Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Macro Revisited

Title: Green
Date taken: 11/29/12
Camera: Panasonic Lumix
Lens: Standard
Shutter speed: 1/60sec
F-stop: f/3.3
ISO:  200
Focal length: 5mm
Tripod: No

Monday, December 10, 2012

Action


Title: Focus
Date taken: 12/3/12
Camera: Panasonic Lumix
Lens: Standard
Shutter speed: 1/500 sec
F-stop: f/5.9
ISO:400
Focal length: 40mm
Tripod: No
Title: Speed
Date taken: 12/3/12
Camera: Panasonic Lumix
Lens: Standard
Shutter speed: 1/400sec
F-stop: f/5.8
ISO:  400
Focal length: 38mm
Tripod: No
Other Comments: I attempted to use a panning technique, but since I cannot adjust very many settings on my camera I had to make it appear as if I was successful in photoshop.
Title:Go Get 'Em!
Date taken: 12/5/12
Camera: Panasonic Lumix
Lens: Standard
Shutter speed: 1/250 sec
F-stop: f/3.7
ISO: 400
Focal length: 7mm
Tripod: No
Other comments: This is a more successful attempt at panning. I didn't do any editing in photoshop besides contrast, and hue/saturation.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Mystirical: Imagination


Title: Imagination
Layers: At least 52
Time: 25 - 30 hours
Credits: 
Horse:  http://venomxbaby.deviantart.com/art/akhal-teke-colt-5-167950165

Water: http://synyster-stock.deviantart.com/art/Waterfall-Stock-1-119268962?q=favby%3Ajesuslover488448%2F40959001&qo=66

Background 1: http://fairiegoodmother.deviantart.com/art/Premade-BK-Stock-341-150126780?q=favby%3Ajesuslover488448%2F40959001&qo=65

Background 2: http://greenleaf-stock.deviantart.com/art/jungle-13-148934704?q=favby%3Ajesuslover488448%2F40959001&qo=64

Jellyfish Reference from the movie "Avatar" by James Cameron


While I enjoyed many of the other assignments this semester, “Mystirical” was my favorite.  I believe that this is mostly because I enjoy manipulating images in photoshop to create something original and new. So, of course, when I first heard about this assignment my excitement mounted.
                To start the assignment, I began by looking for various stock images on the internet so that I could start by creating the background (I had permission to use each of them).  After finding the photos I needed (I used three total), I implemented layer masks in order to help hide and blend the background layers together in a convincing manner.  After this step was finished, I created several new layers and added the lighting and atmospheric effects I needed to set the mood.  These effects included mist coming off of the water, the light emitting off of the jellyfish creatures, and darkening a good portion of the background near the sky.
                Feeling satisfied with the background, I again searched for stock photos, however, this time I was looking for a suitable horse.  Because I wanted the horse to be looking upwards curiously at the jellyfish, I needed a pose that would be similar to the idea I had in mind. Finding the right pose was difficult, yet not impossible, so after finding it, I began working on the horse I was using.  This horse, however, didn’t last long.  Because I am an equestrian major, I felt as if his conformation was horrible, and so, since I became tired of looking at it, I spent a lot more time looking for a “prettier” horse.  After finding a better horse, the real work began.
                To edit the horse, and to make him appear convincingly within the background, I cut him out very carefully with the polygonal lasso tool and pasted him as a seperate layer on the background.  This being finished, I adjusted the hue/saturation, and colorized him to the lovely blue color he is now.  Though he was blue, there were many other things that needed adjustment, and the first priority was the lighting – he was much to brightly lit, and he lacked shadows and highlights in the right places.  This, though it appeared difficult at first, was actually quite simple. All I had to do was paint different light effects on multiple layers with different presets and opacities to blend him more subtlety to the background.  After the shading was finished, I realized his shadows were much too dark and so I reduced the opacity of the layers I used for shadows.  I also added the stripes on its back and face with a soft brush and smudged them in in the direction of the hair.
                Light and shadows done, there were still many things I needed to fix in order to achieve the look and feel I was trying to accomplish. Since the horse had no mane, this was next on my to-do list.  To paint the mane I used a small soft round brush, and after tracing the general flow of the hair with hot pink (so that it would stand out), I used a variety of shadows and highlights on the blue end of the color spectrum to paint the hair.  Once this was done, I created another layer and added the shadow of the mane against the horse’s neck, and painted another layer with the bands holding the bunches of mane together.
                Though my picture was getting closer to being done, I still needed jellyfish creatures for the horse to look at.  Though I had one previously, it looked awkward, so I deleted it -- deciding instead to draw my own jellyfish.  This took quite a bit of time, and though I used reference from the movie "Avatar" off of the internet, I still feel like there is something slightly wrong with them.  After creating the two base models, I duplicated their layers, resized and rotated the duplicates, and then placed them randomly around the image, yet trying to draw the eye to the largest one.  After this was finished, there were just a few touches I needed to complete before I felt the manipulation would be done.
                This last step, was simple, yet it proved to be slightly difficult considering that I wanted to draw a cat tail on the horse.  The reason that it was difficult, was because I needed to be able to accurately match the colors and values of the horse to the tail that I wanted to paint.  Fortunately, though, since what I was doing was digital, all I had to do was select multiple values within the horse and use those to paint the tail. I then erased what I was unhappy with, and built upon what I liked.  After the tail was finished, I saved the image as a jpeg file, and sharpened it slightly.  This being done, I could officially say I was finished.
                Overall, I really enjoyed doing this picture, and while it was very time consuming, and detail intensive, I feel like it was successful, and the best photo-manipulation I have ever done.  While I enjoy photography, I can say I prefer heavily photoshopped images much more.


Social Commentary

Title: Abandoned
Date taken: 11/29/12
Camera: Panasonic Lumix
Lens: Standard
Shutter speed: 1/80 sec
F-stop: f/4.2
ISO: 160
Focal length: 12mm
Tripod: No


              Homelessness is a huge epidemic around the world, and even in America, the homeless population is out of control.  Because of this growing epidemic, caused by a down economy, drug and alcohol abuse, or simply because one has chosen to leave an abusive household, many more people are homeless in America than there used to be.  Because of this, and the fact that my family was also homeless several years ago, I chose this as my social commentary project.
                After deciding what I wanted to do, I knew that there were several options to take pictures of the homeless throughout Billings.  Some examples of this include, homeless shelters, the HUB, and even people panhandling on street corners throughout the day.  I was excited to act on my idea, but finding the right time and place to take pictures of these people was difficult.  Leaving the assignment unfinished for a couple of weeks, I heard a rumor that a homeless man passed away during the night outside of the place I work.  This made me feel sorry for the poor man – knowing that he froze to death because nobody cared enough about him to give him a warm place to stay, or even just a blanket to keep him from freezing.
                A couple days after hearing about the man’s death, I decided to go to the target in the heights to take pictures of the homeless people that frequently visit the area.  Sadly, upon stopping at the light I realized that the homeless man was gone, and only his belongings were left sitting on the corner.  Knowing that I only had a little bit of time left before I had to go, I saw that this might instead make a better, more meaningful picture.  So as I sat waiting for the light to turn green, I rolled down my window and snapped several pictures of his stuff; trying to pay careful attention to the composition and angle of the photo.
                Once I took several photos, I went to class and edited a couple of my favorites.  I did this by enhancing the color of the man’s belongings, and almost completely de-saturating the background.  The reason I muted the background was to represent the dreary life they live, but I left their stuff  saturated to show that homelessness is very real and can happen to almost anybody.
                Although this photo isn’t exactly the way I imagined it would be, I believe that the circumstances that presented themselves lent to a picture that achieves a better purpose than the one I originally had in mind. Overall I feel very satisfied with it, and am glad that I had the opportunity to go out into the community and make a statement for the homeless.

Night


Title:Fusion
Date taken: 11/20/12
Camera: Panasonic Lumix
Lens: Standard
Shutter speed: 15 seconds
F-stop: f/4.7
ISO: 100
Focal length: 17mm
Tripod: yes
Other Comments: I achieved this effect by putting the camera on my tripod and slowly rotating it as the shutter was open.


Title: Like Stars
Date taken: 11/20/12
Camera: Panasonic Lumix
Lens: Standard
Shutter speed: 15 seconds
F-stop: f/3.9
ISO: 100
Focal length: 9mm
Tripod: yes
Other Comments: I retook this picture after the first one showed some shaking. I also reduced saturation on photoshop to add a more calming effect. 


                Because I am naturally a night owl, the night project was the easiest and most convenient for me to finish.  The first night I started taking pictures, I was inspired by the full moon which appeared to be much larger than usual in the sky.  Trying to find a spot on the rims, I pulled over and set up my camera and tripod.  However, because of the time it took me to prepare I missed taking a good picture of the moon.   Though I didn't take a good picture of the moon, I drove a few more miles to the spot where the flashing tower for the airplanes is located.  After reaching this place,  I took several shots of the surrounding night landscape as well as the tower behind me.
                After capturing these pictures I was surprised at the clarity of the shots, but there was a faint jitter in the one overlooking the city.  Wanting to fix this, I went back to the same spot a couple of nights later, and tried to recreate the composition and location as closely as possible.  I also used the same 15 second shutter speed and ISO settings -- but this time I used the self-timer instead of manually clicking the shutter so that I could reduce the shaking.  Once several more pictures were taken, I then uploaded them to my computer and was much more satisfied with the results.  With the image overlooking Billings I lowered the saturation and cropped some extra space off of the edges to finish it.
                Though I wanted a beautiful shot of Billings, I also wanted something experimental as well.  While moving lights were one of the suggestions, I wanted something completely different, yet similar.  Because I felt this way I decided to move my tripod slowly in a circle while I was overlooking Billings during a 15 second shutter speed.  While this was a fun idea, I also put quite a bit of thought into it, and picked my favorite example out of the many pictures I took.
                While this was a fun and easy assignment, it was also one that made me think and try, try again.  I enjoyed it, but I also believe that I learned a great deal from it, and to consider shutter speed, ISO, and exposure bias.  Though I can't manually adjust many of the settings on my camera, I was able to learn how to manipulate the various pre-settings as well as work with what I had access to.  Overall I'm please with what I learned and the pictures I took, and I plan to continue experimenting with night photography in the future.

portrait

Title: Death by Plastic Sword
Date taken: 12/4/12
Camera: Panasonic Lumix
Lens: Standard
Shutter speed: 1/50 sec
F-stop: f/4.5
ISO: 3200
Focal length: 14mm
Tripod: yes

When I first heard about the portrait assignment, I was excited to get started.  This was not only because I had never really tried portraiture before, but also because I discovered that I have access to a photography studio at Rocky.  Sadly, however, because I was unable to use the studio due to schedule conflicts and my own absent-mindedness, I decided that my next best option would be setting up a mini-studio in my family’s dining room.
            Because I am a busy person, the only time I had available to take these portraits was at night with the absence of all natural light.  To aid this, I moved furniture around in order to make room to set up my tripod and the additional lights needed to take the sharp pictures I wanted.
            Once my little studio was set up, I had my little sister put on some makeup and nice clothes.  I also had my little brother get dressed up, letting him choose his own outfit while I told him to grab his plastic sword as a prop.  After both of my siblings were ready to go, I began with taking pictures of my sister – experimenting with one of the lamps I used as a light source, and trying a variety of angles and distances to achieve different effects.  Immediately after finishing with my sister, I had my little brother take his turn.  While my sister generally stood still and tried to look as pretty as possible, my little brother was a fountain of energy and expression.  Because of his energy, and his inability to stand still, I had a difficult time getting crisp clear pictures of him, though his expressions where very interesting and amusing. 
            After taking many, many pictures, I uploaded them to my computer and sorted through them one by one – discarding the bad ones, and editing the good ones in photoshop.  While I left several of them alone, my two favorites (one of my sister, and one of my brother), where adjusted using levels, brightness/contrast, and my sister’s face was touched up slightly with the clone tool.
            Overall, I feel like my journey into portraiture was successful, and I enjoyed taking shots of my siblings.  While using a professional studio would have been a wonderful experience, I feel as if using the dining room was an even better place because it allowed my siblings to be in a surrounding where they felt most comfortable and at-ease, allowing me to take a greater variety of pictures.  Altogether, I enjoyed the project and hope that sometime in the near future I will be able to take a greater variety of portraits – not only of my family but of other people as well.

Title: Posed and Pretty
Date taken: 12/4/12
Camera: Panasonic Lumix
Lens: Standard
Shutter speed: 1/8 sec
F-stop: f/4.6
ISO: 100
Focal length: 16mm
Tripod: yes