Blog Post #4: It Took Me a While, But I Think I Finally Figured Out Why Smart Objects Are Not Dumb Objects ෆ

Introduction

In this blog post, I describe the process (aka struggle) of creating the cover of my magazine Photostory. Using the skills I learned in class, I had to combine two images together and combine them to make a multi-layered first page image.

The (Long) Photoshop Process

I first selected two images that I wanted to use for my magazine cover: one for the foreground, and one for the background. The two original images are found below.

Foreground

Background

I started by cropping the background image to 8.75 x 11.5. I felt that the colors of the background image looked too dull in comparison to the foreground, so I added a Brightness/Contrast layer and changed the brightness to -42 and the contrast to 26. I also added a Color Balance layer and changed the magenta/green slider to -5, and the yellow/blue slider to -14.

Once satisfied, I made the foreground a smart object, and used the Quick Selection Tool to lasso the girl and her rifle. This grueling process felt like it took at least half an hour, since I constantly checked to make sure that I didn’t accidentally select any portion of the photo I didn’t want. I then placed the foreground picture on the background. 

Noticing that my foreground blended in too much with what was going on in the background, I decided to put a blue border around her to make her stand out. I also made the background look like stained glass using the Filter Gallery in Photoshop. This would put the focus on a singular person, which was much better than having the background be in-focus, because the people in the background would be unneeded visual noise that would distract the viewer from what is more important (10 Tips to better print design).

The Final Product

Here is my final result!

Reflection

This assignment was one of the toughest ones yet, as it was completely new territory for me. However, the class video Photoshop, Smart Objects, Quick Select Masks (Heagney Nov 14) helped me figure out how to use smart objects and masks, which made it far more easier. In the end, I was very proud of the way my final product looked.