New Lens

So yesterday was my birthday, and my awesome brother gave me a new lens for my camera. Its a 50, and it is so cool! Here are some photos I took with it!

The lens takes great close-ups, and creates really cool boca! I'm so excited and grateful!
Thanks Sean and Brittany Wilson and family!

Winter 2011 classes... random

 

 These are the lastest photo I have taken for my classes this year so far. These first ones are from my advanced visual media class. We were suppose to make a collage of self portraits... so this is what I came up with! What do you think?

These next ones are from my photo journalism class. We were suppose to take creative photos of people working. This is what I came up with!! It is a fun class... plus I'm hoping to learn more about my camera!

Camera Raw: Black and White

This photo I am about to share, I cannot take the credit for taking it, but I did however edit it.  My sister took it with my camera(she has the same camera though) and I must say she did a great job! This is of her little girl. Now I know that I just did a photo of her in the last post, but she is just so cute I could help but post another!

Before:

After:

To achieve this look of the photo, I used camera raw's adjustment brush. I set the brush to 100% density and turned the exposure down a bit. Then to get the pink hat back, but lighter in color, I used the same brush, only I turned the density down to 80% and painted the it back.

New Camera Raw: cute baby

So I have decided to still update this blog, and try out new projects to post. For this post, I took some photos of my niece in the pool. Then I edited in Camera Raw because the shadow on her face was too dark. I will show you the before and after!
Before:

After:

I lightened her face, and made the background more vibrant by using the adjustment brush!

New pictures!

Scanography/Collage Scan

To do this project, I used an HP all-in-one printer/fax/scanner.

1. Juice: July 13, 2010; 9:30 a.m.; Idaho Falls, ID; HP Scanner

2. Hawaii: July 13, 2010; 9:30 a.m.; Idaho Falls, ID; HP Scanner

3. Pink: July 13, 2010; 9:30 a.m.; Idaho Falls, ID; HP Scanner

4. Bugs: July 13, 2010; 9:30 a.m.; Idaho Falls, ID; HP Scanner

5. lights: July 13, 2010; 9:30 a.m.; Idaho Falls, ID; HP Scanner

6. Marbles: July 13, 2010; 9:30 a.m.; Idaho Falls, ID; HP Scanner

Wow scanners are not an easy feat.  At first my dad gave me a scanner, but little did I know that it was it too old for my computer, and I couldn't find a driver for it. So I had to try another scanner. So I used my roommates scanner, and I could get it to work either. I ended up staying up till 2:30 in the morning fighting with it.  Still nothing! So then I went home the next day, and used my mom and dad's printer. At first it gave me problems too, but once I figured out what program to use, I had plenty of success! Then I realized how fun it was. The scan is of a juicer. It is probably my favorite object. I also scanned a lei, and a cool pasta tool with a pink paper background for the plain scan.  I only edited the juicer, but cutting out the background and replacing it with black.

The edit I did is a combination of marbles, bugs, and lights.  My goals was to put simple and small objects together, to make a cool design.  I achieved this by cutting out the background and replaced it with a truer black. I then used the rotate tool to change all the shapes around! I think it turned out kind of cool! Who knew those shapes could make a cool design.

Favorite photos from the 4th

Fine art

Flower: 6-15-10, 7pm, Benson, f/2.8, 1/160, na

Water Tower: 6-20-10, 9pm, Rexburg, f/2.8, 1/60, vibrancy, brighten 

This project is beautiful and kind of simple!  I remember I used to use this same method with text when I was much younger, but had forgotten how to do it.  It still amazes me everyday how smart photoshop really is! The first one I added yellow to the background, text to the bottom, and then flattened the whole project and added a vignette. But I was really found of that, so I removed it. To make the text look more interesting I added a drop shadow and embossed it.  The second project, I did the same things except I made the text blue, didn't add a drop shadow, and made the boxes a little slimmer.  I really like the photos, and I am glad I got to use them in such a creative way.  The template gives them much more justice!

Photolusion

Camera: Canon Powershot

Banana fight: 6-21-10, 5:30, Rexburg, f/8, 1/100, vignette
Like a bug: 6-20-10, 1pm, Gardens, f/2.8, 1/250, na
Part 1: 6-22-10, 12am, Rexburg, f/2.8, 1/15, brightened
Part 2: 6-22-10, 12am, Rexburg, f/3.2, 1/13, brightened
Part 3: 6-22-10, 12am, Rexburg, f/3.2, 1/15, brightened

This was a challenging project, yet fun! The hardest part for me was trying to be creative, and not copy someone online.  The first photo it started with the one shadow just holding the banana, and then it turned into fighting over the banana! I thought I turned out pretty cool.  To take this photo I had to wait for the right time of day so that the shadows wouldn't be too short, or tall.  Then I had my subjects stand so that it looked like they were fighting over the banana.  The hard part was trying to make it look interesting and not getting my own shadow in the photo. I just used a point and shoot for this photo.  The next photo I wanted the girl in front to look like a giant pushing the little girls in dresses. I should probably call it Jane and the bean stock. :) I didn't add any edits to the photo, but I did use a flash to make the foreground brighter.  My edited photo was really fun! I had tried and tried to figure out what I wanted to do. First I wanted to put someone on a building, and then I just didn't know how to get the right photo. So late that night is suddenly came to me to do the devil and the angel on my subjects shoulder.  The lighting is my best, but it was fun to cut out the other photos and try and make it look believable. To cut them out I used the quick selection tool, and the black shirt was easier then the white shirt because of the contrast!

Elisabeth: 6-13-10, 2pm, Rexburg, f/8.0, 1/100, vibrance, levels

Canal: 5-9-10, 7:40pm, Idaho Falls, f/2.8, 1/25, vibrance, gausion blur in background, curves

Katelyn: 6-13-10, 2:30pm, Benson building, f/2.8, 1/400,vibrance, exposure

Borders are an amazing option.  They can add a new life to a photo.  In these photos, I tried to empathize that fact.  The first photo I used a border that I had experimented with last year and made it bigger. The border was made out of a black rectangle with the inside erased with an edgy brush.  On the photo I changed the opacity of the border to help it blend better to the photo. The next photo I used the history brush. First I deleted the picture, and then used a jagged brush to bring it back, only where I wanted it. Then used a spotty brush on the edges to add more photo to the finished product. Then on the bottom I used the crop to tool to add space so I could add words.  The last photo is probably my favorite! I did it by copying the layer and then deleting the top photo's middle with the rectangular marquee tool. Before I cut it out though, I used the stoke tool to add the red line around the rectangular marquee tool was... notice it is close to the same color as her shoes because I used the eye dropper tool.