Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I. Self Portrait Phase 3 Assignment Feedback

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Self Portrait: Phase 3 (Expressionistic) This assignment required that the technique be transparent allowing the viewer to experience the image directly without the intervention of the camera. The lighting to be such that it allows the viewer to see the full range of tone from crisp white to jet black and with all the intermediate tones in between.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Bassle: Daily prayer This is his best story idea to date. Although the date stamp is very distracting. Besides turning the image into a snapshot, it also happens to be incorrect. The exposure dark (under exposed) and it may be due to the white robe fooling the light meter.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Cropping For Story: Crop out any visual element that does not contribute to the story or distract from the story. Use the keyboard Up and Down arrow keys to compare this with the previous image. The wonderful window at the top was sacrificed to make this cropping.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Fitting in Details: The image was Skew adjusted to lineup the right side for a more formal composition.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Photoshop: Lab work The white robe was toned down before the basic lab was applied. Actions: 1.Tone down white 2.Levels 3.Brightness/Contrast 4.Color correction

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Brooke: She share’s her “We all knew her when” story with us... This makes me want to hear her play and/or sing. And I want to get a closer look.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Cropping Concerns: Getting a closer look is of the subject is about cropping tighter. Cropping is better done in the camera but it’s never too late. Cropping is also about eliminating unneeded image details.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Scale Back Details: Too much of the bridge was lost in the cropping. Scale adjust the left side to bring back the desired details. It is still slightly tangency close to the left edge but much much more balanced.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Lab Worked: Apply the basic lab work ‘moves’ on Brooke’s self portrait. Actions: 1.Levels 2.Brightness/ Contrast 3.Color

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Lab Work: Advanced: Tone down the light jacket taking the focus away from the jacket back to Brook in this self portrait. This is an optional move. The lighter jacket also has a zing attitude to it.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Got Carried Away: My intuition was tickled by the strong diagonal perspective movement. I played against it by creating a skewed triangle of repeat and mirror elements. I like it but you don’t have to. At least get the idea about playing with or playing against design elements.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Rebecca: Got out of hand There are definite story telling elements packed into this shot. But they’re all lost because of the serious color shift camera placement.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback First Consideration: Framing is your first issue when you shoot and cropping should be the first consideration when you do the lab work.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Second Consideration: What did you lose that might be important to the story telling when you cropped. Both the bookshelf and the subject would look better if the perspective was corrected. Skew correct the image perspective distortion making the bookshelf look normal and for Rebecca to shed weight.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Third Thing: Processing Now that the image has been processed, it’s much easier to see the packed story ideas from: 1.Seattle Center award (?). 2.Re-corked wine bottle. 3.Bookshelf with staggered books. 4.Partially open door in the background.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Design Considerations: This image is a thinking solution. It has lots of stuff packed in but it’s not visually prioritized. Use your feeling sense to simplify your story idea. Limit your packing to 3 ideas. 5 ideas at the most but that’s pushing it. Any more and its confusion time.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Cari: Dead on but… Nailed the ‘living in the environment’ idea in the bull’s eye. This is the most photographic image to date. But it’s marred by a blurry image. Is it the camera or a focus point issue? Most errors tend to point back to the operator…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Step 1: Crop Eliminate the extraneous details while maintaining the story in full. Balancing both the need to avoid amputation on the subject and to minimize visual clutter in the dusk cityscape.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Step 2: Process In a portrait, skin color is the most important color issue to resolve. The brightness is on this image is on the dark side of normal. It’s meant to suggest evening and is re-enforced by the neon lights in the cityscape background.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Step 3: Retouching Back to telling the story without unnecessary distractions, which can easily be a matter of personal opinion. Have a discussion on the two elements that were changed in this image. Use the Up and Down arrows to compare this with the previous image.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Jennifer: Care to… Strong story with slight back focus problem.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Step 1: Crop Minor cropping for minor issues. And I didn’t want to crop closer due to the focus issue.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Step 2: Process Again, minor stuff. Use the keyboard Up and Down arrows to make comparisons.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Step 3: Blur background Introduce softness in the background.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Step 4: Add skin glow Make the skin glow.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Step 5: The switch Make the skin glow.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Jeremiah: Excellent story with strong composition potential. Good design element in the composition and in model direction. Well worth re-shooting with better technique.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Step 1: Crop The sign is amputated and positioned in worst location. Corners are like bull’s eye – avoid them. I used the cropping opportunity to eliminate the corner problem and to make the story more universal.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Step 2: Tone down white The white shirt, Hand- rails, and the black pants creates a HDR issue in this image. The easiest solution was to tone down the white shirt.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Step 3: Basic process Make the image look believable brightness, color, and focus. Toning down the white before the basic lab work helped it to succeed.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Step 4: Retouch burn Dodge and burn is about lightening or darkening localized areas. I burned-down the top areas to focus more attention on the subject. I also darkened the top area to keep it from attracting too much attention.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Step 5: Retouch burn This is the final touch. The fabricated cast shadow is applied as a design element. Use the Up and Down arrow keys to compare this final image with any of the previous step images.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Kat: Lifeboat The color of the lifeboat could have been royal to ultramarine blue. But the red is more hopeful and goes better with Kat’s optimistic desires.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Step 1: Crop Crop tight to your story and dynamic design using the negative space. Negative space refers to everything other than the subject. And not a moral judgment.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Step 2: Scale image Bring back the safety helmet which is vital to river rafting. And it’s also important to the metaphoric ‘Lifeboat’ story. It’s also great to lose 10 lbs to boot. Although, be careful using this type of shape shifting. It’s usually not a good idea. Brooke’s image was shape shifted only on the left side.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Step 3: Process Place the viewer in front of the lens. Let them see the scene directly. Use that as your guide to lab working your image. Put the ‘Presence’ back which was lost in the digital transformation process. The issue is the same for those still shooting with film.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Step 4: Paint with light Tone down the incident highlight on the glossy surfaces and darken the grassy background. Remember to think ‘draw with light’. Your dodging and burning must look natural and believable.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Madhi: No written Report file to check on his story which is inconvenient. If the graffiti is the subject, it’s framed nicely. But this is a self portrait and Madhi’s head is lost in the busy background. His head is blending into the background - it should be ‘separating ‘ from the background.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Crop: Crop to increase the size of the subject without losing too much of the background.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Process: Tone down the white before applying the basic Photoshop lab work.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Retouch: Hue/Saturation change the t-shirt color to harmonize with the composition color scheme.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Re-design: Usually, the subject faces in towards the center. Now, Madhi clearly separates from the background. And the graffiti writing is growing out of his head.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Alfonso: Alfonso’s written story and the image story are opposite. His writing talks about ‘invitation’ but his picture is more ‘challenging’. I want the ‘drink’ to be more in focus but I like the image.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Crop & Process: This asymmetrical cropping is a shape correction from 3:2 to 4:3. The processing goal was to make the image less ‘harsh’. Squint- view compare this image with the previous using the Up and Down arrows.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Retouch: Apply a traditional curved burn with lower contrast at the bottom and the right side to focus the attention on both the drink and the subject. It almost justifies the spot light look on both the drink and Alfonso.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback Summary: Thank you All the assignment images show understanding of the Story idea from moderate to high degree of understanding. I am looking forward to seeing what you do with the ‘self portrait THING’ shoot. I expect it to confirm how well you understand the Story idea.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I x End