Took this photo when I was in high school.

So this was an assignment for a graphics class in high school. We were supposed to create a superhero.

There was a caption on the left that read:
ā€œSig and Ned,
The Half Dead,
Inbred,
Newly Wed,
Under Fed,
Crime Fighting,
Differently Abled Twins.ā€
Iā€™d like to say two things about this.
1. Iā€™ve gotten better at drawing. Much better.
2. All color was done in Photoshop.

So Iā€™ve put up a new category today, itā€™s called ā€œThe Processā€.
The idea is that Iā€™ll post an explanation of how I got from the conception of a photograph to the finished piece.
The first one is of my photo of Aldric Seeyouma. Tell me what you think in the comments.

While taking a rest during a hike I noticed a shaded area that would be good for a portrait backdrop. Aldric was closest to the rocks so I told him to stand in front of them.
He didnā€™t really know what to do in front of the camera, so some of the photos are like this.

Then I told him to ā€œlook coolā€.

— This is where I start editing the photograph on my computer —
While analyzing the photo I decided that it would look best in a square format.

Experimenting with the square crop I played with only keeping his head and upper body in the frame.

I didnā€™t go with that because I think having the arm go out ā€“ and back in the frame is distracting.
I moved to this one, putting more of his body in. I cropped just above his water bottle, since I thought it was another distracion.

Between his skin, shirt and the rocks this photo has a lot of red/orange. The photo doesnā€™t have lot of ā€œpopā€ at this stage, so I switched to black and white..

Darkening the tone of the rocks.

In the final photo the rocks have been darkened a little more and his skin has been lightened.

And that is the finished photo.

Let’s get some comments.

Ā Ā 

Organs arenā€™t as heavy as pianos, but thereā€™s a definite heft to them.

Iā€™m not really into this picture, thereā€™re tree branches in the graffiti and the organ should be higher in the frame. Nice contrast though. I think the black & white gives it a real ā€˜stillā€™ look.
Update – 4.9.08

Dig this post brothers and sisters.

Outside of Provo there is an abandoned structure. Itā€™s filled with bricks and rebar and a lot of graffiti.

I like this photo because of the looming nature.

Flash is great at sunset because you can light an up close subject, while getting an exposure of a brighter thing in the background. Like sky (which tends to be to bright to get a good natural light only exposure).
Like in these self portraits.

This is a concept that I have been aware of for some time, but Iā€™ve never really done a lot with a flash. My Pentax K1000 just couldnā€™t handle that sort of thing.
For all the times I havenā€™t been able to buy lunch, go power tumbling, (almost) not be able to pay for trevorchristensen.comā€™s hosting and cheap American Apparel shirts, Iā€™m glad that I bought my DSLR.
It was definitely worth it, and Iā€™m learning a lot.