Week Fourteen/ Final Project

The semester is coming to an end. It's amazing to see everything we learned. Time went by so quickly. The slideshow was quite tedious. I had to keep rearranging everything to make sure it was in the right order. I used Picasa to make my slideshow. My only complaint is I wish it gave me more options with my text. It was difficult not to cover the photo too much or have the text not quite readable. I enjoyed the class and I appreciate everyone's comments and critiques. Good luck, everyone.

Week Thirteen

The timing was actually perfect for this assignment cause I was taking so many pictures cause of the holidays.  The first picture and the last picture were taken with my SLR camera, the other two were taken with my android cell phone.The first picture is of my brother. He's a junior in high school and extremely difficult to photograph. He hates taking pictures, so i'm very happy with this photo. :) I got him when he didn't think I was looking :) The photo shows a side to him a lot of people don't see, which is why I especially like this photograph. He's very sarcastic, very goofy, a little dry, and exceptionally witty. At home he has a seriousness about him, that not many people see. A boy surrounded by three sisters, he's got a sensitive side, contemplative side, not a lot get to see. With the photo I added a color filter, and I blurred the skin a bit to make it appear softer. I also cropped a portion of the photo, because I did not like the background.

The second picture is of my aunt and my sister. We were out to lunch and I was snapping pictures after pictures. They were getting very annoyed with me. This photo I snapped before they realized I was going to. It was an intriguing moment. Its hard sometimes to photograph more than one person, not having them pose, and have their emotions resonate one another and capture it at that exact, perfect moment. We were chit chatting, they were getting ready for me to take a picture and I appeared to not be ready, but I was watching them, and I caught them making this expression, and snapped. They seem relaxed, and calm and so many other emotions I can't quite pin. I darkened the edges of the photo, and messed with the saturation and contrast. I also had the camera on vintage mode to give it some more warmth, you can't really see the warmth once I made it a B&W.

The third photo is of my boyfriend watching TV  I had my cell phone on the "cool" setting. He was wearing a vintage t-shirt and just the way the lamp was and where I was sitting I felt the "cool" setting added to the mood. I had sat down on this chair when I looked over at my boyfriend, and saw a potentially great photo. I didn't do much more editing other than having the camera on the cool setting.

The last photo is of my youngest sister. We were playing with her make up and hair, just experimenting, curling, straightening, etc. I love most the way this photo made her face and eyes look. I thought about cropping so the focus was more on her face, but I kind of like the way her face is a little off the center of the page. The angle I took the photo makes her features look much softer. I again made the edges of the photo darker and I chose to make the photo black and white.

Week Ten

Above: Clone Tool

Above: Text Tool

Above: Paint Tool

Above: Clone Tool, again.

I am always messing around with the clone tool. It has been one of my favorite tools since I was introduced to it back in high school. I had difficulty finding a photograph that I hadn't already used the clone tool with. I find it best to use when I went to get rid of something that I feel takes away from the image, like a power line, or piece of garbage etc. I wanted to do something a little more difficult so that's whats showing above in the first three photographs. I wanted to make a photomontage, in spirit of just writing my essay on Jerry Uelsnmann. :) It's a little rough around the edges. I used the clone tool again, a little more simpler on the last two photos. The text tool is a fun tool. I use it when I make calenders. I usually write a quote for each month. I found this quote on google, and found it matched the photo well. The paint tool is not a tool I've used before. I had fun with it. Made the image look more urban looking to me. I changed the opacity to 30% and selected multiple colors to give the photo range. 

Week Nine

Once I started messing around with the filters I remembered I use to use this technique when I was younger to make calenders. Two of my favorites are the warming filter and the watercolor filter. So that is what I used. The sunset I used the watercolor filter and for the puppy the warming filter. Its very hard to take pictures of my puppy she is constantly running around like crazy. Literally, in circles outside or inside, wherever she can go. I managed to capture a photo of her running towards me; she's my little baby :) ...and she warms me up :). For the sunset I just felt it was appropriate like a beautiful painting I would see.

Week Eight

Editing photos by adjusting levels, curves, contrast is something I've always done automatically. This was a before and after photo that I had done on previous weeks. Any photo I have posted I had edited in this way. 

These are photos I've already posted and done some editing with. With this one I remember playing with the saturation as well to make the trees and sky warmer and brighter.

I'm going to take some more pictures so I can do some more new editing.

I found these two above in an old folder so I thought I'd post. It's such a difference and all I did was alter the lighting, shadows, contrast and color. 

With these two above, I just messed around with the sunset. I liked the bottom original one so I had never opened it up in Photoshop. I altered the colors, altered the lighting, added some more contrast and voila. It s a completely different sunset now.

I found this photo buried that I never messed around with so... I added a lot more light to the photo for one. I added a lot more color and again saturation. I added color the first time and then at the end I added even more and it sort of made it look more like the sun was shining right on the center of the bench, which I really liked.

Week Seven

The two photos above I combined by using the Lasso Tool, Clone Tool and then used the Blur tool to blur the edges a bit. 

With the two photos above I used the Rectangular Marquee tool, Crop, and Blur tool. 

I am using Adobe Photoshop Elements 11. 

Week Six

Landscapes. I went on a little road trip on route five taking random roads, and this is what I came up with. When I think of landscapes I think of mountains and sunsets. I tried to sway a little bit from that. My favorite photo is the first one with the cat on the railroad. I was driving over the railroad and I looked one way and I said "oou. I gutta stop" and then I looked the other way and there was a cat just sitting there looking at a tree. I thought it made the photograph so much better. It just sat there for a good five minutes. It moved once I tried to get closer. With the last one, another of my favorites I took photos from all different angles, and this angle ended up being my favorite. With the fourth photo, and many others I had difficulty with the power lines. Very frustrating. One thing I noticed as well is it must of just been the time of day, but the light was almost overwhelming. It seemed to bright and intense in some of my photos. I adjusted as much as I could. Like I've said in the past I definitely prefer taking photos when its a little darker. I think its cause I really like contrast and just the look of warmth. 

Week Five

Week Four

I found these charts on google which I found very helpful :)

First two photos are analogous. All the colors are from the same shade spectrum. Last two are complementary. Orange vs. red. Blue vs. brown/orange.

Week Two

The point of view of a photo can change everything. It changes the focus, what the eye is drawn to first and can completely change the subject. Take a picture of a car from one side, its a car, take a picture from above, its a sunroof, take a picture from afar and wrap your hand around it. The car is now a toy car. The 3rd photo and the 4th photo are my two favorite. With the 3rd photo you are no longer just looking at a door knob. The colors and contrast the gold, you see how beautiful it is. From afar its just a boring door knob. The 4th picture is just a really neat angle. If i were to just look at the photo, and that photo only I'm not sure I'd be able to figure out what I'm looking at.