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.