Thursday, December 13, 2012

Low-Key Lighting




We recently experimented with low-key lighting (in other words, photos with an excess of shadows and low lighting). These are the four photos that I liked the most.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Composition #3

We also covered three different ways of creating forms of composition in photography.

Space


Patterns


Shapes


Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Examples of Portraits

None of these photos are mine; they all belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.

Formal Portraiture
Anne Hathaway as Fantine photographed by Annie Leibovitz for Vogue
This portrait, of actress Anne Hathaway, is part of a recent set for Vogue Magazine featuring the upcoming film Les Miserables. As a fan of not only Leibovitz but the musical on which the film is based, I love how well the portrait captures the character (Fantine) that Hathaway portrays. Regarding the technical features of the portrait, the lighting is also used sparingly but effectively, creating a subdued, almost documentary-like atmosphere.

Informal Portraiture
Faye Dunaway photographed by Terry O'Neill
Terry O'Neill was a very interesting and very prominent photographer of the 1970s. I really like the combination of formality but mostly informality in this photo, of actress Faye Dunaway after her Oscar win in 1977. The portrait seems to convey a sense of weariness or dissatisfaction, perhaps with media or pop culture as a whole. It's made even more fascinating by the fact that O'Neill and Dunaway were married at the time.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Self-Portraits



This week, we explored self-portraits in photography. Both of these photos I took by myself in the reflection of various cases in the school hallway. I think both of these worked well due to the dark colour of the background papers, as I can see my general reflection quite well.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Light Photography & Red Lighting

Light Photography

I loved working with light photography - I've never done anything like it before and I found it quite exciting. In this photo, I like how the shape of the heart Sydney is making seems a bit wild and undefined.

I really like this photo because - keeping with the Halloween theme - of the unintentional ghost shape that appeared!

Both of these photos were very minimally edited - I only saturated some colours and lightened the photos.

Red Lighting

To take this photo, I covered the flash of my camera with sheer red paper and proceeded to take photos normally. There was no editing done on this photo.

This was taken with the same lighting technique as the previous photo - as well, there was no editing done.

Light Sculpting

A self-portrait done with the same red lighting technique as the two photos above. It reminds me a bit of an old horror movie, with harsh, unusual lighting and lots of close-ups. I only edited this photo a little by adding onto the shadows to achieve a darker atmosphere.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Motion

Chronophotographs:

I had a lot of fun taking the four photos which compose this picture and later editing them. It was interesting learning the editing technique, which I previously had very little knowledge of, and learning the photography technique. Photos taken with the Shutter "S" function

Blurred Motion:

Blurred motion is defjned as when the object that is moving is blurred, while the rest of the photograph is in focus. Both taken with the "auto" function

Frozen Motion:

Frozen motion is defined as when the object that is moving is in clear focus, while the rest of the photo may be blurred. Both taken with the Shutter "S" function

Panned Motion

Panned motion is defined as when the object is shown moving (sometimes over more than one photo), but the camera is kept steady. Both taken with the "speed" function

Friday, October 12, 2012

Photography Themes: Busy




Today, we explored themes in photography - this included taking a set of photos that all had something in common. Our theme was "busy," and these are the three photos that I think best convey that idea.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Texture

For our most recent assignment, we took photographs that focused on the texture of an object. These are the nine photos that I took and I've selected as the best:

original:

Thursday, October 4, 2012

The Feel of Fall

All metadata from here.

This photo was taken prior to me learning white balance techniques, but I'm a fan of this one because of the beautiful contrast in colours.
Metadata:

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Favourite Photos (so far)



Top Left: This is a simpler photo, but I'm still a fan of the colours and the angle at which it was taken.

Top Right: I'm a big fan of this photo, not only because of how well the "trick photography" effect worked out, but because of the focus on the hand and Malery's arm.

Bottom Centre: I think that the natural lighting in this photo really enhances it - but the focus on the object, with Nicole in the background, also looks very nice.



Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Photo Friday Texture Challenge


I've decided to enter this picture to Photo Friday's weekly contest. This week, the focus is on texture. I took this photo about a week ago of a pinecone in my backyard, while trying to practice in-focus shots.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Composition, Part 2

This assingment involved us experimenting with lines, balance, and frames in photography. The photos were taken by myself and my parter Nicole, and these are what we considered the best.


Frames:


Balance:

Lines:

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Seeing Photographically

For this assingment, we took photos of an object from different angles, in order to get a different perspective on it. The following five photos were taken by either myself or my partner Nicole, and these we selected as the best:





Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Alphabet Collage


This is the alphabet collage I created as part of a class assignment. I genuinely enjoyed taking the pictures - I think it helped expand my creativity in seeing potential photograph subjects. Editing the photos was a bit more challenging, but I did like experimenting with different options on Photoshop and discovering which style appealed to me. I appreciated that, although it was very difficult for me to find photos at first, it became easier as soon as I knew what I was looking for.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Photography Tricks

Photos by myself & Malery.

To take this picture, I stood on a dais and Malery stood below me. I took the photo while reaching towards the shadow of her hand.

I took this photo of Malery against a white backdrop, and at an angle in order to make the view look more realistic.

This photo was taken by Malery and by using forced perspective. I stood on top of a table while Malery cupped her hand to make it look like I was standing in it.