(P21) Personality Portraits

A note: I had some images of Karina in our studio in the classroom, however I lost possession of them when my SD card disappeared.  This was the major challenge of completing this project. I took these photos of my girlfriend at La Jolla Cove. This is a favorite shooting place of mine due to the natural beauty and range of positions to shoot from. I tried shooting closer to sunset, however I was a bit early. I adjusted the temperature of the image slightly to compensate for this. I felt that these three photos went together nicely. I tried to compose them in a triptych, as I felt this would well suit the nature of the project.

(P23) Photoshop Filters

Original:

The filters photoshop offers are fun to use, and I have explored them a bit on my own. Most are fairly simple to use. The blur effects were a bit more difficult as I had to carefully select myself and Eva in order to keep us in clarity. The flames involved more steps than the others as well. I experimented with the oil paint effect, however it was not much to my liking.

(P22) Photoshop

I chose to try color isolation for this project. I've dabbled in this trick before, but never achieved the results I really wanted before now. I'll explain how I achieved this effect.

1.) Once your desired image is open in Photoshop, duplicate it once.

2.) Select your top layer. In the toolbar, click Select > Color Range. Use the dropper tool to select the color you'd like to isolate.*

3.) Adjust "fuzziness" to impact the area of your selection.

4.) Confirm your selection. Right click inside your selection and click "select inverse."

5.) Delete the selection.

6.) Select your bottom layer. In the toolbar, select Image > Adjustments > Black and White. Adjust color balances as you'd like and confirm your edit.

*You can use the Quick Selection Tool to improve the accuracy of your selection.

Before:

 After:

Something I'd also like to try is cosmetic modifications in Photoshop, such as skin smoothing and tooth whitening. Some consider this unethical, but I believe that in small doses cosmetic enhancements in Photoshop are harmless. I would also like to learn other special effects, such as removing items from an image and replacing a background. I enjoy color isolation, and it is a good looking effect. I am fairly familiar with Photoshop so these skills shouldn't be extremely hard to learn.

(P19) Light Painting

This was personally among my favorite projects, as long exposure photography has been an interest of mine for a while now. I've always wanted to use steel wool for light painting, and I finally got the opportunity to try it. Lighting the steel wool was difficult at first, as the wind was strong and the wool was packed too densely to light. After a few tries, we managed to capture a couple good takes. I'd definitely like to explore light painting more in the future.

Warm Ups

(42) What are your observations about the photos? What would photos of today’s “rebellious youth” look like?

I notice many of these youth are embracing the counter-culture of the 1970's. At this time many youth were questioning the values on which they were raised. Kids and teens pursued social freedom. Today kids are moving away from tradition in a similar way. I've noticed many that embrace technology more so than adults.

(43) How do you think this photo was created?

This appears to be a sort of long exposure shot. One way or another the dancer was suspended in the air. This was probably so that a solid image of her is created in the center of the frame. I am surprised at the crispness of the image. I usually have a hard time with this in long exposure shots.

(44) Tell me about a funny, random, or scary encounter you’ve had with an animal.

I had a cat when I was younger. He was orange and white, and named Fluffy. Fluffy was a sadist. He would often attack my family and I without warning. He typically showed little affection to any of us except for my father. He would typically attack my father as well. No one was safe.

(45) We are going to be doing another set of portraits soon, using the lighting studio in the back of the room. What kind of portraits would you like to take?

I'd like my studio portraits to look very professional. I'll tweak my lighting to appear very soft and cast few shadows. Props will spice it up a bit. I will likely use my own camera, as I am most familiar with it. I'll edit the photos in Photoshop.

(46) We are going to start an studio portrait project. I 've had you look at a few sites like this before, but take a look at these and jot down 2 things from each site that you think will be helpful. The first one has more to do with how you work with your subject. The second one focuses more on camera stuff.

Shooting candidly will help make my portraits more interesting. Altering perspective is also something I'd like to try. Lens choice is key. Altering shutter speed and aperture also affects how the portraits will turn out. It will be interesting to try out these techniques.

(47) For your warm up today, look at the links below and tell me which category seems most interesting and why. You need to COPY and PASTE the links, don't click on them.

I am most interested in the culture category. Exploring cultures is fascinating to me and I want to try and capture as many as possible. There are many cultures both domestic and abroad worth exploring. I've already experimented with culture photography. It has been greatly rewarding.

(48) What's been going on with you lately?

I've been quite tired because of school and training for swimming. I am training to swim as best as I can in Cities and CIF, and I'd also like to stay in shape for my college season this fall. School has eased up a bit, which has been nice. I am in anticipation of graduation and other senior events. This summer I'm going to have a friend from Michigan in town so I'm looking forward to and preparing for that.

(49) We will begin doing some Photoshop stuffs in a few weeks. Brainstorm three ideas of things you might want to learn how to do. You don't need to know how to do the things, just come up with three things you would want to learn.

I'd like to learn how to isolate colors better in Photoshop. I've experimented with it but haven't perfected it. Also I'd like to learn to better touch up my photos and make them look more professional in Photoshop.  A last skill I'd like to learn is the better isolating of shapes and forms from an image.

(50) How have you been editing your photos? Are you still using Lightroom? Do you use an app on your phone, or just the basic editing programs on your computer or phone? What do you usually do to edit your photos?

I only use Photoshop to edit my photos. I usually use it to adjust colors. I will adjust brightness and contrast. I'll also adjust hue and saturation. Sometimes I'll add vignetting.

(51) If you don't drink coffee, what's your favorite drink? From where?

I do in fact drink coffee. Apart from water, it is my favorite drink. I make it myself most of the time but if I need to I may stop by whichever coffee shop is nearest to me. I have an espresso machine and I know how to make my own americanos, lattes, and cappuchinos. 

(P20) Animals

I've had mixed experiences trying to take pictures of animals. With my dog it is fairly easy, as he is generally lethargic and slow moving. With my bird, it can be a bit more difficult, as she moves quickly and generally doesn't look at the camera, and is generally uncooperative. Capturing wildlife can also be difficult, as wild animals tend to shy away from humans. The seagulls are easier as they are accustomed to human presence in their habitat. I'd like to experiment with more wildlife photography, and more exotic animals in particular.

(P18) Choice Project (Top: Raw, Bottom: Edited)

The beach front skate park in Venice Beach is a highlight of LA, so when I was in the area I of course wanted to capture it. I took these pictures at dusk, which required me to brighten them up in photoshop quite a bit. I wanted to capture some moments of intense action, skateboarders in the air and whatnot. I had to balance my settings appropriately to avoid crazy motion blur and maintain some lighting in the picture.The sunset  is a very nice backdrop for this action though!