Self Evaluation

Overall, Jessica and I were pleased with how the final project turned out. It was out first time ever making a video, let alone using Final Cut Pro, so it was an intimidating project going in. But we learned a lot from week to week, and were able to put together a good motivational video of the women's lacrosse team. The biggest headaches actually turned out to be things outside of using the Final Cut program, such as getting the camera and firewire, and finding a computer that was compatible with equipment we had. At the end of the day, I truly learned a lot about digital media with this final project, and was very content with the project we showed on the last day.

Getting the footage and making the video

We had an idea of what kind of footage we were looking for. We wanted to focus on huddles, goals, and celebrations. It sounds like an easy task, but obviously we never knew when a goal was going to happen so it was a daunting task to keep up with the fast paced game. Jessica did a great job filming, and kept up with the pace great. We got some awesome shots of the girls celebrating after a goal and then after the win. While making the video, we were able to successfully incorporate newspaper clips, quotes, and footage from the game.

Editing

The first step for editing was to actually learn how to edit in Final Cut Pro. We had some raw footage to play around with on the program, and those couple weeks during the demos we really learned a lot on how to edit and cut footage. We then formed our storyboard, which can be seen on Jessica's blog. We were excited with the story we came up with, using the song "Don't Stop Believin" in the background. We hit some bumps in the road with the technical stuff, such as how to successfully operate our camera and getting the firewire from the cage. Once we got all that figured out, we just needed the raw footage from the game (and hope for a win!)

Final Project Proposal

For the final project, I will be working with Jessica Falcone. When we found out we needed to do a 30 second video, we both instantly decided we wanted to do something having to do with sports. After some deliberation, we decided to do a motivational video for the TCNJ Women's Lacrosse team. They are among the top ranked teams in the country, and have had some huge games in the past couple weeks. We plan to do this from a fan perspective

Color Change

These are my color change images. The image to the left is the original photo of horses in a field in Iowa. The above image is the completion of the color change. I predominantly used the curves modifications, to brighten the sky to make it look blue instead of gray. I also used to curves to give the grass and the tree a brighter, popping out green.

Composition

This is my image from the composition assignment. All the images were from pictures that I took on my trip to Guatemala and El Salvador last summer. The original image is a backdrop of a Guatemalan mountainous horizon. I used the clone stamp tool to get rid of a couple cars that were in the parking spaces. I then composited 3 images on top, one of a basketball backboard, one of a gas station sign and one of our travel van. As my first composition, I was able to get some practice for my midterm images. I did not use this one for the midterm, but it was a good start.

Composite

This was my piece for a Composite image. I had the original image of a beach and sky, and chose composited different sky's over the original image. This particular one is a "stormy sky" and I also had a skyline sky and a sunset sky.

15 minute Excercise

This is the first assignment we had of the semester. After being introduced to Photoshop, we had to complete images using the tools we knew at the time. This image is my "15 minute" painting.

Self-evaluation

Looking back on the midterm project, I ended up pretty satisfied with the three new images. I was worried because I was not crazy about any of the images I had done throughout the first half of the semester. Being that this was my first time ever being exposed to a program like Photoshop, I literally started from scratch that first day of class. Even though I took notes on all the demos, there would always be steps I would forget during the process of forming compositions, color-changing or layer masking and it would leave me stuck. So while it is definitely a learning process, I found myself getting very frustrated throughout the course of developing the images for the midterm. At the end of the day, even though these images probably seem pretty elementary compared to most of the other midterms we will see, I feel happy that I did the best I possibly could with the knowledge that I have up to this point.

This is my third and final image for the IMM 110 Midterm. I decided to pick this image to be the last of the project because I believe it culminates the impact of the trip on my life. Individual basketball players are in the four corners, while the centerpiece is a group shot of two different teams that live in two different cultures that speak two different languages, yet that are bound together through one cross.

I started with a scenery picture of Guatemala, and again used the stamp tool to get rid of some extra poles towers. I then used the filter tool to make it look like a painting. I then tried to mask the group photo, and had some trouble getting the selection from one picture to another. Eventually I got it, but I do not even remember how because I was trying so many things and eventually got it to work. I then changed this mask to a black and white photo, so the cross that would come later would blend in with it. I then used the lasso to get four different basketball action shots of players on the trip. Finally, I brought in the cross layer, which is the same cross from the first photo and free transformed it and lowered the opacity on it to make it blend in with the group photo.

This is the second image I created for the photoshop midterm. My desire for this post was to display what we actually did during the two weeks we were in Guatemala. Each backboard represents a different city that we traveled to in order to compete against different national and club teams. The mountain in the background of the photo is the largest mountain in the country, and represents the scenery that we experienced while driving from city to city.

I started with the original image of the Guatemalan backdrop and then made adjustments first through auto color and auto contrast and then through "curves" in order to change the dark cloudy sky into a blue sky. I then used the Sketch filter to give the picture a "Water paper" filter. Then for the backboards, I used the adjustment tool to make the images better quality. The biggest difference was seen on the top left backboard. I then used the lasso tool to get the 3 images of backboards to paste onto the Guatemalan backdrop picture. I finished by using the texture filter to give each backboard a distinct look, to represent each distinct city that we competed in.

My first image is a simple composite picture, combining two photos together. I chose this to be my first image because it describes the reason for my trip to Guatemala this past summer. While we did to go compete against international teams, we used basketball as a platform to share our most passionate topic of Jesus Christ. At the end of the day, our purpose for being down there was pretty "black and white".

I started with an image of a traditional church that was at the center of town of one of the cities we traveled to within Guatemala. I used to the clone stamp tool to get rid of a lot of the shadows that were present in the original image. I then made the adjustment on photoshop to turn the photo into a black & white image. I then used the lasso tool to cut myself out of another photo that was taken during one of the games and pasted it at the forefront of the image. I kept myself in color, while the church remained in black and white.

Midterm Proposal

Last summer I went on a trip to Central American to play basketball. Almost all my pictures come from this trip, so I decided to put together a project of images that document this trip. I hope to convey why I went to Central America, what we specifically did there, and the impact it has had on my life via these Photoshop images.

About Me

Student in Professor Sanders' Intro to Digital Media class that meets Thursdays at 1230.