Saturday, February 11, 2012

Assignment 2 - Photo Manipulation

With the development of technology, photographs can be prettier than ever.

First Photo
 
Original – by Ya Tong Li
I love flowers; unfortunately, they are not going to last forever. That is the reason why I always take photos of flowers when they were in bloom – to keep the most beautiful moment alive. Even though I like the original photo as what it is, a photo editor can make magical changes than I can ever imagine. It is really fun to edit a photo; although I can’t edit it well as professionals, I still enjoy the process of editing a photo of my own.

As I mentioned, I do like the original photo; however, the color of the leaves and ground is a little dark which shadowed the brightness of the flowers, and also, the messy leaves decrease the visual attractiveness of the flowers.

The followings are the steps I did to make the photo more attractive:

1.      Adjust the saturation of the color
The saturation of the color refers to the purity of the color, the higher the purity is, the more clear-cut the picture is; conversely, low purity indicates a darken expression. The saturation of the color is determined by how much the color is mixed with gray and white. I increased the saturation of the color to make the flower clearer and brighter.
2.      Adjust sharpness
Use sharpening to increase the sharpness and clarity of the picture.
3.      Use mosaic brush
Decrease the intensity of the mosaic brush to blur the leaves around the flower so that leaves won’t take focus away from the main subject – flower.
4.      Add special effect according to preference

 Sunlight + Cold Tone

Starlight + Cold Purple Tone

Chromatic Glint – Unrealistic effect

-- Edit Show (Different Special Effects of Editing)

Second Photo

Original – by Ya Tong Li
This is a photo of my boyfriend.
It was taken in a KTV so that the background of the photo looks messy, and the color of the background unmatch the color of his cloth, which really reduce the attractiveness of the main character. The uneven shadows created by lighting mix with the dark cycle around his eyes made his expression looks weird. According to the analysis, I decided to remove the entire background and do a little modification.






1.      Beautify the features
Use skin whitening function to reduce uneven darkness or shadow caused by lighting. Then use remove black circle function to smooth away dark eye circles.
2.      Figure adjustment
Whight reducing function to reduce the “beer belly” to shape a symmetrical figure.
3.      Cutout filter
Use cutout filter to cut the person out of the photo.
4.      Add background or scene to the cuted image to make magical changes 

Poster
 

Realistic Scene
Other Scene

Third Photo

Original – by Ya Tong Li
Beach of the Lake of Ontario

As far as I am concerned, the original photo is already a really good picture. However, there are severl steps can be done to make it even better, or, to make it different.


 

1.      Increase the lighting, the saturation of the color, and adjust the sharpness.
  To reduce the hazy feeling of the photo; make the photo brighter and clearer.
2.      Defogging: Use the defogging function to increasing brightness and contrast ratio.
3.      Increase sharpness again after defogging to give a 3D felling to clouds.
4.      Adjust color: add red, purpol, and blue to give the photo a mysterious feeling.

After Edited
  
Thanks for viewing!

Note: All photos are edited by Ya Tong Li using photo editor MeiTuXiuXiu http://xiuxiu.meitu.com/