PHOTOGRAPHY I
Still Life (Fall 2015)
Since these were my first attempts at photography I tried to stick with smaller subjects for my still life so I could focus on lighting and getting familiar with my camera rather than having to worry as much about the background. Even though the backgrounds weren't terribly elaborate, it was still a challenge to think of what would help push the narrative or feel of the photo.
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Color (Fall 2015)I tried using different kinds of color schemes in my photos such as contrasting, monochromatic, warm, and cool. The thing I found most difficult about having color as the main focus was making sure the objects weren't so busy that they grabbed your attention more than the color scheme did. I also struggled with how to represent a warm or cool color scheme which to me is the hardest kind of color focused photography.
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Close Up (Fall 2015)
I had a hard time getting in close enough to my subject without having it turn out blurry or out of focus. I ended up having to use a tripod and timer to solve my problem. What I really got out of this project study was that the focus of this kind of photography is about displaying hidden or unique textures in everyday objects.
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Motion (Fall 2015)
I'm happy with my rock 'em sock 'em photo because it really caused me to think of a unique way to convey motion, though it took numerous tries to work out bugs and capture it at just the right moment. I learned that photos taken with a slow shutter speed should be taken very late in the evening so they don't let in too much light, and fast shutter speeds can be taken inside or in the daytime. Thinking of fast shutter speed photos that can accurately show motion is far harder than slow shutter speed photography and requires lots of thought and planning before going out for a shoot.
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Portrait (Fall 2015)
Portrait photography was definitely my favorite study I did. I really enjoyed working with the models and creating some narrative through their personalities. A lot of helpers are needed to take a successful shoot (photographer, someone to help with controlling the lighting, and of course the models). I think the most challenging part about this was just finding a good chunk of time that worked for all the people involved. It was a great project to put together all I had learned up to this point plus new skills relating to live models and lighting.
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PHOTOGRAPHY II
This is a caricature I did by combining multiple photos, stretching and distorting, and layer masking them over each other. I think I did a good job of matching up the pictures and keeping the perspective fairly intact. I'm not very happy with the quality of photos though. If I were to do something differently next time it would be to make sure I have better lighting. This project was all about layer masking. I learned how to free transform images to resize them from the gypsy photo. I like the composition of this one but I feel like it is a little on the darker side. From the levitating one, I learned how to make an artificial shadow which I thought I did a pretty nice job on. It was a cool idea and I got the lighting to match up fairly well, but I don't care for the wood floor and wish I had access to something else. Here I worked on a social justice poster. I really liked doing this because we got to pick our cause, mine being against the use of make up. We introduced text and I played around with splattered paint effects. I like that for the background I used a feminine color. I wish I would have emphasized the make up on the girl a little more to help get across my poster's message. For the surrealism project I decided to put a cracked texture on a face. I learned how to use the liquify tool to wrap the texture to the contours of her face. It was difficult to find a picture of peeling paint that would look like the effect I wanted. For my final project I did another levitation photo. I used a windy day, tripod, and some Photoshop to pull this one together. I think I did a nice job with the shadow. |