Evaluation
Looking closely at my photo's that i took, i believe that i achieved the overall aesthetic i was looking for. As previously shown i wanted it to feel as if the player was actually on the set of a pitch with specific lighting as shown in the examples i got. Using various techniques in photoshop i managed to create this effect with minimum effort and maximum output. In the 5 images i edited i adjusted the levels on all of them, this improves the contrast and colors on the image and widens the color scheme. Also depending on the lighting that was present in the image i may have had to change the brightness on the image to help improve or reduce the difference between the subject and the lighting. The main change that is visible is the facet that i cut the subject of the photo out and cut some grass out another image, then blended them together, cutting and editing where needed to give the best possible effect. I also added a bevel and emboss to the subject, which adds light around a given are on the image and gives an impression of light flowing over the shoulders and head of the player. After that i used the brush tool and painted some faint white/orange light around and behind the edges of the image, again to enhance the lighting effect.
During the taking of the images, i had to place the lighting and subject in the correct positions to gain the best possible images i could for my work. This meant that there would be lots of full body shots, meaning i would be able to show a wide variety of images and poses from the subject. Firstly i had planned to take some chest height shots and head shots, and i did. But after viewing them on the mac, i realized that they were not the type of pictures i was looking for and decided to choose 10 full body shots. This meant that i did waver from the original plan but it was for the best.
Tools and effects used:
Hue & Saturation
Levels
Invert
Channel Mixer
Color Mixer
Posterize
For the first two images in the slideshow i edited and put in a whole new background, these were the more complex of the edits. For the other images it was just simple changes being made using the tools provided and using a bit of initiative here and there to get a good outcome.
Below is a comparison between my best edited photo and a professional photo.
Looking at the two, they are similar but at the same time, differences can be seen. For instance, the levels and contrast between colors are much stronger on my image as opposed to the professional image. Similarly, the type of image is the same, full body shot, using grass as the surface to stand on and a stadium crowd in the background. In my image there are effects that can be separated from the actual image itself such as the lighting effect using the brush in photoshop. On the pro image no effect like this is present, its just the simple image with the background placed behind it, also no bevel and emboss is present. Overall the professionally taken image doesnt seem to have been edited much, this may be due to the amount of time and care that was taken during the shoot, meaning the least possible amount of changes had to be made.
