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Assignment #9: iMovie Storytelling

With this week’s project being another about identity and character development, I thought back to my midterm assignment. For my self-portrait, I discussed the importance of place and how the places important to a person contribute to their identity. For this project, I wanted to revisit all the incredible places I have been fortunate enough to travel to, and how these places have influenced my own character.

I took the videos that I have shot around the world, from New York City to Paris, from Spartanburg, South Carolina to Sitges, Spain, from London to the Dutch Caribbean, and meshed them together. The end result is a travel diary of sorts, a visual documentary of all of the cultures I have been exposed to. My love for travel has undoubtedly given me a global perspective on life. With every new destination I visit, my passion for travel grows a bit more. Yes, we all have our bucket lists, but my desire to search every corner of the globe goes far beyond checking boxes. When people ask “Where do you see yourself in five years?” my habitual response is “Not here.” I want to keep going, keep moving, and keep travelling.

As far as my artistic motivations for this project, I wanted the video to feel like a diary or journal, with lots of long-winded thoughts and seemingly random changes in scenery or subject. I added flags for some of the countries in the corner some of the videos as an extra detail. The song, Take a Walk by Passion Pit, is one that I often listen to on long plane and car rides, and it reminds me of travel!

Assignment #8: Stop Motion Film

Producing a stop motion movie, even a thirty second one, was much more difficult than I expected. It required an excess of patience that I simply do not have. This, combined with the difficulties I faced with the white board concept, made this project a tough one for me.

When we were given this assignment, I knew I wanted to use the white board idea and a cute and simple stick figure character. Using the tiny whiteboard I had in my dorm, I was able to make this work. As far as character development, I wanted to, once again, keep it simple. I decided that this format of video would work best with something that involved a lot of changes in scenery yet little actual movement. I wanted to keep all of the character’s development light, and I thought that having the stick figure travel the world would be an easy way to do so. I drew each frame out on the white board, but ran into some trouble at this point. Because I did not have access to a tripod for my phone, I thought that using my laptop’s PhotoBooth camera would be an easy way to keep the shot consistent. What I did not consider, however, was that the PhotoBooth camera flips every image, so I had to draw and write everything opposite of how I wanted it to appear. Hence, my drawings look like they were done by a kindergartener.

After I syncing a song that I thought fit the video well (“The Best Day of my Life” by American Authors), and adding some of the subtle transitions on iMovie, I ended with a semi-sloppy, semi-cute stop motion animation video. While it may not be a cinematic masterpiece, it definitely

gave my roommate and I something to laugh at.

Assignment #7: Midterm Self-Portrait

When deciding what route to take for my midterm self-portrait, I was drawn to the double exposure effect. I wanted my project to utilize several different layers so that I could get some experience with different blending techniques. The final product is something that I really love, but getting to this point was not at all easy. After uploading my portrait, I used the brush tool to make a cutout of only my face. From there, I created a new layer from the selection to remove the background of the photo. I added another blank white layer and put it under the first layer to make the background white. I unsaturated my portrait to make black and white. Then, I added in the second image of the New York City skyline and placed it over my face. I resized it so that I got all the desired parts of the image actually on my face, and then made a layer mask so that it cropped around the silhouette of my portrait. I brought the portrait layer up to the top, changed its blending mode to lighten, then played with the opacity until I got the right ratio of portrait to skyline. I then used the brush tool to emphasize some of my facial features until I was satisfied with the result. I then repeated these same steps with the same portrait and three other background images: one of Rome, Italy, one of Ohio State, and one of the planet Mars.

I believe that the hub of anyone’s identity is their home, or the places that have shaped them throughout the course of their life. For my project, I took this concept of home and identity and created each image with special consideration for how each place has made me who I am. The first image, which shows my portrait fused with the planet Mars, is a nod to the town that I have lived my whole life. While Mars, Pennsylvania is certainly not the trendiest or most exciting town, it has given me a childhood that I can look back on with fondness, an incredible group of friends to grow up with, and so much more. For the second image, my face is superimposed over a photo of Ohio State’s campus. From the moment I arrived here on move-in day, I felt like OSU was my second home. Since then, this school has brought me friendships, challenging experiences, and a newfound independence that I have wholly embraced. The third image includes Italy, which grounds me to my family. I am proud to be from such a beautiful country. Italy holds a special place in my heart not only because of my heritage, but because a trip I took there with my family when I was nine years old. It truly is the most beautiful place I have ever been, and reflecting on this trip brings up some of my most treasured family memories. The final image shows my face over the New York City skyline, which represents the future home I envision. New York City is one of my favorite places in the world, and I hope to live and work there after college. Working in fashion in New York City has been a goal of mine since I was young, and I am set on achieving this goal.

By collaging all four of these photos together, I encompassed the places that have shaped my identity, and the places that I can consider all my home.

 

Below, I have posted the collage of all four photos along with the fourth photo by itself because it turned out to be my favorite! (Note: since I had to convert the file, some of the images look a little distorted)

Assignment #6: Graphic Design

For my graphic design work, I chose to combine option 1 (a marketing tool) with option 2 (an art work) to create an artistic brand advertisement for one of my favorite brands, Free People. First, I took an image from one of their catalogs. I edited the hue and saturation of the image, and then added “noise” to give it a vintage look. I added brush strokes across the faces of the models using the brush tool and used the quick selection tool to add little gold stars. I then found a very “on brand” quote from Jack Kerouac that celebrates the rebel spirit of Free People and superimposed it over the image with a font similar to the ones used in their actual advertisements using the horizontal type tool.

The final product fully encompassed the brand identity of Free People. On their website, the company states that they make clothing for “a 26-year-old girl, smart, creative, confident and comfortable in all aspects of her being, free and adventurous, sweet to tough to tomboy to romantic. A girl who likes to keep busy and push life to its limits, with traveling and hanging out and everything in between.” This bohemian vibe is what I intended to capture in this artistic ad, and through the small details, the grainy edit, and Kerouac quote, I think I achieved just that.

Assignment #5: Long Exposure

Coming into this assignment, I had a little bit of long exposure photography experience from playing around with a DSLR camera. However, when I attempted to use the iPhone app rather than a real shutter, I struggled. The “painting with light” idea, as exhibited by the first photo, didn’t really work. Thus, I took the concept literally and edited the image in photoshop using the Oil Paint filter. I also bumped up the contrast and saturation to give the photo a Starry Night feel, and turn it into an image that I liked in the end.

The second, third, and fourth sets of photos show long exposure shots of water I took on an actual camera.   The photos in the left column are unedited, the photos on the right are post-photoshop. On the first photo, I altered the hues to emphasize the blue tones, then applied the Posterize filter. I think these effects added to the eerie feel of the image already present thanks to the angle and smoothness of the water.  In the third photo, I added a 105 mm Prime lens flare in the upper left corner and brought up the contrast on the water. I love how this added a light source and looked like the sun was shining a little brighter than it really was. In the final photo, the edits are more subtle. I used the Dark Strokes effect in the filter gallery to give the water a sketched look when you zoom in on it.


Assignment #4: Portraits

My extremely photogenic and cooperative roommate Haley made photographing this assignment very easy. The editing, on the other hand, challenged me a bit. I chose my four favorite portraits to edit and post.

For the first photo (soft light), I blurred the background as much as possible and added minimal retouching to her skin. I wanted Haley to stand out against the brick wall, and her sunglasses to be a pop of color against an otherwise colorless image. For the second photo (also soft light), I used the healing brush tool, along with the dodge and burn tools, to give her skin a flawless look. I then used the gradient tool to add a unique color effect to the photo. The third picture was taken during “golden hour.” The lighting was perfect, so the image required only small adjustments to exposure, contrast, and temperature. The final image, which was taken in hard lighting, was the biggest challenge to edit. Harsh sunlight combined with shadows made this image difficult to fix. After playing with saturation and contrast tools, I was finally able to turn the photo into something I liked.

While the subject looks very similar in all four photos, the lighting and edits give each image a distinct feel. This assignment proved that, without a doubt, lighting plays a HUGE role in portrait photography.


Assignment #3: Composition

When considering my identity, I look to the places that have shaped me. One of these places is Spartanburg, South Carolina, one of my family’s favorite small cities and my older brother’s new home. Spartanburg’s residents love where they live, and display this pride through public art and care for their city. While on a trip to Spartanburg this summer, I took photos that perfectly fulfilled the goal of the assignment: they display the identity of the town’s residents, an identity that has also become part of my own.

Through these images, I wanted to emulate the love and respect that the people of Spartanburg have for their hometown. I emphasized this by making the city’s public art installations the subject of the images. I achieved symmetry in the photo of the blue bike by shooting at an angle that revealed its shadow on the sidewalk. My open composition photo is quite dramatic, showing an angel statue at the town’s center with her arms spread wide, looking towards the sun. The photo is open because her eyes are looking towards a place unseen by the viewer, and her arms point out of the frame. My closed image of a birdhouse is less “artistic” than the others, yet it still portrays the warm and homey feelings of the community. My favorite art piece is shown in the rule of thirds. This robot-looking statue pops up all over the city, but I chose to photograph this one to showcase the mural in the background as well. This subject placement, plus its vibrant colors and sunny tones, makes it one of my favorite photographs I’ve ever taken.

Assignment #2: Photo Basics

When considering the collective identity of OSU, there are two things that undeniably unite the students: a commitment to academics and a commitment to the Buckeyes. With those two themes in mind, I photographed the two places on campus that are physical representations of this identity: Ohio Stadium, symbolizing the undying school spirit  that the students share on game days and all year round, and Thompson Library, which represents the academic hub of campus, overflowing with information and students that consume it.

As for the edits, the first photo set displays the discrepancy between under- and over-exposed images. The half-time photo looks more appealing when underexposed, simply because it looks more natural. Overexposing the image washes out the field and sky. The second set of photos shows the front of Thompson with temperature adjustments. I prefer the warm-toned image because it gives the scene a natural, vintage-y feel, while the cool image seems artificial. For my two free edits, I wanted to retain the photos’ natural tones while enhancing the existing colors and light. By adjusting the contrast and saturation settings, I brightened the colors and emphasized the details while maintaining the photo’s organic tones.

I share an identity with over 50,000 other students, but I have never felt that I am “just a number.” Being a member of the OSU community allows me to belong to something much bigger than myself. Despite this, I can still be an individual with a separate identity of my own, one that functions alongside my Buckeye identity.

Assignment #1: Mini Critique

The Blonde Salad, a wildly-popular fashion blog, is a site that I visit often to mindlessly search through for inspiration. When I first open the home page, I’m met with a rotating menu of featured posts accompanied by vibrant and aesthetically-pleasing photos. If the intention of these giant image is to get me to click on the post, it definitely works. More photos, posts, social media links, and quotes appear as I scroll down the page. While the site could stand to limit the content on the home page slightly, instead of looking cluttered and overwhelming, the constant stream of new media keeps me reading. This is mostly thanks to the site’s simple typeface in contrast to the eye-catching photos. Overall, TBS is one of my favorites for everything from outfit ideas to travel guides, and its creator Chiara Ferragni is definitely one of my biggest inspirations.