My desk is full of everyday objects. Including a red stapler. It is a Stanley stapler, not Swingline, but I could easily pretend to be Milton with it.

So for the Common Everyday Object assignment, I decided to celebrate my red stapler with a photoshopping extravaganza.

This first one is actually a very simple effect in Photoshop. In the Adjustments panel (in GIMP this is the Color menu) I went to Curves. The tool initially gives you a single RGB graph with a lone gray line, but you can select Red, Green or Blue. There are also pre-built “curves” that will automatically change the image such as creating a color negative. I played with the four different curves, sliding the line up and down at various points along the graph until I found a combination that was interesting. It’s a simple technique (and gets a lot more fiddly when you are trying to actually blend something in with another image), but for this assignment I decided to just go with a fun semi-neon effect.

For this second one, I decided to transform the image to a single color. There are a number of ways you can do this, but the easiest is to 1) select Black & White or under Hue/Saturation desaturate the photo. 2) Go to Channel Mixer and play with the Red, Green, Blue, and Constant channels. Slide them around until you find a combination you like. To achieve the above effect, in the Red Channel I set Red to -32%, Green to +102%, Blue to +135%, and Constant to +62%.

This third one is just a simple Filter. From the Artistic Filters I played around with a few, but finally settled on Cutout. It creates an interesting stippling effect for the surface of my desk.

For the last one I decided to go with an underwater effect. First I went with a Distort Filter called Ripple. Then I overlayed a copy of the original at 40% Opacity with an Artistic Filter called Sponge. This created distortions of the stapler image similar to those you see when looking at something lying on the bottom of a swimming pool or a clear body of water. Then I added a Photo Filter called Underwater to add a greenish blue tint to the image with a 47% Density. The density is yet another slider that you can play around with until you get the particular desired hue. Finally, I wanted to add the ripples of the water’s surface, so I overlayed an image of the ocean’s surface with 32% Fill. I didn’t like having it on top, so I moved it to be below the underwater filter, and finally had the effect I was going for.