For my final photo editing project, I incorporated feedback from my rough draft to make a more cohesive and compelling image. My first draft was too busy with not enough things to tie it together, so for this draft, I stuck with the basic elements of combining nature and style with vintage technology. My gracious and kind peer reviewer (Prof. Sorapure) suggested that I stick to basic elements and style for a cleaner look and message, so I attempted to do just that.
Audience / Purpose
The intended audience for this image and message is anyone who has old technology that they could up-cycle and preserve. To be more specific, the intended audience would be anyone college-aged or otherwise who has access to or possesses e-waste and technology that is still in a working or a fixable condition. The message that is meant to be communicated by this image to the intended audience is a persuasive aim to get people to hang on to, preserve, or even invest in viable vintage technology to produce less e-waste overall. I have noticed a trend amongst my generation in which people will restore or buy vintage materials and technology, so I thought it natural to extend this trend to include preserving and investing in old technology for the sake of style as well as reducing overall e-waste.
Image
The image is meant to invoke an 80s vintage magazine style while remaining simplistic and combining elements of nature and vintage technology. Firstly, the background 80s pattern is meant to evoke feelings of nostalgia and style, reminding the audience that old trends can still be stylish and classic. The walkman in the upper left is meant to directly show a form of vintage technology, showing that while this object is old, it is still a viable and practical way to enjoy music while also having style. The pink, yellow, and cyan leaves coming out of the device are meant to reinforce the nostalgic theme through color scheme, while also showing that up-cycling vintage tech (such as a walkman) is something that also aids nature and the planet. I had the leaves creeping out of the walkman because I wanted to invoke the sense that "opening" and using the walkman is something that ultimately helps the planet and the "growth" of nature by reducing e-waste. I also included a cassette that is unspooling into a shape of a heart, but I edited the cassette tape to be vibrant green leaves. Once again, I wanted to showcase that preserving vintage tech (such as cassettes which were at one point mass-produced) is ultimately helping the environment since re-using means less waste.
Process
Firstly to create the image I added the 80s background which I found online, and I reduced the opacity to about 50% because I didn't want the background colors to overpower the objects in the foreground. I then added an image of my walkman (which I took myself) and used a masking layer and the brush tool to isolate the walkman and remove the background. I then added the cartoon vines and used the transform function to resize them and arrange them in such a way that they seemed to be creeping out of the walkman. After arranging them how I liked them, I used the "add adjustment layer" function to adjust the hue and color of each vine. I tried to get the color of each vine similar to the 80s color scheme in the background, and then I reduced the hue and opacity because I did not want them to be overpowering. I then tackled the task of transforming the unspooling cassette tape into a mass of leaves. I began this process by using the magic wand tool to remove the white background and isolate the cassette along with the unspooling tape. After adding a layer mask, I began the tedious process of removing the remaining background in-between small sections of the tape which I achieved using the brush tool and zoom tool. I had to adjust the brush size and use the zoom tool to erase some very small parts in-between the unspooling tape because I wanted to isolate the cassette and the unspooling tape entirely. After getting the level of detail I wanted, I used the inverse of the mask to get the unspooling tape hollowed out. I then added the lush green leaf image behind and combined the layers to get the effect that the cassette tape was unspooling leaves, which I thought looked kind of impressive and tied the theme together. After gathering that into one layer, I once again used the transform tool to resize and rotate it to fit better with the walkman. Finally, I sharpened both the walkman and the unspooling cassette tape to make them more distinct from the background. And lastly, I added a grain filter over everything to once again evoke the vintage graphic design style I was going for to match the vintage technology.
Learning
I feel like I genuinely learned photoshop basics these past few weeks a bit faster than I knew I was capable of. With that said, what I struggled with and learned the most from this project was image composition and theme. My draft was much too busy with four objects and also lacked a cohesive center point and theme. I think my issue was composition, which I tried to fix here in my final draft with a more natural focal point between the walkman and the unspooling cassette. Sharpening the image and adding a filter, which I learned from class, also proved to be a great tool when needing to give the image more depth, vibrancy, and style that fits the theme. As far as communication within the image, I learned that simple associations are sometimes more thought-provoking and persuading than a complex image and theme. I was trying to achieve too much with my first draft, and I like this final draft more, where the simple associations of "vintage style", "technology", and "nature" are more effective on their own. Lastly about myself, I learned that sometimes my ambition is too high and I aim to be too complex when realistically being simple and straightforward can often be more effective in achieving both style and clarity.
Next
Next time I would like to get better at defining the theme and message in an image. I think I effectively created an image with a style and message, but the inclusion of a small amount of text could have tied the image together. I will probably include text in my illustration project, but I also want to retain the simplicity that I utilized in this project.