Final Project Website

Final Essay

I decided to do a video based around my dog. I had limited photos on my computer since they’re all stored at home, so I asked my dad to send me his favorite pictures of her. He ended up sending me around 20 images of her running and 3 chewing on a stick, so I worked with what I was given. I used the song Best Friend by Queen because I love that song and I thought it was fitting. I tried to change the images with the beat of the song and match the images to the lyrics. I tried to include the picture of us together when the lyrics “You’re my best friend” came on. I also tried to use a variety of transitions and ken burns in order to make the video more interesting than a plain slideshow.

Reflective Essay (For first image)

PSD1 PSD2

I chose to make a fake album cover for one of my favorite bands, Foster the People. First I made the text ‘Foster’ and converted to 3D, I then twisted it so that it made a full circle. I then made a new text layer, ‘THE PEOPLE’, and depending on the version either gave it a very small extrusion depth or a very small taper percentage. I gave this text a marble overlay, so that it wasn’t just plain white. Then, I played with the brush tool, using the leaves brush, clicking until I liked how the leaves fell. I gave these a brass overlay, and gave them a small bevel. I also removed the casting shadows from all the objects other than the ‘Foster’ text. Lastly, I made a donut 3D object with the brushed silver to give it texture and paced it behind to look like an outer ring.

For this magazine cover I played with the thickness of the fonts, using a heavier weight for titles and thin fonts for the body sections. The colors I used were mainly red, green, and off-white to match his sweatshirt. One of my favorite things to do with fonts is to make the hardness of the drop shadow at 100% so it looks like I just copied the text and made it a different color. I purposely placed “Real World Use” below his eyes so it’s not blocking his view.

When making this magazine cover, I had just completed a math project made to be done by 4 people all by myself. I took my frustrations out on this magazine. I think at first glance it doesn’t look angry since my fonts are soft and the colors aren’t particularly “angry”, but after reading the actual text you can feel some of my frustrations.

Original/Edited/Edited

For the first edit I used the posterize filter, which I am not fond of. The last edited image I copied the original image into a new layer then used the filters to make a mosaic and set that layer to soft light. Then I made a layer mask and only had the mosaic layer visible where the bus is. I think this is a cool effect since it is making the bus stand out and look like it’s from a video game or something.

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Original/Edited

Similar to the last bus image, I copied the original image and then used a filter. This time I added wind in the direction the cars were moving in and then used the layer mask to only have the part with the cars visible. I was going for the effect of the cars looking like they were moving fast, but it worked better in another image.

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Original/Edited

Here I added wind to the car, then I layered the lights from another image to make it look like it was coming from the car. I think this gives a really cool effect of the car looking like it was going really fast when in reality it was stopped due to traffic.

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Original/Edited

I didn’t use filters with this one but wanted to include it anyway. When I was taking the pictures there weren’t many cars out and it was too cold to wait for a lot of cars to show up at once. So to make it look like a lot of cars were there I layered about 5 images I took together. Other than the original I upped the contrast on the images then copied them over as a lighten layer so only the lights would show up, then erased any lights I didn’t want.

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Original/Edited

No filters, but I wanted to show I took pictures other than in the dark. The ones in the dark turned out better though. I only used levels and selective color layers with this image.

Clean and Professional Edit

Original/Edited
   

Unrealistic Edit

Original/Edited

   

Free Edits

Original/Edited

   

   

   

  

Unedited Photos

   

Bonus

For the profession and free edits, I messed with the brightness and contrast making sure the images were clear but not over/under exposed. I also cropped the images with the composition in mind, mainly focusing on the thirds composition. For a couple of the images I had to tilt the photo so that the lines from the building would be straight. These alterations, in my mind at least, made the portraits more visually appealing. For the unrealistic edit I used the magnetic selection tool to select him then popped him into another picture. This made the image worse because I did not do the best job at selecting him, he’s too big for the background, and I did a poor job of including shadows. For all edits I used the healing brush to get rid of noticeable blemishes.

For the elements of identity, my model wore an Ohio State jersey and had the background of the portraits be Ohio State. OSU is very important to my model, so it’s a good representation of his identity.

 

I am still learning how to use my dad’s old camera so some of the pictures the model is not 100% in focus.

Open Composition

Makeup makes me think of my mom. We have a close relationship and she taught me how to use makeup, and it was a way we bonded. Now, I teach her about new techniques and products. I made sure the keep the background clean so the makeup could really be the focus of the image.

Symmetrical Composition

Similarly to the makeup, my mom, grandmother, and I love Bath and Body Works. We always make trips to that store together, and we even get my grandmother’s birthday present from there every year. I can’t help but think of them when I look at my candle collection.

Closed Composition

I love my dog, I can’t help but always want to take pictures of her. We have a running joke within my family that a cat keeps breaking into the house to lay in the sun. For this picture I upped the contrast in order to make the background black to really make Penelope and the window light pop.

I love to travel and learn about different cultures. Our upcoming trip will be to Japan in May, so I decided to take a picture of one of the travel books I’ve been using to help make our agenda.

Thirds Composition

Everyone in my family plays soccer. I can never be home without the EPL playing on the TV or someone kicking around a soccer ball. Soccer makes me think of home and family.

What can I say? I love my dog. I love the moments when she is calm enough for me to get a good picture of her.

Over/Underexposed

Warm/Cool

How I Would Edit (for fun)

In order to achieve the over and under exposure effect I used a levels layer, messing around until I got to effect I wanted. For the warm and cool effects I used a color balance layer moving all the nobs towards cool or warm colors (depending on what effect I was going for) for midtones, highlights, and shadows. I didn’t particularly like any of the edits, but more of a mix of each. Therefore, I created images of what I do like in edits. For the first image I used was part of off campus living, it’s one of the subgroups of the OSU community, although most become part at some point. This picture tried to capture the view of campus from off, kind of what a normal student would see while walking to class each day. The second picture featured the Student Union. While it was kind of a gimme, I thought it was important. Every OSU student knows of and has been to the Union, in fact it’s where college tours are held for prospective students, and where you receive your BuckID as a new student. The Union is the beginning of an OSU student’s career so it had to be included.

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