Happy Graduation!

Photo Contest Entries

Black Kettle | 6/11/11 | 5:02 pm | Ashton, Idaho | f/14 | 1/125 sec | Nikon D3100

Since this photo is unedited, I didn't do anything to it except crop the right side off. When I tried to add saturation or contrast, it just took away from the detail, so I left it unedited. Black Kettle needs no alterations :)

I entered this in the Photographic Society contest "Endurance" Unedited on 14 June . The contest is school sponsored and was one of three for the semester. I chose this contest because I felt like I had a couple of photos that fit the contest theme. The Mountain Man tradition has endured many years, and at this rendezvous in Ashton, Idaho, men and women came together to celebrate the history. They sold goods, had traditional food, and participated in archery and shooting activities.

Dancer | 5/31/11 | 7:54 pm | Rexburg, Idaho | f/5.0 | 1/100 sec | Nikon D3100

This photo was taken in a ballet studio that had terrible lighting, but my sister wanted to make a flyer for the lessons she teaches. I could do nothing in camera to improve it. So in Photoshop I smoothed out her face, selected her outline, then added a smart filter to the background. Then to make it an 8x10 I increased the canvas size and used content aware scale to increase the left side. Then I had to select the straight line that was created of the barre and floor line and rotate it. I used the clone stamp tool to touch it up. A lot of work.

I entered this as an "Edited" photo in the same "Endurance" contest sponsored by Photographics Society on campus. I thought it fit in well with the theme because it takes a lot of endurance to become a ballet dancer, and to dance in general.

Here is the website for the contest:

http://byuiphotographics.blogspot.com/p/contest-intructions.html

A Photo Excursion Part II: Mountain Man Retreat

Adam throwing the tomahawk. Serious business!


Brandon got one in!


Some cool garb a real mountain man let us try on.


This guy was shooting his rifle when we arrived. We had to trudge through some swampy land to get to him!


The very long drive to Ashton by way of an extensive gravel road was at least gorgeous. All week it rained, but we got lucky with great weather all day.





He didn't quite seem to fit in...


Who will buy?...



The kids sat and made several art projects with beads and sticks.


Caryn Esplin and Black kettle chat about his advertising posters


Julie is probably the most photographed member of our group.



These photos were taken in Ashton, Idaho at a Mountain Man Rendezvous. Several class members carpooled up, and we followed in our car. It was fun to get some interesting portrait experience, and the kids enjoyed watching archery, tomahawk throwing, crafting, and walking through the little 'booths' which sold cool beads, hats and other goods.

A Photo Excursion Part I: RuInn

Extras

Self Portrait 5/1/11 | 1:50 pm | Rexburg, Idaho | f/3.8 | 1/60 sec | Nikon D3100

Laila Grace 6/14/11 | 6:56 pm | Rexburg, Idaho | f/5.6 | 1/50 sec | Nikon D3100 | Turned Sepia in Lightroom. Brightened eyes in Photoshop using brush tool.

Joelle with Guitar 5/19/11 | 3:32 pm | Rexburg, Idaho | f/5.6 | 1/50 sec | Nikon D3100 | Darkened background using adjustment brush in Camera Raw. Used brush tool in Photoshop to smooth skin.

Pelicans | 5/7/11 | 2:32 pm | Idaho Falls Zoo | f/11 | 1/500 sec | Nikon D3100 | Increase saturation and contrast in Camera Raw. Also added a vignette in Camera Raw.

The Truck again | 5/25/11 | Bannack, MT |3:03 pm | f/5.6 | 1/2500 sec | Nikon D3100 | Increased sats ad contrast in Camera Raw. Added filter Poster Edges in Photoshop.

Black Kettle | 6/11/11 | 5:02 pm | Ashton, Idaho | f/14 (yea, it was set wrong) | 1/125 sec | Nikon D3100

Beads | 6/11/11 | 4:19 pm | Ashton, Idaho |f/5.6 | 1/100 sec | Nikon D3100 | Increased sats and contrast in Camera Raw. Added burned border by selecting using the rectangle marquee tool, copied the layer, and chose blend mode Multiply.

Purple | 6/13/11 | 7:56 pm |Rexburg, Idaho | f/5.6 | 1/60 sec | Nikon D3100

Bud | 6/13/11 | 7:40 pm | Rexburg, Idaho | f/5.6 | 1/60 sec | Nikon D3100

Light through the Trees | 6/3/11 | 10:51 pm | Garden city, Utah |f/36 | 1/4000 sec | Nikon D3100 | Border added by first adding canvas size, then using the rectangle shape tool on New Shape mode, filling with color. Then changing to Fill Pixels, and adding a black mask (alt-mask) deleted the inside shape. then chose motion blur to get the blur on 45 and 0 degrees. Changed the opacity of the layer.


Mountain Man Panorama 6/11/11 | 3:25 pm | Ashton, Idaho | f/16 | 1/400 sec | Nikon D3100

Final Poster: Saloon Princess

Title: Saloon Princess (18x24)
Date: 5.25.11; 1:11 pm
Location: Bannack Ghost Town
Camera: Nikon D3100
Settings: F Stop: f/5.3; Shutter Speed: 1/30 sec
Edits: In Camera Raw, I decreased the saturation and increased the exposure. Then I used the adjustment brushes to darken the background and lighten her face. I also added a vignette. In Photoshop, I smoothed out her face with the brush tool, darkened the details of her eyes also with the brush tool on color burn mode. I used an adjustment layer to change the color balance, then used the mask to take it out of the background. I brought in the same photo without the Camera Raw edits and cut out the window so that it wouldn't be over exposed and pasted it to the new image.
Process: I chose this image because I think it's different than anything else I have done so far this semeser. It was a happy accident, as she was sitting there when I walked into the Saloon, and it wasn't that great of an image before I edited it. I love how I was able to turn it into something special with the techniques I've learned in class.I like the angle, and the details like her boots and stringy hair. Taking portraits at Bannack was the best part of the trip.
Printing it was crazy. I went through several stages of edits, and it still printed with less color than I anticipated, but luckily, I had increased the sats more than I had originally, so it worked out ok.

Night & Light

Camera in Motion; 6/7/11, 10:18 pm; Rexburg, Idaho; f/36; 3 sec; Nikon D3100

Magic Top; 6/9/11, 11:16 pm; Rexburg, Idaho; f/25; 5 sec; Nikon D3100; slightly increased the saturation in Camera Raw

Templelights; 6/8/11, 10:03 pm; Rexburg, Idaho; f/29; Nikon D3100; 15 sec; tripod; combined two pictures so I could get the blue in the sky, added a mask and blended them in Photoshop

Butterfly1; 6/9/11, 10:46 pm; Rexburg, Idaho; f/14; 8 sec; Nikon D3100; tripod; increased the blues in Camera Raw

Butterfly2; 6/9/11, 10:47 pm; Rexburg, Idaho; f/11; 13 sec; Nikon D3100; tripod; increased blues in Camera Raw

Lightbike; 6/10/11, 11:30 pm; Rexburg, Idaho; f/20; 20 sec; Nikon D3100; tripod; increased the exposure in Camera raw, used an adjustment brush to darken the corner

Tron Effect; 6/10/11, 11:59 pm; Rexburg Idaho; f/29; 15 sec; Nikon D3100 tripod; increased exposure and used adjustment brush in Camera Raw to darken the background

Dumpster Hug; 6/10/11, 12:10 pm; Rexburg, Idaho; f/7.1; 15 sec; Nikon D3100; tripod

Fire Circle; 6/10/11, 10:38 pm; Rexburg Idaho; f/25; 15 sec; Nikon D3100; tripod. Increased blacks in Camera Raw.

I wasn't looking forward to this project, but I ened up having a lot of fun and I learned some cool tricks. On Camera in Motion, I used a tent light and discovered it was actually better to move the camera slow so you could get a distinct design. I used kind of the same technique with the glo-sticks on the butterfly pictures. The first one I think is really cool. I had the glo-stick held out straight so that the tip was free to move around. The second time I folded the stick up so there was a point of light. The magic top was cool. I liked when it moved across the camera screen so we started the top, and nudged it to get the effect. The lightpainting was crazy and I think we developed a new way to paint. Instead of standing back and holding lights on the subject, we stood right by the subject and moved the lights around the outline. Brandon came up with the idea, and Sara T's are better, so check out her blog. As we experimented we figured out what we liked. We found out it was better to have a large aperture (small numbers) to let in more light. It made a HUGE difference.