CAGD 112 Midterm

CAGD 112 Midterm 

Abigail Ortiz-Garagarza

CSU Chico 

Assignment 1: On the Edge

February 19, 2019

Final Image

My first assignment involved me conveying very powerful, dynamic subjects without making them the central figure of the frame.  I took many photographs in downtown Chico, but a sign from the nearby theatre evoked the strongest reactions out of me. My intention was to highlight the retro, vintage theme that the theatre sign possessed, and featuring the subject in monochrome only allowed the unseen details to be recognized and the heavy contrasts to become visible for the viewers.

Working on this assignment involved relying on various Photoshop techniques to emphasize the subject at hand.  Converting the photo to black and white was a simple task, but that did little to highlight the details, textures, shadows, and highlights.  In fact, using the black and white feature alone only led to a simple, neutral picture. To fix this, I used the Curves tool and the Dodge and Burn tools to emphasize the details.  Because the sky was rather bright, I edited the theatre to be darker to create a clearer contrast, and I darkened the words displayed and lightened the whites to make them the first objects that viewers lay their eyes upon; the initial subjects of the photo.

Original Image

Overall, I was extremely pleased with the amount of work imputed into the image.  I feel my intentions to grasp the vintage aesthetic and emphasizing the contrast to make the subject powerful were evident.  My only issues were being able to accurately create a perfect balance between lights and shadows as the original picture was quite neutral.  My other issue was working with a background that was subtle and yet competitive, as I have felt throughout that the overexposure of the sky conflicts with the detailing of the theatre.  I attempted to resolve the issue by adjusting the feature so both the background and the subject can work alongside each other.

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Assignment 2: Things

March 8th, 2019

Final Image

For my second midterm assignment, the Things Assignment, my intention was to explore and capture depth of field on an object that is seen on a daily basis.  Out of all of the items in my household, the miniature antique ship caught my eye the most. Taking a photo of it in a shallow depth of field allowed me to capture the small ropes, flags, and wooden floors, ultimately creating a warm-hearted fairy tale vibe.  The ship from the 1950 Disney film Peter Pan was definitely a giant inspiration for this piece.

To make this an eye-popping image, I heavily focused on the camera angle and the colors.  By taking the photo in a side-angle, higher elevated view, I believed it brought out the details of the ship more for the eyes to soak in than just taking a front or a side view.  Although the background of the ship is not evident, I essentially made the flags the focus point (as they are crisp and clear of details), and made the rest of the ship blur out.

Original Image

The entirety of the photo was originally in a warm hue as it was taken indoors, so, naturally, the warmth was the feature that I wanted to emphasize.  In order to do so, I have adjusted not only the contrast and curves tool, but I have also used the Color Channel, the Dodge and Burn tools, and even various colored layers.  I adjusted the initial neutral tone the original photo possessed to give it more warmth, more vibrance, and clearer colors. I lightened the flags and ropes and darkened the shadows, and I lightened the wood to “polish” it.  For the colored layers, I chose orange, brown, and gold layers to give the image more warmth. I added color gradients by using the gradient tool to emphasize the shadows.

The difficulty I have stumbled across with was choosing the right angle to bring the ship to life.  I have chosen many angles, but none of them evoked more power than this image. As well, it took a lot of time and consideration to choose and create warmth out of a neutral yellow photo.  Aside from that, this is the photo I am most pleased with.

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Assignment 3: Panorama

March 29, 2019

Final Image

For the last assignment, I was instructed to create a wide angle view of a particular scene composed of a collection of photos, but without fully relying on Photoshop to straighten and “sew the seams”, or blend, the photos together.  

My subject was the tide pool beach that my family and I visited in Monterey.  Beaches and oceans have a very large place in my heart, and I yearned to express that in the pictogram by making the small collection of tide pools majestic and huge, and I included the picture of my mother to increase its size, to create the majestic partnership of man vs. ocean.   To take this picture, I took 8 photographs of the same location in a 360-degree angle.

Original Images

My next step was sewing them together.  This is the part where Photoshop comes to play, because with its help, I was able to layer all of the photos on top of each other and adjust them according to hue, alignment, and contrast.  Despite the heavy detailing of the plants on the sand, the clouds in the sky, and the cars on the side, the deep blue ocean and the sky were the features I noticed throughout my editing process, so I deemed them the central focus by using the saturation and the Dodge and Burn tools to bring out its color and compliment them with the pale sand and white clouds.  The original picture were initially too underexposed for my liking, but increasing its exposure will lose the sand and clouds in the process, so I had to create an accurate balance to bring them out by using the Curves and Contrast tools.

Creating a panorama proved to be a very intriguing challenge for me to take, as I had to tackle new techniques to bring out my image.  Throughout this process, I have used the Fill-In tool and Patch tool to fill in missing gaps and blank places, but it proved to be easier said than done when I was prone to excessive amounts of pattern repetition.  The exposure of each individual picture also proved to be a challenge when I had to adjust all of them to match the same colors. The water would be too dark in one picture, and the sand would be too vibrant and yellow in the other.  

Original Image

Overall, it took a lot of time to create this image to the way it is now, and I am extremely pleased to learn a difficult technique.  I am overall proud of my intentions for this panorama and the story I had behind it.