Photo Manipulation

Photo Manipulation is an art form in which a photograph is significantly altered or changed from its original state. Photo manipulation has been regularly used to deceive or persuade viewers, or for improved story-telling and self-expression. Photoshopping is a slang term for digital editing the photos. The term was popularized by this software called Adobe Photoshop. It is because the most commonly used by professional photo manipulators. However, there are other programs such as Corel Photopaint, GIMP, paint.net may be used.

Last year, I went to New York and took some great photos. Here, I went to Liberty Island and took a picture of the Statue.

Original Photo

What I wanted to do is to put clouds in it and light the torch. And here is what I came up with. I called it "Liberty torch lit with clouds".

Altered Photo

First, I created another layer and used a photo with clouds that I took here in Toronto. Then I overlayed it to the original picture and set the opacity of the layer to 70%. 

Used photo

Second, to create the flames, I created another layer then used a brush tool with a radius size just enough to fill that torch. I used a darker colour first then slightly going to light colour and tried to concentrate on the base point of the torch. Then I used a smudge tool to try create the flames. Also, after that I used the gaussian blur to make the flames more realistic.

This second picture was taken back when I went to Parliament in Ottawa. It was taken from above the building.

Original Photo

Since I have some images of the Statue of Liberty, I decided to put it on that island. I also put a hot air balloon and a couple of MIG jet fighters just to experiment. And here is what I created and it's called "Liberty in Ottawa".

Altered Photo

First, I opened the original photo and created a layer with it. Then I opened up the Statue of Liberty and deleted it's background by using a magic eraser tool. This tool is very handy because it automatically erases background colours. Although it's not perfect all the time, It is really ideal for beginners. Then I also added some stuff into the picture like a hot air balloon and jet fighters and also used the same magic eraser technique.

Photos Used

Remember this next photo? This was at Wellesley and Sherbourne. I was there when this 6 alarm level fire happened. I took a picture from my phone and this is the original photo.

Original Photo

Altered Photo

In this photo, I tried to exaggerate the fire by using a clone stamp tool to copy the smoke and evenly spreading it out to the upper level of the building. I used brush tool to create the flames adding different levels of colour from orange to yellow and to white then I used the smudge tool to spread the colours. Finally, I used the gaussian blur to try make it realistic.

Next photo is the one I took during winter. It was after a snowfall so everything was full of snow.

Original Photo

Altered Photo

What I did in this photo is I added a "snow storm" effect on it. I made a layer and used fill colour with black. And then I rendered it using the difference clouds option. Also I used the blur technique specifically the motion blur to specify the angle to which the snow are going. I played a bit with it to get what I needed. Basically, it was trual and error to get the desired output that i wanted.

In this last photo, I used the close-up photo of the gorgeous Taylor Swift. I created a thermal look on her and I called it the "Thermal Swift".

Original Photo

Isn't she beautiful?

Altered Photo

First, I changed the Hue/Saturation of the photo. The Hue was set to max and saturation was at levels 30-35. Then I copied this image to a new layer and used Motion blur on it. I also overlayed this layer onto the original photo. Then I used a white fill and overlayed it too. After that I created another overlayed layer and filled it with blue. I created another white fill but this time I used the difference option. The reason I used it is because when you maxed your Hue levels, The picture would have a blue screening therefor when you used a white fill, the image will transform with some kind of red appearance. Then the last step was to duplicate the original photo and place it above the blue fill and set it to darken.

Overall, these photo manipulation that I did was really mediocre. I didn't spend too much time on editing them since I'm just learning on using photoshop. Professionals would use several hours just to make their pieces a really work of art. Although the flames wasn't very realistic, as a beginner in this photo manipulation, I would say it is a pretty decent work.