Kate's ITP Blog

For my final assignment, I played with the technique of using a plastic water bottle with lighting on either side and the camera balanced in a hole at the top to take close-ups on objects inside the bottom of the jug (with the bottom cut out). Perhaps due to the relative thinness of the plastic in the jug I used, I found that I was still getting some hot-spots from the lights, so I placed another clear bottle full of water in front of the stronger light to diffuse it more. In the future, I'd definitely use halogen lights instead of tungsten, as the results are slightly yellow despite white balancing, but overall I think the technique produced some appealing shots.

Anyhow, it's hard to believe the semester is already over--many thanks to Eric Rosenthal for a fun and very useful class!

Email me if you'd like to see the high-res version of any of these images.

Posted by Kate Monahan at 01:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This week we discussed time lapse photography and stop motion animation. I came up with a brief storyline, and played it out with stop motion. All in all, I'm happy with the results, but I learned a few lessons along the way... I need a larger memory card for my camera (I ran out twice, and switching out the card jostled the camera a bit). Also, there are a few shots in the sequence that did not auto-focus quite right, which is annoying, but can be avoided in the future by using manual focus.

Posted by Kate Monahan at 03:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

This week's assignment was to experiment with capturing images with a basic flatbed scanner. I really enjoyed this technique, and experimented with a ton of different objects and backgrounds. At first, it was frustrating to deal with the limited depth of field (the scanner will only focus to about a quarter of an inch from the plate), but I learned to work within the constraints. Some of the best shots are included below. I haven't included high-res versions because they are so large (and incredibly detailed--fun!). This is definitely a technique that I'll continue to experiment with in the future.

Email me if you'd like to see the high-res version of any of these images.

Posted by Kate Monahan at 11:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

This week, I experimented with the technique learned in class of holding a 35mm lens in reverse in front of the digital camera lens to achieve an extreme closeup. The aperture of the lens I had at hand was really too small to experiment all that effectively, but I got a good sense of the process--particularly the challenges!

I had a very hard time holding the analog lens close enough to the digital lens to avoid blurring without bumping into it and screwing up the shot. There was also the challenge of proper lighting and exposure, as manual exposure adjustments did not compensate well for the darkening effect the second lens caused. In addition, I eventually discovered I needed to use manual focus because my auto-focus beam was being interrupted by the second lens (and it was difficult to arrange it with the shutter button half pressed). All in all, it was an educational experience, and at least I got one semi-decent shot out of it. The links on the chain in this shot are very tiny, so the enlarging effect is indeed very impressive. Good tip!

Email me if you'd like to see the high-res version of this image.

Posted by Kate Monahan at 01:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For my first shot this week, I revisited night photography yet again to experiment with twilight. In our readings, it was noted that night photographs tend to look better when there is still color in the sky, and I did find this to be the case. To draw out more color from the sky, I ever so slightly overexposed the shot (as evidenced in the brightness of the moon, which gives it a nice glowing effect, though it's so small it does look a bit odd...).

The second shot is a bit of a Gursky homage. I wanted to challenge my camera with a huge range of colors to see how it would preform (in light of the color space issues we've been discussing in class). To accentuate the colors more than my camera was achieving in standard color mode, I took the shot below using the vivid setting. The oranges and reds are a bit overblown, but I like the effect. (On another happy side note, I think I've finally gotten the knack for proper white balancing, as I'm no longer having the yellow cast issues I experienced earlier in the semester.)

Email me if you'd like to see the high-res version of any of these images.

Posted by Kate Monahan at 02:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)