Aperture

aperture, you can call it the eye pupil of the camera so to speak. it controls how wide your image can be or if you want the depth of field to you image. the function Macro has almost the same function as the aperture. even though, macro only does one of the two things that aperture did. so if you are using aperture to add the depth of field to your image, you image will turn out looking kind of deep into you subject or just the background, but the image will not cover more of the surrounding while if you are changing the f-stop to f2 then the pupil will expand to cover more of the surrounding but it will not sees the subject thats really far away. for example, the picture about the flower is the one with the big f-stop because the flower is the only important emphasis in this picture that's why it doesnt need the see more surrounding. the second image uses smaller f-stop because we don't want to capture one building specificly, we want to capture the whole part of that city and smaller f-stop will expand the pupil more and that's why it can capture more surrounding.

ISO

ISO 5000

ISO 800

ISO 400

FLASH

ISO, ISO is how fast the light gets process in the camera. in other word, it means that the more or less light you going to allow going in your picture persay. then you used flash, you kind of freeze the moment and it scared your subject. also, it darken the brackground, while in ISO, you can allow how much light into the picture and how fast the picture flow is going to be. i would pick ISO over flashing because flashing gives my emphasis red eyes and it produce an ugly lighting and darken the background so i do not want that happen in my picture. you have to hold the camera still and your emphasis have to stay still the whole time while the picture is taken because one slightly movement will blur out your picture.

Flash

The pros of flashing are:
1. it's add light to the scene
2. and it's freeze time, so it can eliminate blur
Cons of flashing:
1. it disturb the subject.
2. it creates an ugly lighting situation.
3. gives ur subject red eyes.
4. and it make te background dark.
it is a perfect time to use flash when your subject is in the light. what the flash will do is it will add light to your subject's face or any of the shadow part. the flash should not be use when you are trying to capture the rich color of the night like the example picture i have on top. it is an ideal situation when you do not need to use flash, because if you do, the rich dark color will be gone and it will add an ugly bright situation.

Metering

metering is the tool in your camera that measure the light of the surrounding and to see if the camera will focus on the object that bright or the object that aren't bright. as u can see, in image one, the camera measures my partner's face and use that as the focus of the picture, that's why everything else is visible and bright. while in image two, the camera focus on the computer screen so the screen is it's emphasis and the scrren itself already bright so everything else around it is dark because the camera didn't let much light into the pic. this will help me in the future when i want to take a picture of an object and i it is in the dark, and by not using flash i can still see the object in my pic.

Surrealism " My Fantasia"

in my Fantasia.... the only entrance is you have to go through my big closet at home (just like the movie "The Chronicles of Narnia") Once you pass the closet full of coats and clothes, you will end up on a dock made by everyone's quilts. Infront of me are the cliffs which leads to somewhere far away but it's covered with mist. that represent that my future is still undiscover. the dock made my other's quilt can represent that whereever i go, there will be peoples who will back me up and support me. the killer whale in my picture represent wisdom, that whale will guide me down my path to my undicover future. the floating island represent my family, doesnt matter where i go, they will be looking over me and will always be there for me whenever i need them. the lighthouse represent the light source that will break the mist and open the way to my bright future. the dark sky gives the audience the stormy feeling because my path to a better future aren't easy and i will need all the helps i can get from everyone around me.

Surreal Practice Tutorials

for the dessert, at first, we make a duplicate photo of the dessert ground, and then i use the soft eraser to erase the edges of the duplicate ones to make it look like it's a one ground photo. and then we transform it in distort to make it look more real than just a wall layer that look like the ground. and then, we add the light and the shadow and erase the leg to make it look blend in with the ground. finally, we color the the sky and add a gradient layer to make it look real and last, we added clouds and random sky background to add the surreal feeling to the photo

ART SHOW "my creativity"

this is one of my project that i put in the most effort out of all the projects i did in this class. What i did in this one is that i am trying to make a picture i took of the library and i am trying to turn it into an oil painting. this project was about graduation and i took the picture of the library because in my opinion, in order to be success in school and be able to graduate, one got to go the the library at least more than 100 times in their highschool year.

Graduation

the strength of my design is probably my oil painting that i made out of the original photo. i spent a lot of time on it and it did came out great. at first, i thought turning a picture into a an oil paint was easy, but then i again it is really hard to make it look exactly like the original oil painting. after i looked at all the ones that my classmates did, it make me want to fix mine a little bit on the text font and the background. the most important of graphic design is the information that the project deliver. the key to graphic design is that to play around with the fonts and the size of the texts and make sure the audiences gets the message that you are trying to get across. graphic design play a BIG part in today world today, because almost everything today need an ad, or a poster.

si se puede / academic excellence

the most difficult part of this was to come up with the idea of how yours' going to look like. i think the si se puede one was my strong one because on the academic excellence one, i have a hard time coming up with the picture that will relate to the subject and deliver the right message. if i can change this, i would of change the background on the academic one and i would make a nice background for it.

Personal Quilts

Future

outside

inside

Past

quilts

to start off, when i was doing this project, i have nothing in my mind about what to put in my picture, but then as i mess around with photoshop, the idea started to come through my head and so on. i really like this project because i get to express myself through picture, which i always wanted to do but do not know how. plus this project give me a chance to see how others think of me and it also give me a chance to think about my past and my future and what i want to do after high school. my favorite square would be the past quilt, because at first, i do not know what to do with that picture, i want to put picture of my childhood in, but i can't find any, plus it's kind of cliche' because almost everyone is doing that. so i decide to relate myself to my country and what it been through, and that lead me through the future quilt. in my past, my country suffering war and what not, and it make me think of a better life in America. then i achieved that, and which lead me to the future one because now after highschool, what do i want to do to give back to the community, to give back to the humanity.
the symbol that unified all my quilts together are my name written in Chinese. aside that i am Vietnamese, im also part Chinese and i am proud to be that way so i decide to put my name in there u unify all my quilts. the symbol i used for the inside square my country geographically and it colored yellow and three red stripes like the flag of vietnam before 1975. that symbol say alot about how i feel about me. it said that i am very proud to be who i am, and it also shape like an "S" so that can also say that i feel like a supernam inside me. i feel that i can achieve anything that i put my mind in. Also, if anyone paying real close attention to the inside quilt, you can see the flag of communist vietnam on top of the building. Viet people over here in america tend to fight about that all the time, but in my hearty, i love my country for what it is and my childhood memories i've had in that country. im not going to hate it now for just the peoples who live there have different view point about politics than me.
My outside quilt are my least favorite one because people tend to describe me in a weird way and i do not know how to put their ideas in the picture. then one said that i am random and funny, so i decided to work primary on that two ideas. the pikachu are symbolize my random point of view and a bunch of balloons represent my funny side.

Artist Statement

There are many great art works you might find in my portfolio. I think I’ve done a decent job on my portfolio, and it’s an average portfolio that anyone would have if they’re taking digital photography class. There are many cool artworks that I’ve done with Photoshop on my own face and many on my partner Xavier. Also, there are posts about me explaining how to apply the 7 compositional tricks to your photo so that it’s look decent and not cliché.

I have learned a lot throughout the semester to better myself at taking picture skills and fixing the picture with Photoshop so it’s look more artistic. One of my favorite projects was the personal words where you find a poem or lyrics from a song and relate it to your situation. I’ve learned how to turn my shadow into a shadow of words. Also, there’s a tool in Photoshop that allow you to erase pimples or scar off of people’s face and to give someone fang.

I feel most successful with the project photographic effect. Because I’ve learned how to master the blur and changing color of the background so my emphasis can look more intense and artistic. I am struggle with this project and also one of my favorite projects also is the personal words one. I really like the idea of the project, but I was not here when teacher taught the class about how to make your own paint brush, and my art work end up looking plaint and tasteless.

I would hope to improve on my Photoshop skills because there are a lot of things I wanted to do with my picture but I just do not know or how to apply the effect of Photoshop into my photo so that it’s look more artistic (Photoshop have too many ways to improve or mess with photos and yet I have not learn much) I think I’ve improved on my thinking skills and the ability to come up with ideas fast, because I usually slow when it come to being creative, if I was myself from the beginning of this semester, I would not have done this artistic statement in one class period.

Personal words: A Square Root of three

The lyrics I chose for this project are Square root of a 3 by David Feinberg.
"I’m sure that I will always be a lonely number like root three The three is all that’s good and right, Why must my three keep out of sight Beneath the vicious square root sign, I wish instead I were a nine For nine could thwart this evil trick, with just some quick arithmetic I know I’ll never see the sun, as 1.7321 such is my reality, a sad irrationality When hark! What is this I see, Another square root of a three As quietly co-waltzing by, Together now we multiply To form a number we prefer, Rejoicing as an integer We break free from our mortal bonds with the wave of magic wands Our square root signs become unglued your love for me has been renewed"
the meaning of this poem are basically mean that i am lonely as square root of 3 because square root of 3 just basically don't exist. and im looking for another square root of 3 which mean another loner in this poem. so together we can multiply and cancel the square root sign. i chose this poem because it's kinda meaningful and it sound super cool ^.^ especially it from the movie and it's math related which is another subject that i like in school.

Social Issue: The "today" world

My photo is about this societt and its' caring peoples. starting off with this one guy lying there on the street desperate for help and yet peoples are just passing by and give 1 glare at the helpless man and start walking off without even offer help. perhaps it is because of today society, people pulling scam and trick just to take money from those who are kind enough to offer help. So that lead people to NOT offering help anymore because they dont want to get scam by others. and in this picture, the guy really needed help and yet noone offer him any and leave him there to die.

i once saw a helpless beggar on the street freeze to death because he dont have enough clothes to keep him warm at night, and then there a lady selling blanket right next to him and she seem to not care about the guy. which lead me to think: what happen to the world today? what happen to all the kind souls that i see in cartoon movies or television shows. so yeah, that's what keep my mind wonder all these year... why don't the lady gave the guy 1 blanket and save his life, rather than keep one stupid blanket and kill one soul.

Scary Effects

ZomBie
Vampire

Alien ^.^

my favortie one was the Zombie one because i think i did the best on the zombie photo. one of the tools i learn is the water mark tool, i think it's cool because it can stretch your picture a little without messing up everthing and it's a great tool to make fang for your vampire portrait. one of the difiiculties that i have is the part when i suppose to make my alien photo look more realistic but i kinda fail because the octopus's leg on my face doesn't really look like it. i think i did good on either the zombie or the vampire because i kinda fail on my alien but the other 2 i think i made it look pretty realistic. this type of photoshop are perfect for movie industry or poster creator because it require you to change the face of a normal human being into something that's cool.

Critique: Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison

Building a bridge out to nowhere, there’s a man with a couple of wood blocks on his back and trying to connect it together to form a bridge to the middle of the lake as if he trying to make his way out to the open lake. The uses of simplicity on the background which help create the emptiness and the unknown place that he’s heading.
The bridge is consider being the leading line that lead us to him or it could of show his pass road and could be consider being what’s he been through.
This photograph brilliantly portrays what people is going through life everyday and the feeling that most people have during the stock market crash back then. Because most people right now, as in back then, we do not know what’s going to happen next in life, that’s why this photo is of a man building a bridge to nowhere.

Photographic Effects

out of all the tools and tricks i've learned, my favorite was the blur tool, it help make the photo look more dramatic and kind of cool. and i would like the work on the mask tool some more because i find it really useful when I'm trying to cut my subject out of the background. one thing i just found out is that i can turn my background black and white while my emphasis is still in color.

Portraits

my most successful portrait is the face portrait because it it captured his emtion at that time and his feeling while he was posting for that photo. my artistic photo is capture with my model playing a roleo f a football coach and he was watching the game but the thing is.... the game is only happening in his mind. and in my photo, i captured when his team was in 3rd down and goal...so it's a intense moment that i'm capturing. adn to be honest, i did not pick out the costume, my model want his pictures to be taken in those costume and it turned out great because he's comfortable in that costume and it look great in my point of view. his ninja costume really make my photo unique because he brought the weapons and all the gears for it.

my surprise photo was really bad, and i think i could done better but i ran out of ideas. my surprise photo was taken after my model (being a football coach) was surprise when his team scored a touchdown. it was really hard to come up with a surprise photo because i have never done this before and i do not know how to make mine look any different from others.

Contact Sheet

Out of all 8 compositional tricks that I've learned, i like Macro the most because it give a new point of view on everything. i think i will start using the fill in flash trick more often because since we lived in Arizona and everyday is a sunny day, my emphasis going to be black out most the time so that trick might come in handy. my least favorite trick is the extreme angel bird, because it's hard for me to take picture of things from the top that people haven't seen before. One of my many favorite photo was the simplicity shot of a horse statue in black and white because it somehow give me the "awe" feeling every time i look at it.

Compostional Trick #8: Fill in Flash

Usually people think that when they're out in a bright place, they doesn't need to have flash on. well they can not be anymore wrong about it. because the surrounding is bright, so the camera will adjusted to the surrounding and your picture usually come out with your emphasis beign darken. fill in flash help add light to the emphasis and make it so it have almost the same brightness as the surrounding. i would want to use this trick when i take picture during midday when the sun is really bright or my emphasis is in the dark spot because obviously in the dark i would want to use flash to add light tomy picture and in the midday situation, i would want my emphasis to have the same brightness as the surrounding.

Compostional Trick #7: Drawing with light

Most other photos about drawing with light usually have the emphasis in the dark and have a little light source come in and hit the emphasis. my drawing is about the emphasis in a decent brightness place and have it under a brighter light source place and set the differences between the brightness. when i look at this picture, i get the feeling that my emphasis is looking forward a brighter place. a great light source help create that feeling because it's the brightest spot in the picture.

Compositional trick #6: Framing

Compostional trick: framing is a trick that put a frame into your picture and help create a "frame" around your emphasis and help the viewer easy to figure out your emphasis and not looking around your picture and trying to find your emphasis. my framing pictures are decent and it helps the emphasis in frame for the picture.

Compositional Trick #5:Extreme angle

extreme angle take viewer the the new point of view. For example, people used to look at the soda can from above or straight at it, but they've never seen the soda can from under, so that take the viewer to a new point of view. my pictures of extreme angle photos are not a good example because it doesn't show much extreme angle from the top. i am a short person so the point of view that people look at me from above is not that extreme.

Compositional Trick #4: Simplicity

Simplicity is a trick that help your emphasis stand out from the picture. like when u have a picture of alot of things going on in your picture, the viewer doesn't know which one is the emphasis and they don't know which one to look at. simplicity picture is just basically your emphasis and a plaint background. simplicity doesn't mean the your emphasis have to be simple. it's mean that your emphasis and a simple background so the viewer can enjoy the emphasis.

Compositional Trick #3: Macro

Macro is a trick that help magnify your emphasis and help it stand out more in the picture by blur out the background and its surrounding. this trick can be use when u take picture of small object and try to magnify it and show more details of the small emphasis that normally, we can't see it or didn't pay attention to.

Compositional Trick #2 Leading Lines

the leadin lines trick is that you're taking picture of your subject but also there's a line that lead you to it. in other word, leading lines is the lines that lead your eyes into the picture or to your emphasis.