Photo Editing

When I started to edit my first picture, I got really frustrated really fast. I've never really used photo editing and the few times I have for school, I didn't have a clue what I was doing. With this, I got frustrated because the smudge tool wouldn't move smoothly like I wanted it to, I didn't understand what the different tools were!, I knew what I wanted my edit to look like but couldn't figure out how to get it there, and then I couldn't figure out how to save the picture, later discovering that I wasn't signed in to Pixlr when I thought I was. But I did it! I figured out the bare minimum basics of the program and finally edited a few pictures. I don't love them. But I did not have enough patience to make them become masterpieces.

• First, I took this picture of a bunch of panda bears

               and edited it into this

{I used the smudge tool, burn tool, and pinch and bloat tools to blur the outside pandas. And I used the dodge tool to brighten the spot on the single panda.}

• Then, I edited this firework

                    

                    into this

{I used the pinch and bloat tools to make the firework look distorted and wiggly, then I took the brush tool with a blue color at a low opacity to tint it blue, as well as adding dabs of white and yellow spots at an even lower opacity. I had to use a black brush to clean up the edges from my tinting, as well.}

• Finally, I went very basic with this cupcake drawing I found

                   turning it into this

 {I used the brush tool a lot, to remove the cherry and rebuild the top of the cupcake, to add the confetti dots around it, and to round to bottom corners of the wrapper out. I used the line tool to create the creases in the cupcake wrapper, to straighten the bottom of the wrapper, and for the sprinkles. I also used the color picker tool to make sure I used the same brown for the frosting and when I added the creases I just darkened the pink of the wrapper.}

Photo editing is kind of fun once you know what you're doing. After getting over the initial frustration and gaining a simple understanding of what the different tools abilities were I had a lot more fun with this assignment. It would be cool to let students use photo editing to illustrate their creativity. It can be hard to think up something unique to draw or create on your own, but letting students take some ordinary picture and change it to something new, seems like a good way to exercise their imaginations!