Digital Imaging Assessment: Lesson 8
Today was our last lesson (boo!) and we had our biggest assignment yet. We all had to create a storyboard and take photos to tell the story we’d chosen. My group decided to tell the bloodcurdling tale of some innocent picnickers (including Paddington Bear and Punk Rock Barbie) who fell afoul of an evil Bratz vampire. Or did they…? We used Photoshop to add in essential details, but I think the photos speak for themselves…
Digital Creativity Lesson 7
Today we worked with retouching photographs, and learned more about the clone stamp, and the spot and healing tools. We used the clone stamp on this motorbike photo to duplicate the motorbike rider and insert more people into the crowd:
We also retouched an old photo of a girl by erasing the folds with the clone stamp and also blending using the spot and healing tools:
We also finished our Me, Myself & I assignments. Here’s my attempt at making sweet music out of my name:
Digital Creativity Lesson 6
We did a recap of the Pen Tool from last lesson in lesson 6. We drew a heart using the tool and manipulated the anchor points to create lovely curves and make it more heart-like. We also learned about paths and how it’s possible to fill a path with colour to finish your image, amongst other things. We also used the Freeform Pen Tool to decorate our names, which we’d written down. We smoothed out any edges using the Convert Point Tool and deleted any unnecessary anchor points using the Delete Anchor Point tool, then converted our names into something more pretty by using brush strokes to add colour and texture. Here’s my name:
For the last part of the lesson, we worked with a scanned image to make it more colourful and add in stuff. We cropped the picture to keep only the part we wanted and created layers for the leaves, bark and grass. We added texture using the Texturiser and Burn Tool, and made a sky using the Gradient tool. Next week we’re finally going to be able to do our own names using the images from our Me Myself & I assignment! The picture I’ve chosen to edit of my own name is below, under my attempt at editing the scanned image.
Digital Creativity Lesson 5
In lesson 5 we learned about different colours, how to select them using the colour picker, and about suitable colours for websites. We also learned how to create shapes with the vector tools, which was a lot different from the usual JPEG photographs we work on. Lastly, we got to use the pen tool to create shapes and curves.
We also scanned in our Me Myself & I assignments, where we had to write down two sentences, one about something we liked and one about something we disliked, and incorporate it into our name via a drawing. I chose music and sports to like and hate, respectively. We then had to choose one we liked and try to further it. Sadly I chose to use colouring pencils to do mine, so the quality isn’t as good as it should be…
Web Critique
The website I chose to critique is Jezebel.com, which is a women’s interest blog website, coming under the Gawker.com media umbrella. Overall I found it extremely user-friendly and easy to navigate. I also found it interesting that, as it started out as a blog, it functions quite differently from other websites which do a similar job to it (i.e. gathering news stories from across the internet and presenting them in an informative and entertaining way), and relies more heavily on user input.
User-Centric Design
Jezebel as a website is extremely user-friendly, as it functions as a blog but on a larger scale, with a number of editors who seek user input regularly via comments and emails. Naturally the content is extremely specific to its audience, which is assumed to be female, media-savvy and more liberal, politically, and all stories posted have a definite ‘feminine’ slant (e.g. photos of celebrities, general news stories about female-related issues from around the world). Posts can be either about serious issues or more lighthearted, which reflects the fact that most readers are probably logging on and off throughout their working day and want to be both informed and entertained. A quick scan down the page shows all posts in chronological order with clear headlines to indicate what they’re about, and a “more” button to indicate where you can read the entire story. Beside each post is the most responded to comment by the author, letting people know what the hot topics are at that time. The masthead of the website on logging on also features the headlines and accompanying pictures of four of the most commented-on posts on the website, assuming they’ll be of most interest to the reader and allowing for quick scanning. Advertisements are visible but not intrusive. Having accessed the website from both a Mac and a PC, I don’t think the layout is affected by the hardware used to read it.
Simplicity
The layout of Jezebel is generally very simple, making use of all pixels in a useful way. The background is entirely plain with the logo at the top of the page, but beneath the four most commented-on posts, which may be a bit confusing for new readers. On the bar beside the website logo are the buttons for searching the site, filtering content and accessing your profile or logging out. Further down the page on the side bar is the contact information for all of the site editors and a box for subscribing to the site, which is all easy to read and navigate. Each post has a picture relating to the story with a small headline over it, and the headline for the story itself, which contains more information. Beside every post is the most commented upon comment, the time it was posted and the name of its author, which is straightforward enough. Commenting on a post once you have clicked into is also very easy, and arrows indicate whether you can minimise or maximise responses to comments. The bottom bar links to all of Jezebel’s sister sites and below this again, tucked away, is the technical, legal and Q&A section. I don’t think there are any unused or decorative pixels on the entire website, and yet it never looks too stark or uninviting, in my opinion.
Layout
Jezebel adheres to the “Divine proportion” layout. There is a large block for the main content, and a smaller block for the sidebar and its less immediately important information. The main masthead does not passively state information about the website, but features the most popular news stories on the site, even above the website logo. The content is by far the most important thing on Jezebel. It is apparent immediately where one should be looking when you log on, as the eye is immediately drawn to the darker and larger font and pictures of the blog posts in the middle of the screen. This font and picture is enlarged again on clicking on each individual post. This layout is, in my opinion, extremely pleasing to the eye and not too confusing at all, and the colour scheme complements it excellently. More columns would ruin the white space available and make the most talked-about topics on the site very unclear.
Colour
The colour scheme of Jezebel is mainly a calming turquoise across the board. The main background is a light turquoise, with a darker shade of turquoise for the sidebars, which accents nicely. On its own, this could seem quite cold, but the Jezebel logo itself is a dark pink colour which offsets the turquoise in an offbeat but distinctive way. The font used generally is black, apart from links which are all highlighted pink. I think the colour palette they’ve gone for in a way reflects the website perfectly, it’s aiming to be feminine but with a bit of an edge (also reflected by the Jezebel logo picture of a 50′s siren with half her face distorted).
Conventions
The navigation of Jezebel is very straightforward, and it adheres to all the conventions of web design. Each new post is clearly marked, and every hyperlink is highlighted, as well as the “more” button which appears at the end of the front page summary to be clicked to get into the rest of the post. On clicking on this, the headline of the post is enlarged and all of the comments are shown as you scroll the page. Clicking the logo, as with most sites, brings you back to the main site. Everything is marked quite clearly on the front page as regards searching the site, filtering content and logging into your profile. Apart from the rest of the stories disappearing on clicking into an individual post, the layout and colour scheme remains the exact same always, which cuts out any confusion in navigating the site, in my opinion.
Digital Creativity Lesson 4
Today we created an evil Gerry Ryan with Photoshop, and learned how to use the adjustment layers to give Gerry the appearance of an angry beetroot. We also inverted the colour of his eyes to give him an icy blue stare and used the pen tool to make blood drip from his mouth. I extended his nostrils with the clone stamp tool also after Niamh showed us how to use it:
We also had a biggish assignment (worth 25% of our Digital Imaging mark!) where we had to pick an image and make it look positive or negative. I took on the not small job of making Amy Winehouse look angelic by using all of the tools we’ve been shown so far. I used the polygonal lasso tool to cut Ms. Winehouse out and added a nice inner glow as well as a pastoral background for her to frolic in. I tried to give the image a cartoonish quality using the adjustment layer, which I think looks quite fetching:
Digital Creativity Lesson 3
Today, via the wonders of Photoshop, we created an angelic Louis Walsh. We used the same methods as last week (like the polygonal lasso tool to cut out the outline of Mr. Walsh), but this week we used the outer glow tool to create a heavenly aura and added wings, with the magic wand tool, and a clouded background. Here’s my attempt at making an angel out of Louis:
We also completed an assignment to do with the life and death problem, which wasn’t as heavy as it sounds. We had to think of images which could be put on the back of a truck to convey which side a car should and shouldn’t pass on. In other words, positive and negative images. The first image had to convey any object, at ALL, and the second image had to show its destruction. We had eighteen preliminary trucks on which to sketch out ideas, and had to pick the best three to make larger images of. I tried to get images from across the spectrum, but it was hard to think of immediate, obvious images that could be figured out immediately if a car driver were to see them for a split second on the road:
Digital Creativity Lesson 2
We finally got an introduction to the infamous Photoshop last week! I now know what people mean when they go on about how difficult it can be to use, but I surprisingly got the hang of it after a bit of fiddling around and instruction from Niamh. We worked with the solutions tools to create a nifty-looking fruit ‘n’ veg guy, and learned how to select the images properly with the tools. Here’s my attempt:
For our assignment, we created road signs which had to carry out the primary function of ALL signs: immediate and practical communication. Most were straightforward enough to find images for, but some of mine turned out to be a bit oblique. I gave it my best shot!:
We also had to come up with two signs of our own. I decided to convey a wishing well ahead, and a concert hall, which I thought would be immediate and obvious in how I drew them:
Digital Creativity Lesson 1
For the first Digital Creativity class, we completed a visual language exercise where we had to communicate and visualise the words “order”, “increase”, “bold”, “congested”, “tension” and “playful” using only four flat black squares. Harder than it sounds! We also had to come up with images which had both positive and negative connotations, for the second exercise.
