Photobook Update

My photobook came a few days ago. Here are some of the pictures in it that haven’t been on this blog. Also, a gallery view of my photobook.

CS 10: Contest

1. Macro Freedom. July 4, 2012. 7:11pm. F/4.0. 1/2500 sec. Rexburg, Idaho. Canon EOS REBEL T3

2. Freedom. July 4, 2012. 7:11 pm. F/ 4.5. 1/2500 sec. Rexburg, Idaho. Canon EOS REBEL T3

The entry that I created was for the Celebrating freedom contest. I thought about how people celebrate freedom on the 4th of July and honestly, it’s mostly just putting a flag out and the next day it’s gone. That and memorial day at least. Anyway, Fireworks were another way of celebrating but The american flag seems to really indicate our sense of freedom since it is the symbol. 

I created this entry by taking pictures of flags around Rexburg. The first is a macro shot that I loved. I just upped the saturation and blacks to make the colors richer and brighter. The second I did the same and then desaturated it and because my aperture was low it made the background more black and white and gave the flags an older stand out feel to them. 

I chose this contest, mostly because I forgot about it until the end and then because I thought it would be a good opportunity to spend my holiday taking pictures and applying the skills that I’ve learned through out the semester. 

The contest website with my entry is here: http://www.byuiphotographics.com/

I submitted these on Friday July 6, 2012

Large Format Printing

1. Focus 24×36

2. June 7, 2012 7:26 pm Rexburg, Idaho
3. Canon EOS REBEL T3  AV  F/5.6  1/125 sec

4. The edits that this picture underwent were all just in camera raw and pretty minor. I upped the blacks first because I wanted to get a good contrast between the light coming through the flower and the background. Then I played around with saturation and vibrance and voila. That was it. 

5. So first and foremost I had a different picture in mind for this large format poster. However, it was too out of focus so I was forced to go through all of my other pictures. None of them seemed adequate so I set off without direction on a walk to take random pictures. I came across multiple different areas but this winning shot ended up being a solo flower in the middle of the taco time parking lot. I loved the way the light had come through the trees illuminating the flower so this became an option as did several others. However after the aforementioned edits on all of my possible pictures to make large formats this won out because of it’s lovely colors and depth. I also really liked the sun rays that kind of sprawled around the bottom half of the frame, along with the lens glare perfectly on the green spiky leaf out of focus to the right. 

Blog 7: Edits with Borders and Fine Art

1. Street Lights. June 3, 2012. 10:03 pm. F/8.0. 10 sec. Canon EOS REBEL T3

2. Rings. June 3, 2012. 9:50 pm. F/10. 30 sec. Canon EOS REBEL T3

3. Neon Purple. June 3, 2012. 10:49 pm. F/4.5. 10 sec. Canon EOS REBEL T3

 

This was an interesting assignment. I’m not a fan of borders around pictures so I was trying to alter the tutorials that I followed to see if I could grow to like them. In the first I just added a simple darker border with lightened opacity by adding a new layer and then rectangle marqueeing around the center and then deleting it. The second I similarly added an elliptical marquee and eyedropped the red color from the original photo. Lastly, the Neon purple I resized to an 8×10 and by changing the imgae to 9×7 and then adding a 1 inch canvas border. I changed the canvas color to black. Created a rectangular white shape. Then added a layer mask to it, added a blur motion filter to get the feathered edges. All in all lots of fun. The last picture I did was of a fine art template. It’s one of my favorite pictures from the whole semester. I made the template with black rectangles and then created a clipping mask. I don’t like my name or signature so I elected to add a title in a complimentary font.

Blog 7: Night and Light Photography

1. Camera Motion. June 3, 2012. 10:48pm. F/8.0. 10 sec. Canon EOS REBEL T3

2. Light Painting. June 3, 2012. 9:19 pm. F/4.5. 20 sec. Canan EOS REBEL T3

3. Light Motion. June 3, 2012. 11:02pm. F/5.0. 10 sec. Canon EOS REBEL T3

This assignment was an absolute blast. Its like recreating what you always did at sleepovers as a kid but this time you actually know what you’re doing. For the first picture I used the oven element to make the star-like shape. I turned it four times and the red hot glow worked wonders. Only slightly upped the saturation to make the red brighter. The second was light painting which was surprisingly difficult. I had to really figure out what I wanted it to look like at the end…but at the beginning. This photo wasn’t edited. The last was light motion which I sat in a spinny computer chair as someone spun me with the self timer and high shutter speed I tried to hold the lights really level and they turned out looking like glow in the dark hula hoops. 

Blog 6: Part 6 Bannack Favorites

These pictures are all my favorites from Bannack. None are edited too much but all are edited very similarly. Each color photograph has increased saturation, vibrance, black levels, contrast, and a bit of fill light. Whereas the sepia and black and white photos are only those edits–converted to sepia and black and white. These pictures are all my favorite because they illustrate a broad range of personalities and styles within very similar photographs. The first is a landscape picture that looked absolutely beautiful. The picture has slightly exaggerated color and qualities but that is what I remember most when I think back to that image.  The next is a portrait of Carly, our model cowgirl who stood by a light window that cast a beautiful light over her face. Next is Sister Esplin, caught in mid-very characteristic, candid laugh. I thought it was a fun picture. Next is the sepia tone of the Boy who looks mischievous. Debonair to be sure but a certain heir of child-like rebellion. Following this the modern day saloon girl, Zoe whose quick poses and easy smile were captured in a fleeting moment of sassy-girl attitude. Next the gangster gunman who took off glasses and hat and flashed a dazzling grin of mischief and wild evilness. Finally, the last picture I deem plot 15 for no other reason than the obvious and it’s ghostly qualities with the clouds reflecting wildly on the windows.

Blog 6: Part 5 HDR

These images were processed using PhotomatixPro4.2.1 and photoshop. They are HDR (High Dynamic Range) images and their purpose is to look quite surreal. The first picture was a 3 stop bracketed pictures where Each shot was 2 exposures apart. The second was a single image that was converted into HDR using the presets in the PhotomatixPro software. That is all the “editing” that was done.

Blog 6: Part 4 Macro Abstract

These shots were all done in Macro mode on the camera using the tulip icon. They were slightly saturated in camera raw and then in photoshop I created a macro abstract by blending the images together. I started with the original flower image and then added a solid overlay rusty brown color which darkened and created a nice grungy texture. Then I selected the green pixels from the wood picture and flipped them to create a scraping effect over the whole image. I added another hard light filter for that layer and then was finished.

Blog 6: Part 3 Reverse Depth

The pictures above show the use of shallow and deep focus using aperture priority mode. In the first I focused on the barrel in the foreground and the second was the house in the background. Both received minor edits including contrast, saturation, and vibrance.

Blog 6: Part 2 Action Blur and Freeze

These two pictures represent blurred  action. The first I’m on a merry-go-round with the little boy and the action is blurred because it’s moving at a different speed. However the second picture is blurred action because the model moved out of the frame 2 seconds before the end of the shutter thereby blurring her there and creating a see through image to simulate the appearance of a ghost. The last image is frozen action where the boy was moving on the same merry-go-round but I wasn’t on it with him and with a high shutter speed caught his frozen spinning as he posed willingly.