Introduction to Photoshop

Using Photoshop CS4 I was able to create this image. This was done by taking two seperate images from Google images and putting them in seperate layers.

I used the image of the owl as my main background and used the circle marquee tool around the eyes to make a perfect circle. Then I moved and deleted this section to make space for a new layered background. On a new layer was the space image which I then used the Marquee tool again to cut a circle. I chose a busy area on the space image to work with to make the 'new eye' seem more interesting. I had a bit of trouble trying to blend the space image with the eye but after a lot of tria and area I was able to make it fit. I done this by simplying selecting the correct layer and then copy and pasting the space image onto the oringal background layer. However, the new space image was in the foreground, and the eye didn't look very realistic. To fix this promlem I moved the layers around so the added layer was now in the background.

Once I had put the space image in place with the owl's eyes I began to experiment on different effects and techniques that Photoshop had to offer. For the body of the owl I wanted a black and white effect so the eyes would stand out more. I used the Filter Gallery and played with different effects such as 'tiles' and 'blur', eventually chosing the 'sketch' effect to make the owl black and white with a vintage feel. For the eyes, I wanted to try different effects for each to make it look more creative and to try other effects. For the right eye you can still visibly see what the image is, although I did add a grain effetct from the Filter Gallery. The left eye it is clearly distorted. This was done by the 'stained glass' effect, also within the Filter Gallery.

We did this task in class to introduce us to Photoshop and the techniques we will be using in our ancillary task (create a DVD cover and a magazine cover). It was interesting to see the various different effects and it gave my group and I an idea of what we could do when producing and editing on Photoshop.