triptych reflection

      For our second project we made a lyrical triptych.  We had to pick a song and look up the lyrics so we could use part of the song lyrics to make the lyrical triptych.  We had to find pictures that related to the song and put them together to represent the lyrics.  We split the lyrics or part of the lyrics into three parts for each triptych.  We also had to use a filter one or more times and variations at least once as well.

               The song I chose is called "Those Voices" by Darren Criss and Nicholas Joseph Strauss-Matathia from A Very Potter Sequel.  In the first panel the background is a picture of a farmhouse that I chose because I feel it gives off a nostalgic feel.  I found a picture of a glowing eye which I made transparent and put it over the sun in the background picture.  Later I used the glowing edges filter on the eye.  I also put a picture of a boy laying down, it looked like he was almost asleep.  I put this picture of blue lights that looks kind of like stars.  I used color variations on the lights to make the colors more vibrant and even-toned.  I also used color variations to make the panel darker.  On the second panel the background was a picture of a small boy holding open a door where there was a merge of blues, purples, and pinks.  I took a picture of a green eye, duplicated it and used the dry brush filter on both, then I put them on the bottom of the image.  Then I took a picture of a couple, cut them out with the magnetic lasso separately.  Then I placed them in the doorway and made them transparent, I made the man more transparent than the woman.  On the second panel the background was a man and a boy holding hands across a small table in front of a very bright window.  I put a picture of a couple in the window, made them transparent, and used the same filter that was used on the eye in the first panel.  I then used a picture of a mirror, cut out the middle and put it around the couple, so it looked like they were in the mirror.  I used color variations to even out the color of the mirror and make it brighter and made it transparent.  The final thing I did was use color variations to raise the saturation to give it more color.  
                   In the first panel I created a nostalgic feel with the colors of the background picture.  I also used my understanding of the reason for the song to my advantage.  The boy on the first panel looks as if he is dreaming about the house in the background, that's why I put the lights above his head.  I used a glowing eye because one of the lyrics is "there's glowing in your eyes".  In the second panel the people are walking into the doorway away from the boy.  They're transparent to show that they're leaving this world behind.  The eyes represent the boy's mother's eyes, which I know are green.  In the last panel I had the couple in the mirror because the boy sees his parents in a mirror, so I kept that idea even though it wasn't said in the song.  The man is supposed to represent the boy's godfather whom he shares a moment with at the point in the song that this panel represents.
                    I enjoy working with photoshop and I was naturally good with the magnetic lasso.  It's enjoyable to be able to change certain elements in pictures.  I feel that my triptych was successful because it represented the song very well.  The picture are blended together nicely so they don't look out of place where they are.  The second panel was the easiest, everything just sort of fell together.  If I were to this differently I wouldn't change the second panel but I'd try to find different pictures for the other two in hopes that I would be able to get them to fall together just like the second panel did.