Adv 2340 Digital Photography 2 Fall 2014

Greg Shapps’ photo of the water gun intrigued me the most because of the strong stream of water shooting out of the gun. That stream creates a straight line that directs your eye the same way the gun is pointing and out of the frame. There are elements other than the bright blue color of the gun that also capture your eye. The lighting used in this is a direct light coming from the upper righthand side, casting shadows slightly below and to the left of the subject. I feel that there is low contrast in this image because the values are mostly grays – not very dark or very light. The texture is emphasized the subject and image are sharp overall. The viewpoint is slightly above the gun so that you can see its entire side. The gun is mostly centered in the space making it the most important part of the image but the perspective is expanded so that the handle of the gun seems further away.

Nicolas Duers is a great photographer that prefers to photograph objects,  such as clothing accessories for instance. He lets the object portray it’s own story, by using various photographic techniques.  For example on his website under “personal” he took a photo of some bizarre looking surface, which is captured in black and white, with a decent range of values. The values of the lights and darks tie in with the photo’s contrast to depict a certain mood. The overall mood of the photograph is further enhanced by his use of shallow depth of field, which sets the background out of focus and makes the foreground sharper to the point where you can see the texture of the subject.  

http://www.nicholasduers.com/#/still%20life/still%20life/6/

In the image I chose from Nicolas Duers we are able to see the sidelight coming off of the batteries. The picture is taken from a birds eye-view, which explains why see the direction of light coming from the top of the photo. The photo appears to be high key in my opinion because in the center of the photo, light tones appear to be more prominent towards the center of the image. The focus is very sharp in this photo because you can make out the details in the batteries and carpeting. Finally there is great symmetry in the image between the batteries.

I chose this photo because i like how the arrangement of a glass of water can actually be arranged in a way to make it a lot more interesting. I also like the viewing angle f this composition. Having it at a “bird’s eye view” gives this more life and makes it a lot more interesting. What i also think is a very good in this composition by Greg Shapps is how he chooses a light blue background with a white radial gradient to help draw our eye closer to the middle and look at his arrangement more than just wine glasses in an circular placement. What I would like to see is if he can arrange the glasses in a certain order to actually create a image out of it. I think it would be very exciting to see what he can come up with.

I chose this photo because of the relationship between the shoes and the rose, which is to juxtapose two things that are seen as beautiful but actually painful to touch. I like the use of lighting to this end, dark colored background with sparing use of red to catch the eye and the studs on the shoes being emphasized by the reflections.