Here is my final draft of the Phot Editing Project, image and report!
IMAGE:
REPORT:
The intended audience for the photo that I have created included people in their early twenties or thirties with an interest in environmentalism or the impact that humans have on nature. This audience most likely includes those who feel bothered by the sight of industrial smoke in the air or garbage lying on the grass everywhere they go. The world that we live in can be so beautiful, but humans create more negative impact rather than positive, and it shows. Plants and animals suffer from the pollution that people have created, pollution that also negatively impacts us and makes us sick. Something needs to change. More people need to become aware of the destruction we cause and realize that it we have a responsibility to clean up the mess we have left on this earth. Therefore, the purpose of this image is to inform the audience of the pollution that industrial, man-made creations produce and how this pollution negatively impacts the beautiful nature that surrounds us. The image is meant to invoke emotion and encourage others to take towards changing the world into an environmentally friendly atmosphere. Maybe even changing it into a world that fights harder to benefit nature and help it grow rather than destroy it. After all, the earth provides us with more than we deserve with its beauty, shelter, oxygen, and so much more.
Some key features of this image include the flowers, industry in the background, and the text at the top. Firstly, the vibrancy of the flowers demonstrates natures beauty and essence. Placing the vibrant, orange flowers in the foreground of the image emphasizes them as being the main idea and represent what is good in the world. Choosing the color orange for these flowers helps to symbolize many different things such as freedom, health, and creativity. I believe that this color may appeal to the younger population and draw them in to the topic. The structure in the background is an industrial construction zone representing the pollution and destruction that humans have created in this world that gives them benefits at the cost of damaging the earth. The darkened aspect of this portion of the image conveys how dense it is with negativity and waste. I made the flowers in the middle look affected by the smoke and pollution from the construction behind it, being burnt or deteriorated. This depicts the way man-made pollution damages the earth, being one of the sources of much of natures suffering and being negatively impacted every single day. The simple text at the top of the image drills the message into the audience’s brain. I made it in bold to really stand out and clearly emphasize that change is needed, and everything depicted in the image provides the reason why.
In creating this image, I first layered pictures of the industrial construction in the background with the orange flowers. I had to use the Magic Wand tool to cut the flowers out of their original image which had a sky and other distracting objects in the background. I only wanted the flowers and grass to layer on top of the industry photo. I also played with the lighting of both images. I utilized the adjustment tool to alter the lighting to be very dark, inverted this lighting, and used the Brush tool to darken the desired areas. I did the same with the flowers, except I made them lighter rather than darker. After this, I added another layer of flowers in between the construction image and the flower image. I strived to make these middle flowers the cross between the beauty of nature and the pollution of the construction. To do this, I, again, played with the lighting as well as the saturation of the petals and buds. I darkened the grass and the petals of each flower. Then I used the Dodge and Burn tool to create the blackened and burnt essence of the petals. The Eraser and Clone Stamp tools came in handy to help clean up the edges or funny looking parts of the image. Finally, I used to the Text tool and Perpetua Tilting MT font in bold to create the title: “Change Is Needed”.
From this project, I learned a lot about Photoshop and how fun it proves to be when taking the product of others work and creating something new that contains a whole different meaning by using the various tools provided. Though it is fun, creating new things does not com without difficulty. Before you know it, you have already spent hours on a single aspect of the project. I realize this may also happen because I have never been able to convey my creativity successful in the past. Even now, new ideas constantly come to my mind that I want to incorporate into my project, but I have no idea what it will look like or if it will come out looking the way I imagined it. It is truly a skill to piece together different images and emphasize specific aspects of it to convey a specific message. In addition to this, I also learned that communication does not only come in the form of writing. A message can be efficiently communicated through the creation of images. The emotions and feelings that different filters can evoke through an image or the thoughts that relate to the image work together to convey a message. In school, teachers and professors never really taught me about other ways to communicate other than through paper or a power point presentation that may or may not contain pictures. Pictures in writing always supplemented and depended on the writing piece. In this class I am realizing that an image can speak a million words and suggest different interpretations, yet still in the way it was created to. In this project, the text and words supplemented the image. I also learned that I may have a newfound appreciation for the environment and how beautiful it really is. I had conducted research for this project to help me find the right photos and filters that would work to convey my message. The research opened my eyes to see that humans create so much negative impact on earth. It really starts to hit you when you constantly look at pictures of awful looking productions that came from humans. Connecting these images to my message increasingly made it a more intriguing topic for myself and I would hope my image encourages the same feelings in others who see it.
To improve on the next project, I will try to talk more with other people about my topic to help me brainstorm and bounce ideas off them. I will ask my friends and family to try to interpret my creation to see if my message is conveyed efficiently. I will put forth more time to brainstorm who I want the audience to consist of to make it easier to send a message that will efficiently communicate with that audience. Asking my professor and fellow classmates about the best way to go about conveying that message has helped me for this project, so I will do the same for future projects as well. All of these steps will allow me to more efficiently use my time and allow me to improve and place more effort into the project.