Final Artist Statement

Before entering this digital photography class, I had very little knowledge of how to use the camera and how to take a proper picture. All I knew was how to press the shutter button to take a regular snap shot picture. Although what I learned is that photography is an actual form of art and one can express a lot through an image. Using Adobe Photoshop can enhance your image to an endless amount of possibilities to show your creativity and make them more artistic. I believe that I was most successful with exploring Photoshop because you can see that I’ve shown development over the year of my techniques with the tools with the program and with my imagination.

As well as being successful with Photoshop, I did come upon many struggles like learning the tutorials in Photoshop and coming up with the ideas to start a project. One of the projects that I struggled with the most was the Surrealism Project. Because we didn’t really have any boundaries to how it should look, I really didn’t know how to display it in my head. I always seem to change my mind as I randomly insert pictures and other ideas. Although if I would of drew them out on paper first then I probably would have struggled less. So I think that I need to improve being more organized instead of my ideas scattered everywhere.

The project that I felt I connected most with was the Personal Quilt. I was able to walk through many characteristics of my life and display them on individual quilts. This assignment allowed me to express my past, future, inside and outside of myself using symbols that only I understood. I was capable of connecting more to this project because it was mainly all about me. I mean who really knows more about me then me? This assignment helped me tie everything of myself into one merged quilt in the end. I was pleased to see how it came out in the end. Photoshop helped with variety tools like paint brushes and blending layers together. I think that by viewing my life experiences affected my art because it is something that I constantly deal with and is part of me.

There are many artists that have inspired me with how they display their art, like Faith Ringgold, Rene Magritte and Salvador Dali. Although out of the artists that we have learned in class over the year, I feel like I related the most with is Barbara Kruger. In her artworks she displayed specific statements that portrayed a powerful significance to them and gave an actual purpose. I liked how she conveyed everything so simple yet it showed a lot of thought. This inspired me because with art you can exhibit something with a lot of meaning behind it. Also how a picture doesn’t necessarily have to be so complex to represent a big social issue.

Overall, I enjoyed this class very much and liked every minute of it! Digital Photography was the coolest class that I had this year and opened my mind more creatively. I liked how we were able to express ourselves and I’ve learned a lot through this process. I learned that art doesn’t have an actual definition, which I thought was bizarre at first but actually makes since. It also made me appreciate what art is and not to be so judgmental and critical about how people viewed art.

Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is how long the light comes in the camera. You can control the shutter speed when you are in shutter mode. It lets you to show actual movements you did in the picture and allow more light in as well but all depends on how long shutter is open. The longer it stays open the longer it will be to take the picture. It looks way better when all the lights are off and the room is pinch black. When our class did this project we completely turned everything off and use our Phones, iPods or flashlights to add light in the picture. We each set the camera to a 15 second shutter speed so that light would obtain for that long. We changed ISO to try different lighting. This experience was pretty fun and cool to make. You just have to stand or sit their very still and yet move the light around to spell out the letters LOVE. I believe when someone chooses shutter speed over ISO or Aperture is because it depends on how shutter speed is programmed. We created a heart in the middle and everyone had to stand very still, which is harder then it looks. My favorite picture was the LOVE picture because it took us awhile to take it because some letters would come out, this was our best though.

Aperture

Aperture is not that difficult to understand, think of it as the cameras eye. When you change the aperture on the camera, the light that comes into the picture changes. The aperture size of the flower is large because the background starts to blur out and has a little f-stop number. The smaller the number the less depth of field it has, for example F2 or F3. The picture of the large landscape has a smaller aperture because you can see it has a larger depth in field. Therefore its F-stop is a larger number like F20 or F22. What F-stop is, it’s the focal length divided by the diameter of the pupil. This ios measured by fractions and decimals.

ISO: Film Speed

Auto ISO

Flash

ISO 50

ISO 400

ISO 800

ISO 5000

ISO is a feature in most digital cameras that measures the amount of speed that enters the camera lens. The higher the ISO the more light is most likely to enter faster. When you use flash, the pictures are displayed more clearly but it completely takes away the light from the Christmas lights. Almost as if they were not on and it does not capture a nice glow. Although when the ISO is on, one can see the background light better but the image quality comes out grainy. The higher the ISO the more light we can see and the grainier it gets.
As you can see AUTO ISO gives out just the right amount of lighting as opposed to flash, where it takes away beautiful scenery of glowing lights in the dark. Although one has to be very careful in choosing a specific ISO for a specific moment because it depends how dark or how much light you want in the picture. The bigger the number the more grainy and poor quality of picture you may get.
I would use this feature if I would want to capture bright lights in the night, like Las Vegas or even Christmas lights. I would definitely choose ISO for pictures than flash because it ruins the scenery of colors and gives out just a snapshot.
Be very careful when using high ISO because you do not want to over expose the lighting in your image and affect its quality.

Flash

Another feature cameras have is FLASH. Although flash has many positive effects, it also has negative as well. Some Pros are that it adds light when the background is dark and eliminates blur. The Cons of flash are that it may disturb your subject, it Creates UGLY lighting situations like hot spots, like really shiny bright spots, and backgrounds are very dark. So it is good to use flash when its pinch black. It is a bad idea when you use it too much because the light is so bright; it takes away almost all shadows and ruins the picture most of the time. It is better to avoid flash to get a better quality of light during night time when you want candles or Christmas lights to glow.

Metering

What light metering does is that it measures the amount of light that goes into the lens. It is activated when you press halfway down the shutter button and step out to take a picture. Basically this feature captures middle grey areas and highlights them to make them stand out the most.
On the first above picture is displayed metering with the computer screen and on the second is metering with our partner. So when the first picture you see that the computer screen is perfectly shown but all the rest of it is pinch black. Here it caught that the screen was the highlight and the rest were middle grey’s so that it created shadows. When it captures my partners skin tone you can see that she is more shown and the picture became a little brighter.
Metering can help you in the future when it is really necessary to expose more highlights or shadows in your picture.

Surrealism: "Cought in a Spider Web"

In this dream I see that there is a girl all alone in this dreamlike world of wildlife. She displays her face like is she was depressed and has a lot on her mind. Her surroundings are that there is a huge spider web and window right in the middle. To see a spider in your dream represents that you are caught in the middle of something. For example, situations were you and your friends used to be the best of friends but then they argue and you’re caught right in the middle of it. You do not want to pick one side and your comfortable with both of them but you feel awkward when you are in the same room with both of them because they both talk to you but not to each other. In addition, the wild roller coaster ride in the back represents then it was a bumpy ride to go through those fights and you can not stop it.

Surreal Practice Tutorials

In the desert tutorial, we first started with a simple picture of cracked dirt and we learned how to distort it so that it changes its perspective and make it seem like we are actually looking into it from a far distance. I also learned how to make a drop shadow for the lamp to make it look more realistic. And we used gradients so that the ground would look more saturated.
I think by learning these techniques will help a lot while creating my own surreal art work because I do not use layer masks nor gradient tools as much and they really do make a change on how it looks in the end.

Artist Statement Art Show

Angels

Displayed is a quilt that describes how I see myself in the inside. This was a piece out of four quilts, that when all combined create a story about our lives through art. We each had to construct a quilt that exhibits how we see ourselves, how others see us, our past experiences and how we see ourselves in the future. We had to incorporate different symbols that meant something unique and visually look artistic in each quilt. At first it was difficult to illustrate how I feel in the inside because I am not very open about personal experiences. Sometimes I feel alone and empty when I stop to think how the people I love are no longer here with me. So I wanted to show candles, a halo and angel wings to represent them and I placed a picture of myself thinking all alone in a forest. It’s dark, foggy, and empty; I used phrases in the picture to show my thoughts floating around. Photoshop helped a lot with overlaying the layers and blending them together perfectly. Overall I liked this project because everything was free thought and I had no boundaries in my imagination so I was able to express myself.


Elia Soto

12

Digital Photography

Graduation Program

After looking at other graduation programs, I believe my strengths in this project were that I was able to make your eyes move around the cover. I also think that I chose the colors to blend in well with each other and also overlaying them. What I could have done differently is maybe placing the words diagonally. I think graphing design is really cool and easier than I thought it would be because I was able to create my own thoughts and ideas freely. I think the most important parts of graphic design is making your client happy and thinking how it might catch their audience attention. Graphic Design is everywhere on billboards, commercials, internet and magazines.

Alternate Program: Student Handbook

After looking at other students program covers I think that one of my strengths was that I had my own unique idea. What I intended to do was to make the handbook look like an ordinary student binder with Polaroid pictures and crumbled paper. I think I could have done better on maybe adding more paper or pictures to the front cover because it looks simple. I believe I struggled mostly with making the paper look realistic because I made it myself. I think I did better on the handbook because it took me the longest to do.

Personal Quilt

MY QUILT

MY OUTSIDE


MY FUTURE


MY INSIDE



MY PAST



At first, it was difficult for me to think of ideas to start this quilt project, but then as I began to explore Photoshop on my own, some thoughts came to my mind. As I worked on my inside quilt, I wanted to display how I felt and how others do not see me. I wanted to show that I feel alone and empty now that I lost a family member. So I thought about dark, foggy scenery and an empty forest. The angel wings, halo and candles represent my family members that rest up in heaven. I placed a picture of myself sitting on the floor off to the side so that you can easily see the empty forest. I added words that meant loneliness, drained and empty that curved around the whole image.
My outside quilt is very different from my inside quilt. It has a lot more complex details that others said described me. They said that I was athletic, and school spirited so I wanted to display myself in my school soccer uniform. Around the entire image I have soccer position silhouettes and the school mascot. I decided to use a black background and use school colors throughout the entire picture. I also added words like athletic, and varsity and Chavez because those words stood out the most to me.
I feel like these two squares are completely different only because I display the outside of myself the most. I am more active and energetic when I am out with friends or out on the field. Although when it is just me, I think about other things like family and how I feel without them. You can visually see that I am more outgoing and colorful on my outside quilt then my inside one.
My future quilt square displays what I want to pursue as a career and things that I want to accomplish. I wanted to collage many images around myself and Photoshop helped a lot with that. The pictures I used were graduation hat, and interior design blue prints. The pictures show that I want to graduate high school and get my diploma this year in 2010. After graduation I want to major in interior design and draw because I see myself with that dream job.
My past quilt square shows that I look back and there are many changes over the years. I put pictures of myself when I was younger and a picture of me in the center that meant I was looking back at my past. In one of my baby pictures I am wearing the same colored shirt and I am also surrounded by the same colored smoke. I put a picture of a clock and it swirls so it makes an allusion that you’re kind of looking in the past. I also put a statement that said my past made me what I am today, meaning that I went through many obstacles that I overcame and I still stand today.
Then I thought about unity and I liked the black background so I kept that in all my squares. I also wanted a picture of myself in each square and that I would be the main emphasis. Then I thought about the color scheme and keeping the same colors just so that everything will collage better and decided to choose an individual color for square. I used swirl paintbrushes to connect the final quit square and unite all four together. I added smoke paintbrushes in the outer part of the square to create a mysterious, foggy outlook of how my future, inside, outside or past may be so it makes like somewhat delusions.
Tools that I used in Photoshop were the magnetic and move tool the most. This tool helped a lot when I just wanted to cut an image and drag them to another picture. I also used the eraser tool to delete hard edges and the pin tool to create swirls that made them seem like they swerved around smaller images in the quilt. I also learned changing the opacity of each picture and effects can help blend the pictures and that was really cool.
Overall, I liked this project a lot and I enjoyed the whole process of making them because everything was all my ideas. Everything was free thought and I had no boundaries on my imagination so it did not feel like a homework assignment. Although I do wish I had a lot more time to work on this project because I think that I can do a lot more to the images to make them way better. Other than that I am glad how my final quilt came out to be and how each quilt turned out too.

Artist Statement

Established in my student portfolio are 16 different projects that were essential on in due course this first semester. We were acquired to take several digital photographs and explore Adobe Photoshop. During my experience in this class, I have learned many tools and techniques that helped enhance our photographs to become more artistic. After gaining knowledge of the gears in Photoshop, I discovered that there are endless possibilities of improving pictures using your imagination and creativity. It is so fascinating how you can do so much with a simple click of a button. I’ve learned how to dodge, burn, change contrast, modify opacities to layer pictures and a variety of abundant effects involving Photoshop.

I believe that the project that I was most successful with was the Social Issue Assignment. The artist we used to illustrate to understand the project better was Barbara Kruger. We were supposed to identify a social issue that affected us or our life directly. I personally thought about this project long and hard to come up with the concept. I took many several pictures till finally I chose that specific one. Displaying the image was the easiest; I highlighted what I wanted to stand out with the color red. I exhibited the issue that people neglect their partner for their money and my statement was short and simple.

Although Photoshop has never ending tools, it can be complicated. My biggest struggle was remember where and how each tools were used in Photoshop. This program is pact with information, it just all overwhelming. In the future I want to improve my Photoshop skills and become more creative. Overall I believe that I have improved and expanded my mind to more artistic photographs instead of a regular snapshot.

Personal Words

The lyrics I chose for this project are Be With You by Brutha.

“What I got to do to be with you. Cause I'll do anything, I know this dont matter for you. But I'll give up everything. If you dont believe than watch me prove. How much you mean to me. Put away my pen and paper, I swear to never sing again. And it drives me out of my mind, my mind, my mind. Cause I cant be by your side, your side, your side. I know words that cant explain. The way I felt when you went away, away, away. Baby all I wanna do is be with you, be with you, be with you. Am I trippin' girl. Trying everything to get with you. But nothings working. Baby Im still hurting. And it looks like your not ever coming back. Feel like Im such a fool. Cause I deserve it. Think it wasnt worth it. I really know cause I need you back. And it drives me out of my mind, my mind, my mind. Cause I cant be by your side, your side, your side. I know words that cant explain. The way I felt when you went away, away, away . Cause baby all I wanna do is be with you, be with you. I'm going crazy can somebody call me a doctor, doctor, doctor. Dont need no straight jacket, nothing can hold me under, under, under. Dont need any medicine. I've already passed insane, insane, insane. The part of missing you is prominently killing my brain. And it drives me out of my mind, my mind, my mind, Cause I cant be by your side, your side, your side, I know words that cant explain, The way I felt when you went away, away, away, Cause baby all I wanna do is be with you”

I chose these lyrics because I love the message it brings out. It says that they would do anything to get back with the person they love. I also really love how the words flow with each other very well and overall make the song blend into one. These words mean a lot to me because I had past personal experience where I really missed this person and these words express how I felt during that time.

Social Issues: "Gold Digger"

The image that is displayed is a couple together and the female is secretly taking money out of his back pocket. I decided to do a red border around the whole image to make it stand out more and another smaller red border to make the money stand out as well. I also had the female stand out by high lighting her sweater and nails so that the audience can see that she is the one that is stealing.

To interpret what the picture above means is that most people go towards the money someone has instead of their love. I think that this affects the other partner because they neglect the other person just for their money and abuse their inner emotions for their own pleasures. This issue to me means that you have to really trust the person that you are with and is it really, truly love? It makes you think if they are only interested in knowing you or if they are only interested in your money.

Scary Effects

I think that my favorite project out of these two was the Vampire one. I liked this one the best because it looks more realistic then the other one, and I really liked how the eyes came out.
Some of the tools I learned to use on photoshop were the burn, dodge, and liquefy tool. The burn tool helps you make a burn effect on parts of the picture simply by shading it darker. The dodge tool helps brighten and whiten parts of the picture. The liquefy tool actually stretches the image and this tool helped me by making fangs on the vampire.

I ran into many problems with the pin tool. I couldn’t really copy the eye color on the alien as right, but I was able to do it.

I think I did well on making the eyes on the vampire and the fangs with blood in my mouth.

Game designers and magazines most likely use some of these skill I used here. I think they used these the most to help advertise and be more creative with publicizing their products.

Formal Critique

There is a middle aged man dressed with a black suit, facing a wall of fire, showing no fear what so ever. As the man walks towards the fog of doom, he carries bags of tear drops and prepared to prevail over the barrier of inferno. The strange, murkiness above the flames of light shades contrasts the dark, dull ground, creating a gradient look. I like how the background is somewhat simple because one can easily see that the man in the center is the emphasis of the picture. I really like how this picture turned out because it was simple and straight to the point.

Photographic Effects

I think that my favorite trick was the glow. I liked it because it softens the picture and it makes the colors stand out.

I would like to explore cross process more because it makes the pictures look extreme.

The favorite things that I did was fixing blemishes and making my skin look flawless.

Portraits

I think that the most successful portrait I took was the artistic piece. You can easily see the chaotic and emotional stress that my partner portrays with this photo, because the scattered broken glass and the blood help situate the feeling.
In my artistic portrait, I wanted to capture a deep, anxious feeling that came within the object itself. Like some sort of intense emotion that needed to emerge out of that person. The mood I was aiming for was depression. I used a broken coke bottle, and fake blood (ketchup) to help capture the mood.

The prop/costume I used was a basketball. I wanted to use a prop that helped fit my partner’s personality. She enjoys playing basketball so this prop suited her perfectly. I think that if I would have taken the picture in a different angle or perhaps a different pose, then the picture would have came out better.

What makes my surprise photo unique is that my partner expresses a tranquil, relaxing mood. The calm, expression on her face really helps set it in.

Overall I really enjoyed doing this project with my partner. The process of making these photos together was really fun and I actually got to know her better.

Contact Sheet

Out of the entire 8 compositional tricks that I have learned so far, I would say that simplicity would be my favorite. I like this compositional trick best because it sets your object to main focus and straight to the point.

I think that I will begin to use the Rule of Thirds trick in my day to day pictures because it makes your picture have more value to them when they are not in dead center.

The most difficult compositional trick that I had trouble with was framing. This was my least favorite because I had trouble understanding the concept.
My favorite picture so far would be simplicity because the background is plain simple while the viewer can easily notice the main object. I think that I did a really good job with this trick and it is a excellent example of simplicity

Compositional Trick # 8 Fill in Flash

Fill in flash effects your picture by adding more light to your emphasis. Without fill in flash, it displays many unwanted shadows to your main object.
You can use fill in flash whenever you wish to eliminate unnecessary shadows so that your picture can become clearer.

Compositional Trick # 7 Light

Working with light within your picture helps set your photos apart from others by contrasting light areas and dark areas. The black and white effect helps set a mood that makes you want to pay attention to the picture.
The feeling I get when looking at this picture is that it makes me wonder what she is looking at. The variety shades of light on her face helps set a calm, mellow vibe to the picture.

Compositional Trick # 6 Framing

Framing helps the composition in the photo by making a frame around the outer border of it. It is used to guide the viewer to the main emphasis of your picture either by looking through the frame or the frame being the background of your main object.
The picture above displays a sort of frame made up of tree branches, although it lacks to show exactly where the main emphasis is only because the person is sitting on the tree. Making him blend in with the tree, so if he were to be positioned in the back and using the branches to look through to see him would of made a better example.

Compositional Trick # 5 Extreme Angles

Extreme angles are good compositional tricks to use because it helps the viewer see things in a different perspective. It makes you see the world look extremely small or large just by how you position your camera to take a picture.
My pictures are good examples of extreme angles because you can see a view from the ground looking up, and one from a higher view.

Compositional Trick # 4 Simplicity

Simplicity strengthens your picture by only focusing on the emphasis, and making the background plain and simple. Therefore the main object you want your viewer to see is noticable and nothing else destracts you to take your eyes off the main focus.

For example, in the first picture you can easily see that the red rose is the emphasis because it contracts with the green background. Your eyes immediately focus on the texture of the flower and the background is simple and blurs away. On the second picture you can see that the dry leaf is the main focus and the background is simple.

Compositional Trick # 3 Macro

Macro is a feature in the camera where is zooms in on your main focus and blurs out its background. It helps us view things in a different way, and makes the picture more interesting.

Compositional Trick # 2 Leading Lines

Leading Lines are lines that help you lead to the main focus or emphasis of your picture. They are the guide lines that take the viewer to where you want them to look at.

Compositional Trick # 1 Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds is not placing your main focus in the center, but more off to the side. You hav to divide the picture into thirds, two vertical and two horizontal lines evenlly. The lines where they intersect is where your emphasis should be placed. Thus making the picture more interesting instead of your main object right in the center.