My Photostory

I used many of my own photos and altered them to tell a story about depression and how dark it can get but also how great a person can feel after overcoming such terrible events in their life. I used many filters, clones, patch, dodge/burn filters, hue saturation, blurs, layers, and different color schemes. It was cool to be able to experiment with the gimp manipulation software throughout the semester and it made it a lot easier to do this project having the background knowledge that I do now. I had trouble getting it into a powerpoint as my computer does not have the free program on it.

Portrait Photography

This week I wanted to take the more difficult approach and try to capture a decent portrait of something that wasn't a person. I took a picture of my brothers rabbit at angle that makes you want to ask what exactly he is looking at. Same thing with the other photo of the figure of the girl with heart wings. It was cool to experience with the portrait setting on my camera and how it differs from some of the other settings on the camera. It was a bit difficult to get just the right angle especially with the rabbit who didn't want to sit still. 

Clone/Text/Paint Tools

This week I enjoyed messing around with the clone and paint tools. I think the first tomato picture looks like it is rotting or melting almost. The next set I used the paintbrush for the picture with the truck and used the airbrush for the picture of the sign and wall. I messed around with the program with other similar tools as well it was fun to experiment with them.

Photostory Preview

For my photostory preview, I think I want to try to convey a story of bad and good in one's life. The classical "ups and downs", high points/ low points with a turning point. I use the lighting and the nature of the photo to begin the photostory at a very low point. The bud and half open poppy resemble the turning point and then the ending shows an open and mature flower and light. This is a rough "sketch" with my own photos but I think I have the story line down and can use my photo manipulation tools to better convey this story. 

Dodge/Burn and Filters

It was really cool this week to explore with the dodge and burn features. I used the photo I took of the lake and the background and I made the sky lighter and made the concrete and dock darker. I also used the dodge tool to create a thin layer of fog. Do you guys see a thin layer of fog in the distance? It took a while to try to get it just right because it had to be the perfect amount of light.

I explored the filters a lot last week and being able to add a bunch of filters was cool. The first one I added softglow, gaussian blur and messed around the with the hue brightness and saturation(Gimp). i really bundled a bunch of filters into this one and thought it was really cool looking. The second one I just added the old photo filter to make it look old, I thought that was pretty simple and cool.

(The first photo in each set is the original followed by the edited version of that same image)

Color/Lighting Adjustments

This week I really enjoyed playing around with Gimp's color and lighting tools. I can't believe how many different things you can do to your pictures. This first set I have the original picture first and in the edited photo I went under the color options and edited the green pull down shade. I changed the hue, saturation, and brightness of the pull down shade. I think it came out really well, it looks very cool. The second set I have the original and then I edited the lighting, brightness, and contrast of the image. I also added the sun with one of the filters which I thought was neat too.

Image Manipulation

It was really cool this week to mess around with the image manipulation software. I used Gimp because I couldn't find a free version of Photoshop. The first photo I messed around with creating layers and is fairly simple but shows some of the layer effects. The second picture is way more interesting where I used the moving and cropping tools. I also feathered the edges to blur some of where I cropped and moved the other photo in. I think the second one looks pretty cool. I look forward to playing around with this new software in the coming weeks!

Landscape Photography

It was nice for this weeks pictures to actually leave the house the get a few decent landscape shots. I drove all around St. Albans and took a bunch of landscape pictures, and then narrowed it down to these four. It takes a lot to try to get that "perfect landscape picture" because everything has to be pefect; especially the angle at which you're taking it. I took a few different pictures at different angles of the same area and you wouldn't believe how much better one shot looked than the other, just from a different position. I also think the overcast sky looked pretty cool too with some of these shots. The last one is neat because you have the landscape way in the background and I thought it was cool to look at.

Framing

I really enjoyed doing this assignment, finding different things to take frame pictures of. I think they came out very well. My personal favorite, and the one that I just stumbled upon as I was taking the photo before it, was the one of the tree in my truck's mirror. I just love how the mirror created a frame directly around the tree from where I usually park in my driveway. I think these pictures are very effective and draw the viewers eye right to what's inside the frame. There are so many natural objects that create a frame, you just have to be creative and see it!

Rule of Thirds

I took three sets of pictures for this assignment because I wasn't sure how they would turn out. I took a picture with the object in the center, and then took a picture where it was on those "invisible" grid lines. The only way I could get the set of pictures side by side is by putting them at small size and then they wouldn't be as easy to see so I left them as is.

In this first set I can really tell what centering vs. "thirding" can do for your picture. The first picture is okay to look at, but it doesn't have much to it, where the second shot makes for a much better picture with that same object off to the side and other objects entering the picture. Same concept for the other sets of pictures.