Tripod Assignment

Tripod Assignment

 

Reflection -

For the Tripod Assignment, I feel like the thing that worked most well was the actual taking of pictures. It was really fun especially because I am goofy and love to have fun. At first, I thought the assignment was going to be really challenging and it kind of intimidated me at first when we were discussing the actual project in class.

I feel like what challenged me the most was keeping track of all my layers and all of that. I got really confused and all of that because I'm not really organized. Another thing that was hard was actually cutting myself out of the pictures all neat and nice. I got really discouraged a lot because I wanted to be done already.

Next time, I want to take my pictures in a different places and put a lot my pizazz into my artwork and make it reflect my personality a lot more. I also would try harder to make my picture a little neater and not so clustered.

The tools that I used were the Quick Selection, cut, and copy tool to take one item out of one picture, cut it out, and copy it into another photo.



Photo Montage Project

Reflection - I feel that NOTHING worked well for this picture. I truly felt that this was the most difficult project that we have done this entire semester and I cannot say that I enjoyed it at all. It was really hard to shoot for me hints above because I am not good with all of the "direction" and "aiming" aspect of the project - kind of got confused on what the whole purpose of the project was. I also found the whole montage part to be extremely difficult as well. I do not know what it was about this project, but I just wanted to get it done and over with. Differently, I would try harder to shoot my photos in order to make the montage itself and also try a different scene in order to get a better effect. The only new tools that I used besides the ones that I usually use was the batching tool in order to make the pictures smaller. In the future, I do not think I would use the skills that I learned from this project anywhere else unless I was making like a landscape montage for my grandparents. 

Becci Mansion Assignment

Question - Why did Becci Mansion start this project?

 

Becci Mansion started this project after the occurrence of the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami. In the midst of the destruction, photos, SD cards, photo albums, etc. were left wrecked and damaged by bacteria and excessive water exposure. Mansion realized that the collection of the photographs represented a significant part of the peoples lives and it symbolized their past and it felt as though it saddened her in the fact that if these photos were forever lost, these people would lose numerous memories. Mansion acknowledged in her speech how the Japanese people affected by the natural disaster literally had no time to do anything therefore they had to leave everything behind in hopes of surviving. Overall, Becci Mansion wanted to use her skills and talents to aid these people in not only restoring their old "memories" but I feel as though she wanted to give the survivors hope that things could return back to normal after such a great disaster with such a little act.

 

Question - How did she organize people to help with the cause?

 

With the aid of social media sites including Facebook and the site called "Linked In", Becci Mansion was able to organize people to not only help with retouching of the photos but also with the clean up of the effected Japanese country. Also with the help of the charity organization "Habitat For Humanity", Mansion was able to obtain over 500 volunteers to aid with her efforts.

 

 

Question - How can you use your photo skills to help people you know?

 

I do not generally see myself as a great photographer nor do I believe that I am entirely talented at using photo editor programs like Photoshop. Since taking the class digital photography, this is my first year really experiencing with taking photographs and editing them besides what I do personally on my iPhone. When I tried to brainstorm what I could do to aid people with my photo skills, the only thing I could really think of is retouching. I first though of retouching old photographs for my family and friends because it is the project this year that has come easiest to me so far. When I retouched the old man, I actually enjoyed taking my time fixing the mistakes and making use of the variety of tools.

 

 

Question - Is her work important? Why or why not?

 

When I watched the speech that Becci Mansion gave, I genuinely was touched. I had never heard of this artist or her efforts before but within a short period of time, I truly was inspired on a whole other level. I was taught to be down-to-earth growing up therefore I have always felt the need to donate my time to the needy or aid the less fortunate in some way just because I often feel guilty for having things so good when my neighbor could potentially have nothing. It was incredible to me that this artist who personally was not effected by the disaster felt the urge within herself to travel across seas and aid. I think her work is incredibly important. It really takes effort and passion to organize people and donate your own personal time in order to help others; especially with a task like photo retouching that could take an hour or five days to complete. It really touched me how good hearted Becci Mansion seems to be.  







Photo Retouching Part One - Old Man Photo / Personal Photo

After Retouching of Photograph

 

 Before Retouching of Photograph

 

After Retouching of Photograph

Before Retouching of Photograph

 

Reflection - During the Retouching Project, I found it to be another "easy" project in the sense that I can be a perfectionist sometimes so it was quite easy to me to go and basically clean up all the damage that had occurred to the photograph and to make it pretty again. It was super easy follow the video posted on the class blog that instructed you what tools to use and how to make use of them properly in order to get an accurate result. It was also really easy me to see what still needed to be done in the progression stages because I had the ability to flip back and forth between the two photos (old and new) and see how much progress I had made. I found it to be challenging to use the tools correctly in order to get the right effect and I found it incredibly challenging to use the healing brush tool just because I could not really get the hang of it. Next time, I would use a different picture off of the Internet for my personal picture just because I found that picture kind of challenging in a sense. It was really difficult to retouch because there were so many scratches and blurry spots and I really didn't know what tools to make us of in fixing the blurry spots. I honestly could've picked another picture after I noticed that but instead I stuck with it anxiously awaiting the next project. I used the Spot Healing Brush tool, the Healing Brush tool, the Paint Brush tool, and the Zoom tool. I mostly used these tools just to clean up some of the spots, scratches, and to fill in the spots that were missing a lot of color. I can use the techniques that I learned in the classroom working on this project to edit my own photographs and my families photographs in the future.

Pop Art Photograph

Pop Art Photography Project 

Reflection - I actually found this "Pop Art" project really hard to complete just because I am not really familiar with Photoshop therefore it was kind of challenging and frustrating at times when things did not go right the first attempt. The background featuring the same picture of me multiple times with a rainbow overlay is an example of something that worked really well regarding my project. It was exactly what I would have pictured when thinking of a good background to use. The most challenging part of the whole project was probably figuring out which tools did what and how to use them. It was quite difficult at first but I feel as though I got the hang of it towards the end. Another challenge that I had was using the "magic wand tool" because it was hard for me to precisely "cut" out what needed to be cut out and keep what needed to be kept; I do not really have the lightest hand when it comes to that type of stuff. I do not really have something that I would do differently next time just because I really like my pop art and how it reflects my personality, but if I had to pick something it would more than likely be using other tools that would potentially make my photograph look nicer. Examples of the types of tools that I made use of are the "blur tool", "gradient tool", "the magic wand tool", "rectangular marquee tool" and the "move tool". The "blur tool" allowed me to blur out the two figures on the sides of the one located in the middle. The "gradient tool" allowed me to add the cool graphic rainbow design to the background of the pop art photograph. The tool I found most helpful using was the "magic wand tool" because it allowed me to specifically cut out the main part of the photo and layer it to the background to tie the picture together. Ways that I can use this knowledge in the future are that Photoshop can allow me to make all types of creative pieces like posters, edit old pictures, etc. /

Digital Photo Roll I Exercise Photos

Reflection Picture

Pattern Picture

Side Lighting Picture

 Angle Up Picture

Texture Picture

Angle Down Picture

Shadow Picture

 

Frame Within A Frame Picture

 Reflection - Doing the photo roll exercise, I did not really think anything "worked" significantly well. I actually did not think anything of the project at all in a sense. I just followed the guidelines and took the pictures that were required to complete the assignment in a quality manner. Although, I did have quite a few challenges that I overall faced in a way. I found most of the shots easy to take with the exception of back lighting, rule of thirds, and perspective. I really do not know why I found shots like these so challenging but I just could not come up with ideas that were relevant to the topics. Another complication that I found was when we were supposed to edit the photographs using Photoshop because I did not really know what tools I was supposed to be using nor did I really get a grasp on what I was supposed to be editing because I took the pictures with my iPhone and the software on my cellphone usually edits my pictures pretty nicely already. Next time, I would get a little more creative when taking my pictures for the photo roll next time. Another thing that I could potentially do differently would be take more time when it actually came to taking the photos instead of just doing the first thing I thought of. The only tools I really made us of were the tools involving the curves and levels just to adjust the brightness and quality of the images. Ways that I could use this assignment are in technology classes in college if they are required classes to graduate, otherwise I do not have any ideas as to why I'd use them in the near future unless they are needed on a different assignment.