STUDIO 01.2: TUTORIAL PART I

This module covers the first steps for working with raster images, masks, layers, and blending in Adobe Photoshop.

Premise and Objectives

This studio tutorial is split into two parts, {S01.1} and {S01.2}. After working through the tutorial, you will have:

• Become familiar with the Photoshop user interface
• Learned the basics of adding, transforming, and masking raster images
• Learned basic selection methods using manual and automated techniques
• Explored compositional approaches to collage using a combination of masks, layers, and layer blending
• Develop a strategy for sourcing found materials

IMPORTANT NOTE ON WIP POSTS FOR STUDIO:

The work that you’re doing now is much more open-ended. Please post something that shows your contribution to your group’s work in progress. The write-up should simply tell us what it is that you’re trying to highlight, and any workflow issues you encountered. 


Good Sources and the Ethics of Image Manipulation


In the age of Google Image, Pinterest, AI-generated imagery, and other dubiously sourced image databases, it’s important that you use reputable sources equally appropriate for academic work and artistic practice. Collage necessarily entails using someone else’s artwork or other media, and it is essential that you properly cite them. This is particularly important given the history and context each image carries with it; you should choose an image precisely because it carries that history and context, not simply because it already looks like something you want to think you want to represent.

For the sample collage, we are using four sets of sources. This should guide how you create your own collages, maintaining the integrity of your source materials and ultimately enriching your composition.

1. Scholarly literature: We are drawing on well-sourced scholarly histories of the intersection of flood control techniques by the US Army Corps of Engineers and the use of unfree Black laborers for levee maintenance for the protection and productivity of Mississippi River-adjacent cotton plantations. These histories provide narrative evidence of the infrastructural genealogies of racial capitalism and the “Plantationocene.”  The primary article we’re using for this collage is John D. Davis’ “Levees, Slavery, and Maintenance,” published in Technology’s Stories, August 20, 2018 (https://doi.org/10.15763/jou.ts.2018.08.20.01). The thematic structure of the collage draws explicitly from Davis’ historical argument and sources, with additional materials from an online article citing Davis by Brian Holmes.
2. Archival texts: Many books and other texts are now in the public domain due to the lapse of copyright or no original copyright restrictions. You can find substantial collections at Archive.org and the Hathi Trust Digital Library. These can be fantastic resources for illustrated manuals, guidebooks, technical papers, and so on. For this lab, we’re using an 1887 history of cotton and the cotton trade, The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary, by Henry Lee. The book gives us a glimpse into cultural and scientific knowledges around cotton during the post-emancipation period.
3. Archival Maps: There are many online sources for high-quality digital reproductions of archival maps, including the Newberry Library in Chicago, the Library of Congress Map Collection, the British Library Map Collection, and the David Rumsey map collection, now housed at Stanford University. Universities and colleges (including U Chicago) maintain their own collections, often with a more specific regional or thematic focus. Government agencies (for instance, the US Army Corps of Engineers) also often maintain historic map collections online (though you may need to know where to look, as the sites are often dated, poorly organized, and difficult to search). For this collage, we used an archival site for a famous set of 1944 geological surveys of the alluvial valley of the Lower Mississippi River by Harold Fisk.
4. Archival Photographs, Artwork, and other Media: While you may find photographs, artwork, and other media in the digital collections of art museums like MoMA (New York), the images are usually not in the public domain and are protected by copyright. We prefer to use sites like the Library of Congress photo, print, and drawing collection, which maintains almost 1 million images online. National libraries are good sources for these kinds of materials, depending on where your research takes you!

This brings up further questions around the ethics of image manipulation. You should think very, very carefully about the images you choose to manipulate, especially with respect to legacies of violence and oppression they may embody or represent. If you are working with images whose subjects are depicted in dehumanizing ways, or were the subjects of dehumanizing, violent, or otherwise oppressive practices, what are your responsibilities now for breaking those cycles? Will your collage inadvertently perpetuate the problematic history you critically engage? What are the implications of choosing to manipulate images of bodies and other subjects for which you have no embodied experience of your own? Will you, by manipulating those images, repeat oppressive forms of objectification? Collage must be a practice of care for the past and the potential of the future, so be diligent in that ethical task.


Set-Up

Launch Photoshop and choose New File. Set the file width to 2000 and height to 1300 Pixels (or any size that you consider good background for your composition). Click Create. Your blank Photoshop file will look like this:

Photoshop interface is similar to Illustrator’s (albeit designed specifically for working with images, not vector shapes): the main Tools panel is on the left, and all other customizable and movable panels containing a variety of controls are on the right. The basics of zooming and panning around are also the same as in Illustrator. (This tutorial assumes you are familiar with those basics. For more information on getting started with Photoshop, refer to this tutorial from Adobe.)

Once you’re familiar with these essential functions, open all five source layers in Photoshop by clicking through File > Open… or by dragging them from the Finder window to the Photoshop application icon (Mac OS). They should appear as five separate tabs:



Understanding Layers and Layer Masks

Working with multiple Layers in Photoshop can be understood as working with a deck of cards: the layer on top (if visible) will conceal the layer(s) below. A random image opened in Photoshop usually takes a single layer, named Background, or “Layer 1.” To make a locked Background layer editable, double-click on it and then choose OK, or duplicate it by clicking Cmd + J (Mac) or Ctrl + J (Win). Make sure all your source layers are editable.


Layer Masks are greyscale images applied to individual layers to control their transparency. Unlike layer opacity, which controls the transparency of the entire layer, a layer mask gives you precise control over specific areas. They are a useful tool for making collages, image composites, and modifying image backgrounds.

To add a layer mask, select a layer in the Layers panel and click the Add Mask button at the bottom of the panel. A white layer thumbnail will appear next to the layer name. To view a layer mask, click the layer mask while holding Alt (Win) or Option (on Mac). To switch back to the standard visual mode, press Alt/Option+Click again.


By default, every layer mask is 100% white, which means that the layer is 100% visible. If it were colored black, the layer would be 0% visible. Remember that white reveals and black conceals when it comes to layer masks. To add white, black, or any shade of grey to the Layer Mask, one of the most useful tools is the Brush tool (B). Select suitable brush size, set the brush (Foreground) color to black, make sure the layer mask is selected (click on it), and paint the areas you don’t want to be visible with black:



Pro tip: to adjust the size and hardness of the brush quickly, click Ctrl + Option + drag left/right/up/down (Mac), or Alt + right mouse button + drag left/right/up/down (Win).

To delete or temporarily disable a layer mask, right-click on the mask thumbnail and choose Delete Layer Mask or Disable Layer Mask.

Another useful tool for quickly adding a layer mask is using one of the Lasso tools (L). The Polygonal Lasso tool creates straight lines between each click of your mouse. Click on a starting point somewhere in your canvas, drag your cursor to another point along the area you want to mask, click again to create a second anchor point, etc. Double-click to close the selected area and click on Add Layer Mask:



Select and Mask Workspace

Select and mask… functionality is a dedicated workspace that helps you make precise selections and masks, ideal for making an initial rough selection, and then refining it until you’re happy with the selection area.

To begin, do one on the following:

• Make a rough selection of the area/subject you want to mask using the Lasso tool and click Select and mask…, or
• In case your image contains a clearly discernible subject you wish to mask, choose Select > Select and mask… and click Select Subject
• Click OK and add a layer mask from the selection you just made

To change or refine the selection, open the Select and Mask workspace again and use any combination of the available tools from the toolbar on the left: Quick Selection Tool, Refine Edge Brush Tool, Brush Tool, Object Selection Tool, and Lasso Tool.

For example, Polygonal Lasso Tool is great for adding or removing areas that have hard edges:


Refine Edge Brush Tool is great for dissolving or restoring areas that have soft edges:


Important: Layer Masks are non-destructive, allowing you to continuously tweak and refine the visibility of a layer throughout an edit. You can always go back to Select and Mask workspace and pick up right where you left off.

On your own: select and mask the remaining source layers you wish to collage. Save your Photoshop project(s).


Bricolage Composition

When you’re ready to arrange your (masked) source layers into a final composition, copy them into the initial (empty white) Photoshop file you created:

• Click V to select the Move tool
• With the source layer selected, drag it over to the tab of the main composition file (or any other source file you want to use as a background for your image).
• Use the Cmd + T (Mac) or Ctrl + T (Win) to resize, reshape or rotate layer selections within a document. Click Enter or Return to exit the Transform tool

Note of workflow: you may find it easier to combine all the original unmasked source layers immediately into a single composition and do all masking in a single Photoshop file.

Finally, experiment with Layer Opacity and Blending Modes. You should already be familiar with Blending Modes from working with geospatial data layers in QGIS. They function similarly here: defining how a given layer blends with the layer(s) below it.



Tip: Duplicate layers (Cmd + J / Ctrl + J) to combine multiple different blending modes and opacity settings.

When satisfied with your final composition, save your Photoshop project and navigate to File > Export As… to export your digital bricolage in the desired image format.

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