Portrait Picture

For this assignment I used my friend Diana as the model. I've known Diana since 6th grade and she's one of my best friends.

This picture was taken outside during lunch. It was a cloudy day and later on it started raining. I used my Fuji digital point and shoot camera.

This assignment was very difficult for me. Diana felt awkward with me being right next to her face and telling her "Don't look at the camera!! Be your self :)".

I took about 64 pictures and narrowed it 1. The only problem with this photo was the feet coming out of her nose. But that was easily fixed in photoshop.

Well that's all for now :)

Bye :D

P.S. LOVE YOU DIANA :3

Group Photo Shoot for SCPA

The assignment was to get in a group and do a photo shoot for SCPA. The shoot had to include some or all of the arts we have at SCPA and the use of strobe lights. I was in a group with Darrian, Ruby, Stephany, Lexi and Latrice. Our models were Lisa (playing the cello), Claressa (dancer) and Katherine (artist). We used 3 people because we know that the eye likes odd numbers.

We decided to shoot outside, in the Senior Circle. We used strobe and natural light from the sun. We set up the strobe light to the left of Lisa. Katherine had the wonderful idea of spreading leaves on the ground. After we got everything set up and our models situated we started shooting. Unfortunately we didn't really keep track of who took what so we're not really sure who took the photo above.

This photo shoot was very difficult and challenging. We had a lot of issues. There was confusion and indecision on what the models should be doing. Once we started shooting the PE people started walking to the water fountain and getting in our shot. We had to herd them around the photo shoot and ask them to run if they got into the shot. But in the end we all agreed that all that trouble we went through was worth the finished product.

I decided to print this photo because I liked how everyone looks in it. One of the things I love about this shot, that I noticed after printing it, is the light coming through the tree. I think this photo is a good representation of SCPA because it shows the arts, we have part of the SCPA campus in the background and we have SCPA students as the models.

That's all for now

I hope you enjoyed our photo

Bye :3

Portraits vs Snapshots

The assignment was to read Soaking Success by Jessica Gordon. The article was about photographer Manjari Sharma and her portraits. Sharma took the photographs in the shower using natural light from a window. Sharma said, "The dynamic changed; with the running water, subjects started to share with me some pretty intimate moments of their lives."

I think the difference between portraits and snapshots is the intimacy of the photo. In snapshots everyone is posed. Using fake smiles or silly faces the models show you what they want you to see. With portraits it is much more intimate and you are trying to capture their essence, the real person. You don't want them to be posed you want them to be their selves. That's what I think the difference is between portraits and snapshots.

I Was Really There

Hello people. This assignment was to take a picture of ourselves and paste it onto another picture and use two different photo effects from www.photoshopessentials.com.

First, I searched up "royalty free pictures" and found the website www.freedigitalphotos.net. I clicked on the album Nature then on Fungi.

Then I took a picture of myself on the computer with Photo Booth and used the magic lasso tool to cut myself out and paste myself into the other picture. After I copied the stick in the bottom right corner and put that over my legs to make it look like I was standing amongst the sticks.

I went on www.photoshopessentials.com and browsed through photo effects and found Painterly Glow Effect With Smart Filters in Photoshop CS3 and Add A Sparkle Trail To A Photo. First, I added the painterly glow. Basically all I did was use motion blur. After I flattened all the layers I moved on to the next effect Add a Sparkle Trail. I made a new brush using a star brush, an airbrush and a fuzzball brush. I changed some settings for the brush. I painted it onto the picture and changed the color to a really light white/pink then I flattened the layers. The last thing I had to do was add the words. I used the lightest green from the trees behind me and wrote "In Wonderland where the wild thing are." I chose to write that because the mushroom reminded me of Alice in Wonderland and because my people say that when I wear my Totoro (a character from the movie My Neighbor Totoro) hat that I look like Max from Where The Wild Things Are.

This assignment was kind of frusterating but fun at the same time. I really like the outcome of it.

That's all

Bye :3

Softening images

I used the same image I used for the brushes assignment. For this assignment we were supposed to soften the image to make it look kind of airbrushed. Like photos in a magazine.
We followed a tutorial on photoshopessentials.com called Easily Smooth and Soften Skin. It was pretty simple. What softening seems to do is to make the image a bit blurry. To make specific features sharper we used the brush tool.
I can see a huge difference between the image to the left and the original.
Softening the image is defiantly useful and I will probably use this for every image I take.

That's all for now
Bye! :3

Playing with brushes in Photoshop

Before:

This photo of me was taken by John Paul. We took these images outside with a white background that helped block the sun. Someone held up a white card to shine some light on me. This photo shoot was very fast paced and if you weren't paying attention you missed a lot of useful information. I really like the lighting because even though we're outside the lighting isn't so harsh.

After:

After we shot everyone (in the nonviolent way) we went back inside and learned how to edit the photos in Photoshop. First we changed the height, width, and resolution of the picture. Then we messed with the levels to make it look a little nicer. We downloaded some cool brushes from brusheezy.com and that's where we were left to go crazy with them.

I edited this picture a few times before I finally got one that I really liked (this is actually attempt #3). In the image above I used three different kinds of brush sets. First, I used a brush set called Grass Brushes. I was just kind of playing around with it when I asked Darrian if she thought it would be cool if I put clouds, she said yes and helped me find a brush set called 24 Clouds (I would be so lost without Darrian). I used one of the shadows on my shirt to get the blue of the clouds. I experimented with the 24 cloud brushes in the set and was happy with the result but I felt something was missing. So I searched for flower brush sets and found Garden Plants Brushes. I chose the color yellow and put flowers both in front of and behind the grass.

Below are the other two images I did.

Attempt #1

Again, I messed with the levels to make it look a little nicer. Then, I downloaded some splatter brushes and used green, orange, and blue. It's not that I don't like this image it's just that I wasn't really excited about it so I kept trying.

Attempt #2

First, I messed with the levels then, I went looking for some cool brushes and found Crack Brushes I and Grunge Brushes 007. I used black and just went crazy putting cracks all over the background. Again, I just wasn't that excited about it.

I had a lot of fun with this project and have already started using brushes on some other images I have taken.

That's all for now

Bye :]

ID Photos

This project was really fun! I took these photos inside, on the computer with Photobooth. My model is…………ME!! The point of this assignment was to create different personas for ourselves. It was very fun and creative.

For the first image I braided my hair and put on a plaid button up shirt. I look like a country girl. If I viewed this picture through someone else's eyes I would think they were just like everyone else, nothing really special, just a girl with braids.

For the second image I left my hair down, put on a tie dye t-shirt and a beaded beanie thing. I look like a hippie! If I saw this from someone else's eyes I would think this was taken in the 1960's or 1970's.

For the third image I stuffed my hair in my San Diego Padres baseball hat and borrowed my friend Chases' jacket. This is kind of how a lot of guys dress. They try to be hard and gangster so that was what I was trying to go for.

For the last image I parted my hair to the side, put on my red zebra shirt and used Darrians' headphones. I feel that this kind of reflects some teenagers today. The headphones show how much teenagers LOVE music. Many people would look at this photo and say that the girl in it is "scene" or "emo." I think it's just how that person wants/likes to dress.

I had a lot of fun with this assignment and will probably be doing some more at home just for fun.

That's all for now

Bye! :D

P.S. Tomorrow is Mrs. Alvarezs' last day D:

We'll miss you!!!!!!!!