the Shiny Pencil Sharpener and the Word Spasm

 

The school: inside and out. That is what we set out to capture this Wednessday. I took pictures that showed the school itself better, but I also messed with my camera and some reflections in a shiny pencil sharpener in the computer lab, and these were the ones I liked best, because I thought they were creative and different from what others would do, and I felt a pencil sharpener is an effective symbol of school. I chose this of the pencil sharpener pictures because it shows my camera and hand nicely, and I like the depth the layers of the sharpener add. I ran Ashley's clean actions, and, because my photo was quite vague at first, duplicated the background copy to make my image extra sharp and I increased contrast to 100 to make my camera show up brightly and also increased saturation a little, though not too much as it made my hand red. Then I flattened it and added... my wordle spasm! I love all my color and variety on my picture, how bright and colorful it turned out, and I feel like it does say something about school. Also, I like my French words because I feel they add linguistic depth. I would have liked to know another language, like German or Norwegian, for even more variety, but the French is nice. A quick translation of my french, from the top, left to right, starting with mon coeur: my heart, the teacher, my cat, an apple, the school.  However, I may have overdone it a taaad bit with my spasmatic wordle. As much as I love my many font colors, sizes, and shapes, they do make it a little... busy. This is almost a better representation of my mind than school. Almost. Another thing: I didn't ask Mrs. Riehle how to rotate things until the very end when I was almost finished, so I didn't rotate much. It may have been better with things going all directions, but then again I may have given someone a seizure. Word spasms flourished today beyond the violet mist. 

(I commented on Tyler's)

A Good Night's Rest

seeing the details

You know those mornings when you wake up and look at your arm, and it is covered in wavy imprints from the sheets in the night? My detail portrait is derived from one of those nights. I woke up in the hotel and looked at my arm and my brain went, "This is the perfect picture for my digital camera detail portrait."  So I got my camera, posed my arm on the still-cozy-warm pillow, and took a few shots. I chose this picture because it is the one where my markings showed up best, and I liked the gentle morning lighting, pale, soft colors, and the angle of my arm and hand. I ran Ashley's clean actions but took off the background copy because it made my skin look too sharp and weird. From the '50 postwork actions' folder, I ran ghost glow because it maintained the soft paleness of the photo and the sort of tranquil, clean feeling. Another action I tried and liked was Argenta 1, but I decided it made my photo too yellow-pinkish and chose this one instead, as it also kept the original mood where the Argenta action changed it. I still really like the soft, calm feel my photo has. If it had more colors, it might be more interesting, but it would lose the mood of calm. Perhaps I should have done something to make the lines on my arm clearer, but it is hard to do that without doing too much. Beyond the violet mist, we got a good night's rest and saw the benefits. 

(I commented on Martina's)

Props 

My Mom and Nature

My mom here models some interesting artifacts we chanced upon the other day in my grandparents' cow pasture: a fallen birds' nest and a giant mushroom from the side of a tree. My mother is holding these little excerpts from nature, showing the interesting things we found. I chose this picture because my mom is smiling nicely and naturally, and I thought the pose was nice. I only ran Perfect Portrait Three, and of course fiddled with all the layers. One thing that bugs me is that I accidentally made her left eye significantly darker than her right, making her eyes seem uneven. I might've overdone the eye coloration a bit, as well as some of the definition on some things and the skin tone adjustments just weren't quite right. However, I like how vivid the props are, as it makes them stand out and look cool and vivid. I also still really like her smile, and the colors on her t-shirt were nice before but are even brighter now that I've run the action. Thank you, Mom, for being my muse this week! We went on a nature hunt beyond the violet mist today.

I commented on Tyler's

Side-Lighting

The light side, The dark side, and Contrast

Aujourd'hui en classe, we took side-lit portraits. (That sentence begins 'today in class' in French) This is when, in a portrait, light falls on one side of a person's face, but the other side is left misted in mysterious darkness. I chose this picture because I liked the way the light sparkled in her red hair--you can actually see little glittering flecks--and the shadows on her face showed up really well, with good contrast. Also she is smiling a nice, natural smile. The shadows in this one I do really like because of their abstract blobish-ness and the way they create patterns that aren't just straight lines, and it makes them so much more interesting and adds great depth. I ran Ashley's clean actions, in which I increased the contrast, because to me contrast seems to be really the whole point of a side-lit photo, having your shadows deep and your highlight brilliant. I also took off the sharpening layer copy thing under Ashley's, because I liked it more vague and soft, and it sort of overtexturized her skin.  Of course, I also ran Perfect Portrait 3. Some of it I did not do, for example I did not apply 'whiten teeth' because when I brushed it in it lessened the strength of the shadow (as her mouth is in shadow), and I did not like losing that strength. The same goes for the shadowed eyes, which I did not want brightened. In the end, I still really like the sparkling of the red in her hair in the highlight,which also adds color to the bright side one can look upon in my photo. I love the contrast even more since the actions have been run, and it adds a lot of depth to the photo. I might have rather had the background be entirely black paper or entirely brick wall, one or the other. I feel like either would've been ok, but both is just a little distracting. Also, now, looking back, maybe I could've put the background--including her sweater and everything but her hair and face--in black and white to help focus the photo on the main portrait, which is to say, her face and hair.  Or perhaps I'd even do everything in black and white save for her hair, which is the main color focus of this picture, but then again that might take away from the contrast of her face. Things hide in the shadows beyond the violet mist, but hair sparkles in the soft sunlight.

(I commented on Tyler's)

Hands

This week in digital camera, we looked at hands. It was such a wide-open topic, I had to think about what I enjoyed using my hands for. One of my favorite activities with my hands is holding a book-so as to read it... or just to hold it. A well-sized book feels comfortable in my hands. I chose this picture because it expresses my love for books with my hands. I like how it turned out. It just generally achieves the visual feel I wanted. I used coffeeshop vivid first and turned on 'soft', and then of course I used moody pop. I really like how vivid's soft and moody pop worked together, the smooth effect of softness that comes from them. I might have improved the angle of the subject--it is slightly tilted but not enough to create an effect--by either tilting it more, which I think would be the best, or by not tilting the camera at all. However, the camera here was not tilted intentionally- it was propped up and on timer as these are my own hands. Both of them. Also, perhaps my shadows are a nidge too dark, but then again I like the contrast. Beyond the violet mist, we used our hands to signify appreciation for a good book. 

(I commented on Livy's)

Hubcaps and Taillights

Today in our digital camera explorations, we took pictures of hubcaps and taillights. I chose this picture because I like the angle, the shininess of the wheel, and the fact that the weight is in the bottom right corner so it applies to the rule of thirds. I used the butterfly action from under Nelly Nero's timecapsule set, and took off the 'lighten shadows' feature, which gave it better contrast, which is helped aid in showing the shiny reflectiveness of the wheel. I ran my action's color correction, because I felt the picture turned out a little too blue, and I took some blue off. However, I now think I took a little too much blue off in an overreaction, and that my picture is now somewhat too yellow, which I dislike. I do sort of like that you can, if you look closely, see my camera in the picture (once more clearly; the second time, it's very distorted, but still there), and even in the distance a tree, as well as another car and parking lines, which I think is fun and I feel these 'hidden items' add visual interest. Just in general, I think this is a visually interesting, up-close picture of a hubcap that has a cool effect. Despite its mildly over-yellow coloration, I think it turned out fairly well, and the yellowness does sort of give a 'vintage' effect. Actually, looking at it today, it looks a lot less yellow. Beyond the violet mist, we have vintage butterfly chrome.

(I commented on Martina's)

Old Things

a window into history

Old things. They've seen a lot. They know our history. Heirlooms passed down through families, mountains made in the first days of earth, trees that have seen hundreds of years. And they remember all of it. Stories cling to heirlooms, tales of love and loss and all the things that happen to people through the years. Buried in the folds of earth below mountains and in the rings of trees lie secrets, await memories. Trees show scars of fires, bullets from wars, thicker rings whisper of lush rains and renaissances of fertile growth. To archeologists, old things mean history, figuring out how people long forgotten once lived. Old things are an irreplaceable link to our past. This week, for old things, I chose to take a picture of a tree. Wrinkles pattern its flesh, and many branches grasp at unknown prizes. I chose this particular picture because it follows the rule of thirds, has an interesting perspective, and I felt it captures the tree well. I chose to make it sepia and followed the tutorial, and added a small amount of noise. I'm afraid I've forgotten whether I used an action before that or not, as it was before the weekend and I just don't remember, but I probably used Ashley's clean... I think. I like the angle of this photo and how its bark looks like wrinkled tissue paper with the light. As to improvements, I feel like the two pine trees in the background distract from the focus a little bit, and it might have more impact without them. Overall, I am quite pleased with this photo. I wish I could've also used the other picture, which I liked just about as much. In fact, though the first picture is the one I want graded, I will also include it here....

This is the same picture, just with selective color instead of sepia. I did not choose it because it does not look quite as old, but I think it still looks awesome. (I commented on Beth's)

This week beyond the violet mist, we explored our past through things left behind in time...