Photostory

Here is my photo story! Thank you for a great semester

Portraits

These are four portraits I took of my best friend/roommate over the past couple weeks. Every time she saw me taking a photo, the smile was not genuine. She would adjust and it would not be real emotion. It is interesting how candid photos can represent and show a lot more than a posed portrait. The way I solved this issue was to take photos before she knew I was photographing and after when she thought I was done. In that case, I saw a lot more real emotion and more of a candid shot.

This was after a few photos when she was laughing and telling me to put the camera away. More genuine emotion.

Caught her looking classy with her drink while also photographing the food too. 

Candid photo. Fixing her hair in preparation for a posed photo. I preferred these much better. 

A portrait where you do not see the face. This was taken at the top of Mt. Philo. 

Text, Clone, Patch and Paint Tools

Original

Added Text - Tried to find a bold and classy contrast for the text. As a first time around, I proud of the first draft. 

Original

Took out the light post with the cloning tool. I let the tool do its work as I took a small scale selection tool and work my way down. Took me a while to really get this one down!!

Original

Used patch and paint tools. Used the paint for the sky, and a saturater for the homes and water. I then patch up the top trees to make it more of a solid look while still keeping the tree silhouette. I like how this one turned out. It turned out to be more os a psychedelic photo. Definitely one of my favorite so far this semester. These are the photos I am more attracted to when I look at photography. 

Photostory Preview

These are 10 photos I am considering using to tell my photo story.

I am trying to tell the story of someone who is locked inside and needs to get out and enjoy nature. I try to show these steps with the dying plant, peephole, money, shoes, and nature views all the way to the sunset.

Enjoy! :)

Dodge and Burn and Filters

Original

With Dodge tool

Original

With oil painting filter, feel free to zoom in (this one turned out really cool)

Original

With crystalize tool (love this one!!)

Two Color Adjusted Photos

Original

Adding Vidid Light filter, and adjusting contrast, used selection tool for buildings

Original

Using selection tool, making a new layer, then making the background black and white

Once I actually started playing around with the options for color, I became very invested in playing. I loved this assignment. I definitely learned a lot this week with photoshop.

Photoshop Assignment - Selection Tools

I combined the two landscape photos of Winooski, VT. It was nice to familiarize myself with the basic photoshop tools. This turned out better than expected. Go ahead and look back at the two landscape photos to see the originals!

Landscape Photography

Winooski, Vt |  This photo captures beautiful light and reflection from the Winooski Falls. I was shocked by how well this photo turned out. I was definitely lucky with this shot. One of my favorites pictures I've ever taken.

Cape May, NJ | I visited Cape May recently and it was an extremely foggy day. I was standing on the shore and I could barely see the sign in front of me and I thought it would be a really cool photo. Ended up being more of a creepy abandoned beach photo, and I think it is ver powerful. It took me a few times to find the right lighting from the sun in the photo while still keeping some of the landscape in focus. 

Winooski, VT | This was my second shot after loving my first landscape shot at the Winooski Falls.  Obviously the sun was in a different position than the last photo, and there were different kinds of clouds in the sky. I still think this photo is beautiful with the color and reflection. Took me a few tries to get the angle right, so it could look like the photo is split by the sky and reflection. 

Burlington, VT | This photo was taken down by the Waterfront in downtown Burlington. The sun was setting and people were crowding around the boardwalk. Just 20 minutes shy before the sun fully went down, about four people charged down at the water in hopes of taking their canoe out to watch the sunrise. This shot is using the color of the sunset and the black silhouettes of the people as a powerful tool for contrast. 

Framing

Here are five photos that represent types of framing.

This photo frames the objects on the shelf and keeps them in focus

This photo is mostly curved and sharp lines created a complex frame for different objects of focus.

There is a circular frame surrounding the made focus which is the coins in the jar.

I tried to capture a photo with the peep hole framing the view but it is more difficult than I thought. I still think this photo is really cool because of the different circle frames surrounding a pretty blurry picture, but focused enough that you can see a rectangular frame around the door. 

There are a bunch of different lines in this photo. I think there is a frame for the table arm in the center, and a narrow frame for the carpet in the background. I felt the need to include this one because I do not think it is an obvious frame.

Rules of Thirds

For this assignment I chose to photograph my semi-dying plant on my windowsill. I noticed pretty early on that I love to take all my single-object focused photos with the rule of thirds method.

The first photo is centered and the second photo is just barely in the rule of thirds section. Surprisingly I normally gravitate towards the photos where things are not center, but I believe the first photo is stronger! Even though you can see my reflection more in the second photo, which is pretty cool, I think the emphasis on the plant is stronger in the first photo. 

    

Composition and Aesthetics

I found this really interesting powerpoint about the aesthetics of photography. There are some wonderful slides discussing the basic definition of "aesthetic" as well as differ lines, color schemes, color physiology, etc. The powerpoint is extremely informative and can be found at the link below:

http://www.frankstonphotoclub.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Aesthetics-of-Photography-Emma-v2.pdf

The opening quotation on the first slide of the powerpoint is what pulled me into the presentations.

"You don't take a good photograph, you make it" - Ansel Adams

I believe there is a lot of truth to this quotation. Nature is beautiful in itself when captured in a photo, but it all about the photographers angle and editing. All of the time spent editing a photo can alter the thought and emotion the viewer will most likely feel. It is an interesting skill and talent to challenge the viewer with a photograph.

Color and Lighting

Analogous:

The couch in my living room has the analogous color scheme because shades of blue and green are next to each other on the color wheel. I thought it would have been more difficult to find this scheme, but I actually saw it a lot just inside my apartment. Once, I went outside I started noticing how common it is!

Complementary:

Complementary colors have always been difficult for me to understand. I feel like some of them go together and truly compliment each other, but on the other hand, some of them don't do the trick for me. On my keychain I have a Sriracha2Go bottle and the colors red and green are complimentary. I feel like I don't see red and green together unless it's christmas time! 

Three Different Lighting Situations - Water Bottle:

This photo was taken in my office space at work. There are fluorescent lights on the ceiling. I think this lighting doesn't do anything for the water bottle because I think the desk color and the wall color do not add any color or depth to the photo. The red in this photo is more like what it looks like when you hold it in your hand, in comparison to the next two photos.

 This photo was taken on a windowsill inside the house and the sun was shining outside, but not on the window. The window panes are bright white and can clearly be seen by the naked eye, but because of the bright light outside, the bottle and windowsill were darkened. This photo does not work with the water bottle as it's focus.

This photo was taken outside with direct sunlight. It is amazing how much color is shown in the picture. The red in this photo is a lot more vibrant than in person. You can see the sun reflection mark at the top of the bottle! I think there is some beautiful color in this photo and I think it works and compliments the water bottle.

Apartment Collage

The collage maker that we were supposed to use wasn't working so I used a different web tool. I chose the 9 best photos that I think represent my apartment. These were all taken with the macro setting! I hope you enjoy!

Two Photo Comparison

I really enjoyed the lighting in this photo. It was taken farther away than the second photo shown below.  This is my favorite shot of the bunch. The way the lighting comes in the window and lights up the bottles and the different parts of the fern gives the shot some depth. Also, this photo is not taken at a front-on angle. This gives the viewer a different perspective from the photographers point of view.

The second photo below is extremely close up to the fern. In comparison to the first photo, when I got closer to the fern, there was actually a bunch of light shining in on the greens. This photo shows the craziness of all the different branches while the first photo shows the plant as a whole, not being able to see just how many branches it takes to make up the large plant.