Thursday, March 12, 2009
where the heart is
I am home for spring break. The weather has been beautiful, except for one rainy day, so I've been using all natural lighting for my pictures. I went to Corona del Mar beach a couple days ago and took exactly 185 pictures. Most of my pictures came out well, some however were overexposed due to the brightness of the sun/time of day. Here are my favorite pictures from that day (click image for bigger size):
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
hardworkin' woman
Today I spend almost four hours in the photography studio...and only printed out three decent pictures. Printing is a long, complicated process. Much more complicated than I ever thought it would be! I bought Inkpress luster paper and designated my printing job on the Epson R1800 that is specific for luster and glossy paper. The first image I printed was this beautiful orchid:
I originally wanted to have this picture printed on fine art paper (Rives), but when printed I was appalled by the result. Because the paper is a creamish color (but it was labeled 'bright white'), the white in the image came out to be a ghastly off-white color. Not only that horror, but the image overall had a gray cast...it was a disaster. So back to Camera Exchange I go to buy luster paper. I ran a few test samples of this image and am pretty happy with the result. Although the picture came out a tad bright for my taste, it is still beautiful nonetheless!
Second image to print was the Vietnamese colorful fan (shutter). I crossed my fingers and anxiously waited for the paper to flow out the feeder. Ick! The print job was horrendous. There was a green and gray cast and too much noise in the image. I did a few test strips, and yet the printed image didn't do justice for the actual image. I gave up and proceeded to print out another image. The next photo is of the antique butterfly bracelet (depth of field). The picture came out much lighter than what it was portrayed on the monitor. So, I upped the contrast and darkened the image for the next printing job. The image had a green and blue cast. For the final picture I changed the red color on curves, which resulted in a much better photo. The bracelet had a more golden tint--more accurate.
I decided to try out the Epson 1200 for the fan picture. And let's just say that the result is MUCH BETTER than the image printed from Epson 1800. I think I will stick with the 1200 from now on.
I originally wanted to have this picture printed on fine art paper (Rives), but when printed I was appalled by the result. Because the paper is a creamish color (but it was labeled 'bright white'), the white in the image came out to be a ghastly off-white color. Not only that horror, but the image overall had a gray cast...it was a disaster. So back to Camera Exchange I go to buy luster paper. I ran a few test samples of this image and am pretty happy with the result. Although the picture came out a tad bright for my taste, it is still beautiful nonetheless!Second image to print was the Vietnamese colorful fan (shutter). I crossed my fingers and anxiously waited for the paper to flow out the feeder. Ick! The print job was horrendous. There was a green and gray cast and too much noise in the image. I did a few test strips, and yet the printed image didn't do justice for the actual image. I gave up and proceeded to print out another image. The next photo is of the antique butterfly bracelet (depth of field). The picture came out much lighter than what it was portrayed on the monitor. So, I upped the contrast and darkened the image for the next printing job. The image had a green and blue cast. For the final picture I changed the red color on curves, which resulted in a much better photo. The bracelet had a more golden tint--more accurate.
I decided to try out the Epson 1200 for the fan picture. And let's just say that the result is MUCH BETTER than the image printed from Epson 1800. I think I will stick with the 1200 from now on.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
within you
My current assignment for class is 'image within an image.' After reading over (and over again) the assignment prompt, I had no idea what I'd photograph. Of course, I can take pictures in front of windows, mirrors, water....but I don't want to do what everyone would probably be doing. I recently bought a new bag, and decided to take a picture of it to show to my friends not at Trinity. And then, I noticed that this piece hanging from my bag zipper is reflective. From where I placed the bag, I could see the posters taped on my dorm wall. So, I experimented with it. Some of the pictures came out pretty well. I set the aperture to 4.0 so the focal point would only be at the reflective part, and the rest of the bag blurred. Afterward, I looked around my room for other objects that have reflective qualities. I remembered about my big 'bug-eye' sunglasses. So, then I took pictures of me wearing them, concentrating on the composition and what would be reflecting off the lenses.
The rest of the project will be completed when I go home for spring break. I will probably go to the beach as sun is setting and head up to downtown LA to scour the streets with cool storefronts!
The rest of the project will be completed when I go home for spring break. I will probably go to the beach as sun is setting and head up to downtown LA to scour the streets with cool storefronts!
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