch! Enjoy!

Week 14 Assignment 1 - Me and My Doppleganger

You are going to combine 2 or more photographs together to create a seamless double self portrait. You will need a tripod and some tape. Set your camera up, lock it into position, and tape the location of the tripod legs or the base of the camera in case someone moves it accidentally. Access the self-timer function and take a picture of yourself. Now change something about yourself, your body position, your clothes, your expression or attitude, and take another photograph. Now you should have 2 images that are shot from the same camera angle and same environment, except the subject of the image is different. Now you need to combine the images together in Photoshop, the easiest and best way to do this is by dragging one of the images into the other, and then use layer masks to combine the parts of the image that you want to appear together.

This assignment is based on a photograph by contemporary photographer Jeff Wall whose work we looked at earlier.

Note: You may need a tripod for this assignment. You might be able to get away with setting your camera on a table, but I don't recommend it. For a photographer a good tripod is indispensible.

Turning it in:
Due Date: End of Week 16
Save your final image as a Photoshop file so you save all your layers and a high Resolution. Then reduce your image size and save your image as a JPG file. Post your final JPG to Picasa and the DansCourses Forum under the "Double Self Portrait" category.

Week 14 Assignment 2 - Multiple Exposures Interior

This assignment is similar to the previous one in that it asks you to montage multiple images together that have been shot from one vantage point (i.e. the tripod, don't move it) and then layer them together using layer masks to create one manipulated scene. In the last assignment, you created a surreal double self portrait with the focus being the actor in picture. In this assignment, the focus will be on manipulating the lighting and therefore the architectural space to make an ideal photographic setting.

Let's say you need to take a shot of an interior and you don’t have the correct lighting to sufficiently light all of the places in the room. Think of a dark room with candlelight in some areas and soft lights in others, etc. This would be very hard to shoot to get the whole picture to correctly show the different kinds of lights and so that each object or piece of furniture is lit correctly. Using a tripod and layer masks you can light the interior in different ways with spot lights or lamps and then combine the pictures together, after the fact, using layer masks, brushes, and layer transparency. Using Photoshop in this way you get the best of all possibilities in one image.

You are going to combine 3 or more photographs together to create a seamless lit interior shot that combines different lit perspectives. This time you will need a tripod, some tape, and some lights (you can use lamps or clip on lights from WalMart). Set up your camera and lock it into position (tape the location in case someone moves it accidentally). Set up some lighting that accents a part of the room you want to focus on like a spot light. Access the self-timer function and take the picture. Now change the lighting in the room to favor another aspect of the scenery, you can even turn off all the lights in order to get the light coming from the windows. Now you should have 2 images that are exactly the same as far as location but different in regards to the lighting. Now you need to combine the images together in Photoshop, the easiest and best way to do this is by dragging one of the images into the other using the selection tool (this time hold down the shift key as you drag in order to align them correctly), and then use layer masks to combine the parts of the image that you want to appear together.

Turning it in:
Due Date: End of Week 16
Save your final image as a Photoshop file a couple time so you can reduce Image > Image Size to lower the resolution. Turn off the eyeballs on your layers so you can save "before" and "after" JPG files. Post before and after JPGs to Picasa and the DansCourses Forum under the "Multiple Exposures Interior" category.

Lynda.com Tutorials (Must See)

Photoshop CS3 Creative Photographics Techniques with Chris Orwig

    Chapter 21 - Combining Multiple Exposures
        Nature - Combination of Foreground and Sky (must see!)
        Architecture Part 1 - Combination of Interior and Exterior (must see!)
        Architecture Part 2
        Architecture Part 3

    Chapter 22 - Using Auto Align and Auto Blend
        Architecture Interior Part 1 - Auto-Align (must see!)
        Architecture Interior Part 2 - Auto-Blend (must see!)
        Architecture Interior Part 3 - Finishing Details (must see!)

Enhancing Digital Photography with Photoshop CS2 with Chris Orwig

    Chapter 16 - Expanding Exposure
    Multiple Exposures in Architecture 1 (must see!)
        Multiple Exposures in Architecture 2 (must see!)
        Multiple Exposures in Architecture 3 (must see!)
        Multiple Exposures in Architecture 4 (must see!)

Student Work Samples - Me and My Doppleganger