Week 11

Classic portrait

Alex with shoulder cat

Week 10

Replica photo

My attempt to replicate the photo taken by Francesca Woodman (1958-1981) below, was more complicated than I thought it would be! I didn’t have the right kind of room for it so I generated a background in Midjourney and then added my self portrait with mirror in Photoshop. It was also challenging to do a self portrait with a mirror like that! The challenges however only made me appreciate the original photo and the artist even more. She was a photographer that sadly ended her own life in her twenties. When I discovered her self portraits I immediately found them inspirational and hauntingly beautiful. Can’t say I captured the vibe of the original but It was a fun learning experience.

Photgraph by Francesca Woodman

Photograph collage by Sam Chonko

Butterfly lighting

Rembrandt lighting

Studio Traditional Portrait

Split light Portrait

Week 6

HDR photos bracketed and merged

My camera has been acting up where I have no clear display or view finder to gaze. I have been focusing on manual settings and using auto focus lenses to shoot with. Using a tripod to ensure I could get a similar image with limited movement. I took a walk looking for dappled sun streams on ordinary or decaying things. Imagining that the light can add interest in a composition . I took shots in either brightness and darkness bracketing or Aperture bracketing. Using High dynamic range with photos can create a really vivid depiction. The realistic texturing and vibrancy in color can either add to the photo or appear strange. Figuring out how to adjust the levels to my visual preference is interesting. For now I seem to prefer black and white as some of the depictions of greens can feel over powering. I didn’t adjust much in the photos below other than HDR merging of series of photos bracketed by different apertures. As you can see the greens are quite vivid!

Exploring contrast

High Contrast

Low Contrast

Color Contrast

Thematical Contrast

Week 5/ Natural versus Artificial Light Assignment

“Waiting” 15mm, F/5, ISO 200

“Valentine” 16mm, ISO 400, F 3.5

“Afternoon window light” 21mm, ISO 200, F/4

“Jasmine” 34 mm, F/6.3, ISO 200

The power of color

Color in photography can certainly influence the story of an image. Color can express a variety of things it make an emotional impact, can lead the eye, can shift the mood. I think of temperature too and how warmer tones often illicit a more uplifting and cozy feel to a photo where cooler tones can create a darker more somber tone. Sometimes a photographer may choose a color for a specific purpose maybe they want to showcase a feeling of passion and romance and go with red tones as a symbolic gesture. Or composing a shot simply based on the color one sees and using it with sort of organized aesthetic approach such as the photos below by William Eggleston. Something about the emphasis of a particular color creates a stronger composition and interest than if these photos were a rainbow of colors.