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Easy but astonishing and creative Photoshop-Effects


H

HMiller

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(I don't have Photoshop jet)
At our scool we want make a creativity workshop and therefore we need al lot of (200-300) creative pictures. In the last years we made a big pile of fotos but lots of them do not look very creative jet. My idea is to use Photoshop to pimp them up. I have seen a puzzle-effect which was realy nice.

Now I want to convince our head to purchase Photoshop but he thinks it's to complicated and timeconsuming to edit out pictures with it.
He had seen some photoshop-tutorials with nice results but dozens of steps to get there.

What else effects (like the puzzle) are very easy to use but with estonishing (creative) results? Hope some of the PhotoshopGurus understands the wishes of a beginner. I would like to go to our head with 20-30 examples and could say "This effects are not complicated or too timeconsuming to build."

Is this possible?

Regards
Hannelore
 
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I hate to be a nay-sayer, but, for years before this thread came into existence, I have had a real problem with people using the term, "creative" or "creativity" in ways that devalue its true meaning.

The first few definitions of creativity stated in the Wikipedia article on the subject are:

"...Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and somehow valuable is formed ..."
"...we seem to have reached a general agreement that creativity involves the production of novel, useful products..."
"...creativity can also be defined "as the process of producing something that is both original and worthwhile"
"...characterized by originality and expressiveness and imaginative..."

If your instructor is telling you that applying some presets that tickle your fancy from Instagram, Photoshop, or any other program is being "creative", he is *seriously* failing you.

Ask him to specifically tell you how applying essentially random presets that may not be familiar to you, but which are ridiculously well known to anyone in the field, and being applied with no real purpose in mind meet the criteria for creativity spelled out below:

a) it should form something new
b) it should form something valuable
c) is involved with the production of a novel or useful product
d) is involved with the production of something that is both original and worthwhile.
e) there is a clear intent to express some clearly defined emotion or feeling
f) or is imaginative.

Unless you are a genius, items that are truly creative simply can't be mass produced by the hundreds, on demand, as he has requested of you.

Unfortunately, the term, "creativity", has already been devalued by every grade-school teacher who has praised Little Johnny as being "creative" every time he puts some scribbles on paper using his crayon. Yes, Little Johnny is experimenting, he's learning one of the many tools for writing and the visual arts, he's practicing and training himself, he's exerting himself, he's giving it his best shot, he's checking out a particular process for himself, but his actions just don't meet any of the criteria for creativity. The process he is using, and what he is producing may be new to himself, but, in all likelihood, it isn't new to anyone except other children his age. At best, your instructor is asking you to do essentially the same thing that "Little Johnny" was asked to do, just with slightly more advanced tools.

So, my recommendation is that you have a serious and thoughtful discussion with your instructor about this, and maybe he'll reduce your assignment to, "...just produce one truly creative modification to an existing photo". Then, you can use the time to become familiar with artists who have met with critical approval in their photo manipulations, learn what sort of techniques are available to you with the software and other tools you have on hand, think about what you are trying to convey, and then, using those tools (...probably several)... put together something that no one else has ever done.

Just my $0.02.

Tom M

PS - You can also tell him that this recommendation comes from someone who is a full professor at a major university and has taught design to juniors and seniors for the last 11 or 12 years.
 
I couldn't agree more with what you said Tom.
If you want to learn to swim, the first step is always to jump into the water.
 
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