An Experiment in Color

For a class I'm currently taking on color theory, I was recently given an assignment designed to explore the emotions and feelings associated with different colors.  

For my photos, I drew inspiration (i.e. stole the idea :-D) from a simple lighting set-up I read on my old photo instructor's blog.  THANKS PETER!   ;-)

From the start I kind of saw this assignment as a chance to experiment.  I figured that if I kept certain elements the same (in this case the wine glass and light source) I could better gauge the impact of the changes that were made (the colors).

And not only that, but this gave me the happy excuse to only shoot one simply executed setup (HOORAY for laziness! :D).  Here's what I came up with.

I was fairly surprised by the results.  I mean, everything was kept the same save for color, but that change made a huge difference in the way the photos looked and the emotions they exuded.  I found myself being fooled depending on the color (the red made me see a glass of wine, the orange of champagne, and the black made me see poison),  even though I knew that it was just plain tap water. 

I often think about colors in the design work that I do (it's pretty essential actually), but It still really surprised me how much it could change and truly impact an image.

Thanks for reading.

The Things I Get Away With...

Sometimes when I'm making something at work, I'll think to myself "This sh*t is never going to fly."  It'll be too goofy and too stupid and I'd worry about all the time I've just wasted on something no one  would ever relate to or even want to be associated with.  I had just created the visual equivalent of laughing at my own joke.

But sometimes, for some whatever unexplainable reason (be it karma points for donating that blood, avoiding those cracks on the sidewalk, a plump full moon?), my boss (who is a fantastic designer in her own right) will look at it, nod her head and say, "This works.  Let's run with it."  …. Which in turn makes me wonder whether or not she needs to get her eyes checked.   :D

 Email Blast

Email Blast

Recruitment Flyer

Product Flyer

Thanks for reading! ;)

And the Winner is…….

Not me :-).  The Riverside International Film Festival has held a poster design competition every year over the past handful of years.  I entered and got 2nd.  To tell the truth, I'm really surprised to have placed so high.  I got a chance to see some of the other entrants from my fellow students a while back and (imho) they were so much better than in previous years (and by "previous years" I mean "last year").  I think it's a reflection on how much better the instructors have gotten since I started taking courses at RCC.  (The phrase "addition by subtraction" comes to mind <cough> good riddance <cough>  ;).  So if any of you are thinking about taking some very good photoshop type classes on a budget, now is the time. 

But now I'm rambling.  Without further ado, here is this year's Riverside International Film Festival Poster Contest 2nd Place Winner! 

11" x 17" poster

Thanks for reading. :)

Arts and Craps

Photo 13: Advanced Digital Darkroom.  Or as one of my fellow students disaffectionately called it, "Arts and Craps."  As much as I agreed with the sentiment at the time (and pretty much still do), looking back, it wasn't so bad.  As the cliche' goes "hindsight is 20/20".  And reflecting on it now, I have to admit.  I took away some things of value.  Nothing concretely useful, really.  But in terms of perspective.  During the course of the semester, I was exposed to certain artists and ways of thinking about photography that I wasn't very aware of before. Consequently, I made some things that I probably wouldn't of made otherwise.  That's not to say that I've changed my mind.  It was a pretty useless class.  But I guess sometimes even useless things can be inspiring. :)

Such a Square

Summer afternoon in December

Uelsmann Moon

You can see more Here if you'd like.

Thanks for reading.

Corporate Graphics?...

So for the past couple months, I've been trying my hand at corporate graphics. And the results have been mixed.  Clear, concise messaging? Clean leading lines? Complementing colors? Negative space?  These things don't come as easily to me as maybe they should.  And there are many times that I wonder why anyone would pay me to do this.  But, seeing as I haven't been fired yet, I suppose I'm doing something right. ;-)

10" x 10" Square Card

In-company email blast

In-company email blast

8.5" x 11" flyer

8.5" x 11" flyer

Thanks for reading!

That thing I did last month...

Thanks to Cesar and Stephanie for a fun shoot and Congratulations on their engagement!

Click HERE to see more.

Thanks for reading!

Come on, come on, come on, come on! PHOTO RETOUCH me, baby!

Some people don't like retouched photos.  They have a photo-journalist-esque heart, and want brutally honest pictures ... fantasy and idealism be damned!   I'm not one of those people :-).  I love photoshop and retouching.  I want things to look as good as possible…  accuracy be damned!  I zap zits, paint uneven skin tones, add extra limbs … if the picture would be better served with a mystical rainbow-maned unicorn prancing along in the background, I'm all for it.

Mystic Unicorn FTW!!!

It doesn't help that more times than I'd like to admit, I'm fixing a mistake I made while shooting, but that's besides the point. :-D

There are many pitfalls with retouching, however.  Because it's really easy to overdo it.  And overdoing it does not look pretty.  A picture can turn into a cartoon real quick if you're not careful. 

Keep that doll away from the knives!

The trick is subtlety.  Early on, I fell into the overdoing it trap (I might still be in that trap) but the more you do it the better you get (at least that's how the theory goes) and so I'd like to think that I did a believable job on this happy couple I helped shoot the other day.

From drab to FAB!

After adjusting exposure, white balance and contrast, I cleaned up certain areas of the lovely Cindy's face, including evening her skin tone, zapping blemishes, and cleaning up a few dark spots under the eyes.  I also increased the color saturation on parts of their faces (like the lips). 

With this one the main adjustment was for exposure, since he was in shadow.

In the end, my goal in photo retouching is to make photos look better without it looking like I made the photos look better (if that makes any sense).  In other words, adjust the photos with enough subtlety that no one knows that I've made adjustments in the first place.  Hopefully I've done that with these photos, and double hopefully I get better at it in the future.

Thanks to Mike for letting me tag along with his shoot, and thanks to everyone else for reading.  Feel free to tell me what you think in the comments below.