Some photos have a clear quality above their kin, details and design that make self-evident their superiority. Then it can become a bit difficult to determine which of all these truly earned the title, “Best”. To do this, I decided to evaluate the photos I’ve taken since this class on a few criteria: composition, clarity, and creativity. Yes, Cs. I know. But for my purpose, it just turned out that way. Composition must allow the feature of the image to be clearly seen and appreciated. The photo must have contrast and appropriate detail (like blur or absence of blur) to frame the subject as desirable. And I can’t consider my picture “best” if it doesn’t have anything new and personal in it.
I remember this shot back when I was learning to use depth of focus. The low aperture let my capture a few levels of depth, the front stalk which is in focus, the similar stalk that is slightly blurred, and the rest of the horizon which is smoothed out with bokeh. Though the back ground could be busy, I find the detail of the subject over comes it, and lets the background shapes and colors mesh to highlight the frost-bitten plant. Post Editing let me draw out that contrast and highlight the colors of the plants.
Back in Bannack, this stove handle became a star in my photo album. The low depth of focus let me get differening levels of detail in the same subject as it stretches further into the background. The slant gives the composition some eye-flow, and gives a view of more elements of the handle. The consistent colors of the stove were unifying. I felt this one turned out well.
A lot of these are shallow depth, aren’t they? It’s a cool effect, just so happens most of my good compositions have low aperture! This portrait turned out well no doubt in thanks to my helper who used a reflective lighter to keep the face illuminated. His eyes flow towards the revolver barrel, which leads up to his hat, which can lead back to the eyes. A kind of circular flow. There’s white space around the revolver to avoid a crowded look. And the lighting let all the model’s face be seen easily.
I enjoy this piece for the detail on the bottle neck, and the slight tilt in perspective. You can see down into the bottle (albeit blurry). The muted colors add to a moody atmosphere. Post editing enabled me to change the light temperature from an off-setting orange to a neutral glassy look. It’s simple, and allowed a range of detail to be capture on a plain object.
This was a macro shot that I had printed. The veeery narrow focus was centered well to draw attention to myriad droplets shimmering gently in the lighting. The rich red pallette has slight chromatic variation in the composition. This had a technical element, since I had to learn how to use a macro lens and get proper lighting with some help. Macro photography was quite an experience for me, and felt like a good step in learning technical preparation fro photography.
Communication 300: Matt Sortomme 