Let The Games Begin

As part of my course unit I had to create a montage, the theme was a triathlon poster. I found this quite a bit of a challenge incorporating three elements that are so different. The hardest part was to blend the swimmer into the image and then knowing where to place the runner and cyclist. This was my outcome, in theory I would have been happier if I could have made the swimmer into a silhouette like the runner and cyclist but it didn't look right. Despite that I'm still happy with my outcome.   

Just Falling Through A Different Universe

So as part of my weekly challenges I was set the task to create a levitation image. This was something I was pretty excited to do, so I thought I'd make a tutorial of how I did it.
So to start with I took my images (it's best to take your photos with a tripod to keep the camera in the same place), one background image and one image with the subject in. For each time the camera moves you have to re-take the background image, this is because you want the background to match the photo that with be sitting on top.

So these are my starting two images that I will be editing.

I started by opening both images in photoshop, drag the subject image over the background.

Next you need to click on the easer. 

And start rubbing out the excess you don't need.

Don't forget, to make it look more realistic rub out the shadow too otherwise the effect of the levitation doesn't look as real.

This is my final image, it looks like my model has just come out from a different universe. 

Here's another two that I did. Hope you found this helpful and enjoyed as much as I did. 

Pseudo-HDR

As part of my weekly challenges at uni I was told to photograph HDR (High Dynamic Range). This has definitely proven to be a challenge for me therefore I have taken a cheat way of creating HDR (this technique is also known as Pseudo-HDR). The difference between the two is Pseuedo-HDR is created using a single frame whereas HDR is a combination of 3 frames: 1 regular exposed image, 1 over exposed and 1 under exposed. While I work on getting HDR done properly I will give you a little tutorial on how I achieved the Pseudo-HDR.

Starting point: this is the image I will be using. It is just a normal exposed image I took while on holiday last year.

So to start off I made a duplication of my image. To do this I right clicked on the background image. You can name the layer whatever you see fit, I decided to keep my layer as just 'background copy'.

Once you have made the duplication click on the drop down box, then go down the list and click on 'Overlay'. I circled them off in the image above.

This is the effect given by the overlay. Once that is done duplicate the background image again (I have circled it off). Again you can name the layer whatever you like, I kept mine as it was.

Your second duplicated image will appear in the middle of your layers list, you'll want to drag it up so it's at the top of the list. I've done this because I wanted that layer to sit on top of the other two layers.

Now that the second duplicated image is on top of the layers, click on the drop down box again, but this time select 'Linear Burn'. 

At first the image will appear rather dark, this is where you can play with the opacity and fullness of the image. I have circled both 'Opacity' and 'Fill' bars which if you give it a bit of a play you can bring back the details of the dark areas. 

End result, after doing some tweaking I had pulled the opacity to 44% and kept the fill to 100%. 

I was happy with how the building came out but because the sky was so clear I couldn't really get much of a HDR effect in there. It would have worked better if there was a grey sky or more clouds, but like I said I did find this one a big challenge but I'm hoping to learn how to do it properly so I can redo this and try again.

Hope you found this useful, but if anyone knows how HDR works I'm more then happy to receive some tips. 

The Trip That Should Have Happened

A couple months back I made a blog about a new adventure that I was meant to go on this week, a uni trip to New York. I've wanted to visit America since I was 5 so obviously I was extremely excited to finally make this dream come true. At the beginning of this year I lost my nan which broke my heart and I had lost the motivation to do anything (which is why I've been slacking with my blogs, sorry guys :s). The only thing I had to look forward to was my trip to New York, I made sure I had all my paperwork sorted and my passport was valid and still in date. So February 7th slowly made it's way around, I woke up at 4am, I already had my clothes picked out, got ready and made my way to uni to meet up with the rest of my classmates. With frozen fingers and excitement tingling we all waited for the couch to pick us up and take us all to Heathrow airport.

We made it to the airport happy and safely. When it came to checking in everyone checked in and got their boarding passes fine ... Except me. Because I have an Italian passport I always get trouble (i.e. applying for job, proving I'm British ect.) I had to provide an ESTA/ visa which I had but I had gotten the passport number wrong by accident (just my luck). So while everyone else went to get their hand luggage checked and to chill out, I had to stay behind with one of my tutors to reapply and repay for my ESTA, which I'm fully aware was my own fault. Sure enough I got the ESTA finish and paid for, got my boarding pass and made it fine through passport control. I thought I would have been fine after that, once you get through passport control and given a boarding pass surely you should be fine to travel ... I should be so lucky.

Once I had reunited with my group and we all made it to our boarding gate, again everyone else swiftly got through fine. Until it came to me, the woman looked at my passport, looked at me and asked, "do you have a second passport?". Rather confused I said no (correct me if I'm wrong but I'm sure you can only have one valid passport at a time??) this woman then consulted with the guy she worked with who pulled out a book and started flicking through said book whilst looking at my passport.  I was convinced that neither of them knew what they were doing by this point. The head stewardess was then called over and she told me that I wasn't allowed on the plane because my passport photo was stuck into my passport book and laminated instead of being digitally printed (apparently in 2005 the legislation requirement changed, I was 10 in 2005 so I had no idea this legislation existed), that is just how an Italian passport is done (or at least that is how I know passports to be done). The passport was still perfectly valid. I had researched that if a passport wasn't digitally printed in the passport book that you needed a visa ... Something I had to reapply AND repay for that very morning. But the stewardess was having none of it, I wasn't getting on the plane. I thought surely if my passport didn't meet the legislation requirement to enter America, surely I shouldn't have been given the boarding pass or had made it that far. 

But everyone was now on the plane and I was left sat by the window watching the plane that I should have been on get ready. Eventually this 6ft ridiculous guy in a suit arrived to escort me to my suitcase. But first I had to spent 20 minutes in immirgration to check out from my flight. I was then escorted to the luggage pick up point where I was told that it could take a while for my bag to arrive, by this point I was feeling rather tired, fed up and bitter about the whole situation to which I replied with a bitter "don't worry, I've got time to kill". Obviously this bouncer looking guy shot me a look that said he didn't have time to kill. When he told me it could take a while, I wasn't expecting it to be 2 and a half hours. Throughout the whole time I was getting dirty and worried looks from other people, I was being made to feel like a criminal or an illegal immigrant at every checkpoint that day. And Mr Ants-In-His-Pants went to ask where my bag was 6-7 times and every time he went he'd turn to me and say, "I'm going to see where your suitcase is, stay there and don't move." ... Really?? What did he think I was going to do?? It's not like I was going to jump into a suitcase while he wasn't looking, I'm not an illegal immigrant! I was born in England, I'm British!! 20 minutes before my suitcase came out the escort turned to me and asked if I had seen my bag yet ... I mean I know I said I had time to kill but seriously?? Of course I hadn't seen my bag yet, I would have said something!! (I'm not normally an angry person but he really did test my patience, thankfully I know how to keep my mouth shut).

Eventually my suitcase came out of the little flap door on the convayer belt, by this point I just wanted out. So I pointed out where my suitcase was (apparently he had to grab my case, by this point I didn't really care though). Once I had my case I followed the escort to freedom, I thought that considering he had to stay with me for so long throughout the day that maybe he'd stay to make sure I got picked up safely. Thankfully not, he was very quick to get away from me actually, not surprising really. I wouldn't have minded so much but I was left outside of this massive airport that has so many different entrances and exits, I had no idea where the hell I was and I wasn't from that area either. After 20 minutes I was found by my parents who very nicely agreed to make that hour and a half drive to pick me up.

All in all, I was appalled by how I was treated in the airport, I knew I should have been on the plane. I had made it through passport control so the stewardess made a decision that wasn't hers to make. I was heartbroken that I had to miss a trip of a life time and I'm now £760 out of pocket plus £18 as I had to pay for the ESTA twice. Everyone was off having fun while I had to stay behind, being treated as if I was a criminal. Just when I thought I really needed a break away from everything. 

This was a trip that should have happened. I should be in New York right now getting all the new things I'd have gotten packed ready to travel home. I should have two 32GB memory cards full of amazing photos for me to use in my projects and I should have had a blog up everyday this past week full of photos from my mini adventure away. 

But thank you British Airways for well and truly ruining this uni trip for me, this is the first and definitely the last time I ever travel with BA.

Behold The Bokeh

Before Christmas I was set a task in my uni class to take some Bokeh photography (For those who don't know what Bokeh is, it's where you taken out of focus shots, usually of light). I thought with the Christmas tree having so many different coloured flashing lights, what could have been better timing!! So before the Christmas tree gets packed up, I tried to get some good shots. I've never done Bokeh before so it was a bit of a shot in the dark, it's definitely something like I'd like to try again. But with that being said I'm still quite proud with how some of my images came out, I've got some of my photos below, how you enjoy :)