The Project
This was completed for an introductory graphic design course at San José State University. The goal of this assignment was to create a photo composite that used multiple different pictures to create an overall composition. The focus of this assignment was to practice the masking and photo touching tools that Adobe Photoshop offers, and to practice using the program in general.
The Process
This assignment was completed while only using Adobe Photoshop.
I first began by sketching out my initial design, which was to mimic an advertisement for a Nike shoe that featured text, a person running, and footprints being left behind.
So, I decided on the Nike Free Run 2018 shoe. First, I found some stock images to help visualize my idea in photoshop. The, I experimented with opacity effects on the footprints.
Finally, for the complete design, I ended up taking the pictures myself. Once I had the layout of everything in photoshop, I practiced changing the lighting of the different masked images so that it felt like a more cohesive image as a whole.
The Purpose
While I created this project, I was working at a Nike store, so I was constantly around promotional material that served as my inspiration for creating this design.
I wanted to create something that looked realistic, but also included something that could only exist in a photoshopped image. This artificial piece was the footprints and those served as something that could be realistic, but the way they were presented would be unlikely to occur naturally.
I also wanted to make these footprints receding into the background so that it showed the progress of the runner and added more depth.
With the figure, I wanted to draw emphasis to the Nike products. So, I darkened the overall figure, but brightened up the parts that included the Nike logo. So, the swoosh on the shorts, as well as the socks and shoes were lighter so there was more emphasis on these elements.
Then, with the text, I wanted to create something that flowed with the image better instead of just being placed over the picture like a stamp. So, I incorporated the text by having it swing alongside the path that the runner is running on. The text is also receding back along with the footsteps which causes the viewers eyes to follow that line that is created, adding cohesion and advertising to the image.
