Found on the Beach

By: Nia Braccidiferro

This was a very interesting project for me. I really enjoy projects where I get to incorporate different images into a completely new photo. We were given the base background photo and the additional images to place onto it. I had to change the white space in the background to match the sand and the sky. I had the opportunity to use the clone tool to copy the sand and sky on the white parts. I had very little experience using the clone tool in the past, so I’m glad I’m now more familiar with it. I used the magic wand and lasso tool to select the images on a separate Photoshop document that was provided for us. I copied and pasted the selected image onto a new layer on the main background document. I used the lasso tool again to refine the outline of the image, to make it look neater. Once I did that, I placed the image where I thought it would look best and added a drop shadow to emphasize how the sun was affecting the light around the object. I also selected each object and filled it with a black coloring. I used the Gaussian Blur tool to create a fuzzy effect and placed it behind the object I selected (i.e. moved the layer). Lastly, I found a clear picture of clouds to put behind the seagull and beach scene. I erased the part of the layer that covered the sand. And I adjusted the opacity to make it look realistic. I repeated this process with each image that was given to us until I found a place for every image that I was completely satisfied with. I filled every inch of negative space with at least one object so it wouldn’t seem too overcrowded and busy. I wanted people to feel calming vibes when viewing my piece. In the end, my piece ended up being 12 by 12 with a 150 pixels per inch resolution and in RGB color.