Macro Abstract

 

labels:
1. Wheel: 2-22-11; 11:51am; Bannack, MT; F/4; 1/200; Nikon D3000
2. Pine needles: 2-22-11; 4:49pm; Bannack, MT; F/5.3; 1/50; Nikon D3000
3. Macro Edit: Overlayed photos, lowered opacity, mask

Unfortunately I did not take a lot of macro pictures while I was at Bannack. I used this photo of a broken wheel and a photo of pine needles that I took. I layed the pine needles over the photo of the wheel. I then decreased the opacity to around 65%. I then masked out the part of the wheel that I wanted to show through clear.

Action Blur & Freeze

Action Blur

Action Freeze

Labels:
1. Praying Ghost: 2-22-11; 12:49pm; Bannack, MT; F/13; 4sec; Shutter Priority; Nikon D3000
2. Joy: 2-22-11; 4:42pm; Bannack, MT; F/5.6; 1/1000; Aperture Priority; Nikon D3000

It was interesting to me to take ghost shots. I had never taken photos like these ones before. Having a tripod is key. I set my tripod up and set it for 4 seconds. About half way through the exposure, Lai ran out of the picture giving it a ghostly effect. For the second picture, while the subject was jumping, I used a quick shutter speed and caught her in the air. You have to be in a pretty light place for this to work.

Portraits

Labels:
1. Bannack Portrait 1: 2-22-11; 1:25pm; Bannack, MT; F/6.3; 1/1000; Nikon D3000
2. Bannack Portrait 2: 2-22-11; 1:24pm; Bannack, MT; F/6.3; 1/800; Nikon D3000

I took the majority of my portraits outside. It was light outside even though it was cloudy. Both of these portraits are posed in front of one of the old houses in Bannack. On the editing side, I gave their skin a more air brushed look by applying a slight Gaussian blur. I also sharpened their eyes and lightened the pictures.

Reverse Shallow Depth

Blurry Background:

Blurry Foreground:

Labels:
1. Tools 1: 2-22-11; 1:16pm; Bannack, MT; F/5.3; 1/125; Nikon D3000
2. Tools 2: 2-22-11; 1:16pm; Bannack, MT; F/5.3; 1/160; Nikon D3000

In one of the locked buildings in Bannack, I saw this table of tools by a window with great lighting. I thought that they would be great for this reverse shallow depth assignment. For the first photograph, I focused on the tool in the foreground. For the second photo, I focused on the hammer in the back which in result, the foreground objects got blurrier.

HDR

Multiple Exposure HDR:

 

Labels:
1. Gold Mill First: 2-22-11; 3:31pm; Bannack, MT; F/3.5; 1/2500; Expo Comp -2; Nikon D3000
    Gold Mill Second: 2-22-11; 3:31pm; Bannack, MT; F/3.5; 1/500; Expo Comp 0; Nikon D3000
    Gold Mill Third: 2-22-11; 3:31pm; Bannack, MT; F/3.5; 1/60; Expo Comp +2; Nikon D3000
2. Gold Mill HDR: Edited with Dynamic Photo

 

 

Labels:
1.The Workplace: 2-22-11; 3:11pm; Bannack, MT; F/3.5; 1/30; Expo Comp -2; Program; Nikon D3000
2. The Workplace: 2-22-11; 3:11pm; Bannack, MT; F/3.5; 1/8; Expo Comp 0; Program; Nikon D3000
3. The Workplace: 2-22-11; 3:11pm; Bannack, MT; F/3.5; 1/2; Expo Comp +2; Program; Nikon D3000
4. The Workplace Edit: Edited using Dynamic Photo


Single Exposure:

Original Shot

Edited Shot

Labels:
1. The Masons: 2-22-11; 1:20pm; Bannack, MT; F/6.3; 1/1000; Nikon D3000
2. The Masons Edited: Photo Dynamics, Increase saturation

I really like the look of HDR photos. Because I did not know how to set my camera to bracketing while we were at Bannack, I changed the exposure compensation for each of these photographs. I shot a negative two, zero and a positive two exposure. The way that you can change your exposure compensation is by going into the program mode and hold the +/- button and scroll to the desired compensation. Dynamic Photo works great too. It takes all three photographs and combines the best lighting. I then made a few adjustments with curves to change the lighting to the way that I liked it best. On the single exposure shot, you put just the one photo into Dynamic Photo and it will change the lighting. I then added saturation and masked out the sky in Photoshop.

Night & Light

Labels:
1. Car Lights: 2-18-11; 6:08pm; Rexburg, ID; F/3.5; 6 sec; Manual; Nikon D3000 
2. Mystic Roses: 2-17-11; 9:31pm; Rexburg, ID; F/4; 16 sec; Shutter Priority; Nikon D3000
3. Camotion: 2-17-11; 9:50pm; Rexburg, ID; F/13; 5 sec; Shutter Priority; Nikon D3000

Night photography is much different than taking pictures with daylight lighting. For the first picture, I turned down my ISO setting on the camera, set up the camera on my tripod and changed the shutter speed to 6 seconds. The second method was my favorite. I tried several times to paint with glow sticks to make words or images, but I found it rather difficult. For the picture that I posted, I got glow sticks and I painted behind a vase of roses. On the last photograph, I moved the camera while the glowsticks were on the floor. I tried other things but it was hard to get a picture by moving the camera only.

Fine Art Template

 

Labels:
1. Hanging Flower: 1-27-11; 8:53am; BYUI greenhouse; F/5.6; 1/60; Nikon D3000
2. Rexburg Sunset: 1-30-11; 4:36pm; F/5.6; 1/30; Aperture Priority; Nikon D3000
3. Greenhouse Falls: 1-27-11; 9:35am; BYUI greenhouse; F/20 ; 2sec; Aperture Priority; Nikon D3000

I really like the look of the fine art template and it was fairly easy to create. The way that you make a template is by starting with a blank document. You then use the square tool to create squares in your desired size and location. After creating five of these, you can use the move tool to move them or line them up evenly with the background layer. You put a photograph on top and apply a clipping mask to that photo. Once you do that, you can size down your picture to fit the template. Creating this template is useful because once it is done, you can just drag other picture on top and it puts them in place too!

Edge Effects

Original

Edited

Original

Edited

Original

Edited

Original

Edited

Labels:
1. Ducks: 2-6-11; 11:48am; F/5.6; 1/800; Aperture Priority; Nikon D3000
2. Ducks Edited: Double border with Gaussian blur inside
3. Red Flower: 1-27-11; 9:55am; F/4.5; 1/125; Aperture Priority; Nikon D3000
4. Red Flower Edited: Double border, multiply tone inside with mask over some; Tutorial 13
5. Hanging Flower: 1-27-11; 8:53am; F/5.6; 1/50; Aperture Priority; Nikon D3000
6. Hanging Flower Edited: Flexible vignette; Tutorial 14
7. Roses: 1-27-11; 9:59am; F/4.8; 1/30; Aperture Priority; Nikon D3000
8. Roses Edited: Brushed on effect with double border; Tutorial 11

I really enjoy putting borders on the phototgraphs I have taken. The tutorials in the book are very useful and give great suggestions on what you can do to add a border and make the photograph more interesting. I realized that I like a double bordered look and am fond of black and white. The second photograph I decided to have the flower drape over the border so I used a mask to acheive that effect. On the last photograph I used a mask and the brush tool to get a painted effect. To do this, I changed the opacity levels to darken it in certain areas. This was way fun!

Scanography

One-Scan

Label:
1. Scripture Study: 2-11-11; 11:34pm; Rexburg, ID; HP Photosmart C4280

Collage Scan

 

Edit

Labels:
1. Dice: 2-12-11; 10:27am; Rexburg, ID; HP Photosmart C6200 Scan Pro
2. Uno: 2-12-11; 10:29am; Rexburg, ID; HP Photosmart C6200 Scan Pro
3. Cards: 2-12-11; 10:23am; Rexburg, ID; HP Photosmart C6200 Scan Pro
4. Puzzle: 2-12-11; 10:35am; Rexburg, ID; HP Photosmart C6200 Scan Pro
5. Game Time: Combined Dice, Uno, Cards and Puzzle and masked out part of puzzle

Scanography is quite challenging for me. You definitely have to be artistic to come up with a good idea for scanography. For my single scan, I took my set of scriptures, a pen, glasses and a scarf; everything you need to study your scriptures. I then scanned it and got the picture that is on this blog. For my collage scan, I took different scans of each different game. I then took the selection of the objects. This was pretty easy because the background is black and provided a lot of contrast for the selection to be picked up. I then masked out some of the puzzle pieces because it was too cluttered and then merged all of the scans to create one image.

Enhancements

Original Shot

Edited Shot

Original Shot

Edited Shot

Original Shot

Edited Shot

Labels:
1. Em Flem: 1-30-11; 4:44pm; Rexburg; F/5; 1/60; Nikon D3000
2. Em Flem Edited: Increase exposure, blur on skin, sharpened eyes, shirt color
3. Atticus: 1-8-11; 2:52pm; Northgate; F/5.6; 1/25; Nikon D3000
4. Atticus Edited: Lightened photo, changed color of binky by selection, sharpened eyes
5. Bama: 1-30-11; 4:46pm; Rexburg; F/3.5; 1/60; Nikon D3000
6. Bama Edited: Increased exposure, blur on skin, sharpened eyes, vignette, hair highlights

I love that I now know how to edit portrait photographs. For the first and third portraits, I enhanced their skin tones, teeth and brightened the lighting in the photographs. In "Em Flem", I changed the color of her shirt to a darker tone. For "Atticus", I changed the color of his binky. On "Bama" I added a vignette to balance the original color of the photograph.  It is amazing what you can do to edit portraits!

Portraits

Group Shots

 Portraits

 

Environmental Shot

Labels:
1. Relaxing: 2-6-11; 12:06pm; Rexburg; F/8; 1/250; Nikon D3000
2. Bridge: 2-6-11; 12:16pm; Rexburg; F/8; 1/250; Nikon D3000
3. Emily 1: 2-6-11; 12:03pm; Rexburg; F/9; 1/200; Nikon D3000
4. Emily 2: 2-6-11; 12:22pm; Rexburg; F/10; 1/200; Nikon D3000
5. Samantha 1: 2-6-11; 11:49am; Rexburg; F/5.6; 1/2000; Nikon D3000
6. Samantha 2: 2-6-11; 12:00pm; Rexburg; F/9; 1/320; Nikon D3000
7. Just Dance: 2-5-11; 11:02pm; Rexburg- Northgate; F/3.8; 1/60; Nikon D3000

For these portraits, I focused a lot on posing the models. I don't feel that posing comes naturally to me so giving direction was a bit difficult. I went out a couple of times to take pictures of some friends but finally on this last shoot, the poses seemed to come more naturally. The environmental shot is of two of my friends playing "Just Dance" on the wii. This is definitely something that happens in my apartment often and an environment that these girls are comfortable in. When taking portraits, I also realized that getting a good angle on the subjects is key. I tried many different angles to see what ones worked the best.