ANM 328 _Project 3 Photo Synthesis

The objectives of the Photo Synthesis Project were to demonstrate blending skills, exercise your ability to select compatible images (resolution and size) and compose them effectively. The final landscape should be striking and unexpected while still exhibiting consistent lighting effects.

Grading Criteria:

95-100 Combination of images is creative, blends are flawless, shadows and highlights are consistent. Demonstrates outstanding skill with Photoshop

90-94 Combination of images is creative, blending techniques are good with slight flaws in lighting consistency. Composition is strong with clear hierarchy.

85-89 Composition is creative but blending has faults or lighting or composition not well refined.

80-85 Composition has less creativity in focus or scale, lighting not adequately considered, blending techniques need improvement or composition lacks visual hierarchy

70-79 Lacks Creativity, blending has major flaws or omissions, lighting not considered

Below 70 Low quality work in all aspects of the project

Late work: -10 pts
No Group Critique: -5

Adams Group

Julie Hargraves-Your surrealistic landscape is very dramatic and appears to capture the birthplace of earth. What strikes me most is the quality of the images and the effective blending. I especially like the colorization of the stones, which reflect the variety at texture of possible future planets. You might consider adding a “divot” in the sand where a planet might have been born and departed? Lighting is very strong on the stones but the light and color of the earth makes it less well integrated. The small image of a planet at the top of your thumbnails has a orange glow that more accurately might reflect the dominant light in the scene. It’s unlikely that earth would be affected by a setting sun, but in this surrealistic landscape, a hint of color on the underside would enhance the composition. You had two versions of this composition…there one with added planet was more dynamic and enhanced the theme of “origins” or “birthplace”.

Joe Lee-You have certainly taken us to the bottom of the sea with the sunken manor house and odd little pineapple dome. However, without the small images I’m not sure I would understand the underwater context. I think there needs to be more visual “clues” than just the color. One solution would be to have the manor surrounded by the sandy bottom rather than the earthly landscape. Water also has this irregular lighting effect that we can see on the small underwater image. I’d suggest copying that sandy bottom image and enlarge and layer it over the composition with a overlay or multiply blending mode to achieve a more believable lighting effect. I like the mysterious vault door that’s been added to the dome.

Natallia Ramaniuk-Your spiraling road around the rock pillar is very dramatic. The breaking waves add amazing energy to the composition. Technically, you’ve done a great job of making that one stretch of roadway fit into different orientations and perspectives. The curves in the foreground are especially well done. You’ve set a “high-bar” with the blends, but I would like to see the middle curve either completed as the road curves back around the spire or add more surf to obscure where the road would go…it now ends rather abruptly and because it’s in the center of the scene, is more noticeable. These are minor points, your composition is one of the most successful in class and demonstrates excellent technical skill.

Christopher Talbott-It looks like you had fun composing all these very unique images. There must be a story here on the surface of this other-worldly planet. I especially like the depth you’ve created with the tiny plants in the foreground, which lead the viewer out across the water (middle-ground) to the windmill and beyond in the background. To me the “rock”, right in the absolute center of the composition, tends to overpower…as if it were the main subject. I view it as just an element within the surreal landscape. The bright light on its surface isn’t consistent with the setting “sun” in the background. I would suggest darkening the front face and add a reflection on the water in front of it. Oh yes, the splashes above the rock almost look like tiny transparent figures….leads me to suggest adding something to the rock to establish a more interesting middle-ground.

Mutter Group

Lea Aletti- You’ve created an interesting blend of landscape and seascape…the viewer is placed at the waterline and able to view above and below the surface. The images you’ve used are consistent, in that they all look like paintings, but the quality and resolution is so low that everything is soft and blurred. You’ve used good techniques in duplicating the cityscape and adding the river on the left that leads into the sea. I also see that you’ve significantly modified the mermaid scene to simplify and blended it with the shipwreck. You have an interesting concept here and used your Photoshop editing and blending very effectively. I just wish you had started with higher quality images to better let us appreciate your skills.

Katherine Case-It’s certainly unexpected to see this subject in that pristine forest. You had a very creative moment here. I just wonder if the subject appreciated the added attention. You’ve done a good job merging the two wooded images to create a foreground and background. The little boy on the “pot” is sandwiched between. The coloration on the boy just doesn’t “fit” the tone of lighting coming through the trees. I suspect you were trying to retain a more realistic skintone. I would suggest selecting that layer with the boy and using the levels and color balance adjustments sliders to establish a more balanced tone that fits the subtle filtered light streaming through those trees. Also consider lightening the foreground trees to make the contrast a little less harsh. OK..you win for most creative use of the forest.

Joshua Hird- You’ve definitely created an surreal landscape! I especially like the field of wild flowers and the repeated color in that amazing sky. Good job selecting high quality and compatible images. To me, the overall composition is rather flat…the images are selected and placed precisely but they are not interacting to give us visual clues that they all belong together. What if the flowers were creeping up into the castle? The moon is being illuminated from an out-of-view source, but it’s not consistent with the light on the structure. The bright illumination on it appears to be coming from directly above. Maybe the moon even has a tint that indicates a reflection of color from the surface that it is just hovering above. These subtle “connections” between the images would make the surrealism more “real”.

Shelley Leide-Lynch-Your surreal landscape fits the term “Lilliputian”, a small miniature world. It certainly looks like you had fun building this composition. You’ve done a good job blending images to create the rolling hills and valleys for your mini-bungalows, mushrooms and gnomes. By the way, this is definitely not a mushroom that should be fixed for dinner! Cloning the mushrooms as “shaderooms” is clever and the colorization adds variety. Thank you also for making shadows that are consistent with the dominant light in the scene. The building in the upper right should have a shadow on the front to reflect its position by those long shadows. From a compositional point of view, you have used scale to establish depth but I would suggest not having the added small mushroom in the left background. It’s more detailed than its surroundings and tends to lead the viewer out of the scene. Without that piece..the visual flow is much stronger. I would like to have scene a larger image so we could appreciate the details, like the gnomes.

Jason Zofcin-It’s amazing that they finally moved the Statue of Liberty to Yosemite! You definitely had a vision with that dominating sculpture among nature. Good job selecting and blending all these images..the edges and fit are flawless. The lighting on the statue is relatively consistent with the dominant light on the hills. What’s missing is a reflection of the statue in the foreground. Copy, paste and then pull the top of the copy down to flip it vertically…then adjust the opacity to give a hint of that green copper color coming across the river. That’s it! Your choice of high quality images helps make this composition successful.

Monroy Group

Courtney Allred-It would certainly be unexpected to see a ballet dancer along this coastal highway! You’ve done an excellent job of composing the various images. The addition of the bright “star” establishes a dominant light source. I see the highlight on the roadway but the cast shadow off the dancer implies that the light source is off to the left. This may be correct, but I would also expect that starlight to cast the primary or secondary shadow. Considering the light sources them might also be a hint of shadow on her raised leg cast by the outfit. I do appreciate the addition of a shadow, which helps integrate the dancer into the scene.

Lori DeLappe-Youv’e assembled an interesting combination of images. The floating lanterns would create an amazing scene that you have amplified with their reflection on the water. As is, the image is a little overwhelming…by that I mean it’s busy and a little hard to focus on the central subjects, which would be the boat and castle. I would consider toning-down the reflections. Start by making them much lighter…even if the water appears flat, there would be some distortion of the reflections. Notice how the reflection of the small castle in original is slightly blurred. Considering this, I would also apply a very slight Gaussian blur to the reflections.

Amanda Jones-Wow..the image of the cliff is very dramatic…and replacing the shore with an aerial view of earth creates and interesting contrast. The other-earthly view in the background immediately questions our frame of reference. Are we on a different planet in space? The main subject of your composition appears to be the characters from ET. I think this is clever but would like to see it larger to establish stronger visual hierarchy. As is, all the elements in the scene have a similar visual weight. Compositions are generally more effective when there is hierarchy. Your technical skills are strong.

Alisa Maeder-The dark tones of your composition are very dramatic and the starting background image with the highlighted columns in the center provides a great backdrop for adding imagery. The red-eyed skeleton/monster is very scary and sinister. Your blending and masking of that image is a little rough. I think it might look more complete if you allowed the arm to come around the left edge of the dome with those frightening fingers coming around the front…like an embrace of the dome. The winged woman is very arbitrarily placed at the bottom left. I think it would be better if you blended into the top of the dome where it would be better integrated with the overall composition. I wish you had separated the small images from the main composition so we could appreciate the individual images vs. blends.

Veronica Deltoro-Your flying ship is quite amazing. I like the idea of blending the jet with a classic sailing ship and setting “sail” in the clouds. The blending looks good although I wish the image quality was better..the ship is quite pixilated and limits the scaling of the composition. You have definitely considered lighting effects with those cast shadows off the ship and flock of birds. The only thing I would suggest is that the shadow over the clouds would be more irregular since they are not flat. Softening and removing some of the shadow with either a mask or eraser would be a good strategy.

Taylor Group

Sabrina Guidi-Your fantasy composition was the most successful in class! You started with a very strong image of the book and girl but modified it along with color, texture and a variety of objects to make a very compelling image. The portal in the book invites exploration and the glowing dragonflies add a mysterious element. OK, the lighting on the book is not quite consistent with its placement and the cast shadow off the girls left foot is too long…these are minor issues. I really enjoy the richness of color and contrast in the composition.

Corinne Seilahan-What an interesting view of those spires through the ancient columns. You’ve done an excellent job selecting and blending images. I especially like the contrast of color in the sky and the field of flowers and the stone. It really brings the composition to life. The “sea” of flowers in the background appears to almost be cresting the stone-wall. I would like to see that surge of color clearly coming over the wall and flowing down through part of the rocky face. This would be a tricky job of cloning, masking and applying tonal variations to make believable, but it would help integrate the foreground with the middle ground. I didn’t see this at first but maybe it’s a stone rocket ship being readied for launch?

Lea Winnen-This is an amazing bend of sea, earth and sky. I wish you had included the small images so we could appreciate what you had to work with. The consistent quality and resolution of the images also helps make the composition successful..the detail in the giant rays is spectacular. The image powerful and has the ability to question our point of view; are we looking up through water or is the sky, in this mythical place, full of flying creatures. My only suggestion is to selectively brighten the edges of the forest. I tried this and the added illumination brought the foreground out a bit more and, in doing so, created more depth in the overall scene. Excellent work! 

Sarah Trattner-Your composition is reminiscent of the photographer Anne Geddes’ work, which put babies in very unexpected environments. The baby looks very content on the bed of leaves and he’s well grounded with that drop shadow. There are a couple areas where I believe the composition could be improved. The background (bush/leaves) image and baby are not consistent in tone…that is, the background is lighter and not quite as crisp. I’d suggest using levels on the background to see if you could darken it to a point where these two primary images look similar. The addition of the car, duck and “six-pack” (that’s cute) are a bit arbitrary and don’t flow very well visually. The car needs a shadow but I think it would be better left out…perhaps embedding the greens and baby into another unexpected environment such as a nest in water would be a more effective way of presenting a surrealistic composition.

Kristina Fahey-You didn’t include small versions of the images so we could appreciate what you had to work with. It looks like you had just three primary images to compose. Yes, it’s certainly unexpected to see the Statue of Liberty emerging out of the shoreline. It looks like she has her eye on that short stack with berries! Blending looks good but not especially challenging. The dominant lighting on the scene is low and left based on both the surface of the statue and the cat shadows from the tall grass. This is not consistent with the drop shadow on the pancakes. The shadow should be cast and extended right and longer and the stack should have some highlights towards the sun (burn tool). I would also expect this stack to better “fit” on the sandy beach. You could do this by cloning in some soft touches of sand over the edges of the fruit. This would make it look like it was realistically sitting in/on the sand.

Lyubob Kaznacheyeva-The skyline, clouds and orb in the background are very effective. This, on its own with a reflection in the water, could be a complete composition. I think you’ve gone too far with the addition of imagery that really don’t make sense or add to the composition. To me, they tend to “confuse” the foreground. I understand that you were trying to make this super-surreal, but it’s also important to know when to stop. The winged bear and boat are the least effective elements…if you removed these, visualize how the viewer’s eye would be more effectively led into the scene. This would allow us to appreciate the rich color and detail in the other parts of the composition.