Graphic Novel

Done!!

So this is the graphic novel assignment finished product. I’m really happy with how it turned out. I think the pictures look pretty similar to something you would see in a graphic novel, and they fit the overall story well. I’m not sure that everyone will get it right away (it’s supposed to be making fun of Hillary Clinton’s lie about being shot at), but I think people will at least be able to look at it and think it’s pretty cool looking. I can’t say there’s too much I would change about it, maybe add more cells and stuff to make the story more in depth, but for the most part I think the pictures turned out really well. Liz also looks a lot like Hillary Clinton!!

Mas

 

The first picture is my favorite one in this post. I really like the way that it looks like she was in the middle of a movement, yet the picture isn’t blurry, and everything came out really clear. The composition of the picture is really good too; not too many distractions or empty space. The pictures on the book shelf are really the only things that seem out of place to me. The books I like though, because it adds context to the picture and a lot of colors and textures, yet the books are far enough away where you can’t make out individual books, so they aren’t distracting.

In the second image the pictures in the background on the bookshelf were more of a distraction than in the first, so I made the picture black and white to try and keep them from being too distracting. The two kids in the image are what make the picture, because they both have perfect smiles and are looking at the camera, and it looks like a moment frozen in time, a picture that would be really hard to capture again. The picture is a little dark and lacks a lot of contrast shades of gray, but the most important part, the subjects, are well lit.

The last picture I liked as it was because all the empty space kind of implied a mood of thinking or wondering, because of the way Tyler’s gazing somewhere to the side of the camera, and sitting in a huge chair. As it was though, the picture was too tall and narrow that it became kind of annoying, so I copied it three times to make it closer to the usual picture size, and then decided to change the hues on each one to make it more interesting and thought provoking. I think the original picture could’ve used more saturation though, because after adjusting the hues none of the tones were really bright or stood out as much as I would’ve liked. Still, I think the image still holds true to its intended purpose and is visually appealing, and I’m pretty happy with it.

Just

a picture I thought was cool.

This picture I felt like I should put up because it’s the coolest motion photography I’ve done out of all the pictures I’ve taken. I took it by using a really slow shutter speed (a couple seconds I think), but now that I learned about it I wish I could have used the bulb technique just to see how it would turn out and how it works. There are a few obvious distrations and things I would change if this picture was to be taken again, but like I said I didn’t put this one up so much because I think it’s a perfect picture, but just because I think the way it captures motion is awesome and makes it fun to look at and imagine what’s going on.

Another One

Scrounging together posts

The first picture I thought came out really well. When I took this I was trying to learn how to mess with the aperture to have one part of the picture in focus and the rest blurred. That’s basically what’s going on in this picture, with the subject of the picture being the IV chord, and then in the background is Geesa. The picture attracts your attention to the IV, and then when you look at it you pick up the fact that it’s in a hospital and that Geesa is there smiling in the background. I think the aperture trick worked pretty well here so maybe I will try to get better at using it. It’s just said that this picture was taken under such unfortunate circumstances (R.I.P. Ageesa).

The second picture I like for the same reason; the subject is really in focus, and the background is blurred. It’s also cool because in the background you can see me taking the picture in the mirror. There are a few distractions that don’t really go with the picture, like the chairs and my mom being in the mirror too.. but I liked the idea of at least someone being in the mirror, and since the background is so blurry the distractions aren’t TOO distracting. So overall I think this picture could use a few improvements on composition, but as far as the subject being so focus and the good lightning, I’m really happy with how it turned out.

I put up the third picture because I really liked the composition. I just wish that when I could retake the picture to make it less blurry. When I took it, it looked fine on the camera’s screen, but obviously I had too slow of a shutter speed or something. Still, I think it’s still a decent picture, and the composition is really good as far as rule of thirds and bringing the viewer’s attention to the focal point. I tried adding a frame to the picture to maybe distract from the blurriness, but it didn’t work too well.

I tried one more thing with the picture from above, because I figured maybe it wouldn’t look so blurry if it was smaller, and I had a really clear picture of the little ornament he’s holding, so I tried to make an image succesion starting with the whole picture and appearing to zoom in on his hands. It was a good idea and would have looked really good if it wasn’t blurry, but the last picture (the close up of his hands) looks really clear and in focus, and since that picture is the largest, it makes the picture work better than it otherwise would have. The black frame ties all the images together pretty well, and I am pretty happy with how this last one turned out.

Also for once none of the actual images required any Photoshopping (other than adding frames), which I thought was a pretty good accomplishment.

More Posting

For the first picture I thought that black and white would be a good idea, because the original picutre was really bright, and it didn’t look right when I tried to reduce the brightness while leaving the color. I think black and white was a good choice, because there are a lot of different tones brought out, and the dark grey of the sky gives a nice backdrop and kind of adds a solemn mood. I tried to add a frame to the picture to tie it all together (I chose white), which ended up doing a pretty good job of achieving that goal, but the frame is invisible in the blog since the picture is against a white background. Overall I like this picture; lots of different tones, good composition (rule of thirds), and it has a nice old fashioned kind of look.

For the second picture I was kind of going with the same idea as the first, and I thought this picture would turn out good because it captures a close up of my cousin smiling with the same nice, simple background as the first. The picture originally hid a lot more of her face in the shadows, but after desaturating it I did the best I could to bring out her face, without making the picture too grainy. I think this part came out well, because you can see all the details of her face, while the prescense of the shadow still adds nice tone to the picture. I think one of the keys to this picture is the brick wall, for 2 reasons: it adds nice texture to the picture, so that the background is not boring while not being distracting either, and it also gives a line leading to the focal point of the picture. The clear sky was perfect because it fits the mood of the picture well (clouds would have made the picture gloomy), while still adding a tone of grey that serves as a good background. I chose a black frame for this picture, which I think makes it look more like an old-timey snapshot, and ties the picture together well.

The third picture I decided to put up purely to show how much trouble I had deciding what to do with this picture, because I still can’t decide what would make it look better. I started off with a good picture; no distractions, good composition, lots of colors, and pretty good lighting. As a straight photo, though, it was pretty boring, and the subject was kind of poorly lit. I had no idea what kind of manipulating would make this picture stand out, so I tried a few things like increasing contrast, desaturating, filter effects… Still I didn’t really find anything I liked. I finally decided to try desaturating the bushes in the background, but the subject still looked pretty dark, so I tried upping the brightness and adding an artistic effect from photoshop. I like the colors that the effect brought out, but it also added a grainy-ness that doesn’t look very good. Still, after like 7 different variations, this picture looked the best. I’m still not very happy with it, but I thought since it’s a decent picture with a not so good effect, I would at least put it up for effort.

First Post of the Millions to Come

The first picture I liked a lot even though there aren’t too many formal qualitites that make it that great. The composition isn’t perfect, the subject is at a weird angle, and there are a lot of distractions in the background. I think I liked it because of the shadows and all of the different colors coming from the lights and electronics. I increased the contrast and saturation and overlayed a layer of shadows to bring out those elements, and I think it made the picture better with all the weird colors and lighting. The picture is a little fuzzy and the composition obviously isn’t that great, but I like this picture because it kind of provokes thought I guess, and I think all the colors make it work.

The second picture was a really good picture of my cousin, but in the original photo the background was bad and distracting. I didn’t want to completely waste the good picture of my cousin , so I cut her out and put it against a solid background, because I didn’t have any good ideas of a different background to use, and I figured if I used anything else it’d be obvious that she was Photoshopped in. I chose pink because she’s a girl so I figured it was appropriate, and because her dress is pink (even though it’s a differnt shade). The only other effect I tried to add was a shadow, just to make it interesting, and to learn how to create shadows. I think the picture turned out well and the shadow definitely makes it work. I kind of wish the picture was taken at eye level, but it still looks pretty good regardless.

The last picture is my favorite from this post, it’s a sequence of pictures of my cousin shooting a basket. I had been looking at early motion photography from the early 20th century in art class, and I kind of realized that in motion photography it’s not so much about the quality of the photo as long as it’s a decent picture. It’s more about the timing of the pictures taken and how well they portray motion. The pictures I had were perfect for a sequence of pictures of shooting a basketball, so I decided to display them the same way the artists I was looking at displayed their motion shots, which is against a solid black or white background to serve as a frame. That’s basically all there is to this picture, but I really like the end result because it captures the motion well and captures the viewer’s attention. I only wish the last picture could have some kind of better conclusion, like the shot being made (it’s not) or something like that.

New Version of Old Picture

This subject of this photograph is my brother’s dog John Henry. I chose this picture not only because I think it is one of the more visually appealing and well composed pictures I’ve taken, but because my family and I all love John Henry so much, and this picture therefore holds a lot of meaning to myself, and hopefully to my family.

What I think makes this such an interesting picture are John Henry’s eyes. He has the habit of looking directly into your eyes, as though he knows what you’re thinking and is trying to communicate. This picture captures his deep stare perfectly. Thus, I chose to leave his eyes in color so that they would stand out that much more, and be portrayed in full detail to get the full effect of that stare.

I chose to leave the shirt in the background because it added a more southwestern feel to the picture that seemed to go away when the shirt wasn’t there. Not only that, the shirt reminds me of my family and my home, so it didn’t make much sense to me to have the same picture without it. For this same reason I chose to leave it in color: it has meaning and significance to me, so I wanted it to stand out from the colorless background.

When I look at this picture, it reminds of something I would see hanging on the wall of a ranch off in the desert. The black and white composition is partly responsible, but I think the subject and setting help add to this effect in a way that’s kind of hard to pinpoint. Overall, I am very proud of this picture, and its meaning to me personally makes it a picture that I enjoy a lot and am excited to put on my wall.

Kyle Drinking Eddie Murphy

Well this picture I chose to include because I don’t have very many pictures of people, and I have a lot of pictures of cats and dogs. This picture was taken in the moment, so I didn’t have an opportunity to try and find a better background, or else I would have. As it is, the background is pretty distracting. To try and balance the distractions, I blurred out the background and left the subject in focus. It worked fairly well, but there’s still the distractions of the big blocks of color created by the cars. The picture still works though because of the bright colors of the subject and the high contrast.

Week 8

For the first picture, I liked the composition of it, but I thought it lacked anything that really made it stand out.. The off white background and the light colors of my cats fur made the picture look kind of flat. So I wanted to try to fix this and I figured since the cat was the only focal point I would make the fur brighter and up the contrast. I did, but past a certain point it looked really obviously photoshopped and just didn’t look right. So I made the background black and white to add to the effect of brightness. Overall it didn’t turn out as good as I hoped because the background is more a big mass of gray than it is a contrast of black and white, and the cat still isn’t bright enough to make the picture exciting.

Picture number two was basically the same situation as number one but I decided to try different stuff to make it stand out more. I thought that If I could add more contrast and texture to the background it would improve the composition of the image as a whole by adding parallel lines and texture. I used an effect to basically outline the wall with a sketch/pen style. It added texture, but it ended up looking too unrealistic and grainy in certain areas, while other areas had no texture at all. I also chose to leave the effect on the cat too, as opposed to just on the background, because otherwise the background overpowered the cat with all the dark blacks.

The last image is the one I am most happy with out of the three. I didn’t edit it or anything, it’s just a picture of my dog laying down from I guess a bug’s eye viewpoint, but because he’s on the ground too it ends up just being like a straight shot. The lines in the photo (formed by a chair and its shadows) lead to the dog laying down, and I think the relatively calm colors of the pictures and the shadows create a kind of relaxed feeling to match the fact that the subject is sleeping. Compositionally there are some distractions like the mirror and couch on the left side, but I took the picture in the moment and didn’t really have the option of moving either of these. The fish tank is kind of random, but I think it’s colors and the fact that it’s centered symmetrically keep it from being as distracting as the other two items. Also, the tiles and their reflections add a nice touch that kind of brings out more attention to the focus of the picture.

Week 7

This week of pictures is probably my favorite. All of the pictures are from Las Vegas, and since I had so many pictures I liked I decided to post some extra ones.

The first picture reminds of a lot of my other scenery pictures, because of the way they all have a vanishing point somewhere in the bottom to middle left of the picture. I like the composition and lighting on it a lot, and I really like how the sidewalk was wet when I took the picture, so it looks glossy and reflects the different colored lights. I also cropped the picture so that there would be relatively little negative space in the background. Basically the only thing I wish I could change about this picture are to take out the people walking on the sidewalk. Though there aren’t a ton of them and they aren’t too distracting, I think the people are the only objects taking any attention away from the light and the focal point.

The second picture is really weird, but I think it’s my favorite one from the whole roll. It’s blurry and the camera is crooked, but for some reason I think those factors make it look better than it would if it was taken straight on, with a tripod. The light in the center wasn’t originally as blinding as it is now, but I pulled up the contrast because I wanted it to look like the people were walking into and out of something mysterious, and that effect is created by a really bright light. I think the reason I like this picture is because the way the camera was tilted, it makes the viewer feel as though they’re walking along the same sidewalk as the people in the picture, but you don’t really know where that sidewalk leads.

The third picture was taken from a bridge, so I was able to get a wide view of the horizon and “strip.” I used a bubble effect or whatever it’s called to make it look like it was taken with a fish eye lens. Even though it doesn’t look exactly the same, and kind of stretched out the sides of the picture, I think the effect makes the picture better because it makes the horizon look a lot longer than it actually is. I cut off a lot of the negative space in this picture too, so that you’re forced to focus on all the lights and buildings. Still, there’s more black area than I wanted, on one side of the street where no cars are lighting up the road, near the sidewalk to the left where there’s just bushes with no lighting, and a little bit in the sky. I don’t really think there’s anything I could’ve done to avoid all that, but I just wish it wasn’t there.

I like this picture for the same reason I liked the second picture; it’s not compositionally perfect, and there’s kind of a lot of negative space that adds a feeling of “unknown” to the picture. I really like the brightness of the yellow lights and how they contrast with the red lights around them. The reflections on the sidewalk also kind of balance out the picture. I do kind of wish the two people weren’t in the picture, but I still think they could also be looked at as kind of adding to the effect that as you’re looking at the picture, you’re actually standing there considering walking inside.

The final picture is of a replica of the Statue of Liberty. I think the picture works because all the weight in the bottom right of the picture offset the arm that extends into the top left. I also like how clearly the statue stands out against the black night sky. Because the statue is so lightly colored, as the picture was the buildings in the background were so bright and illuminated that they drew attention away from the statue. So I reduced the saturation on those buildings to almost 0, but not quite, so that it would be clear what the focal point was, yet it wouldn’t make the viewer completely ignore the buildings in the background, because they’re interesting enough to get more attention than that.