Jess D - Crit 1 - Recipe

I suppose the most intentional aspect of this photo was the composure. I'm a big fan of strong lines cutting across the frame, and in this particular photo the shadows were working to my great advantage. I think this photo is particularly effective in B&W because of the direct sunlight and the deep shadow that the ladder cast on the deck. A couple of people mentioned the feeling of nostalgia that the photo evokes, and although I wish I could say I thought of that at the time, I didn't. I was more excited about the geometry of the photo, but it just worked out nicely with the emotional response as well.

Jake - Recipe 2

Smartphone Color Photos

I went to the beach before summer officially ended a weekend ago with my friend. The sun was starting to set, creating hard shadows everywhere. I brought my phone when we walked and took a bunch, looking to include the sand and sky, as they were very colorful at the time. In the picture, he ends up walking almost out of frame, as the ferris wheel stood still in the background. This picture to me represents the official ending of summer, since no one else is on the beach and the season is starting to change. It was the overall favorite picture from voting, and I like this one too. I like playing with the shadows in pictures, I think it really adds to them. I used the Camera+ app again, to pop the colors and added "vibrant" and "magic hour" effects to the photo. This made the colors more vibrant and added another dimension to the overall feel of the photo.

Van Heel - Recipe Crit 2

I was just out grocery shopping and since the aim was for color, what better way to get near monochromatic images then with a bunch of the same thing? and Fruit itself is very vibrant. I just walked around and was taking pictures of each thing and this was my favorite, I don't think it is a unique image, but I really enjoy the detail in the crown of the pomegranate, and I also really enjoy pomegranates. All I did was up the saturation a bit, which I never liked the look of but find it ok for this image.

Bennett - Crit 2 Recipe

Ah, the winner of Crit 2. The only one that got more than one vote...it got 2. I guess that says good things about my photography? Anyway. I see this view a lot when I'm biking around and this particular day couldn't have been more perfect. The light, the clouds, the lack of cars on the street, I just wanted to capture the moment. I had to raise my phone above my head to get the perspective I wanted and to improve the framing. I couldn't see the screen when I took it, and it took several tries. That's why the lack of cars was important, as I was standing in the middle of the road for a few minutes. But I'm very happy with how it came out. I didn't edit this picture other than a slight cropping. The colors naturally were that vibrant. I'm sure the designers of these apartments were hoping to have the effect the row of apartments had on me. I thought about bumping up the saturation, but to be honest I like how it naturally looked so much I didn't want to mess with it.

Joshua Feo - Crit 2 - Recipe

For the color series I shot a few different sets of subjects. One of the sets was of wild plants growing in the city that were covered or surrounded by trash and litter and other man-made materials. This photo is an up close shot of some plants that were covered in large sheets of plastic, completely suffocating them. The strange ripples in the photo are from the creases and folds of the plastic material. There is also dirt and drops of water sitting on the plastic. For all of the pictures in this series I used different light settings when taking the photos and experimenting with settings that did not match up with the type of light that was actually available (such as using incandescent light setting outdoors in the daytime) to generate some interesting colors that are not exactly true to reality. Then I edited them all in photoshop using levels, curves, and brightness/contrast adjustment layers just to tweek the colors to where I thought they looked the most attractive or interesting.

Joshua Feo - Crit 1 - Recipe

For this set of photographs I used a grayscale feature in the camera settings on my phone (Android: HTC Evo). I adjusted the light settings, brightness, contrast, sharpness, etc. in the settings on my phone prior to taking each photo. Other than that I did not do any editing to the pictures on my phone or on the computer after shooting them. For the photo which got the most votes, the camera on my phone generated some kind of distortion that shows up when you look at the image. It is odd though that when I view the photos on my phone as thumbnails the distortion does not appear at all. This effect happens on occasion with my android, I am not entirely sure what causes it... possibly something wrong with the shutter. For this photo in particular I felt that the effect lent itself to the subject matter so I used it in this series.

Lauren W, Crit 2, Recipes

I played a lot on close ups this assignment.  I was interested in working with color and discovered the wide variety of color captured when shooting close up. Working with a smart phone made this challenging because if you move slightly your image is out of focus and you have to begin again. In the world of technology it isnt easy to not constantly be moving your fingers in a texting motion, so I shot about 20 of each close up. For both of these images I increased the brightness.  The second image of the coffee cup I turned down the color saturation to evoke a calmer mood on its viewers. For this assignment I also focused on shapes in color.

Gabriella: B&W Recipe

I decided to have a tea party with my two younger sisters. We brought out flowers and everything, it look so cute so I started taking pictures. I layed in the grass and peeked through the grass and flowers up at Gianna, I tapped her face to bring her into focus rather than the flowers. 

Daniel Peterson, Recipe 1, Smartphone Photography F13

I typically get obsessed with asymmetry and the rule of thirds when I frame subjects in my photos. In this instance I attempted to do something more symmetrical, but my force of habit ended up framing the subject off-center. Before I started taking photography classes in high-school, I centered almost every subject in my photos. After some early criticism and educating, I rarely have done photographs symmetrical and centered (which I’m content staying away from). In this photograph I attempted to do something different and create symmetry by rotating the image ninety degrees. It ended being more off-centered than I planned, but I think in this instance being off-centered once again worked in my favor.

Amanda Viens- Recipe Crit 1

 

My recipe for this photo was simple. I happen to have found these mirrors on the side of the road, and placed them against the wall temporarily. I had continously walked by these mirrors and admired the change in light from the room into the mirror and started picturing them as paintings instead of a reflection. I happen to catch this image while the sun was setting and the room was dim, while the sun came through the window. I used an app called "Grayscale" on my iPhone to view this in black and white and used an edit tool called "Auto-enhance" to emphasize the contrast which I thought worked nicely.

Taylor Donges, Critique 1, Smartphone Photography F13; Dynamic B&W effect

     For my most popular photo, I used the basic black-and-white effect on my Android’s camera application. I found the subject of my photo while walking around with my girlfriend, looking for potentially inspiration. There was a fancy, high-end toy store with all sorts of cute animals in the window. There was also something that looked out of place: creepy troll marionette puppets. The puppet that I chose to photograph was decorated to look like a baker. The best part was that the baker puppet seemed to be serving another troll’s head as a tasty meal. Note: This was supposedly intended as a child’s toy. Anyways, I framed the troll puppet and took a few shots. The reflections in the glass storefront provided a strange, disorienting effect. I thought that the effect added to the creepy nature of the already creepy photo.

Kat Recipe 1

For this shot, I didn't have much of a recipe. I wanted to go on a photo "scavenger hunt" with my son to get us both out of the house. I had originally planned to shoot a church around the corner from us, but I was taking my time getting there and taking photos along the way. He got bored and leaned up against the wall and I just happened to catch this photo. If there is a recipe for this, it's: prepare to shoot anywhere and everywhere.

Jamie Recipe 1

A pretty simple photo- on the beach, it was an unusually "shell-y" day. They were very colorful, so I thought it would be a good image to try black and white filters with. I used the app AfterLight (which I recommend) and I only used one filter called "Raven". This was the result. 

Bennett Recipe 1

My recipe for this photograph was very simple, it comes down to being in the right place at the right time. It seemed that the commenters thought this was a picture of trees reflected in a puddle, but it was actually taken looking up. I was under a glass overhang on a rainy day, and I took a picture of the tree branches above me, and the water forming on the surface of the glass. While taking the picture I made sure to focus on the droplets of water to make the leaves and branches a more abstract shape. The black and white makes me think of a rorschach test. I made the picture black and white and bumped up the contrast to produce the finished photo.

Lauren Winkowski, Critique 1, Smartphone Photo F13; Dynamic B&W

I shot this image about two dozen times before I felt I got the photo I was trying for. The lighting in the hospital is a bit dull so I up'ed the brightness to a little over 30 and adjusted the contrast a bit as well. None of my shots were completely straight so I tilted it to the right by 3 degrees. Toying with leading lines is something I enjoy as a photographer and honestly I have always wanted to get a neat photo of a hospital hallway and I (unfortunately) had the opportunity to take advantage.

Jess Fred-Recipe 1

My recipe for my first critique was focused on composing the shot and minor editing. I compose the image in my head, shoot the image, and then convert it to black and white using the Snapseed app. While converting to black and white, I also would slightly boost the contrast. I really like emphasizing the contrast between blackest black and whitest white.

Zachary Van Heel recipe

            I honestly didn’t have to do much for this photo. A lot of it was due to the fact of how it was shot. I was shooting up into a cloudy sky through a skywlight. So there was a lot of direct diffused light leading to the lightness. I usually tend to shoot darker images and objects coming out of black but really enjoy how this one came out. I did then up the contrast to get more out of the rain drops, but to counter the midtones getting too darker I boosted the lightness, just so only the darker tones would drop off and more mid and higher tones would stay brighter.

Jake - Recipe 1

High Contrast B&W photography

For my image, I used the app Camera Plus, an app that I have downloaded about a year ago for just $0.99. I love the app because it is very versatile. I can add a scene effect to either pop out the contrast or darken certain colors. From there, I can add different filters and select the amount to use as well. Of course, it isn’t all about the filters or app that make a picture good. It is about the timing and angle chosen.

I tend to take pictures with symmetry, and from an extreme distance to take in the landscape provided. I love reflections when available, and I love the sky with clouds. The picture that most peers preferred had both in them, which means that what I like is working. The app added some contrast, and looks great in Black and White. My personal favorite were the two bridge pictures, but this one works as well. Both this and the bridge pictures were taken on the same day, where I rode my bike around and found interesting locations to document. I love Philadelphia and what it has to offer. It’s what interests me and what I chose to photograph, mostly. Glad to hear people like it!