Beginning Black and White

harsh light + amateur burning and dodging

This is a photo I took over the summer of the Philadelphia skyline from across the Schuylkill River in Camden.   I adjusted the levels to make the sky less blue so that the sunset would be more dramatic.  My next project is figuring out how to remove the lamp posts from the parking lot I was standing in!

Desaturated Stones

In this picture I was practicing working with layers.  I created a layer using just the space outside of the water and then desaturated it, that is, took all of the color out of it so that the only color in the photo is in the water and the light reflecting in the water.

light work

Our assignment in class tonight was to take pictures of light.  I found a spider web along the fence outside the Basilica and played around with the image a little bit in photoshop. 

Takes on Cupcakes

Today is my roommate's birthday and when a special delivery from Georgetown Cupcake arrived I thought the delicious treats would make a great subject for the first assignment.

Clearly I need some more work.  It's a start, I suppose.

Attempt and Failure

Last night I spent about an hour trying to "balance" my aperture with my shutter speed.  The results were frustrating to say the least and I was all too tempted to simply switch the mode back to "AUTO."  Hopefully I can get the hang of this thing by Monday.  Patience is a virtue, patience is a virtue, patience is a virtue...

Black and White and Color

A technique I've been interested in learning how to do is the Black and White photograph with a pop of vibrant color.  I think it can be an effective way to make just a so-so picture really interesting.

This picture is by Kenn Ranous and was taken from the rano.us website.