Virtual Photography Trip - Maks Danilin

For this weeks assignment, I searched through airpano.com's hundreds of aerials and found parts of cities and structures that had design that stood out.  My first picture is of Holland's tulip fields.  I cropped the red field and kept the green on the outside to give it contrast.  I also increased the saturation to help the red stand out.  I also like how the leading lines add depth to the shot.

 The second shot is of a monastery in Greece.  I enjoy the shot because of the mix of natural and man-made structure.  I increased the saturation to bring out the colors in the stonework being lit by the sunset.

 For the next shot I found a panorama of a flooded city in Russia.  The calm water made for a great reflection shot.  I cropped out the reflection of the setting sun and sharpened the tower to draw the eye to it. 

 This shot is the front entrance of the Taj Mahal.  I like the intricate design in the stone work and the way the white marble looks in sunset light.  I decided not to crop out the people in the shot to show the enormity of the entrance.  I played with the levels and saturation to get the shot to where I wanted.  I also darkened the top corner of the picture to draw attention away from the background and keep the attention on the face of the building.

 The last shot it another tulip field in Holland.  I chose this shot because of the wind turbine's massive size and the disparity between the trees beneath it.  I played with the levels to get the white blades to not look blown out and increased the saturation to showcase the many colors of tulip fields.

Virtual Trip Overseas!

Week 7 Virtual photography trip...

The art of photography as you have seen by now includes the judicious selection of line, geometry, proportion and scale... Light is central but also design plays a big role. This project asks you to visit Paris, London or the Sistine Chapel. Zoom around... become the photographer and capture several images that show your sense of design and proportion... Edit in Photoshop for light, contrast and hue/saturation. Post your best 6-10 on fotothing and a few on the blog.
Tip: zoom in, expecially looking down... Here is a shot of Parisian roof tops from the Paris-26 gigapixels site:
http://www.paris-26-gigapixels.com/index-en.html
Article about the London immersion
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1330811/The-incredible-360-degree-panoramic-photo-London.html
And the site: http://www.360cities.net/london-photo-en.html
Another (maybe better) London... http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html
Sistine Chapel, The Vatican http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html
NYC at night http://www.airpano.ru/files/Millennium-UN-Plaza-Hotel-New-York-Night/2-2 ( you can turn off the Tom Jones music)
150 more linked here: http://www.airpano.com/List-Aerial-Panoramas.php
Zoom in, Zoom around. Find a compelling "shot"... use the snipping tool (windows) or if on a Mac the screen shot of the portion you want is done by pressing Command-Shift-4. A cross-hair cursor will appear and you can click and drag to select the area you wish to capture. When you release the mouse button, the screen shot will be automatically saved as a PNG file on your desktop.

Open Photoshop and then open your saved files... edit them for light, focal point, etc...

This assignment reinforces composition and selection as a crucial element of good photography.

Have fun... it's easy!

Double post

Last week was a very tough week and although I took a whole bunch of shots, I was unable to post them. I tried to post them Sunday night but apparently did not publish them! Anyway, here's a double post. There is not really a theme here. Anything that caught my eye, I decided to just try to take a shot. I did include one photo that I took in Ireland a few months back that I just love and wanted to edit it for my project.

 

I think I my skills of editing have certainly increased. I do recognize that maybe I need to work on the focus of the photo rather than try to capture the whole beauty of the moment. I have a few favorite photos in this post: the squirrel eating the acorn, the flower up close, and the garden gnome! There's something about black and white photos that make everything feel vintage and super awesome! This is a really great project.

Window Portrait - Maks Danilin

This week’s assignment, as everyone has mentioned, was definitely harder than it sounded.  I took hundreds of pictures of countless angles and at different times of the day to play with the shadow placement on my subjects face.  Here are my favorite two, the rest in fotothing.  The first picture I chose because of the unique shadow the drapes cast.  The original picture was shot horizontally and left too much room between the subject and the window so I chose to crop the picture.

 For the second shot, I used the blinds to add shadow to the subjects face.  I darkened the blinds of the shot because it seemed so bright that it took the attention off the subject. 

Week 6 Window Light:"how to fry an egg"

First, let me start by saying I had to sign a waiver and a promissory note to take these pictures. I tried to take some pet photos but my dog was not cooperating so I only had one model but I think she enjoyed it. . Second, the difficulty of the assignment was ridiculous. I took around 2-300 pictures and  had to filter the ones you see below. You really have to be in charge to get the shot you want for this style. I was moving my target all over the place to get the right shot. Hopefully it worked. I enjoyed this assignment. 

I included this photo above as the "silhouette" style that was mentioned in the the instructional video. At first I was not going to upload I but figured to include that style in this weeks submission to show some understanding of it. 

I included both the original and a b&w for this shot. 

For this shot I had the target tilt her head toward the camera and look down. I think it gave the shot some life. At first I started to crop the neck and upper chest out but decided against it to keep the shadow of the blind true and in sync with the ones on her face. I also just noticed the black background for these shots. I had to take out the some of the yellow, cyan, and brightness of the bottom shot. The original was really bright.  

I really had to crop these shots. There was a few distractions surrounding the target. I think (hope) she did well as the model and I as the photographer. 

Sarina Lungarini Week 6

Oh wow, this was a really difficult week. I took so many photos trying to "fry the egg" just right....unfortunately I am unsure if I did, I do think the photos I took and edited are really good I mean even though some aren't in a window they have the light from a window reflecting on themselves.

first of all, this is my friend Stace (Stacy), I took this early in the morning and I tried to edit the brightness, I tried to get as close as I could to focus on her face, I love her dramatic simple face and even though I did take it with some harsh light I really love how the black and white came out, I also made it not in black and white making her seem fiercer (which she is)

now even though I should have taken one at a time, my parents are too precious to not capture together.

I took these around noon so the light is not as bright as it appears, I like the first one a bit more as the focal point is themselves. Even though I told them to simply relax they kept giggling like school children, the first one the window is on my dad's side and it makes his face seem darker and my mom's seem brighter. The second one I have them facing the window, my mom is leaning on my father while my father is looking down.

Now here it's just my mom, I played around with some of the color to make her seem less red, this is another one I enjoy. I again played with some of the brightness.

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Ok this one I cheated with, it's not a person and I didn't plan it at all, my dog was just sitting near the window I grabbed my camera and just started snapping photos. I darkened it quite a bit to emphasize the light on him.

And the last one I have is my brother, he is another goofball not knowing what to do, I darkened him a bit more to emphasize the light to also try and show his character a bit more.

Second post of week

I took a couple more nature photos that I really enjoyed. I also was in Massachusetts over the weekend and did some shooting there. My favorite photo in this post was the picture of the leaves. It was just such a beautiful moment.

I am really enjoying discovering myself as a photographer. It's a glorious journey. 

Week 5 - Macros

For this weeks Macros assignment, I took a few shots everywhere I could. I did have a Macro setting on my camera, but like a few of the other students, alot came out blurry and had to take many shots of the target.

For this shot, I was at work and fooling around with the macro settings and wanted to try it out on my coffee mug. Once I got it home, I set it to very saturated because I wanted the green to really stand out. Also, I noticed the markings on the cup from use and abuse really stood out.

For the picture of this particular flower, its actually a piece of artwork in one of my bathrooms. I thought it would be an interesting piece to shoot, and I really like the coloring of it so I did not change anything. I got as close to it as I could to get this shot.

This next shot is an actually flower in my kitchen. I put it next to the picture window and snapped the picture. I had to crop the picture because of lighting and other objects that got in the shot. Once I cropped it, I changed the saturation and brightness to really bring out the colors in the flower against the backdrop of the woods.

This next picture was taken at the LEGO store in West Farms Mall. I thought it would look pretty cool with a cardboard box behind it. I had to change the saturation on this one as well because the cardboard came out really bright.

This shot was taken from some rocks I collected when I went Kayaking on the CT River. I brought them home for my 7 year old and placed them on the back porch. I like the design on the rocks and thought it really stood out with it being B&W and the red filter set.

Here is the same shot with color added and the brightness and saturation lessoned.

I lined up a few of my 7 year old LEGOs and made them all look at the camera. I made it B&W and customized the preset to get the front face to really stand out by using the high contrast red filter.

I have always enjoyed seeing pictures of sheet music and artist creating masterpieces, so I grabbed one of the music books laying around and took a close shot of one the pages. The lighting was poor but I liked how the picture came out because of it. It reminds me of shots of Miles Davis in the studio and the lighting was bad and pictures came out natural. So I left this shot alone.

This shot took about 100 trys because my do is so curious. So I had to get down on the floor with him just start snapping. I finally got a shot that I liked.

This shot is of an aisle of cuff links in a store. I like it in B&W so this is the result. The lighting was good and gave great reflection off certain links.