This composite is conceived as the cover of a musical
recording or concert poster. Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881), a Russian composer,
wrote "Pictures at an Exhibition" in 1874, in memory of his friend,
artist Viktor Hartmann. The composition consists of a series of short pieces
based on Hartmann's art work, with interludes representing strolls between
paintings. Some of the paintings I used
in this composite were actually part of Mussorgsky’s inspiration.
For details, and more history, see my web page for this
project. The web page also has my "Greetings from
Hawaii" postcard, which I like quite a lot.
Here are my answers to this week’s questions:
1.
Discuss your
experience using rulers and guides.
I
found rulers and guides to be easy to use, very intuitive and quite
useful. When I first posted my Hawaii
composition, the feedback I got was “how come your black border above your
photos isn’t straight?” It actually wasn’t
a black border, it was an image of a beach at dusk, but the viewer obviously
couldn’t tell. So I straightened up the
beach, using the ruler to add a pen line which I then used in selections to
fill or subtract from the black border/beach.
2.
What was your
favorite filter combination? How did filters contribute to your results?
I
actually found filters to be fairly frustrating. When I did the black border/beach adjustment
described above, I managed to erase the filters I had found before. Even though I had written down the names of
the filters, I wasn’t able to get a combination that I liked as much as that
first set of filters. The filters that
are the most pleasing depend very much on the art you’re using. Of all the ones I’ve tried, I think I like “fresco”
and “texturize” and “craquelure” the best.
3.
Did they improve or distract from the result
you desired?
I was
really pleased with the results of the various filters I used in the Hawaii
composition. I was not very happy with
them for the Mussorgsky project, probably because I was dealing entirely with
art work and not with any photography. I
only used filters on one of the framed pictures in the Mussorgsky composition
(the wizard). My goal was to tone it
down so that it seemed to come from the same palette as the remaining art
work. That was only partially
successful.
4.
Describe your
experience using Smart Objects and the editing process.
I
still do not see a lot of utility for Smart Objects, although I’m sure I will
understand more about them as I go forward.
I used only one smart object in the Mussorgsky composition (the wizard
image), and really only because it was a required feature of this project. On the first try, when I went to put a frame
around the image, it seemed to need to be rasterized, and when I did that, the
smart object quality went away. I did it
again, with in-class assistance, and managed to maintain that quality, but I’m
still not sure I see the point.
5.
In your second
composite, please describe your favorite features you used to create this
advanced composite. How did you challenge yourself in creating your results?
I
think my favorite feature in the Mussorgsky composition is the paintbrush
presets I discovered on the internet. I
had found floral presets that I used in the Hawaii composition, and I found
musical ones for the Mussorgsky composition.
I was really pleased with how those turned out.
The
biggest challenge of this composition was thinking up a subject matter in the
first place. It was truly a blank
canvas, and I spent several days and nights thinking about it (and browsing
through several years of “picture of the day” on Wikimedia) before I finally
lit on this. Probably the biggest
challenge in actually creating the composite was trying to use every tool I
have learned in this class (I did use most of them). Another challenge was compositional –
arranging the layers so that each displayed correctly, deciding how many images
to use, and how they should be arranged.
6.
What keyboard
shortcuts are you using regularly now?
I have not really added to keyboard shortcuts
I have previously listed in my blog. At this point there are enough of
them that adding more seems somewhat unmanageable. Here’s the list, as of
today, of keyboard shortcuts I use:- Open bracket: [ to increase the size of the cursor/brush, and close bracket: ] to decrease the size of the cursor/brush.
- Ctrl-X to make the background transparent.
- Crtl-Z to undo the last editing step
- Ctrl-D to deselect
- Ctrl-0 to fit image on screen
- W to use the quick selection tool
- C for crop tool
- S for clone stamp tool
- Alt to change the quick selection tool from "add to image" to "subtract from image" or to change “zoom in” to “zoom out”.
- Double click to zoom to 100%
- Ctrl-C to copy
- Ctrl-V to paste
- Ctrl-X to cut
- Ctrl-A to select all
- D to restore the default foreground and background colors
- X to exchange foreground color for background color
- B for paintbrush
- Ctrl-H to turn off marching ants
- Ctrl (and hold) to temporarily change any tool to the move tool.
- E for eraser tool
- G for gradient tool
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