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Chapter 9 Sandbox
From Digital Foundations
Contents |
[edit] Download Materials For Chapter 9
You can use your own images to complete the exercises in Chapter 9, but if you'd like to use ours you can download them here.
Download our final files here. Expand this .zip archive file to see a folder including our final exercise files for Chapter 9 (there are two - one for the double exposure and one for the assembled "corpse").
[edit] 9. Layering and Collage
In the middle of the 1800s, Hippolyte Bayard created a photographic combination print, where two separate exposures are incorporated into a single photographic print.
Building on this tradition of combination prints, Cubists like Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque began adding found photographs, print materials, and other visual elements into their compositions. They called this technique collage, from the French word coller, “to paste.”
In the 1920s, Dada and Constructivist artists explored this collage technique in their work. They cut and pasted found photographs, their own imagery, and various printed elements together to form “anti-aesthetic” collages that challenged the viewer to decipher multiple messages within the final composition. El Lissitzky’s The Constructor is an example of this type of work. Lissitzky’s self portrait combines his own head with fragments of machinery, along with a hand that has been interpreted as the Hand of God passing over his face.
The Lissitzky and Bayard prints employ different methods of artistic production. The combination print was made during the photographic printing process, while the photomontage combines various printed materials with adhesive. If Photoshop had been invented in the early 1900s, Dada and Constructivist artists would have been using it as their adhesive material.
[edit] Visual References
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bayard,_Hippolyte_1801-1887_-_Selfportrait_as_a_Drowned_man_1840.jpg
Self Portrait as a Drowned Man, 1840, Hippolyte Bayard, combination print.
Following Bayard’s experiments, combination prints and double exposures were made popular in the Victorian era as postcards.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Constructor_self_portrait_by_El_Lissitzky_1925.jpg
The Constructor, 1925, El Lissitzky, self portrait photomontage. The photomontage may have been re-photographed, so that the final print appears seamless.
[edit] Results of Chapter 9 Exercises
Images of body parts are used to assemble the double exposure on the left and the exquisite corpse on the right.
[edit] Exercise 1: Using layers to create a double-exposure
In the camera, a double exposure requires releasing the shutter to create one photograph, then releasing the shutter again to create another photograph on top of the first one. An example of this process can be seen in Henry Van der Weyde’s image of the actor Richard Mansfield as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Richard_Mansfield_Jekyll.png
Richard Mansfield as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Henry Van der Weyde, between ca. 1885 and 1900, London, England.
In Photoshop, we will create a double exposure by putting two images on separate layers and adjusting the blending mode of the top layer. We’ve provided two images on the wiki, but you might explore taking two images with a digital camera or scanning two photographs that address such subjects as time, dreams, paranoia, schizophrenia, otherworldliness, and duality. The double exposure is often used to express duality or the passing of time (also see the photographs of Duane Michals).
1. Create a new document using File > New. Set the width and height to 12 by 10 inches (be attentive to the units of measurement pull-down menus — 10 pixels results in a much smaller document than 10 inches). Set the resolution to 72 DPI and leave the color space in RGB mode. Name it double-exposure.
| Tip: Working at 72 DPI, sometimes called screen resolution, is appropriate for any content that will appear only on a screen and that will not be printed. |
2. Open hand01.jpg, downloaded from the wiki. The 12x10 blank file and the hand image are accessible through the tabs at the top of the document in Photoshop. There are many ways to copy the hand into the new document. We will copy a layer from the hand document and paste it into the new document using the Edit menu. In the hand01.jpg file choose Select > Select All then Edit > Copy. The contents of the active layer (Background) were selected and copied. Click on the tab of the new document before choosing Edit > Paste.
| Note: The Move tool can be used to drag a layer into a new document from the document window or from the Layers panel. First click on the tab at the top of one of the documents and undock the tab so that you can see both documents on the screen at once. Then use the Move tool to drag the layer to the center of the other document. Holding Shift while dragging a layer into another document will center the layer in the new document. |
The hand is very large when it is placed into the new document. The hand file contains more pixels than the double exposure file. We did this on purpose to demonstrate that the number of pixels in a document has a noticeable effect on the way that the file is previewed in Photoshop.
| Note: You can always create a new file with a higher resolution value, but for exercises that will not be printed, it is faster to work in a file with resolution no greater than the screen. The larger the resolution, the larger the file size; and larger file sizes require greater computer processing power and slow down your work. |
3. In the Layers panel, double-click directly on the name Layer 1 to rename it hand01. To scale the hand so that it fits into the document, click Edit > Free Transform.
4. When the image to be transformed does not run off the edges of the file document — as this one does — it is easy to transform it by using the arrows at one of the four corners of the transformation box to click and drag towards the center of the image. This type of transformation is similar to transforming objects in Illustrator.
| Tip: Remember to always hold the Shift key during transformations in order to maintain the proportions. |
In this situation, however, we cannot see all edges of the transformation box, so it is easier to use the transform tools in the Options bar at the top of the document. First click on the chain-like Link icon between the width and height percentage boxes to maintain the aspect ratios (or proportions). Now enter 65% into either the width or height box and notice that the other box also takes on the same value. Press the Return or Enter key on your keypad to finalize the transformation.
| Tip: You can also confirm a transformation or a Type tool setting in Photoshop by clicking on the checkmark Commit icon in the top right area of the Options bar while you are using these tools. To get out of a transformation box, a crop box, or the Type tool, hit the Escape (Esc) key on the keypad, or use the Cancel icon in the top right area of the Options bar. |
5. Open hand02.jpg and use the Move tool or another method to bring the image of the second hand into the double-exposure document. Notice that it has already been scaled for you. While the second hand is still active in the Layers panel, click Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal. The Transform submenu will modify any layer, or a selection on any layer. It does not modify the entire document. Notice that this transformation only occurred on the second hand and not on the hand01 layer. In the Layers panel, double-click on the name of Layer 2 to rename it hand02.
6. Use the Move tool to move the separate layers into position. Clicking one time in the Layers panel activates a layer. Notice that the active layer can be moved with the Move tool. Once both layers are named and positioned, use the Layer Blending Modes pull-down menu in the top left area of the Layers panel to choose Multiply for the top layer, hand02. (Fig 9.#) Leave the hand01 layer in Normal mode. Blending modes define how layers interact. We will continue to explore these in the third exercise.
The double-exposure happens in the area where the two images overlap. Multiply blending mode allows us to see the two images together, as if they were photographed on the same piece of film. In the next exercise, we will crop the image so that only the double-exposure remains.
[edit] Exercise 2: Cropping and adjusting the hue
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1. Click on the Crop tool in the Tools panel and notice the options for this tool in the Options bar. Enter “6 in” into the Width box, “9 in” into the Height box, and "72" into the Resolution box. Drag a crop box around the area of the document where the two layers overlap.
| Tip: While dragging the Crop tool, if you hold down the Spacebar you can reposition the crop area without changing its shape. Let go of the Spacebar before letting go of the mouse. Once you let go of the mouse, click and drag inside the crop area to reposition it. |
Notice that the Crop tool will only create a rectangular shape in the aspect ratio of 6:9 as you are dragging. Finalize the crop by pressing Return or Enter on your keypad or by clicking the Commit icon in the top right area of the Options bar.
2. Click on the Add Adjustment Layer pull-down menu at the bottom of the Layers panel and scroll to Hue/Saturation.
3. In the Hue/Saturation dialog box, check the Colorize button and then use the Hue slider to create a cyan wash over the image. (Fig 9.#) Click OK when you are satisfied with the colorization. Remember that you can always double-click on the thumbnail icon of the adjustment layer in the Layers panel to access this dialog box and modify the settings.
[edit] Exercises 3 and 4: Exquisite Corpse (in two parts)
“Exquisite corpse” is a parlor game that the Surrealists developed in 1925. In this game, each player submits images (drawings, paintings, photographs) of heads, torsos, and legs, and they are combined to produce surprising new bodies. We have played this game with students using images of each other that we captured in class on a digital camera, as well as by using images from pop culture, found on the web. Collaging celebrity and politician body parts can provoke thoughtful discussion. Images of students are on the wiki, but it's more fun to try this with pictures of your friends or family!
[edit] Exercise 3: Creating and manipulating layers
1. We’ll work on top of the double exposure file that we just created, so save the file as exquisite-corpse.psd. Your file should look like our illustration.
2. Keep exquisite-corpse.psd open and use File > Open in Photoshop to open all of the documents used in this exercise (on the wiki, the files are: arm.psd, back.psd, ear.psd, head.psd, shoes.psd, and torso.psd). You can view all of the documents by clicking through tabs. We wanted to see all files at once in a neat arrangement. To view your images as we did, click Window > Arrange > Float All in Windows, followed by Window > Arrange > Tile.
3. Move all of the body parts into the exquisite-corpse document, just as we moved the hands into the double exposure document in Exercise 1. Once all of the parts are on separate layers in the exquisite-corpse document, rename each layer to indicate which body part it contains. Use the eyeball icon in the Layers panel to hide and show the layer. This will help you to quickly assess which image is on the layer.
4. Click on a layer and drag it above or below another layer. The order of the layers in the Layers panel is referred to as the stacking order. This determines which image appears in the foreground and which images go behind it. Organize the layers so that they appear like the stacking order in the illustration. (Fig 9.# Notice that our layer stack has a left and right arm! We created both from the same image. Name your first arm right arm, then use the Layer menu > Duplicate Layer… and name the duplicate layer left arm. Use Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical to flip each arm (be sure to activate the layer first) and then Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal to distinguish one from the other.
5. Click on each layer to activate it, then use the Move tool to reposition the layer and Edit > Free Transform in order to scale it. Some of the layers will need to be scaled if you want your exquisite corpse to look just like ours. Remember to hold the Shift key while dragging on one of the four anchor corners in the Free Transform box or to link the width and height if you are using the Options bar to make the transformation. Also, keep in mind that it is always safe to scale an image down in Photoshop, but it is never a good idea to scale an image up, as this will add random pixel information and degrade the quality of the image.
| Note: Bitmap images can be thought of as maps of pixels on a grid. When bitmap images are scaled, the pixels are remapped. Scaling a bitmap image down remaps the pixels to existing locations on the grid. Scaling a bitmap up requires new pixels in order to fill the larger grid. Photoshop can only interpolate, or guess what the new pixels should look like, based on what their neighbors look like. Scale up too much, and an image looks mushy and horrible. |
6. Once each layer is renamed, repositioned, and scaled, click on the top layer once to activate it, then hold Shift and click on the last layer in the stacking order above the adjustment layer from Exercise 2. We clicked the ear layer and Shift-clicked on the torso layer. Click on the Layers panel pull-down menu in the top right corner of the panel and choose Create Group From Layers… In the dialog box, name the new group corpse. This will make a new folder in the Layers panel for the group of body parts.
[edit] Exercise 4: Adding an adjustment to some layers
 The results of exercises 3 & 4. |
In this exercise, we want to add an adjustment layer to the top of the Layers panel, except there is one major problem: doing so would cancel out the adjustment layer in use towards the bottom of the panel! One way to make an adjustment layer act on only some layers is to merge the parts of the image that should respond to the adjustment, add the adjustment on top of that layer, and then use a clipping mask between the adjustment and the merged layer.
1. Expand the corpse group (click the sideways arrow on the left side of the name) so that you can see all of the layers within the group. Click once on the top-most layer to activate it, then Shift-click on the last body layer in the group (ours is torso) so that all of the body parts are highlighted.
| Watch Out: If the Option key is not used, the merged layers will flatten onto a single layer and you will no longer be able to edit those layers individually. While it may not seem like such a big deal while you are reading this, losing the ability to edit separate layers could cause you grief some day. Everyone flattens an image, or loses the copy of the file with the layers separated, at some point in their image manipulation careers. As educators, we know that learners often learn by doing, so you may make this mistake even though you’ve read this chapter. But let's just say you've had a fair warning!
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2. There is one trick here: we never merge layers without keeping our individual layers intact underneath. Hold the Option key on your keypad before you click on the Layers panel pull-down menu (top right of the Layers panel) and choose Merge Layers.
Adding the Option key results in a new layer above those that were activated, which merges all of the activated layers together. Notice that the layer called ear was at the top of the list, so the name of the new layer is ear (merged). Use the eyeball icon to turn this layer on and off and notice that while you have a layer that has merged all of the body parts, you also have each body part on a separate layer. This will give you flexibility if you need to make revisions after merging the layers.
3. Drag the merged layer outside of the group so that it is on top of the stacking order in the Layers panel. Close the corpse group folder and turn off its eyeball icon.
4. Click on the merged layer to activate it, then add an adjustment layer for Hue/Saturation. Use the Colorize button again and add a wash of orange. Notice that this will colorize the entire document.
Clipping Masks
Masks are used in conjunction with layers in Photoshop to hide part of a composition. There are three masking techniques in Photoshop. We will review other methods of masking in Chapters 10 and 11.
The easiest mask to create is a clipping mask. A clipping mask works between two layers. It uses a base layer to define the mask area. The layers clipped to the base act only on the base layer. We will use a clipping mask here to limit the effects of the adjustment layer strictly to the merged layer.
5. To apply the clipping mask, press the Option key while clicking on the line between the adjustment layer and the merged layer. You will see the cursor change to an icon that looks like a figure eight. When you see this cursor change, click the mouse. This will create a clipping mask between the adjustment layer and the merged layer. Now the adjustment layer will only affect the merged layer. The background images should appear cyan again.
| Tip: A clipping mask can also be used to fit a photographic image into a text area. It is easy to experiment with this idea. Create a large, bold word that nearly fills the document. To use the word as the base layer, place it beneath a photograph that is as large as the document. Option-click between the photograph and type layer to create a clipping mask. The photograph will be clipped to the type layer.
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6. Use the Blending Mode pull-down menu in the Layers panel to set the mode to Linear Light and enter 50% for the layer opacity (to the right of the Blending Mode pull-down menu). A decreased opacity enables the viewer to see through the image on this layer, and helps to blend the two layers.
