From movies to children’s toys, the use of 3-D images is everywhere. In just a few simple steps in Photoshop, you can create a 3-D image that will grab the attention of your viewer beyond your original image.
Photoshop/Illustrator
When cutting a single object out of an image, a wide range of tools are available to use. One tool often overlooked is the Pen Tool in Photoshop.
An Adjustment Layer in Photoshop allows you to make edits to your work without actually changing your original layer.
Photoshop offers a wide range of filters, including sketch filters, but to make an image resemble a hand-drawn piece of artwork takes a bit more creativity. Regardless of your artistic level, you can create a faithful representation of hand-drawn art — digitally.
Once you cut the background away from an image, do not stop there. There are plenty of creative techniques you can apply to photos after the background is gone. Here is just one example of using images and illustrations together.
We know the assignment. An activity, presentation or portrait needs to be taken during the middle of the day at school and the sun is blazing, causing such deep shadows in the eyes of people being photographed. Photoshop’s Shadow/Highlights can alleviate this problem.
You can make a Photoshop brush from any photo. In this case, a brush was created from typical portrait photo to highlight and accent the photo. Consider using this effect on photos used with student spotlight-type articles and sidebars, then think of other ways to use it to highlight images.
With technology and digital media evolving at an incredible rate, it is not surprising that journalistic ethics have struggled to keep pace. In the struggle, we have yet to arrive at one set conclusion.
In March 2001, a Los Angeles Times photographer who was covering the war in Iraq used Adobe Photoshop to combine two photos. The resulting image was printed on the front page of two newspapers. Less than a week later, the photographer was fired.
In some of these situations, it is clear that photojournalists or their editors made unethical decisions. In others, judgment is not so easy.
In the past year, a photographer in North Carolina was disqualified from a prestigious competition and had to return his awards because it was found that he had over-darkened the background of his winning images. He also was suspended from his newspaper without pay. Professional publications are taking the misuse of Photoshop very seriously and so should everyone in scholastic publications.
Sports shots typically need a ball in the picture. By shooting 50 images at the game, I had four or five hitters with the ball close to the bat. Shoot a lot. Give yourself some choices in editing and you will not be drawn to the edge of an ethical cliff.
