Monday, October 4, 2010

Week 7 - Distraction

#1

#2#3

If nobody has read any blogs, week 7's should give them everything they need. Title in this blog

CRAFT:
To create the above images, I first took various poses of Laura, a head on shot of the teddy grahams, and a photo of an old computer keyboard. I used the magnetic lasso to cut Laura out of the background, then a soft eraser to clean up the edges. I was able to use the magic wand and the soft eraser to remove the teddy grahams. I then applied numerous filters (sumi-e, dark strokes) to the keyboard in order to make it look more pronounced and not as dusty. I used brightness/contrast/hue/saturation on all of the separate images in attempt to make them flow together better. I had to pay extra attention to the teddy grahams because they were photographed against a very bright green background, thus yielding a green glow. I simply removed all of the color from them and then selected variations until I got the color I desired. Specifically, to create #1, I desaturated the keyboard and used variations to obtain a color that I felt complimented the image. The pairings of teddy grahams and Laura were aligned to make the teddy actually look across from her. The grouping furthest away has the strongest gaussian blur applied and I also decreased the value the most. The middle pairing is intermediate, and the closest pairing has no blur, but the saturation was slightly increased. I used the eye dropper to sample the color of the shadows on the keyboard and then selected a soft airbrush to create shadows under the teddy grahams and Lauras. In #2, I used the gradient filter on the background layer to create the interesting color contrast. I grayscaled the teddy grahams and Lauras and used curves/levels on them to create the level of contrast I thought looked best. I duplicated the teddy grahams and applied various levels of the motion blur to the bottom layer. For image #3, I desaturated the background and altered the brightness/contrast to suit the rest of the image. The teddy graham and Laura pairing furthest away has the saturation, contrast, and brightness increased, while the one closest is slightly desaturated. I also created a layer under the teddy grahams and used a soft white airbrush to create a glow.

Concept:
When working, we are exposed to distractions, such as hunger.

Composition:
#1: I positioned the teddy grahams directly in front of Laura so that it was evident that she was looking at them and not blankly into the distance. I placed one teddy graham in her hand to give the impression that she intends on eating it. I darkened and blurred the pairings furthest away to to develop death. Ideally, I wanted the furthest pairing to be examined first, but after creating a couple versions of the image, I feel that this version has the best feel to it.
#2 I decided to do something abstract by making the subjects of the image monochrome with a vibrant background. I feel like it gives the image a very different feel--it seems more retro. The blur of the teddy grahams also makes them seem unattainable. The pairing closest is the lightest, thus noticed first.
#3 By graying the background, the subjects stand out significantly more. My eye naturally goes to the pairing the furthest away due to the intensified color, then to the middle, then the closest. Following the order makes it seem like Laura is working, then notices something, and ultimately is reaching to obtain what she was distracted by. The glow around the teddy grahams makes them stand out.

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