final test

To create this photo, I followed a number of steps on photoshop elements. To change the colour of the sky, I used the quick selection tool to highlight the sky. From this selection, I made a new clipped layer and adjusted the saturation to get a sort of turquoise blue. I then used the same selection tool on the photo of the woman. Once I had selected her, I made a new layer from that selection and made the original background layer invisible, to hide the white. I then resized the image and dragged it into the panoramic shot to the spot that I wanted. I'd already fixed the ends of her hair as best as I could (I had a bit of trouble using the refining tool) before dragging in the photo, but there were still white parts between the strands of her hair. To fix this, I used the stamp tool to fill in those spaces with the green of the trees. 

Stop Motion

view in higher quality: http://youtu.be/-ErNoqEB32I

photoshop assessment

In photoshop, I adjusted the levels and colour balance to create a more harmonious photo. I felt that the original photo was too orange and so I altered the red levels and saturation to mute the colours. To fix the exposure, I adjusted the levels and brightness, making the lighting softer and emphasizing the contrast between the light and the dark on Robyn's face. This helped to bring out the details of the photo and made the image appear less washed out. For fun, I gave her green eyes by making a new layer and changing once again the colour levels and saturation. 

panorama

globe

This photo is the result of a transformed 360 degree panorama photo that I took on the Dawson grounds. By applying the adjustments as explained in class, the mini-globe effect was created. As I had some trees that went off the top of my photo, I had to edit the clouds and branches to avoid the stripy radiating effect and to make the background uniform and realistic.

rule of 3rds

These are two photos I took respecting the rule of thirds. To make sure that the eyes of my subjects (Robyn and Robyn) fell along the lines that the eye is naturally drawn to, I changed the view setting on my camera to enable a grid display. Using the grid, I lined their eyes up properly along the dividing lines. This allowed me to create a more engaging composition than that in some of the other photos I've taken.

ghost

shutter speed: 6"

aperture: F8

ISO: 200

panning

shutter speed: 1/13

aperture: F22

ISO: 100

water drops

shutter speed: approx. 1/320

aperture: F6.3 and F5.6

ISO: 3200

more portraits

            

These are some of my favourite photos! I had trouble choosing an absolute favourite between these as I feel each is a flattering portrait that is visually engaging and dynamic and captures a fun moment from our photo sessions... if I had to choose one it would be the one where Robyn is swinging her arms as she turns to face the camera (with her sunglasses on, third shown) as she'd just turned around and I snapped a photo quickly and I wasn't sure how it would turn out--the result was kind of a fluke! I like how there is movement in the photo and I think her expression  and her stance are interesting.

rembrandt portraits

rembrandt light

diffuser

reflector

fill light

butterfly portraits

butterfly lighting

fill light

reflector

diffuser

drawing with light part II

drawing with light

self portrait

Photograms

Photograms

For this assignment, it took many repeated attempts to create a photogram that I was pleased with. On our first day in the lab, my partner and I used the light from his cellphone to expose our paper. We placed some feathers from a dream catcher on the photo paper to create an image. We tried to expose different parts of the light sensitive paper for different lengths of time, to possibly create a gradient or wash effect. However, we soon discovered that the light from his phone was too bright and that, paired with an extended exposure  (the minimum length exposed being at 5 seconds, the maximum at 15 seconds), only a black image could be developed. We then each tried to shine our phones on our own papers for less time (approximately 3 seconds) and tried to use more substantial objects than the thin feathers. We were a bit more successful, but the exposure still wasn't quite right as the photos turned out very dark. We then tried holding our light source further away from the paper (still for 3 seconds) while covering it with a filter. This is how we developed our most successful photograms. Once we had mastered the correct formula for brightness and length of exposure, we were able to play around with the composition of our photograms, using different materials to try to create visually engaging images.