Intro to Photography

Emily Rosenthal

About Me:

I am Senior Psychology, Chinese, and East Asian Studies major. I have little to no experience doing photography.

Course Goals:

- Learn the basic fundamentals of photography
- Learn the basics of photoshop and photo editing
- Learn how to take more creative photos on my phone

Dozen Photo Challenge

Critiquing Photo Challenge

Descriptive - The sole purpose of my photo is to the keyboard, and the art featured on the keycaps.
Explanatory - My photo is explanatory because it shows the air position a figure skater gets into when jumping.
Interpretive - This photo by Eikoh Hosoe, has the model wrapped around tree branches. The meaning of this photo can be interpreted in many ways by the viewer.
Aesthetically Evaluative - My photo is aesthetically evaluative because it features the beauty of the northern lights seen in Hockessin.
Ethically Evaluative - This photo from Getty Images documents the horrific events of the holocaust concentration camps.
Theoretical - This photo by Banana Rabbit is theoretical because it represents visual art criticism.

Multimodal Presentation

This presentation focuses on the work of Josef Koudelka a Czech-French photographer. His work is heavily considered to represent international symbols because his photographs take place in a variety of different countries and focus on important historical events, or the aftermath of these events.

Emulating A Professional Photographer

Course Goals and Achievements

I took this course to help better my understanding for photography and to hopefully learn some new skills and techniques to use when I am taking photos from my phone. I think that I learned new skills and techniques through the course and it did help improve the quality of photos that I took throughout the semester.

Blog

I believe that this is my most successful photo because I was able create a dark enough environment and use flash off of my digital camera to give the photo front lighting. The way the flash is used reflects against the cats eyes, it creates a unique look which really draw your attention to the cat. Something that was really difficult for me was really noticing all the different techniques used when taking photos. I often had to check the example photos to make sure the photos that I took fell into the correct category. I think something that I plan on doing to create stronger images is to spend more time taking photos, and do some more post editing to my photos. I felt like some I could've cropped better or taken them from a better angle to help improve the techniques used in the photos.

I think the thing that really draws me to this photo is the light directed towards the glasses and the car clock. The angling of the glasses like you said really gives a nice shadow and adds dimension to the image which really grabs my attentions. The surrounding dark area, and lack of other items almost gives a lonely feeling as the glasses sit on the hood of the car by itself. Something I would do the strengthen this picture is to maybe angle the glasses a little more aggressively to create a more dramatic shadow effect.

I believe that this is my most successful photo because I was able to capture an action shot of my teammate during our fundraising show. I think it's definite a unique and special photo because because you get to see the technique it requires for a figure skater to jump. The hardest part of taking the photo was adjusting to using a Cannon camera that my boyfriend let me borrow. Along with the lighting that the rink was using, it was hard for the camera to focus and occasionally the photos came out too grainy, or too blurry. Something I want to do to strengthen my photos is to definitely try to get the ideal lighting required for photos to be clearer. Even in this photo it is still a bit too grainy to my liking.

The thing that really draws me to this photo is the focal point which is the bee. The flower and the bee being bright yellow really stand out from the background which really gives a nice contrast and it really attracts my attention. When I look at this photo it gives a warm spring/summery vibe. The overall quality of the photo is stunning as it really allows you to see close details of the bee, and the flower petals.

I really enjoyed the presentation, I thought something that was well done was explaining the techniques used in this video and it went into really good detail for that. I think the presentation properly explains in the types of techniques used in photographs and what type of photograph category it falls into. The photos make me feel really sad as all of them capture such a sad time in history when there were no labor laws to protect children. The arts material were all centered towards child labor, and all gravitate towards a heavier topic in history. I think the photos are significant because they capture such an important moment in history where kids were not being treated fairly, and shows how much the world has come to make changes and laws to protect children.

I think the hardest part of taking these photos was trying to get good lighting and good quality. During the concert the lighting was not always the best and not always adequate for photography which either lead to overly saturated photos, or grainy photos. Something I want to try to improve the quality of my photos is to maybe take them with a camera instead of an iPhone, along with adjusting the iPhone camera to help adjust the exposure during the performances.

The thing that really draws me to this piece is the paint in the background. It provides a really pretty and unique background with contrasting colors. My eyes are really drawn to the white paint as the paint is dried up and cracked, it provides a lot of detail. The focal point of the hand is really strengthened by the tiny blue splotch of paint which is really eye catching. The photo transports me back to spring and summer since the colors provide such a warm feeling. I really love the concept of the photo it feels really unique.