By far my favorite piece. I chose three different copyright-free images off the web and decided to play with some tricks I learned through Pinterest and other social media platforms. Firstly, the skulls are all masked objected, and hued to look like some sort of vibrate candy. Reminds me of Cinco De Mayo. 

Second, I made the snowy image a bit bland with some low color switching, exchanged the bright, red berries for black with a hint of red here and there, and swirled the image to look hazy and like a memory. Personally, it reminds me of The Giver by Lowis Lowry, a wonderful read for anyone interested in the fundamentals of emotions both kind and bitter. 

Lastly, the endless road among the autumn leaves has increased color saturation and a mosaic effect, like the art in train stations around New York City, my city. All images had to do with the exploration of color, the use of masking objects, and the lasso tool, down the the frames that surround each one.

Using the spot healing, patch, and remove tool I restored these images to their former glory. Of course with the faded image of the boat, I used my ordinary brush and some filters on the colored layers to make it look as if the image had always been in color. The same can be said for the "Zen" image of the statue on the grass. With some path work and grey coloring, I made the statue look as if it hadn't been bought years ago but only a couple of months. 

This is one of the projects I deem fun because I love to see the process of before and after. It's also fascinating to better understand what Photoshop can do when you play around with most, if not all of its features. 

(Top Left): My beach project started by content filling the sand and masking/ replacing the sky that came with the original image. Next, I masked all my objects, essentially taking each one from their original home and inputting them into the new image. From there I added shadows, played with the brightness, puppet-warped the seagull to be soaring through the air instead of the mid flap, and added a bucket and a pale for the authentic beach feel. I can almost hear the waves! 

(Middle [Bottom Left on Computer]): Next is my coast image. Using layer masks I changed the sky into a nice starry night and added the stars on the sand and the beautiful hue of greens, blues, and pinks/reds for the dazzling rainbow effect. It reminds me of the images you see when searching through stock photos so I am very proud of it. I used overlay to get the colors just right, of course when playing around with it, darker colors don't seem to work as well as lighter colors. The image then becomes too dark and hard to see. But it's fun to make patterns and see how it changes the feel of the work as a whole. 

(Bottom Left[Middle on Computer]): Lastly was my birthday card. The idea was to make it professional like a 16th-20th birthday party. I began with a gradient background of "pink lemon-aid", a mask of a cake, and a red balloon. I then changed the colors of said balloons through brightness and hue/saturation to keep the shine but change the color to something suitable. Next, I created the banner, rope, and the text. For the final touch, I used crumpled paper and some rope for texture with multiply and put a layer mask on the poke-a-dots for the birthday spirit.