Photo-editing Activity

Digital manipulation

Digital images can be readily altered, and digital photographs can be used to create images that look photorealistic.

Assignment: Have a partner take your photograph. Find a copyright-free photograph with a different background, such as a photo from Digital Saskatchewan, and place your image into this photo.

Hint: Have your photograph taken against a background that is one solid colour, such as a whiteboard. Using a photo-editing program such as GIMP, use the magic-wand tool to select the background and then invert the selection. Voilà, now you are selected. Copy and paste this selection into the other image (like a wheat field) as a new layer. You will likely have to change the size of your original image to find the best fit. For this or other steps in the photo-editing process, use the software's Help feature and search for the required topic, such as "resize".

More detailed instruction on digital manipulation is included as a separate module in this online resource.