Digital Image Editing (WK4) - FINAL EXAM

When I first sat down to attempt this project, I was incredibly overwhelmed. I couldn't get a clear idea of what direction I wanted to take this piece, and with the added hurdle of only using our own photos or AI we had the rights to use...I was stumped. I had 5 different versions started at once, none of which ended up being the final piece. I actually ended up using one of my previous creativity exercises to get some ideas, and I thought, "What if Nichole were a fairy queen?". Once I had that direction, the ideas started flowing freely. 





During this assignment, I got a lot of practice with Photoshop's AI. I knew I wanted to use as much of this software as possible, while also using a real-life image. I did each part of this piece in separate layers so that I could blend them myself (and so I wasn't relying on AI to create the entire piece as one image). First, I asked it to create a "dark fae throne that appeared to be made from the forest itself". I went through at least 10 generations before I landed on the one in the final image. I really wanted to make sure I could manipulate the photo of Nichole to look like she was sitting on the throne naturally, so I played with those two segments before moving on to the background. I asked AI to create a forest with a clearing, while also leaning into the autumn aesthetic, as Nichole's original picture was taken at golden hour, and I wanted to keep that color palette. After that, I moved on to adding a crown and wings, which took some editing and manipulating, as it was also affecting the background. I added some fun brushes so it looks like the forest is alive with magic, glittering in the sunlight. 

Moving on to the actual layout/template, I changed the top two box colors to colors that I grabbed from the main image to tie it all together. Since our assignment was to create a future edition of Photoshop User, I changed the date to Nov-26. I didn't love that the masthead was covering a good portion of the main image, so I made the box orange and took down the opacity. Finally, I made the masthead 50% opacity, like I had noticed Photoshop User has done in previous publications. I wasn't sure if we were allowed to use the masthead included in the template, so I tried to find a typeface family that was as close as possible - I ended up with Pressio for "Photoshop" and ArponaSans (bold) for "User". I also used Korolev for the three articles at the bottom, as it was suggested in the assignment post. 

I've learned A LOT over the past two months, so I had a lot to choose from when it came to the rest of the segments of the cover. I've learned how to create multiple composite images, how to use AI effectively, how to create masks to protect the original image, and how to choose the correct typefaces for each project. As you can see on the top of my piece, I also learned basic retouching, color effects, and a myriad of other useful information.

Overall, I really tried to put everything I've learned over the past two months into this piece. I ran into some difficulties (like using the generative AI for small areas like the crown and wings), but was able to figure them out relatively quickly, thanks to our classes and assignments we've had to complete so far. 

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