Below is a basic description of image manipulation, where it stemmed from and how it was used in the past and now in the present...
Image manipulation is the art of transforming an image to convey what you want, rather than what the original image may have shown. This can be done for artistic reasons, but because of the power of the photograph to show true depictions of reality (and the high regard that people can hold for a picture as evidence), this can also be done for reasons of deceit. The process is sometimes known as airbrushing, after the tools that can be used to achieve the result, or photoshopping, after Adobe Photoshop, the most common tool used in the digital age.
Manipulating images dates long before the invention of the camera, as portraits of people (as well as landscapes and scenes) were painted with a little "artistic interpretation". As a result, many portraits of individuals were painted to be much more flattering. This trend was briefly bucked by Oliver Cromwell for a painting of him by Sir Peter Lely, where Cromwell was alleged to remark "but remark all these roughnesses, pimples, warts and everything as you see me." This was later reduced by various accounts to "warts and all", and the phrase has become a idiom for truth telling, regardless of how ugly it may be.[1] With the advent of photography in the 19th Century, kings and queens no longer had the ability to manipulate their painted portraits, and so could be photographed as an exact likeness. This trend was to set the precedent for photography producing true likenesses of people and events, with no room for fakery.
However, along with pornography, photographic manipulation began almost as soon as photography was invented. Some of the earliest recorded manipulations come from Civil War era America, where composite images were made of Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant.[2] These early manipulations were done using inks, airbrushes and darkroom techniques, but since the 1980s, almost all manipulations have been done via computers. Airbrushing and photomanipulation is now accessible to almost anyone and Adobe's Photoshop makes regular appearances on lists of most pirated software.
Image found at http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Image_manipulation on 03.11.2015
I have digitally manipulated a couple of images using Photoshop in post production. The first one I did was using only my own images which I have taken.
Here are the images I have used to make my final image...
I chose these 3 as they have the location in common, they were all taken on a trip to Budapest earlier this year.
To start with I opened up Photoshop and opened all 3 images on separate tabs so I could flip between them all to make it easier. I also created a blank page to move everything onto.
This is what I did...
- Cut the bird out using the pen tool and drag it onto the blank page
- Cut around the star, select it and invert the selections so it it the foreground around the star that is selected and not the actual star, again using the pen tool and drag it onto the blank page
- Resize the bird to sit its head behind the star cut out
- Add the sky shot to the mix but making sure it sits behind everything
- Change the opacity of the sky layer to make it paler
- Use quick mask tool to select the birds eye, copy and paste it, then use levels and curves on it to change the colour
- Use the gradient tool to add shading/shadow to the bird to make it look more realistic
- Cut the star image in half and place the top half behind the birds head (move that layer under the bird layer). This makes the bird appear to be poking its head through the star
I am very pleased with the outcome of this experiment in image manipulation. I wasn't sure if it would work or not but it worked perfectly so I am very happy.
Next I manipulated an image which I got from Google. I was following a tutorial put together by my tutor but added and changed bits to make it exactly how I wanted it once I had an idea of how I wanted mine to look.
This is the image I used...
To start with I opened up Photoshop and opened the main image and a second image of a plug on separate tabs so I could flip between them to make it easier. I also created a blank A4 page to move everything onto.
This is what I did...
- Double click to unlock the background on both images
- Use move tool to drag main image to the blank A4 sheet
- Select Marquee tool - Elliptical (oval) to cover one of the eyes
- (Add to selection) and cover the other eye
- Again, repeat that process but with the lips
- Select Gradient tool
- Choose a colour as close to the area of the eyes and lips to make it look realistic
- Duplicate layer
- Layer - layer mask - reveal all
- Select brush tool
- Select layer mask
- Swap to black above white
- Select original image to chose new colour to blend with
- Add the second image (the plug) to the face, rotate it and resize
- Choose multiply as a blending mode with the plug layer
- Layer - layer mask - reveal all
- Duplicate layer
- Choose linear burn as a blending mode with the new plug layer
- Finally select transform - warp to make it more realistic and not just stuck on
This is the freaky but funny image I ended up with...
This image makes me laugh every time I look at it. It's amusing because I managed to find a plug image which wasn't taken straight on so it looks like it is a mouth and two eyes because of the shadows cast. I had a lot of fun making this image what it is. It was difficult at times but with a lot of time and patience it was worth the wait.
I would love to do more of these as they are good fun and it would be interesting to see what other ideas I could come up with and also there are a lot of different styles of plugs to try.
Overall I really enjoy Image Manipulation, you never know what you are going to end up with and there are so many different things to try that its doesn't get boring at all. The only downside is the amount of time it takes to produce anything.
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