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

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