Portrait Photography

Definition: Portrait photography is the capture of the likeness of a person or a small group of people, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The goal is to display the likeness, personality, and the mood of the person. Like other types of portraiture, the focus of the photograph is the person's face (which is usually very close to the camera and is always a close-up), although the entire body and the background may be included in the photo. A portrait can be used in cards (ASB cards, holiday cards etc...) or just as decorations around the house or in wallets.

Types:
close-ups



torso



group




full-body




environmental

Study Subject: Canoe

Caption: This canoe was built by the carving class during 2007. This is a traditional canoe, apart from the finish put onto it to keep it in good condition. It sits in the freshman hall and commons. This was built as a project to keep the carving class happy. The canoe shows what a class can do with its time.



Gestalt: The key principles of Gestalt systems are emergence, reification, multistability, and invariance. Gestalt is a structure, configuration, or pattern of physical, biological, or psychological phenomena so integrated as to constitute a functional unit with properties not derivable by summation of its parts.

Edited Football Photo

The La Conner Braves play an opposing team, Cedar Park, September 12, 2008. Football is a common sport among high school. Number 7 has taken the ball and has two teammates protecting him as a Cedar Park player plans to tackle Number 7. The Braves played a good game at Cedar Park. All of these players played because they like to play football and like the competitiveness.

Retaken Close-up

This is my retaken close-up.
This is Brad's megaminx up close. He can solve one these in about 5 and a half minutes. His record is 5 minutes. This is the pattern he solved on September 23, 2008. The mega minx is an advanced Rubik's cube, which is a 3 by 3 by 3. The solver of the megaminx must get the points on the star as well as the five other spots.

Five photos with captions

Frame within a frame


Who: A Birch tree
What: a birch tree along a cliff
When: September 17, 2008
Where: Behind the Historical Museum, La Conner, WA
Why: the tree was there because wind took the seed and stuck it on the side of the cliff.


Simplicity


Who: a granite rock
What: a granite rock lying amidst other plain rocks
When: September 17, 2008
Where: Behind the Historical Museum, La Conner, WA
Why: The rock was left got there because after the construction of the Museum, the workers spread rocks around to cover up anything.


Leading lines


Who: South Fourth Street
What: South Fourth Street in La Conner
When: September 17, 2008
Where: From South 4th Street, looking down over South 4th Street.
Why: This road was put here to allow people to live up on the hill in La Conner.



Close-up

Who: a flower
What: a fall crocus
When: September 17, 2008
Where: in my yard, La Conner, WA
Why: Angela Hasenbalg planted these to spice up her garden


Rule of thirds


Who: a tree
What: a mimosa tree
When: September 27, 2008
Where: in my yard, La Conner, WA, S 4th Street
Why: Dean Hasenbalg planted this mimosa tree, in hopes that it can survive this far north.

Camera Techniques

Rule of Thirds: The rule of thirds is a principle of composition used for centuries by artists and photographers. Using the rule of thirds places the main subject off center and away from the center of the frame. The rule envisions two horizontal and two vertical lines trisecting an image with four intersecting points.



Frame within a Frame: a special frame sometimes acts as the subject itself.



Leading Lines: lines that lead into the picture not out of and lead the eye towards the subject.



Close up: where the subject is very close to the camera, sometimes having a blurry background.



Simplicity: the technique of simplicity is used to achieve the effect of singling out an item or items from their surrounding.



Mergers: they help stumble the viewer's eye when looking at your photo. They are bad.

Pinhole camera

Phillip Hasenbalg, Travis Smith and Abi Hedlund created a pinhole camera. A pinhole camera is a boxlike device for holding a film or plate-sensitive to light, having an aperture controlled by a shutter, when opened, emits light enabling an object to be focused, usually by means of a lens, on the film or plate, thereby producing a photographic image. They created their camera with black tape, photosensitive film, black paper, two large rubber bands, pencil, straight sewing needle, scissors and a soda can.
They took a photo with the camera by lifting a flap of paper to uncover a hole to allow light onto photosensitive paper, which then put the photo onto the film. The making went great, but the photo was not good.















A camera needs four key components:
a shutter
a light-tight box
a hole
film

They say for other people who want to make a pinhole camera: "Take lots of time to make a pinhole camera. Our pinhole camera did not work. Our pictures did not come out correct. I think that using a box or a bigger can would be better that a small can. We also think that we did not have enough light to take the picture and there was lots of movement around the camera."

What I would most like to learn

I would like to learn how to photoshop and change pictures to make them look cooler or add something in that wasn't in the original photo and make it appear as if it belongs, like a bird flying underwater or a fish flying through the air, but make them appear as if they were supposed to be there. Also how to create different effects in photos.