Final Blog

I think during this course that I have definitely become a better photographer and I really think that I have met my goals and maybe even gone above them because now when I think of taking pictures, I do not just hold down the camera button. I think about the weather outside, how it will or won't affect my shot. I think about different angles to take the shots at and I have more of an eye for things that would look unique to take pictures of. I definitely think I have gone above the goals I set for myself and I feel like I can do more now when it comes to taking pictures. I also like to use the different things that I learned in here to edit the pictures. I feel more confident on how the pictures will look and I like to edit them all now. Just like in this picture I took it at a view from above which I never did before this class and I edited the color to stand out and I used techniques to make the flowers look more soft and stand out from the greens. All of these techniques were not something I could do before and I like that I feel so good about always doing them now.

Portrait Blog

 Both of these shots were taken outside and I had to get the aperture at f/4.8 to be able to see the pictures clearly and the shutter speed had to be fast such as 1/250. It was hard to get all of the aspects perfect to get a good picture, it took many times, but it got easier as you got use to changing everything.

Painting with light

Light painting is a photographic technique in which exposures are made by moving a hand-held light source or by moving the camera. You need a shutter speed of 1/8 of a second and a low ISO of 50 and the aperture needs to be a f/5, so the lens is open. The technique to doing this is to find a place where you want to create your light painting photo, you need to release the shutter and begin painting with light. Make sure your light source is always directed towards the camera or you won’t have continuous lines and shapes. You need to have a camera that enables you to set long exposure times. So, a compact camera can be used, but it’s better to have a camera which will give you more control over other settings, like ISO, aperture, and the choice of the lens. A tripod is an essential accessory.  It will guarantee you clear and sharp photos, especially with long exposure times. Another important accessory is a remote control. It will enable you to release the shutter without having to be near the camera which will give you more freedom in choosing the place where you will be moving your light source. It will also reduce any threat of camera shake that may occur at the moment of pressing the shutter release button. You need a dark room, lasers, tripods.

Painting With Light Pictures:

The photography lab with painting with light went really well. I had a lot of pictures that had a lot of different views that made a lot of cool turn outs. At first I was trying to make shapes and write. It was very hard at first to write anything and to finish tracing by the time my camera went off. However, it did not seem that bad because it was still fun trying to figure everything out while doing all of the lab. Positives for the lab while doing it were experimenting with all the different things to do and all the different lights that were in the room. It was really hard to get the light to show because the light from outside kept coming in and you had to keep moving to get darkness. The lasers and the glow sticks did not work at all in the lab. It may have just been the fact that it was not that dark, but flashlights seemed to work very well and were easy to see. They were also easier to move around and draw and write things.

Camera Raw Retouch

                                Original

       

                          Retouch Camera Raw

To retouch the photo, I brightened the colors to show all the cool pink and magentas. Next I sharpened the photo to bring out the specks on the leaves. Next I fixed the luminance, the saturation and the hue to show all the colors everywhere in the picture. Lastly I cut out the corners of the picture to focus more on the middle of it and I focused it to look more up at the top like a building view.

Comparing Aperture and Scene Mode

Aperture-f/5.6

Scene Mode-Portrait

 The flower picture has a lower aperture of (f/8.0) compared to the bird that had an aperture of (f/5.6), meaning the lens was more open when I was taking the picture of the picture bird. However, both of these pictures were taken outside showing that the colors of both of them should be very vibrant in comparison to each other.  The portrait shot had a faster shutter speed (.02) than the aperture shot (.033). Both of these were taken with the same camera and nothing else was used to help shoot them.

Photography Goal

This picture is by Ron Bigelow and it is abstract art. This photo appeals to me as a beginner because the flower stands out and there is a lot of color and a lot of detail.