Self Portraits

For our Self-Portrait project we were to take three self-portraits. They were all to be in black and white, and they were all to capture a mood of some sort. We were also challenged to be as artistic as possible, and stay as far away from normal, cliche portraits that we see on personal pages etc. as possible.One had to use the rule of thirds as the base for the composition; One had to incorporate leading lines, and one had to be taken from a more extreme angle.

In this project I had so much fun going out and looking for the best places to take pictures, express myself, and also to express my creativity. Although it was not an easy task to look for ways in which I could stand out from the crowd and be different in the end I did end up finding away to be out of the ordinary, while still using what was around the Cesar Chavez campus which I really pride myself in doing. I know that one of the success's I had was the extreme angle's picture, in which I was up on a wall. Yet in this picture you would never be able to tell it was taken at Cesar Chavez High School. That is what I think was the most important thing that no matter what the pictures don't look like something that could tell you it was taken at a school. So all in all I think that the self portraits project was a great success to me because in the end I think i went above and beyond with the photo's that where taken.

Contact Sheet

I feel that the overall turn out of my contact sheet was fantastic I love the way it turned out. The thing I think I did well was the way I was able to make all the pictures almost the same size, and that there was no white other than where the title went. The thing I think I could do better next time would be that I could choose a different color to shadow the title. The photo I think turned out the best out of all the compositional tricks would have to be my leading lines photo. The trick I enjoyed using the most would have to be the extreme angles. The reason that particular trick would be the one I enjoyed doing the most is because it gave me a chance to show my subject in the most intense feeling, mood, and placement possible.

Compositional Trick #5 Cropping

Cropping is a trick that photographers do all the time, even if they don't realize it. Every time a photographer chooses to cut something out of his/her frame, before they snap the photo, that is in essence cropping. We also have learned tools on Photoshop that allow us to crop an image after we have taken it. When cropping in Photoshop it is possible to improve our composition or change it completely.

The way I changed the composition for the original photo was I cropped the picture so that it was more focused on my subject and the background did not distract you from who the picture was about. The one that I really like better would have to be the cropped photo because it is more focused on my subject, then the original that just showed to much of the background and did not really let you focuse on who the picture was mainly about. One was that I used crop was that I took the crop tool and cropped only what I wanted to show in my picture. The other way that I used crop was that I had cropped the picture to show what I wanted then I pulled the edges out to show the background that I thought would help bring out the mood and feeling in the picture.

Compositional Trick #4 Extreme Angles

What i did to get the extreme angle in this picture was i had my partner squat down, then i stood on a pillar and positioned the camera to look down on her. What i like about this picture is how she looks so depressed, how her pants contrast with her shirt, and the angle she is at just makes the picture very intriguing. What I think I could have done better is I could have taken the picture at a different angle or from a different side. I think that using extreme angle's for a picture is good to make the mood more intense. The time I think i would use extreme angle's is when I would be trying to get a certain mood.

Compositional Trick #3 Macro

The macro function on a camera show you things close up such as textures and colors you wouldn't be able to see in a regular picture. Depth of field is when you zoom in really close and everything else is blurred out. When you have a deep depth of field your subject and background is clear and visible. As opposed to shallow depth of field which you subject is in clear focus and the background is not completely blurred out. Macro would be the compositional trick of choice so that you would use to show everyday things you don't see with just your regular eyes. the photo that i like best would be the macro texture because, it show the texture in the wood that you wouldn't notice if you didn't have a magnifying glass or you were not down on your knees really close to the wood.

Compositional Trick #2 Leading Lines

Leading lines are a line that takes you in to the picture. They also lead your eyes to the emphasis of your picture. Also leading lines take you throughout the whole picture in a little bit of time. The leading line in my image is a little stick. The purpose of the leading line in my picture was to lead you straight to the flower.