Digital Photography Final

Quarter One Digital Photography Final

During photography this quarter, I have learned way more about taking a photo than just what I think looks good. I have learned about the many ways to compose a shot and how to edit photos to make them the best they can be. Before this class, most of the photos I took were more traditional and not as artistic in a sense of creativity. I still took good photos but were mostly landscapes and action shots. In this class, I learned how to take more artistic photos like extreme perspective and texture where I had to think creatively and try and find the best way to take a strong photo maybe with something that isn't always the most interesting subject.

At the beginning of the year when we went outside to take photos with toy animals I kind of struggled with getting creative. I thought that none of the photos would be good because they were just toys and we were taking photos of them in a parking lot, but I learned by going through the list of compositions that the subject didn't necessarily matter as much as the way it is composed. Most of the photos I took that day turned out pretty well. Once I was able to take my own photos I was able to think more creatively and could find multiple ways to take two completely different photos of the same subject, like the mushrooms for example. These photos ended up being some of my favorites from this first quarter

This first quarter I also learned how to take inspiration from other photographers without copying their photo. When taking inspiration from Karen Glaser's photos, I was able to take her ideas and add my own twist to them by adding more color and focusing the shots differently. This way I wasn't completely copying her but our photos still had similarities. When taking texture photos I mainly focused on getting up close shots and I learned that ordinary boring things can look nice when looked at in a different perspective or scale.

When we used photoshop for cloning I was able to take things I didn't like about my photos or things that could make them stronger or cleaner and change them. I liked this for things that I didn't mean to capture in shots. Photoshop was hard to figure out but once I got the hang of how to do things I was able to do it better. When doing the overlay photos I learned about zooming and using a smaller brush size to get really clean lines. I didn't particularly like my overlay photo but it was mostly because the photos didn't contrast each other very well. Next time I would try to use contrasting photos for a better result. When making my color select multiplicity photo I learned how to overlay images after Elias explained how to do it. I also learned how to smooth sharp lines that I didn't want, to make the photo look seamless. When doing the color select I used similar techniques as I did when making my overlay photo where I zoomed in and erased the black and white.

I really like my silhouette photos and the way the subjects really stand out. When taking these photos I learned that in order to get a good silhouette, the subject has to be backlit. Before this, I would either take a silhouette by accident or have to edit it to make the subject darker. When taking extreme perspective photos I especially learned how to get creative and use the minimal resources I had, as I kept forgetting to take photos when it was still light out. I had to take photos around my house and ended up having to get creative and take photos of things that didn't seem very interesting. When taking these photos I also learned another way to compose shots in different ways with extreme angles instead of more formal, straightforward angles. These photos ended up coming out pretty well after I edited them to add better lighting and color.

Overall, in this first quarter, I learned a lot about different ways to compose shots and how to edit them to add interest. I really enjoyed taking photos that were good even though they were sometimes random things. My personal goals for this next quarter are to keep up with my work and remember to take photos when it is still light outside. This would help me improve because I would not have to fill out the late work paper and would have stronger images.