Manipulating an Image

The aim of this assignment was to take one of the images captured in the previous assignment and manipulate it with the use of Adobe Photoshop Elements. The first photo is simply a touched-up version of the original whereas the other four have had special effects added to them. The role of this assignment was to help us get more accustomed to Adobe PhotoShop Elements and explore how versatile the program really is. 

ORIGINAL IMAGE (EDITED)

This is an edit of the original photograph taken in the previous assignment. The color temperature
and contrast were increased slightly increased slightly. Using the "clone stamp tool"
 located in the utilities panel, skin blemished were removed. 

PICTURES CREATED WITH PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS' EFFECTS

This cartoon-like version was created by using the "CUTOUT" effect.
The contrast and brightness were also increased to compensate for the
cutout effect's darkening of the image.

This photo was creating by adding the "STAMP" effect to the original picture.

This photo was creating by adding the effect called "WATERCOLOR" to the original
 image and hitting "Apply" several times to increase the effect.

This photo was created simply by adding the "PHOTOCOPY" effect to the original image.

How a Camera Sees: In-Class Assessment

Part One: Focal Length

The following pictures were taken with a similar composition at different focal lengths i.e. one was taken at a wide-angle setting and the other at a telephoto setting. What can be seen in both images is a difference in the depth of field. Despite the fact that both images were taken with an aperture setting of f/2.8, the background is more out of focus in the second ... The transition between the subject (Matteo) and the background is more prounounced in the second photograph. This proves that a longer focal length will result in a shallower depth of field and thus one should use a telephoto lens when photographing portraits.

Wide Angle Shot

Taken with a Carl Zeiss 24-70mm lens @ 24mm setting.

Telephoto Shot

Taken with a Carl Zeiss 24-70mm lens @ 70mm setting.

Part Two: White Balance

The second part of this in-class assignment was to play around with our camera's white balance settings. Although the following pictures were taken in the same location with similar camera settings (apart from white balance), their is a clear difference between the two. The first picture was taken with a white balance set to shade while the second was taken with the white balance set to tungsten. One can see that the first image seems more neutral. On the other hand, the second image appears to have a blue color cast throughout. It seems that while balance affects the temperature of a photograph. The first image looks warmer than the second. In this way, one may say that white balance plays with the temperature of a photo by adding a specific color cast. This can be manipulated by photographers in order to make a photo either look neutral, warm or cold.



Taken with a Sony Alpha a900 with White Balance set to SHADE.



Taken with a Sony Alpha a900 with White Balance set to TUNGSTEN.

Part Three: The Camera's Light Meter

The last part of this in-class assesment was designed to make us better understand how a camera's light meter works. In the first image, a wide-angle setting was used to capture a larger portion of the window. On the other hand, the second image shows a narrower scene with Matteo occupying most of the frame.

In the first image the camera seems to have metered a correct exposure based on the light information it gathered from the window. Since the window is a strong light source it took a photo with a shutter speed that would have provided a proper exposure for that scene. However that shutter speed was to fast for the rest of the image resulting in a lack of light ... this is why Matteo and the curtains are under-exposed.

Image is under-exposed with the exception of the scene in the window.

In the second image, the camera seems to have metered a correct exposure based on the light information it gathered off the subject, in this case Matteo. Since Matteo required a longer exposure than the window in the background which had plenty of light ... the window is over-exposed in the final exposure.



In this image, Matteo is exposed well. However, the background is over-exposed.

It seems that despite the progress made in photgraphy over all these years, light meters found in cameras struggle to provide an-overall well-exposed image when there is a bounty of light sources in a single exposure ...  such as a person with a window behind them.

Depth of Field

Depth of field is a photographic term that refers to how in or out of focus the subject is in a picture with regard to its background. Depth of field is controlled by three things: the aperture of the lens, the focal length of the lens used and the distance to the subject being photographed. DSLR cameras have the ability to play around with depth of field. This in-class activity was aimed at getting us to better understand how depth of field is affected by the above mentioned factors (aperture, focal length and distance to subject).

Shallow Depth of Field

As one can see the background of this photo was blown out of focus putting an emphasis on the subject, in this case, Matteo. This was done by controlling certain aspects of the photograph. Firstly, a long focal length of 70mm was used to provide shallower depth of field. Secondly, a large aperture of f/2.8 was used to provide a shallow depth of field in the photograph.

Camera Model: Sony Alpha DSLR a900
Lens: Sony Carl Zeiss 24-70mm
Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/1000
ISO: 100

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Large (Deep) Depth of Field

Contrary to the last photo, a smaller aperture was used in this photo to provide a larger depth of field. This is why both Matteo and the background are in focus. Although the focal length was kept the same as in  the last at the 70mm setting, the aperture in this picture was changed to f/14.

Camera Model: Sony Alpha DSLR a900

Lens: Sony Carl Zeiss 24-70mm

Aperture: f/14

Shutter Speed: 1/60

ISO: 100

On a personal note, it is clear that the first photo is more appealing than the second. This is due to the fact that the subject in the second photo seems lost in a "busy" background. The trees in the first photo are blown out of focus and thus prove to be less distracting.