Jaylen FLOAT

When you're babysitting and out of ideas...

Julian Star Photography

The following photo was taken on a clear night in Julian, with an ISO of 1600, shutter speed of 30 seconds, and an f stop of 2.3. In addition, I used manual focus the focus on the stars.

Then, to bring out the color of the sky, I used Photoshop to increase the brightness and contrast. When I added a color balance layer and messed around with the settings, this is what the final products came out to be:

Final

The 10 best pictures that I have taken this year are posted below:

 

 

This picture was taken last week for our advertising project. We chose to make ads for sour skittles, and I believe that this was my best. Not only was I able to get an awesome shallow depth of field, but I was also able to photoshop a colored heart onto the picture. This photograph demonstrates my ability to combine all of my skills that I have learned this year into a final product.

Here is a picture of a few cards, which was taken for the "zombie apocalypse" project. I chose to take a deck of cards for entertainment. This picture has nice lighting, is extremely crisp, and has a very shallow depth of field. If I looked at this picture, not knowing where it was taken, I would think that it was taken in a park or a forest, when it was really taken in the front of our school.

Although this picture was taken in the beginning of the year during the angles project, I believe it is one of my strongest. The picture is very crisp and uses a creative technique of bending the light with the mirror. Some people may say that the crack in the mirror distracts from the picture, but I believe that it adds a neat effect.

Above is my favorite picture that I photoshoped and by far my favorite project (big/small world). First, I took a picture of Julianne on Emily's back against a simple background. Then, I cut them out of the photo using photoshop and added them to this picture of this mason jar. When I first put the two photos together, Emily and Julianne looked like they were stickers on the jar. I overcame this challenge by lowering the opacity of my two models, coming out with the photo above.

This picture of my cat was taken at my house. The most challenging part of this photo was getting him to stay still and "pose". I had to take multiple shots of him looking out the fence, but ended up getting this one good "framing" photo. In this photo, I love how is face is in one diamond and then his name tag is in the one to his right.

This picture is also of my cat. This photo was also very hard to take because he wouldn't stay still. My favorite part of this photo is how his eye is extremely crisp and clean. When you look at this photo, a sort of glass dome seems to appear over his eye.

Here is a photo that was taken during the color splash project. It was one of the simplest pictures to take and edit, all I had to do was desaturate the photo and color over her eye. I like how you can see every little detail in her face, and although this would usually be a bad thing for most people, it contrasts against the depth of field.

This photo was taken a few days ago as a demonstration of my skills that I have gathered this year. I put the camera in macro mode and was about 2 inches away from the flower. My favorite part of this photo is how the first few petals of the flower are in focus and as you move back, they get more and more blurred.

Similar to most of my photos, this picture has a strong depth of field. I love the spring colors to this photo, which creates a soft and happy feel. Although this is going against the composition technique of rule of thirds,  I believe that because the ipod is centered it draws more attention to it.

 

This photo was taken during the portrait project. Kendall was a difficult model to work with, but when he decided do focus and do what was asked of him, the photos turned out great. The shadows around his eyes create an intense look, similar to a mask that a villain/superhero would wear.

 

What were your favorite things about this class?

I loved the freedom to go off and take pictures, and not have to be restricted for too long in a classroom.

 

What did you learn about photography that you think was most important for you?

The basis to good photography is learning how to work the camera, and I learned how to this year.

 

What advice would you have for other students taking the class next year?

TAKE WAY MORE PICTURES THAN YOU THINK YOU WILL EVER NEED.

 

Any parting thoughts?

I loved this class and it was definitely my favorite of the year. The only thing that I think should be done differently next year is the amount of time that is spent explaining things. In the beginning of the year it was okay to spend time explaining projects, but near the end of the year, I believe it got a bit tedious to listen to the same things over an over again. Other than this, thanks for an amazing year!

 



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Portraits

This is a "wildcard" photo that I took by placing Kendall on the right side of the frame and zooming in. I chose this image because it is crisp, in focus, and instead of having his whole face in the portrait like most photos, I decided to cut out half of it. This was a fairly easy photo to shoot. I didn't have much in the background, making it simple to blur, and all I had to tell Kendall was to stand still and look forward. The only challenge while taking this photo was getting the camera to stay still. I didn't have a tripod, so all I was able to do was hold the camera as steady as possible and hope for the best. To make this a stronger picture, I would place the model in direct sunlight or shade, so no weird shadows appeared on his face.

The photo above is a wildcard photo of Cesar. My favorite part of this photo is that the wind is blowing a few pages over without Cesar having to touch them. Working with Cesar was simple. All that I had to do was tell him what to do and he would stay there untill I was done. One challenge that I faced was making sure people weren't in the background. This area of the campus was a very popular place to take photos and people were constantly walking around, but I was lucky enough to snap a few photos with a clear background. If I took this photo again, I would have not cropped so low on the top of his head.

This sitting photo is also of Cesar. I chose this photo because was taken on a cloudy day, giving the photo a "soft" feel to it. The one challenge that I faced was making sure that the background wan't too distracting. If the red leaves behind Cesar were in focus, they would add too much to the photo. I solved this problem by moving away from Cesar, zooming in, and lowering my aperture. Although the blurred background was one of my successes while taking this photo, if I were to take it again I would move Cesar to a background that was one solid color.

By getting down at a low angle, I was successfully able to make Kendall look strong and powerful. Before getting this picture, I had been snapping shots in the shade. Although this make Kendall have one continuous shadow over his face, the background was extremely washed out. I easily solved this problem by moving into the sun and taking the same photo. If I were to take it again, I would have tried to get a shallow depth of field. This would create an effect that would focus more on the model.

This last photo is my favorite picture of Kendall leaning against a wall. I like this photo because similar to the sitting down picture, this was taken in cloudy weather, creating a soft feel to the photo. This was one of the first photos that I took, and I had no trouble placing Kendall against a wall, telling him to turn his head, and clicking a single button on a camera. The photo was slightly washed out, so I used photoshop to slightly amplify each individual color. 

Zombie

If there were to be a "zombie apocalypse", I would save the things in the pictures below:

 



The first item that I would save is my ipod. I imagine that it would be very quiet and lonely when the zombies take over, so this would serve as entertainment and a calming factor. I took this photo by using the "macro" setting on the camera. The ipod was almost touching the lens, giving the photo the interesting zoomed in look.



The second thing that I would take with me is my friend, Alexandra. If I had to choose one person to be stuck with, it would be her. But most importantly, she would be able to ward off all of the zombies. At first, I had difficulty getting the correct lighting, but after moving around a few times, I was able to find the perfect spot. The background was still a little washed out, but I was able to correct it (ending up with the photo above) in Photoshop.



This photo above is a profile of my cat. I have raised him from a three day old kitten, and would want to save him if there was ever a zombie apocalypse. The most difficult part about taking this picture was stopping the motion. Photographing animals is tricky because they move so fast, and after taking over fifty pictures with an extremely high shutter speed, I was able to capture the one above.




Lastly, I would take a deck of cards. Similar to the ipod, the cards would serve as a form of entertainment. I took this picture by zooming in on the cards with a low aperture (creating the blurred out background) and had no extreme difficulties.



This last photo is a zombie version of me. I created this photo by copy and pasting bits and pieces of an "operation" to my face. I blended the skin together, lightened my eyes, and then darkened the whole picture. I also used the "burn" tool to darken around my eyes and the lines on my face. The most difficult part of making this photo was blending the operation flesh to my skin. I ended up blending the two using the eraser tool on a very low opacity. This let some of my actual skin show through the operation.


Inner Child

I chose to two pictures above of Cesar because both images clearly captured his different emotions, with just his facial expressions.

I chose these pictures of Alexandra because they were unique expressions that she usually doesn't show. She was also able to add humor to her emotions.


Alexandra and Cesar were both easy partners to work with. Like always, Alexandra was extremely outgoing with all of her facial expressions, which made for some crazy pictures. In the beginning, Cesar was not comfortable making weird faces in front of the camera, but after a few tries, he loosened up and was able to create different faces to fit the requirements. As a photographer, a challenge that I faced was making sure the background wasn't washed out. On the first day of shooting, I took pictures of Alexandra in direct sunlight. Although the color on her face turned out, I noticed that the background of the trees and sky was way too washed out. I simply took new photos of her the next day in the shade, solving the problem. I had a few other challenges, but overall, I had many successes. I had expressive models who were able to bring across almost any emotion, my pictures are crisp and focused, and the models are centered in the same position for each photo.

As a model for Alexandra and Cesar, I felt that I had a responsibility to bring the same enthusiasm and enegy that they did for my photos. When I was a model for Alexandra, she was clear with her instructions and we didn't have any problems. When I was a model for Cesar, I got the feeling that he didn't know what he was doing. Even though he was the photographer, I had to tell him step by step what to do; it seemed like he didn't even know what project he was doing. This taught me that whenever I am taking pictures of a model, I need to communicate and be clear with my instructions.

In order to be a good portrait photographer, I believe that you neeed to be able to communicate and be assertive. If not, the model will not know what to do, and it could come across in the final product. As we take more portrait pictures, I am excited to take them, but also model for them. I rarely get the chance to be a model for pictures (beside from class), so this will be fun to show a new side of me. The only thing that I am concerned about is working with different models. I often have a precise image in my head of what I want my final product to turn out like, and if the image is different, I get frustrated. In order take pictures that show the best of my abilities, I need to be able to effectively instruct the model on what to do and focus on the task at hand.