Pick up any magazine and look at the cover; chances are you're looking at an image that has been manipulated digitally in some way. Once considered an ethical no-no, retouching images has become the norm thanks to ubiquitous and easy to use software like Photoshop. In product photography colors are over saturated, highlights added (or removed), shadows are softened or defined, etc. In landscapes buildings are moved to improve composition (or removed altogether). In fashion photos wrinkles are removed, breasts are made larger and rounder, hips are made slimmer, stomachs flattened, etc. Even news images are altered (who remembers the flap over the image of O.J. Simpson on Newsweek?).
Is all this manipulation a good thing? Depends on whom you ask. Certainly there are ethical issues that are raised. When is it okay to doctor an image? Are we obligated to tell the viewer that it has been doctored? Or is manipulation simply part of the process, like burning and dodging or manipulating depth of field to create a specific effect?
Use Photoshop to create an image that is a fabrication/synthesis/alteration of one or more original photographs.
Read Freeman, chapter 6, especially the section on Post-Production.
Brainstorm; how might you alter a photograph? Photoshop allows you to do subtle things like improve a model's bad complexion, or dramatic things like putting a Starbucks on the surface of the moon. Of course, no one's going to believe the later (I hope). Your task is to make the image look believable (so no "batboys" or "bigfoots"). But at the same time it should be an image that is impossible without digital trickery. For example, you could put yourself in a photo with Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie, or you could move the Foshay tower to St.Paul.
As with the previous assignments, the subject matter is up to you (people, objects, landscapes, architecture, etc.), as long as the image meets the other requirements.
Submit both digitally manipulated image and the original unretouched one.
* I will set up the assignment on the portal so that you should be able to upload the images there.