09-Don't miss it! Digital Display
Inspiration for this piece came while I was waiting for the train one evening. The passengers stand in several lines each starting where we think the doors of the train will be. Most stand facing the tracks for the train we will be boarding. In this location that means looking at some apartment construction. I feel strange looking that direction because I don't want to bother the construction workers with the thought of all of us watching them.
So I've started looking the opposite direction. It's nicer anyway because I get to feel the last bit of sun for the day on my face. This day looking that direction paid off when the other train pulled up and there was a large span of pavement that I could include in the photo.
The picture of the flower was taken during Autumn. I was surprised to see such a bright yellow, Spring-looking flower in my backyard during Autumn. It really stood out from the rest of the vegetation, making its own contrast statement. The flower is in the digital display to represent the Spring semester.
So I've started looking the opposite direction. It's nicer anyway because I get to feel the last bit of sun for the day on my face. This day looking that direction paid off when the other train pulled up and there was a large span of pavement that I could include in the photo.
The picture of the flower was taken during Autumn. I was surprised to see such a bright yellow, Spring-looking flower in my backyard during Autumn. It really stood out from the rest of the vegetation, making its own contrast statement. The flower is in the digital display to represent the Spring semester.
Preparation:
Features
Credits:
- The main photo containing the train and platform was prepared by making sure both train cars had just blue (no red) because this was for USU.
- The flower was separated from its background.
Features
- Two photos were stitched together vertically for the train and platform in Camera Raw and I adjusted the light areas down and made the darks a bit darker. In Photoshop, I finished the cropping and transforming. Then I used a black & white adjustment to take the red out of the train car on the left. Then I added a color overlay to add the blue.
- I took two screen shots of the USU Spring 2017 semester schedule. I had to do two because I had to enlarge the web page in my browser so the schedule would be big enough for the train platform and I could not do a scrolling screenshot. I had to piece the two screenshots together. Then I used the transform tool to get the schedule to look like it lies flat on the train platform and to skew it to line up with the horizontal cement lines. The vertical cement seams I matched up with the schedule text by lassoing the seams, copying those I needed to move (I removed one completely), and then doing a content fill using "Content-Aware." It has a divide blend overlay to remove its white background. A feather oval selection was done to mask the dates I decided to highlight.
- The flower has a mask to remove its background. I added a drop shadow for it which I separated, transformed, and used gradients to sharpen the shadow close to the flower stem and fade the shadow further from the flower.
- The "Don't miss it!" text is in Brush Script Std font and has a drop shadow to make it pop. The script type font was chosen because it reminds me of movement, like a train and you don't want to miss it.
- To improve the readability of the USU Spring 2017 semester schedule I used the Google Chrome development tools to modify the web page to remove the elements I didn't want and to enlarge the fonts for the heading and the body. Then I did a screen shot. This gave me a much more readable image to start with. Then I used the Transform tool to match the perspective of the train platform as noted in my original description.
- I added my signature.
Credits:
- USU Old Main logo: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/19/Utah_State_University_Logo.svg/1280px-Utah_State_University_Logo.svg.png.
- USU Spring 2017 semester screen shot from http://catalog.usu.edu/content.php?catoid=12&navoid=6312.
- Font used: Brush Script Std at 320.58pt.