Finished at Last!

At last my work is finally over! Well, pretty much. I’ve finally shot every last photo I need and compiled everything into its proper page layout, with only a couple of minor edits left to perform on a couple of pictures. Tomorrow I’ll review my descriptions on each page and make any edits that are necessary there, but for now I am essentially done with this! I must say I’m mighty pleased with it too. I like a lot of the pictures I took this semester, and I think they all fit nicely into each section. I’m feeling like this book could be a strong portfolio piece if I apply for a position in photography or something similar, so I have definitely achieved something worthwhile!

T.H. Excellence

Getting Closer...

A couple of nights ago I tried out an idea I had earlier in the semester. I set my camera up in front of a console full of colored lights and zoomed in over the course of a long exposure. The results were something like this, which I found to be quite fascinating. The entire venture was pretty much just a big experiment of me trying new ideas. On some shots, I would pan or tilt the camera during the exposure to get some interesting curves in the lights. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t.
Ultimately, I got enough good shots to fill up an entire set, and I’m hoping to get a few more elsewhere. The theme for this will be “Alien Lights”, featuring photos with bizarre, unearthly lights such as this. The trick is to decide which shots are artistic and which aren’t. That’s usually harder to tell with modern art, but shots that still fall under basic photographic principles such as the rule of thirds are usually acceptable.

On a more conventional note, I also recently added a new theme titled “Heartbreak”. I felt like I underperformed when I shot the “Depression” set, so I created this additional set to either supplement or replace “Depression”. Right now I’m leaning towards replacement since all the “Heartbreak” photos together carry a story much better than “Depression”.


The picture above is one of the shots I plan on using as a main spread for one page. In this shot, you can see all the elements I’m using to tell my story. The flower represents the subject’s lost love, and she travels through a variety of emotions as she looks at the flower, strokes it, and finally leaves it behind. The books play a minor role. I simply used them to give the subject a little depth and establish her role as a student. Finally, I gave each picture in the set the overall look you see here, making use of colder, desaturated hues.

This project also marked the first were I slowed down and made sure my levels were perfect. Too many times I have shot a photograph too hastily and ended up with a picture that was too light or too dark. This time, I took a few test shots and checked my histogram to make sure my lights and darks weren’t peaking. The few minutes I took to do this ended up being very worthwhile, and I’m definitely doing this in the future.
T.H. Excellence

One Job Finished in Photoshop

A picture is worth a thousand words, so I’ll just say that this picture was my first major piece of work in Photoshop. While I’ve dabbled around in Photoshop in the past, this is by far the most extensive project I’ve completed. Heck, I even learned a bit of new stuff in the process, making this picture a double-win!

T.H. Excellence

Wrapping Up "Power"

Today I headed back into the studio and did some supplemental work for the “power theme”. I wanted to flesh out the story of the original photo a bit since it seemed just a bit ambiguous. My immediate thought was to devise a series of photographs such as the scene on the right in which this glowing orb comes and descends to the subject in the chair.

It turns out there’s a bit of post work to do. The “glowing orb” was, of course, nothing more than a studio light mounted on a stand, and it seems that the stand was visible in some shots. Perhaps even more urgent is the distinctive glare present in some of the shots such as this one. It seems to be isolated against the solid dark areas, so I think it shouldn’t be hard to take care of, but it could be a tad problematic.

All in all, I’m satisfied with today’s work. In fact, just looking at the progression of shots is giving me chills. I think I’ve told a good, simple story here, so we’ll see how it holds up.
T.H. Excellence