DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY AND IMAGING

12.05.2025 (Week 04)

Lee Xiang Ling / 0384095

Digital Photography and Imaging / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media / Taylors University

Week 4 — Practical (Digital Imaging Exercises) & Adjustment Layers and Filters

Lecture

Adjustment Layers

Adjustment Layer is a very practical and flexible editing tool in Photoshop. It is a non-destructive image editing tool that does not change the pixels of the image itself when adding color or adjusting the tones of the image, and can edit and discard your adjustments or restore your original image at any time.

Fig 1.1 - Image sample after tone adjustment

Basic understanding of Adjustment Layer
When you add an adjustment layer, a new layer and a corresponding Properties Panel will appear. You can adjust the parameters in the properties panel to change the appearance of the image.

Fig 1.2 - Example of the properties panel

1. Brightness / Contrast
Used to adjust the tonal range of an image
- Brightness: Adjusts the highlights of the image
- Contrast: Adjust the shadow portion of the image

Fig 1.3 - Example of Brightness & Contrast

2. Level

Adjusting the levels of the shadows, midtones, and highlights.

Fig 1.4 - Example of Level

3. Curves

Let you adjust as many points as you want throughout the entire tonal range of your image.

Fig 1.5 - Example of Curse

4. Exposure

Adjust exposure levels with three sliders:

- Exposure: Highlight

- Offset: Mid Tones

- Gamma: Dark Tones

Fig 1.6 - Example of Exposure

5. Selective Color

Selectively modifies the amount of a primary color without modifying the other primary colors.

Fig 1.7 - Example of Selective Color

Filters

In Photoshop, filters are a common and very important way to process images. They can be used to change colors, add blur effects, and even create new image effects.

Fig 1.8 - Example of Filters

Different filters can create different visual atmospheres, thus evoking different emotional experiences in the audience.

Photo filter trick in Photoshop

Exercise

DIGITAL IMAGING EXERCISE:

1. PROJECT 1B - PART 1: Hearst Mansion

- Follow instructions from the W4_HEARST MANSION:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Uc5UY-PjqTCImigtHk8qh6vUuutTZw8qAjJHiNXjPOM/edit?usp=sharing

This week, we learned how to use Photoshop to composite photos of people onto backgrounds. Following the professor’s video guidance, we first practiced how to edit the “Shazam” character in the poster into the background image of “Hearst Mansion” and adjusted its hue, grayscale, and brightness to make it more consistent with the overall style of the background.

Fig 1.1 & 1.2 - "Hearst Mansion" & "Shazam"

Fig 1.3 - Editing Shazam into the Hearst Mansion

Under the professor's guidance, we added shadow and reflection effects to make the characters blend more realistically into the background.

Fig 1.4 & 1.5 - Added Shadow and Reflection

Exercise Demo - SHAZAM:

Fig 1.6 - Final composite of Hearst Mansion and Shazam, JPG_Week 04

After following the professor to complete the demonstration exercise, the professor asked us to use our own photos to composite with the background of "Hearst Mansion".

Fig 2.1 & 2.2 - My Own Photo and Masking

Exercise - My Reflection:

Fig 2.3 - "My Reflection", JPG_Week 04

2. PROJECT 1B - PART 2: Recoloring Black and White

(Follow instructions from the W6_RECOLORING BREAKDOWN:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bmNokgEamSgp0wzdGl-6sggcNrVI1JtY/view)

In addition to the above exercises, this week we also learned how to use Photoshop to colorize black and white photos.

Fig 3.1 - The B&W Photos that need coloring

Fig 3.2 (L) - The Photo of Hair Colour / Fig 3.3 (R) - The Photo of Skin Colour

Under the professor's guidance, we used selection tools to outline the areas to be colored.

Fig 3.4 - Use the selection tool to outline the area to be colored

Next, we applied masks and solid color backgrounds for the coloring process. We also adjusted the layer blending modes (overlay, soft light, etc.) to make the colors appear more natural and harmonious.

Fig 3.5 - The layer masks of Demo Practice

This is the final demo practice completed following the professor's steps:

Fig 3.6 & 3.7 - The comparison pictures of black and white and coloring, JPG_Week 04

EXERCISE 1: (Tutorial Demo in Class)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iYbFpDqdTjdHzkBpLWLkFwPJut6N8ItA/view?usp=drive_link

Fig 3.8 & 3.9 - The demo practice of the comparison pictures of black and white and coloring, JPG_Week 04

I made a significant mistake during this exercise: I accidentally warmed the skin tone too much, which made the overall effect look a bit unnatural. So, I made some simple adjustments.

Fig 3.10 - The final demo practice of the B&W recolouring

PROJECT 1B: PART 2 (Recolouring B & W photo) Extra Exercise

Once we have our demo image ready, we need to select a black and white image from the stock images available on Google Drive.

EXERCISE 2: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bmNokgEamSgp0wzdGl-6sggcNrVI1JtY/view

I chose the photo of model Adut Akech from among many pictures in Google Drive. So, I found a modeling photo of her as a sample.

Fig 4.1 & 4.2 - The B&W photo and sample photo of Adut Akech

Fig 4.3 & 4.4 - The process of coloring using Photoshop

B&W Recolouring Exercise:

Fig 4.5 - My Final Colouring Exercise, JPG_Week 04

In addition to this photo, I also colorized several other images.

Fig 4.6 & 4.7 - Other Colouring Exercises 1, JPG_Week 04

Fig 4.8 & 4.9 - Other Colouring Exercises 2, JPG_Week 04

Instruction

Reflection

This exercise was interesting and challenging. I especially enjoyed the colorization process. Although it took me a long time when I first started, my coloring speed gradually improved as I became more familiar with using Photoshop. I felt a strong sense of accomplishment after completing the colorization.

The most difficult part of this exercise was adjusting the grayscale, brightness, and tone of the colors, which required constant experimentation and fine-tuning. Through this exercise, I realized that color matching is one of my weaker areas. I plan to practice more with color combinations and pay closer attention to references and color palettes in the future to strengthen my color skills.

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XiangLingLee (0384095)