Photography & Digital Editing: Milwaukee Sunsets
"A Different View Point"
Photography and Digital Editing
These three photgraphs were shot in Milwaukee and edited by using PsE, Lr, and Google Photos editor. Although these were not taken on the same day, the conditions were very similar and were in similar time frames. This piece was inspired by my love for my home town, and the editing was inspired by Paul Reifer, Irvin Perez, and Rober S Knight. My goal was to capture the variety that can be found by look from a different view point while looking upon a Milwaukee sunset. The beauty can be so diverse while being of the same idea.
These three photgraphs were shot in Milwaukee and edited by using PsE, Lr, and Google Photos editor. Although these were not taken on the same day, the conditions were very similar and were in similar time frames. This piece was inspired by my love for my home town, and the editing was inspired by Paul Reifer, Irvin Perez, and Rober S Knight. My goal was to capture the variety that can be found by look from a different view point while looking upon a Milwaukee sunset. The beauty can be so diverse while being of the same idea.
Inspirations:
Paul ReifferPaul Reiffer is a Brittish photographer who has traveled the world focusing mainly on landscapes and cityscapes. The photograph to the left was taken in New York at an observatory deck looking over the city. The aspects from this piece that inspired me was the use of contrast and the rule of thirds. This piece has an abundance of contrast between the cityscape and the sunset. The vibrant warm tones of the sky contrastiong with the dull cool tones of the cityscape and skyscrapers allows for clarity within the piece as this aspect allows for the the main focal points to stand out and direct the audiences eyes to specific areas of this piece. This is also due to his use of the rule of thirds. Reiffer set the biggest skyscrapper which is the vocal point about one third into the piece from left to right and the horizon slightly over one third from bottom to top. This allows for the audiences eyes to be dirrected to the intended vocal point.
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Irvin PerezIrvin Perez is a Milwaukee based photographer who goes by his artist name of SouthSide Shooter. In this piece to the right, Perez brings out the saturation in the colors within this piece allowing for the piece to be vibrant, but through his use of grain or film, it dulls the sharpness of the piece giving a dull feeling to the final apearence of the piece. This photo is of the sky above one of the three domes at Mitchell park Horticultural Conservatory, one of Milwaukee's many iconic land marks.
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Robert KnightRobert Salisbury Knight is known for his nature based photography. To the left is a photograph he took when in Botswana, Africa which he named Botswana Interlude. This is one of his abstract pieces. This picture appears to be taking place during a sunset looking through tall grass that is flowing in the wind.
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Process:
For this project I used Google Photo's built in editing software as well as Photoshop Express for Samsung and Lightroom which are two photo editing softwares made by Adobe. My first steps when making this piece was tuning the picture using Google Photo's editor to get a rough edit. I then went over that edit with PsE and Lr to fine tune my images until I was happy with the results, but even before this, I started of by experimenting on many different pictures to get a better understanding of how each tool in the editing softwares would affect the look of the pieces. Once I had a good feel of the tools and how they worked together, I took some time figuring out which images I wanted to use for this piece. I decided to go with three photographs from different places around Milwaukee. I chose to use photgraphs from different areas simply for a variety of view points. Bellow in the gallery of images, you can see some of the edits I used on one of my images, as well as see the how the picture started.
Tools and Photo Edit Software:
For this project, the tools I used include my Samsung Galaxy s10 , my Nikon Coolpix L120 camera, and photo editing softwares; PsE, Lr, and Google Photos.
Samsung Galaxy S10 and Nikon Coolpix L120- I used both my phone and my camera to take the pictures seen in my project above. While working with my phone, I used the camera mode known as pro which allowed me to change iso, focus, color balance, exposure, and aperture. While working with my camera, I am able to change the iso, white balance, and other color options. My camera also has a 21x optical zoom lens which made it a better option when trying to take a picture from distance over my phone camera. The only benefit of my phone was it is lighter and easier to change camera setting on the spot.
Google Photos Editor, Photoshop Express, and Lightroom- I used these photo editing softwares pretty evenly depending on which picture I was working with at the time. I used these softwares to enhance the image in ways that I was not able to at the time of shooting. Using theses softwares, I was able to change; brightness, contrast, white point, black point, highlights, skin tone, blue tone, tint, warmth, saturation, hues, exposure, and shadows. This allowed for me to change nearly any aspect of photos that I wished to change until I reached results I was proud of.
Samsung Galaxy S10 and Nikon Coolpix L120- I used both my phone and my camera to take the pictures seen in my project above. While working with my phone, I used the camera mode known as pro which allowed me to change iso, focus, color balance, exposure, and aperture. While working with my camera, I am able to change the iso, white balance, and other color options. My camera also has a 21x optical zoom lens which made it a better option when trying to take a picture from distance over my phone camera. The only benefit of my phone was it is lighter and easier to change camera setting on the spot.
Google Photos Editor, Photoshop Express, and Lightroom- I used these photo editing softwares pretty evenly depending on which picture I was working with at the time. I used these softwares to enhance the image in ways that I was not able to at the time of shooting. Using theses softwares, I was able to change; brightness, contrast, white point, black point, highlights, skin tone, blue tone, tint, warmth, saturation, hues, exposure, and shadows. This allowed for me to change nearly any aspect of photos that I wished to change until I reached results I was proud of.
Reflection:
I did have a few problems with figuring out the controls and how each different tool affected and worked together to create the image I was aiming for. It took me a couple hours of trial and error until I felt confident with my skills. I could definetly use more practice, but overall I was proud of my piece. I was able to edit my pieces in a way that I was able to capture the true beauty that I had not achieved when taking the pictures. After a lot of tweaking and adjustments, I felt I produced three quality photographs that work well together while still being able to function as their own if need be. This was another learning experience as I experimented with photo editing softwares I was unfamiliar with, but it was definetly worth it as I feel this learning experience will allow me to take my photography skills to the next leavel as I advance in this field.
Compare and Contrast:
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Contrasts:
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