Well, this trimester has just about drawn to an end. That means it's time to bid farewell to this class. Looking back on the past few months I can tell that I've learned a lot from being in this class. Although, from the start, I had a good amount of experience with photography, I didn't truly feel comfortable shooting in full manual mode. With the amount of time I have spent in this class, and the experience it gave me, allowed me to fully embrace manual in oder to gain some truly incredible pictures. Another thing I had to adjust to was the point and shoot cameras. At the start of this class I hated my class camera because I could never get the focus right. As seen below in one of my first (and worst) pictures, nothing is truly in focus and the photo is not particularly interesting to look at. But I learned from it and went on to shoot some pretty interesting things. Below is my best photo that I took at my little brother's birthday party. That week I had ended up doing a photo assignment I hadn't planned on and I had taken the image sort of randomly. But, looking back, it was truly one of my greatest images. I find it funny how some of the best images come when you least expect it. Although I came into the class with some photography knowledge in my back pocket, I had no idea how to work with photoshop. But as I stand here now I can say I feel I have mostly mastered the basics of the application and I'm proud of some of the work I've produced. My favorite photoshop assignment was the open assignment because I was really able to explore in photoshop and hone new skills. As you can see below I ended up with some pretty cool looking images. In the end, I'm really glad I took this class because it further strengthened my love for photography and taught me many valuable techniques, such as, light painting, portraits, and how to capture motion. I would highly suggest people take this class because it is incredibly fun and it's something you should definitely try. Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you enjoyed my work.
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In this assignment we learned how to work with layer masks in order to put multiples of the same person in one image. In order to accomplish this we had to go out and shoot photos with our subject in different positions. We also had to shoot a "blank" image of just the background as our base for this assignment. When coming up with the idea for the image I knew I wanted more than just one person in my image. And then my group mate had the idea to do YMCA so I combined both those ideas and came up with this final shot.After we accomplished our final image we worked using the adjustment layers to give our image a "look" to it. For mine I further corrected the exposure, adjusted the levels, and removed the saturation. In the end this was a really fun assignment because we got a chance to use our creativity and have a little fun in photoshop.
In this assignment, I took pictures with the intent of turning them black and white. In order to turn them black and white you have to desaturate an image in post production. For this assignment, I recycled some pictures from old assignments and I took advantage of the weather and shot some pictures. When I was shooting, I went with someone who took the Black and White photography class. She was able to help me find scenes that would lend themselves to black and white. The key for this was finding the tones in a shot, which is to say the difference in colors. The larger the contrast the better the picture is in black and white. In the end, this was a fun assignment to shoot because I not only had to look for composition I had to look for tones as well. This trimester is coming to an end so this will be one of my last blog posts. Thank you for reading my blog and see you later! Aperture: f 8.0
Shutter Speed: 1/200 ISO: 200 Edits: Increased Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, Blacks, Clarity, and Decreased Saturation In this assignment we learned how to work with different kinds of light and how to effectively take portraits. For the photoshop aspect we used composting, framing, and text in order to showcase our work. We practiced using two different lighting effects, window lighting and studio lighting. For window lighting we had a bounce card to bounce the light back onto the subject and lift some of the shadows caused by their face. In the studio we had three lights. The key light, the brightest light, the fill light, half as bright as the key, and the hair light which creates depth in the image. The key light is 45 degrees from the subject and is your main source of light. The fill light fills up the other half of the subject's face. Then in photoshop we created a black background and placed the photos in. We then added a frame behind each picture and added text on the bottom. This assignment was rather simple when it came to photoshop and worked more with photography skills than photoshop. Overall this assignment was really fun to shoot because we got to practice taking pictures in an actual studio and work with a live subject. I hope to further include these portrait taking skills in the future.
In this assignment I took pictures of things close up that you wouldn't normally see. This assignment got hard because whenever I got really close to an object I couldn't focus on it. I took advantage of the nice weather and went outside to take pictures. Near the back of my yard my neighbor has interesting items. This included fencing, a window, a broken wagon, and two car trailers. I found it cool because it was something new to photograph besides all the dead plants in my yard. My mom was also sitting outside on our porch so I took some pictures of her and her scarf that sh was making. Overall, this week's assignment was really fun because I normally shoot in macro, so this was just an extension of that. I love taking macro pictures and I hope to continue using this technique in my work. Aperture: f 5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/200 ISO: 200 Edits: Increased Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Clarity, Vibrance, Temperature, Whites, Blacks, and Saturation In this assignment we were given a chance to go onto the internet and find photoshop tutorials ourselves. We would then use the technique done in the tutorial in order to truly master the effect. I was able to find enough time to do not one but three tutorials. I started off with the same base image every time in order to see the effect of my different edits. My first tutorial I did the pixel explosion. This involved using mask layers and square brushes in order to gain the effect. This tutorial was very easy to follow along to and turned out really cool. My second tutorial I did the watercolor effect. For this tutorial I had to download brushes and I again used masks and brushwork. The end result took awhile to put together and I am rather happy with the final product. For my third and final tutorial I worked on turning a photo into a drawing. This effect was very easy to achieve and only involved using filters and blending. I think the end result was incredibly cool and I would highly encourage beginners to try. In the end, I had a lot of fun this week and I hope to maybe do this again sometime in the future. Links: Pixel Explosion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCpwRjnjv5Q Watercolor Effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FItQ_eXCt6E Image into Drawing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi8rr1TcCX8 In this assignment I used a long exposure in order to light paint. This is where you leave the shutter speed open for an extended period of time and move light around in order to "paint" with the light. I did this with the help of my brothers and we had a lot of fun with this. We didn't have many lights to use so the lights we ended up with were a lightsaber, a flashlight, and a ball of christmas tree lights. In order to get some different colored lights we took construction paper and put it over the flashlight and drew with that. In order to get some of the crazy lights with different depths, my brother wrapped himself in christmas lights and ran around the room. It helped to have at least two other people helping because it allowed for one person to be the subject and the other to manipulate the lights. This assignment was super fun and I hope I will get to do it again. Aperture: f 5.6
Shutter Speed: 3.0 ISO: 200 Edits: Increased Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Clarity, Vibrance, Temperature, Whites, Blacks, and Saturation In this assignment we had to end up with five panoramas in total. Each panorama was composed of at least three images. In photoshop afterwards we had to use the photomerge tool to "stitch" all the pictures together. I tried to find places around the school that would suit themselves for panoramas. I was even lucky enough that day that it was sunny outside so I got two of my panoramas outside of the school. It was interesting messing around with the different types of photomerge and trying to find which one worked best for each set of images. Overall this assignment gave me a cool insight into what truly goes into panoramic photos.
In this assignment, I went outside and took some photos of nature. I was lucky enough that the sun came out on the weekend so my pictures weren't super grey and cloudy in the background. I love taking photos outside and I know the most photogenic spots in my yard. I was able to come up with some new ideas for pictures, such as taking pictures of the grass, and, as I was walking around, a cool composition presented itself. I found this dead flower laying on the ground and I took a large set of photos with it. In the end, I found no matter how well you know your environment new photos can present themselves if you are willing to look outside the box. Aperture: f 8.0
Shutter Speed: 1/800 ISO: 200 Edits: Increased Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Clarity, Vibrance, Temperature, Whites, and Saturation Before:After:In this assignment we were given the task of taking a photo somewhere in the school and changing the "context" of it. We got to work with some brand new tools and worked with composting images together. I took a picture on top of a floating case over by the auditorium. I wanted to turn it to more of an alley and I think the end result looks a lot different from the start. I took many aspects from one of my favorite book series, The Mortal Instruments, and placed them in the image. Everything from an abandoned witch light, to Church the cat. I had a lot of fun with this project even though it was rather frustrating at times trying to get a certain look. I feel I now have a much better handle on photoshop and I'm looking forward to our next assignment.
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AuthorI am a sophmore at Saline High School. This blog is for digital photography class. ArchivesCategories |