Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Masters of Photography--Philippe Halsman

1.
  
Edits:
Exposure: -0.50
Contrast: +49
Highlights: -68
Shadows -48
Whites: +41
Blacks: -13
Clarity: +2
Vibrance and Saturation: -100
Cropped

2.



Edits:
Exposure: +0.60
Contrast: +3
Highlights: +73
Shadows: +17
Whites: +44
Blacks: -52
Clarity: +100
Vibrance and Saturation: -100
Cropped

3.


Edits:
Exposure: +0.65
Contrast: +30
Highlights: -83
Shadows: -50
Whites: +10
Blacks: -50
Clarity: +11
Vibrance and Saturation: -100

4.



Edits:
Exposure: +0.65
Contrast: +30
Highlights: -83
Shadows: -50
Whites: +10
Blacks: -50
Clarity: +11
Vibrance and Saturation: -100

5.


Edits:
Exposure: +0.05
Contrast: +23
Highlights: +32
Shadows: -32
Whites: +33
Blacks: -48
Clarity: +23
Vibrance and Saturation: -100


About Philippe Halsman:

Philippe Halsman was a popular portrait photographer in the mid- 20th century. Although he was American, most of his life was spent in northern and eastern Europe. He is well known for his photographs of Salvador Dali, people, and experiments with light. Philippe Halsman was unique because of how in many of his photographs, he asked people to jump, making the portrait uniquely informal. 

My View:
I chose this photographer because of how he pushed against the status quo by not taking entirely posed pictures, but if anything, spontaneous shots. It was clear in many of his pictures that his subjects were caught by surprise, yet decided to go with his instruction and have fun while they were at it. His collaboration with Salvador Dali produced surrealist photos much like Dali's original style. He inspired me to be more carefree with photos, to capture what I can rather than forcing a position that I think looks good. We also had a lot more fun than I expected because we had to convince each other to jump in interesting positions. I didn't think at first that the jumps could look good on camera, but the light-hearted attitude encourages the subject to act more natural for the camera.








Monday, October 20, 2014

First Portrait: Andrew


For this photo, I only made the colors more vibrant to look brighter and bolder.

Monday, October 13, 2014

Self Portrait



Self Portrait: I took this photo in the morning when I climbed into my tree and took a photo from a higher vantage point.

Friday, October 10, 2014

Shallow Depth of Field


I used an F-stop of 3.5 and a shutter speed of about 1/20 to isolate the strands of web from the rest of the background. The only thing I enhanced was to decrease contrast to make the lighting on the two sides of the tree less harsh.

Friday, September 26, 2014

3rd Photo Assignment: Composition, My Third Rule


Rule 3: Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds balances the photo by making the flower a more natural focus than it would be if it were in the middle of the photo. The foreground is much clearer than the background so attention is drawn to the front, the flower.

Rule 1: Shadow and Leading Lines
Rule 2: Fill the Frame
Rule 3: Rule of Thirds

2nd Photo Assignment, My Second Rule


Rule 2: Fill the Frame

The rule of "Fill the frame" controls where the attention of the viewer lies. The background is not as obvious and so does not distract the viewer from where they should be looking. The roses are large enough that they block out most of the background, and the background is a little fuzzy to show that the focus should be on the roses.

1st Photo Assignment, My First Rule


Rule 1: Leading lines and lighting

In this photo, I used the rules of shadow and leading lines. The line of lockers leads your attention to the middle, and the figure in the middle is backlit by the light from the end of the hallway. The rule of light and shadow also highlights the figure in the center.