Digital Photography and Imagine: Week 4

5/5/2025 - 10/5/2025 (Week 4)

Alicia Lo Yann Wei (0357917)

Digital Photography and Imaging / Bachelor of Mass Communications in Digital Media Production (Hons)

W4: PRACTICAL: DIGITAL IMAGING EXERCISES

1.0 INSTRUCTION

2.0 LECTURE

2.1 Week 4 - Introduction to Adjustment Layers and Filters 

This week, Mr. Fauzi introduced us to adjustment layers and filters in Photoshop through materials uploaded on Google Classroom. I learned that adjustment layers allowed us modify images without permanently changing the original. 

Some key types of adjustment layers we covered include:

• Brightness/Contrast – for basic light and shadow control.
• Levels – to adjust shadows, midtones, and highlights.
• Curves – a more advanced tool for precise tonal changes.
• Exposure – to tweak highlight, midtone, and shadow values.
• Selective Color – for fine-tuning specific color ranges.

We also learned that filters are powerful for enhancing color, applying visual effects, and experimenting with different styles. 

3.0 EXERCISES

3.1 W4: Practical - Digital Imaging Exercises

For this week’s creative task, we were given the Shazam and Heart Mansion materials to experiment with some of Photoshop’s core tools—using the quick selection tool, layer masks, filters, and color correction to bring our edits to life.

PROGRESSION 

PROJECT 1B - PART 1: Hearst Mansion

• Use Quick Selection tool to subtract background.

Figure 3.1.1 Cut Out of Shazam

• Use shortcut key to copy and paste Shazam into the Hearst Mansion background.

Figure 3.1.2 Paste Shazam into the Hearst Mansion

• Create shadow by using the Brush Tool with black color, and paint a soft shadow behind Shazam's layer for added depth.

Figure 3.1.3 Shazam's Shadow

• Create his reflection by using the Polygonal Lasso Tool (shortcut key L), duplicate the selected area and position it to mimic a realistic reflection effect.

Figure 3.1.4 Shazam's Reflection

FINAL OUTCOME OF PROJECT 1B - PART 1

PROJECT 1B - PART 2: My Reflection 

I used the same method as in Part 1 to create my reflection, and as shown below, I’ve renamed below accordingly in the Layers panel.

Figure 3.2.1 My Reflection

FINAL OUTCOME OF PROJECT 1B - PART 1 (MY REFLECTION)

PROJECT 1B - PART 2: Recoloring Black & White

The task for Project 1B Part 2 involves recoloring black-and-white photos provided in Google Classroom. Both exercises require image editing through colorization, with Exercise 2 being similar to Exercise 1 but requiring us to select one preferred image from multiple options to work on.

I followed the instructions in the video but made some adjustments to the colors.

Figure 3.3.1 Recolouring Hair

Figure 3.3.2 Recolouring 

FINAL OUTCOME OF PROJECT 1B - PART 2

PROJECT 1B - PART 2: Recoloring other Black & White Photo

First, I chose a photo of BTS's Jin to recolor. I then searched online for suitable skin tones and hair colors, selecting several shades that best matched what I needed.

Figure 3.4.1 Colour Picked

The process I followed was the same as the instructions provided. This is also reflected in the listed layers below.

Figure 3.4.2 Recolouring Jin

FINAL OUTCOME OF PROJECT 1B - PART 2 (RECOLOURING OTHER BLACK & WHITE PHOTO)

4.0 FEEDBACK

There's no feedback this week.

5.0 REFLECTION

Honestly, this assignment took a lot more time and effort than I expected. I found myself needing to slow down and really try to understand the concept behind using color layers to create natural-looking effects. The process wasn’t straightforward,  from the hair and skin to the eyes, lips, and even the earrings, repeating similar steps over and over. What made it tricky was trying to be as precise as possible. Sometimes the color would spill out of the lines or miss certain spots, which got frustrating. To fix that, I turned to online tutorials and tips, hoping to find better ways to clean up my work.