Final Artist Statment

I feel that for this semester as well as the entire school year the one thing I was best at was being honest. All my pictures to me had a touch of truth and insight into who I am. Although not each picture may be brilliant and unique they are mine and I tried my hardest with each project assigned to me – me admitting to this just shows once more how the best thing I did this semester was be honest.  It is true that digital photography was an extremely fun class, but it was not easy. The hardest thing for me was trying to be creative because I am use to teachers telling me exactly what to do. In this class however, Miss Cook gave a wide range of your own personal touches to anything you did, and for me that was not such a great thing. Nevertheless, I was repeatedly inspired to continuously attempt making breathtaking images, by all the work displayed from my classmates as well as Miss Cook.

Improvement for myself is most needed in the area of realism. When I put more than one image together on Photoshop everything always looks copied and pasted, when it is suppose to look all natural as if everything is flowing together perfectly. There are multiple things that I learned from this class, but the technique I will probably use the most will be shutter speed on my camera. I never knew one could make such special effects by just adjusting things on their camera. I will most definitely use this technique in the future whenever I want my picture to have a little something extra. I could make it look as if ghosts are in the picture or as if light is moving all around my subject and many more things.

Although the quilt squares were suppose to be all about me, I feel that the project which connected most with my life was the surrealism project. It connected to me through small details in which I knew the meaning of them. Such as the scorpion representing the fact that I’m a Scorpio and have battles with other creatures in my life. There is more on that topic, but you can read my reflection on my surrealism piece if you wish to know more. My life – in comparison to many others I know – is charmed and guarded. I do not have to suffer very much and am mostly spoiled – or so people tell me. Therefore when it comes to my life I can only really think of the positive things, although like everyone I too have bad times, but when I look out into the world I only see the pain and hurt all around, which causes me to think differently about the world than people might expect.

Cindy Sherman is an artist I have just recently learned about, however the fact that she takes pictures of herself, creating scenes as if she is in a movie reminds me of myself. I am no where near as amazing as her, but when I take my “snapshots” I try to make them have a special type of look as if I am somewhere and something drastic is occurring. If I had to choose just one I would say I relate to Cindy Sherman the most. I have seen growth and improvement in my opinions. I am more open minded to art and what the meanings behind different pieces mean, where as before if something was insane I just thought the person was crazy. The most meaningful project of this school year to me is the social issue. This is because I incorporated my own mother into my work and based the social issue off of her, it was special to me simply because I included my mother in it. My experience in this class was a unique one, I never had a teacher with a personality like Miss Cook, never had a class where I worked with cameras and Photoshop half the time. Everything was just new and exciting, I’m grateful I had the chance to partake in this experience and although am sad, I know like all good things it must come to an end.

Blow Out and Panning

I created the blow out effect with and ISO of 50 and a shutter speed of 1/15. It was extremely difficult to get the shot because often times all that would come out would be a white blank photo. I honestly do not believe this is the best way simply because it takes more practice and more time to get it right, if I had my choice I would choose to blow out pictures on photo shop every time. Panning is when you are trying to capture a solid image of your subject with the backround still moving and what seems to be a ghost following the subject. It overall may be a little blurry, but will still clearly be able to see your subject. I honestly believe I did not do such a good, job but it is a difficult technique to master. My ISO was at 50 with an aperture of F8 and a shutter speed of 1/30. I could have done a better job if I had a better understanding of how to do the panning, because sadly I was confused. What made panning difficult was that I could not seem to get my subject in focus with a blurry backround which upset me an awful lot.

Shutter Speed

The shutter speed is how long the light gets to come in. You can control the shutter speed when in shutter mode and it allows you to show movement and let more light in all depending on how long the shutter is open. For the longer it is open the longer light will come into the picture. In the room with the pictures above, all lights were off. We had to use a flash light, and little items which had light to attempt brightening the picture. The camera was set to a 15 second shutter so that light would be obtained for up to 15 seconds. We changed the ISO to try different lighting's, we had a high ISO in the top picture and a lower ISO in the bottom one. This experience was extremely difficult, but funny - considering how so many pictures came out in a strange way. Someone would probably choose shutter speed over ISO or aperture because with shutter speed depending on how long it is open, people can move around or anything can move around creating a whole new image that may surprise the photographer. Such as the light movement in the second photo, we used 3 different lights to move around very quickly and created circles and a heart. My favorite picture is the last one because it came out the brightest and most clear.

Aperture

Aperture is like the cameras eye, when you change the aperture the light coming into the picture changes as if the eye is dilating. The aperture size of the butterfly is large because the background begins to blur out and has a small f-stop number probably something like F2 or F3. The photo of the landscape has a smaller aperture because you can see the entire area. Its f-stop may be a F20 or F22 considering how everything is seen clearly in the picture. For those who may be a bit confused, the f-stop is the focal length divided by th diameter of the pupil.

ISO

FLASH
ISO 50

ISO 400

ISO 5000

The ISO is the film speed and the film speed is how fast the light comes in to the picture. The pictures that flash was not used came out gritty, but softer. The top picture is an average photo using flash, but the one under is a change in ISO to 50, then 400, then 5000, the higher the number the brighter and more blurry the picture becomes. At times changing the ISO would be better then using flash so that the true colors of the image are not drowned out. In the flash photo you hardly notice the Christmas lights, but in each other photo you can see the color of the Christmas lights and the subject, instead of having to choose one or the other. When using a fast ISO you must be careful with how blurry and gritty the picture may become.

Flash

The pros for flash is that it adds light and helps eliminate blur, but the cons are it may disturb the subject and creates ugly lighting situations such as hot spots and red eye. A good time to use flash is in the middle of the day when your subject may be in the shadow with a bright background. Flash is not a good idea when you are trying to capture the true colors of the subject. In this picture the lighting surrounding the subject gives it a sense of beauty that flash may have destroyed. With the flash off in this picture you can see the details in the sky, the water and on the green on the walls.

Metering

A light meter measures the light which you camera is focusing on and makes everything around your focus adjust to the lighting of your focus. In the top picture I focused on my partners skin and in the bottom photo i focused on the computer screen. They are different because the focuses are different. Spot metering can help you in the future when it is dark, but you do not want to use flash.

Surrealism: "Behind the Scene of Desire Dream"

According to research different symbols may mean different things to different people in their dreams all depending on what has or will occur in the person’s life. The surreal image above was altered from a dream, yet the main symbols in the image are kept from the original dream itself. The image such as the mirror, the dog, the scorpion and the couple in the thought bubble are all things taken from different dreams being combined into one surreal image. For the mirror the interpretation from the web would most likely mean pondering thoughts about one’s inner self, and in a similarity in this picture the girl drawing with a carrot (random object) on the mirror is creating an image of what she desires to see in her reflection. The dog normally symbolizes playfulness and a carefree person, but with what is occurring in the surreal piece the dog serves as a protector and a dependable creature which is always there no matter what. (I love animals!!) The meaning of the scorpion in dreams normally represents a situation in one’s life which may have been painful and although pain is displayed in this picture, the scorpion is actually set as a defender and represents how the person is fighting off certain things in her life. (I’m a Scorpio!!) The couple in the thought bubble is actually the sister of the girl in the picture and her boyfriend; the dreaming of other people such as this shows the envy the person has for the love between the two. Overall the persons dream which has been turned into a surreal image is surrounded by bright things, but if one pays attention to the darker things in the image they may understand that the meaning is more than what they see.

Surreal Practice Tutorials

In the desert tutorial we made the ground appear to be stretching out as if it is getting smaller when further away. For the sky we changed the colors using gradient tool, making it a dark blue at the highest part of the sky and an extremely light blue where it meets the horizon. The realistic white color of the clouds also assist in making the sky look more real. Although it does not make sense to have a lamp post in the middle of the desert we have made it look real by adding a shadow of the lamp post and editing its size.

Doing these tutorials will assist me in creating my surreal artwork because it shows me first hand how to create a surreal piece. Figuring out how to do shadows the way we did, and blend to separate pictures together such as the eye and the brick wall and erasing the brick around the eye so it looks as if the eye is popping out of the wall. Learning how to do these tricks with help me to think outside the box and know how to make my surreal image look real.

Art Show: "Scary Alien Effect"

Scary Alien Effect

This piece was made around the time of Halloween this school year. The picture was edited in Photoshop to look like an alien. There are multiple things that had to be added to this picture to make it what it is. Things such as the tentacles coming out of my mouth were taken from an octopus as you could probably tell if you pay close attention. I was trying to make my picture look frightening, but I ended up laughing at my finished product rather than feeling any type of fear at all. I like this picture because it is the type of things I wanted to learn how to do from digital photography class as well as much more. The earth tone colors used added more to the effect of the alien picture which in a way I felt ironic. However this piece is something I am proud of and I especially like the mascara running down my face that I created, I believe it was the cherry on top of the Sunday.

Graduation Program

I think a strength in my program was the happiness and relief the student possessed in the picture, for it were as if they were truly glad to finally be graduating.I could have seriously of been more creative, but in all honesty I could not think of anything, I was barely able to think of what ended up being my graduation program. This was extremely more difficult then I first thought it would be because it is all about the client and what they want. I already struggle with creativity so the fact that I had to be creative, but in a way the client would want just was not working for my mind. The most important part of graphic design is to please the client because the client is the one who request the graphic design and the reason it is being created is all for the client. In society graphic design plays multiple rolls, but I believe the main role to be advertisements, for that is where the money stays.

Invitation Program

I believe that a strength of my design was that my background was not white, purple or silver/gray, but black which not a lot of people did. No one really had a plain black background the way I had it. I could have opened my mind up a bit more in order to be more creative like the other students. However, I was so plain because I believe the client does not want something amazing and creative, but simple plain and classy the way my program appears. I struggled the most with trying to be creative yet simplistic as I believe the client would want. I believe I did better on the invitation in comparison to the graduation program because it is more appealing to the eye and does not throw too much of one color in your face.

Personal Quilts

My Quilt

Future

Inside

Outside

Past

This project took an awfully long time, but I tried my best to make each quilt describe me as accurately as possible. My original ideas did not exactly change, however more was added on to it and I was quite pleased with how everything overall came out. My favorite square is the outside me because I love the bright colors and enjoyed asking people’s opinions on what they thought of me. Although not everything they said was sweet, it was honest and I had no disagreements with anything they said about me. My least favorite square is my past because I could not truly think of anything for that square and when I finally did I felt like there was a limit to what I could remember. Overall I just feel that it is the weakest square out of all of them, yet I still tried my best. My past and future are both a bit blurry, but I have high hopes for my future and am not sure what is yet to come, but I will make the best of it. For my inside and outside squares I feel that they are completely opposite, but that is how I feel they should be and I will not comment any further on them. My symbols may be clear, but a few are definitely obscure however I will not reveal any of them. All together I am proud of what I creative and enjoyed the project overall, although at times it was difficult when I could not really think of anything.

Artist Statement

In my portfolio you will find 16 different projects all of which I required different skills and techniques to complete the projects. These skills were acquired in the process of taking pictures and using Photoshop. Although my portfolio may not be perfect it is my work and I am proud to show it and not afraid to admit in any way that there are improvements that could have been made, but it’s to late now. I have learned so many things in this past semester that to tell each thing would make this artist statement insanely to long. A broad selection of the many things I learned is Photoshop in general. I have never used Photoshop until this class and learning how to turn my pictures different colors, blur them, fix the lighting, and numerous amounts of more effects are the main things I can touch on for what I learned when relating to Photoshop.

I feel that I was most successful with my Photographic Effects project. This is due to the fact that I had to use Photoshop to mess with my own pictures and who better to fix my pictures then me? I knew what I wanted myself to look like, but I had not learned how to do it all just yet. I had more freedom when doing this project so it made it fun for me and worry free because I felt that regardless of what I did to my picture I couldn't go wrong. The project was not precise on what exactly had to be done but had a wide range of the effects you could use which relieved me off any stress- I was able to comfortably do the project which I believe I was the most successful with between all the projects.

On the other hand I did struggle as well. My biggest struggle was with Photoshop solely because of the fact that I had a difficult time remembering how to do all that was taught to me and combine them to make the image amazing. I had people around me to assist me when I would get lost or forget how to do something. The hardest thing was simply remembering it all because it’s so much information to retain. In the future I feel I can improve by being more creative in what I do when using Photoshop because I do not fully think outside the box just yet. Although my mind has opened to new ideas in the past semester and I feel that is a great improvement. =]

Personal Words

The lyrics I chose for this project are Girlfriend by Alicia Keys

"May be silly for me to feel this way about you and her Cuz I know she's been such a good friend I know she has helped you through Talkin late on the phone Every night you've been callin Private moments alone Could your heart soon be fallin And I know she's a friend But I can't shake the feeling That I could be losing your heart. I think I'm jealous of your girlfriend Although she's just a girl that is your friend I think I'm jealous of your girlfriend She shares a special part of you. You said that she's one who helped you see How deep you're in love with me And intentions were not to get in between But I see possibilities. And you say that you feel I'm the best thing in your life And I know it's real And I see it in your eyes There's no reason for me, to even feel this way I know you just enjoy her company. I think I'm jealous of your girlfriend Although she's just a girl that is your friend I think I'm jealous of your girlfriend She shares a special part of you. It's enough to make a ninja go crazy. I think I'm jealous of your girlfriend Although she's just a girl that is your friend I think I'm jealous of your girlfriend She shares a special part of you."

I chose the lyrics because I feel they often represent particular situations I find myself in when I'm in a relationship and it has happened more than once. To me the lyrics are saying how Alicia Keys is the girlfriend yet she has suspicious that another girl her boyfriend often talks to is more than just a friend to him although they have repeatedly had the conversation that she is just a girl who is a friend. This song is not a new song and I do not know how old it is, but I do notice that whenever something similar as described in the song is occuring with me the song seems to pop up whether I hear someone singing it or if it plays on my ipod which I feel is a little wierd considering I have about two thousand songs. I also like how in the song the actual girlfriend is able to admit her jealously to her boyfriend although in the end it might be what drives him away into the arms of the other girl who is a friend. The song itself is actually very short and straight to the point just happening to have to chorus repeated frequently.

Social Issue: Women In Society

In this photograph a woman is doing all types of things at once, multitasking to the fullest. There is a sense of weariness presented in the woman’s face. The colors I have used in this picture are black, red, grey, and some white on the apron. All the words are red to show the consistence of what she does each day and how tiresome it truly can be. The fact that she is in the kitchen getting ready to cook at the same time coming home from work with her business suit still on, while doing even more work on the computer, also about to go fix something with the drill proves that she has to do everything and she is drained. This superwoman has had enough, but she has no choice but to continue on because if she doesn’t who will?

The issue present is that women in today’s time have to not only take on the duties of men, but continue doing all the other household routines that are expected from them. Women like this are exhausted and fed up knowing that they cannot quit because they must continue, if not for themselves then for their families. Men simply sit around having sympathy for these ladies, but rarely doing things to step up and assist them. My picture is bluntly stating that although women are capable of doing everything, just as well as men, they are worn out and would not mind someone coming to help them out. This effects me and the people around me such as my family because they are the women who have to do everything at once all alone, and all I can really do is sit and watch them struggle which breaks my heart for it is not my wish to see anyone struggle the way these women do. It also makes me raise question to if things will get any better or worse by the time I have my own family with a career, and if things remain exactly the same, it makes me reconsider the plans I had for my future for fear of a breakdown. The men need to step up and give these women a break, because the stress is getting to them all, and soon enough people will truly see the wrath a woman can possess when pushed over the edge.

Scary Effects

The vampire picture was my favorite because it looks the more realistic out of the two and I have always liked vampires in general even thought they are not real. :)

My favorite new tool I learned was the liquefy tool because it creates the fangs in my vampire picture and can make other things look odd and dropping down as well.

A difficulty I ran into was trying to use the pen tool how I wanted, but it was much more difficult then I suspected and I was able to use it, but not as well as i wished. I think i did well on the blood dripping down my face as well as the smeared mascara coming down my face in the alien picture. Video game designers would most definetely use this because they have to be able to think crazy creative as well as skilled in photoshop and computers in general.

Critique: Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison

A man is on the water, on the water building a bridge all alone with not a single soul around. He hammers away working hard to build this bridge on this body of water. This older gentlemen seems to take his time doing his chosen task, but by the time he is finally finished he may have aged to the point he no longer cares. The black and white is not to strong in the picture, yet rather there are multiple shades of grey perhaps representing how he feels about the repetitive activity occurring before him. The bridge clearly is being used as a leading line to this man and the fact that simplicity surrounds him while he is dead center identifies him as the emphasis. He builds this bridge to escape from what is behind him and realizes he must make his own way, literally. Many always wish to get away from society but cease to do anything; this man on the other hand has stepped up in doing something about what he wants, whether it is isolation or freedom.

Photographic Effects

Out of all the tricks and tools we have learned in the last few days, my favorite is the Glow because I love the way it makes my picture look so soft but stand out at the same time.

I would hope to work a little more with the cross processing trick because I did not seem to do so well on it when we first tried it so I hope to become more familiar with it by exploring together in class.

My favorite thing that i discovered on my own was the chrome effect which can be found under through filter under sketch. The chrome gives the picture a type of watery metal look which I believe the eye finds captivating.

Portraits

1. I believe I was most successful with the surprise me photo because it was not necessarily something people would expect to be happening in school where he is climbing up a ladder to reach the light.

2. For the artistic picture I looked for shadows to get my partner in the shadows and have him pose in a depressed mood to give the feeling that something is wrong with him.

3. I gave my partner a basketball as his prop which went well with his Jordan shoes and I put him in the gym so he would do a pose a basketball player would do. The photo is decent but I believe it could have been better if his outfit looked more like an actual basketball players costume.

4. I believe what makes my surprise photo different is that someone is actually climbing on a ladder up to a light within the school and the person is a student, that is not something you see on a daily basis so i believe that makes it unique.

5. I feel that the pictures may have overall been better if we were instructed more on what exactly to do instead of do our own creative ideas because in reality I am not that creative and work better when given specific instructions.

Contact Sheet

Out of the 8 compositional tricks we have learned so far, my favorite is the extreme angles because I enjoy seeing things from odd angles that we normally would not notice.

Although extreme angles are my favorite compositional trick we have learned so far, most likely I will begin using rule of thirds in my day to day picture taking. For some reason it has stuck in my mind that the pictures look better when the emphasis is not dead center therefore rule of thirds is the compositional trick I will most likely use more frequently in my photographs.

The lighting compositional trick was my least favorite because I wanted to have something different that not everyone else was doing, but my plan did not work and my imagination could not go far enough to create a good lighting scene.

My favorite was the extreme angle pic I took from a birds eye view simply because I like how I am seeing the emphasis in an angle I had not seen before.

Compositional trick #8 Fill in Flash

When in the sunlight and facing away from the sun, a shadow overcast the subject therefore you cannot completely see your emphasis. The fill in flash makes the shadow disappear so that you can see your emphasis completely. So clearly the best time to use fill in flash is when some time of shadow is effecting the outcome of your picture when you want to see your emphasis clearly as the pictures show above.

Compositional Trick #7 Drawing with Light

The audience pays deeper attention to what all is occurring within the picture when the lighting is different from a normal picture, it gives them something to think about rather then just looking and realizing it is some picture of some person. The lighting often also affects the mood of the photo itself.

When I look at the photo I took, I get an adventurous feeling as if it is time to march forward and see what is in our future. The lighting helps create this feeling because it is mostly all grey and white toned colors which automatically make me feel like things are good when compared to a picture that has all black and some white which makes my heart feel dark.

Compositional Trick #6 Framing

The framing technique helps the composition by creating a frame that directs your eye to the emphasis. The frame makes the viewer look through the frame, which can be anything, and focuses on the emphasis.

The composition in my photo does not stand out to well, I could have done or should have done better eliminating more of what was around my frame and subject, I believe that would have been the best thing for me to do to improve my picture.

Compositional Trick #5 Extreme Angles

Extreme angles are a good compositional trick when you want your picture to be a little over dramatic and see things from a different perspective that most people would not normally have.

My photo of the rabbit is not a very good extreme angle picture because instead of viewing the rabbit from a worms point of view (which was part of the assignment) it looks straight forward which is not a unique view. The other picture of my partner is a better extreme angle as it has a birds eye view.

Compositional Trick #4 Simplicity

Having simplicity in a photo is great for strengthening the composition by only having one main object so your eyes go directly towards the emphasis. Simplicity does not mean boring, it simply means not having other things going on in your picture so that the focus is on one main thing. Although the picture of my cactus shows simplicity it is also boring therefore not being a very good example.

Simplicity can be an effective trick when wishing to direct the attention upon a particular object with no other distractions around. The picture of the rabbit is a good example of this because I only wanted a picture of it, so while it was in a corner I croped in enough so that the picture is only showing the rabbit.