I have been playing with Photoshop for a number of years learning how to make GIFs and playing with photos. I’m still trying to figure out how to sharpen and use some other functions. So when we were given this image assignment, I wanted to try something that would help me understand Photoshop further.
Focus On One Color
When I took Photography classes years ago, our teacher had us take black and white pictures and paint certain colors on them to highlight certain parts of the picture. When I learned that you can do something similar on Photoshop, I was very excited to learn. When looking through the Assignment Bank, I found one that will help me learn more about Focusing on one color on Photoshop.
As it says in the title, the goal is to focus on one color in any room of your house. I decided do this assignment a little bit differently by focusing on one object and have the room in the background
I wanted to first have a central color to focus on. I decided to turn the focus on my mom’s birthday flowers. My next step was to try and find a way to make sure there was enough light to coming into the room so that the room and the flowers can be seen. After taking the picture, I realized that the picture was a little fuzzy. In order to make sure the final picture came out nicely, I tried to make sure that the flowers came out sharper so I found a tutorial on sharpening images.
My next step was to then turn the image into a black and white image. I followed the steps to a splash of color tutorial to turn the picture black and white. However, I needed to make sure the flowers’ colors came through. According to the tutorial, you had to make two copies of the picture. The next step was to turn the first layer into black and white by pressing the Black and White button. Then, you click the second layer and start erasing all the color in the picture except the sections you wanted. In my case, it was the flowers. Here is my final result:
My Final Thoughts
Overall, it took me about an hour and a half to complete everything. And after going through this assignment, I found that Photoshop was very helpful and also easy to use in regards to this project. I’m still pretty unfamiliar with Photoshop and the different ways I can use it however, I found that doing different task and challenges such as this one helped me understand the basics a little bit more. The erasing part was a little hard when it came to making sure I didn’t erase the roses. Here are some tips for erasing photos like this:
- Use the magic eraser option to eliminate huge chunks of the same area. This process can make things easier when it comes to erasing.
- If magic eraser is taking too long, change the size of the eraser to a bigger size. When you do this, you can erase the parts you don’t want in color faster. Watch carefully that you are not taking out the parts you want out of the picture.
- When it comes to erasing the smaller and harder areas, zoom into the parts you are trying to get and make sure to decrease the size of the eraser.
- Make sure the hardness of the eraser is set to 100% or else when you erase, if will become blurry.
If you would like a more in depth video tutorial on Color Splashing, I recommend watching this video.
Introduction To Digital Media 
From what I have learned about you so far, I can tell that family is important to you. Though it may not have been a conscious decision, it makes sense that you took a photo of your mom’s birthday flowers, as opposed to something in a public space. It is also nice that you chose the portrait layout rather than landscape. I think it works well in this instance since the flower arrangement is more vertical than horizontal. It tends to draw the eyes up. I think at first the picture is pretty, but just a typical picture of flowers. However, once you change it to black and white with only the pink showing, it gives it a new feeling. I think now it highlights the true beauty of the roses and allows the eye to focus on one area in the image. It almost provides a calming sensation since the busy background is now muted. Overall, I think it was a successful project and one that I would like to try in the future. One suggestion I have is that the photo could have been taken at a different angle. I would like to try it in possibly a landscape layout coming from a higher angle looking down to have the focus be on the flowers and the cards on the table below. This would cut out some of the busy background. Also, you could keep the pink colors in some of the cards to have a little more stand out. Although, I believe this would take on a more romantic feel than the calming/happy one the image now has.
LikeLike