Final Reflection

I originally took this class as an easy way to fulfill my technology graduation requirements.  I thought that it would be an easy and fun class to add to my otherwise stressful junior schedule.  I had never really picked up a camera aside from taking a few quick snapshots every once in a while.  When we first started learning about the elements of composition, shutter speed, and aperture I quickly realized that this class was not going to be as easy as I thought it would be.

When we first started taking pictures to demonstrate how shutter speed and aperture could affect a picture I had no idea how hard it would be to balance the two.  Whenever I would attempt to get a motion blur by lengthening the shutter speed I would end up with an over exposed picture from my failure to properly adjust the aperture.  Shutter speed and aperture continued to confuse me for a few more weeks, and I bombed the quiz.  Once I finally learned how to use a camera I had to start looking at what my photograph was really composed of.

I started learning how to capture personality and atmosphere in images.  This is the biggest thing that I will take away from this class.  I went from someone just trying to get something mandatory over with to a person who can now capture any little moment in time.

Worst photos:

Best photos:

Lastly, I put together a slide show of my favorite photos that I took this year and all of the photo shop assignments that I did.  

Photo assignment seven, people

Assignment description: For the seventh photo assignment I chose to take pictures of people.  

Original

Shutter speed:1/60, Aperture: f4.5, ISO: 400

Edited

What I learned: With this being my last photo assignment I have become more accustomed to using the camera and photoshop.  It was hard to capture human emotions in a posed photograph.  It was also difficult to eliminate shadows on my friend's face.  

Puns

In this assignment we were meant to use photo shop to visually portray a pun.

I learned how to use the gradient tool to create faded backgrounds.  I also refined my select tool skills.

Tutorial

edited

original

original

edited

Assignment description: For this assignment we had to go online and find tutorial regarding photo shop cs6.  After we had found a tutorial we had to follow the instructions and create that effect.

Link to reflection tutorial~http://www.webdesign.org/photoshop/photoshop-cs6-tutorials/how-to-create-stunning-reflections-in-photoshop.22205.html

Link to color splash tutorial~http://www.iceflowstudios.com/2012/tutorials/color-splash-effect-in-photoshop-cs6/

What I learned: Both of these tutorials were very helpful in furthering my photo shop skills.  When doing the reflection tutorial I learned how to use multiple layers and the gradient tool to create a reflection.  Before this tutorial I would have simply adjusted the opacity when attempting to create a reflection.  Using the gradient tool to make the faded effect makes it look more like an actual reflection.  In doing the color splash tutorial I learned about the color range select tool.  This tool allows you to select one color in the photo.  For example, the red in the above picture was selected using this tool.  I also learned how to use black and white brushes to tweak the color of the final picture.

Photo assignment six, macro

For this assignment I took extreme close ups of the subject for macro.

aperture: f 5.6, shutter speed: 1/15, ISO: 100

Edited:

Original:

The hardest part of this assignment was getting the camera to focus up close on my sister's face.  I had to change the lens on my camera to get it to work.  I had to use photo shop to crop out the excess face.  I learned how to adjust the camera settings and subject angle properly for macro.  

photo assignment five, black and white

For this photo assignment I made pictures black and white in photo shop.
Edited:

Aperture: f5.6, Shutter speed: 1/100, ISO: 100

Original:

In doing this assignment the biggest thing I learned was how to put a picture in black and white in photo shop.  I also used curves to adjust the levels in the picture.  This assignment was pretty straight forward because I had already take all of the photos.

Photo assignment four, still life

Four my fourth photo assignment I chose to photograph board games for still life.  

Original:

 Edited:

Shutter speed: 4, Aperture, f22, ISO, 100

In this assignment I really struggled with how to set the still life up.  I also took the photos in my kitchen which was very dimly lit at the time.  I was able to fix most of the pictures in photo shop using the brightness and contrast adjustments and the crop tool.

Portrait

In this assignment we had to take portrait pictures of someone in a studio and near a window.  The object of this assignment was to teach us to properly use lighting and the white balance on the camera.

This assignment taught me how to use out side light sources along with adjusted shutter, aperture, and white balance to achieve the proper lighting in the photo.  I struggled with the window picture because it was very dark outside.  I also furthered my understanding of photo shop layers when inserting the white frames around the pictures.  

Panoramics

For this assignment we had to take multiple photos and use photo shop to merge them into a panoramic shot.

The main challenge for me with this assignment was making sure that the pictures lined up when I was taking them.  I also had a tendency to wobble the tripod and the pictures would come out blurry.  Using photo merge is really straight forward because the computer does most of the work for you.  I did learn how to properly use photo merge which will probably benefit me in the future.  

Photo assignment three, nature

For my third photo assignment I decided to photograph nature.

Shutter speed: 1/125, Aperture: 5.6, ISO: 100

This assignment really capitalized on how to properly take photos outside.  At first I had a really hard time keeping the camera on manual and still getting the effect that I wanted.  When editing this weeks photos I was able to use the select tool to enhance only certain portions of the photo where before I had to apply the effects to the entire picture.