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.