Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Photoshop Actions

Dark Grungy Effect

Double Sketch Effect Action

Each of these images have original photos followed by manipulation tools in photoshop. The first picture  is changed six different times to portray the differences of a grungy effect available in order to darken the contrast of the picture. In the second image, the photo is an original from a camera and then manipulated to a sketch effect twice.
Of these two images, you can see the differences that can occur in photoshop and these are only two of hundreds of different effects you can do in photoshop. I found these pictures on stumbleupon through the website:
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/33uCuB/creativenerds.co.uk/freebies/70-of-the-best-photoshop-actions-for-enhancing-photos/
This website portrays all kinds of actions you can do within photoshop including distorting color, changing faces (such as how images are distorted in magazines) and brightening images.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Type & Contrast

When I first saw this article, I initially noticed the large title, the vibrant colors and the imagery. When I refocused in on the article, I noticed the difficulties in reading each aspect of it. While the color of this article appears to be eye catching, it is more difficult to read than anything. On the second page of the article, the pale yellow titles are created to match the circles formed as a backdrop on the first page, but with the text being so small and the color being so faint, it makes the title very difficult to read. As for spacing of the article, I feel that although the imagery running down the right side of the page is well chosen for what the article reads, there should be an equal amount of space in column two as there is in column one. The eye is already suffering trying to read the pale yellow titles, it only makes it harder to try and read the article squeezed between the first column of words and the third column of graphics.

I chose this as my legible article because of the consistency that runs through it. The yellow is used in a vibrant way to attract the reader to the article to want to know what the article is about. The imagery is also well placed to create a good hierarchy between the two pages. What I liked most about the consistency in this article is that when zoomed in, you can noticed that the amount of spacing between paragraphs and indents is just right, making it easy to read and follow. The amount of spacing between each column is proportional, but also broken up enough that the eye does not get exhausted from reading long lines of text.