Photoshop tools 18/12/12

Photoshop

By Peter Hennigan

Tuesday, 18th December 2012

Photoshop Selection tools:

Photoshop Brushes:

In photoshop, the brush tool is used to colour in pictures, similar to the brush tool in Microsoft's paint software.
The brush tool include different types of brushes.
When using brushes you can alter the options of brush types, you can increase or decrease the brushes size, you can control the opacity and flow settings which will make the brush lighter.
There are also hardness settings which control the outline of the brush, whether you want and sharp outline or a fading outline.

Above is a self-portrait I made in Photoshop.

When using brushes, you can adjust the size of the brush, giving you a wider or shorter radius to work with. You can also change the hardness of the brush, decreasing the hardness of the brush will make the outline of the trail opaque and will dissolve, increasing the hardness will make the trail's outline blocky and crisp, it will also darken the colour. 

Photoshop Layers:

In Photoshop layers there are different techniques in enchanting your image.

The layer palette is the where all your new layers and backgrounds are placed, here you can move layers into order, for example, if you want an apple to be placed over a tree layer, the apple layer must be placed above the tree layer.

Inside the palette, there are different controls and tools to change your selected layer, one for example in the opacity tool which makes the layer selected cloudier.

New Layer lets you creates a new layer that is automatically placed above the layer that you have selected.

This new layer will be blank until drawn upon or until it has a picture on it.

Opacity, as stated before, is a tool which makes the selected layer transparent, for example 0% opacity makes the layer disappear, 100% makes the layer as clear as it can be, 1 - 99% makes the layer transparent.

Visibility is the little eye icon that can be found next to layers and backgrounds on your palette, clicking on a visibility icon will turn off that layer making it disappear entirely, clicking on it again will bring it back.

The transform menu lets you edit your layer, it can let you flip your layer, rotate, turn and even warp your layer, which will deform the image.

In photoshop, you can copy and paste on the image, giving you a new layer, i did this by selecting the elliptical tool, drawing an oval and then copying and pasting, this will take the part of the layer you had highlighted with the oval and add it again to the image, in a whole layer.

Layer styles makes you do advanced editing to your image, you can add a shadow, emboss or bevel it, add glows and even add strokes to your layer.

Blending modes will make your layer that you have selected, blend into other layers. The layer will then darken or lighten to the layer.

Photoshop Adjustments and Filters:

Adjustments and Filters change the colours, size, shape, background and style of any picture.

Adjustments contain contrast and colour control which can lighten or darken the image that you are editing.

In adjustments you can lighten or darken certain areas of your picture by first selecting the type of adjustment you want (i.e. curves) than box selecting (make a box with your cursor by pressing and selecting the amount you want) the area you want to change, this box means that all that's in it can be edited. If you move the curves on the curve adjustment window, the area in the box will either lighten or darken.

Here you can see a normal looking Rubik's Cube.

In this picture, I am customising the colour of my Rubik's Cube by using the Hue/Saturation adjustment tool, this works by selecting a single colour (i.e. Blue) and turning it to another colour (i.e. Red).

This is an extended version of the Rubik's Cube customisation, here you can that in some colours there are obvious mixing of colours, this is because the colour I change a colour to, the original colour will still be behind it.

This is the end photo of the customisation using Hue/Saturation.

Filters alter the picture entirely, they change the shape, size, texture and colour of the picture dramatically.

This is the filter menu for automatically customising any picture, in this picture i'm using the filter known as Coloured Pencil which makes the picture looks like it has been drawn with a pencil.

This is a close-up on the Coloured Pencil Rubik's Cube.

This is by far my favourite filter, the Glowing Edges filter, it, as it says, makes the edges glow, whilst leaving the centre of each square blank.

Close up

This filter is called the Stained Glass, which makes the Rubik's Cube look like a picture made up of small shards.

Close Up

The final filter I used was called Patchwork, it makes the Rubik's Cube look like a grid made up of colours.

Close up

Advert review.

My production titled 'LFRS advert by Peter Hennigan' has received positive feedback from various students who have viewed in my class.

In my point of view however, there are some points in the video itself that can be made better.
One point however, can not be changed, the part showing the death of Kadeem has a sound-booth recorded script.
This is because the microphone that was placed on the camera wasn't turned on and didn't capture the audio.
We could not re-shoot this part as Kadeem, Mo and myself had taken the makeup off.

The other area which I find annoying is the tyre screeching in the middle of advert, just before Kadeem gets hit by the car. I find the tyre screeching sound effect to be prolonged.

Finally, the interview audio at the start of the 2 minute advert, has some background problems, in some parts, the audio may seem unnatural.

Pre-Production Portfolio Unit 30

Unit 30: Pre-Production Portfolio

By Peter Hennigan

Script:

Advert starts with Kadeem talking about the day of the accident.

Flashback to accident

Kadeem and Peter are shown walking out of college, Kadeem  is in front.

Peter is shown wearing headphones, with the music blaring out of the headphones.

Back to interview

Kadeem is shown getting upset whilst recollecting memories of the accident.

Flashback

Both Kadeem and Peter are about to cross the road, Kadeem crosses and waits at the other side, whilst Peter is crossing but is also distracted by his phone/mp3 etc…

Back to interview

Kadeem seems distressed, sighing

Flashback

Shows Peter in the middle of the road, distracted by phone/mp3, in background car approaches.

Cuts to inside of the car where, Craig is distracting Mo from driving, by changing radio stations.

Craig looks up and sees Peter in the middle of the street.

Craig: LOOK OUT!!!

Back to outside of the car, Kadeem sees the car approaching, speeding.

Kadeem: Peter, watch out!!!

Peter looks up at Kadeem, signing.

Peter: (tuts) Shut up, Kadeem

Car crashes into Peter

Back to Interview

Kadeem is shown crying

Flashback

Peter drops to the ground and rolls once or twice after being run over.

Car tyres screech as the car brakes

Craig looks in the rear-view mirror, Mo looks into the wing mirror.

Mo: Oh God! What’ve I done!?!

Kadeem runs towards Peter, whose is now idle on the ground.

Kadeem: PETER!!!

Kadeem now emotional, shouts to the cars driver.

Kadeem: GOD DAMMIT GET AN AMBULANCE!!!

Both Craig and Mo get out of the car, Craig reaches into his pocket to call an ambulance of his phone.

Kadeem is shown slapping Peter’s face, shaking him and pressing down on his chest trying to revive him, but no response.

Shot of Peter laid down on the ground dip to black.

Pan shot of desk which shows 4 chairs, 2 of which are empty.

Kadeem is then shown grieving at Peter’s gravestone.

Advert ends with shot of gravestone followed by narration.

Shooting Script:

Clip one:

-       Medium close up of the friend crying, maybe pan to the side to keep the emotion there.

Clip two:

-       Long shot, up to a medium close up of the two friends walking and talking flashback.

Clip Three:

-       Close up a friend talking about the accident, few different camera angles and again a pan.

Clip four:

-       Back to the flashback, where a friend is running across the road. Done with a long shot into a medium close up.

Clip five:

-       Pan shop. Medium shot of the friend sighing.

Clip six:

-       P.O.V shot of the car coming towards the second friend.

Clip seven:

-       Back to the first friend, where it’s a close up of the face to show how much emotion there is.

Clip eight:

-       Shot of the driver’s reaction, done with a medium close up but enough to fit some of the car in.

Clip nine:

-       The first friend trying to revive the second friend, close up and medium close up to fit the two body’s in different perspectives.

Clip ten:

-       The driver calling for help, now a long shot to get the full car in and the driver too.

Clip eleven:

-       Friend one then calling for help with a close up and a pan shot.

Clip twelve:

-       Last shot of the person dead, go from a close up to a medium close up, end up with a long shot of the body just lying there.

Clip thirteen:

-       Camera panning across seats and then there is an empty one where, where the person died.

Clip fourteen:

-       First friend grieving at the second’s persons grave, medium close up and pan to catch all sides of the person- two different camera angles

Clip fifteen:

- Camera zooming out of the friends gravestone to end of the video.

Health and Safety:

Our advert itself is all about health and safety.

The main risk is the pedestrians when we are filming the speeding car scene, as we are going to be driving in an incredibly busy area.

There are also cars and buses on the main road and the entrance of the college that we need to include in our risks.

We must also consider the death scene of the victim, where he falls to the ground after being hit by the car. This could be included in H+S as the victim will be falling on tarmac and could be bruised or be scratched.

Plan B for the Advertisement for the Fire and Ambulance Services:

As we are filming in the run up to the end of the year, winter will probably be our main weather threat whilst filming; this could coldness, heavy rainfall or snowfall.

Our major structure for this advert is the car that will be driven by a second year media student. There could be any unexpected problems to occur concerning the car; this could be that the car is broken or unsuitable for the road or if the car needs an MOT.

The final flaw that could happen is if the Preston City council do not grant us permission to film a grave’s headstone.

If these points listed happen, then we will have to seriously reconsider our advert. We will have to rethink our structure of our film, come up with a whole new storyline and re-do pre-production.

Treatment for the Fire and Rescue Services' Advertisement

Our production that we have been told to create is a 2 minute campaign advertisement video for the Fire and Rescue Service, and other emergency services on awareness of road safety or fire safety. Our production team have decided to go for a road safety advert. The goal for our production is to help people realise what can happen and how something that seems normal, and that you would do every day can be dangerous and even life threatening. We are going to have a student, who gets run over on college grounds because of his mobile phone. In the end the victim will die, and we will see his fellow students going to his funeral or putting flowers were he died on his grave.

Within this production we will be able to do many things as planned, as too much activity does not really take place. With that in mind parts performed such as a person walking through college on there mobile phone and all of sudden getting run over, we just need to find a person who can drive to take place. In our production we will also need to have make up as the person who gets hit by the car will have cuts and bruises on them and we need to make it look as real as possible, to do this we aim to have a make-up artist to do our actors make-up. Preferable we will need an empty road, and hardly any students around at the time, so they don't ruin the shots. To do this we will go out and shoot during lesson times.

We did lots of research to come up with our final idea such as watching videos on the internet of previous campaign videos similar to the one that we are trying to produce. we also researched what exactly it is that our client (the fire and rescue service) do in their day too day jobs.

Photoshop layers

In Photoshop layers there are different techniques in enchanting your image.

The layer palette is the where all your new layers and backgrounds are placed, here you can move layers into order, for example, if you want an apple to be placed over a tree layer, the apple layer must be placed above the tree layer.

Inside the palette, there are different controls and tools to change your selected layer, one for example in the opacity tool which makes the layer selected cloudier.

New Layer lets you creates a new layer that is automatically placed above the layer that you have selected.

This new layer will be blank until drawn upon or until it has a picture on it.

Opacity, as stated before, is a tool which makes the selected layer transparent, for example 0% opacity makes the layer disappear, 100% makes the layer as clear as it can be, 1 - 99% makes the layer transparent.

Visibility is the little eye icon that can be found next to layers and backgrounds on your palette, clicking on a visibility icon will turn off that layer making it disappear entirely, clicking on it again will bring it back.

The transform menu lets you edit your layer, it can let you flip your layer, rotate, turn and even warp your layer, which will deform the image.

In photoshop, you can copy and paste on the image, giving you a new layer, i did this by selecting the elliptical tool, drawing an oval and then copying and pasting, this will take the part of the layer you had highlighted with the oval and add it again to the image, in a whole layer.

Layer styles makes you do advanced editing to your image, you can add a shadow, emboss or bevel it, add glows and even add strokes to your layer.

Blending modes will make your layer that you have selected, blend into other layers. The layer will then darken or lighten to the layer.

20/11/12

today in our pre-production for our advert i finished the health and safety, plan b and reccies.

we have the script to do next along with copyright issues

Copyright issues

Copyright can make or break your video.

If you are using a song that is not yours, and is posted on Youtube.com, Youtube will go through their archives and link the song used in your video to the official song on Youtube.

If it is a correct match, Youtube will offer to keep the song on your video as long as they put a advert on your video.

There are ways to alter this, you can purchase licenses to support the music in your video or ask permission from the company who copyright the music.

Or a third is to make music yourself.

Photoshop brushes

In photoshop, the brush tool is used to colour in pictures, similar to the brush tool in Microsoft's paint software.
The brush tool include different types of brushes.
When using brushes you can alter the options of brush types, you can increase or decrease the brushes size, you can control the opacity and flow settings which will make the brush lighter.
There are also hardness settings which control the outline of the brush, whether you want and sharp outline or a fading outline.

Above is a self-portrait drawn in Photoshop using brushes, in a space of 40 minutes. 

Treatment for the Fire and Rescue Services' Advertisement

Our production that we have been told to create is a 2 minute campaign advertisement video for the Fire and Rescue Service, and other emergency services on awareness of road safety or fire safety. Our production team have decided to go for a road safety advert. The goal for our production is to help people realise what can happen and how something that seems normal, and that you would do every day can be dangerous and even life threatening. We are going to have a student, who gets run over on college grounds because of his mobile phone. In the end the victim will die, and we will see his fellow students going to his funeral or putting flowers were he died on his grave.

Within this production we will be able to do many things as planned, as too much activity does not really take place. With that in mind parts performed such as a person walking through college on there mobile phone and all of sudden getting run over, we just need to find a person who can drive to take place. In our production we will also need to have make up as the person who gets hit by the car will have cuts and bruises on them and we need to make it look as real as possible, to do this we aim to have a make-up artist to do our actors make-up. Preferable we will need an empty road, and hardly any students around at the time, so they don't ruin the shots. To do this we will go out and shoot during lesson times.

We did lots of research to come up with our final idea such as watching videos on the internet of previous campaign videos similar to the one that we are trying to produce. we also researched what exactly it is that our client (the fire and rescue service) do in their day too day jobs.

Photoshop tool explanations

Graphic files

Raster Graphic file:
A raster graphic file is an image which is broken down into little squares - a grid, by the computer, each square in this grid is known as a pixel.
The pixel will scan the colour in the square of the grid and place the correct colour in the square.
The less of the pixels in a image will make the picture more simple and blocky.
The more pixels you have, the more detailed the image gets, if you start with a basic 16x16 pixel grid, your image will be blocky, if the image is 1 megapixel (1,000,000 pixels), the image will be detailed and the blockiness of the image will turn into a smooth curvature.

This is an example of a raster image, note it's blockiness, meaning less pixels are used.

Vector Graphic file:

A vector graphic file is a computer's version of dot-to-dot in images.

Vector files are made up of points and lines called anchors and paths, the anchors are what you place on the file, they are the points and foundations of the image, once placed, the computer will connect the anchors together with lines called paths, this line could be straight or curved.

What may seem simple, vector graphics will never go into pixelation, if you expand the anchors position, the computer will simply re-draw the image.

Pixels:

Pixels are the squares in a grid of an image, a pixel is a square within the grid, within this pixel, the computer chooses the correct colour for the image and places it on the picture.

The higher the pixels, the more detailed the image is.

The grid used is called a bit map.

Resolution:

The resolution is the measurement of the pixels used in a raster graphic file. If the resolution is the high, so is the quality of the pixels in the raster file.

Know about the structures and techniques of television advertising.

In advertising, there are two main types of adverts, commercial and campaigning. In this document I will talk about both.

Commercial:

Commercial adverts are the more popular of the two types of advertisements, as they are (on almost all television channels) played every 15-20 minutes of a television programmes schedule.

They are the adverts which advertise products they are selling (for example, Lynx deodorant, Cadbury's confectionary and Samsung mobile phones).

They are used to try and persuade the viewer into buying the products, and for some products, are shown at specific times of the day, or on specific channels (for example, children's toy adverts dominate children's television channels before 6pm during commercial breaks, but are also shown on most channels, especially close to the Christmas period).

This embedded youtube.com video is a commercial advert for the Xbox 360 games console, it persuades the viewer into buying an Xbox console.

Summary for the video example:

Humorous - because it is seen as a silly video, the fact that there are hundreds of people running around a building pretending to shot each other can be seen as childish and silly, thus making it funny and comical.
Realist - It is not made-up, nor does it have any special effects in the video, thus making real, also anyone can pretend to shoot a gun with their fingers.
Splash Shot - It has a splash shot (which is the inclusion of the brand name in the video) of the Xbox logo at the end of the video.
Music - There is music (which i can only describe as 50s classical) playing in  the background.


Campaign:

A campaign advert is the second type of adverts, it deals with giving out information to the public in return for a donation or a public vote etc...

Many campaign adverts are from charities like WWF, NSPCC, RSPCA, BUPA, Oxfam etc...

The campaign adverts are used to deliver information on what they are advertising to the public, for example, NSPCC may show an advert about child cruelty and give you statistics and facts to back up their cause like, for a pretend example, 3% of children in England are beaten.

The trick campaign advertisers use is to achieve an emotional approach to the advert as well as giving a fear technique to the advert, this is give the audience a realistic impression on how bad the campaign adverts point is.

The campaign adverts will also have a solution to a problem technique in the advert, some will tell you how to contribute by giving a telephone or text number or a website URL.

Other campaign adverts are adverts from political parties (UK's Labour, Conservative and Liberal - Democratic party) or government (HMRC (Her Majesties Revenue and Custom)).

Above is an embedded example of a campaign advert by The Salvation Army (UK) during Christmas 2011.

Summary for the video example:
Solution to the Problem - The video's problem is how to deal with troubled people during Christmas, it gives a solution to the problem by including a phone number and text number.
Facts and Figures - The video starts with introductions, explaining who the people are and why they are being filmed, these are quite possible to be facts, this can be increase emotion factor and make people understand more.
Realist - The video is as real as it gets, there are people outside who are like those in the film, no special effects are placed in the video and the video does not have any fantastical props or costumes thus making this video realist, realism makes the video more powerful in it's message, if you had sci-fi version of this advert, it wouldn't make sense, the realism increases the emotional side of the video.
Statistics - The video talks about how the money you donate will be spent.
VOG (Voice of God) - The video's only speech is made by a narrator, seeing as though we can't see the person who is talking, then he is a VOG. The video has a narrator so it can show more scenes of problems and what The Salvation Army does, so you can watch the problems and solutions whilst listening to the narrator at the same time.
Music - If you listen you can hear a brass band playing in the background of the video, quite possibly played by The Salvation Army themselves, because the musics by The Salvation Army, it makes the realism more real and the emotions more emotional.
Compassion - Compassion means the virtue of empathy for the suffering of others, in this video it shows the suffering of others, giving the viewer an impression of compassion.
Splash Shot - The video (just like the Xbox commercial) ends with a splash shot of the The Salvation Army logo, the logo is introduced in the splash shot to signify the end of the video and the realism of video (because it's their own logo, no one else's).

Both of these adverts both have certain features that are shared, for example they are both realist, the commercial advert has the actors/actresses pretending while the Salvation Army video is real all together.
Both of the video have music in the background, the Xbox commercial has a classical sounding music background where as the campaign advert has a brass band playing in the background.
Both videos also finish with the brand name (Xbox and The Salvation Army), this is known as a splash shot.
However, the campaign video has more features, including a VOG (Voice of God - narrator), statistics are shown throughout the video as well as being mentioned along with facts and figures and the campaign video also has an emotional feature, the video gives off a compassionate emotion to the audience.