Car Retouch

This assignment was to take a picture of a car (below) and using photo editing, remove some of the glare, remove the background, and tint the windows.

Here is the before picture:

And the after picture:

From this I learned some more about Photoshop like how to use the clone tool, the levels tool and the text edit tool.

Still Life

This assignment was to take a 'still life' photo that protrayed some sort of object, product, etc. in an exciting way.

Here is my attempt at a still life photo (taken at a 1/1600 shutter speed, f3.2, ISO 100):

To create this look I also boosted the yellow mid-tones to draw out the 'white' pieces as well as the blue shadows to make the black pieces pop and make the shadows more defined. I also adjusted the light level to cut out the very high and very low ends of the spectrum.

Below are a few more pictures I took while attempting still-life (unedited):

From this assignment I learned how interesting angles and creative techniques can make ordinary objects look extra-ordinary. Also, I discovered how changing of color and lighting levels can make a photo pop and seem super-real.

Shutter and Aperture

This assignment was to explore shutter and aperture (through the AV -- aperture variable and TV -- time variable settings) and how they effect the outcome of the pictures.

Below are eight pictures that help to capture this idea:

Shutter

Picture #1 -- Shutter speed of 1/60. The bike tire is blurry as the motion is much faster than can be captured by the relatively slow shutter.

Picture #2 -- Shutter speed of 1/125. When the shutter speed is doubled the bike tire is still blurry but noticeably less so.

Picture #3 -- Shutter speed of 1/500. The tire is now fairly clear, although some blurring is still seen in the spokes.

Picture #4 -- Shutter speed of 1/2000. The tire and spokes are now perfectly clear as the motion of the bike is frozen in 1/2000ths of a second.

Aperture

Photo # 5 -- f2.8. The background (our focus) is crystal clear while the foreground (with the tree branch) is blurry. This is due to the small f-stop creating a shallow depth of field, only having our focus be in focus.

Photo #6 -- f4.0. The background is still clear but the foreground is still rather blurry.

Photo #7 -- f5.6. The background is still clear and the foreground is starting to become clear.

Photo #8 -- f8.0. The background remains in focus but now the foreground is as well. The larger f-stop allows for a greater depth of field which puts our whole frame into focus.

From this assignment I learned how both shutter and apeture work to change the way in which the pictures turn out. I learned that if I am capturing motion I need to adjust the speed of my shutter (higher = stop frame, lower = blurry). I also learned that to achieve different depths of field I need to use different apertures (lower = shallower depth of field -- not much in focus, higher = larger depth of field, more is in focus).

Gimp Assignment 1

In this assignment we took our first foray into Gimp. We imported an image, mirrored it thrice and colored each one differently to create an Andy Warhol-esque image.

Here is my creation:

From this assignment I have learned the basics of Gimp (how to open images, crop, move and change the color).

Photo Assignment Inspiration

I hope to do still life as my first assignment. Below I have some pictures that I found that have provided some inspiration:
Benches
Water Droplets

I want to capture something fairly ordinary and life but with a different perspective, angle or message behind it.

I am not sure if I will try and just get an object in my house or something outside.