FURTHER IMAGE MANIPULATION//

This week I wanted to continue editing my images, but I wanted to try using shapes to bring attention to a certain area, or as a way of incorporating images or other design work back into my images.

I have always been into simple design, where a simple shape like a circle or square is used to contrast against the background. The most common use for this would be to highlight typography. Here are a few examples I gathered whilst doing my research. As you can see, Charles Bergquist uses circles to excentuate certain aspects of his design. I like how it is heavily contrasted, and immediately grabs your attention. When doing this within my work, I want to use the shapes to blend relating images together, and to bring my logos I made last week into my photography.

Here are a few of my first attempts at using a shape within my photography.

The bottom two are my personal favourites, I like how the subtle contrasts really grab your attention without distracting you from the original image. I think these are a more sophisticated approach to the overlayed images, which feel to clumsy and are a distraction to the background image.

After this I decided to introduce my logos, I used a simple set of three or four in a variety of compositions, ranging from small subtle logos, to full page blends. I created these in Photoshop by adding them in as a new layer, and either overlaying them or lowering the opactiy to blend them into the image. I think top is my favourite, as I like how the logos are large and the image is now unrecognisable. I also like the texture which i added over the image to give it a more organic feel. For this one I used colour select to select all three logos, I then placed this outline over the image, inversed the selection, and deleted the image to create a white background for the logos to sit on. I think this is a very simple, but bold design thats looks more sophisticated than my others.

I continued this technique, by creating a contrasting square on another image. But I wanted to make them stand out even more, so I decided to add a Blur. I chose a motion blur, which gives the effect of the camera moving from side to side within the chosen area. Although I liked this idea, after reflecting on it I chose to alter it to a Gaussian blur, as this provides the blurred, mysterious look, but the image behind is more recognisable, which is the effect I was originally going for. I then decided to try adding the Gaussian blur with a circle, as I think this would work really well with one of my logos and be more successful than the image with the square.

Here is the image I chose to add the logo too. I think this is the most successful edit I have created. I really like the composition of the photograph, and think the introduction of the logo adds a sense of symmetry, which would make this image work great over a double page spread. I also like how the subtle blur brings your attention to the logo without making it too bold.