Photo Manipulation

This task was to manipulate a picture in Photoshop and create layers onto the picture to create something entirely new. I decided to find a mountain foreground, and then include different elements into the background. Such as, galaxies, the moon and the void of space.

Approach

My approach to this piece was my interest in space. I have seen photo manipulations previously, and have always wondered how the final piece is created. I was able to draw my interest in space and create an art piece which shows the night sky and galaxies within it. I wanted the image to include a mountain range below the night sky. As I believe this element would give the viewer some peace when looking at the picture. Since I envisaged a person looking at the picture and allowing their mind to wander upon viewing.

Inspiration

My inspiration for this piece was the eXtreme Deep Field (Illingworth et al., 2012). This famous image, makes me think how small and alone humans are in the universe, and I wanted to include this element in my art piece. My idea was that if someone sees a galaxy and the void of space, they would understand how large these are, and understand this feeling of insignificance. Also, possibly having their mind ponder whilst viewing the image, and make themselves question how large space really is.

Skills Learned

New tools were used for this art piece. Tools such as the Background Eraser Tool, Gradient Tool and the Lasso Tool. Firstly, I used the Lasso Tool to remove the top half of the mountain range picture. I had to carefully slice the half of the picture which I wanted to remove. This then allowed me to include the space background and add the galaxies and the moon. I then went on and used the Background Eraser Tool. This tool allowed me to remove sections of the mountain range which were not fully cut by the Lasso Tool. It allowed me to polish the image by removing tiny portions of the mountains which looked unnatural. After these steps, I then included a gradient, which gave the image a more darker look. As the image was set during the night, I wanted to recreate this dark feeling with the Gradient Tool.

Improvement

To improve the image, I would include more elements in the foreground of the picture. For example, I could include some trees, buildings, or vehicles, which would give the picture more variety of elements. Additionally, I would also increase the size of each of the galaxies and the moon. As upon reviewing the image, I believe they are too subtle and do not immediately draw attention to the eye of the person looking at the picture.

References

Illingworth, G., Magee, D., Oesch, P., Bouwens, R. (2012) eXtreme Deep Field [Photograph]. Available online: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/xdf.html [Accessed 4/10/2021].

Below is my Photo Manipulation art piece.