Lab 05: Image Alteration using Adobe Photoshop

Preparation

In Lab 04 you learned the basics of creating a HTML document to post on your web page. We have discussed in lecture how to search for sites and then establish criteria for evaluating the credibility of those web sites. Today we will focus on issues of authentication by learning the basics of Adobe Photoshop to alter an image and make the alteration appear as authentic as possible. The images given to you to workwith have no copyright associated with them. You are allowed to use them because each comes from a government agency that does not hold copyright or require copyright fees to be paid for non-commercial use of images. The agencies where these images were found do have a copyright policy that indicates this information. Make sure you lookfor one on any site where you find an image you wish to use. Adobe Photoshop has a great deal of functionality in the area of graphics and image creation and manipulation. However, todays lab will focus on using certain of today's tools to eliminate and alter areas of an image. Tools not explored in Lab today will require you to play with them on your own if you wish to use them as part of your project.

Objectives

To use Adobe Photoshop (or any image manipulation program) to select and manipulate areas of an image.
Remove and add selections to an image.
Through the manipulation of photos, create awareness about issues of authenticity andmisinformation in photographic displays.

Using Photoshop

Get to know the Adobe Application environment
Make copies of images for lab
Adjust Image Color
Crop an Image
Remove objects from an Image
Select an area of an Image by color
Replace color in an Image
Insert one Image into another using Layers
Add text to the Image
Flatten the Image

1. Get to know the Adobe Application environment

Each version of Photoshop somehow manages to move the tools and various functions around to different areas. Spend a few minutes with your TA going over the location of the tools you will need.

Photoshop provides a workarea for images that includes a Selection Tools Box. Hover over each tool with your mouse for the name:

Tool Descriptions for this Lab

Marquis Tool: The marquee tools let you select rectangular or elliptical areas in an image.
Crop Tool: This tool allows you to select an area of an image and crop it.
Move Tool: Lets you drag a selection or layer to a new location in the image.
Lasso Tools: The lasso and polygon lasso tools let you draw both straight-edged and freehand segments of a selection border.
Magic Wand Tool: The magic wand tool lets you select a consistently colored area (for example, green grass) without having to trace its outline.
Clone Stamp Tool: Takes a sample of the image,which you can then apply over another image or part of the same image. Each stroke of the tool paints on more of the sampled image. [Also called Rubber Stamp Tool]
Eyedropper Tool: Sample color from an image to indicate a new foreground or background color.
Paint Bucket Tool: Fills adjacent pixels that are similar in color value to the pixels you click.
Horizontal Type Tool: Allow you to add layers of text to your photo using different fonts, sizes and colors.

You will be using the Crop, Lasso, Move, Eyedropper, Clone Stamping, Magic Wand and Type Tools for this lab.

2. Make copies of images for lab

The first thing to do is get a copy of the images to work with and save them to a disk or a local drive. When we finish the lab, use SSH to send the finished images to your Dante account for access later on.

Click on the link to the StHelens.jpg image
Right clickon the StHelens.jpg image and select Save Picture As…
Save it to your disk or on the Desktop of your lab computer.
Do the same with the second image, RedSquare.jpg
Open Adobe Photoshop Start>Programs>Adobe Photoshop
Open the images in Adobe Photoshop
File>Open… open up both of the images you just saved by navigating to your disk or the Desktop
You don't want to work on the original, so create a copy of each :File>Save As… and give them each a different name. (ex.StHelensCopy.jpg)
Close the originals (this way you have them saved if you need to start over).
Open up the copies you just created.

3. Adjust Image Color

Notice the color in the Red Suare image is bright, but the St.Helen's photo is a little darker. To lighten or darken one of the images, adjust the RGBcolor levels:

Image>Adjustments>Levels….
Using the slider bar on the right and left sides of the Input Levels, decrease the amount of darkness in the image, without making it too bright.
When you are satisfied, click OK and go back to your image.
Save your changes File>Save

4. Crop an Image

Select the second image of Mt. St. Helen's.
Crop it to get rid of the USGS fonts and make it a usable size for use later.

Select the crop tool from the tools options.
Use the crop tool to select the upper 2/3 of the St.Helen's image.
The image will be the same width when you crop it, but not include the text from the bottom of the image.
Right click on the area you have cropped and click on Crop to finish the action.
Save your workFile>Save

5. Remove objects from an Image

Remove some of the pedestrians from the Red Square image

Select the Clone Stamp Tool (it may also be called the Rubber Stamping Tool).
While holding down the ALT key,use the mouse to clickon an area near a pedestrian (in order to match the color of the bricknearest to them).
Look at the size of the pedestrian elements.
Select the proper brush size to paint over the pedestrian.
If the Options box is not showing for Brushes, go up to the menu bar: Window>Brushes
Select a brush that will cover the area.You will need to decide whether to use soft or hard edges
Move your mouse over the pedestrian and click. They are replaced with the cloned area.

6. Select an area of an Image by color

Using the Magic Wand Tool, you can select whole areas by their similarity in color.

Select the Magic Wand and click in the area of the Red Square image where there is sky. Not all of the sky area may be selected at one time.
To add to the area, hold down the shift key as you click on other areas of sky. (To subtract selected areas one at a time,use the ALT key)
Once you have selected the entire sky area, go onto the next step.

7. Replace color in an Image

In a few moments you‘re going to put the image of Mt. St. Helen's into the back drop of Red Suare. Be sure there is color continuity in the photo to fill the area you just selected in Red Square with the blue in the Mt. St. Helen's.

Open the Mt. St. Helen's image.
Click the Eyedropper tool to select it.
Click on the upper left corner of the Mt. St. Helen's image. Notice the foreground color on the palette is a shade of blue.
Fill the selected area with the foreground color by using the Fill command on the Edit menu:Edit>Fill...

The selected area should now match part of the sky color from the Mt. St. Helen's image.

8. Insert one Image into another using Layers

Click on the cropped image of Mt. St. Helen's. The tools are now focused on this image. Youre going to copy the cropped image so that you can insert it into the background of the Red Square picture.

Select>All The whole image should be selected.
Edit>Copy You now have a copy of the image on the clipboard.
Select the Red Square image by clicking up on the title bar so the sky area stays selected. You are now ready to insert the copied image into this one.
Edit>Paste Into Notice a new layer has been created to hold the pasted image.
With the new layer selected,use the Move Tool and adjust the mountain image so it looks "normal".

9. Add text to the Image

Use the Text Tool to add a layer of text into your image.
You can give a title and date to the fake image – Red Square, University of Washington , October 2006 – or simply practice with different fonts.
Use the menus at the top of the Adobe page to adjust font size and color for the layer of text.
When you have finished typing your text, use the move tool on that layer to place the text in a different location on the image.

10. Flatten the Image

Often times, it is helpful to flatten an image before saving it as a .jpg. To do this you will combine the multiple layers that currently make up the image into one. This reduces the size of the file. Once an image is flattened, the layers can no longer be modified.

Select the Layer>Flatten Image on the menu bar across the top. The image is now a single layer, instead of two different layers.
Save your image.
Transfer your image to Dante using SSH. Add it to your web page from Lab 4 (fit100.html), keep those web skills current!
Remember to log off the machine as you leave.

Images and Copyright: Now is the obvious time to give a little background and advice about the use of images on the web. Most of you don't have any intention of using the images created for your project or here in lab for anything other than completion of a homework assignment. Regardless of your intentions for the use of this material, it is your responsibility to understand the laws surrounding copyright and the ethics of photo manipulation. You will need to provide an argument for your use of images in your project, so read the following materials and determine for yourself how you will backup your decision to use images created by another person in your project.

Bonus Practice:

The obvious choice for a picture in the background to replace Mt.Rainier would have been something like the Mt. St. Helens explosion. On your own, for more practice, go find a photo of a volcano, or a famous city skyline, and insert it into the image the way you inserted Mt. St. Helens.

To Submit Your Work

Post the modified photo of the Red Square photo to the fit100.html page created in lab 04. Email the URL for the page including the picture to your TA.