Digital Photography and Imaging | Week 6 (Recolouring Black & White)

30/10/2023 - 5/11/2023
Yong Zhen Xing - 0359473
Digital Photography and Imaging - Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Weekly Updates / Week 6

Jumplink :

Recolouring 1

Recolouring 2

Recolouring 3
 
Instructions :




Week 6:

W6 Lecture :


This lecture teaches about design principle and how to use them to create good composition.

Notes :

  • First thing to keep in mind is that any poster design doesn't necessary need to follow any every design principles to be "good". Some may even ignore a few to create something completely unique.
  • There are 7 design principles to consider when making any sort of design ; Emphasis, Balance & Alignment, Contrast, Repetition, Proportion, Movement, White Space.
    • Emphasis - Creating a focal point to lead the eye to a subject.
    • Balance & Alignment - Creating composition with visual weights that are equal to each other
    • Contrast - Creates space and difference between elements. Commonly used with many mixed colours, however it needs to be harmonious and still maintain readability.
    • Repetition - The use of similar elements to create repetition. One can find themselves repeating the same design over and over again but once used, it could help unifies and strengthen a design.  
    • Proportion - Using different visual size and weights in a design.
    • Movement - Controlling the elements in a composition to guide the eye till the end to gain information.
    • White Space - Also known as negative space, it is not including elements in ares. By creating negative space in composition it helps with making a composition significantly better because more elements doesn't necessarily mean better.


Tutorial :

Video 1 : PHOTOGRAPHY BASICS in 10 MINUTES



 Video 2 : Creative Product Photography At Home - Beginner To Pro!



Video 3 : Shooting a Bottle with ONE Continuous Light and a Smartphone


The first video taught me on the basic things to understand in photography such as ISO, Aperture and Shutter speed. It was made very clear what should you set each settings to.

The next video taught me about how to take phenomenal product photography at the comfort of our homes ranging from beginner, intermediate to pros. It was really interesting to see what are the thought process when it comes to photography. He also touched on editing through adobe lightroom.

In the final video, this video focus mainly on the lighting/highlights of the subject. It was also shot using a phone which means anyone could replicate it. He goes from setting up to shot to adding lighting and then configuring the settings of the phone camera to take the amazing shot.

Exercise (Practical) :
In this exercise, we were to recolour a picture from black and white using more tools that we just learned such as blending mode, using solid colour and how to mask certain parts of the image more efficiently.

Recolouring 1 :
In the first exercise, we were to colour the subject based on how we would see it if there were colours.


fig 1.1, Before Colouring 1 (31/10/2023)


Firstly, I used a normal paint brush and coloured all over the face of the subject. I ensure I didn't paint over the eye or mouth to the best of my abilities.


fig 1.2, Painting Over Face (31/10/2023)
 
 
Then, I changed the blending mode of the layer to overlay.

fig 1.3, Changing Blending Mode to Overlay (31/10/2023)
 
 
I then lowered the opacity of the layer to make it more skin-coloured.

fig 1.4, Changing the Opacity (31/10/2023)

Using the same way, I then painted the hair.

fig 1.5, Painting Over Hair (31/10/2023)


Once again, changing the blending mode layer to overlay.

fig 1.6, Blending Mode to Overlay (31/10/2023)

Then I added a tint of dark blue with overlay on the eye, a dark red colour for the lip, as well as adding a green colour to the subject's shirt.

fig 1.7, Adding Eye Colour (31/10/2023)

fig 1.8, Adding Lip Colour (31/10/2023)

fig 1.9, Adding Shirt Colour (31/10/2023)


For the background, I first masked the background first so I could easily paint on it.


fig 1.10, Masking the Background (31/10/2023)
 
 
I selected a simple light red colour and readjusted more on the masking of the background.
 
fig 1.11, Fill Background Colour (31/10/2023)

The final step was to simply change the background blending mode to overlay!


fig 1.12, Blending Mode to Overlay (31/10/2023)

 
Final Outcome 1 :
The image below shows the final image after colouring!

fig 1.13, Final Recolouring 1 (31/10/2023)
 
 
Recolouring 2 :
This next exercise is slightly more challenging as it introduces a different way of masking objects. We are also required to take the colours of the skin tone and the hair from the 2 other given images. However with that being said, it does make the final image look more realistic.

fig 2.1, Before Colouring 2 (31/10/2023)

fig 2.2, 2.3 Hair Colour & Skin Tone (31/10/2023)


First, I use the eyedropper tool to pick up the highlights, midtone and shadows of both the skin tone and the hair. I also needed to set the sample size to 5 by 5 Average.


fig 2.4, Selecting Hair Colour & Skin Tone (31/10/2023)

Then I quick-selected the rough image of the hair and then used refined edge brush tool to make sure that the mask includes the small strands of hair.

fig 2.5, Masking the Hair (31/10/2023)


Then I selected the solid colour tool and used the eyedropper tool and selected the midtone of the hair. Then I dragged the previously masked hair into the solid colour layer.

fig 2.6, Eyedropper tool for Solid Colour (31/10/2023)


I also changed the blending mode layer for the hair to soft light.

fig 2.7, Hair Coloured (31/10/2023)


Next, I masked the head of the subject. I ensured that I also mask out the eyes and mouth.

fig 2.8, Masking the Skin (31/10/2023)
 

I then changed the blending mode to soft light.

fig 2.9, Colouring the Skin (31/10/2023)


Unfortunately the skin was a bit too pale on the midtone, so I simply followed the demo by also changing its hue.

fig 2.10, Hue Adjustments (31/10/2023)


The next few steps are quite similiar to the hair and skin colouring. In this image below, I masked the background and painted it a solid colour.

fig 2.11, Masking the Background (31/10/2023)
 

I played around with the background colour a bit more but forgot to set the blending mode to soft light (It will be changed at the last step). I also masked out the shirt of the subject and coloured it.

fig 2.12, Colouring the Shirt (31/10/2023)
 
 
Next was colouring the remaining parts of the image such as the lips, teeth and earring.

fig 2.13, Colouring the Lips (31/10/2023)

fig 2.14, Colouring the Teeth (31/10/2023)

fig 2.15, Colouring the Earrings (31/10/2023)


The final step was to refine some parts as well as changing the background layer blending mode to soft light as I previously forgot. I have also coloured the eyes.

fig 2.16, Final and Additional Adjustments (31/10/2023)

Final Outcome 2 :
The image below shows the final image after colouring!


fig 2.17, Final Recolouring 2 (31/10/2023)

Recolouring 3 :
In this final exercise, we were first to select one of many images from the file provided. Then we were to find images to use as the skin tone and hair colour. This exercise has the same way of doing/process as the last exercise but we were to do it by ourselves which makes for a fun exercise! The below images are the selected subject as well as my chosen image for the skin tone and hair colour reference.

fig 3.1, Before Colouring 3 (31/10/2023)

fig 3.2, 3.3 Hair Colour & Skin Tone (31/10/2023)



fig 3.4, Selecting Hair Colour & Skin Tone (31/10/2023)

fig 3.5, Selecting the Hair (31/10/2023)


I actually spent quite a long time masking the hair in this exercise as the strands are more spread out and more complex.

fig 3.6, Masking the Hair (31/10/2023)


However I still tried my best and I am pretty pleased with the results!

fig 3.7, Colouring the Hair (31/10/2023)


This time when masking the head, I needed to ensure to mask the hands as well as they share the same skin tone.

fig 3.8, Selecting the Skin (31/10/2023)

fig 3.9, Masking the Skin (31/10/2023)

fig 3.10, Colouring the Skin (31/10/2023)

fig 3.11, Colouring the Lips (31/10/2023)

fig 3.12, Masking the Shirt (31/10/2023)

fig 3.13, Readjusting Shirt Colour (31/10/2023)


After the main subject was mostly done, the accessory/object and background was the only remaining part of the image to colour left. The accessory being the ring and the object being the subject's eyes and also the table she is resting on.

fig 3.14, Colouring the Ring (31/10/2023)

fig 3.15, Colouring the Background (31/10/2023)

fig 3.16, Colouring the Eye (31/10/2023)

fig 3.17, Colouring the Table (31/10/2023)

 
Final Outcome 3 :
The image below shows the final image after colouring!

fig 3.18, Final Recolouring 3 (31/10/2023)


Reflection :
When I saw we had to colour a black & white image, I thought it was going to be boring, but after doing the 3 exercises, I actually found out that colouring is surprisingly fun too! While I didn't expect my colouring to look natural, especially for the 3rd exercise, it turned out quite good in my opinion! Learning about the refining tool was definitely the highlight of the exercise for me. Masking out hair that seamlessly makes it such a powerful tool!
 

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