Image editing was never my strong suit, so I always stayed away from it. While I did appreciate and get entertainment out of other people’s skills at photoshopping, this week’s class was the very first time I ever played around with image editing. Overall, I had somewhat of a difficult time. The fact this was my first attempt editing an image (basic MSPaint does not count) meant that many of the pixlr/photoshop concepts were foreign entities. To start it off, I watched the YouTube videos to get a general idea on what I was going to be doing. At first glance, I was still very clueless. That did not mean I give up though…
In order to facilitate this moment of confusion, I started by choosing two images via CreativeCommons. Both images are sourced from Google Images. Here are the two images in original form:
The first one is a skyline view of some beautifully lit city and the second one is a sketch of some guy listening to headphones. The reason for these choices is fairly simple: I enjoy skyline views, and I also like to listen to music. I visit New York City a lot, and listening to music on the go is essential for me, as it kind of feels like a soundtrack for my journey in the city that never sleeps. Whether or not I’m in the city, listening to music while traveling applies pretty much anywhere I go. It is rare that you will see me without a pair of headphones!
In my experience, adjusting the brightness and contrast for the skyline photo was fairly simple as it was a matter of playing around with Pixlr Editor and seeing what features it offered. I also found the following links to be very helpful (as did the other URLs posted on eCollege): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGWq283jiuU
http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/layers/images-as-layers/
After watching that video and reading the guide, it was clear what I needed to do.
Some cool features I noticed was the colorpicker and especially the wand, which made it easy to get rid of the white/tile backgrounds. Also, any other feature in the panels is very similar to MSPaint.
Playing around with the hue & saturation filter was really neat too. It made the city lighting not only brighter, but more aesthetic. The final touch was to add a memorable quote of mine said by a friend (who is a musician that inspires me every day).
This whole experience opened me to the world of image editing. Pixlr, despite being less powerful compared to PhotoShop, is certainly a wonderful door that opens up the possibilities of what image editing is capable of. The power of image editing is quite astounding and it made me respect people who are actually adept in this field. Now that I have some basic knowledge of photoshopping, the next step is to get better at it. I can definitely apply this newly learned skill in customizing my Tumblr or even edit some of the pictures that I take. Although I’m not a professional photographer (I use my smartphone), it is better than taking a picture, putting it on Instagram, and calling it an “edited photo”, right? During my free time I definitely want to learn more of what image editing has to offer because I have only scratched the surface. I may even consider giving PhotoShop a try.
I like your header image a lot. You did a great job considering you said you had some difficulties. I like how you played with the brightness contrast. I also liked that you put a quote with your header. I don’t have any complaints about the header image. Everything looks great.
Well done, I really like what you did with the header. The two images you selected are nice sources to work with, and the way you chose to blend them together was effective. The only thing I might suggest would be to maybe reduce the vertical size of it. When a visitor comes to your site, the header sort of sets the tone/mood of the page, and it takes space away from the actual content of your article. That said, this is a personal preference, and you should still stay to what you would like to do with your page. In terms of editing, I’d say you did very well and it’s something you should be proud of. For just getting your feet wet, well done!
Your header is AH-mazing. Great job. I really like the quote. Thanks for posting the link to the video you used. I mostly just googled stuff and that was kind of useless. Its crazy to think you are a beginner.