Contact Sheet Finished Product

The contact sheet was a great way to discover the capabilities of Adobe Photoshop and how simple changes can improve, distort or zoom in on everyday photos. I hoped to create every picture with the correct changes, but what I wanted to gain from this contact sheet the most is a grasp on which Photoshop applications change certain aspects of each photo, and that is exactly what I learned. I also learned how many different changes one can make to a photo to severely increase the photos quality, color or size.

One of the biggest decisions that had to be made during this project were the pictures chosen, mainly because this project involved following directions. The photos I decided to choose were picked because of their color and their potential. For example, when working with format/mode, I knew I wanted a photo with many colors, so I chose feathers. However, when I was working with Framing which involved zooming into photos, a picture with more of a landscape worked better. Deciding which picture to use for each Row is extremely important to the outcome of the contact sheet as a whole because each row caters to a specific type of editing. If I used the feathers for the orientation row, it would not have the same drastic effect cropping a portrait from a landscape because the feather photo is already a portrait size.

One of the biggest challenges was cropping each image, and fitting it onto the screen while still maintaining the image's clarity. Many of my previously picked photos, when cropped or zoomed in were unrecognizable because the image became blurry. Although we were taught how to fix the blur to a degree, it took many attempts before finding the correct picture to represent each editing technique. The city landscape in the orientation row 3 took three attempts at finding and cropping pictures before I found one that was not too blurry. The strawberries in the Content row 5 were also extrmely difficult. Although there was a very high clarity when I began to crop the image, zooming into the image of the strawberry to the "abstract" picture made the image somewhat blurry; however, I attempted to fix it using Photoshop capabilities as best I could.

The problems I encountered involved, like I said before, finding correct images and once found, making sure that they remained clear. This project was about editing images and using Photoshop tools, so to solve some of my issues, I used other Photoshop tricks to help the amount of blur in each photo.

I am most proud of the fact that each picture I picked was completely independent from one another, and they all demonstrate the editing abilities they are supposed to. My favorite row, the framing row 4 is the one I am most proud of because I successfully zoomed in on an object in the picture that would otherwise be overlooked. The ferris wheel in the opposing corner draws the eye, and so the house on the left side of the picture is not even noticed. Zooming in, or "framing" allowed me to examine smaller parts of the picture and make them noticeable, which I think is a really interesting editing tool. I am most proud of learning about and executing that editing ability.

If I had more time to work on this contact sheet, I would most likely attempt to find more pictures that represent myself. I like each picture I chose and they all represent the editing techniques they are supposed to, but if given more time I would have used all images that represent me and my interests in some way.