Photoshop Editing Project

My photo editing project targets all of Generation Z, people aged from 10 to 25 years old, with little to no knowledge on how their daily actions negatively affect the environment. My primary audience are active on social media and have come across tweets and posts about the current state of climate change. They see images of forests on fire, forests cut for wood extraction, and the remnants of trees because of agricultural expansion. They want to be educated on how they can implement changes into their life but don't know what they are doing wrong. They are worried that if they continue not making any new adjustments to their routine, that the climate catastrophe will only get worse; to some extent, that it will be their fault that they did not enact change.

This image communicates to the audience that there needs to be change in everyone’s carbon footprint. Through the lightbulb, a picture of deforestation is shown. The point of this image is to show that if we continue making poor environmental decisions, that this image will be the consequence and will only get worse.

Taking a glance at the lightbulb, you can see there is a line that represents broken glass. The broken glass resembles how the environment is at its worst and needs to be fixed. The statement “Forests store as much as half of all land carbon. Do better” is in the image to show the importance of keeping our forests and climate healthy. I took more of a darker approach with this image to create a feeling of guilt and disappointment in oneself, which in return, will fuel the desire to collectively contribute actions that are environmentally conscious. However, in some way, this image exemplifies hope. Taking another look at the lightbulb, there is a yellow light shining above the deforestation. I decided to keep that within the lightbulb to show that there is still time to take action and collectively make a positive impact on the planet. This image really captures the quote “when there is darkness, there is always light.”

To create this image, I first removed the filament of the lightbulb and brought the image of deforestation over. I reduced the opacity of the image of deforestation and resize the image to scale it with the size of the lightbulb. Then, I used the add layer mask icon to change the background color of the deforestation image to black and used the brush tool to paint over areas of the image outside the lightbulb that I did not need. I then increased the opacity of the deforestation picture back to high. I changed the blend mode to Multiply so it can pair well with the overall image. I increased the reflection by turning off the visibility of the image of deforestation, selected the lightbulb, clicked RGB Channel tab, clicked Layers tab, moved the new layer to the top, and then turned back on the visibility of the deforestation image. I reduced that opacity to make the image shine a little more to fit the lightbulb reflection. Lastly, I added some text at the top to portray the importance of trees to our carbon emissions.

Initially, I always thought of myself as not artistic and lacking creativity. I thought that this class would be difficult for me as it requires some form of creativity and production and I always thought I was lacking that. However, through working on this Photoshop project, I learned that creativity is what you make out of it and that I do hold some bits and pieces of that. I realized that it's not about how aesthetically pleasing the image is, it is about the message it carries and how it affects others. I also learned what I am passionate about. This project required me to think of one single topic that I would like to communicate a message for. While I had a bunch in mine, the environment seemed the clear favorite to do. This project brought out my passion for educating others about climate change and making an impact.

On the next project, I want to continue sharing powerful messages to the audience. We see lots of images nowadays through social media, and who knows, that image can make a significant change to someone’s life. Whatever creation I make next, even if it is not as pleasing to look at or if it is the best image I have ever made, I want it to make some form of impact on the user.