Self Portraits

For our Self-Portrait project we were to take three self-portraits. They were all to be in black and white, and they were all to capture a mood of some sort. We were also challenged to be as artistic as possible, and stay as far away from normal, cliche portraits that we see on personal pages etc. as possible.One had to use the rule of thirds as the base for the composition; One had to incorporate leading lines, and one had to be taken from a more extreme angle.

I thought my angle self portrait was my best one because it had a lonely feeling towards it. I think trying to do a different pose might help. Overall I think I did OK. Some of my pictures need more artistic. That is something I need to work on more.

Contact Sheet

I think my contact sheet turned out good. I did good on making all the pictures fit. I could change the fonts around next time. All of my composition tricks turned out really good. The one I like most would be crop, because I think it turned out better when it's cropped. I like using rule of thirds because it's easy to use and it helps balance the picture.

Composition Trick #5: Cropping

Cropping is a trick that photographers do all the time, even if they don't realize it. Every time a photographer chooses to cut something out of his/her frame, before they snap the photo, that is in essence cropping. We also have learned tools on Photoshop that allow us to crop an image after we have taken it. When cropping in Photoshop it is possible to improve our composition or change it completely.

I cropped the sides out. It looked smaller now. I like this one better than the original one because it's cropped and it has my name on it. Cropping can make your picture smaller. Over cropping gives you a border.

Composition Trick #4: Extreme Angles

I took this picture when I was up stairs looking down. I like how he's looking down at the shadow. If he turned his head to the side, I think it will look better. Taking pictures from extreme angles can effect your photograph because it's either you looking down or looking up. I would choose to do this composition trick when trying to capture a high or low aspect of something.

Compostional Trick #3: Macro

Macro zooms in really close on things. Macro and zoom are not the same. Depth of field is how far you see things. Having good depth of field helps focus your picture. When you want to capture a close-up bug you should macro, because it will look more realistic. I like the picture on top more because it's something that you don't notice everyday. Using macro on small things will make the small things seem bigger.

Compositional Trick #2: Leading Lines

Leading Lines could lead us into the picture or into your emphasis. They lead you through the whole picture. Leading lines helps you see what's around the image. In my picture, the leading line goes straight through the picture. It leads from one end to the other. The purpose of this picture was to show the lines that goes through the photograph.