Texture Layers, Opacity & Blending Modes

I took this picture of my friend Cris by the Gym. I asked her to wear her mint green sweater for my "how I roll" project, and surprisingly, it also worked for my texture layer, opacity & blending modes pic. I remembered I also had a picture of the fence/ mesh fabric cover at the tennis courts, so I used that. The gridlines were similar to the mesh/ crochet detail of Cris' sweater, so that's why I chose it. I increased the vibrance of her sweater and brought up the fill light a little bit. Then in photoshop, I lowered the opacity of the tennis fence to 28%. That was pretty much it for my texture layer picture.

Text Tutorial

Water Drops

For this flower, I made a lot of my edits on Lightroom first. In the original picture, I turned up the color temperature and exposure a bit. Then I amplified the contrast. The whites and blacks are turned up at the same amount. I brought some of the clarity down to make the deadly-ish looking petals more soft and tubular to make it look like a sea plant from a coral reef. In photoshop, I followed the tutorial and made the blues a lot more vivid, the yellows almost as bright and toned down the warmer tones like red and magenta.

In this quadratic mesh of the water drops, I tired to adjust the pictures to have the same look and feel. (well at least for two of them). I turned up the temperature to warmer setting, made the colors more vibrant, and turned up the clarity A LOT to really make the lines of the petals and the outlines of the water drops stand out. In the corner right picture, the flash was on, so it kind of looks strange. But i attempted to look a little bit identical to the top left water drop pic. I also payed attention the the tone of the vase in two of the side shots, and made them more of an amber/ orange jewely color. I feel like it helps the flowers stand out a little bit more :)

Photo Final

My theme/ subject for my photo final was a silver vintage tarnished teapot set.

 Shape

This picture represent shape because of the circles on top of the teapot containers. The light illuminates

the rim around the tops, giving it a circular shape. The set the camera to a shutter speed of about 250 and an aperture of about 5.6. For printing, and aperture of 5.6 for 2 seconds, I also used a filter. Also, the background wasn't completely white, so I had to enlarge the picture and make the teapot set a lot bigger. It was then placed in the developer for about a minute or so, I tweaked the time to prevent from over-processing. I left the pic in the stop bath for 30 sec. regular time, and the fixer for 2 min.

Lines

This picture represents lines in the sense of the light circling around the indents of the plate. I thought the light looked cool on how it didn't perfectly rim around, and how the size of the each lines were slightly different from one another. The only annoying part was the strong white glare in the center, which (if I shot this picture at a better angle) would've shown the texture of the intricate design of the plate. I shot this with a shutter speed of about 500/1000 and an aperture of about f4, f/2. Then, I printed this picture with an aperture of about 3.5 for 2 seconds. The plate was already shot at a close enough angle, so I didn't enlarge it. As for all the photos, I left this pic in the developer, stop bath, and fixer for all the same times; 1 min. (tweaked), 30. sec., and 2 min.

 Form

This photo represents form because of the deep shadows and highlights of the sugar pot ( I think it's a sugar pot, idk I'm not an expert at tea sets :P). The grayish cast softens the shadows of the sugar pot, making less harsh on the eye. I shot this picture with a shutter speed of about 250, and aperture f/4. Finally I printed it with an aperture of 5.6 for 2 sec. with no filter. I didn't enlarge this photo too much, only because originally I thought it would work for space, but "space" is a completely different element.As for all the photos, I left this pic in the developer, stop bath, and fixer for all the same times; 1 min. (tweaked), 30. sec., and 2 min.

 Texture

This photograph represents texture because of the detailed carvings/ imprints on the spout and legs of the teapot. When I shot this, the camera didn't really capture the tarnished parts on the imprints. After printing though, I realized this also worked for form because of the shadows and highlights. I shot this picture with a shutter speed of 500 and aperture f/8. As for printing, an aperture of 5.6 for 2 sec. with a filter. I also enlarged the photo so that the majority of the picture, had the teapot as the focus. As for all the photos, I left this pic in the developer, stop bath, and fixer for all the same times; 1 min. (tweaked), 30. sec., and 2 min.

Portrait: Carolina

These are my 4 portrait pics of my Bestie Carolina. I wanna thank her 

for portraying such great poses and making me laugh as I took pictures.

This is one of my best friends, Carolina. It took this picture by this

"back path" right behind my house, where there's a bunch of inspiration

to take pictures of. I decided to pose her resting on the wooden post, because

I thought it would balance the perpendicular lines of the post. I used the rule of thirds

as a way to create a nice symmetry yet, not have her directly in the center.

Now this is an impromptu photo i took at the tennis courts I live by, and 

I really find the fact that she's just hanging over the net funny. It's not something

everyone does on a daily basis, but in my case, it provided me with an object

for Carolina to pose randomly and how she felt. To me, this picture says "I 

should have joined tennis with Romelyn at the beginning of the year but there's 

always 3 more years to join." Something I would have erased was the annoying 

lamp post in the back, and with all the good tone range with Carolina, the light post just has to

be there. -__-

Not so surprisingly, this picture is one of my favorites. I love how it

captures the sadness and humble vibe through her clothes and expression. I didn't

expect her jacket to tell a story, and when I was editing, I wanted to bring it out even more.

My favorite part is how her jacket really contrasts against the rest of the shadows,

and emphasizes her sad appearance. The tree also helped in the making, with all

the depth its bringing, it somehow says "she is empty," just like itself, with no leaves. Also, thanks 

Coco for being a great model :)

Last but not least is this important photo. I took this in front of the tennis courts, right 

outside the border of the fence. One of the things that really pop out to me is the cement

stains. I like how it contradicts the bubbly and happy smile she's showing. But this time,

two things I would have changed were the sharpness of her facial features, and the stupid light 

pole in the back (curse you!). I also didn't realized that this picture tells more than just a smile.

The cement stains appear to be dripping, and some faded and stronger than the others. In my pers-

pective, it explains how on the the outside she might seem happy and cheery, but when you

get to know her roots deep down, you learn there's more to her.

More of my georainbow sweater

Geometric sweater