Week 13 Portrait Assignment

For the portrait assignment, I decided to photograph my almost 16 month old daughter which I knew would be a challenge. Corynn is at the age where she is so interested in my camera that the moment she sees it, she starts heading in my direction. A majority of the shots that I captured were horrible because of that! However, after snapping away endlessly, and several photo sessions later, I actually found a couple that I liked.

I used several tips from the tutorials in my photo sessions. I made sure to get down at Corynn’s level so I wouldn’t produce any awkward photos that made her look dwarfed. And, I decided to dress her up. I think that the delicate white summer dress in the first photo helps to set the mood. And, I adore the tutu in the second photo! Being that the photo shoot was in her bedroom, she had to have her teddy. I was tempted to snatch it out of her hand because I thought it would ruin the photos, but I actually like how they turned out. I think the prop added to the overall mood of the photos.

As you can see from these photos, Corynn truly loves her teddy!

Week 10 Paint Tools Assignment

This assignment was fun to complete and it took me a while to figure out what I was going to do with the tools. I finally decided to edit a photo of my husband and daughter picking an apple. I didn’t like how colorless the sky was, so I used the paint bucket tool to change the sky to a light blue. This was a tedious task as I had to zoom in and get all of the little pieces of sky that was peeking through the leaves. Well worth the effort though! Additionally, just for fun, I decided to change the color of their shirts. I used the brush tool to accomplish this and set the opacity really low to keep the wrinkle detailing crisp. Overall, I am really pleased with the results.

Original

 

Edited  

Week 10 Text Tool Assignment

Ironically, I thought that using the text tool would be the easiest assignment to complete, but I was stumped as to how to use it at first! It took a couple minutes for me to figure out that I needed to make the text extremely large to see it on my photo. Finally, I was successful! I played around with the font style until I found one that I liked and also changed the font color.

Week 10 Clone Tool Assignment

Using the clone tool was a new experience for me and I’ve fallen in love with it! For this assignment, I used a photo that I previously edited for the week 7 assignment. In the original photo, the solid green area to the left of the hands was my husband’s white shirt. I had decided to change the white to green to help the shirt blend into the background. Clearly obvious, but it did the trick… until I used the clone tool and achieved even better results. I am extremely happy with the final product! I have so many photos that’ll benefit from using the clone tool.  

Original 

Edited

Week 9

For the first photo, I used the glowing edges filter. I did not expect this type of filter to have the outcome that it did. I originally thought that glowing edges would make the edges of the photo glow, but I love how it highlights everything. I made adjustments to the edge width, edge brightness and smoothness until I was happy with the results. I do think that the clouds take away from the photo as they are a bit noisy, but I love the way the gravestones look! I especially love the artistic feel that the filter gives the photo!

 

 

For the second photo, I used the colored pencil filter. Because this is a playful filter, and Corynn was having such a great time sitting in the casserole dish, I thought it would be an interesting filter to use. I love how her little hands look in the photo after applying the filter! I made adjustments to the pencil width, stroke pressure, and the paper brightness.

Week 8

For this week’s color and light assignment, I chose to manipulate two photos of my daughter. I am still adjusting to Photoshop and have a lot to learn. I can honestly say that I don’t feel that Photoshop is as friendly as other programs I have used, but I am hoping that I will learn to love it! In both photos, I played with the saturation and contrast, as well as skin color. In the second photo, I used the selection tools to select the leaf Corynn is holding so I could really play with the color. The originals are first, followed by the edited photos.

 

Week 7

In the first photo of my friend, I wanted to remove the background noise (portable toilet, signs) and add some color to the sign. I cropped the photo to focus solely on Abby and the sign. I changed the color of the lettering on the sign from black to a red/green combination. To change the color, I utilized the magic wand and then filled each letter with the color I wanted.

Original



Edited



In the second photo, I wanted to focus solely on the hands of my husband and daughter holding the apple. I cropped as much as I could to remove my husband, but couldn’t completely remove his white shirt from the photo. I decided to fill the white of his shirt with green to blend better with the background. It certainly isn’t a perfect match, but is more appealing than the white which took away from the hands holding the apple. To remove the white on the top left portion on their hands, I used the magic wand and then filled with green. To remove the white on the bottom left portion of their hands, I chose to use the magnetic lasso because there were different shades of white.

Original

 

Edited

Week 6

When I took this photo, my intent was to capture the beauty of the decaying tree in the swamp. Ordinarily, it is not a photo that I would find pleasing, but I really loved the reflections in the water as well as the floating leaves. To make the photo aesthetically pleasing, I utilized the rule-of-thirds for the shot.

I really enjoyed taking this photo because it captures the beauty of Vermont. I particularly loved the lighting in the photo because of the natural highlighting and shadowing provided by play between the sun and clouds. I utilized the rule-of-thirds by placing the cows in the lower right corner of the photo. The rolling hills, as well as the intersecting of the tall grass, provide depth in the picture.

I wanted to create depth in this photo and feel that I achieved this by including the trees with the sky in the background. Perhaps greater depth could have been achieved by including more of the skyline. I decided to take the photo from the point-of-view that I did to evoke the feeling of standing directly in front of the waterfall.

This is my favorite photo and I find it to be so appealing! The view from this cemetery atop a hill is breathtaking overlooking the mountains. I chose to include the sky as such a large part of my photo because I felt it added to the feeling of elevation and openness. The clouds just seemed to be perfectly blanketing the sky and, in combination with the gravestones, provided nice framing of the mountains.

I spotted this beaver dam and couldn’t help but photograph it! At first, I focused my attention on just the beaver dam, but found afterwards that it was more appealing when situated in the background of the photo. The lily pads made for an interesting composition and I loved the reflections in the water. The blue sugaring line isn’t the most attractive, but I don’t think that it ruins the photo.

Week 5

For this week’s assignment, 8 of the 9 framing photos in the slideshow were taken in Stowe. I decided to do this assignment outdoors to highlight the beauty of fall. I found it quite challenging to photograph strong framing photos because yellow, amber, and gold tones seemed to overwhelm the landscape causing many of the shots to look bland. I also added a photo of the back of our woodshed where several boards have come loose over the years leaving the stacked wood exposed. I thought it was an interesting shot of wood framing wood.

Week 4

The photos below are examples of the monochromatic and complementary color schemes.

 

To represent a monochromatic color scheme in a picture, I decided to photograph round bales in the barnyard. Once I got outside and started to capture the round bales, I thought it would be interesting to incorporate the sky full of clouds. Finally, after shooting from many different angles, I was able to capture the round bales against the clouds without blue sky in the photograph.

To represent a complementary color scheme in a picture, I decided to photograph a yellow caterpillar against a purple background. I spotted the caterpillar on my daughter’s slide and was inspired by his coloring. So, I went inside and grabbed one of Corynn’s purple jackets which I placed on the slide. The caterpillar was quite cooperative and wasn’t harmed in any way during the photo shoot! I love his yellow coloring against the purple polyester – truly complementary!

Week 3

Taking macro photos this week was both challenging and fun for me. I quickly learned the importance of my camera’s minimum focusing distance as I found that a lot of my photos were blurry. It was fun getting outside and trying to look for interesting subjects to photograph. With the cold weather approaching, my flowers have since passed, but it was entertaining to see how dainty wildflowers would photograph.

I first tried making my collage with Photovisi, but it proved to be a failure. Once I would download beyond 13 pictures, it would give me an error message. So, I gave in and downloaded Picasa which I found to be very user-friendly.  Overall, I had a good experience with creating the collage.

Week 2

These photos were taken in Maine this weekend. I love how in the top photo, the point-of-view provides the onlooker with the intricate detailing of the sunflower and captures the beauty of a bumble bee in action. The p-o-v of the second photo is standing slightly below the sunflower and looking up. There were some other really great sunflower shots, but I love this photo because of the bumble bee flying away. The photos, although photographing the same subject, are dramatically different because of the p-o-v. In the top photo, the p-o-v focuses solely on the bee and seeds of the sunflower while the p-o-v of the second photo allows the viewer to see the beauty of the whole sunflower in its natural environment.

Week 1

St. Albans Reservoir, October 2011

I pass the St. Albans Reservoir daily on my drive home and it is just minutes from my house. I always take a peek when I drive by because I never know what I'll see! This was such a beautiful shot beucase typically the geese float together, but on this particular day, they were spread out across the Reservoir... absolutely gorgeous!