For this assignment (Final) I chose to photograph that I love to watch ever since I was in elementary school and let my mind go free. Clouds. The thing about this assignment that people should understand is that this is the best of what I could do with what nature gave me. I wish I had the power to move clouds like in “Men who stare at goats”… but sadly I don’t. I had a difficult time focusing my project completely on cloud formations because for the last couple weeks the skies would rarely have any “life” in them to capture.I got my inspiration from Edward Weston member of “Group f/64″.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Weston
Original:
After:
Focal length: 82.0 mm
Aperture: f/6.3
Shutter Speed:1/3200
Iso: 100
In this photograph (I nicknamed it fluffy… weird I know o well) I tried to get the same fluffy effect that Edward Weston created in this photograph that he had taken in 1936:
Edward Weston:
However, I did not want my photograph to be a negative because I wanted to keep the deep blue gradient effect that flows through the photo.
Original:
After:
Focal Length: 18.0 mm
Aperture: f/6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/1600
ISO: 100
This is my favorite photograph of this whole project. The timing on this was perfect when I took this down town, right on the beach. I was hanging out with my friend Brenden when I looked up and BAM! the effect hit me. The first thing I thought is were is my camera. The Big guy in the sky was gracious to me that day because he helped my set this shot up with the cloud magic and all I had to do is line up the tree silhouette perfectly. The only problem was there were a few tree branches poking out into the frame. I easily fixed it with the use of the clone stamp tool.
Focal length: 55.0 mm
Aperture: f/8.0
Shutter Speed: 1/640
ISO: 100
I’m proud of this photo because I transformed it from a bland single cloud shot to a more textured and gradient photograph and I personally think draws eyes. First I fixed the levels in order to make the blues more brilliant. Then I used the magic selection brush tool/wand and clicked on the cloud until it was completely surrounded by the “marching ants”. Go to select then hit inverse. Now go to Filter, and select the Gaussian blur and move it until I got the effect shown. I like the surreal effect this photograph shows off. However, I do not like the slightly over exposed little fluff of a cloud but I don’t think it is ridiculously ugly.
Photo 1:
Aperture: f/22.0
Shutter Speed: 1/50
Photo 2:
Aperture: f/22
Shutter Speed: 1/50
Photo 3:
Aperture: f/22.0
Shutter Speed: 1/50
Photo 4:
Aperture: f/22.0
Shutter Speed: 1/80
After:
Heck yes I loved doing this collage. The clouds where perfect that day I couldn’t of asked for a more beautiful afternoon. I just have to thank the “Big guy in the sky” for that one. For this I decided “I’m going to mix things up”. So instead of just capturing one photo and calling it good I went all out. I would wait a few moments for the clouds to move for each shot just to make it seem surreal and more eye appealing. I chose to also make the blues inconsistent because I didn’t want a “perfect” photo I wanted to rock an effect that I had done once but not quiet as successfully in the first year photography class. I also went in with the brush tool and selected a chalky brush and clicked a couple times around the photos where it was not very interesting. All in all I think it came out great.
Original:
After:
Focal length: 60.0 mm
Aperture: f/22
Shutter Speed:1/200
ISO: 100
This cloud was huge! The reason I have this photo on the blog is just because I was able to partly revive the cloud from a dull boring, flat looking cloud to a very fluffy poof. This photo was mainly a bust but I kept it on to show that I made a lot of mistakes before getting the rest of these photographs. Mr. Twitchell, you told us that we can put up our failures as long as we explain what we did wrong well. I didn’t have the frame capture all of the cloud, Did not give any reference for how big the cloud really is. With out a person or a building there was no scale and just makes this photo an ordinary photograph.
Original:
After:
Focal length: 55.0 mm
Aperture: f/22.0
Shutter Speed: 1/13
ISO: 100
Finally, I applied this photograph with this assignment because of the effect the sky has on the complete photo. In editing this photo I simply used the levels then used the magic wand tool and selected the yellow petals and used the levels again to sharpen the brilliant yellows. Then later I went in and enhanced the greens by playing around with the curves tool or table. I like the contrast of the pale dead like effect of the sky and trees against the lively daisies. I also tried to apply symbolism to this photo where even in the darkest times there is still a small amount of hope or joy. far fetched maybe a little bit yes but the point is that I tried the best I could to apply emotion which I find to be one of the hardest concepts of photography or even art in general.
I love clouds man, they are probably the most photogenic thing in nature. Especially with a wide angle lens. Love the idea behind this man, its tight. Hope you keep shooting cause your work is sick, I love your creative eye with everything so you defiantly have a future with your art one way or another.
-Steve
Great work with the clouds. Sometimes they can be seen as boring, but I love shooting them as well, especially when you can get the great blue sky next to it.
The photo where you cropped out the landscape…the farming land it looks like… I would have left the land in it. Really gives the image an anchor visually.
Good work this year, it has been fun having you here Pancake.