Car Retouch project

Another miraculous journey into the wonderful land of Gimp!

BEFORE

AFTER

With this assignment, we were given a photo taken of a car at the Auto Show by a former student. It was a nicely composed and clear photograph, but there were a few noticeable blemishes- too many spots of reflected light were distracting on the hood of the car, the background was far too busy, and to top it all off, there is a mysterious man strolling through the image. All of these little things added up to a big detraction from an otherwise attractive image. Thus, our job was to get rid of these things, though this is no easy task! Once again we had to work in the image editor Gimp to touch it up. Again, though I have had extensive experience with working in Photoshop, using Gimp proved to be a bit of a challenge, sometimes more than a little frustrating. I am very used to doing certain things in certain ways, and so I keep catching myself trying to do things the Photoshop way, and have to correct myself. Like an old woman, I am rather set in my ways! I think it may take some more time to get used to Gimp, but eventually, perhaps I won't be so incompetent.

Nature

With this photo set, I focused on nature. I tried to capture the beauty and detail of the natural features found around my house. I ended up mostly taking pictures of flowers; at least, those ended up being the ones I liked best. After having done a few days' worth of photos, I've noticed a pattern emerging in my photography- I love taking close-up pictures, often with shallow depths of field. What I find makes photos look most interesting is when there is a distinct difference between what is in focus and what is not. Definitely my favorite photos that I've taken are close-up shots of plants, which is mostly what this set is composed of. My favorite photograph here is of a small field of wild bloodroot flowers, with one in focus and the rest blurry. I think it portrays the importance of individuality quite well. It makes for an interesting shot. The other one that stood out to me in particular is the picture of the acorn on the rocky path- something about the composition that I can't quite put my finger on makes it stand out. My father, who used to be a photographer, identified that as his favorite as well.
My personal favorite photo:

Shutter speed: 1/249
Aperture: f2.0
ISO setting: 50

Pop Art Assignment

The Pop Art Assignment served as an introduction to the many wonderful aspects of the image-editing program Gimp. Though I have played around with it on a few occasions in the past, I am a Photoshop user myself, so the layout was unfamiliar. While putting this image together, I caught myself several times looking for a certain tool under a different drop-down on the menu, and the flipping between the three windows seemed very strange! Now, after the project's completion, I feel that I have become more familiar with its layout. Perhaps I am not a Gimp wiz yet (and I may never be!) but my level of frustration with the program has decreased dramatically!

Andrea was my model for this image. Doesn't she look nice?

Composition Assignment

Assignment description:
The purpose of the composition assignment was to basically learn how to set up a good photograph. Composition is the makeup of a photo- where the point of interest is in the scene, what colors are used and how, and other visual effects that are used when taking a photo. Examples include the Rule of Thirds, which shows where the point of interest should be in the scene, depth of field, which is putting certain significant objects into focus while letting other things go out, and symmetry, a familiar term which means the two halves of the scene are pleasingly similar in appearance. We each had to take eleven pictures, each one being an example for an element of composition.


Photo descriptions:
Pattern = “hallway”
Texture = “close-up prickly plant”
Depth of field = “five-pointed plant seed pod”
Rule of Thirds = “landscape of tree and water”
Lines = “bottom of tree and reflection in water”
Symmetry = “table”
Space = “flag”
Color = “green plant among brown leaves”
Framing = “portrait of Andrea framed in branches”
Perspective = “stair railing”
Balance = “tree against sky”




What I learned:
Overall, I learned how to take a good-looking photograph! I have had limited experience with artistic photography; I’ve only taken pictures for fun, such as scenes from vacations or from outings or parties and whatnot. When I would look back through my pictures, they all just seemed to be ordinary, plain old pictures! None of them were particularly aesthetically pleasing, and I could never figure out why. This assignment has since provided me with many different tools that, when put together, can make for a much more interesting photograph. It has made me really excited to take more artistic and expressive photos everywhere I have my camera with me.