Week 9

The first picture I used is of my first dog after a hunting trip with my dad. He is no longer around so it was a fun way of me remembering him. I used him for the filtering pictures for this week and had some fun with it. I used the same picture for both filter effects I hope this is Ok.

This is the original picture I used.

There is not much color in this picture so I tried to change that. The first filtering effect I used was a color filter. I tried to layer the colors to make the image stand out and improve its overall sense of a dull winter day.

For my second filter effect I used a gradient effect on the dog himself. This effect focus more on altering shadows. My intention was to make it look like light was beaming off him in all his glory and to have the ducks really stand out as he was so proud of retrieving them.

As for dodge and burn I think this was the one I struggled with the most. I defiantly need to practice more with this. The picture I used is of some canada geese I was lucky enough to get close of to snap a photo of. I used the dodge tool on the back of the geese neck to try and create some shading. I then used the burn tool to darken the area behind the geese and darken the white plumage on the fronts of there chests. I am not that artistic so this was hard for me. I think I clicked my mouse 50000 times doing this process so there is probably and easier way any tips would be appreciated.

Original

   

Week 8

to be cont.

Week 7

Trying to learn new software is difficult as I found out this week. I should have acquired photoshop sooner and had more time to experiment with it. The first photo is of a bird I took and used photoshop to clean up the image a little bit. I am trying to work on the exposure level as this image is a little to bright. The second is of the water on top of the ice. It is very rare. well I guess we are having unusual weather conditions this winter. On an abnormally warm day, it caused the enough of the snow to melt. Which in turn ran off and cause an interesting blue water effect on the ice. Once again I am still working on my manipulations and would like to put the bird into the water but I am not at that level yet.

Landscape

I wish I could have got more variation for this weeks assignment I know everyone is probably sick of looking at the same picture of the island in front of my house. I like to take my camera with me when I am walking my dog and it just happens to end up that way that I take a few similar pictures. Lisa gave me some good advice a couple weeks ago about how using 2/3's of the horizon is beneficial for landscaping shots and I tried to use this in some extent for this week. My intention normally is to capture the sky and landscape as one, I have to say I am not a big fan of framing for landscaping pictures, I understand its uses and when done correctly it comes out great. I apologize if some of the pictures are repetitive or dull I just started taking photos and do not have a big repertoire of pictures to fall back on, so I just take what I can get for the week.

Week 5

I tried to take outdoor photo's this week for our lesson on framing. I like taking landscape pictures for some reason they are interesting to me. Some of the pictures might take a little ascetic license as they are not the greatest demonstration of framing, but I though it would be OK.
I wanted to combine the too posts for this week instead of making separate ones. The thing I liked most about the reading on composition was when it was talked about that taking pictures is an easier art for at first than say painting. The basics are learned quickly without extensive background training say with other mediums. The point that was made though with photography was that it was easy to learn the ropes at first but into the upper echelons the techniques would take along time to master. I can see this when I look at my pictures compared to a professional photographers. The more advanced you go with photography better the pictures come out. I can see this now and what it really means to take a good photo and that it's not that easy.

Week Four

These are a couple pictures I took for this week's assignment color photo's. The first one would be more monochromatic and the second I'm not really to sure about I just liked the picture. Sorry for the late post I meant to get these up sooner.

Week Four

I am having a little bit of trouble with this weeks assignment I am just going to post one photo for now. Everything is so white near me and I am having trouble with the color schemes. I guess I need to be more creative.

I think as far as lighting it came out decent on this photo I will upload more color ones when I have better pictures. The sun is so scarce in the winter.