Photobook

TiffanyOsborn-Photobook

Here we are! The end of the semester is here and with it comes my final hurrah (but certainly not the last of my photography escapades). This is the culmination of hours of hard work. A brief moment in time is my first phonebook but I’m proud to put my name on it- granted I was also proud of my kindergarten masterpieces.

I loved putting my heart into this book and see it come together. At first I was tempted to incorporate a significant amount of my vector design skills but ultimately decided that I wanted to keep it clean; this book is about my photography.

It’s been such a blessing to work with such talented people both in front of and behind the lens. I came to find a whole new appreciation for the world around me. I’ve learned to look in unexpected places and appreciate the extraordinary in my ordinary life.

Photo Contest

This self portrait was taken by me (remotes are great) with the help of my sister. She’s the MVP on this though, because she was queasily pointing my speed light and holding up the rope after just having her wisdom teeth out.

I created the image as part of another, personal blog post. The image is titled, Like a Fetter. I’d love for you to read more about why that is in my post. Visually, I wanted to create a look that made me look like I was pleading to be attached to a greater power. For me that power, in this context, is my Savior. I used the SQIBB lighting technique and a bit of photoshop (just for the light in the corner) to create the image.

I chose to do the ‘Me, Myself and I’ contest because it was so fitting with what I was wanting to get done with my blog. I had an idea for a post but wanted to create so visual content to pair with it. It worked well with one another. Here’s a link to that contest. I submitted my entry on July 14.

Fine Art Print

 

After an incredible semester it came time to choose one Fine Art image I would take to print. I’m proud of quite a few of the pictures I took but I thought this one worked really well as a wall hanging. I sharpened the edges a bit because I wanted it print sharply. I loved how it turned out.

 

This is how it looked hanging in the Spori building at Brigham Young University-Idaho. Photography, editing 

 

This is the original image, right out of camera. I bumped the contrast, clarity, made levels adjustments, and a bit of saturation. I also used content aware scale to expand the image so that it would print well within the frame area.
This is the original way I posted it on the blog. You can see the minor changes I made to prepare it for print.

I also decided to print this image; I thought they looked great as a set!

It’s been incredibly fulfilling to see the growth that’s happened throughout the semester and it’s been great to see that hard work pay off in a very physical, tangible way. I can’t say exactly how this new passion will play out in my life, but I’m excited to find out.

 

Bannack Best- Creative

It’s always fun to get creative and think of things in new ways, but that was only amplified when I was at Bannack. From levitation to light painting and everything in between, it was great to stretch myself in new ways. 

This picture is a composite of the three below, creating a levitation effect. I loved the lighting that the speed light made and the way it turned Abby (my model) into a dark silhouette against an interesting background.

I used this one in my portraits section as well but it certainly was creative. I was so grateful that Katie (my model) was willing to let me awkwardly hover above her. I’m known among my friends for my massive personal bubble, but it was worth it to get these shots. This is an example of light painting. I’m excited to see how I can incorporate this in the future. I have so much to learn in this discipline of photography (along with all the others). It’s a great lesson in trial and error and personal restraint!

 

Bannack Best- Fine Art

This picture was made using three separate exposures that were composited into one. 

I loved the texture on this building. The entire thing was rich with color and peeling paint. It was adorable.

This chair was in an abandoned saloon. I loved the natural light and the juxtaposition between the smooth leather and rich wood grain. This beautiful lantern was in a Mason Lodge. It was so fascinating to see this building that still serves its purpose. It was a great experience to see some of that culture.This was a the top of a fence corner that surrounds the local graveyard. I loved the texture and jagged nails. This sepia image of a Ford truck brought me back to being a child, restoring Model-A’s with my grandpa. I love the memories associated with these classic vehicles, and that was just heightened by the classic setting.

 

Bannack Best- Portraits

This week I dragged myself out of bed at 4:30 AM to get on a bus and spend over 12 hours at Bannack Ghost Town with the rest of the Comm 300 students at BYUI. While early mornings and I aren’t exactly compadres, I had such a blast! It was challenging, and exhausting and so much fun.

This image is one of my favorites. The most amazing part? Other than the amazing setting, costuming and model- the lighting. It’s all natural. The moment I looked in my view finder- teetering precariously on a window sill- I knew I was going to love these images.

For the next two images, I decided to incorporate the same SQIBB lighting I used last week into this weeks’ images. Just like before, we were shooting in the middle of the day. We used a snooted speed light to achieve this effect. 

This picture was taken using natural window lighting. I cranked my ISO down and played with my settings and got this shot. This image, along with the next three were the same natural lighting used before. Nature was being kind to me.
This portrait was taken using the same general principles as the SQIBB method but was taken with a continuous light and the ambient window light. This photo, and the one below were taken using natural light and a gold reflector. This portrait was captured using natural lighting.
Finally, because I was in a ghost town, I had take a ghost picture. It was taken using ambient light  and a long shutter speed. I took it while we were exploring and abandoned gold mill.

Portraits

This week was all about portraits, and not just a few. The good news is that I have some good looking friends and family. The biggest challenge was getting people to photograph. I set up 8 shoots and I ended up having 3… and the third was done because it was in desperate need of more pictures.

Individual – Side Composition:

This is my sister Taylor. She happens to be one of the most beautiful human beings I’ve ever known.

Individual – Head or Head & Shoulders:

This beautiful woman is one of my best friends. She’s a little goofy but that’s one of the reasons I love her so much. She also happens to be my grandmother, but my friends affectionately refer to her as ‘grams’. The coolest part is that this was taken during the middle of the day. It was part of a chiaroscuro activity using a technique called SQIBB (Studio Quality Invisible Black Background).

Individual – Full Body:

Group Activity:

This is what happens when you make your friends sit on a couch and ‘play the guitar’. In reality they were randomly strumming and singing an off key version of Old McDonald. While the situation was posed, this moment was certainly candid. I like my friends, I’ll keep em’,

Group Posed:

These two ladies are some of my best friends. They’re quite a blessing.

Individual or Group Environmental:

I took my sister out on a shoot. When she didn’t realize that I was looking at her (she was texting and letting her feet take a break from the heals) I snapped this shot. I’m so grateful for her.

Portrait Enhancements:

This picture was also taken using the SQIBB technique, except I hadn’t figured out the right settings yet. Very little of this picture looked the way it did when I shot. I decided to develop it because I loved the way my mom’s eyes looked. The background as a light tan color (the color of the wall she was sitting against). I painted the background black. She was saying something but I kept taking pictures anyway. This is the result. I also helped even her complexion and get rid of a few blemishes.

Match Color:

Replace Color:

Her necklace was initially the same cream color as her necklace but I decided to add a pop, the same color as her lips.I did a quick selection, used the selective color brush and then used a Gaussian Blur to make it blend a bit more naturally.

Macro

This week in a word? Lightroom. My workflow will forever be grateful for my friends at Adobe, because this program is a game changer. It helped me focus more time on taking the images and cut down significantly on editing. It gave me more time to be creative and conceptual. That’s why I decided to take on the eye photos. I’ve seen this photography before but I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do it myself. This week was so much fun because it forced me to look at the world in a new way. The perspective to focus on the ordinary and recognize the beauty in it is one that will bleed into every aspect of my life. I can’t wait.

My beautiful twin sister’s eyelashes with her blue eyes out of focus in the background.

An interesting shot of my eye. They help me see the world and now I’m seeing them in ways I never have before.

My friend Dax has beautiful eyes. Naturally I had get some shots of them. 

My sister’s finger and idea turned out really well. Especially in black and white. I thought it told a more interesting narrative in black and white than in color.

A water droplet on my grandma’s succulent. I just liked the stark background with the textured bright green foreground

These photos were taken in order to play with interesting refraction and focus. I had a great time learning this new skill as well!  On to the next one!

 

Perspective of Twelve

12 images. 1 subject.

Being able to photograph my favorite book (my great-grandmother’s at that!) in twelve ways was an incredibly fun challenge to tackle. I took this opportunity to try and make my images better. With that opportunity came the responsibility to push myself in ways I never have. For the first time I used macro tubes, a light box, an LED light with a cowboy stand, a 50mm lens and an 80mm lens.

For many photographers these tools are old hat, but for me it was a new frontier. I loved it. Perhaps these aren’t the best images ever captured but I’m really proud of the work I did this week. I love the fact that I wanted to put my name on these pictures. It’s an exciting development. I can’t wait for next week!

I used a picture I took at Island Park last week as a texture for my collage. I used an overlay blending mode at 50% opacity to achieve the desired response.

Honeybulb Process

I decided to represent the growth I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing this semester by creating the following vector advertisement:

It is a company who’s name is inspired by Winnie the Pooh and my Grandma Wini who has that same sweet tooth. The design was not originally intended to be anything like that, even after I decided to pursue the hive-bulb idea. As I let my creativity lead the way, this was what I ended up with.

For a while I let the design lead me to a fairly complex place, one that was a bit overloaded and muddled. It wasn’t until I started considering the story that I was able to come up with the concept that led me to my final draft. My previous drafts weren’t bad, but they weren’t telling a story and I wasn’t okay with that. I feel that my final project accurately represents a story and much of what I learned this semester.

The one clear direction I had was to incorporate a lightbulb into my design. A few months back I came upon a website full of different interpretations of a lightbulb and ever since then, I’ve wanted to pursue a project centered around them. As I sketched, and looked at different work (the Lumineers have incredible gig posters), I sketched an idea with a beehive. As I started to execute on illustrator I realized that the best way to represent the hive would be Winni the Pooh style. In other words, through a tree. It just looked better. It also flowed well into my lightbulb shape. After receiving some feedback (thank you, Brother Kerr) I determined that I needed to simplify the shape of the bulb. Instead of using the revolve tool to create dimension, I needed to focus on shape.

It took a long time to come with this simple solution to the bulb problem. I used strokes, tilted rivets, transparencies, etc. Finally, I was able to simplify to a shape I really loved. I used the shape tools, pen tools, shape builder tool- one of the most used tool on my palette- pattern tools, live trace, blend tool (quite a bit of it, actually), the align menu, etc.

Clearly, I’m very organized. It took me a long time to decide the shape of the hive, what patterns I would-or ultimately would not apply-the color of the trunk, background, color scheme, etc.

Again, my process is the epitome of organization…or something like that. I also struggled to decide if the bulb would glow, what feel I wanted to present, and again, more trouble with that bulb and hive.

I was going to use a woodgrain texture to create my tree but it just looked really odd and it wasn’t worth pursuing. The good news? I got to play with live tracing which was a lot of fun.

The design I ended up with was completely unexpected but I love it. I used the black as an accent to really emphasize the honey aspect and to create visual interest. I really think if I saw this in the real work, I would stop and look at it. It requires you to do so. It requires you to think, but it’s still so simple. I’m proud of the work I’ve done this semester and I’m so excited to keep building these skills.

On to the next one!