When I first came into this class, I knew nothing about cameras. I had never heard of aperture or shutter speed. The only thing I knew was that my dad's camera could take some pretty good pictures. As the trimester went on, I learned the different techniques and settings necessary for taking a quality photograph. Through lessons in the classroom and experience on my own, my pictures started to get better and better. I went from not being able to adjust aperture to taking fascinating photos of buildings and nature. After a while, I started to run out of ideas for my photo assignments. Since I had taken so many photos already, I needed to get more creative and inventive with the photos I took, otherwise they would be kind of boring. This class pushed my creative side and taught me how many possibilities there are in photography. My work's quality has come a long way from when I started the class. Here are some of my worst photos. Here are some of my better photos.
0 Comments
For this project Mr. Bush rode his bike around and we took photos of him. Our goal was to create a blurred background with him in focus. This would give the still image a sense of speed. To do this I had to have a slow shutter speed and pan my camera with him as he rode past. Since it was so sunny outside, I closed my aperture all the way to make sure my photos weren't overexposed.
In this assignment, I made a photograph that had multiple versions of me within it. I did this by taking a photograph of an area with nobody in it and then taking a photograph of me in that area doing different activities and in different positions. I made sure to use a tripod and keep my camera on full manual mode to ensure that nothing would change in the background. I stacked all my photos on top of each other in Photoshop and used a layer mask so that only I would be visible in each layer. I had to refine some edges in my photos to make sure that my background wasn't cut off by the pictures on top.
In this assignment I decided to take photos of different buildings and structures in my area. Some photos were taken in downtown Saline, and some were taken in downtown Ann Arbor. I had never noticed how detailed the buildings in Ann Arbor are. Some struggles I had in this assignment was making sure the buildings were completely in focus since I needed to be farther away to capture the entire building. Another thing that was troublesome was the tall trees nearby. They cast many shadows on the buildings that didn't always look good in the photo. Aperture: F/ 9.0 Shutter: 1/320 ISO: 100 Edits: I darkened the Highlights and raised the Contrast and lowered Vibrance. For this assignment we were free to do whatever we wanted in Photoshop as long as there was a tutorial for it. I decide to make a planet in space as well as a cool graphic design pixel stretch. I also tried to make someone have face paint on their face but i did not have enough time. In this tutorial I learned how to use the Spherize distortion and how to put a lens flare in. There was also a lot I learned about the Gaussian Blur and Cloud effect. In this tutorial I learned about the Single Row Marquee Tool and different ways I could use Free Transform to stretch and shift pixels.
For this photo assignment I decided to do some light painting. My friend and I went to Walmart and bought a red and a blue light. We went to his basement to make sure we were in a dark environment to take the photos. Before we turned off the lights, I made sure to focus the camera on my friend who was standing where we were going to put the lights. Then I turned off the lights and we had fun making random shapes and tossing the lights around. Aperture: F/ 8.0 Shutter: 5.0 ISO: 100 Edits: I raised the Whites and Vibrance. I lowered the Shadows. For this assignment we had to take three or more photos and make a panorama with them. We had to make sure that there was a 30-40 percent overlap in our pictures to ensure that Photoshop could merge the photographs. I had a lot more control of the camera in this assignment because I used a tripod. I learned to make sure not to accidentally bump or shift the tripod when I was taking pictures or else my panoramas would get messed up. For this assignment I wanted to take pictures that focused on the balance between light and darkness. I took these photos in a dark room. I had a white sheet on top of a table and place my phone underneath the sheet. My phone's flashlight was turned on so it cast a beam of light through the sheet. I put different glass and clear plastic items on top of the light to illuminate them. I used a new tripod that my dad bought to make sure my camera stood still. I had to use a tripod because my shutter speed was slow. Aperture: F/ 5.6 Shutter: 1/20 ISO: 100 Edits: I raised the Highlights, Whites, and Clarity. I decreased the Exposure a little bit and lowered the Blacks. For this assignment I had to take pictures of classmates in a portrait form. I then had to take my two best photos, one studio portrait and one window portrait, and put them on a black background. I also had to put a white border around each image. This assignment taught me how much of an influence lighting has in a photograph. To make sure that both sides of the face has lighting and depth was still visible, I had to have a white reflector sheet opposite the light source to bounce some light back onto the person. I also had to make sure the white balance was correct for both images. Since the light sources were different the white balance settings had to be different from each other. I also had to make sure the white balance was correct. Since the light sources were different, they had to have different white balance settings.
For this assignment I had to shoot photos that portrayed the natural world. I decided to take some pictures in the woods behind my friend's house. It was very cold that day so I learned to always dress for the weather. I also took some photos in my own backyard. It is extremely overgrown so I knew I could find some vines and branches to photograph. I discovered these weird plants that had bright purple stems. The stems contrasted well with the green leaves and berries. I enjoyed this assignment because I got to admire how beautiful nature is. Aperture: F/ 5.6 Shutter: 1/125 ISO: 400 Edits: I raised the Contrast, Highlights, Blacks, Clarity, Vibrance, and Saturation. I lowered the Shadows and Whites. |
AuthorArtist Archives
November 2016
Categories |