Double Exposed Portraits

Practice Image

Our new project is portraits that have a little twist to it; we first have a photographer take a profile picture of us and then go out and capture images that we find inspiring or symbolic to our lives. Before we were able to begin we had to learned what portrait photography is. We learned that portrait photography or portraiture is of a person that has a presentation of expression, personality, and mood. The main focus of a portraiture is commonly the person's face. It can also relate to a profile view and silhouetting because they are all focusing on a single subject and being able to recognize the subjects features. Our task is to create a fascinating double exposed portrait.

At first the process of creating double exposed portraits seemed confusing as well as difficult, but after we received a demo and also have the chance to explore, it was quite simple. To make this type of portrait image in Photoshop you must first take your profile portrait. Then you can take two different textural photographs, like s landscape photo for example, or an image that symbolizes you. Now you can open Photoshop and select the "load pictures in to stack" option and make sure you size the image to be 8.5 in. x 11 in. and the resolution to 300. Then you are ready to double click on your portrait layer and select a blend mode of your choice and experiment the different options. After choosing a mode that you are satisfied with, you can do the same for the next picture, for the last image you may re-size or adjust its placement if you'd like. Next you can play around with your two textural images until you get something you like and you can also add adjustment layers if you wish. I believe you will be amazed at how different options can make your image look spectacular just as it did to mine. These photos are really fun to make and look absolutely stunning!

For my practice image I faced towards the right and for my final picture I faced towards the opposite direction; left. I did this so when both images were completed I could position them to face each other. By doing so, I wanted to represent two different people looking at each other and them taking in their differences... just like how we should do the same in our every day lives. So for my practice photograph I captured a tree with sunlight passing through its branches and also another tree but with a different look and perspective on it. I really liked my practice image because of the position of the sun-rays... it kind of made my face look like it had a sparkle or shimmer. The two other images I took for my final was a picture of a spectacular sunset and a picture of me at Lumaha'i beach (those pictures are above).These two pictures symbolize me because I absolutely love the beach and one of the meanings for my name; Leleaka, is the light.

 

Final

HDR Photography

Our current project is HDR photography. HDR or "high dynamic range" is a type of photography that in my opinion,  is amazing! It creates a gorgeous over-all product with a great amount of detail. What is dynamic range? Well I can tell you, it's the ratio of the light and darkness in a ratio. HDR photography uses two images at a minimum, with all of the images at different exposures. After taking your images, you can then use a computer program of your choice (in this case we used Photoshop) and you can merge them together to get an amazing final product. Some examples that would be good for a HDR photo are, landscapes and portraits. But it will only work best if your subject or main focus is still. The best time to take landscape photos, in my opinion, is either during sunrise or sunset; the golden hours. For me, I would like to make all of my pictures an HDR image because it's just so spectacular!

To create a HDR image step-by-step, you must first collect all of you images. With that said, you should set up any camera you wish, ideally on a tripod or an object to keep the camera stable. Then you set the exposure to the however dark you want the first picture to be ( I set the exposure level at -2 for my first photo), you can then move the exposure up a little, take another picture once again (remember to go up in the same increment everytime) and just repeat these steps until you are satisfied with the quantity. After your finished with taking the pictures, you can upload them to any editing program you would like. If you would like to use Photoshop, open the program, click "File" (left corner), then click the "Automate" option, then "Merge to HDR Pro". Now you can select your files and let it load. When it finishes loading, you can personalize your image if you'd like.

Above are my final HDR photos. The first image is an HDR portrait of my beautiful sister; Ilihia, the second photo is an HDR landscape, and my last image is both of the pictures combined which made a superimposed photo. The goal for our photos were surrealism, so with these images I enhanced the exposure, saturation, vibrance, and gamma effects. By doing so, I made the colors in the sky pop a little more.  For the picture of my sister, the portrait, I selected an effect that I believed looked surrealistic, I increased the amount of detail, exposure, highlights and darks, the vibrance, gamma, and saturation. For the last photo; superimposed, I cut-out the picture of my sister and placed it on top of my landscape image. I edited them both once again and added a word that matched with the over-all feeling. I really enjoyed making these photos and I hope my sister likes them!