Portraits

The portrait I took that I thought was most successful is the artistic photo, even though it wasn't as clear as I would like it to be. There wasn't enough light in that hallway, so it was hard to keep the camera from shaking. I wanted to convey a mood or feeling of a sense of defeat or something along those lines. To create the artistic photo, I went into that dark hallway to see how the lighting would affect the outcome of the photo.

The prop that I decided to use for my partner was the grand piano in the choir room. I thought that a photo with the piano would have been nice, but was then presented with the challenge of how to keep my partner in the picture. The photo turned out alright, extreme angles was the only compositional trick that would work in my favor, though I would have wanted to use macro somehow.

I think that the main thing that makes my surprise photo unique is the mood it conveys. My partner's face is illuminated by the light from the window, which emphasizes her pensive expression, but the rest of her body is in shadows. The photo is also in black and white, so with those two elements combined, it creates a dreary mood.

Contact Sheet

Out of the eight compositional tricks that we have learned, I believe that the Macro compositional trick is my favorite. I've always liked using macro; I liked being able to zoom in on small objects to make them the subject of a photo.

I think that I will start using leading lines in my photograph from day to day. Now that I know what they are, I see them everywhere, which means that there's bound to be some sort of leading lines in the photographs that I will take in the future.

Extreme Angles was a little bit harder for me to achieve, and it's probably my least favorite because of that. I just have to keep trying and get used to how abstract it's supposed to look from the extreme angles.

Out of all the photos that I took using compositional tricks, I have to say that my favorite is the frame one. It just appealed to me because of the contrast between the hand inside the frame with the light sky in the background. I also like my light photo because I have a thing for hands; I believe that they have some really cool features that would show a lot of contrast with light and dark.

Compositional Trick #8 Fill in Flash

The compositional Trick "Fill in Flash" affected my photos by filling in the shadows that were present before with light. Fill in flash will be used in the future when the camera detects a sufficient amount of light from the photo, but the actual subject may be in the shadows due to the angle the person is in relation to the sun, or maybe even something as simple as a hat covering the features of the faces. In the future, I will use fill in flash when the facial features are in shadows and when the backgrounds are so bright, the camera focuses on the light behind the subject.

Compositional Trick #7 Drawing with Light

When working with light, the photographs have more contrast within them; that helps create a dramatic contrast in the photo. That sets photos with light apart from the others in the sense that the other photos don't have the same interesting contrast between light and dark.
When I look at my photo, I get a calm and almost puzzled feeling. The shadows created with the hands seem to be a little bit random and because of their crossed pattern, it creates a sense of confusion. I get the calm feeling because, though there are areas of pure black and white, the light hits the body in such a way that has a lot of gray tones that give off the calm feeling.

Compositional Trick # 6 Framing

Framing helps composition by allowing the photograph to focus on what is being emphasized; it's like a neon sign telling the viewer "look here!" but a little more subtly.

I like the frame on my first photo because it is surrounded by the chain-link fence, and there is this blank space that acts as a frame. I have a fascination with hands; I think that they have beautiful features when it comes to value, so i decided to stick my parters hand in that open space. Aside from the actual frame of the fence, I think that the conrast between the darkness of the hand and the brlightness from the background helps created the effect of a frame. Although i liked the idea for my second frame photo, I think that the actual photo could have been better. The frame blends together with the person and I think it is a little on the weak side because of it.

Compostitional Trick # 5 Extreme Angles

Extreme angles is a good compositional trick because it gives the viewer a different perspective on seemingly normal objects. So, for example, instead of looking at a person straight on, extreme angles will allow the viewer to see the person as if they're laying on the ground, or towering above them.

I think that my first photo is a half decent example for the low extreme angle, but I misunderstood the way I was supposed to take the photograph of the bird's eye extreme angle; I realized that it doesn't necesarily mean that the picture has to be taken from way up high.

Compositional Trick # 4 Simplicity

Simplicity in a photo helps strengthen the composition by making the photo seem a lot less chaotic and confusing for the viewer. Though some may mistaken simplicity as boring or a simple subject, it means quite the contrary. Simplicity is just where the photographer eliminatest the excess noise in the background so that the emphasis is on the object that is being simplified. Simplicity is an effective trick; if used correctly, it can create beautiful photographs with good a composition.
In my photographs, I simplified the little sprout growing out of the ground by using macro and making the camera blur out everything in the background; in the other, i simplified the tree's seed pot by turning the photo into black in white so that the shadow of the object pops out and the actual seed pot pops out.

Compositional Trick #3 Macro

Macro allows the photographer to zoom in on miniature objects so that it creates a more interesting photo. It will allow the viewer to see things that would normally be overlooked. It is good for a photographer to know about macro because they could use other compositional tricks such as leading lines and rule of thirds to create a nice photo.

Compositional Trick #2 Leading Lines

Leading lines are used to direct the viewer to the point of emphasis. Leading lines can also be used to lead the viewer into and around the photograph. In this case, I used the leading lines to focus on the square and its shadow, but because of the other lines in the photo, it draws the viewer to different parts of the photograph.

Compsitional Trick #1 Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds is a method used to arrange a good composition. It creates a focal point so that the photograph has an emphasis and does not leave the viewer wondering what the subject of the photo is. I would use the rule of thirds to create a focal point so that the photo would turn out better than not using the rule of thirds. Without using the rule of thirds, the picture would be a mere snapshot rather than a photograph.