Version 2 of My Photostory

Digi Photo Final Project

My Photostory

 

Action Photo Assignment

Here is my action photo of my dog Sully. I really enjoyed this assignment. I spend most of my photographing time trying to capture an action shot of my dogs. They are so energetic that they give me plenty of opportunities to do just that! I found this assignment not to hard to do because of that. For this photo we were playing toss the stick in the water and Sully happened to jump out of the water with the stick in his mouth at the perfect time I snapped the photo. I think action photography is a lot of luck, especially when dealing with fickle animals!

Portrait Assignment

Here is a portrait photograph of my niece. She generally is so "trained" to pose for pictures by saying "cheese" while doing her best fake smile! So the trouble I ran into with taking a portrait shot was trying to take one with a natural expression and not the fake "cheese". I had to take several shots to get this one natural look. And by several I mean many! I took many photos of smiles and goofy expressions until finally I caught this one. I think is her expression for "can you stop taking pictures of me now"! She was a really good sport about it. The other problem I had was that there was a lot of natural light. You can see that the right side of her face is getting a lot of light. I like the way the light is hitting her face but I think some may think it is too much light. Ethier way I like the overall effect of the close-up, her expression, and the light.

Clone Stamp Photo

This is my photo using the clone stamp tool. I made this image by selecting the clone stamp tool and selected multiply mode. I had the opacity at 28%. I also selected Aligned. I selected the image of Sully and put it behind the "real" Sully. I call this picture the "spirit of Sully". I can see after using this tool how people can make photos of "ghosts" seem real!

Patch Tool Photo

Here is my photo using a the patch tool. I selected the patch tool and selected "destination" under the patch tool. I also selected "transparent" under patch tool. I then chose parts of the tree I liked and used the patch tool to move transparent versions in the sky. My thought process was just to add a dream-like quality to the picture.

Photos Using Text

Here are my photos using text. I used the text tool and then typed it horizontally for Boston's photo and vertically for sully's photo. After I typed the text I highlighted and changed the color of the font. I then used "warp" to change the shape of the text. I used the flag warp setting. I watched the tutorial on watermarks but I didn't add one to my photos since I don't have a website or a copyright and I liked the idea of titling my dog photos.

Photoshop: Dodge and Burn Tools

I have to admit this assignment was frustrating at first! I couldn't find my dodge and burn tools. I had all of the tutorials printed out plus the Adobe Photoshop manual all in front of me and I was still scratching my head. Finally I found the tools. I blame it not on the tutorials or the manual but my own lack of familiarity with Photoshop. Once I found the tools it was a lot of fun to manipulate the photos using the dodge and burn tools. In this photo I wanted the two dogs and the path to stand out. I used the burn tool to darken the area around the path. I think it looks as if dusk is falling everywhere but on the path. Or like a giant shadow is looming just beyond the path. Then I used the dodge tool to lighten the entire path, to almost make it look like a beacon for someone to follow the dogs down. I think the overall photo looks like a storybook photo. I can almost imagine the story the goes along with it...

PhotoShop Filters: Photo Two

I used the diffuse glow filter on this photo of Boston running. I really like the effect this created. It almost seems as if it was an image used in a story book.

PhotoShop Filters: Photo One

Here is my photos using the filter tool in Adobe Photoshop. I used the charcoal tool. I think it changed the whole dynamic of the photo. I really like the original but I think the charcoal adds another dimension to the photo.

Fixing Photos With Photoshop

Here is a photo of my niece Chloe and dog Zuri. I changed it to a black and white picture. I really like how images look in black and white and so that is why I played with this feature for this photo. I also used the brightness contrast tools to create this image.

Fixing Photos With Photoshop

Here is a photo of my dog Sully playing in the snow. You might recognize him jumping from the Photoshop picture last week where I cropped him into the picture of of my other dog Boston.
The second picture is the original unaltered version. The first picture I adjusted using Photoshop tools. I wanted to play around with the tools to get some neat effects. While I admit it doesn't look real it was still fun to do. I used the new adjustment layer tools to create this effect. I played with the brightness tools as well as histogram tools and I adjusted the saturation as well. I really wanted the green to stand out in this picture from the trees so I utilized the tools for this effect.

Photoshop Assignment:Marquee, Lasso, Magic Wand Tools

Here is my 1st ever attempt at Photoshop. It was hard! Luckily my mother has a photoshop users guide so that helped alot. I used the marquee tool to cut the picture of Sully jumping out of the orginal picture and into the picture of Boston lying down. Then I used the magnetic lasso to crop out the background from the cropped picture so that Sully would blend into the image better. I attempted to use the magic wand to blend the colors but I'm not sure if I did it correctly. Overall it was interesting to figure out how to operate all of the tools to get the result I was looking for. I think once I get used to photoshop that I will enjoy using it. It is an amazing program!

Landscape Photos

Here are my landscape pictures. I really enjoy taking pictures of landscapes. As a matter of fact I chose noted wildlife and landscape photographer Galen Rowell as my research topic. I hope through researching his work that I will learn some good tips and techniques to take nice landscape photos.

These photos were taken on a hike up a mountain in Washington. It is the highest point in town. As you can see if affords a beautiful view of Camels Hump. You can even see a view of Washington and the dirt road that leads to our house. The other pictures are of the trail we hiked. It's actually a snowmobile trail in the winter and where I trail ride my horse in the summer. I took these pictures at about 12:00 in the afternoon.

Assignment # 3: Frame Slideshow

Assignment # 2: Rule of Thirds

Here is my side by side comparison of photos. I took these photos on a two hour hike with my husband and dogs on Saturday afternoon. The photo on the top is using the rule of thirds. My subject is the far left square if you were to divide the image into nine squares. The photo on the bottom is taken with my subject centered. If you were to divide the image into nine squares he'd be exactly in the center square. In the photo where I used the rule of thirds I liked that you can see the trail stretched out ahead and the deep blue of the sky peeping through the trees tops. I also like in this shot the way you see the tree line down through the path. I think it adds nice depth to the picture.

Assignment # 1: Research on Composition and Aesthetics

Here is a photo by Ruth Bernard. The Rule of Thirds applies here. The trees are at the upper left intersection if you were to divide the picture into thirds.

For assignment #1 I decided to research composition. I found a website called photographytips.com that had a great statement...“FOLLOW THE RULES UNTIL YOU KNOW WHEN TO BREAK THEM.” This quote made a lot of sense to me. The website goes on to explain that sticking to the rules of composition they will become a permanent part of your brain when taking pictures. It will become a part of who you are. The website states once you’ve ingrained the rules of composition into your brain feel free to break a few rules when you feel the picture would benefit from it. At this point you may even start to develop your own style and create some really creative and wonderful photos. To sum it up you need to know the rules in order to know how to break them. http://www.photographytips.com/page.cfm/6

Ruth Bernard
I really liked these quotes by famous photographer Ruth Bernard. The first quote grabbed my attention right away. It reminded me that being patient may yield me the best photos. And it also made me feel okay that I take 100 pictures just to get one good shot when I could have stopped at 20 to get just a mediocre shot. These quotes were taken from this website:http://www.photoquotes.com/ShowQuotes.aspx?id=159&name=Bernhard,Ruth

There is no such thing as taking too much time, because your soul is in that picture. - Ruth Bernhard

I liked the quote below as well. It makes me realize that the best way to get a great photo is to really observe how I am taking the picture (technique), what I’m taking the picture of (composition), and the lighting of that picture. My goal is to learn technique, composition, and lighting so that I can take some truly breathtaking photos.

My quest, through the magic of light and shadow, is to isolate, to simplify and to give emphasis to form with the greatest clarity. To indicate the ideal proportion, to reveal sculptural mass and the dominating spirit is my goal. - Ruth Bernhard

Morning Picture

I took this picture at about 6:45 in the morning. It was taken right after a night of getting about 15 inches of snow! I like the blue gray of the sky coming through the tree branches. I think it's kind of spooky! This is my favorite picture of all three of the different lighting pictures. I like it because I think it has more character and depth to it than the other two pictures.

Afternoon Picture

I took this picture at about 1:00 in the afternoon. It was cloudy and snowy. I am surprised at how bright the picture was when it was such an overcast day. It is really bright and white!

Night Photo

I took this picture at about 9:00 at night. I had to use the flash since it was cloudy and snowing and there was no natural light. I had to take pictures blindly and then review them after to see if I liked the shot. I have to say it was pretty fun to take pictures in the dark!

Analogous Color Scheme

Here is my example of an analogous color scheme. I choose these ribbons becuase it's three colors next to each other on the color wheel green, green-yellow, and yellow.

Monochrome Color Scheme

Here is my example of a monochrome color scheme. These are my red 2nd place ribbons showcased against a red sheet.

My Macro Pictures

I struggled a bit with the assignment to take pictures of textures and close-ups with the macro setting. At first I took pictures of still objects such as rugs, curtain tassels, woodwork, etc...
But I didn't care for any of the pictures I captured. I couldn't seem to capture the detail that I was looking for. So I deleted them all and tried again. This time I decided to focus on animals. I went outside and took pictures of the barn cats in the hay. I focused on the cats at first and zoomed in to catch their expressions. It was really interesting because I'm cat sitting my sister's cat, Sami. She has only been with my two cats a week and she really doesn't care for them despite Shiloh, the long-haired tiger, being her son. Tanner with his yellow fur and eyes didn't photo well but I really liked the shot of his paws in the hay. He is such a powerful cat that I think he'd be better in action shots. Sami was my best subject. She gave such great expressions as she glared at the Shiloh and Tanner casusally walking around her. Shiloh himself is very photgenic as well with his neat coloring and great expressions. I also captured some nice shots of the hay. Hay is a fun texture to take pictures of. It has so many interesting colors and textures in it as well as the baling twine. I learned that animals are my photographic muse. I find myself more excited about taking their pictures than still objects which I think is reflected in the photos.

Holy Macro Collage!

Comparing photos of the same object

Here is my comparison of two photos I took at about 4:45 this evening. The photos are of a snow sculpture "statue" in Barre City park. I actually took 29 shots and I had a really hard time picking just 2 to compare! I took the majority of photos on the automatic setting just because it used up less memory and I hadn't planned on stopping to take pictures. My husband decided we should check this out on the way home tonight and luckily I had my camera with me!

The first shot I took from the left angle of the sculpture. I stood eye level to the sculpture to take this shot. I like that you can see the two old churches in the background. I didn't like that it was right next to a tree with lights strung on it. I think it distracts from the picture. I bet at night if the lights are on it would be a pretty picture against the statue. I'll have to check it out the next time I drive by when it's dark out. I think in this shot the sculpture looks like he is thinking, possibly even brooding over something. His expression is not as hard at this angle as it is in the second picture. His features appear softer in this photo compared to the second photo. His face appears more like a cherub in the picture on the top picture compared to the more stern look in the picture on the bottom.

The second photo I took by kneeling down and pointing up at the snow sculpture. I was to the front right angle of the sculpture. I like it because it shows the great expression the sculptor carved in. I think it looks like he is the king of all the snow people! He also looks a bit like a snob at this angle. I like the whiteness of the snow against the blue gray of the sky. I think it gives the picture some fluidity broken up only by the barren trees in the background.

My favorite of the two shots is the second photo. I think the angle and zoom of the photo give it more character than in the other shots. I like that the snow sculpture look so "impressive" because the of the angle of the shot. I think the sculpture has more presence in the second photo too. I also like this shot better because it shows the details of the carving better. Compare how much more detailed his right hand looks in the second photo compared to the second photo. I think there is a big difference between the amount of detail shown. In this photo the snow sculpture almost comes to life. His face takes on almost life like quality that gives it this illusion with this shot.

The detail the sculptor was able to carve into snow is incredible! I'm glad I was able to capture some of it.

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! My name, as you may have guessed, is Liza Mountford. This blog has been created for the Digital Photograpy class I am taking at Community College of Vermont. I hope to learn a lot about digital photography with my fellow students! Enjoy the pictures as I add them and please bear with me as I learn how to "blog" for my very first time!