Alphabet!

For this assignment, we had to create our own alphabet. I decided to do light photography to create the letters. This is done in a pitch black room with a really slow shutter speed and some source of light. I turned the lights off in my closet and sat my camera on a chair to stabilize the camera. My shutter speed was set to stay open for 2-3 seconds allowing me to use my cellphone to write the letters. This created the letters to be a bluish/purple color which I thought was really interesting. A flashlight can also be used, created white/yellow letters, but this could always be edited in photoshop to produce a different color. Then I just placed all the images in a photoshop document and scaled them to the same size. I used the smudge tool on some letters to make parts of the letters that didn't show up more visible. The faster the light source moves, the less bright/intense the image will turn out. The areas where the letter is really intense is where my cellphone was held for an extensive time. In other areas, the light was barely visible because I moved my phone so quickly, which is why I had to use the smudge tool. Knowing this, you can create really cool images or produce something just how you want it. For example, for the letter X, I had to move my phone really quickly so that no light would show up and enclose the X. Overall, I think this turned out really cool and I'm really happy with it.

Tutorials

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For these two photos I followed a tutorial on how to achieved a "tea-stained" image and a "turquoise" image. This was done with gradient maps by adding an changing the color stops to a faded magenta or turquoise. Then by changing the opacity, you could make the effect as prominent as possible. I think this is really need and will definitely be using it to add a vintage effect to my images.

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This tutorial was using HDR's to create a really cool black and white image. This allows you to really mess with the details of the image and get sort of a personalized black and white image. I thought this was really cool and a neat way to spice up a normal black and white image.

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 This was stimulating a color grad filter. I used photo filters and the gradient tool to fade the image and give the sky a cool sunset. For this one, I used three different color filters to have a purple/pink sky. This is a great way to enhance sunsets/rises to create the perfect one!