In my Advanced Photo class this quarter, we have worked on several projects that have built on each other, but this one (project five) and the last one (project four) were the most intertwined.

If you didn’t read about my work on project four, I have posted about it, so check that out before reading this. It will make way more sense, trust me.

So, in project four, I shot all the photographs for project five, which would be my final collection. Or, so I thought. When I saw that my images didn’t compliment each other the way I had hoped, I was back to square one.

Luckily, for project five, I was allowed to shoot more in order to fill in the gaps for my project five. The guidelines for project five are also very open ended.

For the quantity, we needed “A minimum of five and a maximum of eight.” and for quality, we needed assistance of our professor.

We showed him at least two options of each print for sharpening and he helped us pick which sharpening settings we needed and how to adjust the images to make it fit the best.

My last shoot with Liza and Kurt was amazing, and I loved the image of the two of them against the off-white brick wall by the windows. This shot became the center of my project. This print was printed with output sharpening in photoshop and I also had to do some masking to prevent a halo effect on the subjects. I also masked out some magenta which was coming through on the print on Liza’s pants, and added more sharpening to their eyes.

As the weeks progressed, I had redone a shoot with Mariah and Savion downtown to match this vibe, and those images worked better with the aesthetic I tried to capture. I chose to include this image of Savion in my final collection. In the editing process, I ended up sharpening the image and masking his watch and gold chain to minimize the effect it had on the eye.

I also did a shoot with Allison. While this photo wasn’t against the brick, it. did have a very clear backdrop, creating an image that was consistent with the others but also added some visual variety. This shoot was amazing and I really loved how it turned out. I added an ellipse tool to smooth out the sharpening and only focus it more toward the center. That helps draw the eye in toward her and focus on her instead of the other visual elements.

On the same day I shot with Allison, I also shot with Sienna. She wore clothes that fit the neutral aesthetic I was going for, and I loved how I was able to capture her expression to match the word on her shirt, “Attitude.” In this one, I sharpened it. but then added a mask on her face to dull the effect on her faux freckles so they looked less obvious and you saw her instead of just her freckles.

Lastly, I shot with Harrison. I styled him in a gray shirt and light wash jeans with white converse, and posed him against the brick wall. The images turned out better than I could have imagined, and I loved them so much. I ended up sharpening it and adding a mask to the wall beside him so he would be the main focus of the image.

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After this, the final part was matting. This process took me three hours and was honestly pretty difficult to create. The measuring was the hardest part for me, but it turned out great. The matting adds about three inches on each side of the print, but it really elevates the collection.

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Overall, I think the thing that I learned in this class that was the most helpful for my business will be the matting. I was really challenged by it, and I enjoyed the process, especially the final product.