Midterm Portfolio

Due 3/5/13

We had to choose 6 pieces we felt were strong enough to fit into a portfolio

For this piece I combined 3 separate photos, one of myself and two friends. When taking these photos I purposely made the lighting dramatic with huge amounts of contrast. Originally, because these were 3 separate photographs to begin with, the flooring on each one was slightly different and tinted. I choose to have the person on the right's (me) flooring as the dominant flooring. I changed the girl on the left's flooring to match the right's by using the cloning tool in photoshop. I also added a shadow because the original one got erased. I then incorporated the middle girl in the back by making sure she was smaller than the other two because she was farther back. I added a small shadow to the left of her but decided to keep the lightness on the right to make it look like a continuation of the light flooring on the right of the piece. 

This photo was taken in Rhode Island. I played around with color selection in photoshop, as well as enhanced the color, contrast, brightness, and gamma correction.  The colors in the original photograph had a more yellow and orange tint to it so I wanted to bring out the reds and greens in this piece instead. I used contrast and vibrance on this piece to make the photograph pop out at the viewer more. Especially since the two main colors are opposites, the contrast helps enhance the visual appeal of the photograph. The contrast also helped define shadows in the photograph more as well, they are now darker and less subtle.

For this piece I used a photograph I took of a lake at The College of New Jersey. I manipulated the photograph by boosting the colors and contrast. I wanted the water to look more blue than it originally was and more vibrant. I also wanted the water to have an icy feel to it, the contrast helped me achieve this in the picture. I also think the contrast helped make the blueness of the water stand out more against the green plants surrounding it. Overall, I am happy with how this piece turned out.

For this piece I used a photograph I took in the fall at The College of New Jersey. I really liked the composition of this piece and how you are able to see the leaves, and litter that the lake is filled with. I manipulated the photo by boosting the colors to make the Minute Maid wrapper stand out more when put up against the deep blue colors. I also put a lot of contrast on the photograph in photoshop. I think the contrast helped make the blueness of the water stand out, as well as the leaves.

This piece I originally manipulated for the color correction assignment. I, however, decided to fix a few things I realized could have used some more work. This photo was taken in the Dominican Republic. The original photograph before I manipulated has the parrot very dark and it's colors were not very noticeable. I played with the brightness, saturation, and vibrancy in photoshop to be able to lighten up the bird to be seen better. By saturating the colors, I was able to restore the vibrant colors a typical parrot posses, that this parrot lost in the picture. I added contrast to the photo to make it a more pleasing to the eye photograph. 

I choose this piece because I believe it looks the most realistic out of all my manipulated photographs that I pieced together in one composition. The floor originally was from a photograph I took in Long Beach Island on the boardwalk. The alley and buildings were from a photograph I took at Rhode Island School of Design. Lastly, the graffiti walls were taken on a road in New Jersey. I tried making the floor and the buildings look as much as possible life-like and realistic. I added shadows and used the stamp tool in photoshop to accomplish this. 

SELF EVALUATION

Overall, I think I did a good job on these pieces. I think my manipulation of the photographs were good and made sense for each thing I did. My favorite photos I manipulated out of these 6 would have to be the first one (three girls) and the last one (alley way). I liked these a lot because I was building a composition rather than correcting one like I did in the other four pieces. I think the way I cut these pictures and assembled them makes both look realistic for the most part and how an original photograph could have looked like in real life, which was my intent and goal so I am happy. 

I also feel accomplished with how the other four pieces came out. For these I mostly did color corrections and manipulated the photographs to make them look better than how they originally did. I am very happy with how the parrot picture came out. I re-did this piece twice to make sure I accomplish what my vision for this piece was. After the first time of manipulating and color correcting this photo I liked how the bird looked but not the background, in some ways the background was too vibrant for my liking and I wasn't too happy with it. I then fixed it by only changing how the bird looked which I am glad I did because as an overall piece I think it looks a lot better, so I am happy I stuck with my instinct on that piece. I think the two water pieces I manipulated look great. I really like the rich blue color I made the water in each piece and both compositions in general. I think they are both striking pieces, especially because of how I made the vibrant blue and contrast. I also think I did a good job with the brick wall photo (second piece). I really like how I changed the colors to look a lot nicer than the original photograph and draw your eye in more. I think I did a good job with playing around in the color selection tool in photoshop for that piece. Overall, I am happy with all the work I have done to this point in the semester.