duotone and multichannels

As part of an in-class exercise we learned about the duotone and multichannel mode in Photoshop. Finding an image that I want to play around with is always something that takes me longer than it should. So for inspiration I googled "photo blogs" and found some pretty nice ones. The image that I used for this exercise was found from a blog called San Francisco Daily Photography (http://www.sanfranciscodailyphoto.com/).

So here is how my image turned out.

And the original:

When I saw the original photo I couldn't help but think of Nat because on my last weekend in San Francisco, before moving to New York, we spent the day taking photos around SF like tourists. So this photo is a perfect addition to that collection. But overall, it's a dedication to all my friends and family in the Bay Area. I miss you all!

hibernation

The assignment for this project was to either a) develop a character or b) show the passage of time using only visual elements (no sound) and the shot techniques we've been learning about. I chose to show the passage of time, but ended up sort of developing a character as well. I normally don't like being in front of the camera, but with limited time and resources I had to make do.

Hibernation from leslie canoy on Vimeo.

[Shot with Panasonic AG-HMC 150; 1080/24p]

Most of my professional experience has been in post-production so I'm enjoying this class as I'm learning more about camera-work.

(Special thanks to Arum for being my makeshift-dolly grip)

washington square park

For this assignment we had to establish a place using the shot techniques we have been learning about. Some of the shots included are tilt, rack of iris, rack focus, whip pan, lens flare, dolly, tracking, zoom, etc. It was pretty much an exercise in basic videography. The original assignment is MOS but I added a soundtrack for this post so it's not so boring. Also, minimal editing.

Washington Square Park from leslie canoy on Vimeo.

[Shot with Panasonic DVX-100B; Music - Futuro (Live) by Mae]

It was really bright outside especially with the snow so the first few shots are over-exposed and a bit out of focus. And I didn't realize it right away nor did I reshoot them...haha.

photo composite

Assignment: Take 2 or more photos and composite them together to create one image.

The inspiration for my photo composite came from the idea that New York City is considered a "concrete jungle." Placing wild animals into the streets of the city is just a play on the idea. The animals actually seem more civil than the daily New York crowd. The most difficult part I had was proportioning the animals to make it appear somewhat accurate.

Techniques:

I used various adjustment layers for each of the animals to achieve accurate lighting to match the night setting of the city. The original photos of the animals were relatively bright so I adjusted their curves, brightness, and exposure. I also adjusted the hue of the zebra and rhino to make it look as if the surrounding lights were bouncing off of them. I used the hue of the paint lines of the crosswalk to guide me in deciding the hue of the zebra since they are both supposed to be white. I also added shadows to the animals. And I used the clone tool on the zebra to remove some orange dirt from its body. To finish the piece off I applied a warming filter to the entire image to make it all uniform as if the bright lights create a warm effect.

Original source images (from stock.xchng):

currently reading

I'm actually really diggin the books I have to read this semester. Like most students I hate having to buy expensive textbooks that I am likely to never read or look at again after completing a course or to sell back for a ridiculously low return. I mean I do have a few gems from my undergrad studies from tv/film courses, so not all are useless. But the required texts for this semester are definitely items that make great additions to my bookshelf and most were under $25. Here's a look at what I am reading (or will eventually).  

 

 

This book is the one that makes me cringe...it costs $127! I have yet to purchase it.

I didn't actually purchase the books below. I borrowed one from the library and the other I am taking from Google Books (even though pages are missing..haha.) I'm cheap. [left: I actually read the first edition of this book during my undergrad so it will be interesting to see how much has changed.]

P.S. Excuse my formatting. I spent a whole lot of unnecessary time trying to straighten things out and this is the best I could do. I'm not a programmer.