Elements Of Photoshop & Manipulation.

Three Elements Of Photoshop & Manipulation

    

Layers

The first element I want to reflect on is Layers. These are used to manipulate images and create backgrounds. You can add multiple images into photoshop and 'merge' them together to effectively in order to make a realistic image and or background. For example, when wanting to create a star like background, you add layers and manipulate the levels, effects etc. 

 To the left you can see a screen shot from the three layers I added in order to make a star, grainy effect for a background. By adding effects such as Noise, Gaussian Blur you can achieve the effect.

       The image to the right shows one example of a finished background created using layers.

Spot Healing Tool

This tool can be used for multiple different things, the main one being to subtly effectively erase blemishes and other unwanted marks, hairs etc. This is a good tool to use because it can effectively get rid of these marks without making it look unrealistic. On the contrary to this it can however be used to manipulate images in other ways to make it look unrealistic. For the majority of the time this is used for magazine covers

Here is an example of what the tool looks like, as well as a few of the other tools in which can alter an image so make it appear smoother.

Lasso V.s Quick Selection

These tools are very similar however one is slightly easier to use than the other. The quick selection tool will easily and quickly select what ever you click on, however the lasso tool is what you will do manually, so you can outline specific things instead of the whole of an object / person. 

    The examples below explain this.

This shows the quick selection tool in the man with the yellow shirt.

 

This example shows the man in the middle in which has been selected using the lasso

Lastly this image shows you what you can do once you've selected the object, this is done using the eraser, as well as this you can get images that you've selected using the lasso and move them from their current position to another. This is a really interesting way to manipulate images in Photoshop.

Manipulation

In regards to manipulation (even though previously and briefly explained ) photoshop can allow you to create existing images into unrealistic images, or into better images. This can be done through blending and adjusting the colours as well as this you can make images look unrealistic, for example by using Disintegration Effect to create an effect in the example below.

From Google Images

An effect like this is achieved by using tools such as water colour brushes, feathers and crows etc.







All of the tools in photoshop have some form of manipulation to them as they all alter the images, either in a big way or a small yet significant way. Something like the spot healing tool as explained above, can manipulate images to how you want them to turn out.