DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY AND IMAGING - Week 3

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY AND IMAGING - Week 3

6/10/2025 - 10/10/2025
Nur Adila binti Nazary (0377352)
Digital Photography and Imaging / Bachelor in Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Week 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1) Lecture
2) Tutorial/Instructions
3) Practical/Process
4) Feedback
5) Final Outcome
6) Reflection

LECTURE
Week 3
Introduction to Photoshop 2
Lasso Tool, Pen Tool & Layering

SELECTION & LAYERING
Layering: Stacking individual images, text of graphics on top of each other to create a final composition

Figure 1. Layering diagram

Tool Box: Tool Box have some several tool sets that can expand to reveal additional tools

Figure 2. Tool diagram

The Marquee selection tools are used to create basic geometric selections from an image.

Figure 3. Marquee selection tools diagram

LASSO TOOL
Lasso Tool: It is a tool that allows us to draw and pinpoint specific areas of a document.
There are 3 different tool in the Lasso Tool bar:
1) Lasso
2) Polygonal Lasso
3) Magnetic Lasso

Figure 4. Types of Lasso Tool diagram

PEN TOOL
Pen Tool: To create extremely precise shapes and paths or to create path from scratch. You can add pints and you can drag as you create the points determines how they will look. The lesser the points, the smoother the path will be

Variation of Pen Tool:
1) Straight line paths

Figure 5. Straight line pen tool variation

2) U shaped curves

Figure 6. U shaped curves pen tool variation

3) Simple S curves

Figure 7. Simple S curves pen tool variation

4) Complex S curves

Figure 8. Complex S curves pen tool variation

LAYERING
Layering: Layering is different images stacked on top of each other.

Figure 9. Layering example #1

Layering can be made without affecting the other images. The end product would form one final image.

Figure 10. Layering example #2

WHAT I'VE LEARNED IN WEEK 3 LECTURE:

From this week's lecture, I learned about the basics of selection and layering in Photoshop, as well on how to use the Lasso and Pen tools, Layering helps with organizing different elements like pictures and text to build a complete composition. The Lasso Tool helps for freehand or specific selections, while the Pen Tool is used to create smooth and accurate path or shapes. By understanding these tools is important for creating a clean and detailed work.

TUTORIAL/INSTRUCTION

PRACTICAL/PROCESS

Week 3 Overview: 
Focus: Digital Collage

DIGITAL COLLAGE
After doing the physical collage, we need to make another 3 but digital version by using the app called Photoshop. But, there is a limitation to this, the catch is we only have to use the pictures that the teacher gave which was only about 14 pictures and 2 styled compositions. 

Figure 11. Limited pictures in the Google Drive

RESEARCH AND INSPIRATION:
From the limited selection of images and pictures given by the lecturer, there are a few buildings and many interesting textures. These pictures inspired to explore unique collage composition that has structure and depth.

Based on the research, inspiration and references gathered, what stood out the most was the ones that has the negative space (white space). Usually collages don't always need to be filled from top to bottom, the negative space gives the eye room to breathe and adds some clarity to it. Other than that, the additional geometrical elements within the complex shapes and designs creates a sense of balance to the whole composition.

Figure 12. Inspiration for digital collage #1

Figure 13. Inspiration for digital collage #2

Figure 14. Inspiration for digital collage #3

IDEATION:
After learning and testing out Photoshop from watching a video, I knew how to do digital collages. The first thing i did was cutting the subject in Photoshop and randomly arrange them to get an idea, plus looking through Pinterest also gave me some inspiration to make some good composition.

Figure 15. Digital collage #1

This collage shows the scale and hierarchy composition. The main building is the focal point because of its large size while the secondary one is the train then the people. This arrangement helps to guide the viewer's eye through the collage. With the combination of geometric and organic shapes behind the building, it adds to the contrast and harmony that balances out the whole composition.

Figure 16. Digital collage #2

This collage it is a unity composition. The combination of the geometrical shapes of the buildings and the organic shapes of the fish tail creates a sense of harmony and connection. The layered images and consistent colour palette helps to bring the images together making it balanced. Each image helps with the whole digital collage that guide the viewer's eye smoothly across the image.

Figure 17. Digital collage #3

For this collage it is an asymmetrical balance composition. The main focus is the fish on the lower left balanced with the plant and the texture wavy element on the top left. The mix of organic and geometric shapes with the contrasting textures around creates visual harmony without being perfectly symmetrical. The negative space around it helps to keep the collage light and balance.

FEEDBACK
I've had a few trials for my first ever digital collage and the lecturer had gave me some feedback on it. He said that the composition is good. However, avoid changing or editing the original colours of the images. Keep them in their original colours rather than changing them into black and white.

Figure 18. First trial digital collage

FINAL OUTCOME

From all of the 3 digital collage, the lecturer chose the second one.

Chosen collage:

Figure 19. Digital collage #2

REFLECTION
Experience
This week, we learned how to use Adobe Photoshop and its tools. At first, I felt a bit overwhelmed by the number of icons and features, but the lecturer took time to teach us the most important tools to focus on. I realised that knowing the right tools and keyboard shortcuts really helps speed up the process of creating a digital collage. Watching additional Youtube tutorials on my own also helped me to understand Photoshop better.

Observations
The class activity for this week was quite challenging. The difficulty came from the limited images that we were allowed to use, since the lecturer only provided a selection through Google Drive. Many of the images were random, so I had to find some creative ways to make them work together. Thanks to what I learned about composition in Week 2 and some additional research on Pinterest, I was able to make a design that felt good enough.

Findings
Through this exercise, I learned that even with random or limited images, it is still possible to create something visually appealing by applying design principles and using creativity. By understanding composition and layout really helps to bring everything together no matter what materials we have.