Final Project- Self Portrait

I chose to take this final self- portrait at the beach.  Anyone that knows me can tell you that the beach is definitely a large part of my life. I also chose to wear a University of Kentucky T-shirt.  UK is where my Bachelor's Degree is from.

For this photo, I layered the picture with a background layer of the foam and shell on the beach.  The photo was cropped and I auto-enhanced the colors in the picture.

Project 7 Draft

Self-Portrait

Both of the pictures above were taken on Saturday December 1, 2012 on my front porch.  The top photo I used the guided depth of field effect in PSE.  The picture is not as sharp as I would like it to be.  This is most obvious when looking at the word CANON on the camera.  The bottom picture was also more blurry than desired so I had a little fun playing with some of the filter effects in PSE.  

Project 6- Final

Photo Assignment

Take at least 3 different digital photos of the same subject using exposure bracketing so that you have at a minimum, one underexposed image, one properly exposed image and one overexposed image, as shown below.

The Properly Exposed Photo

     

     Shutter Speed:             1/30

     Exposure Program:     Normal
     F-Stop:                        f/5
     Focal Length:              35mm
     ISO:                            400

The Over-Exposed Photo

     Shutter Speed:            1/30

     Exposure Program:     Normal
     F-Stop:                        f/4.5
     Focal Length:              35mm
     ISO:                            800
     Exposure Bias Value: +1.3

The Under-Exposed Photo

     Shutter Speed:              1/40
     Exposure Program:       Normal
     F-Stop:                          f/5
     Focal Length:               35mm
     ISO:                             200  

     Exposure Bias Value:  -1.3

Photo Editing Assignment- Part One

I realized that the reason my HDR picture didn't look very interesting in the first set of pictures is because I did not have it in the complete edit mode.  I had simply merged the photos for the draft version. Here is a finished version of the UK picture from the draft! This is with a Painterly setting. 

Here are a couple other HDR pictures that I was able to put together using Photomatix.  I did not have a tripod for either picture- I used a bucket for the gutted fish picture and luck for the cross picture.  These were taken in High Island, TX by mixing three exposures. 

Photo Editing Assignment- Part TWO

Using any of the image enhancement options (such as levels, watercolor filter, etc. in Photoshop Elements; Topaz Simplify or other Topaz filters, Smart Photo Editor; or any other type of photo editing tool, create an "enhanced" image from a photo you have taken. 

The Enhanced Photo

The photo below was enhanced in Photoshop.  

It was enhanced with Filters --> Texture --> Craquelure

I found this picture interesting as it looks like you can touch the "layers" of the flower.

The original photo

Photo Project Six- DRAFT

Photo Project Six~ DRAFT

All photos taken with a Canon Digital Rebel EOS

Photo Assignment

Take at least 3 different digital photos of the same subject using exposure bracketing so that you have at a minimum, one underexposed image, one properly exposed image and one overexposed image, as shown below.

The Properly Exposed Photo

     Shutter Speed:             1/30
     Exposure Program:     Normal
     F-Stop:                        f/5
     Focal Length:              35mm
     ISO:                            400

The Over-Exposed Photo

     Shutter Speed:            1/30
     Exposure Program:     Normal
     F-Stop:                        f/4.5
     Focal Length:              35mm
     ISO:                            800
     Exposure Bias Value: +1.3

The Under-Exposed Photo

     Shutter Speed:              1/40
     Exposure Program:       Normal
     F-Stop:                          f/5
     Focal Length:               35mm
     ISO:                             200  

     Exposure Bias Value:  -1.3


Photo Editing Assignment- Part ONE

Using one of the HDR options create a single HDR image from the three photos you took for Photo Assignment, part 1.

In the picture below, I merged the three pictures above into one HDR image.  The image is not near as interesting as I hoped it would be. The photo looks very light even though the photos above (even the over exposed picture) are not too light.  I used the free version of Photomatix Essentials to create this photo, therefore there are a couple watermarks.  

The HDR combination picture.

Photo Editing Assignment- Part TWO

Using any of the image enhancement options (such as levels, watercolor filter, etc. in Photoshop Elements; Topaz Simplify or other Topaz filters, Smart Photo Editor; or any other type of photo editing tool, create an "enhanced" image from a photo you have taken. 

The Enhanced Photo

The photo below was enhanced in Photoshop.  

It was enhanced with Filters --> Texture --> Craquelure

I found this picture interesting as it looks like you can touch the "layers" of the flower.

The original photo

Final- Project 5

Final- Project 5
All photos taken with a Canon EOS Digital Rebel T3i




PHOTO SET ONE- ISO Settings
Take a pair of digital photos of the same subject using two different ISO settings that demonstrate how different ISO settings can affect the way the photos turn out.

Although I really like the pictures that I posted in the draft, upon receiving advice I tried pictures with different/dimmer lighting to see an even more dramatic difference. I chose to take these pictures outside on a cloudy evening, fairly close to sunset.

On purpose, I set all settings the same except for the ISO setting.  I chose to go to extremes- knowing that the picture with the low ISO would be too dark to see and as I thought, that's what happened.  How fun it is to be able to predict whats going to happen...and actually be right!

Exposure Program:    Manual
ISO:                           100
F-STOP:                    5.6
Shutter Speed:            1/40
Focal Length:            55mm


Extreme difference with the high ISO

Exposure Program:     Manual
ISO:                            1600
F-STOP:                     5.6
Shutter Speed:              1/40
Focal Length:              55mm


Photo Set Two- White Balance Settings
Take a pair of digital photos of the same subject using two different white balance settings that demonstrate how different white balance settings can affect the way the photos turn out. 

I also like the pictures that I posted for my draft, but having the blurry picture was not good.  As with the above pictures, I took these outside close to sunset. There are obvious outcomes with different White Balance settings. All other settings on the camera were the same.

 This photo looks stretched.  This happened within the blog- not the actual picture. In the photo selector it isn't stretched. 

 I removed and uploaded again with the same result. 

Flourescent

Exposure:           Manual
ISO:                    400
F-STOP:             5.6
Shutter Speed:     1/60
Focal Length:     55mm
White Balance:   Manual- Fluorescent

Sunny

Exposure:           Manual
ISO:                    400
F-STOP:             5.6
Shutter Speed:     1/60
Focal Length:     55mm
White Balance:   Manual- Sunny



Photo Set Four
Take a pair of digital photos of the same subject using two different lighting techniques that demonstrate how different lighting can affect the way the photos turn out.

    I chose to use the same pictures for the final as I did for the draft although there was a comment about the focus of the bottom picture.  I do not have an external flash and the ability to do these effects. 
     
     The first picture is taken with an external flash that had a small filter placed over the end.  I chose to point the flash to the ceiling to see the effect.  I like that this picture focuses on the faces.  I wish that there had been more light in the picture to see each persons hair.  I like that this flash helps to balance out the lighting that was already in place with the overhead lighting.  Also it 'tunes out' the back of the photo so there is no distractions from the faces.
     The second picture was taken without having any flash.  This picture still has lots of light...too much light on the faces. Also, without the flash, the camera seemed to pick up all the lighting- overhead and going down the hall.  The photo with the external flash seems to provide the best, natural looking picture.

External Flash,  Filtered, Flash pointed to ceiling

Exposure:              Auto

Exposure Time:     1/60

F-Stop:                   f/4.5

Focal Length:         34mm

ISO:                       400

Flash/No Flash:     External Flash, Filtered, Pointing to the Ceiling

No Flash

Exposure:               Auto

Exposure Time:      1/6

F-Stop:                    f/4.5

Focal Length:         34mm

ISO:                        800

Flash/No Flash:      No Flash 

Project Five Draft

All Photos were taken with a Canon EOS Digital Rebel


Photo Set One- ISO settings
Take a pair of digital photos of the same subject using two different ISO settings that demonstrate how different ISO settings can affect the way the photos turn out.

     For my these two pictures, I chose to take a picture of a gift that I received after I started teaching.         

     In the first photo, the picture was taken with the ISO setting on 1600.  The second photo has the ISO setting on 100. There is a large contrast between the first and second picture in regards to the lighting.  The picture with the highest ISO is much lighter than the second picture which even used the flash.  Just as stated in the information, the higher the ISO the lower the quality of the picture itself.  I zoomed in both of the pictures and cropped the letters out to show the difference in the close-up, detailed view.  It is very clear that the lower ISO provided a much better quality image. 

HIGH ISO

Exposure:               Manual

Exposure Time:     1/60

F-Stop:                   f/5.6

Focal Length:         55mm

ISO:                       1600

Flash/No Flash:     No Flash

LOW ISO

Exposure:               Manual

Exposure Time:      1/100      

F-Stop:                    f/5.6

Focal Length:         55mm

ISO:                        100

Flash/No Flash:       Flash

________________________________________________________________________________

Photo Set Two- White Balance Settings
Take a pair of digital photos of the same subject using two different white balance settings that demonstrate how different white balance settings can affect the way the photos turn out. 

     For this set of pictures I chose to use an angel placed with a caramel colored scarf. With all other manual settings on the camera being the same, the following two pictures show the difference in the change of white balance.
     The first photo was taken with the white balance set to Tungsten which cools down the color in the photo.  In some of the examples online, the pictures taken with this setting have a cool or blue look to them.  With this photo, the background color and the color of the angel are both warm colors to begin with so the Tungsten setting does not make this picture look blue, it just cools down/balances out the warm tones.
     The second photo was taken with the white balance setting set to Daylight.  Daylight setting tends to  give an orange cast or a sunset cast.  In this second picture with the items in the picture already being warm, the daylight setting is too warm/orange.  Some of the readings state that there might not be much of a difference between the auto setting and the daylight...but there was in this case!

TUNGSTEN

Exposure:              Manual

Exposure Time:    1/10

F-Stop:                  f/5.6

Focal Length:        55mm

ISO:                      200

Flash/No Flash:    No Flash

DAYLIGHT

The picture itself is a little blurry, but it demonstrates the objective for the assignment.

Exposure:             Manual

Exposure Time:    1/10

F-Stop:                  f/5.6

Focal Length:       55mm

ISO:                      200

Flash/No Flash:     No Flash

_________________________________________________________________________________
Photo Set Four
Take a pair of digital photos of the same subject using two different lighting techniques that demonstrate how different lighting can affect the way the photos turn out.

     This set of pictures was taken on campus during class as you can tell from the models!  These two photos demonstrate different lighting effects.  In order to have lighting be the focus, I chose to place the camera on automatic setting.  We were sitting at a table under bright overhead lighting.
     The first picture is taken with an external flash that had a small filter placed over the end.  I chose to point the flash to the ceiling to see the effect.  I like that this picture focuses on the faces.  I wish that there had been more light in the picture to see each persons hair.  I like that this flash helps to balance out the lighting that was already in place with the overhead lighting.  Also it 'tunes out' the back of the photo so there is no distractions from the faces.
     The second picture was taken without having any flash.  This picture still has lots of light...too much light on the faces. Also, without the flash, the camera seemed to pick up all the lighting- overhead and going down the hall.  The photo with the external flash seems to provide the best, natural looking picture.

External Flash,  Filtered, Flash pointed to ceiling

Exposure:              Auto

Exposure Time:     1/60

F-Stop:                   f/4.5

Focal Length:         34mm

ISO:                       400

Flash/No Flash:     External Flash, Filtered, Pointing to the Ceiling

No Flash

Exposure:               Auto

Exposure Time:      1/6

F-Stop:                    f/4.5

Focal Length:         34mm

ISO:                        800

Flash/No Flash:      No Flash 

Project FOUR- Final Project

Project 4

All Photos taken with a Canon EOS Digital Rebel

Photo Set ONE

 For the final project I used 2 of the four pictures that I had in the draft version of this assignment.  The first two pictures did a good job of demonstrating parts of the assignment.  Fortunately, after MANY MANY tries I was able to get that third and fourth picture which I have submitted in this project   I moved the frogs apart so that they were no longer touching and there were about 6 inches between the front and the back frog.

Photo One:

Take one image that shows an object in the foreground in focus and other objects in the background that are not in focus.  I was able to achieve this with the below mentioned settings on the camera. By having a smaller F-stop, there is a shallow depth of field.

Exposure Program:  Manual

F-Stop:                      f/5.6       

ISO:                           200

Exposure Time:        1/60

Focal Length:            55mm

Flash fired

Photo Two:
Take a second photo of the same area in which the middle area of the field (between the foreground and background) is in sharpest focus and other areas (foreground and background) are not in focus.  This was achieved by adjusting the manual settings.

Exposure Program:  Manual

F-Stop:                      f/6.3 

ISO:                           200

Exposure Time:        1/50

Focal Length:            55mm

Flash fired

Photo 3- New photo

Take a third photo of the same objects in which the area in the background is in sharpest focus, but other areas are not in focus.  In the draft version of this project I was unable to achieve the assigned result.  In this photo, all frogs  are out of focus except for the frog in the back.  Compared to the other photo, this photo has a smaller F-Stop setting and a faster shutter speech.  The objects in the photo are spaced differently than in the original photo.  

Exposure Program:  Manual

F-Stop:                      f/5.6

ISO:                           200

Exposure Time:        1/200

Focal Length:            55mm

Flash fired

Photo Four- New Photo:

Take a final photo of the same area in which all objects, (in the foreground, mid-ground and background) are in focus.  I realize this photo has the frogs in a different layout- basically just an opposite of the original layout.  With the draft version, I was unable to obtain the desired effect, but with this picture all the objects are in clear focus.  This photo had a much faster exposure time/shutter speed and a smaller F-stop.  These items were also spaced farther apart than the original set.  

Exposure Program:  Manual

F-Stop:                      f/13

ISO:                           200

Exposure Time:        1/200

Focal Length:            55mm

Flash fired

Photo Set TWO

    Based on the feedback from the discussion boards, I changed the pictures in Set TWO- having a distracting and less distracting background for an object.  Compared to the photos and technique achieved by my peers, I do not think I was equal in achieving this goal. In fact, after I completed these pictures I realized that I achieved the effect not by altering the manual settings but instead by moving closer and achieving the depth of field.

 Photo One

Exposure Program:   Manual

F-Stop:                       5.6

ISO:                           800

Exposure Time:        1/125

Focal Length:            55mm

Flash fired

Photo Two

Exposure Program:  Manual

F-Stop:                       5.6

ISO:                           800

Exposure Time:        1/125

Focal Length:            55mm

Flash fired