Vacation Exercise (in class)

• I took the photo to capture my lovely parents on the top of this pretty Barcelona building.
• I wanted it to look like a simple snapshot capturing the background.
• I tried to get as much scenery in the background without neglecting my parents as the focal point.
• I suppose that if they were to take a picture of me, it would look similar, but opposite. I would be alone and there would be plenty of interesting scenery behind me.
• Caption: "Sofia at the top of the world"
• My parents, if they were to capture this photo of me, would see mostly innocence and youthfulness, because I am their youngest child and this is their impression of me.
• I think this exercise might encourage me to think more about the photo I'm taking and what I want it to convey, rather than just snapping away without a thought.
• Another method would be to take candid shots of people; this way the photos would appear more natural rather than posed.

Fun with Picnik

            For this assignment, I took a picture of myself on my webcam, just looking at the camera and attempting a somewhat fake smile. The picture, boring, represents more accurately what I look like than its altered version. I used Picnik, which has many simple but fun photo-editing applications that mimic work in an actual dark room.

            First, I lowered the exposure, taking away some of the light in the photo. More shadows appear, especially on the right side of my face. Also, the background gets more shadows, making the it appear more spacious and viscerally appealing. I then increased the contrast, which made me appear tanner, and the lighting more flattering.  The light in the background no longer looks pale white but more of a sunshine yellow. Next, I increased the temperature of the photo, adding to the sunshine effect, and making me appear even more tan. I then decreased the saturation to remove some of the orange pigment from my face and skin; this step also makes the photo look slightly less altered. I then sharpened the image, making it appear higher quality. My last step was cross processing, which provided the most change for the image. It provided it with more interesting colors and contrast, emphasizing the artificial sunshine aspect I created.

            Looking at the photo, I notice it is very shadowed and dark, and I look slightly orange. I think this is because of the media’s emphasis on being tan and its ridicule for plainness. All of my editing revolved around making myself appear less mundane and ordinary, yet I’m simply hiding in shadow with an orange mask on my face.