Integrating Input Devices
Carol Luttmer
Elective Course--Digital Graphics
November 20, 2002

Past, Present and Future

Family Photos Across the Years

I used a digital camera and a scanner to work with my pictures in Photoshop. I used a family picture of my mom taken in 1945 to show the past. Yes, she was from a very large family, 15 children in all. This picture is not as clear as I would like it. I had to scan it in a frame. The other old picture is of my dad's family, (he's the curly top sitting on Grandma's knee.) taken in about 1923. My family picture was taken a few years ago to show the present and then I took the same picture and added my new son-in-law to show the future--the Christmas picture we will take in December. I wanted to add a baby gif to his arms to show the distant future, but I thought my daughter might get the wrong impression. I am not ready for a grandchild until this TATC class is finished for sure!!!!

I used the blur tool so you could see my mom and dad's families through my family picture. I lost an aunt and an uncle this fall and with each passing, family becomes more precious to me. My brothers and sister and I always take family pictures at Mom and Dad's house on the holidays. My parents' families didn't do this when they were little. Family pictures were taken at the photographer and very rarely was this done. I don't think you can see this because of the blurring, but both of the old pictures were taken with a drapery as the background. I used a dark color as my background color to blend the pictures together more as one. I used the khaki color as my web page color to give the collage a little kick. I used a digital picture of me and set the opacity at 60% then used the magic wand tool to cut my picture and place it over the collage. I wanted it to look as if I was contemplating my life--where I came from, where I am, and where I am going. The middle ground of my collage is the family pictures and the foreground is the luminous me looking back at the collage. I used grayscale as my second picture. I think it ties it together nicely. I tried sepia and channel mixer but that just looked garish.