Emulating a Professional Photographer
Lee Friedlander's pictures are on the top row, and mine are on the bottom row
Course Goals and Achievements
As someone who knew very little about the technical side of photography, I learned a lot this semester. I learned how to pay attention to the composition of a picture to make it more interesting or specifically highlight certain parts of the photo. I learned how to better utilize lighting to give a picture a specific mood or accent your photo nicely. My first goal was to learn about the fundamentals of photography, and I think I succeeded in that goal by learning about composition, lighting, color, and the specific types of photos that one can take. My second goal was to learn how to use the photography settings on my camera and phone. I believe that throughout this course I was able to succeed in this with the assignments asking for different criteria. My last goal was to learn how to edit photographs. While this was not a specific topic covered, I challenged myself to try out different editing techniques depending on what the assignments were asking for. I also learned how to think critically about photographs in order to understand why someone took a specific picture and to critique and comment on other's photography. I think the process of critiquing photography improved my photos by making me stop and think about what someone would have to say about my composition, focus, purpose, lighting, etc.
My Best Photo
I think this was my most successful image because I was able to capture the same mood as Friendlander's picture with the same simplistic style. Additionally, I think the front lighting in my picture helped to emulate Friedlander's picture even more than just my lovely models, my parents. I think the most challenging part of this assignment was finding a photographer whose images were similar enough to my style of photography that I felt like I could still use my own artistic voice and perspective in my photos. In the future, I will try to capture different subjects than I am usually drawn to. I always think to stop and take a picture of a pretty landscape or sunset, but I never think to stop and take pictures of normal day-to-day activities like Friedlander did in most of his portfolios I looked at. I like the idea of capturing people doing their regular activities. It always makes for an interesting photograph.
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Part 2: Comment on another student's blog
My comment: "I think you did a great job emulating Georgia O'Keeffe's work. I really like the picture you chose as your best picture. I think you were able to perfectly capture the same composition and lighting in your photographer as your inspiration picture. You were even able to keep the flower in the foreground with the leaves in the background like O'Keeffe's. The only thing I would change would be trying to find a lighter flower so that when changing it to black and white it matches the lighter color of O'Keeffe's flower in order to keep the coloring similar. Great work!"
Link: https://jdadamo16.wixsite.com/jill-d/post/emulating-a-professional-photographer
I would agree that this is your most impressive photograph for this assignment! You did a great job incorporating the meaning behind this photo and the different aspects and traits of Friedlander's work. The lighting and black and white color of your photograph allows the viewer to have a similar feeling when looking at the two photos. I also appreciated how you incorporated the cameras and poses of the models! I also love how you touched on the taking of pictures of normal day-to-day activities, showing that you really understood what Friedlander captured in his photos.