Eastern Idaho Photo Contest

Hannah; 5/18/2012; 5pm; f 6.3; 1/160; Canon EOS Rebel T3i
Today’s date: July 6, 2012
I like this picture because it’s simple but happy. She looks genuinely happy. I like that it’s focus is on the side and the contrast in colors. Hannah was more than happy to let me take a few photos of her.
After trying several other contests, I decided to go with this one. I could not how to figure out how to submit my photos for the other ones.
This contest is for People and Things in Eastern Idaho with the Idaho Falls Magazine. Entries are submitted via email, so that’s what I’m doing. In the email, I also include some other information and the category I am submitting with. This one is for portraits. The link to the site is: http://www.idahofallsmagazine.com/gallery/contest.cfm.

Orange; Rexburg, ID; 6/22/2012; 12pm; f 5.6; 1/200; Canon EOS Rebel T3i
Today’s Date: July 6, 2012
I am entering this photo into the Eastern Idaho/ Idaho Falls Magazine Photo Contest as well. I chose this contest because it was straightforward and had lots of options. The theme of it is Eastern Idaho and since almost all of the photos I’ve taken this semester have been in Eastern Idaho, I thought it was fitting.
I had to re-size it to fit their specific size requirements and so it would fit in an email. In the email, I am including information about the photo (where and when it was taken). I am entering into the Nature and Wildlife Category.
http://www.idahofallsmagazine.com/gallery/contest.cfm

Arching Over; 6/5/2012; Idaho Falls; f 10.0; 1/160; Canon EOS Rebel T3i
To create my entry, I re-sized my photo and emailed it to photocontest@idahofallsmagazine.com. I attached it to the email and talked about it in the email. I gave details on where I took it and how I took it.
I chose this contest because it was the most fitting contest for the photos I have taken. It provides nice variety and isn’t so specific that I would have had to take a new photo for it.
http://www.idahofallsmagazine.com/gallery/contest.cfm

Large Format Print

Irrigation Ditch 22×34; Rexburg; 6/8/12; 3pm; f 8.0; 1/1000; Canon EOS Rebel T3i
Edits: HDR; turned up blue in water; levels; saturation
This was one of those pictures that I just took. It wasn’t one of my favorites when I took it, but after I edited it I realized that I really like the composition of it. It is an HDR. The wind was causing some ghosting on the grass that I didn’t notice until it was printed, which is one of my regrets. I changed the levels on the sky and brought up the saturation in the whole photo.
Printing was… complicated. I was going to print it at Walmart, but I was already on campus, so I decided to try printing it there. It took a while to figure out the printer, but the print turned out great and it saved me a lot of money. After it printed, I noticed some really bad ghosting on the grass. I didn’t think it was severe enough to reprint, but I wish I would have caught it sooner.
I took the print to Walmart to get the white edges cut off and to find a frame. I found a 24×36 frame and held my print to it. My print was too small. I don’t know how this happened. I held it up to the 22.8×34 frame and it almost fit, so I decided to cut it down to that. The lady working in the photo lab at Walmart helped me cut it down. Then, we tried to put it in the frame. It was barely too small for the frame. There was a little but of white on the edges. To fix this, we put more white on the edges to make it look like it was on purpose. If I get the chance, I want to put black instead of white. I feel like the white really takes away from the picture. However, I love how it turned out and I can’t wait to find a place to put it in my house!

Borders

Brushed on; 6.2.2012; 10pm; 8.0; 0.3; Canon PowerShot SX30 IS

Brushed on; 6.2.2012; 10pm; 8.0; 0.3; Canon PowerShot SX30 IS
This one was a little harder for me. I feel like it didn’t turn out quite how I wanted. I do like the idea of it though. I think it could have been cool.

Moon; 6.3.2012; 11pm; f 8.0 1/1000; Canon PowerShot SX30 IS

Moon; 6.3.2012; 11pm; f 8.0 1/1000; Canon PowerShot SX30 IS
Honestly, I like this picture better without the border. When I redo this post, I might try it with a portrait or a landscape or something like that. It also might have been better if I would have used a different background color.

Fade Border; 6/4/2012; 8:30am; f 8.0; 1/500; Canon PowerShot SX30 IS

Fade Border; 6/4/2012; 8:30am; f 8.0; 1/500; Canon PowerShot SX30 IS
I probably would have done this better if I had a better photo and I wasn’t rushed on time. If the sky wasn’t blown out, it would have looked much better.

Fine Art Template; 4/28/2012; 6pm; f 6.3; 1/400; Canon EOS Rebel T3i


Sarah and Cole; 4/28/2012; 7pm; f 6.3; 1/60; Canon EOS Rebel T3i

Night Photos

Blurred Lights; 6/2/2012; 10:15pm; f 8.0; 5.0; Canon PowerShot SX30 IS
This one was tough. It was hard to get good crisp photos with these shots. I got several of cars and motorcycles going by, but this one had the best composition.

Camera Motion; 6/2/2012; 10:30pm; f 8.0; 5.0; Canon PowerShot SX30 IS
That was supposed to be a heart. Sadly, this was the best of all my tries to draw a heart with the moon. Turns out, I had to draw it upside down to make it look upside right. I wasn’t trying to get the lights from the side, but it turned out looking alright.

Light Sketching; 6/1/2012; 1am; f 3.2; 6.0; Canon PowerShot SX30 IS
I think this looks pretty cool actually. I had my roommate hold a light and turn while she did it. She wasn’t standing by the window in some of them, but I liked the composition better with this one.

Bannack Best

Sarah Bright UNEDITED; 5/24/2012; f 4.5; 1/40; Canon PowerShot SX40 HS

Sarah Bright; 5/24/2012; f 4.5; 1/40; Canon PowerShot SX40 HS
When I first took this picture, I was trying to figure out lighting. Afterwards, I was going to delete it, but I saw how her eyes looked and I decided to play around with it. I really like how it turned out. I airbrushed her face, but I didn’t edit her eyes.

Dark Boy; 5/24/2012; 3:30pm; f 4.0; 1/320; Canon PowerShot SX40 HS

Dark Boy; 5/24/2012; 3:30pm; f 4.0; 1/320; Canon PowerShot SX40 HS
This was another picture that I was going to delete, but when I turned up the exposure and played with levels, it turned out looking pretty cool. Since it was so dark, the quality isn’t great. I like how it gives it a somewhat older look though.

Bannack Sky; 5/24/2012; 2pm; f 2.7; 1/1600; Canon PowerShot SX40 HS

Bannack Sky; 5/24/2012; 2pm; f 2.7; Canon PowerShot SX40 HS
I like how the cloud in the upper right of this picture looks like another galaxy or something. Once again, I really like how the clouds look in HDR. I cropped this, so it would follow the rule of thirds a little better.

Cowgirl BW; 5/24/2012; 4pm; f 4.5; 1/160; Canon PowerShot SX40 HS

Cowgirl BW; 5/24/2012; 4pm; f 4.5; 1/160; Canon PowerShot SX40 HS
I did very minor edits on this. I airbrushed her face and put a black and white filter on the photo.

Zoey Sepia UNEDITED; 5/24/2012; 4pm; f 4.0; 1/60; Canon PowerShot SX40 HS

Zoey Sepia UNEDITED; 5/24/2012; 4pm; f 4.0; 1/60; Canon PowerShot SX40 HS
Honestly, I don’t know how to change an image to sepia in Photoshop. For this photo, I put a black and white filter on it. Then, I put a warming filter on it and played with it until I thought it looked sepia. I also cropped it to achieve better composition.

HDR

Shed Dark; 5/24/2012; 6pm; f 4.0; 1/800; Canon PowerShot SX40 HS

Shed; 5/24/2012; 6pm; f 4.0; 1/200; Canon PowerShot SX40 HS

Shed Light; 5/24/2012; 6pm; f 4.0; 1/50; Canon PowerShot SX40 HS

Shed HDR; 5/24/2012; 6pm; f 4.0; Canon PowerShot SX40 HS
HDR is amazing. It really is. This was one of my favorite HDR pictures because of the composition and the color. I like how the dark sky contrasts with the lighter, yet still dark, house. I did remove the Photomatix watermarks on these. On some of them, I used the clone stamp tool. On this one, I used the spot healing brush and it worked great.

Ghost Town HDR; 5/24/2012; 4pm; f 2.7; 1/1600; Canon PowerShot SX40 HS

Ghost Town HDR; 5/24/2012; 4pm; Canon PowerShot SX40 HS
I like this one because it’s so dark. It really looks like a ghost town. I also like how the clouds look in HDR.

Bannack Hotel; 5/24/2012; 12pm; f 8.0; 1/125; Canon PowerShot SX40 HS

Bannack Hotel; 5/24/2012; 12pm; f 8.0; 1/125; Canon PowerShot SX40 HS
I was excited to do this HDR until I got home and realized all these photos were overexposed. So, I tried darkening the darkest of the three photos (which was already really light). It ended up blowing out the white clouds. I tried to fix some of it, but I think it’s kind of obvious. I still really like this photo though.

Single Shot HDR UNEDITED; 5/24/2012; 5pm; f 4.0; 1/1250; Canon PowerShot SX40 HS

Single Shot HDR UNEDITED; 5/24/2012; 5pm; f 4.0; 1/1250; Canon PowerShot SX40 HS
I love this! How awesome is it that we can make any photo look like an HDR? It really enhances the contrast and color. I am definitely going to use this more. I wish I would have known about it sooner. Like I said before, I love how clouds look in HDR.

Macro Abstract

Doorknob; 5/24/2012; 5:30pm; f 3.5; 1/30; Canon PowerShot SX40 HS

Wallpaper; 5/24/2012; 2pm; f 4.0; 1/50; Canon PowerShot SX40 HS

Bannack Montage; 4/24/2012; Canon PowerShot SX40 HS
I did some more extreme edits to get the look I wanted with this montage. I turned up the levels on both photos. I put a filter on the wallpaper and I blurred the background of the doorknob. When blending them, I went to remove the wallpaper from off the doorknob, but I liked the crack going through it from the wallpaper, so I kept that.

Reverse Shallow Depth

Fence Focus; 5/24/2012; 5:30pm; f 8.0; 1/320; Canon EOS Rebel T3i
This part of the assignment seemed pretty straightforward since we already did photos like this. I really worked for this composition, so I hope it’s aesthetically pleasing to others like it is to me.

Fence Focus; 5/24/2012; 5:30pm; f 8.0; 1/320; Canon EOS Rebel T3i
Just like the other one, I tried for this particular angle and composition. I think it looks good, but I’m not sure if it’s too centered. Like the other one, the only edits I did on this were levels.

Bannack Action Blur and Freeze

Ghost; 4/24/2012; 12pm; f 4.0; 6.0; Canon PowerShot SX40 HS

Ghost; 4/24/2012; 12pm; f 4.0; 6.0; Canon PowerShot SX40 HS
When I was taking the shots, this was not one of my favorite ghost shots. However, when I started editing I tried this photo and I think it turned out kind of cool. I had to remove that spot off the wall. I also changed the levels and put a filter on the whole photo.

Jump; 4/24/2012; 4pm; f 4.0; 1/400; Canon PowerShot SX40 HS
This one was pretty straightforward. The only edits I did in this were changing the levels and warming it up with a filter. It was challenging to get a picture when she wasn’t in an awkward position or when she didn’t have her hair in her face, but I think this one turned out pretty good.