Retouching Portraits

As we started taking photos of people, we also learned how to fix natural "flaws" using different tools in photoshop; Dodge, Burn and Spot Healing Brush.
   1. Spot Healing Brush, the tool works by dragging colors and pixels into the highlighted circle, use it on spots on the skin, such as a mole.
   2. Burn, burn is used to darken areas in the highlighted circle. this ads shade or darker color, I used this tool on the hat and around to create the shadow.
   3. Dodge, the dodge is the exact opposite of the burn, it makes areas lighter, i used the dodge tool on the eyes.

Could you tell if the first one was photoshopped without seeing the original?

Into the fog

Today, there was dense fog outside, so in the hour before lunch we all went out and took pictures, experimenting with the lighting caused by the fog. the sun is shining but the fog is dense, causing a soft white light to cover everything.
In this picture one can see the outline of the sun and the soft halo of light surrounding it.

Bubbles

Today we took photos with a macro lens, a macro lens catches the tiniest details. It's used when you want up close and personal photos. My ring is no bigger than an inch but the macro lens catches every detail. The bubbles caused are because the ring is submerged in carbonated water. and the bubbles stick to scratches and dimples.

The Clarinet

Last monday my photo group were taking pictures of clarinets for an assignment in which the entire class were involved in, we were making commercial posters for the Sandnes klarnettkor in Indesign.
It was somewhat hard and tedious because we were not permitted to touch any of the clarinets, because they are expensive. Not being able to manipulate the clarinet opened up a new way to take photos and explore our creativity, with angles and camera settings. we had one person who brought the clarinets move them and hold them for us, which is where my picture comes in, the yellow part is all photoshopped, and part of my poster. Working with both indesign and photoshop was interesting and I'm looking forward to working more with it.

Top 10

 This picture goes under the category composition and focal-ratio (will be called F-Number from now on out.). Composition because of the main foreground beams, which then echo to the back of the room in a rhythm. F-Number was 29, which causes the pictures depth. I took this to show depth. Taken with the Canon EOS 550D.
I learned how to take pictures with depth and repeating lines.

 Depth, F-Number and light.
 F-Number was 22, causing the deep depth, from the brick wall to the steel panels in the back.
Light, the natural sunlight shines through semi-transparent sheets of plastic causing a soft white light all around, along with a exposure time of .6, allowing more time for light to go through the lens.
This picture was taken to show depth. This picture has repeating verticals. Taken with the Canon EOS 550D. I learned how to show depth and light.

 Animals, this swan was used previously in my blog, but i will explain why the picture turned out this way.
The F-Number is 6.3, focusing more on the swan, and the exposure time is 1/200 of a second, allowing little light in because there is an abundance of natural light.
This picture was taken to show the swan.
I wanted to capture the face.
Taken with the Nikon D3000
I learned how to take a detailed picture of an animal at close range, without getting mauled.

 Fall, this playground is used very little. but the house still maintains it's color nicely through the wear and tear of the weather. the F-Number is 5.6 causing a medium depth in the picture. since this is also outside the exposure time is 1/125 because of the abundance of light. Contrast between the red/blue/green. Taken with the Nikon D3000.
I learned how to show the depth of a photo and show the deep contrast of colors.

 Light, here the F-number is 5.3, because i tried to only capture the detail on the sculpture, and the exposure time is 1/80 because of natural sunlight, light is also what causes reflections. I wanted to show the reflection on the water.
this picture has a lot of lines, like the stairs and the edge of the pool. Taken with the Nikon D3000.
I learned how to take a detailed picture of a specific object in the picture.

 Fall. F-Number is 5.6 because I only wanted a limited point of interest; the dead wasp and the grains of salt. the exposure time is 1/125 because I are outside. I took this picture to capture the detail of the wasp.
there are lots of diagonals in the wooden table. Taken with the Nikon D3000.
I learned how to use the F-Number to only capture what i want to capture.

 Light, F-number is 7.1 only capturing the lighter, while the background is completely obscured.
The exposure time is 1/200 because there was a lot of light reflecting off the lighter and into the lens.
There is a contrast between my light skin and the reflective metal. i took this to show the depth of the picture. Taken with the Nikon D3000. Used iPhoto to make it black and white.
I learned how to further play with the F-Number setting.

 Composition, this picture repeats from the bottom left to the top right corner, the F-Number is 2, causing shallow depth in the picture, the exposure time is 1/50, because the picture is taken right next to a window. taken to show lines. Taken with the Canon IXUS 300 HS. I learned how to show lines and only what i want to show.

This flowers focus point is on the tendrils around the core, the F-Number is 5.6, causing the tendril effect.

the exposure time was 1/60, because of, again, natural light. The point of this picture was to show different depths. Taken with the Nikon D3000. I learned how to focus on only the tendrils and tweak the ISO to make the camera more sensitive to light.

Contrast. This is in my opinion, my best picture because it contains a deep, contradicting point to convey. 

The F-number s 5.6, focusing on the lighter, hand and syringe. the exposure time is 1/50, because of the sunlight coming through the roof. taken to show that every city has a sinister side. Taken with the Nikon-D3000. Used iPhoto to make it black and white. I learned how tweak the F-Number to only focus on the lighter, hand and syringe. 

Aperture

Today we started working with aperture.

 This picture focuses on the majority of the picture, the majority is sharp and clear, thats because it has a wide aperture.

In contrast to the first picture, this picture has a small aperture, which only focuses on a small portion of the picture.

Camera Settings: Shutter Time

This assignment taught us more about the cameras more advanced options, namely Shutter Time.

 With a quick shutter time, the picture is taken quickly, letting small amounts of light in, so one needs to increase the ISO and aperture. This picture was taken with a 1/200 shutter time.

 On this escalator you can see that the stairs look flowing, thats because the shutter speed is slow, almost like taking a bunch of pictures and layering them. the shutter speed was 6 seconds.

This picture has a slow shutter speed too, 0.4 second. with the movement of the camera and the shutter speed, the cars headlights dance in the picture.