Introduction to Photography: Week 9

30.5.2014 (Week 9)

Casey Chong Jing Ping (0318756)

Introduction to Photography

Presentation: Photo Editing 

Exercise: Selfie (Ungraded)

Lecture

During class this week, we started class with a group discussion on Adobe Photoshop. Most of us did not read the reading materials on Photoshop. I read the materials the week before when Mr.Vinod posted it on our facebook wall, but I forgot to read it again before class started. I really forgot until Mr.Vinod mentioned that there was reading materials. But I briefly remembered what I read the week before, and frankly, I do not understand anything that was being taught in the reading materials. Photoshop is very foreign to me. Even if most of us did not manage to read the reading materials on Photoshop, we still did the group discussion and asked a lot of questions regarding this foreign topic that we were so curious about. After the short group discussion, Mr.Vinod gave us a presentation of Photoshop by connecting his laptop to the projector in front of the class to project out what he photoshop's in his laptop. He used a sample photograph that he uploaded onto his computer and used it to teach us what we had to know about Photoshop. He just taught us the basics of Photoshop, because Photoshop is very complicated and we might get (even more) confused if he taught us more than we should know about Photoshop for now. After Mr.Vinod taught us all we need to know about Photoshop, it was our turn to turn on our laptops and try our hand in photoshop by photoshopping our selfies that we had taken the week before. Mr.Vinod went around the class to look at our selfies and give us his comments and feedback on them while we attempted to photoshop our selfies. If we have any questions, we would just ask Mr.Vinod for help. I had a few difficulties and Mr.Vinod helped me a little, but after that I had to larn for myself so he left me alone to learn myself. Naturally, I was frustrated at this thing that was too complicated for me and that  I could not seem to understand and I panicked, but Katrina (the class expert at photoshopping) and Cigie (even though she does not know anything about photoshop at all, she was still willing to help me) were so kind as to help me with the photoshopping. I finally managed to photoshop my selfie successfully (with the great help of Mr.Vinod, Cigie and Katrina--- My lifesavers!!!!!!!) and I was so relieved and grateful that that trial of mine was over. At the end of class, we were done with our photoshopped selfies and Mr.Vinod surprised us by asking us to put our photoshopped selfies as our new profile pictures on facebook until the end of this semester and also to post the photoshopped selfies on the Intro2Photography facebook page. We were to record the reactions of the selfie-profile pictures, such as the number of likes and the comments if there are any. Some of my classmates were quite reluctant to post their selfies on facebook as their profile pictures as they had just changed their facebook profile pictures not long ago, some were shy or did not like their selfies very much, but it was okay for me as my current profile picture was not that recent anymore and I was also quite satisfied of my selfie. I was one of the first people that immediately changed my profile picture to my selfie because I wanted to get it done and over with. The amount of likes I have right now is currently around 30+ and that broke the record of all my previous profile pictures, which was quite a good achievement by itself, so I am quite happy with the results.

Instructions

1.Photoshop the selfie where necessary.

2. Post the selfie on the Intro2Photography facebook wall and change your profile picture to the selfie until the end of this semester.

3. Screenshot the facebook wall.

4. Record the selfie before photoshop and after photoshop. 

5. Record and keep track of the reaction (amount of likes and comments) until the end of the semester.

Exercise

photoshop selfie (Ungraded)


The photograph of my ''selfie'' before Photoshop-ing it.



The ''selfie'' after I Photoshopped it.



A screenshot of my facebook page with the photoshopped ''selfie'' as my profile picture.



The feed posted on my facebook wall to inform everyone that I had changed my profile picture to the ''selfie''.



If you click on the picture on my facebook wall, this is what will appear.



This is a screenshot of the ''selfie'' that I had posted on the wall of the group Intro2Photography's page.



If you click on the photograph in the Intro2Photography page wall, this is what will appear.






Screenshots of the Hardcopies:

Feedback

Specific feedback:

***None (Because it is an ungraded exercise)*

General feedback:

***None (Because it is an ungraded exercise)*

Reflections

Experience:

The first thing that I experienced during this week's class is anxiety. Photoshop is a very complicated thing and for a simpleton like me, it is way to complicated for me to handle. I almost died trying to photoshop some simple things on my laggy laptop. Luckily, God sent down two angels from Heaven to stop me from jumping out of the window from my anxiety attack. These two angels are Soon Cigie Leng and Katrina Khaw. Katrina is considered an expert in photoshop compared to all my other classmates because she has had experience in using the photoshop program before, and I am very lucky to have a kind-hearted friend like her, Thank You Kat!!! Cigie is also an angel because even though I am freaking out about such a small thing like this, she does not get angry or impatient with me and instead tries to help me (and she managed to help me quite a lot, successfully!) with my photoshopping even though she has never used photoshop before. I have experienced that the photoshopping world is a very scary and dangerous world. It is very difficult to photoshop even a bit of thing and if you do something wrongly, it takes a lot to undo it. Furthermore, Photoshop does not listen to me. Whenever I try to do something, nothing happens, but when Kat or Cigie or Mr.Vinod or anyone else for that matter tries to do something, it complies to them. Later on, I found out that I was doing the photoshopping on the wrong layer. Layer??? Man, this just gets more and more complicated!!! I also found out that photoshop does not really work on my tiny little netbook. A netbook is not meant to keep such a large program such as photoshop, and my laptop also lags a lot, which means the photoshop feature lags too. Also, in my netbook, some crucial parts of the photoshop (for example, the feature that allows me to change my frame to white colour) does not appear because the photoshop file is too large for my mini laptop. One thing that I do like about photoshop, on the other hand, is the fact that it is quite easy and not too complicated to change the photograph from colour to black-and-white, now that I can do.

Observations:

I have observed in this class that I am not the only one that have difficulty of downloading photoshop, because others in my class also have that same difficulty. I have also observed that some people in my class have great selfies but some just have normal selfies because they did not try to go out of the boundaries. I tried to be different from other normal selfies, but I am not sure if my selfie is that good. Moreover, I have observed that some of my classmates were quite reluctant to post their selfies on facebook as their profile pictures as they had just changed their facebook profile pictures not long ago, some were shy or did not like their selfies very much. I also observed that only a few, which is about 2 of my classmates have used photoshop before. Before that, I thought that I was the only one who did not know how to use photoshop. I have also observed that photoshop takes up a lot of space on the laptop. I observed that more people like my ''selfie'' profile picture than all my other facebook profile pictures. Another thing that I have observed is that photoshop eceives people. The name sound like it is so easy to use, but in truth, it is the hardest thing to use in my entire lifetime. I have also observed that even photoshop is not entirely perfect. If you look closely enough (please don't though), my photoshopped selfie has a lot of flaws. The lasso tool does not really outline irregular objects perfectly, because after all, it is us humans that manipulate the photoshop to outline the objects, and we all make mistakes, however minor those mistakes are. I have also observed that one of the least complicated things in photoshop is to change the photograph from colour to black-and-white. Lastly, I have also observed that no two people are the same. For example, no two people n our class came out with two exactly similar selfies. Cigie's and Andrea's selfies look a little bit alike, both having the same concept, but at the end of the day, there are still differences in their selfies. Cigie used her iPhone whereas Andrea used a Polaroid picture. You have to look at their selfies to understand that, but you get what I am trying to say even without that example.

Findings:

From this week's class, I have found out how to use Photoshop. I have also immediately found out that Photoshop is very complicated and that I am afraid of photoshop. I have learned that I do not like to use photoshop. Furthermore, I have also learned that it is better to finish off my work in class rather than drag it and doing it at home, because in class, Mr.Vinod is there in person to help us whenever we need help. I finished my photoshopping in class and that was great because I don't think that I can be able to do a nice photoshopping without the help of Mr.Vinod and my helpful friends. I also found out that my netbook is not made for large programs such as Photoshop because it takes up a lot of space on the laptop. Large files like this is the main cause for my ;laptop being laggy, and a laggy laptop means even laggier file applications. This makes the Photoshop in my laptop very slow and laggy. Next, I have found out that a 30 day trial for the Adobe Photoshop ends very fast. Before you know it, it's already 30 days and the 30 day trials are finished and you have to find another way to get Photoshop. Even if I am not used to using Photoshop yet and I currently don't like Photoshop, I've learned to appreciate Photoshop because even though it is not perfect, it is still very useful for us designers and future designers. Apart of Photoshop, Adobe also has Illustrator and other applications that we can use. I also learned to appreciate Adobe because it has all of the things (if not all, then most of the things) that a designer needs. Apart from that, I have learned to appreciate the people who actually use photoshop in their daily life and make great photoshopped photographs as a living or even as a hobby, because now I know how difficult and complicated Photoshop can be. I have not learned this yet, but I am just putting it out there that I am trying hard to learn to love Photoshop and to practice Photoshop if I can, because I will have to know how to use it often in my future, especially during my degree. I will also need to use a lot of Photoshop in my future career, and so I have to learn to love to use Photoshop.