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Graphic Manipulation in Stimuli

CreationKristen Smirnov

University of Alberta

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Software to Consider

Adobe Photoshop

Top of the line: it will do everything anyone needs

Adobe Photoshop Elements

Companion software: it will probably do everything you need

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program)

Freeware equivalent

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Software to Consider

Adobe Photoshop

Pros:

Industry Standard

Well documented

Cons:

Expensive

Complicated

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Software to Consider

Adobe Photoshop

Elements

Pros:

Cheaper

Simpler

Cons:

Not as well

documented

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Software to Consider

GIMP

Pros:

Freeware

Community

Cons:

Difficult to learn

Not well

documented

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Software to AVOID

Corel Draw &

Adobe Illustrator

Why?

They produce

vector graphics,

not raster.

That is, they work

with geometric

shapes, not

individual pixels.

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Software to AVOID

Corel Painter

Why?

It’s not a photo

editing program.

It’s an artist’s

toolbox.

(It also has a

learning curve

that’s close to the

vertical.)

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Hardware

Wacom Tablet

Pressure

sensitive

Use of a stylus,

not a mouse

Graphics

programs are

designed to work

with them

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Hardware

Types of Wacoms

Bamboo

Fine for most ($99)

Intuos

For heavier use

($300)

Cintiq

Amazing (but you

don’t need it)

($3000)

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AdsRealism

Intensity

Impact

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Typical

Visual

Stimuli

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Full-Bleed

Visual

Stimuli

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Full-Bleed

Visual

Stimuli

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Layers

Like animation cels, you can layer separate items

Layers can be hidden

You can contain every condition in one file

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Layers

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Layers

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Layers

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Layers

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Layer

StructureEach layer to the right contains

one element that you saw in the

previous few slides.

What do all these buttons

mean, though?

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The red area indicates 1 layer.

There are currently 5 layers

total. Each layer affects only

the layers below it.

The checkerboard pattern

means “no content,” meaning

an area is transparent.

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Put these two together, and you

would see parts of the “Condo”

layer around the dogs.

But you won’t see the “Field”

layer, since the “Condo” layer

completely fills the screen.

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How do you control what’s

shown?

If this eye symbol is showing

next to a layer, it’s visible.

Click it (left click) and the layer

will turn invisible.

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The “Condo” layer is now

invisible. You’ll see the field

background, instead.

However, the condo

background is still in the file

and can be brought back with

one click.

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Finally, the “Darken” layer is an

effects one. It’s what made

Tramp look darker.

We’ll come back to effects

layers later.

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Basic Tools

All screenshots are from Photoshop (Creative Suite 3 edition)

Other programs will have basically the same functionality, but

may look a little different

There are many, many more tools than covered here!

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Move Tool

Lay down

areas of the

selected color

Brush

Used for free-

form

selections,

either entirely

freehand or as

a series of

lines

Lasso

Selection

Available in

rectangular,

elliptical, row, &

column

Marquee

Selection

Click and drag

to move

around objects

on the current

layer

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Healing

Tools

Makes a new

text layer

Text Tool

It erases!

Eraser

Once an origin

point is

chosen, it

duplicates it

anywhere else

on the image

Clone

Stamp

For minor

blemishes,

scratches, red-

eye, etc.

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Geometric

Shapes

Picks up any

color in the

picture

Eyedropper

For making

squares,

rounded

squares, stars,

etc.

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Tool &

Layer Use1. Paste in the puppy

picture on a new

layer

2. Use the text tool

to type out a caption

3. Pick up a shade of

green with the

eyedropper to make

a border

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Special

Effects (Make

Tramp

Darker!)Two kinds of “effects”:

1. Double-click a layer’s region

(grey area, not the name or

image) to bring up some basic

effects

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Special

Effects (Make

Tramp

Darker!)Two kinds of “effects”:

1. Double-click a layer’s region

(grey area, not the name or

image) to bring up some basic

effects

2. Make an effects layer

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Basic Photo

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Changed Eye

Color

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Menu

ApppearanceUnlike other layers, which are

just “normal,” this one was set

to have a special behavior.

“Color” changes the color of

anything under the colored

region.

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Layer ContentHere’s what that layer looks like

on “normal” mode.

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OpacityYou can change layer opacity

to tone down effects.

Here’s the brown layer taken

down to 50%.

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OpacityYou make opacity changes

here.

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Darken /

LightenCould be used to make pictures

(or parts of pictures) look

brighter or darker.

Here’s a common application in

photo retouching.

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Removing Objects

Two methods: Clone Stamp & Selection Tools

Selection Tool

If it’s in front of something basic that can be quickly filled in

Clone Stamp

If there’s something complicated or textural behind the item

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Selection ToolThis is the sort of image that

works with a basic select + fill.

It is a completely flat

background.

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Clone StampWhen the item has some

texture to it, just filling it in with

a flat color may not be very

convincing.

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Clone StampWhat looked like a flat blue

background does actually have

some shading, as becomes

apparent when a single-color

block is put on top of it.

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Clone StampUsing the texture of the bin itself to

cover the text makes for a less

noticeable patch.

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Healing

Tools

Makes a new

text layer

Text Tool

It erases!

Eraser

Once an origin

point is

chosen, it

duplicates it

anywhere else

on the image

Clone

Stamp

For minor

blemishes,

scratches, red-

eye, etc.

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Clone

StampCan also be used to

remove a larger

section of an image

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Clone

StampCan also be used to

remove a larger

section of an image

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Clone StampHere’s a more dramatic

demonstration of cloning. Instead of

setting a point on the bin as the

origin, I picked the Coke can, then

started using the brush on the recycle

bin. That part of the picture was

duplicated where I started “painting.”

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Clone StampGoing back to the prepared surface:

now text can be added!

But this text doesn’t look very

convincing. Time to work with text

changes.

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Text ChangesThere are two issues here:

1. The bin in the picture is angled, but

the text is flat

2. The original text wasn’t flush with

the surface

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Text ChangesTo do a variety of transformations to

a layer, in the top menu go to Edit >

Transform.

This has option for adding

perspective, rotating items, etc.

Here, I rotated the text layer so it

was parallel with the bottom of the

bin.

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Text ChangesNow I’m going to emboss the text so

it looks like it belongs on this 3D

object.

This is the special effect I mentioned

before that you get from double-

clicking a layer name.

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Special

Effects (Make

Tramp

Darker!)Two kinds of “effects”:

1. Double-click a layer’s region

(grey area, not the name or

image) to bring up some basic

effects

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Special Effects Panel

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Text ChangesIt’s not a perfect fit, still. The white is

too white, the textures aren’t exact,

and so on. But remember the

yardstick:

“Will an undergraduate research

participant notice and/or care about

the edit?”

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Text ChangesHere? Probably not!

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Text ChangesHere? ...They’ll probably notice.

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More Text

EditingPutting text in proper

perspective is one of

the easiest ways to

make it look more

believable.

Pictures aren’t always

shot straight-on.

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More Text

EditingHere I’ve (sort of)

prepared the

background, as

mentioned previously.

Clone tool, ahoy!

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More Text

EditingI start with basic new

text.

(Note that the original

text wasn’t pure

white, so neither is

this. I used the

eyedropper to get

the right tone.)

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More Text

EditingIn the Edit >

Transform menu, I

used the Skew

transformation to

move up the left side.

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More Text

EditingThen I used Edit >

Free Transform to

make it larger overall,

and with a greater

height:width ratio than

before. Here, you just

drag points around as

you’d like.

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More Text

EditingI noticed that the

original text had a

slight drop shadow.

With the effects menu

discussed before, I

add one.

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More Text

EditingFinally, I notice that

the text is parallel to

the top, but not to the

bottom (because of

perspective). Edit >

Transform >

Perspective can fix

this.

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Improving

Picture QualityThere are two important things

that you can do to have a good-

looking picture:

1. Pick a picture much larger

than you actually need

2. Spend a little time correcting

the colors

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Improving

Picture QualityThis is a decently large picture

(approximately 1600 x 1000

pixels). For the web, if you

shrank this down to fit on a

typical monitor, it would look

very sharp.

Print needs higher quality.

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Improving

Picture QualityHowever, the colors are sort of

washed out.

1. The colors aren’t very

saturated (bright)

2. The values are concentrated

around the middle (greys)

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Improving

Picture QualityHowever, the colors are sort of

washed out.

1. The colors aren’t very

saturated (bright)

2. The values are concentrated

around the middle (greys)

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Improving

Picture QualityImage > Adjustments >

Hue/Saturation lets you fix too

little (or too much) saturation.

You could also use this to make

a picture black & white.

Here, I’ve bumped up the

saturation. I just moved the

slider until it looked right.

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Improving

Picture QualityImage > Adjustments > Levels

takes care of the

black/grey/white balance.

This is the dialog that comes

up.

It actually is telling you

something helpful!

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Improving

Picture QualityThe bottom axis is the range of

darkness > light. (Ignore the

specific numbers.)

There are gaps at the top and

bottom.

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Improving

Picture QualityThe bottom axis is the range of

darkness > light. (Ignore the

specific numbers.)

There are gaps at the top and

bottom with no content.

That means there’s no pure

black or pure white in the

image.

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Improving

Picture QualityIf you drag the outside sliders

toward the middle, you force

the current darkest/lightest

tones toward actual

black/white.

You can play around with all

three sliders and see what

effect it has.

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Adjusted Picture

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Original Picture

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Editing

FeaturesThis is getting into higher-level

editing that takes some

practice.

If you want to add something

(hair, age lines, etc.), it can be

easier to find the new item in an

entirely different image and

clone it in from there.

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Editing

FeaturesUnfortunately, there’s no real

easy way to show you how to

do that; it requires getting a feel

for the sort of things shown

here (and the tablet hardware).

But here’s one application, to

keep your minds turning this

over.

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Editing

FeaturesThe woman to the right is very

attractive. Perhaps you want

some participants to see a less

attractive version of the same

woman.

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Editing

FeaturesTwo cross-cultural

attractiveness norms are 1.

symmetrical features and 2.

eyes being spaced with roughly

one eye-width between them.

Next, I mess her up!

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Editing

FeaturesThe more advanced Liquify

tool was used (under the Filter

menu). This let me push her

face around, basically.

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Editing

FeaturesHere, age advancement was

tackled. Reduced skin elasticity

was another Liquify round, and

some wrinkles were cloned

from another source image.

(Apologies to Gov. Kathy

Sebelius.)

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Editing

FeaturesFor comparison, here is the

original image.

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Compositing

ImagesWhat if you don’t care about

things being things perfectly

believable, you just want to set

the stage?

That’s really easy!

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Compositing

ImagesWe’re back where we started,

in Lady & the Tramp territory.

Think back to the description of

an ice cream store line from a

previous seminar. (“Fattest

person/thinnest person you’ve

ever seen.”)

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Compositing

ImagesSo long as you find pictures

that are somewhat believable

together, you can set the stage

with a background image that

works like you want and any

other elements.

(The picture around the kids in

line was simply erased.)

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Compositing

ImagesSo long as you find pictures

that are somewhat believable

together, you can set the stage

with a background image that

works like you want and any

other elements.

(The picture around the kids in

line was simply erased.)

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Compositing

ImagesYou could use this to make, for

example, a retail aisle that was

crowded (10 “person layers”

showing) or empty (1 “people

layer” showing).

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Refresher

Look for Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, or GIMP

Get a pressure-sensitive tablet

Practice!

Don’t try too many options at once, you will get overwhelmed

You can use layers to contain all stimulus conditions within a

single file

Some suggestions for graphic manipulations you could do:

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Editing ModelsCorrect blemishes

Change coloring

Add accessories

Blend features

Change features

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Changing

ProductsAdding features

Adding accessories

Changing model

Changing styling

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Editing TextChange advertisements

Change product descriptions

Change instructions

Change font, color, etc. styling

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Compositing

ImagesSet up any situation

Use stock images to create

many situations

Control the products,

consumers, etc. visible

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Final Suggestions

Have a specific problem in mind

Start small

Buy a reference book (don’t ignore For Dummies!)

Look at online tutorials

Talk to me... after comps :)

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Appendix: Photo Resources

Two types of photos to consider

Ones that will only be used within the lab

Ones that you would like to use in public, or as a figure in your

paper submission

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Appendix: Photo Resources

If it’s only ever going to be in the lab, you can be a little less

particular (although the options in the next slide should certainly

be considered!)

Google Image Search: http://images.google.com/

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/

Picasa: http://picasa.google.com

Stock Photo Search: http://www.everystockphoto.com/

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Appendix: Photo Resources

If you need to republish the photo elsewhere, you need an

image that grants you reproduction rights. You may or may not

need to credit the original photographer. (A photo’s page will say

so.) Also, you may or may not need to pay for the image.

stock.xchng: http://www.sxc.hu/

iStockPhoto: http://www.istockphoto.com/

Other commercial & free stock photography sites are plentiful on

Google if you don’t find the right image in the two above