Photo Assignment #3: Black and White

For this weeks photo assignment I shot black and white photography. I really enjoy black and white because it creates a classic looks that shows great contrast between the object and it’s background. This is always my favorite format for taking pictures. Here is my best before and after:

Before:

After:

 

Iso: 100

Aperature: f4.5

Shutter Speed: 1/4

To edit this picture, all I really did was adjust the levels to increase the contrast and added a white frame and my name to the picture.

Taking black and white is always difficult because you want to be sure and shoot something that is going to create a lot of contrast because if your don’t have a lot of contrast for your black and white then your picture will fall flat.

Photoshop Composite

This week’s assignment was to create a composite of pictures that represent us. The first composite is what represents us now and the second composite is what we think will represent us in 10 years. In photoshop, to create these composites, I used layer masks, erasing, and opacity to make the pictures fit together. By blurring the edges of the pictures brought into the background, it creates a more unified look.

Composite 1:                                         Composite 2:

          

Photo Assignment #2: Macro

For this photo assignment I took macro pictures. Macro pictures are when you focus on an object, blurring the background so that only your object of interest is in focus. This puts an emphasis on just one thing. Here is my best picture before and after:

Before:

After:

For my best picture I adjusted the levels, added a white frame, and put my name on the picture.

ISO: 320

Shutter Speed: 1/50

Aperature: 4.5

Here are my other 10 photos:

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Taking macro pictures allowed me to practice manual focusing and how to get close to an object. It’s difficult shooting macro because sometimes I wanted to get closer to the object, but if I got too close then I wouldn’t be able to keep the object in focus so there were times where I just had to crop the photo to get the look I wanted.

Photoshop Retouching and The Effect It Has

We all know that Retouching happens. Every picture, on every billboard, magazine, and advertising, the picture is more often than not photoshopped these days. What most people would be surprised to find out, however, is what this article has to say- http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/2012/02/retouching-how-much-is-too-much. Now people are hiring people to photoshop and retouch their personal pictures. The media is setting a new standard that should not be followed. Soon we won’t even recognize ourselves in our own pictures because we now have the ability to erase every flaw with the touch of a button. When are we going to stop erasing our flaws and embracing them. Flaws are what make us different and I’m sorry but if you feel the need to retouch your body so that you look as skinny as every supermodel, then you aren’t different. Not at all. The media already influences little girls by telling them that if they aren’t a size 2 then they aren’t beautiful, why are we now allowing them to tell little girls that if you aren’t a size 2 you can fake it and make yourself appear that way. Girls should feel confident about the way they look, not think they have to erase themselves into nothingness with retouching. I think there should be a ban on the extent of how much retouching is too much. Women should not be made skinner or pieced together from several different bodies. It’s much more inspiring to see a photograph of how someone actually appears than it is to see a picture of a woman who isn’t real. Here is another website to check out- http://idealbite.com/100-percent-of-what-you-see-in-fashion-magazines-is-retouched/. This one include pictures in magazines that have been retouched and the effects these pictures have on women. Women are told every day to be beautiful and healthy, and ultimately to be perfect. But this perfect we are trying to reach-the one portrayed by models in magazines- is not real. There is no way for any of us to achieve this kind of beauty because it is one that does not exist. Even the woman in the picture doesn’t look this perfect. Guess what? She has the same flaws you do.

Filters

Today I took a normal profile picture and uploaded it into photoshop where I used different filters to change the look. With the liquify picture I was able to make my eyes bigger, my cheek bones higher, my hair appear wavy, and to swirl the background. With the clouds filter I was able to create a cloudy frame around myself which created a foggy look in my picture. In the future I could use the cloud filter as a way to frame a picture that is different and slightly more creative than the other frames that we already know how to do. Here are the two filters that I added:

Clouds Filter

 

Liquify Filter

Photo Assignment #1: Panoramic

For the first photo assignment I shot panoramic pictures. The process that was used to create these panoramics was to take several pictures with an overlapping of about 30% and then to put them into photoshop to merge the pictures together. Below is my best picture before and after I edited it:

Before:

After:

 

Iso: 100

Shutter Speed: 1/400

Aperature: f5.6

Here are the other panoramic pictures that I shot:

                 

While taking pictures for this photo assignment I was able to practice my skills of using a tripod, keeping the camera steady, and overlapping several pictures to make sure that they would all fit together to create a panoramic look. I also practiced using my camera in all manual which requires me to adjust all aspects of the exposure based on the lighting that I have to work with.

Panoramic Photos

For this assignment we had to use a tripod to take multiple pictures with an overlap of 30%. Then we took those pictures and put them into photoshop where it merged them together to create one long picture called a panoramic. This is, in my opinion the easiest way to take panoramic pictures. It was simple, easy, and fun.

After completing this assignment I learned how to use a tripod and how to use photo merge in photoshop to create this panoramic look. This assignment also allowed me to brush up on my framing skills. Sometimes shooting panoramic pictures is difficult because it is not always easy finding a landscape that will work well in a panoramic format.

 

 

 

Photo Assignment 1 Inspiration

For my photo assignment this week I am choosing to shoot panoramic pictures. I chose do take these pictures because it is what we are currently working on in class so since I was already in that mindset i figured it would be a good time to do this assignment.

Some inspiration that I found:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26406090@N05/3402753328/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thepezguyfromla/6763974371/

By shooting panoramic pictures I hope to learn various techniques and to look at my subjects with a different perspective