My Photobook

Creating my photo-book was fun to do. It took a lot of brainstorming and looking on pinterest for inspiration. I found that it helped to pick out my photos and then design the layout based on the feel of the photos I wanted.

Throughout the photo-book, I had the opportunity to discuss the process used for some of the photos. I was able to display the skills that I have learned throughout the semester. Reflecting on how much I have improved, has proven to me just how far I have come and grown over these past weeks. I am excited to continue growing and learning more.

Fine Art Print

When editing a photo for print, you have to make sure that the final result is bright enough and sharpened because printing affects the quality. To edit my photo, I started by pulling it into Photoshop.

The original photo had great lighting. The natural sunlight reflected off of the door beautifully, so brighting up the door was not necessary. I wanted the focus of the door to be on the engraving of the beehive, so we used the sharpening brush and went over it and blended it around the spot. Using the brush also added a bit of texture, adding interesting to the focal point. Lastly, to add a dramatic feel, I added a vignette effect to the edges, but made it subtle so it didn’t come out too dark in print.

Contest

When I first picked up a camera so a few year ago I was just guessing on what the different settings were. I didn’t know what ISO was or aperture. I have learned so much my short journey of photography that I feel like I was able to display in the two photos that I decided to submit to the contest.

The door really caught my eye because it had such beautiful details. I really wanted to capture that so I took a few photos from different angles. While looking through my photos, I found that a lower angle was able to capture more detail, while showing it in a unique way. It was very bright outside, so when I pulled it into light room, I made sure to adjust the lighting and sharpen the details.

I decided to submit it to a https://gurushots.com/challenges/open contest because they have so many to choose from and I knew that it would allow me to gain more exposure. Both of the photos were submitted to the “my best recent shot” challenge because I feel like that is the category it best fit into. I would like to enter more in the future because I think they have really interesting topics for their contests.

 

Top Five

I have learned so much throughout the semester. As I look through my photos, I can see that I have improved so much. Even though I still have so much more to improve on, I look forward to the future and am excited to continue using my skills. Below are some of my top five pictures from this semester.

Macro Photography

This has been one of my favorite things we have learned in this class so far. I really like that Macro Photography allows you to see the details of an object fairly clearly. For the first two pictures, I took pictures of objects that I thought had interesting details. The first  picture features money from China and a penny and the second features a small watch. The last pictures are of a rose and a beautiful multi-colored flower. The water droplets add interest to the photos.

Bannack – Fine Art

Bannack had so many cool details and props in all of the buildings. They each had their own charm. I took so many photos of the surrounding area, and it was hard to narrow it down to just a few of my favorite photos. I chose these because I really liked the colors and how they complemented each other. Out of all of them, these stood out the most to me.

 

Bannack – Portraits

Portraits was the series that I was the most nervous to take pictures for. Before this, we were mainly taking pictures of objects or the surrounding environment. In addition, I don’t have any personal experience taking professional photos of individuals. However, I was very pleased with the way some of my photos turned out.

The four pictures below show a before and after. The before was in regular lighting conditions and the after was taken using a strobe light and Reflector. It is amazing to see how much more detail is shown in the after photo.

Before

After

Before

After

I really like this last picture because I feel like it shows the character of each individual. All of the individuals that helped and participated were such amazing models. I would love to do another photoshoot with all of them.

Creative Perspectives of Bannack

This series forced me to think about Bannack through a creative lense. I learned a few cool techniques while doing this series and was able to capture some interesting shots.

The photo above is one of my favorite photos from the whole series. While taking the photo, I imagined the subject of the photo writing about a great memory in their journal or writing a letter to someone special.

Doors and Doorways

Bannack Ghost Town was full of beautiful architecture. I wanted to do something unique for my series photos however, the thing that kept catching my eye was the different styles of doors and door ways found everywhere. Each door had its own character due to the ways that they all aged differently. The surrounding rooms and wallpaper added such a beautiful touch to the environment surrounding the doors.

Landscape Perspective

I really enjoyed taking the featured photos this weekend. The photos were taken in a place down the road from my apartment complex. We parked the car at the end of the road and tried the get the background as much a possible. For the main subject, I decided to use my friend’s car. I chose to use her car because it was an older car and it has a lot of character. When I took the photos, it was already starting to get dark, so the lighting was perfect. The different perspectives and details that I chose were to display the parts of the car that I found to be the most interesting.