Digital Photography & Imaging - Project 2B

29/10/2025 - 19/11/2025 (Week 6 - Week 9)

LEXANDRA FEODORA STEFANO/0384629

Digital Photography & Imaging / Bachelors of Design (Honours) in Creative Media

Project 2B (Conceptual Photo Manipulation)

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INSTRUCTIONS

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I9YGvnUDZ6O57Ng5oNR1gAx1N6NPK6W6/view?usp=drive_link 

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TASK

For this task, we were asked to make a conceptual photo manipulation. Conceptual photo manipulation is basically combining 2 photos of object into 1 photo or 1 new object. First I started by looking up references on different platforms. I found some good references on Instagram. Here is the mood board. 

Fig 1.1.1 Mood Board (30/10/2025)

After looking up the references, I came up with 3 ideas for this project

1. Oreo + watch : I want to create a cookie watch because the colours are similar and I thought the idea will be pretty cute

2. Fork + Paintbrush : I want to create a 2 sided thing that is inspired by dual sided makeup brush that I found

3. Hairbrush + Hairdryer: I want to create something similar to the second idea but with a different purpose and different items.

At first I wanted to make the third idea but instead of a hairdryer I used a spoon, but Mr Fauzi said to use a hairdryer instead to make a more unique and odd object. Then I came up with the sketches from the photos that I took of the objects. Here are the photos and the sketches. 

Fig 1.1.2 Photo (01/11/2025)

Fig 1.1.3 Sketch (01/11/2025)

Product Photo

Then, I focus on the product photoshoot for the sketches that Mr Fauzi chose. Mr Fauzi chose sketch 3 for this project which is the hairbrush and hairdryer combined. So first, I started by doing the product photoshoot in my room using my phone. I used my wall as the background and used my desk light to help with the lighting for the hairbrush. For the hairdryer, I took the picture on the floor because the I didn't really know how to make the hairdryer stand. Here are the results for the photo. 

Fig 2.1.1 Brush (09/11/2025)

Fig 2.1.2 Hairdryer (09/11/2025)

Editing

First, I started by removing the background of both images using photoshop and removing the bottom part of the hairbrush and the hairdryer.

Fig 3.1.1 Background Remove  (12/11/2025)

Then I combined the edited pictures into one file and place them into the position I want. 

Fig 3.1.2 Combined (12/11/2025)

After that, I decided to play with the brightness and the contrast so the images doesn't look too dull and can match a little bit more. 

Fig 3.1.3 Adjustments (12/11/2025)

Since the images are not blended, I decided to blend both the images using the brush tool and the blur tool to make it seem that both of the objects are one.

Fig 3.1.4 Blend (12/11/2025)

I decided to colour the background into a soft pastel purple colour using the solid colour option in photoshop. 

Fig 3.1.5 Background (12/11/2025)

After adding the background, I decided to add some shadows using the brush tool in the colour black and using the gaussian blur in the filter option to blend the shadows to make it look natural. 

Fig 3.1.6 Shadow (12/11/2025)

Then, I adjusted the levels of the whole image to my liking in the adjustment window. 

Fig 3.1.7 Level Adjustment (12/11/2025)

After checking some parts, I exported the image into JPEG and here is the result

Fig 3.1.8 Final Outcome (12/11/2025)

Description: I decided to combine a hairbrush and a hairdryer, which both are hair products/tools that people use to style their hair, to make a double sided functional hair tool.

Weekly Portfolio : 

W6 : https://lexandrastefano.blogspot.com/2025/11/digital-photography-imaging-week-6.html

W7 : https://lexandrastefano.blogspot.com/2025/11/digital-photography-imaging-week-7.html

W8 : https://lexandrastefano.blogspot.com/2025/11/digital-photography-imaging-week-8.html

W9 : https://lexandrastefano.blogspot.com/2025/11/digital-photography-imaging-week-9.html

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REFLECTION

Experience - The first part of this task was still pretty easy because we only needed to look up references and make the rough sketches only. Though, deciding on what to make was pretty difficult because I don't have much stuff that I can combine, I still managed to come up with some ideas. During the editing process, I didn't really experience any difficulties because I used a lot of tools that I know/understand already. I quite like the final outcome of this project especially because the colours are similar so the blending process didn't take long and the editing isn't as difficult as I thought it would be. 

Observation - This task is easier compared to the double exposure task because this doesn't require that many adjustments and editing. Also the Photoshop didn't constantly crash during this task so it makes the editing process a lot smoother. 

Findings - From this task, I learned that understanding the techniques for product photoshoot plays a huge role on making the final results look interesting. The lighting, background, colours, everything has its own role in product photoshoot. I liked the way the brush photo turned out but I'm not that satisfied with the hairdryer because is was difficult to adjust the lighting since I took the picture on the floor.