Architecture

Final assignment!  I picked architecture as my final assignment.  I shot all of the pictures in downtown Ann Arbor.  I walked through by all the big college buildings and some of the stores.  It was really hard to get a good angle sometimes because you are restricted by the sidewalks, roads, and people.  Luckily, there was plenty around to shoot so finding interesting buildings was not a problem.  I enjoyed walking around to take these pictures and I even met some nice people who showed me cool spots to shoot.  The picture I'm choosing to highlight is of a hallway to the law courtyard.  Someone happened to be sitting there and the light was coming in from the side.

ISO: 200

Aperture: unknown

Shutter Speed: 1/40

Visual Pun

Here was another assignment meant to demonstrate some Gimp skills and use a little creativity.  I had to make three visual puns using pictures off of Creative Commons.  I had a hard time at first thinking of some good puns, but after a day or so I came up with some that were pretty creative and not overused.  Can you guess all three?

Fruit Fly

World Wide Web

Seasons Greetings

Color Pop

I chose to take an open assignment this week for color pop. This is where I would take a picture and highlight certain colors or objects by desaturating everything but the what i wanted. I had a lot of fun with this assignment and it was really hard to choose my best one. I really like the effect of color pop and it can make some pictures really interesting.

ISO: 80
Aperture: f2.7
Shutter Speed: 1/30

Visual Dictionary

The purpose of this assignment was to demonstrate some of the photo editing skills I learned during this trimester. First I picked 5 words and found related pictures off of Flickr Creative Commons. Then I had to blend and put them together in a creative way. This assignment was pretty fun, but it was sometimes difficult to find good, related photos.

Still Life

Still life was the theme this week.  This is typically the type of photos you would see on ads.  This was probably the hardest and least interesting assignment for me.  However, I learned how different lighting changes your shot, and sometimes you have to play around with it for a while until it looks good.  The picture I'm highlighting is of a perfume bottle, and I used some scrapbook paper to give it a nice, solid, yet fun background.  I used a desk lamp to give the gradient effect on the background.  The thing I like most about this picture is the bright colors.

ISO: 320
Aperture: f2.7
Shutter Speed: 1/30

Portrait

This demo was to learn how to use different lighting to take pictures of people.  The photo on the left uses a 3-point lighting system where there are multiple lights set up around the subject.  The photo on the right uses window lighting where most of the light comes from a nearby window and a shiny paper (bounce card) is used to reflect from the other side to get rid of some of the shadows.  Now I know how to take nice pictures of people in different lighting situations.

Black and White

Black and white is the assignment I chose this week.  I went out and took normal photos and then desaturated them.  Black and white is a fun thing to shoot, but it can be very difficult to find something that has enough contrast and looks well without color.  Finding subjects to shoot was the hardest part, and it forces you to think differently to find objects with contrast.  My best photo is one of some flowers laying on a bench in my backyard.  I really enjoy it and I hope you do, too.

ISO: 80
Aperture: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/60

Context

Who would have known that Lady Gaga made an appearance at my school!  This week the assignment was to take a picture of somewhere in the school and then add in something special.  I had trouble thinking of what to do, but luckily Lady Gaga and her crazy meat dress popped up and gave me an idea.  This was a fairly easy assignment that proved to be a bit fun in the end.  Can you tell it's fake?

Motion Demo

So you've probably all seen pictures where the object is moving, but there's 2 ways you can do it.  One is to have your subject move, but you can also take the picture so that the background looks as though it's moving, too.   To do this you must use a technique called panning, which is following the moving object with your camera as it passes by and keeping that object in the same spot in your picture.  For this demo my teacher rode his bike around, while we tried to take pictures of him with motion blur in the background.  It's actually easier to do than it may look.

Macro

This week was all about capturing close-up, overlooked details of objects.  I had an easy time with this except for the lack of time I had to shoot.  Luckily I ended up with some decent images.  The picture I've highlighted as my best below is actually a picture of a feather I found in my yard one day and I  took quite a few interesting photos of it.  Hope you enjoy them. :)

ISO: 80
Aperture: 8
Shutter Speed: 1/50

Panoramic

This week I've been working on stitching pictures together to make one big, panoramic picture.  These pictures give a wider view and can give some interesting perspective.  First, I had to take pictures of the scene and overlap them a tad.  Then on a photo editor (Gimp) I had to go through the process of lining them up, fixing some perspective issues, and scaling them so they all fit in a seemingly seamless way.  I ran into some difficulties making the pictures line up because I didn't use a tripod, however in the end I learned how to use quite a few tools and the picture turned out pretty nice.  You can still see where I stitched them (some spots are more obvious than others) but in time and with practice I'll be able to make them come together better.  Oh, and if you were wondering, there are 4 individual pictures in the one below.

Nature

For my second assignment, I decided to go outside and enjoy the lovely spring weather by taking some nature pictures.  This assignment involved taking pictures that say something about the nature around us.  I really love flowers and my pictures reflect that (I also love the fact that they don't move).  It's great that winter is over and green grass and vibrant flowers have appeared.  Below is a collection of photos for my top 10 and my best one.  I hope you enjoy them and they inspire you to take a walk in our warm weather.  :)

ISO: 100

Aperture: 3.2

Shutter Speed: 1/500

Publish Post

Gimp Assignment #2

This was my second time using the photo editing software called Gimp.  I learned a lot more about how to edit photos in this assignment.  The main goal was to make an object look better by altering the background, colors, and touching-up flaws.  I learned that some of the skills in photoshop require a bit of practice and time to perfect.  This assignment was fairly easy, and except for the fact that I somehow I undid everything when I was almost done (oops), things went pretty smoothly.  There's a definite difference between the picture I was given and the one that I edited.  See for yourself.

Before

This picture features a distracting background, a person in the background, and some unwanted glares.

After

In this picture, some of the light glares have been blended out, the background has been changed, and the colors pop more.  Overall, it's a lot more appealing.

Animals

The focus of this assignment was to capture an action or the nature of an animal. At first glance, this may seem like an easy topic. However, it can be very tricky to get some good shots of animals that become easily distracted and uncontrollable. Luckily, the animals I took pictures of were somewhat cooperative and I was able to take some nice pictures. This was an interesting, yet slightly challenging photo assignment.

ISO: 125
Aperture: 2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/30

Gimp Pop Art

This assignment introduced me to a photo editing software called Gimp. I found that Gimp has a TON more options and effects than the basic Photoshop tools I had been using before. With Gimp, there are so many ways you can edit a picture. In this photo, I imitated Andy Warhol's pop art effect. In the process, I learned how to resize, crop, layer, and add some color effects in this program. Even though the program is sometimes annoying, it has a lot of features and advantages over using other editors. The possibilities for my pictures now seem endless!

Composition Assignment

The Assignment:
Eleven elements of composition were explored during this assignment.  Photos were taken using the rule of thirds, depth of field, symmetry, pattern, texture, lines, color, perspective, balance, framing, and space.

What I learned:
I wasn't even aware there were elements of composition.  One in particular I found interesting was the rule of thirds.  I now know the gridlines on the camera are to help align subjects along the lines and intersections.  The rule of thirds makes pictures more appealing, too.  This assignment really improved my picture taking skills!

Photo Descriptions:
Rule of thirds- "Swan on the pond"
Depth of field- "Ivy and plants at the base of a tree"
Symmetry- "Open book"
Pattern- "Bricks on the edge of a walkway"
Texture- "Manhole cover"
Lines- "Light under the school entrance"
Color- "Red nail polish"
Perspective- "Looking up a tree"
Balance- "The American and Michigan flags"
Framing- "Cat in the window"
Space- "Little, red Buddha"