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INTRODUCTION
Photo manipulation techniques are used by many designers to create extremely creative works of art. It is enormously popular amongst most graphic designers who choose to use Photoshop. And the great thing is; once you understand the key focus points in photo manipulation, you can create anything you can dream of. The wildest imagery to the simplest idea can be conveyed through Photoshop using photo manipulation. Let's review ten focus points for successful photo manipulation and review links to professional photo manipulation artists. These ten examples are in no particular order of importance.
2. SHADOWS
I will stress this more than once in this article so you can understand how important this is to a successful photo manipulation. When you're going to make one you want it to be as realistic looking as possible; and I don't mean realistic in the way that you see flying cars or magical dragons. I mean realistic in the way that every item has a shadow if it needs one and every item is proportional to everything else on your canvas. Photo manipulations are made so that you can bring out things that would never happen in the real world. Shadows are our next focus and the second technique you should know before starting a photo manipulation project. Below is a piece of art made for a slashTHREE art pack. It's a great example of how shadows can add to the realism of your photo manipulation, even when it's a fantasy scene. Look carefully at the image and notice that the airplanes have shadows under them. The paint brush, pencil, and the paint bucket all have shadows under them, which all add to the realism of the photo manipulation. Now making shadows is a whole other discussion, but a simple way to make them is to duplicate your original stock that you need the shadow for. Then turn it completely black. Then add a Gaussian Blur to it. Then you can reduce it in size and put it in the correct place.
3. PROPORTION
Now proportion is probably one of the most important things a person has to grasp if he wants to do photo manipulations. You can not have your dog bigger than your house or your horse bigger than your car. If you're going to make a design that is extremely farfetched, than you have to make it look realistic and proportion makes a huge difference in how realistic your art looks. You have to remember where you want to place your images. Below is an example of great proportioning. You can see that there is a castle all the way in the back of the image and note how small it is. You have to remember that images that are supposed to be far away have to be smaller than the ones that are closer to you. Notice how the second castle to the right is proportioned to look big but not too big because it is near the horses. The mountains are proportioned to be big enough to go in front of the castle. The trees are correctly proportional to the size of the horses. So remember that every image you use should be used in proportional harmony.
4. TEXTURE USE
Now textures don't necessarily add to the realism of your art, but they do add a nice kick to blend all your images together evenly. Blending is a huge part of photo manipulation, so textures are something you have to carefully pick out. Textures add to the depth of your art. If you are trying to go for a photo manipulation that is dark and dirty looking you can use a rough ground surface as a background texture; or if you are looking for something smoother you can use paper, or a wall texture. There are many textures you can consider using for your art, and a website that has links to many textures is Blue Vertigo. They have links to many sites that distribute free textures.
Below is a photo manipulation with a grungy and dark feel to it. It uses a nice cracked surface texture. The three dimensional elements that the artist's used are about the same color as the texture, so they blend beautifully. Remember if you do not have a background for your photo manipulation, you should use a texture that will match the mood you are trying to set in your art.
6. COLOR BLENDING
Not every image you use is going to match your background, your texture, or even your other images. So that is where color blending comes in. Things like Photo Filters and Gradient Maps are used in Photoshop to either add or take away color in your images. This either gives a certain image that little boost of color, or takes away that extra color. This helps the images blend with one another and most importantly form a nice coherent work of art. An excellent example of color blending is shown below. We see many types of different flowers throughout the whole piece. Even with a large amount, they still blend very nicely to form a whole. Colors like pink, white, yellow, and orange blend together easily. So that is what you should look for at first; colors that already blend. Then use Photoshop's Photo Filters or Gradient Maps to manipulate the colors of the images to blend well.
7. EMPHASIS ON DETAIL
When creating a piece of art set one area as the main focus. You want to draw viewers eyes instantly to that spot. There are multiple techniques to do that. One way is to work on focusing attention on the most vibrant, colorful, or sharp area in the design. A great example of emphasis on a certain part of a design is in the artwork below. The fire is the first thing that catches your eye. The fire is the most vibrant and brightest part of the image, so it instantly stands out. And that is exactly what you want; you want something to suddenly stand out when someone looks at your piece of art.
An example of great use of stock images is below. I love this piece because you can see there are a variety of images used. Notice everything in the composition. Look at the background scenery, the flower, and cassette tapes for example. There is a plethora of images in this artwork, but the composition maintains its coherency. In your design you can use a multitude of images, but they all have to flow properly, and be used to your advantage.
9. C4D USES
Not everyone who uses Photoshop knows what C4D files are. So let me give a quick introduction to them. C4D's are 4D images made from a program named Cinema 4D. They are often these abstract works. They can be used to enhance the feel of your work, and give it an even nicer look. Let's look at how C4D meets an image and blends beautifully. The example below shows two ships on the verge of sinking. We have a deep and long background filled with an endless shot of sky and water. The C4D blends great with the boats and gives off a nice effect by making it look like it's coming from the ocean. The use of C4D art or 3D renders can improve your photo manipulation. In this case, it gave it a nice futuristic and abstract effect that is difficult to achieve using normal stock images.
CONCLUSION
Remember these ten techniques. Go over them a couple of times then trying to make another your next photo manipulation, as they are excellent points to consider. Do this and I guarantee that a great piece of art will come out this time. Focus on these points and you'll excel in photo manipulation art.
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