Altered States - Photoshop Workshop

Today's workshop was essentially the same as the previous Altering Photos workshop, except it was a requirement to use Photoshop to do it.

To be perfectly honest, I didn't really enjoy this workshop. I struggled to see the point in what was covered, as we had already been taught the techniques to create the same results in more efficient ways last year. I still engaged with the workshop and created a couple of pieces, but it was a challenge. I found it difficult as we were meant to be altering the state of photos we had already taken, and that meant that we were altering altered photos. It all looked very busy and everything seemed to clash no matter what I did, so I can't say that I'm all that pleased with what I made.

Had we been told what we were meant to be creating in the workshop beforehand, I would've taken some photos specifically for it so that things wouldn't clash.

As for what I actually did, the first piece had the requirements of using layer masking to put one image on top of a background image, as well as using an image as text through a clipping mask.

I feel that what I made would've looked so much better if I hadn't included text, but as it was a requirement I had to settle with this. As for what the text actually said, I couldn't think of anything sensible, so I asked my peers for something funny to write.

Above: Screenshot from Photoshop

Above: Final First Piece

For the second piece we had free reign, so I tried my best to make something that really tested my abilities and also looked cool. I used layer masking to combine three pictures on top of a black background, and I feel that it might have looked quite impressive if it weren't for Danny's facial expression (No offence Danny). I wish that I had a different photo to use for the person on the right side, but that pose was the best fitting. Having created this just with what I had access to, I do feel a little more confident that I could make something that looks really cool if I plan it in advance.

Above: Screenshot from Photoshop

Above: Final Second Piece

I would say that this workshop was useful revision of skills and good practice, but as I do this semi frequently in my own time, I can't help but feel the time could have been better spent for me personally.