Here's a Solution: Peace Montage

Photoshop Midterm

Jessica Modawell

7/18/2010

Religious Wars: Israel and Palestine Conflict

The conflict between the land which Israel and Palestine have been conflicting about for decades started back in biblical times. Israel, which was once Judea in ancient times was home of the Jews was conquered by the Romans and named Palestine. Arabs then conquered it and have lived there for 10,000 years. The Zionist movement then arose who’s purpose was to restore the land to the Jews made the mistake of disregarding the Arab population who resided in the territory. In 1917 Palestine was granted to Britain in the League of Nations Mandate, which took Palestine away from the Arabs to build a national home for the Jews. This resulted in the Arabs hating the Jews because they felt that their land had been taken. There has been a conflict ever since.

In 1947 the United Nations partitioned the land making an Arab and a Jewish State. The Arabs were unhappy with the results of this and war broke out between the Arabs and the Jews. The Jews won and took over part of the Arabs land resulting in 200,000 Palestine refugees. Wars between the two parties have resulted in numerous terrorist attacks, and four outright wars. Neither side wants to make peace with the other, and they both have different recollections of the same events. Today the Palestine and Israel conflict consists of these main concerns; water, security, refugees, Jerusalem, land and settlements, terror and repression.

This topic is important because for the last 50 plus years there has been nothing but suicide bombings, terrorism, war and death coming from both the Israelis and Palestinians. There have been numerous attempts to come to peaceful terms, but both sides don’t want to make peace. To many innocent people have been hurt or died, or lost there homes and live in horrible living conditions. It is wrong for this conflict to escalate to the point that it has and the only ones that can fix it as seen in past outside gestures, is Israel and Palestine.

I chose this as the topic for my montage because I wanted to learn more about this topic. I feel that it is a tragic part of history that could have been avoided. My message is that both sides need to reconcile their differences and come to peace. The degree of hate that is seen between the two sides is discussing and immature, and the ones who are paying for it are the people who have to live there, and they are suffering because of this conflict. If you believe in the Bible then it’s sad because this is the part of the world where Jesus lived and died, and isn’t one of the commandments to love they neighbor.

The Montage was made of a background of dark smoke and the main picture is of the bombing of Gaza Strip. There is also a really famous picture that is at the bottom of a Palestine boy trying to block of an Israeli tank by throwing rocks at it. The next picture over is a soldier standing in flames after one of the wars that recently happened in the region. The most significant picture is of an Israeli soldier and a Palestinian arguing. The text in this montage came from a poster a man had protesting the violence in Palestine and Israel.

IfAmericansknew.org, (December 3^rd, 2009) what every American needs to know about Israel/Palestine, http://www.ifamericansknew.org/

BBC (May 8^th, 2010) Israel and Palestinian Territories Country Profile, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/803257.stm

Middle east web (2003-2007) Israel and Palestine Conflict: In a Nutshell, http://www.mideastweb.org/index.html

Palestine and the War on Terror, Image of boy throwing Rock http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://static.flickr.com/18/70726748_5b2940333e_o.jpg&imgrefurl=http://thecognoscenti.blogspot.com/2005/12/palestine-and-war-on-terror.html&usg=__OzjHN2lVtXxwGuqxl_EKtrtQiTI=&h=356&w=390&sz=53&hl=en&start=59&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=2_jkPtoVydotCM:&tbnh=112&tbnw=123&prev=/images%3Fq%3Disrael%2Band%2Bpalestine%2Bwar%26start%3D40%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den%26ndsp%3D20%26tbs%3Disch:1

Syria Comment, Syrian Politics, History and Religion http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.arabist.net/wp-content/Smoke%2520and%2520fire%2520rises%2520after%2520an%2520Israeli%2520airstrike%2520hit%2520the%2520suburbs%2520of%2520Beirut,%2520Lebanon,%2520Friday,%2520Aug.%25204%2520ap.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/%3Fp%3D129&usg=__pYqz5oDcCIsP9TqAMrJlOPu818s=&h=413&w=640&sz=51&hl=en&start=176&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=K-GYopkXtb2e6M:&tbnh=88&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3Disrael%2Band%2Bpalestine%2Bwar%26start%3D160%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den%26ndsp%3D20%26tbs%3Disch:1

Israel and Palestine Headlines, Israel Soldier vs. PalestineMan http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://secondsightresearch.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/face_off_israeli_soldier_palestinian_man.jpg&imgrefurl=http://secondsightresearch.tripod.com/id34.html&usg=__6R_PcFaHQxXE6RJ9H2S3zx9VXno=&h=268&w=608&sz=35&hl=en&start=257&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=bX_dH0UoPCPIaM:&tbnh=60&tbnw=136&prev=/images%3Fq%3Disrael%2Bpalestine%2Bconflict%26start%3D240%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den%26ndsp%3D20%26tbs%3Disch:1

Sublime Lyrics Poster Optimizing

These are the lyrics to a song by Sublime, which I used to make a poster of composites that reflect the song lyrics. The reason I picked Sublime is because the lead singer and song writer was a lyricist that personified his lyrics.The lead singer was really good at writing visually stimulating lyrics, and this song was easy to interpret into images. No matter how unordinary, and off the wall they may be.

Optimizing Color Combinations

For this image I used three separate images one was of a vw bug, and the other was of a field of flowers, and an airplane trailing a sign. I adjusted the colors and used filters and adjustments to achieve the final image. The color scheme just came into play because the original colors contrasted well with each other and worked really well. I messed with the filters to get the sky and the car with the plastic wrap effect. I also used the text tool to write my name on the planes banner. Other then that I used hue and saturation. levels and curves. I saved different paths then selectively adjusted them to get the end result.

Colorizing a Greyscale Image

The differences I found between making the duotone and the colorized image were that the adjustment functions were described better to me with the colorized image, so I felt more comfortable with adjusting the image to come to a final image. The process was a bit more complex, and it’s almost easier to work with a duotone then a colorized image. The more colors, the more choices you have and the harder it is to make a decision. It is much easier to see the tone and value range with a duotone then a colorized image for me at least.

“ A Duotone takes a monochrome grayscale image and allows you to take the tonal range, from lightest tones to darkest, and allocate a different color to specific part of the tonal range.” - http://www.luminous-landscape.com

How is a Duotone produced? Well in photoshop, of course. A Duotone is two colors used to bring out the tones of a photo. Duotones became popular when printmakers had a problem with printing black and white photos on computer printers. Black actually has 256 tones to it, which can’t be reproduced on computer printers. So photoshop has made a solution for this printing dilemma.

Duotones have actually brought not only graphic artist to photoshop, but have also found a following in photographers who now use photoshop as a useful tool in printing their images; Duotones are a way to bring the tones of black and white photos. By adding a color to a black and white picture the tonal range can be easily seen in photos. This is why so many photographers utilize duotones in photoshop.

Dutones

“ A Duotone takes a monochrome grayscale image and allows you to take the tonal range, from lightest tones to darkest, and allocate a different color to specific part of the tonal range.” - http://www.luminous-landscape.com

How is a Duotone produced? Well in photoshop, of course. A Duotone is two colors used to bring out the tones of a photo. Duotones became popular when printmakers had a problem with printing black and white photos on computer printers. Black actually has 256 tones to it, which can’t be reproduced on computer printers. So photoshop has made a solution for this printing dilemma.

Duotones have actually brought not only graphic artist to photoshop, but have also found a following in photographers who now use photoshop as a useful tool in printing their images; Duotones are a way to bring the tones of black and white photos. By adding a color to a black and white picture the tonal range can be easily seen in photos. This is why so many photographers utilize duotones in photoshop.