Posts by elizabeth.theriault1
Assignment10_LizT
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Assignment11_LizT
Assignment6_LizT
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This new story idea is something I thought of by seeing an image of a girl looking in a mirror on the internet. I really liked how it captured her face even though the camera was pointed at her back. I decided I wanted to experiment with this, but I wanted to put my own personal spin on it. I really enjoy being in the woods, because I have spent much of my childhood and teenage years out in the forest whenever I get some free time. My parents have always taken me out to look for animals, and we own a farm that is now mostly forest, and some of my favorite summer activities are running around in the woods there. Because of this, I wanted to capture the feel of the space around you when you are in a forest. When you spend a lot of time there, you tend to notice things that others don’t notice at first glance like the layers of trees, branches, colors, ground, etc. I thought that a unique way to capture that would be to take a mirror into the woods and take pictures of the woods through the mirror.
Here are some of the first photos I took:
As I was playing with editing these, I found that I could make either just the mirror in color, and the rest of the space black and white, or the mirror black and white and the rest of the background in color. This gave me an interesting idea of a doorway into a new world. I knew that I needed to have a narrative that changed over time, and I thought that the perfect way to do this would be to have my friend act as a model who is walking through the woods, in a black and white world, and she discovers a mirror that seems to be in color. She uses this mirror as a door way into a colored world, which she enters and decides to leave the dull black and white world behind her.
Here are some of the edited photos:
OLD POST:
Polaroid storyboard:
I recently obtained a Polaroid CoolCam 600 camera and have quickly become obsessed. I love the way that the camera catches everything in one shot, mistakes and all. I think it would be interesting to try to capture a story from a literal “storyboard”, where I would take a bunch of polaroids and piece them together to tell a story. I was debating either taking a lot of abstract photos of random things and using the larger picture storyboard to create something different, or to take photos in a certain order of an event unfolding to create a story, like taking a picture of a growing flower (if the snow ever melts) once a day to see how it evolves over time.
Capturing my different personalities.
I have noticed that there seem to be three starkly different personalities that exist inside of me. Sporty, girlie, and kind of “rockish/punk” (if that makes sense) I feel like it could be an interesting project to capture these different personalities as they pop up during the day, whether it be in the clothes I decide to wear, the music I decide to listen to, the way I perform a task or the general actions I do every day. This might be challenging because it can be hard to photograph yourself, and usually, I get so caught up in my busy day to day schedule that things can get mundane and routine, but I think I would be up for the challenge. (Additionally, I recently lost all my clothes and belongings in a fire, so it will be hard to create this with the things I do have. But that could be another angle, how I rebuild my three selves after losing everything).
Making time for art.
As mentioned before, I tend to fall into mundane routines in my busy days. Because of this, my art takes the back burner, and I don’t get to spend a lot of time on it. I really enjoy sketching, drawing, watercolor painting, things of that nature. It is one of my goals to start working on my art again, whenever I get the chance. I think it would be interesting to capture all the different areas that art can take place and all the different places that I find a few minutes to make something, by taking pictures of my surroundings and my art in that time. This story idea will challenge me to actually find time for my art, and challenge me to find unique ways to capture my own creations.
Assignment3_LizT
Comment on Elizabeth D Assignment 1
Elizabeth, your pictures of the dancer are gorgeous! The dark shadows contrasted with the few streaks of light bring the focus completely on the dancer himself and make me wonder how the light changes as he moves. It provides mystery and elegance, and the ropes he is working with are captured in just a way to make him almost look like a puppet, being controlled by something off the frame. I like the decision to keep the photos in color too because they are almost a natural sepia effect and bring the differences between the light dancer and the dark background to life. Great job!
Comment on Sarah Assignment 1:
Sarah, I really like how each of your sets of photos have different lighting and different moods. It shows how subtle things like angle and light can completely alter how a photo is looked at. The photos of the cats and the rugs are warm and give off a cozy feel to them because they are up close and in focus with fuzzy things, which is contrasted with the hard, metallic looks of the mailboxes and the yellow, eery light of the parking lot at night. Well done!
Comment on Claudio Assignment 2:
Claudio,
I really enjoyed your collections of portraits. I am especially drawn to the photo of the cold water divers. The way the photo captures the divers in their element, ready to submerge themselves into an entirely new world brings about a sense of future discovery and mystery of what lies beneath. It must be something intriguing for them to brave the temperatures! I love the cold hues of this photo as well because it accurately depicts the coldness of the scene. Finally, I love how the focus is on the diver in the front, stepping into the water and looking out at their partner, who is preparing to place the goggles over their face and dive. The photo really tells a story!
Comment on Tate Assignment 2:
Tate, these portraits are truly well done. The stark contrast between the sharp focus of the faces and the bokeh effect in the background really allows a concentration of each individual’s expressions. They are unique and provide subtle insight into each person’s personality. Additionally, even though the focus is sharp on their faces, the outdoor light and exposure provide a soft, clear and bright light on their faces that is pleasing to look at. Well done!
Assignment7_LizT
The front door of our new house has a glass pattern that scatters small rainbows on our cabinets nearby, and I took this photo on my phone on my way out to classes. ISO 32 — 4.15 mm –f/2.2 — 1/120 sec
These two photos were taken at my new apartment. I was taking a bunch of photos as my roommates and I were moving things in and out of the house. These were my two favorites of the set. I like how the first one has multiple things like doors and stairs in it because I feel like it could symbolize all the different new beginnings leading to new things when moving into a new house, especially after losing a lot. ISO 500 — 18 mm — f/3.5 — 1/40 sec
I like this photo because I feel like it is simplistic. All our new house has in it is a few pieces of furniture that were donated to us, so its very bare, and this photo kind of captured it. ISO 800 — 18 mm — f/3.5 — 1/30 sec
This photo was taken when I was visiting my boyfriend. His dad’s house has really tall, thin trees surrounding it, and one morning I saw the sun shining through them and wanted to try to capture the happiness and warm fuzziness of the morning (as warm as a winter morning could be) The optimized version of this photo makes it really pixelated, but I liked how the trees draw your eyes up into the sky. ISO 100 — 18 mm — f/8.0 –1/200 sec
This photo was taken by accident because I forgot that I had turned autofocus off. But I enjoy the way it reflects the fuzziness I mentioned earlier, and really focuses on the light throughout the photo. ISO 100 — 47 mm –f/5.6 –1/2500 sec
I am always drawn to sunsets. Whenever I have access to a camera and I see a sunset I almost always take a photo. ISO 25 — 4.15 mm –f/2.2 –1/4000 sec (this was taken on my phone)
Assignment5_LizT
Revision: Added captions
In this first photo, I thought it would be nice to try to bring out some of the colors. This was taken in winter when the trees and plants were still mostly dead, so I thought to increase the saturation and the luminance and vibrancy of the green in the photos would make it pop. I also wanted to lighten it a bit more, because the trees in the foreground gave the photo a dark kind of feel. Overall, I really like this photo because of the way the trees guide the viewer to the deer, who seem to be busy looking at something else.
This second photo I took back at the end of the summer before the first semester. I wanted to edit it because it is one of my favorite photos, as sunflowers are my favorite flower. In the original, I thought the colors were kind of washed out because it was a relatively bright day. Because of this, I decided to darken and saturate the colors of the photos to really make them pop and contrast with one another.
When playing with editing this one, I noticed that you can alter just specific colors of photos. I was playing with how the orange and the red of the building looked, and discovered that by increasing the luminosity of the orange, I was able to alter the photo to make it look like it was taken almost at sunset, with golden sunlight hitting it, instead of the middle of the afternoon where the bricks were mostly washed out. I also liked how this upped the contrast of the blue reflection of the sky in all the windows, because to me it made them stand out more.
I took this photo in Quebec, at Montmorency Falls. The mist from the waterfall, not pictured here, was being struck by the light of the sun and was creating a rainbow as the light refracted through the water. I really wanted to bring the colors of the rainbow out and make it the focal of the picture. However, I noticed that there were a lot of details in this photo behind the rainbow as well, in the ice and stairs of the walkway on the hill behind it. I increased the blacks and contrast in this photo to really set some heavy dark lines and accentuate how detailed the photo is.
This edit happened by accident. I was playing around with the saturation like I was doing for the sunflower picture, and I decided to go over and look at some of the presets that Lightroom already has. I was looking at the vintage ones when I accidentally clicked on black and white. I immediately was drawn to how the image seemed to invert, and how even though the colors were gone, you could still distinguish between all the flowers and the grass. I also really liked how once I made the photo darker, it seemed to change the feel of the photo to something darker and more ominous, like the remnants of a beautiful flower field.
Sunset photos are my favorite to take and work with. I am always drawn to trying to make them look as beautiful as they are to the human eye, and in order to do that with this photo, I had to increase the exposure and saturation to bring out all the colors. I also liked how then you could see me in the mirror of the car taking the picture because it was nice to see how I placed in the setting and highlights how this picture was taken in a moving car.
This was a favorite photo of the ones I took at a Paramore concert in Boston. I captured this photo by accident because I was just pointing and shooting with my phone. I really loved how the lights drew lines outward from the center where the band was for your eyes to follow.I thought that the colors in the photo were kind of dull, and this did not capture the energy, excitement, and overall feel of how Paramore is at a show. So, I decided to change the temperature of the photo to increase the blues in the photo, making the photo pop even more.
I really liked brightly colored images. By the time I was editing this photo I realized that increasing the saturation so that colors really pop out is a style that I really enjoy using. I liked how even in the background, in between the branches, you can see that the dark shadows and the path behind the bush all seem green as well, and it makes the photo seem wilder and full of life than before when it was duller.
After using a black and white filter for the flower images, I realized that this photo would be pretty cool to try black and white. I really like how the branches cut across the sky as a shadow, so that you are looking at the negative space between them and it’s not a conventional way to look at a tree. I wanted to change it from color to black and white so there could be more focus on the pattern and the lines of the picture than the color of the sky behind it.
I really like this picture, and when I took it, it was the first sunny day we had seen in a while. I was walking through the woods and felt at peace, warm with sunlight. I wanted to capture that here in this image, with the sun rays coming through the branches, and the branches answering with their own reaching out from the central log. In order to portray this idea more clearly, I upped the temperature of this photo to make it warmer. I also really liked the sun flare that I captured on the log because it adds a pop of color that you know is from just the sunlight, so it’s capturing something usually unseen.
Revision: new edits
I was drawn to this bridge while walking under it in downtown Bangor. I really like trying to find leading lines in everyday settings, and I found that the way this bridge curved in contrast with the straight line of the building and the connecting lines of the wires were very interesting. This photo was relatively dark when I started, so I decided to increase the exposure to bring out some of the light underneath the bridge and get rid of the shadow. I also wanted to bring up the color, because colorful photos are prettier to me.
This is one of the photos I used for my final. The original picture has a very dark background, that is hidden in shadow, and the colors are washed out because of the bright sun. I increased the exposure and lowered the shadows so that we could see more of the texture and detail of the forest behind the mirror. I also made the image warmer, because it seemed more inviting and nicer to look at, and really brought out the colors.
This photo was really fun to edit, because it was the one that made me discover where I wanted to go with the photo narrative. While trying to use a focal circle to just increase the exposure of the mirror, I realized that in that circle I could decrease the saturation enough so that it was in black and white. I then inverted the circle, so that all the edits were outside and the original color was on the inside of the mirror. I thought this was so intruiging because it looks like a portal to a different, more colorful world, and highlights the idea that the mirror can show us things we don’t normally see. I also increased the saturation of the color in the mirror, to make it stand out against the black and white even more.
Assignment4_LizT
These first photos were taken last spring. I was not able to get out and take as many photos as I would have liked this past week, due to getting over a cold. But these were taken at my high school softball team’s game last spring, and I was practicing trying to capture them in action. Looking back at these photos now, I see that I could have focused on choosing the shutter speed I wanted myself, and not just relying on the “Sport” mode on the camera.
I took these next photos of a glass full of water and had my friend drop objects into the water to create a splash. It was difficult to be able to capture the water in the air and have the camera focus on it correctly.
These last photos did not turn out as well as I had hoped. I put a ball of string lights on the ground and set my camera to a long shutter speed, and as the camera was taking the photo I zoomed my lens out to try to create a streaking effect.
