#rebeccamaxted

http://s1011.photobucket.com/user/Bec_Maxted/story/24193 

My project explores the power of Photoshop to realistically manipulate images. I have 12 different photos posted on Photo bucket and made into a story, half are originals and half are edited. They all demonstrate different ways photos can be manipulated, from replacing a person to replacing the scene a person is in. Majority of the images are my own with a few exceptions.

  Last year for year 12 I did a major in art where a lot of it involved Photoshop. My skills obviously got a lot better during that year as I was using it only a daily basis. However, I did have a PC and the Mac computers software is slightly different so I had to get use to the new setting. By using my Photoshop skills I have manipulated a series of pictures quite realistically, making it hard to decipher which is the original. This demonstrates how easy it is to manipulate a picture and makes viewers question how trustworthy a source can be, also questioning ethics behind Photoshop. For my first edits, I kept them really subtle to make it harder to tell which is which. I cropped my dad into a different background, the real one being unexpected as we were visiting Melbourne when my dad was working and we had a look at the graffiti. The next one was my sister cropped into a picture of mine from year 12. She’s subtly placed in the crowd, and the original, once again, unexpected as she went on a school trip overseas. I then cropped a picture of my friends and I at ‘Flat rock’ in Bathurst into Manly beach in Sydney, this one also being unexpected as we’re all wearing swimmers and so the beach scene seems more fitting. I then decided to do a dramatic change, and made my sister walking home into a sunset skating picture, I changed the colour of her and tried to edit her so she looked like she was naturally in the picture. I did a much more obvious one as I cropped a famous person (James Franco) on top of my friends head, I chose to do this to demonstrate how easy it is to swap people’s faces. For my last one I edited a tattoo onto my friends arm who has no tattoos, this one was the hardest because it was really hard to make the tattoo look realistic on his arm. Next time I do this project I might not do the tattoo one unless I can find a better way to do it because it’s pretty obvious it’s not real. However at first glance you can’t tell. I also might not of done the sunset one because you can kind of tell if you look closely it’s fake. I still believe majority of the edits communicate my point though as they mostly all look realistic.

  By attempting this project I learnt just how easy it is to manipulate photos, I have maybe 2 years experience with Photoshop and even some of my edits are scarily realistic image what someone with years and years of experience could do. This made me think about what photos can be reliable and what photos could be fake. I also thought on Photoshop as an art because when it comes down to it, it is a skill and not everyone can use it well so executing a realistic Photoshop is actually quite talented, but where is the line between art and ethics? I believe if a photo has been touched or edited in anyway it should be communicated it doesn’t take much effort to have in small font under a picture ‘edited’. Some contemporary media communication practices don’t realise just how much of an affect they can have on people. Body- image being the main negative affects but obviously there’s others such as pushing us to buy things or influencing on our behavior. Photoshop is a big offender in advertisements, making models unrealistically attractive setting up young women to make unrealistic goals. With my experiences with my own project and how easy it is to edit a photo. I considered maybe it’s just as easy to manipulate film or audio. Editing film could have huge affects on society and if it’s just as easy to learn like Photoshop is, multiple people could be editing and communicating false Audio and Film. By editing audio we could be hearing things that aren’t true, this could mean false evidence is being shown in legal cases. The same with film in that we are seeing false images, examples of these are people who have edited footage to make it look like there’s aliens or ghosts to scare people. Another huge example that we often forget about is movies, 90% of movies have special effects and are showing false images, this however is usually obviously communicated by the unrealistic stories such as Science Fiction films. But maybe documentaries could be editing their footage? All of these different types of contemporary media communications have the ability to communicate false information and just when is it too far and start becoming an ethical issue? By doing my project I have been able to think through all these questions and this has made me be much more careful when it comes to films I view, audio I hear or pictures I see. 

sources: http://www.flickr.com/photos/80385419@N00/17910027/in/photolist-2zN2z-4RfhLf-9yAFs8-9yAFrM-9yDGGE-cd3bVm-f9tR8o-4p8kEc-6ybesw-7duQ27-5WJ9t9-6Q66HT-cpqJ1o-8vgCPF-6mvStS-fAhRMg-8BHjnX-6xAVCT-Le1ET-4vYHBR-9d75Bg-C9LUQ-5EPHJH-fbLK8U-f9yF15-815BRh-2rg2X-7ZUPeM-81B88v-8GHG6y-9qpZhz-b2wB68-7G5ce8-4pcqbo-azkvkU-9yDGFo-4pcpQE-yP9zX-ccDi6m-8QZRC7-6mYJDH-6mYDwP-6n3RrE-e6u7Lw-dK5f6w-6pG1rK-fzVnr3-4S3jm2-9uLTs-ei3kEW-8Kqzys

http://www.flickr.com/photos/33139070@N03/5024912083/in/photolist-8E2Zie-9B8y8V-5K1Qqh-a7i545-6LM1Pp-9eTFbA-8Jg8zX-8JjcBJ-9eTFaU-7hTH8f-7zK19v-7zNLjd-9kJbaa-5QRru6-d9JuAz-5QRq5R-f6dZti-5QVGyE-5QRqwX-5QRr1D-5QRqp6-do135V-7hPLD4-7hTHmE-7hTGQE-7hPLMD-7hPL7R-5QRpTX-5QRqBX-5QRpQa-5QRp32-5QVGv7-5QRqVr-5QVJtq-5QRqia-5QVHbC-5QRr7x-5QVHZY-5QRpwH-5QVGKq-5QRpb8-5QVHU3-5QVG33-5QRrpD-dqsrKk-5QRpKc-9fsPyT-4KVQfX-4L15ES-7hNYXX-bjxN5q

Blog Activity 10.1- Audio Mix

Have you had any experience with digital audio production and editing? 

Until the start of this year i have had absolutely no experience in digital audio production and editing. So it's been great to have an insight to this sort of thing, especially because i have a Mac and garage band, a popular editing software, was right in front of me and i had no idea what it was.

Post your thoughts on the potential ethical and legal problems associated with the digital recording of audio, especially commercial music.

Clearly with this sort of thing, issues with copyright will emerge quite easily as it is all done digitally and easier to copy or acquire copies of. A legally registered copyrighted piece of work entitles the person to a variety of things, such as: to reproduce the work, distribute copies of the work, make derivative works, perform copyrighted sound recordings by means of digital audio transmission and to display the work. No other person can do these without the copyright persons permission. However this is where ethics come into it as it is so easy to copy songs these days that theres is no guaranteed way that you could stop people from stealing music or audio recordings. This is evident in the vast amount of sites that let you illegally download and copy music/audio. In some ways, i agree that anyone should have access to any form of music for free, however i do think it's ethically wrong to copy and sell music for ones own benefit, getting profit of work they didn't create themselves is unfair on the artist and anyone involved in making the recording.

http://www.law-arts.org/pdf/Legal_Issues_in_the_Music_Industry.pdf 

What protection do recording artists and companies have against so-called music piracy? Are concepts like copyright out of date in a digital media world?

I believe copyright is still effective when people are caught out. But it is rare in modern day world to get caught for this sort of thing because music piracy is something that happens everyday, and to a different extent most people have done it. I believe there should be a system of free downloads for older songs and paying for new songs so artists can get their income and profits. There are a number of extras like software you can use to extra protect your own work. However there is usually someone who has worked out how to remove it, such as the iTunes protection software. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL1DpdPWwE4 

Are you part of a participatory culture or fan community? If so, how do you participate?

Yes, I have my own Facebook which is a social website that allows me to post my own photos, status', comments on other people's wall/photo's/comments, 'like' groups and chat on a live messenger to my friends. 

https://www.facebook.com

I also use Instagram, less interactive, but still lets you comment on pictures, 'like' pictures and post your own pictures.

What is an example of Transmedia? and what media/platforms does it use? 

For this question I found i was struggling to understand what transmedia was. I found this very useful Youtube video that explained and gave examples. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYbw8fmrL3w 

Tetris Pattern 1 by Arctic_Rose on Flickr.

Blog Activity 2.1- Patterns of Analogue and Digital media

Are there obvious patterns of analogue and digital media usage?

Patterns of analogue and digital media usuage have changed over time. Presently, digital media usage is the most dominant. This is evident in most of the population owning an iPhone, our generation can heavily depend on their phones for everything! News, calling, texting, and different apps that cater to anyones personal preferences mean the usage of digital media is much higher than analogue. Even in High Schools laptops are being introduced to replace traditional analogue methods of pen and paper. There is talk of even the HSC test to be on computer in the future. This has obviously not always been the case though, in the early periods of digital media development many were afraid of the unknown and stuck to traditional analogue methods like; books and writing. 

Do we prefer some types of content in a particular form?

When reading lengthy articles or novels, it is widely preferred to have it in hand. But due to recent technologies it is available to have it on a computer, phone or iPad. This makes it easier to carry from place to place and if your the type of person who likes to read more than one book at a time, it's also much easier. 

Do we have a choice, or is some information only available in analogue or digital forms?