Head Shots and Lighting

J- Loop Lighting

I have never done head shots before and I have never done it with specific lighting. This was a difficult learning process. I learned how to use split lighting, loop lighting, rembrandt lighting, and butterfly lighting. What made it especially difficult was doing this with a speedlight. I took a lot of photos to try and get the right lighting and camera settings.

I asked my roommate and FHE (Family Home Evening) sister, Sarai and Madi, to be my models and to help me out. I also took a few after class of Doug and a few of my boyfriend, J, later that night. I was lucky to get four different models and faces to work with. I had one person hold the speedlight at different angles and even learned how to reflect the speedlight while mounted on my camera to reflect off of the wall to get the light I needed. I used the latter method on my boyfriend. The pictures of Doug were taken after class with Westcott Spider TD6 Continuous Studio lights.

I took all the photos into Lightroom and edited them. I played with the colors and sharpened all the eyes. Here are the results:

J- Loop Lighting

J- Rembrandt Lighting

Doug- Loop lighting

Doug- Rembrandt Lighting

Sarai-Split lighting

Sarai- Butterfly Lighting

Sarai- Split Lighting

Madi- Loop Lighting

Identity Final

Main Logo

Creating three new logos to brand myself was not an easy process. It was simple, but full of challenges. I had to figure out what type of person I was and put that into a design. In order to get help with this I put a little survey on Facebook. I asked people what words came to mind when they thought of me or my name. I was overwhelmed by the responses. Some were silly, but most were very sincere and helped me realize how other people think of me. I wanted to incorporate some of those traits into my logos.

To help give myself ideas I also started a new board on Pinterest looking for good logo examples. This ended up helping a lot with inspiration. From there I started to sketch thirty logos.

Sketchbook

I then chose three logos to vectorize. Here are the three logos I chose:

And here are the three finished logos from those sketches:

Finished Logos

Picking the fonts and colors was probably the hardest part. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to represent a more fun side of me or a more professional one. I decided to go more professional and sophisticated because these would be representing me for a long time. Also, in order to overcome these problems, I asked for a lot of help and opinions from a lot of different people. This helped me to narrow down the problems and fix them. Here is the color scheme that I came up with:

Logo 1

Logo 2

Logo 3

I believe these three logos represent my name well and show my professional and hard working side. This is what I want people to notice about me.
My favorite logo is the top one, logo one. I love the simple colors and font. It shows that I like simplicity and sophistication. This is what I was going for, overall.

Infographics Plan

An infographic is a visual graphic that can illustrate many different points of information. I have chosen to do a “How To” infographic. I want to talk about how to calm a crying newborn baby.

Many new parents panic or struggle when they can’t get their newborn baby to stop crying and sleep. Dr. Karp has proven a five step strategy that will work each time to help your baby. I want to make a simple and short infographic illustrating his ideas to help parents calm their babies.

Three possible hooks (titles):

The Five S’s

The Cuddle Cure

How To Shh Your Baby

Infographics Timeline:

2015.5.6 Wednesday: Seek inspiration online (Pinterest and Google)

2015.5.11 Monday: Gather info on the topic

2015.5.12-13 Tues and Wed: Start sketching

2015.5.17 Sunday: Pick color scheme and fonts

2015.5.18 Monday: Get feedback/Start vectorizing

2015.5.20 Wednesday: Create graphs

2015.5.23 Saturday: Get more feedback

2015.5.25 Monday: Polish and perfect

2015.5.29 Friday: Infographic due

Pinterest:

Here is a link to my infographics board:

https://www.pinterest.com/hilsyeah/infographics/

Movie Poster Project “Under the Sky”

Movie Poster

The assignment was to take a self portrait and recreate a movie poster (real or made up) and edit it in Adobe Photoshop.

In order to get inspiration I started googling movie poster images and taking screenshots of ones that stood out to me. I took lots of screenshots and got my friends opinions on which ones they liked. I narrowed it down to one. I chose “Under the Skin” because it was creative and beautiful. I know nothing about the movie (it doesn’t look appropriate) and I am not advertising this movie so I changed the name to “Under the Sky.” Using this movie poster as inspiration I took a self portrait of myself by setting my camera on a chair (I still don’t have a tripod) and sat on the floor in front of my living room window. I set the timer and took many pictures to get a few that I liked. It was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be because I was so close to the camera and it was hard to focus.

Once I got the picture I liked I did simple editing and polished the picture. I didn’t want my poster to look exactly like the one from the movie so I found one more image of the galaxy and blended it into the movie poster picture. I then took that picture and blended my image in Photoshop. I played around with it for several hours before I got a look that I liked. I then messaged my classmates Lindsey LeFevre and Cali Blodgett for help and critiques. They both liked it but thought that I should change the font to be more like the original movie poster fonts and a few other things. I went back and fixed my poster and ended up with the main image at the top.

Under the Skin Movie Poster

Galaxy Picture

Self Portrait

Here are the links to the images I used:

http://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1xj15n/new_poster_for_under_the_skin_starring_scarlett/

http://imagesdie.com/halloween-backgrounds/galaxy-wallpaper-tumblr-hd-background-wallpaper-16-hd-wallpapers/

Weekly Blog Post #2 Identity Project

This week I picked six logo sketches from my thirty sketches to start vectorizing in Illustrator. From there I picked the fonts and colors(black, white, gray) that I personally liked. I needed to narrow it down to three to finalize. I asked all my roommates, family members, and a few close friends for their opinions. This helped a lot to narrow it down to three logos. I then played with more fonts and sizes to get the look I liked. I then asked a few more people what they thought and we came up with the three following logos below. These will be my three final logos. (They were taken with my phone, sorry for the poor quality.)

Sketches

All three logos

Logo 1

Logo 2

Logo 3

I am almost done with my logos. I plan to get a few more opinions and critiques from fellow classmates and finalize my designs.

Timeline:

4/22 Wed: Social Media experiment/pinterest assignment

4/23 Thur: Brainstorm and look for more inspiration.

4/24 Friday: Sketching

4/25 Sat: Continue sketching.

4/27 Mon: Get feedback and narrow down results/

4/28 Tues: Start creating in Illustrator.

5/4 Mon: Get lots of feedback and update.

5/5 Tues: Present logos to class and get last min help and ideas.

5/7 Thurs: Make video presentation.

5/8 Fri: Project due.

Ordinary Spot-Extraordinary Shot

This assignment was a little bit harder than the previous one. Creativity is still something that I am working on and this assignment definitely needed creativity.Trying to find the extraordinary in the ordinary can be challenging.

The first thing that I did was look around my room for interesting things. I really like the design of one of my perfume bottles so I grabbed that and lit a candle. The best light was in front of the living room window and so I stationed there for a little while. I tried lots of different angles but nothing seemed to be working. I then put on little magnifying lenses on the front of my main lens. I had won them in a competition a few semesters previous. I was then able to zoom in four-ten times more. I turned my automatic zoom off and used manual mode. I was able to get a few good shots.

I got bored with that setting so I went outside to take advantage of the light. In the little courtyard of my apartment complex there are a few small trees and the blossoms were beautiful. I was able to get macro shots of the flowers and a few of the grass nearby. I loved the lighting. It was also windy so the flowers were in a nice blur motion. I loved how everything worked out. I then went into Photoshop and had a lot of fun playing around with the colors and effects. I sharpened every picture and these are the results.

Extraordinary Shots:

Perfume Bottle

Little Flower

Sepia Flower

Behind is Beauty Too

Lone Flower

Blades of Grass

Ordinary Spots:

Courtyard Tree

Window Seal

Courtyard Grass

SQIBB It Up! (Studio Quality Invisible Black Background)

This first assignment was a fun one! I really enjoyed doing it. The inspiration for this assignment came from Glyn Dewis. That being said let’s get right into the details.

I was fortunate enough to work with two of my classmates and get their help. We got together and using a light kit that included a speed light, rouge flashbender, and a trigger we set up a triangle. One person holder the speedlight with the flashbender on it in one corner, the photographer in another corner and the subject in the last corner (see set up photo below). I changed my camera settings to ISO 100, f/14, and shutter speed at 1/250. With these settings and this set up we were able to get the effects seen below.

I wanted to make sure that there was something else in the picture with my subjects so I brought a few props. Alex is wearing a scarf in one picture and holding flowers in another. Meghin is wearing the hat. I loved the feeling of mystery in the pictures of Meghin wearing the hat and Alex wearing the scarf. I then started taking pictures of just the flowers on the floor. The color picture of the flowers turned out so well because we had an extra speedlight set up as well to light up another side of the flowers. So there is light coming from the front and left side.

I only had to do a little editing and touching up in Photoshop. Overall I am very happy with how my pictures turned out and I learned a lot.

Set Up

Alex Benson

Alex Benson

Alex Benson

Alex Benson

Meghin Burns

Meghin Burns

Flower Color

Flower Black and White

Comm 462 Weekly Blog Post Week 1 Identity Project

In this activity I will be finding inspiration for and creating three new logos. These will be my own personal logos for my portfolio and website. I will be looking on Pinterest for inspiration and good examples of well designed logos. I will also use Facebook to ask people what they think of when they hear my name so that I will find out more about myself. All of these tools will help brand myself. I will then be sketching 30 logos to choose from. I will get feedback and using Adobe Illustrator, create three new logos to choose from for my portfolio and website. These are the basics of this project and here is the timeline:

Identity Timeline

4/22  Wed: Social Media experiment /Pinterest assignment.

4/23 Thurs: More brainstorming and looking for inspiration.

4/24 Fri: Start sketches.

4/25 Sat: Continue sketches.

4/27 Mon: Get feedback and pick three.

4/28 Tues: Choose color scheme and fonts.

4/29 Wed: Start logo one.

5/1 Friday: Logo one/ Get feedback.

5/2 Sat: Start logo two.

5/4 Mon: Logo two/ Get feedback.

5/5 Tues: Start logo three.

5/6 Wed: Logo three/ Get feedback.

5/7 Thurs: Get lots of feedback and refine

5/8 Fri: Project due by 5:00pm/ last minute touches.

Facebook Post:

The social media activity worked very well. Here is what I asked on my Facebook post: “Okay friends I need your help. This is for a class. Here we go! When you think of Hilary Hendricks what words come to mind? So in other words, what do you think defines me as a person? I need at least ten responses. Thank you for your help! Ready go!”

The response was overwhelming and I got a total of 35 responses. Here are just a few:

Witty, smart, and completely adorable!

You are one of the most genuinely kind people I’ve ever met! And I admire how strong your faith is in what you believe!

Happy, Fashionista, Korean, Bread.

Considerate, kind, hard working.

Sweet, caring, confident, family oriented.

Compassionate. Independent. Inspiring. Funny. Intelligent.

Happy. Positive. Always with a big smile.

Beautiful!!! Big hearted, always smiling!

Athletic and full of spirit!

I would say Funny, Dependable. Motivated.

Beautiful, tenacious, smart, spiritual, kind, thoughtful, hard working, honest.

Honest, Faithful, Athletic, Vibrant.

There were many more kind things said, but those seem to be the most varied. There were some that also repeated the same word or quality. If I learned one thing it is that people notice.I didn’t realize people thought I was a hard worker, fun or funny, or dependable.  I have a lot to offer people and I am proud of the way I have conducted myself so far in my young life. I want to create a logo that shows hard work and effort.

Audience:

I am still trying to figure out who will be looking at my website. Friends and family will of course be glancing at it. However, I do think that I will be posting a lot of photography and design activities. If I could reach out to future employers then that would be wonderful. As of right now, I would brand myself as an aspiring photographer who dabbles in web design.

Pinterest: 

PR by Jacob Nielsen

This was one of my favorite logos that I found. The colors are subtle and have a nice texture( which I don’t see often). I love how it is all connected. It has a feeling of completeness or gestalt. And the best part is the back of the “R” where it fades. I like looking at it. Simplicity is bliss. Here is a link to the website I found it on: http://www.fromupnorth.com/archive/logotypes/35276/

There rest of the images I pinned had similarities to those described above. They had subtle colors and were very connected. The designs were simple, but unique. The letters were beautiful and fun to look at. I hope to obtain a similar look. A clean and simple logo, but not boring. Here is my identity board in Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hilsyeah/identity/

Photographics Society Extra Credit

Blending Print Contest

Right Out of the Camera Blog Contest

I attended 2/3 of the meetings and payed the $10 membership fee.

I participated in two contest as shown above.

Project 9 Portfolio

View this document on Scribd

1. Project Corrections / Time spent: I spent an hour fixing my flier and letterhead projects. I also spent an hour fixing my photodesign project. Corrections made: I changed the font on my flier and left aligned everything. I got rid of a few uneccessary boxes. Overall I made sure that there was enough white space and more alignment. On the letterhead I added three paws with the last paw going off of the page on the top right corner. Then I brought the panda down and in a little bit so that it wasn’t so close to the edges. I spent the most time on the photodesign in Photoshop. I basically redid everything. I kept the fonts, but I got rid of boxes and used the brush tool all over. I added several mask layers to get the added effect.
2. Message: I wanted others to see my projects that I completed and the fun design that I created for this portfolio.
3. Audience: Potential client, employers, and classmates.
4. Top Thing Learned: It is always better to brainstorm ideas and to look for inspiration before starting any project and how to trace with the pen tool.
5. Future application of Visual Media: I want to continue to use these skills that I worked so hard to learn. I will continue taking classes for the visual comunications cluster so that I can further my skills. I think that this skill is valuable in any workplace or church calling.
6. Color scheme and color names: Monochromatic, Red.
7. Title Font Name & Category: Blairmditc tt medium, Sans Serif
8. Copy Font Name & Category: Bell MT, Oldstyle
9. Thumbnails of Images used:
10. Sources (Links to images on original websites / with title of site): Henry Donovan Motif http://www.hennydonovanmotif.co.uk/cherry_blossom.htm