1. Formal Critique- I believe that my photo is well balanced and although the point of focus is Jimmy, I think it is hard to say that you get distracted by everything being in one corner or section of the photo. I used a photo filter which I felt was necessary with the Autumn background. I am happy with my result as I randomly thought of using a mirror for my "frame within a frame." It looks as if I used a smaller aperture(maybe F11 or so), not small enough where everything is in focus but large enough where I have the main subject and quite a bit around him in focus. As you heard in class, many people thought I took this out of a barn, which I liked hearing, only because I hadn't thought of that one bit! I enjoy how I edited this photo so that everything around the mirror is quite dark and everything in the mirror is very noticeable. My shutter speed was not extremely fast, because the leaf blower was not on while I captured this image, it was staged. This photo was obviously taken quite a few months ago and I do not exactly remember every setting I used, but it was day and I used natural sunlight, so I am assuming that my ISO setting was low, probably 400.
2. I do not have a specific meaning for this photo. As mentioned in the above paragraph, I thought of this idea out of the blue. My boyfriend, Jimmy, often does yard work though so this could represent him in a way. I thought that this photo is very original and that I would be the only one in Digital Photo to have this "frame within a frame" project. We used the gloves as one of the props to give it a "yard work" feel. I like mirror images when it comes to photography and I appreciate all artists who use mirrors for extravagant creativity :-)
3. I believe I did many things very well, not so sound self centered. I am confident with my photos. I especially enjoy the coloring and editing I did in this photo. I believe that it was creative and cool how I used a mirror, as it obviously turned out to be a mystery as to where I was taking this photo from(barn, etc).
Next time, I may use my tripod, which I LOVE, but do not remember why I didn't use it for this project, it would have made a more straight picture. Next time I might use a bit more vig-netting as well, so that Jimmy is more of the main focus rather than the whole mirror itself.
Kylie, this is a very good post. I'd like to see a little more explanation of your affinity for mirrors. You write: "I like mirror images when it comes to photography and I appreciate all artists who use mirrors for extravagant creativity." Perhaps you are intrigued by presence of multiple, simultaneous image planes: the image of Jimmy, the image of Jimmy reflected in the mirror and the image of Jimmy reflected in your camera lens?
ReplyDelete(... as I read further you answer my question quite nicely: "I believe that it was creative and cool how I used a mirror, as it obviously turned out to be a mystery as to where I was taking this photo from(barn, etc)." )
Good work!
Kylie, I think you did a really good job with this. Your choice for a frame within a frame as a mirror was executed really well. (I always have trouble shooting with mirrors.)With your formal critique, I definitely agree with the statement about the mystery of the setting and the lack of light around the mirror. That, along with the wood floor boards and the dried leaves give an unclear and rustic feel to the photo. The Bombers sticker draws your focus away from the subject but besides that, no real complaints.
ReplyDeleteConceptually,The edits you made were really subtle, which is a good thing. It's really easy to ruin a photo by over-editing it so the photo filter you used was really well done. It definitely could use more vignetting, but just as with the photo filter, subtly and slightly.I also think that perhaps taking the photo from farther away would have helped to bring contrast to the frame from its surroundings.