Photoshop manipulation and photo effects can encompass anything from retouching a face to adding an entire universe inside your favorite photo. We often associate image manipulation with Adobe Photoshop, but photo manipulation itself predates Photoshop by many, many years. Perhaps we, as artists, designers and people, have always been fascinated by altering the visual space around us.
In this article we will talk about what makes a photo manipulation work — What makes it good? What makes it work? How do we approach it as content creators? We will also ask other artists about it.
Take a look at the Internet, social networks, advertisements and other spaces where you interact with the media. Photo effects are everywhere, from photo filters to portrait effects, and it’s not uncommon to refer to a modified image as “photoshopped.”
Photo manipulation can be imaginative, communicative, and artistic — it can be controversial or even unethical. Today we can do incredible things with images, the only limits being our imagination and our abilities. Still, photo effects are accessible to the masses through a multitude of very easy-to-use apps.
How do we take a photograph and transform it into something different, interesting and visually appealing from a new perspective?
My opinion is that the success — or failure — of a photo manipulation depends on the message and the purpose. Even a “simple” manipulation, such as removing (or putting) a mark on a face, has a communicative property and purpose: to make the skin different, whatever purpose this may serve.
A food advertisement may intentionally include manipulated menu items to make them more appetizing. An artist might superimpose the sky onto a ball gown for a magical touch. Or if we don’t want to go into the commercial realm, we can see it as art for art’s sake: creating something interesting or visually stimulating. We can launch with the latest visual fashion to reinterpret the fashion factor in an original way, or maybe it is a method to express ourselves.
Here is a picture of a manipulation where a girl is sitting in a hot desert wrapped in a desert sheet and she is smiling.
If you want to see how this photo was manipulated, you can watch this video tutorial
I hope you have enjoyed these experiences and images as much as I have. Many thanks again to the wonderful featured artists for their time and sharing their work with us. I hope you create many wonderful things in the future — good luck with your own photo manipulations and creative projects!
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