forced perspective

For this forced perspective image I set my f/stop to a large number to create a great depth of field. I then had Nash stand far back on the slanted floor and emma close up to the camera with her hand out as if Nash were standing on it. For editing, I created a gaussain blur around the outside and sharpened the image on the inside of the photo. I also boosted the colors and brightened it up.






For this forced perspective image I set my f/stop to a big number to create a great depth of field. Then I had paige lay down on the ground far away from the camera and had Emma's foot close to the camera to make it look like she was stepping on her. As for editing, I didn't do too much for editing other then boosting colors and brightening it up.

This assignment went well. It was sometimes difficult to get your pictures to turn out how you wanted them, but I just kept trying and eventually got more then 10 to work out. The editing was easy becuase I just used simple edits to not distract from the craziness of the photo.

changing color schemes

analogous primary

For this assignment we changed the colors in out photos to go better with the color scheme we were trying to achieve. To do this we would create a new fill layer then change it to the new color we wanted. We would hen change the blending mode so it looked realistic. After that we used a layer mask to make it so the new color was only on the part of the photo we wanted to change and not the whole thing. For the first picture it was supposed to be analogous, but the ground was more gray then green, and the sky wasn't a very noticeable blue. So I ended up using three different fill layers to make the flower more yellow, the ground more green, and the sky more blue. For the second picture, the color scheme wasn't very noticeable so I decided to change it to primary by making the flower red, the sky blue, and the writing and light on the sign yellow.

This assignment went over well. Taking the pictures were difficult to take because you had to find correct color schemes, but once you used photoshop you could alter it and make it more noticeable. Also the techniques we used to alter it weren't hard to use or figure out at all so it went very well for me.

color and mood

The three main colors in this picture are blue, yellow, and green. I enhanced the photo to make the main colors the focus. With these three colors being the main focus. The green creates a healthy, new, clean mood. The yellow creates a cheery, lively, uplifting mood. And the blue creates a fresh, hopeful, honest mood. Adding all these together I tried to create a happy and new, spring mood after the long winter.

gradient map

For this image I used the gradient tool.

For this image I used a gradient map and then lowered the opacity.

For this image I used the gradient tool.

For this picture I used a gradient map and then used the hue blending mode.

For this image I used used a gradient map and then lowerd the opacity.

This went really well. I liked playing around with the gradient masks and the different effects they make. I also like how easy it is to use the gradient tool and combine too images. They both turn out really cool.

solarization

To create this picture I created a positive saturation layer, then I created a negative saturation layer. I did this by using curves. First a "U" shaped curve, then a rainbow shaped curve. I felt like playing around with it so i created a layer mask and made my feet how they originally were so just the background was solarized.










To create this image I created a new layer and used curves. I made it a positive solarization by making a "U"shaped curve.




I'm not quite sure how I made this photo, but just like the other two, I used a curve layer to make it solarized.











Overall this assignment was very successful. I thought it was really fun to finally be able to make pictures crazy colors and not realistic. I enjoyed it a lot.

creative color

vintage

high contrast

For these pictures we worked on editing for 'creative color'. The three creative color editing techniques we worked with were vintage, high contrast, and pictorialism. To create a vintage look we lowered the saturation and changed the curves of red/magenta, yellow, and cyan. In order to create the high contrast look we raised the contrast, saturation, and vibrancy. We could also duplicate the layer and chnange the blending mode... I used vivid light. To create pictorialism we added grain, brought down color saturation and added a vignette.

This assignment went well for me. It was nice and quick, and I seemed to catch on quick to how to do all the steps. In my eyes, my photos turned out really well and I found it interesting to learn how to create these effects, and will probably use them more in the future with other photos.

text + image

For this assignment we worked on adding text to our theme images. In order to do this we first edited our image in photoshop with color adjustments and all the usual enhancements. (I made my photo black and white and added a slight vigette.) After we were satisfied with our editing we added the image to a print document in adobe illustrator and added text. There are a lot of ways to add text but I used the type on path tool. To do this, on a new layer I drew a line with the pencil tool then switched to the type on path tool and started typing. Once my text was all typed out I would use the white mouse to grab ahold of certain anchor points and move them around to edit my line more.

This assignment went really well for me. I enjoyed taking the pictures a lot and found it really fun being able to personalize it by adding text that related to the meaning. I actually didn't have to many difficulties during it except for trying to come up with ideas for the placement of my text. After try8ig different spots I finally was satisfied with my final placement. The easiest part for me was the beginning adjustments before adding text, like turning it black and white and using a vignette.

sharpen

before

after

We sharpened one of our theme photos by using a high pass filter. I used a radius of 10 to sharpen this image. After sharpening the whole image I increased the contrast and brightness. I also used a cooling blue photo filter on a layer mask to make the ocean and sky a brighter blue color and kept the foot how it was.

rhythm composite

In this assignment we worked on rhythm composites. We had to take multiple shots of a subject with the exact same background in each one, but the subject had to be in a different spot every time. After we took the photos we edited them and combined them all in to one to create the idea that the photo had repeated rhythm. How we did this was with using different selection tools and layer masks. First we would select the subject in one photo and create a layer mask with that. After we had the layer mask we would open up the "background" image and turn it in to a layer. Once it was turned in to a layer we would drag the layer mask of our selected subject over to the "background" image and arrange it accordingly to make it look realistic. If it didn't look too realistic, like maybe it was missing a shadow, we could use the burn tool to paint in a shadow to lessen the look of it "floating" on the image. After we had repeated that process with all our other shots of the subject we edited the photo using different adjustments to enhance it using tools previously learned.

This assignment I found to be sort of difficult. I thought it was hard to select the right amount of the subject for the layer mask including shadows and reflections if needed. When you didn't get the right areas selected it looked really unlrealistic so you had to use the burn tool to create the missing shadows. The difficult thing about the burn tool was that you would do that on the background layer to you couldn't blend it very well in to your subject. Once I got the hang of how to do it though, it went by really fast and quite easy actually.

selection tool

For this assignment we had to use different selection tools (lasso, magnetic, quick selection, magic wand, etc.) to select a subject. Once our subject was selected we would save the selection then turn the rest of the image black and white but leave our selection colored. This created am emphasis on our subject because it was the only thing in color.

For this photo I used the magnetic selection tool to select the main subject of the two crocs.

For this photo I used the quick selection tool and magic wand to select her headband.

This assignment went very well. I thought it was really fun to learn how to use the selection tools and create this emphasis on a subject that the black and white with some color resulted in. The most difficult part for me was trying to figure out what selection tool worked the best for each photo, but after I found a selection tool everything went very smooth and good.

portraits & lighting

In this assignment we learned how to take good portraits with lighting angles that flatter our subject. After taking the pictures, we edited them to enhance the colors using tools learned in previous assignments, then we also used lens flare, photo filter, surface blur, spot healing, and other tools with layer masks on our photos.

This photo was taken with natural and side lighting, and I used an orange photo filter to create a warmer look.

This photo was taken with natural back lighting and edited with spot healing and surface blur using a layer mask to smooth out the skin and make it look "flawless". I also added a lens flare to this to make it look like the sun hit the lens and created circles in the bottom right hand corner.

This photo was taken with natural side lighting that was also reflected to get rid of harsh shadows. To edit this photo I enhanced the colors and used spot healing and surface blur with a layer mask to even out and smooth the skin. I also used the paintbrush on overlay with her eyes to make them a little darker and "pop".

Overall I feel this assignment went really well. I had a very fun time taking these portrait shots and editing them to look their best. The only frustrating thing that would happen was sometimes the overlay brush wouldn't work too well and would turn lips a grayish tone, but otherwise everything went really well. Some of my strengths in this assignment I would say was capturing the subject's personality in the photos. A weakness would be when working with the studio lighting it was pretty dark so it was very difficult to get a clear, crisp image, but I did manage to get a few that worked out.

white balance

Durring this assignment we used different white balances to get as true of a white as possible in out pictures. In order to do this we would first take a picture using auto and if our whites seemed to be orange or yellow tinted we would choose a shade or cloudy white balance setting to balance it out with a blue filter. If the whites using auto originally appeared blue tinted we would use a tungsten or daylight white balance setting to add a yellow or orange filter to it in order to balance out the white. Different editing techniques we used were with different color adjustments again just like last assignment, black and white (finding the right black and white for your photo, not just the auto setting), creating a vignette with the marquee and layering tool, and also worked with the clone stamp to get rid of or add something to your photo.

This picture was taken with a "shade" white balance to get rid of the yellow tinted whites. It was also edited with a vignette and boosted colors and saturation.

This picture was taken with an "auto" white balance. I also boosted the colors, created higher contrast, and added a vignette to it.

Overall I feel this assignment was very successful. I enjoyed being able to take photos of what ever subjects we liked, I feel it game me more of a chance to create better photos because it was more open. I also liked adding the vignette because it helps direct your eyes on the subject by creating a darker edge. The only thing that was difficult for me was the clone stamp. I got the hang of it after a while, but at first it was hard for me to blend the right colors in to make it look as natural as possible.

a day in the life

technique description

During the assignment "A Day in the Life" we learned about how different ISO's affect your picture, and took different pictures from an average day in the life of a person or an object of your choice. My assignment was of pictures taken from a day in the life of myself (an average sophomore), showing all the different things I do throughout the day. These pictures in the collage were all taken with different ISO's to balance out the light and edited in photoshop to bring out the best qualities about them.

In photoshop under "Image" on the menu I used auto tone, color and contrast and also under "adjustments" I used vibrance, hue/saturation, brightness/contrast and levels. When I used all these adjustments I was trying to brighten the whites and get rid of blue or yellow toned whites and also brighten up the highlights in order to make the photo still look realistic but with stronger highlights and qualities. Using the vibrance, contrast, and saturation tools were my favorite because I feel they brightened up the colors and made the pictures look so much better and alive. Something that was a little frustrating was that when my original photo started off really dark with a lot of shadows, it was hard to brighten it up really well without losing the quality of colors in it. I noticed that the colors would start to drain and that was a little frustrating at times.

artist statement

I enjoy taking pictures as a hobby in my free time for fun. I sometimes use it as a way to express myself through different views of objects and people. I also use art as a way to remember cherishable moments. People I love and activities I love doing are what inspire me the most. I express these inspirations by taking pictures of them or symbols that represent or remind me of them. I usually only use photographs as my main way of creating art, but sometimes I like to paint abstractly with fun colors. My experience with cameras and pictures isn't too interesting other then the fact that try to always have my point and shoot digital camera with me to remember fun moments. This semester I would love to get to know my new Nikon D3100 digital SLR camera better and take good, inspirational, fun, unique pictures with it.

Ralph Clevenger's photos are about different aspects and views of human, animal, and nature life. He uses the natural state of his objects to take the pictures and doesnt edit them too much, atleast that I can tell. I really like his choice of subjects and materials, it gives off a natural, earthy feeling that is very refreshing to see every once in a while. He takes a lot of close ups which is interesting to look at and to see all the details of the picture. Go to his website here for more interesting photographs.