Reflections Photos... (DUE MONDAY April 28th)

 Check the following websites for some examples of reflections in digital photography.

1. http://www.digital-photography-school.com/20-effective-reflection-photos
2. http://pixelcurse.com/photography/50-excellent-uses-of-reflections-in-digital-photography
3. http://www.idigitalphoto.com/reflections-in-photography/

Your assignment is to take at least 30 photographs that incorporate a reflection of some sort.  Be inspired from the previous links.  Remember to think about the elements and principles of art.  Also, remember to think about composition! You are expected to have a concise series of 3-10 images for this assignment.  Refer to the last post titled "What is a Series?"  You do NOT want just random photos of reflective items.  




Examples:

This photo has a reflection, however the tree is very centered and symmetrical.  The composition could be much improved.   Keep the rules of composition in mind as you are taking photos.


This photo has a reflection, too, but the artist has thought a little more about composition.  The walkway isn't centered and it creates a leading line that guides the viewer's eye through the photo.  The shadow creates interest. However, the horizon line is still centered in the photo, so the composition could still be improved.


Remember FRAMING makes for a really interesting composition.


This photo also has a reflection.  Be creative when it comes to your reflection ideas.  It doesn't HAVE to be a body of water.  It doesn't HAVE to be water at all.



Mirror's make reflections....but there are a lot of shiny surfaces in our daily lives that create reflections, too.  BE CREATIVE.



 Try to avoid getting the camera in the reflection, unless you are doing so in a creative way.

  You will most likely need to turn off the flash.  Flash is ugly, especially in reflections.




Former Student Example
Carly's Reflections (include the camera)  This one is a good example of a SERIES!
Eeeek! Super-boring example
Brooke's Reflections
Another boring example

What is a Series?

In Fine Art, most photographers work in a "series."  A series is a group of images that "go-together."  They have a strong visual connection.  They express unity and harmony.  There are a variety of ways to accomplish this.

Most of the time they are formatted in the same way and they are the same size.


Examples:

List of Past Assignments

As a reminder, here is a list of your past assignments.  Make sure you have any old work completed and posted to blog.


List of Past Assignments:

• Egg Whites Photos  (original & the histogram edited photos)
• White Paper Sculpture Photos (contact sheet & 3-5 Best on Blog)
• 5 Minute Walk-Composition Photos & Collage 
• Identity Photo Collage (self-portrait with layers)
• Aperture-Macro Photos (contact sheet & 3-5 Best on Blog)
• Shutter Speed-Blur Photos (contact sheet & 3-5 Best on Blog)
• Composite-Choose 3-Editing Assignment (3 images!)
• Environmental Portraits  (contact sheet & 3-5 Best on Blog)
• Out of Bounds Editing Assignment (3 images!)
• Silhouette Photos (contact sheet & 3-5 Best on Blog)
• Mini City Editing Assignment
• Scary Signs Editing Assignment
• Spaced Out -Landscape photo collage 

Editing Spaced Out

Editing of Spaced Out:

Review the work of David Hockney. Click here to view some examples
You can be really creative with this assignment!! As long as you are making a collage of many photos into one canvas, you can do ANYTHING!!

To begin construction of your photo design, create a new blank page in Paint.NET.  You may select the size, but I suggest going large and then you can crop it later.  You might want to try 24" wide by 18" tall at 150 dpi resolution. You can be really creative in your format (long skinny, panoramic, tall, square, rectangle, portrait, landscape, etc.) but you will want to start with a large background.  Later you can crop it down to the size that you want.

Then, you will paste your image pieces onto this blank canvas to construct your image. Be warned! You will have to reduce the size of each individual photo -- they will be too large to fit all of them onto the blank page. So, before you paste it into your background, you will want to do this...Go to Image Menu.  Click on Resize.  Then select "By Percentage" and change the percentage down to 10 or 15%.  You can then copy and paste your smaller image into your 24" by 18" canvas.  Be sure to paste each photo into a new layer.  You will want some freedom to move the image around.  When you get 4 or 5 images onto the canvas, I suggest that you make sure you are happy with the arrangement.  SAVE THE FILE AS A .PDN and then merge the layers down.   Keep a solid white Background layer separate.  You may want to add a background later.


**REMEMBER--AS YOU WORK, SAVE YOUR IMAGE AS A .PDN OFTEN.  When you have many photos and many layers, Paint.NET will sometimes freeze up and crash.  You've been warned!  YOU WILL WANT TO KEEP YOUR PDN in case you need to change something later***

WHEN FINISHED:  Crop your work down to a size that you like.  Add a background photo, texture, gradient or color.  Save your work as a .jpg at the full size (ex: Space.jpg.).  Post it to your blog.

If you are having trouble getting this to load on your blog, you may have to shrink the file down to 50% to 25% of the original size and save again, but make sure you change the title (ex: SpaceSMALL.jpg).  Then you can try to post the smaller version to your blog.  Keep the fullsized image saved though!

Scary Signs

Using your own photos, pixabay, public domain images, and/or www.sxc.hu, make a "scary sign."  This is a sign that you do NOT want to see!


Scary Signs Examples

SPACED OUT (landscape) assignment

S... P.. A.. .  C....   E..  D      O..  U.... T

Its time to "Space Out"... and by that I mean TAKE LOTS OF PHOTOS OF A LANDSCAPE!

Space, sometimes crowded, sometimes open, is all around you. It may be full of trees or buildings, clouds, or clean air. It can be contained by walls or open to the horizons. We run, walk, and drive in space. When you walked to the computer to read this page, you were walking in space. The words forward, back, around, under, behind, over, into, and out from all indicate action taken in space. (Taken from Exploring Visual Design, Second Edition, Gatto, Porter and Selleck).

Your assignment is to create a photo collage construction, in the style of artist David Hockney, that emphasizes space.

Click here to view examples of David Hockney's artwork
1~2~3~4~5~6~7 

Polaroid Square Grid-Style
1~2

Links to a similar artist Harold Olejarz
1~2~3

Click here to view student project examples
Really Cool Circle One
Barn

From WHS:
Softball
The Commons (not a landscape)


Photo-taking:
1. Choose a landscape that can be photographed "in pieces"  Look for interesting locations! Be creative in your camera angles and composition.  Always remember the past lessons we have done!!

2. Take A LOT of photos of the space you choose, but stand in the same place.  You may want to try at least 2 different places so you can choose your favorite. You may also want to try photographing a space while moving (i.e. walking) which could be really interesting.

3. You will want to incorporate at the very minimum 30 images into your final photo collage construction. You may manipulate your images to best reflect the concepts described in this assignment. TAKE A LOT OF PHOTOS!  I recommend that you take at least 50 photos.  I recommend that you take photos at 2 different locations.  In that case, you would have at least 100 photos! (((shew!, that's a lot of photos!)))

former student examples:

Mini City

"Mini City" Editing Assignment

Imagine if life was REALLY, REALLY small.

****Click the link below, read the "rules", and view "entries" from others to get ideas.  (We won't be submitting these to the Worth1000, unless you just want to create a log-in and do it on your own)


You may only use your own images, public domain images, images that are labeled for reuse with modification and images from www.sxc.hu only.


Miniature City


You really need to do a good job editing these.  Make it look realistic.  Edges should not look "cut out."  When cutting out objects zoom way in and take your time with the lasso tool. Work from large photos and then make them smaller after you cut them out.  This will help disguise the cut edges.

Student examples:

Silhouette Photography

1. Review Silhouette Photography
2. Think about places you could create back-lighting (large windows, at sunrise/sunset, with a lamp etc)
3. Take silhouette images and post the 10 best to your blog. You may make minor adjustments on paint.net, but you may not use the "burn" tool to create a fake silhouette or use "shadow" tools to darken your subject.

View the entire article on Silhouette Photography at:

http://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/silhouette-photography-tips-and-tutorial/

Normally every time you take a photo, you want the subject to be as crisp and clear as possible. However, today, we will talk about a technique that hides almost everything from the viewer, leaving it all to the imagination and delivers a stunning effect at the same time.

Silhouettes are used by artists and professionals to convey drama, emotion in a simple yet striking manner and we are going to give you a quick run down on how you can create magical silhouettes with your camera.

1) Look At Your Sources of Light

Typically, when you take a photo, there are two sources of light, the natural ambient light and the light of your flash.

The first thing you need to do to get a silhouette is force the flash of your camera off. That way, you will heighten the contrast of the subject and ensure that the subject comes out as dark as possible.

The second thing to do is to identify the sources of ambient light. Silhouettes come out best when there is only one source of light ( eg: sunlight ) against which you can place your subject. If there are multiple sources of lights, try to shut down some of them or choose the brightest one for maximum effect.

2) Compose Your Image

Create a mental picture of what you want to shoot. The magic of silhouettes is all in the shapes you create, so think about whether you want to capture dancers, a sports scene captured mid-action, or something else. This of course depends to some extent on your subject too.

Once you have a mental picture, place your subject in front of the light source and get the shape you want. If you are unsure of what you want, just try out some forms and see what you like. If you are taking the silhouette of a person, try to experiment with the positioning of their hands or features of the face – remember, its a silhouette so you’ve got to express it with the boundary of the object.

3) Fool Your Camera

Now this is the tricky part. Most cameras today are extremely intelligent, in fact so intelligent that as photographers we need to fool them sometimes to get what we need. To understand this bit, we need to get into metering of the photo.

Metering is the way in which a camera determines how to expose the photo. Remember, a camera can’t see colors, it can only sense the intensity of light – so when you point it to a scene, it sees shades of gray, finds the middle shade in the scene and sets the exposure accordingly.

More Example Photos:

Photos are taken from the following websites:

http://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/silhouette-photography-tips-and-tutorial/
http://oddfuttos.blogspot.com/2011/01/captivating-examples-of-silhouette.html

Silhouettes in Action

How to Photograph Silhouettes in 8 Step

Click the link above and READ it all.

How to take silhouette photos YouTube video

Click the above link to watch the YouTube video that we watched in class.


Then, click this link to view examples of beautiful silhouette photos to get some inspiration.



For your assignment, you must take at least 50 images (many of these will be trial and error) of silhouettes. Choose interesting subjects (with recognizable shapes!) and remember that COMPOSITION always matters.  Remember Rule of Thirds, diagonals, leading lines, framing, fill the frame, etc.)

Make sure you are achieving a black subject with no details, not a gray one with details.  If you do not achieve a black silhouette then you will have to retake the photos.

Also, if your subject is in motion, you need to use a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the motion.  No blurry silhouettes.  That's not attractive :)