Public Service Announcement

                Members of the LGBT community have been victims of discrimination for over 400 years. The first known execution in North America of a person for same-sex sexual activities occurred in 1566. The LGBT community has come a long way since then with actions like the repeal of the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy and the formation of organizations like CUAV, Community United Against Violence. Despite these improvements, life for an LGBT teen is still difficult. Today, LGBT teens are five times more likely to skip school because they feel unsafe, and twenty eight percent are forced to drop out. LGBT youth are at a four times higher risk for suicide than their heterosexual peers. In a world that advocates equality and justice, let’s stop this discrimination. To give your support and help the cause, visit www.cuav.org and remember that we are all human beings—so let’s start treating one another like one.

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol

·         Real name is Andrew Warhola (8/6/28-2/22/87) (Became Warhol after a misprint)

o   Born in Pittsburgh, PA, Parents from Czechoslovakia (does not exist anymore)

o   Father worked in a coal mine

·         In High School, kicked out of art club because he was “too good”

·         Graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (Bachelor of Fine Arts)

·         Graduated with degree for pictorial design & wanted to become a commercial illustrator

·         Designed advertisements for women’s shoes

·         Used Polaroid camera

·         Fear of hospitals and doctors, hypochondriac

·         Favorite print making technique was silk screening

·         Friends & family described him as a workaholic

·         His sexuality was speculated upon and how this influenced his relationship to art is “a major subject of scholarship on the artist”

·         First solo expedition in 1952

·         Coined the term “15 minutes of fame”

·         1960s: iconic American products (pop art)

·         Created The Factory, his NYC studio from 1962-1968

·         Celebrity portraits developed into one of the most important aspects of his career

·         Made films (first one called Sleep – 6 hours of a man sleeping) (1963)

·         1965 said he was retiring from painting

o   1972 returned to painting

·         Designed cover for the Rolling Stones’ album Sticky Fingers (cover made out of real jean material)

·         Produced Velvet Underground’s first album

·         Started a magazine called Interview, worked for Glamour Magazine, Vogue

·         Shot by Valerie Solanas 3 times for being abusive and “too controlling” (6/3/68)

o   Solanas authored the S.C.U.M. Manifesto, a separatist feminist document

o   "Before I was shot, I always thought that I was more half-there than all-there – I always suspected that I was watching TV instead of living life. People sometimes say that the way things happen in movies is unreal, but actually it's the way things happen in life that's unreal. The movies make emotions look so strong and real, whereas when things really do happen to you, it's like watching television – you don't feel anything. Right when I was being shot and ever since, I knew that I was watching television. The channels switch, but it's all television."

·         Marilyn Monroe = favorite model (not painted until after death)

·         Wore silver wigs until he dyed his hair silver

·         Practicing Ruthenian Rite Catholic who described himself as a religious person

·         Died of a heart attack brought on by a gall bladder surgery and water intoxication

·         $100,000,000 for one of his paintings (highest amount paid) (“Eight Elvises”)

·         Referred to as the “Prince of Pop”

4-Square: Shwang

Pop Object: Progresso > Campbell's

Portrait: Swag



Photoshop Reflection

Camille

(Photoshop)

            My main image was the unaltered photo of my friend wearing the red sunglasses. I duplicated the background layer. The first Photoshop technique I did was “copy & paste.” I opened up a second window with a picture of my two friends walking up from Russell. I duplicated the background, and using the magic wand tool and the eraser, I got rid of the background and isolated the image of McKenna and Leslie. I then dragged that image into the main window. The size was already proportional to the rest of the shot, so all I had to do was blur the newly copied and pasted image with the blur tool. Doing so helped it look more a part of the original background.

            The next technique I did was “fisheye.” I flattened the image and duplicated the background layer. Using the elliptical marquee tool, I selected Camille’s face. I clicked on “Select” on the tool bar at the top and hit “Inverse”. I hit delete and was left with the image of Camille’s face. I reversed my selection by hitting “Inverse” again so that instead of the deleted background, Camille’s face was selected. Under “Filter” I went to “Distort” and selected “Spherize”. Making sure that the effect was 100%, I hit OK and was left with this beauteous creature.

            Before the next technique, I flattened the image and duplicated the background layer again. I then did “threshold” on Camille’s red sunglasses. For this technique, I used the magic wand and the eraser to rid the sunglasses of its background in the duplicate layer. (I hid the original background layer so that it would be easier to work with the image.) With the sunglasses against a plain background, I made nine more copies of that layer. On the last layer, I went up to “Image,” “Adjustments,” and selected “Threshold”. I selected 25. I repeated this step for the subsequent nine layers and made the threshold darker by going up by increments of 25 each time. After choosing red as my color, I returned to the top layer and hid all the other layers. Using the magic wand tool and making sure that “Contiguous” was unchecked, I selected the white of the sunglasses and hit delete. I then chose the darkest red, pressed “Ctrl,” clicked on the image icon on the right-hand side, and hit delete. What this did was replaced the black of the sunglasses with the darkest red chosen. I then hid this layer and made the next one visible. I repeated this step for the other nine layers, choosing a lighter red each time. By the time I got to the last layer, the red was nothing more than a marshmallow pink. I flattened the image and duplicated the background layer once again—only this time, the red sunglasses had that “threshold” effect to it.

            The next and final Photoshop technique used was “blending” images. I pulled up a second image of a napkin with the word “love” written on the corner in another window. I made sure that the two images were of the same size. I went to the window of my main image (the already manipulated one of Camille) and went up to “Image” and selected “Apply Image”. I made sure that under “Source”, the second image of the napkin was selected. I then selected “Hard light” as the effect and was left with the final product.

            I flattened the image and saved it. In conclusion, I copied and pasted McKenna and Leslie into the background and blurred them in, I blessed Camille’s face with a 100% fisheye effect, I used threshold on her red sunglasses, and I blended an image of a vandalized napkin onto the manipulated target image. The End J

Extra Credit

Copy & Paste: I pulled an image of a cottage from the Internet and made sure that it was the same size as my main image on Photoshop (landscape). I did the same thing with the two creepy children in the front--only instead of typing in "cottage," I typed in "Hansel and Grettle." I used a variety of tools such as the magnetic lasso, the eraser, and the magic wand to remove the cottage and creepy children from their backgrounds. I then dragged the images into the landscape window and adjusted the sizes a tad so that it would look more realistic. Using the gradient tool, I started from the bottom of the shot and chose "exclusion" to get this supernatural look.

Blended: I opened up two different images in Photoshop. My main image was the shot of Mercy's green room. I duplicated the background layer of my main image. I then went up to "image" and clicked on "apply image." In the source box, I made sure that it was my second image that was selected. Under "blending," I changed the selection to "add" to get this lightened effect of the second image over the main image.

Fisheye: After duplicating the background layer, I used the elliptical marquee tool and selected the bountiful curves of Celine's face (Celine Abellana Castillo, to be exact). I inversed my selection, hit delete to get rid of the background of the second layer, and then inversed my selection yet again. What I was left with was the beauteous floating face of Celine with the little lines of the marquee tool dancing around it. I then went up to "filter", hit "distort", and selected "spherize". After making sure that the effect was 100%, I hit okay and was left with this masterpiece.

Threshold: Duplicating the background layer, I used a tool combination of the magic wand and the eraser to relieve this pigeon of its background. I then made 9 more copies of the lonely pigeon, all while the original background layer was hidden from view. Going up to "image", I hovered over "adjustments" and clicked on "threshold." Starting from the very top layer, I then proceeded to apply this threshold adjustment from lightest to darkest (going up by increments of 25). Afterwards, I went to the top layer again and selected a blue-purple to by my color of choice. Using the magic wand tool--and making sure "contiuguous" was unmarked--I deleted the white from the pigeon. I pressed on the "Ctrl" key and clicked on the image icon in the menu on the right and pressed "Ctrl" again while hitting delete. What this did was change the black to the darkest blue-purple I selected. I continued this process with the subsequent layers. The only difference was that with each succeeding layer, I lightened that blue-purple a tad. I then used an artistic filter for the original background layer to give it a wee bit more texture. And this is what I came out with.

Gradient: I made a duplicate background layer. I first used the threshold technique (described in the above image) on Rochelle before using the gradient tool in the background. On the background layer copy, I went up the "image", hit "adjustments", and clicked on "gradient map". This color scheme of orange and purple was already made available to me--courtesy of Photoshop.



Copy & Paste

Blended

Little Toy

Fisheye Festivities, Suckahs

Revenge. Mmm...

Distorted Daughter

Bodacious Beast

No comment.

Landscape Assignment

Abstract

Big Shot

Big Shot PS

Detail

Architecture

Detail - Nordstrom

Big Picture - Uknown Building in SF

Big Picture - 2436 Liberty Court

Interior - 2436 Liberty Court

Detail - 2436 Liberty Court

Landscape Photographer Biographies

Classic: Ansel Adams

Born on February 20, 1902, this American photographer & environmentalist died on April 22, 1984. Famous images of his include Moon and Half Dome and Yosemite National Park, California. In 1916, Adams received his first camera, a Kodak Brownie box camera. That winter he learned basic darkroom technique working part-time for a photo finisher in San Francisco. As an avid reader of photography magazines, Adams attended camera club meetings & went to photography & art exhibits. In 1921, Adams' first photographs were published. Best's Studio began selling his Yosemite prints in 1922. Even then, his photographs showed careful composition & sensitivity to tonal balance. In the mid-1920s, Adams played with soft-focus, etching, Bromoil Process, and other techniques of the pictorial photographers. Staying away from hand-coloring, he used a variety of lenses to get different effects. Rejecting pictorialism, Adams went with a more realistic approach that relied more heavily on sharp focus, heightened contrast, precise exposure, & darkroom craftsmanship. Adams is most famous for his black-&-white photographs of the American West--particularly Yosemite National Park. Through his beautiful photographs, Adams was not only able to share the beauty found in this national park with others, but he was also able to use that beauty to keep destruction from harming this park.

Moon and Half Dome

In Glacier National Park

The Tetons and the Snake River

A photographic element in this photograph is value. Traces of pure whites can be found in the river & in the clouds. True blacks creep in the shadows of the mountains & are made by the silhouettes of the trees. Since the river is prominently the lightest part of this composition, the viewer's eyes see it first. The viewer's attention follows the line of the river & is brought to the mountains. The form of the mountains is emphasized against the lighter background. The line of the river helps bring the viewer's attention through the entire image.

Contemporary: Carr Clifton

This master landscape photographer was born on Clifton is famous for his distinctive & artistic landscapes of remote regions. His photographs are known to be vibrant and alive with saturated colors that really show the happy side of nature. To get the best shots, he explores the endangered, wild landscapes unknown to many. He is also best known for his 5 exhibit format books that showcase his work. In 1977, Clifton went into photography after seeking the advice & inspiration from his mentor & neighbor master landscape photographer Philip Hyde. He got a degree in Commercial Photography from Colorado Mountain College in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Famous images of his include shots from varying places like New York & New England. There appears to be no titles given to his photographs that come up on the Internet. I can, however, offer you some titles of his very impressive portfolios such as Sacred Headwaters, Boats and Harbors, and Boats and Harbors II. His birthday remains a mystery seeing as there is very little on this guy that can be scavenged for on the Internet.

The principle of color also creates the element of emphasis in this photograph. Against the black background, the boat & its rope are emphasized. The form of the boat against the dark background create a line. Clifton frames the subject of this photograph in such a way that the viewer might not immediately realize that the subject is a boat. A sense of abstract photography comes into play here as well.

Blog Notes: Ch. 9 Landscapes (p. 208-217)

• landscape photography characterized by maximum depth of field
• stop down lens as far as possible (f/16, f/22, f/32)
• longer shutter speeds
• tripod is necessary
• professional landscape photographs just after sunrise & just before sunset because of excellent light quality
• low angle of the sun = shapes & textures emphasized by side lighting
• light color is warm gold = particularly beautiful for color photography
• easier to deal with direct lighting for distant subjects that for closer subjects
• creates highlights & shadows = 3D landscape
• overcast days for closer views
• 100 ISO with 35mm cameras to capture all details
• B&W photography shows value, line, shape, texture, & pattern
• wide-angle lenses used to capture more of the scene and include really close objects & distant ones in the same shot (greater sense of depth)
• telephoto lenses used to concentrate on details/areas in the distance
• capture scenes & objects that are too far to get to
• macro lenses are useful for getting really close-up images
• capture details & small objects
• create abstract images of bark & rocks
• yellow filters used to bring out clouds
• red filters used to get look of deep black skies with stark white clouds
• red filter + polarizer (darkens blue sky) = ultimate black skies with maximum contrast
• Grand Landscape - "big view" for pictures of the great outdoors, wide-open expanses that showcase majesty of natural world, always include large expanse of the scene
• horizons should be placed either 1/3 from the top or bottom
• light meters designed to create exposure that makes medium/middle gray out of the scene being metered
• with lighter values, you'll need to compensate by opening up f-stop/slowing down shutter speed for longer exposure
• Abstracted elements - images composed of lines, shapes, values, & textures
• get really close to your subject & photograph only a small part of it
• macro lens = as much depth of field as possible

Brett Weston, Dunes and Mountains, 1945

Grains of sand in foreground & distant mountains are in sharp focus

Huntington Witherill, Great Sand Dunes National Monument, 1975

Luminous white clouds & sand dunes contrast with deep black sky.

Craig Barber, Succulent Gate

Every object is in sharp focus.

Eliot Porter, Foxtail Grass, 1957

Abstracted element.

Blog Notes: Ch. 9 Landscapes (p. 202-207)

• focus on natural world without presence of humans
• tends to be more formal than other genres (i.e. photojournalism)
• Carleton E. Watkins - capture grandeur of American West, Yosemite Valley
• Ansel Adams - Yosemite Valley, capture experience of being in wilderness
• Timothy O'Sullivan - photographed Civil War, principle photographer for Gardner's book, Photographic Sketchbook of the War, lead photographer on first U.S. gov't photographic survery of lands west of Mississippi River, Grand Canyon & Colorado River, Canyon de Chelly, Death Valley
• New Topographics - search for a new way to capture landscape in photographs, Robert Adams & Lewis Baltz
• composition & viewpoint = muy importante!
• pay attention to where to position camera
• explore: go as high as you can & as low as you can, right & left, closer & farther back
• goal = achieve balance between unity & variety
• value = tres important in B&W landscape photography
• wider range of tones = more dramatic
• narrower range = quieter & more contemplative
• balance - how those objects relate to each other in size, value, color, & location
• symmetrical
• asymmetrical
• radial
• Rule of Thirds - results in more interesting images

Ansel Adams, Mount Williamson, 1945

Proportion used to add emphasis to closer boulders - visual balance maintained between boulders & distant mountains

Timothy O'Sullivan, Canyon de Chelle, 1873

Direct sunlight on canyon walls & rock spires give off dramatic 3D effect

Powerpoint Notes: Architecture & Urban Landscapes

• Architectural photographs - indirect portraits - The materials, style, & scale provide clues about who the people were & what their lives were like.
• Surroundings = Context
• Charles Negre - The Vampire - 1853
• Builings don't move & they will always include elements & principles (i.e. line, shape, form)
• Frederick H. Evans - "Try for a record of emotion rather than a piece of photography."
• worked primarily in platinum papers (silver-coated paper overlayed in platinum... exposure to light causes chemical reaction... more detailed) BUT WWI caused platinum prices to skyrocket (bombs) SO he gave up photography forever
• Ezra Stoller (1915-2004) - architect to photographer, focused on light, shape & form
• Thinking Artistically...
• What are the emotions of the space?
• What is the idea of the space as a whole?
• PERSONALITY & RELATIONSHIP
• Patterns - bricks, fabric, wallpaper, columns, etc.

Blog Notes: Ch. 8 Architectural & Urban Landscapes (p. 194-197)

• big views of interior shots - concentrate on presence of people who live in/use those rooms, wide-angle lens, challenge: photographer limited in where to place camera
• looks better if everything is in focus = greater depth of field
• 4 ft. to 20 ft. away
• f/11 to f/22
• the closer you are to the subject, the more depth of field needed, higher f-stop

Blog Notes: Ch. 8 Architectural & Urban Landscapes (p. 190-193)

• big view - wide-angle overall view, commercial architectural photography, shows the whole building
• drawbacks of wide-angle lens: distortion (perspective distortion - strong converging lines in a building, sides of building angle in toward each other)
• shooting straight from the front = flat & 2D
• shooting slightly from the side = textures, forms, & shadows, 3D view, depth, height, width
• detail shot - features individual architectural elements of building's interior/exterior, requires careful/observant eye, telephoto lens

Blog Notes: Ch. 8 Architecture & Urban Landscapes (p. 184-189)

• as much image sharpness as possible, smallest details
• smaller f-stop = greater depth of field = more of the scene into focus
• 35mm - f/11 to f/22, 4x5 - f/32 to f/64 (the bigger the camera format, the smaller the f-stop must be)
• bigger camera format = most detailed images (bigger negative)
• slower film (100 ISO or less)
• value = muy importante with B&W photography
• helps to determine shapes of objects
• reveal forms & direction of image's light source
• greater difference = more 3D look (contrast)
• emphasis
• contrast - high = more dramatic & powerful
• low-key print - mostly darker values
• high-key print - mostly lighter values
• texture - tactile/"touchable" quality of surface, enhances 3D quality of photograph, defined by light/dark values
• color films emphasize color & setting (commercial)
• B&W films emphasize values, shapes, & textures (artistic)
• lighting = tres important with interior architectural photography
• incandescent lights (regular household bulbs) - slightly more orange
• quartz lights (modern spotlights) - yellow
• fluorescent lights - green
• wider lens can be useful but more distortion
• slow, fine-grained film & lots of depth of field = slow shutter speeds = need for a tripod
• yellow/orange filter will separate clouds from sky & make clouds stand out, bring out textures in stone/concrete
• polarizers can darken blue sky to increase separation between clouds & sky, reduce/eliminate reflections in shiny nonmetallic surfaces

"On High"

Blog Notes: Ch. 8 Architecture & Urban Landscapes (p. 79-83)

• indirect portraits - can sometimes give off clues of lifestyles
• architectural photography - can be formal/informal, 3 methods (big view, detail shot, interior view), popular from the start (slow films + stationary buildings)
• Charles Negre - chose photography over painting
• Frederick H. Evans - one of the greatest architectural photographers in history, ENG & FR cathedrals, emtion & light
• Eugene Atget - Paris & surrounding towns, self-taught photographer
• line can be used to lead viewer's eye through architectural image
• divides images into different sections, separate areas of different values/textures
• How can the surroundings make your photograph stronger?
• can reveal personality
• pattern - repetition of any of elements of art, help to enrich & strengthen by adding visual complexity

American Photography Notes

• NY Daily News = Oldest tabloid newspaper in U.S.
• Front page photo must attract attention
• NY Graphic = most extreme
• Most extreme photos - staged
• Composer graph
• Advertisements NEED photographs
• Public believes photographs (drawings could be a lie)
• Transforms regular objects into objects of desire
• Isolates, monumentalizes, and idolizes objects
• Photography addes new dimension to fame
• Media celebirty
• Anyone could be famous (as long as they looked good in pictures)
• Sports stars = superstars
• Celebrity obsessed century
• Photography neutralized any effect that imagination had on someone's perception

Final Portfolio

Fall Sports Photography

Portrait

Photo Autobiography

Line, Shape, Form

Sunprint After

Sunprint Before

Principles/Elements

Mercy Week

Photo Essay

Self Portrait

Food Photography

Final Shot

1-Shot

Photo Quiz