Sunsets

So I went through some pictures for sunset ones to see what makes a sunset picture good. What is the best lighting and colors. I noticed that a lot of my better ones had a foreground but it worked into the picture and complimented the sunset. For example the pictures of the barn and the sunset with one gold streak. The top of the barn compliments it and works itself into the sunset so that there isn't just an awkward beam of light going up into the sky. I also did an example of too much foreground like in the second picture. The tree and logs don't contribute to the picture but are more of a distraction away from the sunset.

Model Shoot

So in these pictures I experimented a little with just different angles and a different look at using the logo in such a way as every day life. I had a really hard time with this project it wasn't one of my favorites to do but it was still something that I have never done before. Most of the pictures are what I would call. . . irregular. It is more of a look of every day life and the clothes are not exactly the center of attention yet in every picture the logo is right there which is what makes the picture. The two main brands that I used were The North Face and Cinch, both of which are outside apparel that I found suitable for an outdoor shoot that involved snow.

What Characteristics a Great Image Has

After the article on Tuesday I went on the internet and grabbed a few pictures that I thought were good examples of a few elements that we had discussed. The first picture I chose has always been one of my favorites. It really shows the despair on the woman's face, it tells a story, the photographer shows just enough around her to really capture the poverty and the hunger. I have looked at this picture many many times and yet I still go back to it. To me that is why this picture is such a good example, it catches the human emotion on the woman's face and draws the viewer in. A portrait should make the viewer feel and think. The second picture I chose because of the color contrast; I thought it was a good example of even though there is really only 2 main colors in the picture it feels it enough to keep the viewers attention, and the eye moving through it. There is no obnoxious red colors in it or any other color that would either distract from the picture or take away from it. The third picture I chose was the desert one. I thought this showed how a picture can have a huge effect with very few elements being used. When looking at the sand there is only one color in the whole picture, what makes this a picture like this so unique is the shadows. They give depth to the image and draw the eye in because there are no distinct lines but just layers of sand.

Faces

After class on Tuesday and looking at the website on how to take a good portrait picture it really made me think about how to get that same effect from some of the portrait that I have taken. So I went through some old pictures that I had and picked out some face pictures and thought it would be fun to put a few together to find out what makes a picture bring out an emotion. I picked these 4 pictures that I thought were different enough to show how even though the facial expressions may be different when looking at the pictures the first thing that draws your attention is the eyes.

Fixed pictures from running #2

So here are the second running pictures that I edited and fixed so that the runner was more the center of attention. In all these pictures I took out the buildings in the background that were more of a distraction. They took away from the picture and instead of the eye moving around the image. I altered the color in a few of the pictures as well to try and give them some more depth and feeling to them with the silhouette of the runner against the sunset. On the last picture I had to photoshop out glares from the sun. It helped the overall image of the picture and really pulled it together as a whole.

ISO Speed

So I was only able to find one of the exposure settings on my camera and that was ISO. So I experimented a little with ISO and the two pictures that I have posted are on a low setting and a high one so that the viewer can get a clearer understanding of what the difference is between the two. The top picture has its ISO set at 1600 and the bottom one is set at 200. You can see the difference between the two picture and how much clearer the top one is compared to the bottom. 1600 is always better on indoor pictures because it brings more light into the frame.

Drops of water

With this series of photos I tried to catch the light and the water droplets together, I thought they made such a beautiful contrast against each other. I took these pictures around 4:40 in the afternoon right when the sun was directly hitting this particular wall. When I first saw it all I was trying to get was the running water that was going down the side of the gutter, not exactly the water droplets. It was a pure accident but I love how it turned out because the general color of the picture draws your eye in but the water droplets are what seems to truly captivate the image and really draw the eye in deeper into the picture. I tried to mess around with different angles a little bit to make it just a little more interesting. The shadows were fun to deal with as well because they just gave just that extra boost to the picture and let the eye travel around. I personally really liked the color scheme in this series and how it was mainly just different shades of brown with some light blue.

Running #2

So I'm not very experienced with snow pictures and I have found that it is a lot different taking snow pictures because of the reflection that comes from the snow and the different lighting that comes with it. It was really fun doing these pictures but I have to admit it got very cold after a while. I did these using the aperture setting on my camera as well as the burst mode which allowed me to take multiple pictures without having to take my finger off the button. I liked using this setting for running pictures because I felt I caught a lot more than I would have using another setting. I picked the best day possible for picture taking, the sky was as blue as can be. It was at about 4:30 in the afternoon which gave me great lighting. All in all I felt very satisfied with this series.