Color and Light Project
To be honest, I did not think I would learn a whole lot in this class but I was wrong. I love photography and have for many years but I would always photograph the same thing (cars, motorcycles, vehicles, etc.) I never left my comfort zone until this class but I am so happy I did. I have learned that there are so many beautiful things to photograph right in your own home. I have pushed myself to take photos of things I never have before such as nature, portraits, myself and it has been truly rewarding.
In the three or so years I have been doing photography and editing, I have never converted a photo to black and white. Wow is all I can say, some times a simple edit and change between color to black and white can truly impact a photo’s feel and mood. The photo above is my favorite photo I have taken this quarter so far and I am truly proud. I did this without any help, manual focus and an aperture of f1.8 for the shallow depth of field.
I have never thought about light while photographing to be honest. I knew that a nice cloudy day or “golden hour” can really impact the look and feel of a photo. Even though I knew this, I never really used these strategies to my advantage. I always just thought, “get good enough lighting to get proper exposure then you can edit the tones in post.” Boy was I wrong, using a couple simple curtains in my home to diffuse light made such a difference and added the exact tones I was looking for without the light being too harsh.
I realize that I did not do the project to the exact specifications using different materials around my house. I wanted to push myself and see if I could get the photo I wanted of myself using proper lighting and no help with the camera. It was difficult to manually focus each of these to get me in the perfect spot so I would be in focus. I ran to the camera, changed my focus and exposure a slight bit and tried again. After many attempts, I finally captured the photos I wanted and was very proud of the photos I took. Overall, this was my favorite project so far and I can’t believe that I have never tried black and white before…
