Week Three Post

This week we touched on Costello's Chapter 8, concerning graphics, as well as being introduced into Photoshop.

I am astonished when I consider all the different graphics that are around each of us everyday. Before starting this class, and more recently this chapter, I saw pictures as pictures and screens as screens.

I never put much thought into what all goes into making pictures, or screens, or even the very letters that I am typing. All the details and algorithms that go into making graphics blow my mind.

Something else that I have ignored in the past, and am glad that I know now, is the differences in image formats. Before, I used what was default, or what I recognized as using in the past, and never put much thought into what makes a JPEG a JPEG and a GIF a GIF. Now, this is very useful knowledge that will help me in the future, as well as in this class.

On Thursday, Photoshop made me feel alive. There is something about this program that awakens my creative and explorative side. I played around with the program for two hours after class, I could not stop!

Check out my version of the space practice exercise. See if you can tell where the "Milky Way" is in this picture.

I am very proud of my work, though I do wish Saturn's shadow-side were a little darker. Oh Well.

Costello' Chapter 8 and what took to create this photo are one in the same. I still do not know my way around all of Photoshop's tools quite yet so I improvised where I had to. When I transferred the Earth and Saturn into this black space, there were very small white areas around the planets from where I cut and pasted them onto the background. Obviously this was not something I could leave, so when having to improvise was all I could to, I went to the paint brush.

Even with the smallest paintbrush, my shaky hand could not do what I wanted to. Then I remember several figures in Costello's book where he zoomed in on a section of the graphic, exposing the small pixels that made up the graphic. So I zoomed into the edges of the planets like a telescope and edged them as best I could. Though it did take a little time, it turned out well, plus my OCD side was very pleased.

I am looking forward to next week when we learn about and (I assume) use some cameras so I can, hopefully, work some Photoshop magic on pictures to make them spectacular.