Putting images into shapes

I was really drawn to this piece because of its dimension which, I suspect, is the result of the artists layering and shaping her images and then setting them against a black and white background. I found a Photoshop tutorial which allows you to insert your images into shapes; something I may very well try!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU2Jxbt13-U

Composite

So in learning about composite, I didn't find a great tutorial I found Emma Brown! Emma taught me the basics of the program and helped get me on my feet in creating the two images above. I tried using the CS5 book only to find my usual Photoshop frustrations surfacing. Personally, I don't think the CS5 for Photographers book is for me. Its for users who are really familiar with the program so it presumes the reader knows basic Photoshop tools and terminology. In stumped me at the first step when it instructed to trace my image with the lovely pen tool. After working with the Emma I found it much easier to use the magnetic lasso than to try and navigate pen tool with its extensive anchors and handles. After referring to the pen tool, channels, and layer masks (things I'd never heard of) Evening and Shewe continue with another instruction I didn't know how to follow "I resized it to fit the full width of the image." At this point, I closed the book. I did look through the index though, and found some things I'd like to try as I get more of an idea of what I'm doing.

Pop Art Tutorial

So while looking online from montage ideas I came across some really cool pop art, and researched further to find this tutorial. Not only does it give you short easy steps--as opposed to overwhelming you with five at once-- it also gives you the key commands for most of the steps (something I want to become better versed in.) I'm hoping to use pop art in my montage, not for people as in the tutorial but for object(s) which I would composite into my background layer.

http://photoshoptutorials.ws/photoshop-tutorials/photo-effects/pop-art.html

Before and After:

Photoshop tutorial

So I've been trying all weekend to download the Photoshop CS.5 month free trial, but haven't been able to. Despite my stupid computer problems, I found a tutorial on inserting toy camera affects through photoshop that I really want to try as soon as I can. I also discovered the Adobe photoshop reference page which breaks down basic ideas like layers and filters. Below is the link to both pages along with some pictures that were shown on the tutorial.

Adobe Photoshop Reference Page: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/photoshop/cs/using/index.html

Toy Camera Photoshop tutorials: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/03/10/uncovering-toy-cameras-and-polaroid-vintage-effects/

Making your pictures look like Hulga pictures via Photoshop

 How to insert light leaks into your picture via Photoshop

 Creating a double exposure/composite in Photoshop

If I can ever get my computer to cooperate with me, I hope to try these tutorials soon!

William H Johnson

While my magazine was centered around Renaissance painter Albrecht Durer, I found myself much more interested in the small article devoted to William H. Johnson.  I was immediatly drawn to him because his self portrait (above) looked very different from the other paintings the magazine included which were cold and monotone. The use of color in Johnson's piece immediatly gives his painting more life making it more fun to look at.
Another aspect I really liked about the portrait was Johnson's eyes. There shape expressed sincere sorrow to me.While Durer's eyes were very realistic, but all they expressed were boredom.
The article explains that Johnson was an African American painter whose "powerful self-portraits... express the difficulties he faced as a black artist in the early 20th century." It continues on to explain how Johson is able to express his sorry with his "broken planes" and "wedgelike brushstrokes." It also explained how the distortions of his face and body help him to express how he's feeling (in this case frustrated and afflicted.) Hearing about these techniques also really grabbed my interest. I hadn't noticed any of these characteristics before the article told of them, but once they were pointed out to me I found myself appreciating the picture all the more.
Albrecht Durer is able to paint self portraits that look identical to himself, but convey no emotion. Johnson is able to paint self portraits in which he looks very human, and is able to convey a strong sense of emotion. Johnson wins all the way.

inspiration: my mom

My mom, Katherine Marie Benn is one of the toughest people I’ve ever met. She's experienced an abusive step-father, inconsiderate mother, abusive first husband, a cheating second husband, breast cancer, and the loss of two of her closest family members. Despite everything she’s faced, she always looks ahead, and continues to do whatever she can to help others.

While she got no encouragement at home to pursue any sort of college education, she studied fashion and design at the New York Fashion Institute of Technology--graduating with a 4.0, and worked in the fashion industry for some years--eventually leaving because of it's distorted views on life. After I was born, she founded a non-profit organization called the S.H.E.L.B.Y project which promotes healthy body image and spreads awareness about eating disorders. She’s been interviewed by many journalists and TV channels, and was the first person to ever receive the Courage Award from the National Eating Disorders Association.
About six years ago she decided to return to college to get a bachelors in physiology. While science people and art people are said to be two different entities, my mom is master of both. Seeing her dedicated work ethic as I entered high school gave me someone to look up to and follow. She graduated from ESU with her bachelors in psychology afew years ago--again with a 4.0.


What inspires me most about my mom is that she came from nothing, and was able to work herself out of her toxic home environment. I think many people would have caved to the experiences she’s had, but my mom refused to let others push her around and saw her situations as challenges that she knew she could overcome. Not only is she really ambitious, but when she decides to do something she puts everything she can into it. Whether it be something as simple as making dinner, or difficult as taking Spanish at 47 to graduate with her psych bachelors, my mom always gives her all, and seems to be good at everything she does. While she’s never put any social or academic pressure on me, she’s had a big impact on how I view myself and my work.

She is unlike anyone else I've met, and I'm so proud and grateful to call her my mom.

scary photography

So before starting my Holga shoot I did some research to try and get some ideas as to what I wanted to shoot. I came across the Flickr account of "rockpool73" and was immediatly inspired. (I would post some of his pictures, but Flickr won't allow it.) My favorite thing about the photographer's pictures was the heavy blacks he got in his pictures. This appeared most in afew picture he took of a long haired cat. Seeing this brought me back to a subject I'd tried many times to shoot, but had never been able to capture: my cat. Shooting my cat is always very difficult because he's very needy, and when I bend down to take his picture, he immediately runs over to me. I decided that I would try again. First I brought Montey (my cat) inside, and had my dad pet him to try and keep him still, but then I became leary of shooting indoors and decided it might be cool if I took him into the woods. He dutifully followed me into the backyard, but when we got into brush he'd bight at things and groom himself (neither actions made for a good picture). I also found that since I was shooting first thing in the morning, the sun was really strong, and it was having a negative affect on the pictures I took. I tried for about an hour, to get at least one picture I liked, but I had no luck.

Feeling semi discouraged, I moved to plan B: I asked my mom to drive me to an abandoned factory I'd seen by a place I used to volunteer at. She happily agreed, but when we got there I realized this may not have been such a good idea. The factory was gigantic, and no one but my mom and I were around. The factory would probably be a good place for my town's homeless people to live. I became terrified at the idea of an angry stranger bursting out of the building. My mom (who in some ways is my complete opposite) didn't really consider this fear at all, she was excited and wanted to explore. As I slowly walked toward it I noticed "no trespassing" signs all over the place, and graffiti everywhere; what if this was a gang hangout?! I had my DSLR with me and did not want to be held up. Once again, my mom thought I was being ridiculous, and yelled to me to come closer. I eventually did, and saw that the inside of the factory was really awesome, but the ground inside was completely torn up, and amidst all the decay was a running pump. This planted another fear in my mind; what if this was a hazardous waste site? Once I thought of this I decided it was time to go. I took afew more pictures, and we left. The whole setting was really strange, but it was so much fun to shoot. While I was kinda proud of myself for semi-conquering my fear of the building, I found that my fear made it hard for me to focus on the composition of my pictures, and when I looked back on the ones I took digitally a lot of them weren't level.

So here are some of the pictures I took throughout my morning of shooting. I shot the pictures of my cat and the woods with the Hipstamatic because I thought it might better imitate what the Holga pictures would look like, but the factory pictures are from my DSLR.

If you want to see rockpool73's awesome pictures here's the link!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rockpool73/5403907762/in/photostream