Photoshop Layers Assignment

In this assignment, you must do something with Photoshop layers. Here are three possibilities; pick one, or if neither appeals to you, email me with your idea and I will likely approve it, or even add it to the list below.

1. In Photoshop, create a drawing of something - a house, a room, a snowman, etc. The Photoshop shape tools are located in the first column, right above the zoom tool. When you create a shape with these tools, Photoshop automatically puts each shape in its own layer. This makes it easy to move individual shapes or alter them, and because they are in layers, some shapes will appear in front of others. Some techniques for this are described in the writeup "Working with Text and Shapes in Photoshop CC". In some cases, you may find it helpful to display a grid to help you with placement (View>Show>Grid). Submit your psd file against the assignment and briefly in comments describe how layers were helpful.
   
   or
   
2. Use Adjustment Layers - These are described in Chapter 2 of the Photoshop Classroom in a Book and are discussed in the Adjusting the Color and Tone section of the Chapter 2 writeup.
   • Take a picture with your phone or camera and bring the image into Photoshop. Use one or more adjustment layers to improve the picture and save it with the filename firstname_lastname_Better.psd. One can see the effect of the changes by hiding the adjustment layer(s).
   • Take another picture with your phone or camera and bring the image into Photoshop. For this, choose a picture where the same adjustments you used for the "Better" image make this worse. Save this image with the filename firstname_lastname_Worse.psd
   • Submit both psd files in Canvas and briefly in comments speculate on the the difference in outcomes - why you think the same adjustments improved the first picture but made the second one worse.
     
   or
3. Put yourself where you would like to be - Since we can't always go where we would like to, put yourself where you would like to be:
   • In one layer, put a picture of some location - for this assignment, you can get the picture from the internet but provide the exact URL where you got it (you can put the URL in comments).
   • In a layer above that, put a picture of you, thereby inserting you into that location.
     
     One way to do this is to bring that photo of you into Photoshop and then do a selection that selects you and then copy and paste cthis into a transparent layer above the layer containing the picture of a location. Some students have used a more advanced technique which is described at
     • https://www.trustedreviews.com/how-to/how-to-remove-a-background-in-photoshop-4244514
     • https://www.trustedreviews.com/how-to/change-a-background-in-photoshop-4245176

For options 1 and 3, submit one psd file; for option 2, submit two psd files.

Revised: April 8, 2023