How to apply a realistic rainbow into a picture

For this project we added a realistic rainbow to our picture. We took a picture on a dark rainy day and decided to put a rainbow in it. Below is the picture we used, and what it turned out to be. We followed the steps listed to create our "rainbow picture."

Before                              After

The steps we used to create this effect were:

1. Open the picture in Photoshop.
2. Add a new blank layer and name it rainbow.
3. Select the rainbow gradient
-click the gradient picker in the options bar at the top of the screen
-click on the small arrow on the top right.
-click on special effects then click append.
-choose Russell's rainbow.
4. Select "radial gradient."
5. Drag out a rainbow with the gradient tool.
-holding shift will make it easier to drag horizontally.
-drag out a radial rainbow gradient from right to left in the image.
-when you let go of the button on your mouse, the rainbow will appear.
6. Change the blend mode of the rainbow layer to "screen."
-go to blend mode options in the top left of the layers panel.
-change it to screen. This blends the rainbow into the picture.
7. Apply the Gaussian blur filter.
-go to the filter menu in the menu bar at the top of the screen.
-choose blur.
-then choose Gaussian blur.
-drag the radius slider at the bottom of the dialog box towards the right to increase the amount of blurring being applied to the rainbow. The rainbow should look more realistic.
8. Add a Layer Mask.

-click the layer mask icon.

9. Choose the black to white gradient.

-right click on the picture.

-click on the black to white gradients thumbnail to select it.

10. Choose "Linear Gradient" from the options bar.

-go back to the options bar and click the linear gradient, the icon.

11. Drag a black to white gradient on the layer mask.

-hold down shift and drag the black to white gradient form the base of the rainbow to the top of the image.

-the rainbow no longer extends all the way to the bottom of the photo because of the layer mask.

Advertisements Are More Than Paper and Words

My advertisement is for a Mercy Choir Concert. It is for anyone interested in viewing a concert. In making this advertisement, I used many tools in Photoshop. Although this looks like a simple "flyer", it took more time than it looks. I used transform, text, text color, brush tool (tree), paint bucket, swatches, move tool, flatten image, opacity, and centered text. I used transform to scale the pictures to make it fit on the advertisement and make it even instead of making it look too fat or too skinny. I used text to add words to the advertisement and I used the text color tool to add color to the text to make it not so boring but to addd color. I used the brush tool to add the two Christmas trees so I could incorporate the "Christmas spirit" into the advertisment. I used the paint bucket tool to make the background of the advertisment a different color from white to add more color to the advertisement. I used swatches to color everything correctly. I used the move tool to move things around on the advertisement. By flattening the image, I made everything be on one layer. The opacity tool was used to make the logo and Christmas trees fade a little to make all the other text pop and put the main focus on it. The main focus of the advertisement was the announcement of the concert so I wanted to make that stand out but also add the logo. I centered the text on the advertisement to make everything look evenly balanced.

 

The logo I did was Mercy Choir. I have a microphone and music notes all around to show my meaning in the logo. I used shapes and various lines to get my point across. On the microphone, I used a circle and rectangle and on the music notes I used circles and lines. I used these colors because music notes are usually represented in black and Mercy's school color is baby blue. I think by looking at this picture, many should know that it is representing Mercy Choir even without the text at the bottom. The text at the bottom just represents that its Mercy.  

My "Perfect" Body

I feel pretty good with the overall transformation of my picture. Some areas of the picture could have been improved more, but overall it is fine. Even though this does not look exactly like Reese Witherspoon you can tell that my face replaces hers.

Today many people look in magazines or at famous people to see what their bodies look like because to us that is what “perfect” body is. We try to make ourselves look like them and never stop to think about all the work that is being done on a computer to make their bodies look “perfect” in the society’s eyes.

This changes my perspective of pictures in magazine ads because they change the appearance of people to make them look flawless and perfect. Doing this project, I can now pick out what has been added to some pictures to make them “perfect”. Also, I know to not compare myself to the front of a magazine and wish to look like them because most of the time everything on that person has been photo shopped to be perfect.

Two things I think I did really well on were doing the makeup and changing my eye color. These two things were both easy and fun to do. I think I did well on these because all I had to do was pick what color eye shadow and eyeliner I wanted to use and use the paint brush to apply it to my eyes. Changing the color of my eyes was just like applying the makeup. I picked the color blue and put it on my eyes and lowered the Opacity so they would look more real.

Two things that I could improve on are matching the skin tones and blending our faces together. These two things I had the most trouble with. It was difficult to find the right color to apply to my face to match hers. Whenever I got a color that closely matched our skin tones I had to blend our faces together. This was also hard because some areas of my face would match hers while other areas wouldn’t.

Photoshopping the in the Life of a Mercy Student

In class we have been editing pictures on Photoshop. Photoshop is a program that creates and edits photos. I liked doing those things. It made me feel like I was making a picture I took mine. I also liked to make pictures using the color tool. It was a fun tool to use. 

To make my collage I used the crop tool, blemish remover, brightness, lasso tool, and color balance. I used the crop tool because some pictures would not fit how I wanted them in the picture. I used the blemish remover because some people and spots on their face. I used the brightness tool to make the picture look brighter. I used the lasso tool to make the pictures round instead of rectangular shaped. Lastly I used the color balance to balance out the colors in each picture to make them look more appealing to the eye.

                            

Elements of Photography

This picture is an example of a picture in motion. I am kicking the ball and the girl behind me is running onto it. You can tell by the way I am standing that I am in motion. My legs are bent and my body is tilted. You can tell which direction we are going by the way we are positioned. 

In this picture I used Simplicity. The shoe is the main focus of the picture. Even though there is stuff in the background, the shoe is what you focus on the most. 

With this picture I used the angle element. Since we are looking down on the object, the appearance is different then it would look if we were looking at it straight on. The angle we are looking from makes Hannah Montana's head appear larger than it actually is and her body a lot smaller than it really is.

Pirating and Copyright Infringement

In the podcast we created we used our own work. We used our own picture and the music/jingle was pre downloaded and it was only 10 seconds. We also recorded it ourselves and made up everything we said.

Downloading music is wrong because it is illegal and takes money away from artists and producers. They work hard to produce this music for us to enjoy so we should repay them by actually purchasing the song instead of pirating it. Therefore, copyright laws should exist to protect songs so if someone does illegally download music the artists has some justice. Piracy is prevalent in our society today because people don't think its a big deal to download music without paying for it. They don't think they are hurting anyone by doing this but in reality they are taking money from the artists who deserve to be paid for what they do. If someone used my podcast without my permission I would be upset because I worked hard to put it together and they are using it without having to do any work.

Years of Copyright Isn't Worth The Years in Jail

I think copyrighting is when one takes another's work without asking permission. I learned that it is much more than that. Some people go to jail for copyrighting because it is another form of stealing. When people copyright, singers and producers don't get paid for it and lose money.

An example of Copyright Infringement is from the popular music sharing website Lime Wire (a website for downloading music without paying). On this website, people can go to it, chose any song, and download it for free onto their computer. And they can do this with as many songs and albums they please. This person is breaking the law by stealing songs from artists and producers instead of purchasing it and allowing artists and producers to make money from their songs. Punishment for this ranges from fines to jail time, depending on how many songs have been illegally downloaded. I believe this is a fair punishment for the crime. Stealing is wrong no matter what it is that you are taking. Any form of stealing or wrong doing should be punished.