Rule of Thirds
For the picture I chose, I used the rule of thirds to make the picture quality better. At first, the flower was off centered and the background took away the beauty of the actual colors on the flower, so I made the center of the flower my point of interest. I chose this for my focal point because the yellow immediately drew my attention. After I did this, I cropped the picture to where the flower took up two thirds of the screen, which means it fit the rule of thirds. I then used the gradient tool to make the background darker which also drew more attention to the colors of the flower. To make the colors more vibrant, I changed the color tones and added more saturation to the picture. I also sharpened the petals (blur and sharpen tool) and highlighted the edges with the dodge and burn tool so they were more visible as each individual petal. Overall, using the rule of thirds and other editing tools, the composition and quality of my photo improved.
Macro
I chose this photo for the macro photography project because of the great composition. I know this photo is in the macro photography guidelines because it is about 3 times larger than the original flower in person. While I edited this picture, I chose to add a gradient to the edges of the picture to darken the background, which put more focus on the flower. Also, I darkened the edges of the flower to add more detail. One thing I really liked about this picture is the array of pink colors on the flower and the angle that the sun hit in the photograph. Overall, I believe that this photo was naturally beautiful and fit the macro guidelines very well.
Leading Lines
This photograph is a representation of Leading Lines because the wood siding leads up to the peak of the house. I added a blue gradient to the sky to add more color. Also, I changed the levels and curves to make the wood have more colored detail. I liked the composition of this photo because it shows how the lines lead to the peak of the roof. Overall, this photo portrays the Leading Lines guidelines very well.
Portraits
I chose this picture for my portrait project because the photo had good lighting and was taken from a good angle. During the editing process, I airbrushed the background to add more color instead of it being pale and blending with her skin color. I also dodged the colors in her eyes to make them stand out more, instead of just looking like a black dot. After editing the photo, I liked the background much better. Overall, I liked how the photograph turned out after editing it.
Monochrome
I chose this picture for the monochrome editing project because it has a lot of great qualities. To begin the editing process, I started by turning the saturation all the way down. Then, I dodged and burned the floor around the plane to show more detail on the plane. Also, I added a gradient to make the planes variety of colors stand out more while it’s still in monochrome. After this, I changed the levels and curves to add more details, as well. Overall, the plane had a lot of great qualities which made the picture better.
Macro Part 2
I chose this photo for the Macro project because I think it has great composition, and the main focal point (the bug) would be three to five times larger than life, which is one of the main points of Macro photography. In the editing process, first I cropped a small amount from the right side of the picture to bring more of the focus to the bug and flowers around it. After this step, I slightly changed the black point and white point in levels to make the photo lighter. When I finally had the right colors, I added a hint of purple to the light spots in the bug for more color detail. In my final steps of editing, I dodged and burned a few spots on the background flowers to bring some attention to them, also. While editing, I noticed that the photo can give a spiral effect, depending on how it is looked at. My eyes started from the bug, and then went from the flower it is sitting on, all the way around the background of flowers. Overall, this photo took very little editing due to the natural beauty it had.
Forced Perspective
The forced perspective project was a more difficult project, in my opinion. Some challenges I faced were things such as, coming up with ideas in different places, and finding the right lighting/composition. Although I struggled for a little bit, I eventually picked one picture that was better than most others. This picture was supposed to be as if Hannah was playing with the truck like a toy. In the editing process, I cloned out some of the powerlines in the sky to make the attention more drawn to Hannah “playing” with the truck, and cropped a small amount from the top and sides. After this step, I turned the brightness of the photo down because it was very bright and over exposed by the sun. Overall, I faced many challenges with this project, but I learned what to do better for next time.
Portraits (pop art, neon, etc.)
For one portion of my portrait project, I decided to create a neon glow effect to an indoor portrait I had taken. The process seemed simple but very intriguing, so I followed a youtube video step by step. First, I created a path in a triangle shape then deleted the parts that covered the face to save trouble in the later editing process. After this step,I created a new layer (white/transparency) and added a stroke fill to the path in white to make the white line. Then, I added a new layer for the actual pink neon color on the shape (stroke fill again but with larger pixel size). After adding the pink, I went to the blur filters and added a gaussian blur to each of the layers. To get the color to slightly reflect on the skin, I went to the original layer and changed the channel colors to match the color of the neon figure, then turned off the original layers and painted the matching pink onto skin. After I finished the neon effect, I used foreground select to colorize the background instead of having plain black. Overall, I believe this was a great learning experience for editing in the future.
