Week 8--Mechanical Terrestrial Transport

Earlier in the year I had taken a picture of one of the little carts that the school groundskeepers used. And I was looking through my photos and realized the little cart perfectly fit this weeks blog assignment. In photoshop, I increased the brightness of the photo so the cart wasn't shrouded in shadow. I also played around with the overall color balance, and increased the vibrance of the tree foliage. 

Behind the PAC, some of the APS transport trucks are kept behind chain-link fences. In this photo, I liked how the poles of the fence split up the composition into smaller quadrants, and also added a bonus texture to the truck. The colors were also appealing; the bright yellowish green of the grass and flowers against the cool whitish blue color of the sky overhead. When editing this image in photoshop, I increased the brightness, increased the contrast, played with the color balance, and increased the color vibrancy. 

I really love the lines and shapes captured in the subject of this photograph. The spokes of the bikes' rear wheel, the circles in the fence, and the links of the chain all create interesting patterns for the viewer's eye to follow throughout the piece. I purposefully increased the contrast and brightness in photoshop so the bike would stand out against the lighter background. Also, I decreased the vibrancy and saturation so that the photo appeared almost black and white, but still with a slightly blue tint around the lock and individual chain links. 

Week7--Personifying an inanimate object

To personify the dish scrubbers, I decided to draw faces on them with tape and purple Sharpie marker. This photograph was set up in my kitchen, using the overhead stove lights for the light source. In photoshop, I cropped the bottom of the image slightly and adjusted the overall contrast. 

Using the same tape and purple Sharpie technique, I drew faces on a few roses sitting in a nearby vase. Mostly, I chose to focus on the expressions of each "face". That was the best way I could think of to personify inanimate objects. Using photoshop, I adjusted the tonal value of the piece, and increased the vibrance so the roses looked more colorful. 

I had taken this photo on my phone, so the color balance of the raw photograph was simply awful. Luckily I fixed that in photoshop, by decreasing the amount of magenta and conversely increasing the amount of cyan. With the clone stamp tool, I tried to conceal the obvious tape lines so they wouldn't be distracting to the viewer. Similar to the other flower photo, I likewise increased the saturation and the contrast of the piece. 

Week 6--Performing Arts

In this photograph, I tried to focus on the color scheme. The majority of the colors are close to each other on the color wheel; cool blues, grays, and whites. The use of analogous colors helps to tie together the photograph, unifying it more than if a different color scheme were employed.  Furthermore, I utilized the rule of thirds in composition to balance between the subject, foreground, and background. 

Emphasis was the principle of design I wanted to focus on in this photograph. Although instead of drawing the viewer's eye to part of the photograph that is in focus--the feathers of the pigeon--I chose to composed the photograph so the girl's face is the focal point of the piece. To accomplish this, I included her black hat in the photo for the sake of contrast. 

I loved the tonal value of this photograph; the gradient between the shadowy regions and the highlights. The contrast further helped to emphasize the texture of the girl's mask, her hair, and the beads on her dress. Also, the colors of her mask and dress were warm-toned; light brown and orange, in contrast with the cooler tones of the background. 

Week 5--Hats

I wanted to emphasize the fuzzy texture of the hat, so I placed it under a florescent light while taking the photograph. The contrast between the bright highlights and darker shadows helped to bring out the texture even more. When editing the image in photoshop, I adjusted the saturation levels to increase the purple color and additionally added an unsharp mask to emphasize texture. 

The flash on my phone created an interesting vignette on the hat; some parts were in shadow and some weren't. I decided to photograph the hat upside-down so the viewer's eye would travel from the bold white-against-black text down to the fuzzy blue bobble. In photoshop, I changed the color balance so there was more cyan than magenta in the picture. 

I intentionally placed the subject in the bottom panel of the photograph so that the jewels and feathers would be the first place the viewer's eye would travel to. The exposure was slightly off when I first took the picture, but I tried to counteract that in photoshop by adjusting the levels and the exposure. The background was still overexposed, however, I loved the striking detail of the netting and feathers in the hat.