Image Project

I was really excited to start using Adobe Photoshop to recreate an image; to change its perspective and re-invent it. My choice of images is a photograph of city buildings by Romain Jaquet-Lagreze. The angle of the shot is taken so that the camera points directly upwards so to appear that buildings city scape is ascending into the vanishing point in the centre of the image; thus creating a one-point perspective shot.

Just thinking about perspective made me think about all the things that help to change our perspective in every day life of everyday images and sights. For example, a magnify glass, tinted glasses, shadows and shade, brightness and light, a pixelated image, art, and even an altered state of consciousness. I thought about the image and decided i'd turn it into a Kaleidoscope, using the city buildings as the main body of the tunnel.

I started off using a blank Base Layer in Photoshop and making the city image as Layer 2. By using the Magnetic Lasso tool, I began to select the inner white section of the city image then removed it to make an opening in the layer to expose the layer underneath. To soften to cut edges of the buildings and to make it appear as though light was coming in through the other side, I used the Erase tool and merely adjusted the brush side and hardness of the brush. I used this around the top edges of the buildings.

I then imported another image to Layer 3, which was an eye. This tied in well with the idea of perspective because its all about observing your personal view of a subject in space. I clicked and dragged Layer 3 below Layer 2 and adjusted its size to fit well in the centre of the image behind the city  image so to look like a person is peering in through the tunnel.

The 4th Layer was a Kaliedoscope-like constructed image of elements found in token cities all around the world, like London, New York and Rome. I kept this image in front of the city image and just adjusted the Opacity to make it look more transparent, almost like tinted glass, to see the city and eye behind it in layers 3 and 2 respectively. This really completed the idea of a 'City Themed Kaleidoscope' presented in an abstract and contemporary perspective. After, I wanted the buildings to stand out a little more. I went back to Layer 2 and added a dark edge artistic filter to bring out the buildings.

This final image is the product after I merged the image visible. Looking at it now, I could have lifted the Opacity of Layer 4 about 5-10% more to create bigger impact.