You Suck at Photoshop tutorials

Photochop

Um, my projects are lame, but I learned a lot from them, and I had fun doing it, so hopefully that will account for something. I actually did two, because I got frustrated with the first one (The Bush/Cheney one).

The first picture I took in Sterling, Illinois of Sarah and her horse, Bill. Things just seemed too serene, and I came across another photo I took of my ADHD nephew when I took him to the Orpheum on his visit from Texas. The velociraptor seemed a fine addition to the pastoral scene with Sarah and Bill. 

The challenges in this project were not the lassoes or image placement. I already had some practice at the other project on using the history brush. The hardest parts were dealing with the lighting and angling of where the 'sunlight' was falling, as well as the 3-D grass coming up behind the velociraptor's feet, in between its toes, and in front of the claws. I also realized after I completed what I was doing that I should have made some shadows. 

As for the other project attempt:

Since I work in the news biz, I have an account on an image server, from which I pulled two pictures – one of Dubyah and one of Dick – that are listed above. The third image I took at the Metropolitan museum in NYC around St. Patrick's Day. I created a few layers: one each for the lassoed heads of Cheney and Bush, a master copy layer in the event I messed up (which I did several times), and the final layer was for the text.

For the heads (or 'busts': note the play on words) I had to do some resizing, rotating, and light angling on them. As I put them over the background layer, I zoomed in and used the history brush tool and cleaned up around the edges of the heads. Cheney's glasses were the toughest part. Their heads didn't fit that well on the original busts, so I had to make patch sampling of the background in order to cover up the protruding sculpture, which was on the background layer, and tougher to 'fix.' 

On the text I used the eyedropper to get a compatible color tone that would be cohesive with the rest of the scene. The text had to be resized, rotated, stretched, skewed, and put into perspective. After I rasterized the text, I used a Gaussian blur (at a low rate) to blend the text into the wall.

I wish I could have figured out how to pixellate Cheney's head to blend it in a bit better. The work is severely amateur, I know, I'm not trying to kid myself. But the lessons came in really handy, especially when working with the multiple layers. I also really got to learn the history brush and lighting effects pretty well. As for the text, I know that we were told to use minimal textual interference, but I wanted to practice using it on a 3-D surface that was heading towards a vanishing point (see: Berger/McCloud). I got the angles and stretches pretty close, but the words still look light a slightly crooked picture.

Hey, I'm a writer and an amateur photographer. My strengths are in color saturation and digital development. I think I'll post some of my work in another blog entry. 

Response to McCloud; Berger

Courtesy of Justin:

3) Do you believe the ability to reproduce images has destroyed the uniqueness of art or has it opened the door to innovative art in new forms?

Oooh, an Andy Warhol question. Hmmm, I think this question was best answered when Warhol filled the void of repetitive imagery by making it yet another form of art. The human ingenuity factor will always prevail. The more systematic an image is, the more likely SOMEONE will break the shackles to find an inventive way of overcoming the issue. We're too stubborn a species to let that slide.

Q's for "The Vocabulary of Comics," et al.

Apparently I'm not the only person to make the comparison between Rex Morgan and certain cartoons from Bill Watterson's "Calvin and Hobbes." In our readings from McCloud and Berger, a lot of attention is given to the imposed reality of self, and, in the case of McCloud, why do we identify with cartoons? Knowing what we've read, and taking in the posted cartoons (which I assume are okay to publish on a blog in the quest for academic discourse), here's my first question:

1. What happens when a cartoon takes on a realistic form? In the case of Rex Morgan, as well as other comics like Prince Valiant, etc., how and why do we interpret them the way that we do? In the case of Calvin and Hobbes, why is the selected cartoon all the more hilarious? (Consider the statement that we envision ourselves as cartoons before you answer).

2. McCloud also states, from the mouth of a cartoon, that audience participation is a key to success. Knowing this, what is one technique that you've seen in day-to-day life that barely cartoonizes (yes, I know that's not a word) something in order to make you participate more as an audience member. Remember that only taking away some realistic features is considered turning something into a cartoon.

3. Berger and McCloud allude to some sort of deconstructive effort as well as decentralization. Considering the media that we've been examining (hypermedia, multi-sensory, social networking media), what do you think is one of today's most powerful media tools that you can tie in to the readings, and do you think the media tool is overall a good or bad element to our current socioeconomic reality?

"Save the Chef"

Being from Texas, Hawaii, and California, and a multitude of other places like Mississippi, Florida, and Colorado, I’ve seen battles on the grounds of school mascots, flags, and symbols. In Texas there was a fight over the high school mascot of “The Cotton Pickers.” In San Diego, people fought over the abuse of glorifying the Aztec warrior. In Biloxi, Mississippi, a rule banning confederate flags on shirts and cars in public schools was overturned. Florida has their Seminole mascot; Colorado has their Native American counterparts as well. Hawaii, well, don’t even get me started on their troubles.

And after watching argument after argument, most taking place in a very heated manner, I’ve come to the conclusion that while activism is necessary to help foster dialogue, most people stick with whatever side they’re on and nobody will be able to persuade them otherwise, at least quickly. Change takes time. And it takes some comic relief, too.

Take the Chief, for instance. The fight is just ridiculous. People get so worked up over a symbol that ultimately doesn’t mean someone’s personal pride will be damaged if the “Chief” disappears. Games will still be played, people will still flood the football stadium, and the University of Illinois will most likely continue to be an excellent school. And a bunch of white people who act on behalf of Native Americans (which somehow reminds me of the Weather Underground well-to-do white students trying to speak for the Black Panthers—and being rejected by said Black Panthers) will still have their privileged lives when all is said and done.

My non-academic comments notwithstanding, this business is just silly.

And to court this silliness, I decided to transform Chief Illiniwek into “Chef” Illiniwek. I propose that wherever there are hotbeds of mascot sensationalism—of either side—this image might just force someone to stop and think, “Am I being a little absurd?”

I decided to turn Illiniwek into a chef for a few simple reasons:

1. It’s obviously a play on the word “chief.”

2. People will hopefully stop and think, “Why save a chef? I don’t get it.” Which might transfer to another question of “What does ‘saving’ the chief mean, anyway?”

3. The image of Illiniwek’s face is very apparent to a local. Also visually apparent is the tall mantle of a chef’s hat. The two juxtaposed together should bring immediate and recognizable attention to the message and overall vision. The observer will then notice the “Save the Chef” wording, and then the spoon and fork that used to be Illiniwek’s ear décor.

4. The image is also non-incendiary to either party. It’s not overtly stating that pro-Chief and anti-Chief parties are idiots or diehards, which isn’t my point anyway. The image is supposed to subtly state that there are other worthy causes out there, and there is a sense of humor to the entire fiasco.

5. The image also strips Illiniwek from his damaging properties, such as his headdress, earrings, and chest adornments and frippery.

What do you see when you look at this piece of symbolism? Do you feel like analyzing it? Or does it have a gentle effect, as in the case if you simply noticed it on the sidewalk across from the Illini store in Campustown as you briskly walked to class? Does it make you think about the controversy, or does it simmer your thoughts if you do have a strong opinion to either side of the argument? Do you even care?

Most importantly, does the image make you hungry for stadium food?

Here's something for your Sunday stenciling...

Somehow it feels like Ben Stiller could very well be the lead singer.

WAM dance

MUTO, holy crap!

Week 2 Discussion Answers

Q: Just as with web pages and other multimedia displays, the visual representation in how books are laid out is deemed to be important. Why is that? And what are some of the important aspects for visual representations of books? (Courtesy of Farhanah)

A: With books, the industry has been set up so that when a person is browsing books for sale, he/she should be able to instantly tell, for instance, if the cover of a book says that inside you'll find something as specific as soft-fiction of a religious theme (usually an airbrushed photo of a woman with a bonnet or period-dress costume, or a man with suspenders; the person is superimposed over a pastoral theme; the font is uniform with other books of the same genre for the most part). So it's important to have a type of uniformity in cases of maximum financial gain. It's also important to know in case you, as a writer, would want to change the industry, or to warp a genre to benefit literature as a whole.

Week 2 Discussion Questions

1. I'm fascinated with the way news media is going (in good and bad instances). How do online news sources automatically "tell" the reader what kind of reputation that the particular news source has? (Ex: CNN, TMZ, BBC)

2. Knowing what trends people use to identify what kind of a book you're buying, for example, is it wise to buck the trend financially? For instance, what if you wrote a children's book that didn't LOOK like a children's book. Would you even be published?

3. As fonts change, how do our attitudes change in society? Why do we hold on to traditional fonts when typing a paper, for example?

This is why our kids are on prescription meds

Just a quick link in the middle of the night. I found the antithesis to "Baby Einstein"; meet Boobah, the missing link between the toddlers of today and the brown-acid eating grandparents of the 60s.

Can Facebook save Kickapoo?

Call me a cynic, but I avoided Facebook like the plague until just a few months ago. What got me excited was that suddenly I had long-lost acquaintances that I made across the country looking me up and "friending" me. But aside from the occasional game of Scrabble, I really didn't have much of a use for it.

Until now.

Last week, Governor Rod Blagojevich made the announcement that he was closing 24 state parks and historic sites. Among them was our beloved Kickapoo State Park, located just east of here between Oakwood and Danville. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the park, it features 22 lakes, hiking, camping, mountain biking, winter sports, trout fishing, canoeing and boating, and even scuba diving. The landing lets you rent equipment, the campsites are maintained, the trails are absolutely scenic, and there are several events that draw crowds on a regular basis. In short, the park is a resource that should not be shut down.

A few years ago I was introduced to Kickapoo when I started working for the Boy Scouts of America out at Camp Drake in Oakwood. I returned frequently to camp with friends, or even to camp and hike alone. From my years of outdoors training and as a survivalist instructor, I've measured the beauty of a place by whether or not I would enjoy it in solitude.

When I heard Blagojevich's news, I was actually stunned. Breathless. I'm not an Illinois native, and I won't use this editorial to rant and rave on Rod's financial antics, but I never have, and never will understand politicians who manage to strip the state of funding for parks, arts, rehabilitation programs, education, and care for elderly; yet they always seem to find money for businesses, reelections, and self-interests. 

Enter Facebook: I commonly write letters to the editor at the News-Gazette, but somehow that didn't seem enough. I saw that the Buzz featured Kickapoo on their latest weekly, but was dismayed to see a small article that was barely feature-length surrounded by pretty graphics. I commend the attempt to help Kickapoo, but I felt like there was something else that could be done. So I plopped down and made a group—"Save Kickapoo State Park!"

Three days later, there were 650 members, and Pam Dempsey from the News-Gazette interviewed me about the group as part of a cover story after she became a group member. I started to merge ideas, petitions, and contact information with others who had similar (and in many cases, better) ideas. I teamed up with Cory Vandenberg, the son of Kickapoo Park Ranger Bob Vandenberg. Cory now lives in Austin, Texas, and he started up another Facebook group of the same name (but without the exclamation mark). :)

"Yeah, I didn't really think too much of Facebook until now. I noticed [last night] that Senator Frerichs was a member of my group," said Vandenberg. Cory's voice is especially important, partly because his father cannot comment on policy.

We decided to grant one another administrative permissions on the groups to share even more information. The general public has been giving us links to online petitions, localized events, and even connections to Flickr that feature photos from Kickapoo. 

There are thousands of people mobilizing on behalf of the park. 

Hilary Valentine, Director of Marketing and Creative Services at Parkland College, has been leading the charge in Parkland to protest the closure of Kickapoo.

A little girl by the name of Ryce Tuggle, 11, started a group called K.I.C.K., Kids Interested in Conserving Kickapoo. Originally her class was involved in writing letters to legistlators, but Tuggle plunged on ahead with her own initiative. 

Tod Satterthwaite, the Kickapoo Landing operator, is a member of the Facebook groups, and has kept us informed of the amount of signed petitions at the park which now numbers several thousand. 

How much help has Facebook really provided?

"You know, I couldn't imagine this happening ten years ago. Could you imagine all of the footwork? You wouldn't have a fraction of the people involved, I'd guess," said Sarah Williams, an online petition coordinator. "I think Facebook and other networking sites have more power than people think; just ask the politicians running for office right now."

As I write, Vandenberg's group has around 2,000 members, and my group has over 1,500. We've spotted some of the community's elite, as well as high school kids that are banding together in groups rarely seen in high schools—or let's be truthful—community colleges and universities. 

I'm all about hard work, but I can't sit here and claim to say I did anything more than research, make a few phone calls, churn out a few hundred emails, and make events and groups on Facebook. I'm absolutely floored by the number of other people working so dilligently to face this problem, and for a park, nonetheless, which should tell something of the allure of Kickapoo.

The real question is, will Facebook help save Kickapoo? Thousands of people have virtually typed, "Yes."

Remediation Answers

Farhanah sez: "Does photography really make the artist obscure like the author says? Can photography and real art i.e. paintings, sculptures, etc. be compared with the likes of photography? Are they really trying to achieve the same results.

Man, that's more than one question, Farhanah. First of all, photography can, and does, obscure the photographer, but only if the photographer has the intent to remove his or herself from an environment. Photojournalism places the photographer at the scene, whereas many versions of artistic photography serve to remove the photographer from the setting. Photography also can serve similar functions in terms of other art forms; the problem in this relation is that art is such a widely functioning term. I could take a picture of the letter "i." Could I call that art? Absolutely. It depends, however, on the vehicle in which I'm attempting to create something new utilizing functional structures around my own sphere of life. 

Are you trying to make this  a philosophical question out of the ten minutes that we have to answer it? 

Remediation Questions

1. What are the strengths of retaining roots of "old media?"

2. What are some reasonings behind deconstructing the use of new media space?

3. What new advantages can we gain from blending new media formats in a social setting? How about a political setting?