Photographs by Hiro

When I saw my first photos by Hiro. I wasn't sure what I was looking at. Is it art, is it an optical effect or is it a photo? I'm still not sure, that is why I would like to profile the works of Yasuhiro Wakabayashi.

In 1982, American Photographer, a journal for commercial photographers, devoted an entire issue to Hiro. On the cover, next to the artist's self-portrait, was the question "Is this Man America's Greatest Photographer?"

Today, when I search on the internet for photos by Hiro, I cannot find the photos that first moved me. The Helmke Library on campus doesn't have any images. How does someone go from "America's Greatest Photographer" to forgotten in 30 years?

I would like to learn about Hiro and his techniques and try to find some of those old fashion photos of bovine hooves adorned with diamonds.

Wouldn't you?

Riverfest 2011

We went to see Riverfest and we really enjoyed all of the activities and exhibits. Here is a short movie of the waterski show pyramid. This is the first time that we had seen the bridge, but it was too packed to walk across.

Indoor picture

My friend was nice enough to let me take his picture and use it for this assignment.
This first picture is the original indoor without flash. Luckily, he has a big sliding glass door that lets in a lot of morning light.



I made a new layer in Photoshop and placed a copy in the layer. I adjusted the new layer using Image/ Adjustment/Curves and darkened the copy.
Then I made a copy of the second darker layer and made another even darker version.

By adjusting the opacity of each layer I was able to
selectively darken parts of the image. 

Using the oval select tool with a Feather setting of 250 I cut through the darker layers on top to get a circle of light around the subject. Then I made a black layer on top and using the oval select tool with a Feather setting of 250 I cut a soft hole through the black layer. The top black layer is then made semi-transparent by changing the opacity settings to 40%. This creates a soft vignette around the subject.


 The last touch is to crop the existing chair from the left edge of the photo. And finally after looking at the image, I decided to crop in tight around the subject in order to emphasize the vertical elements of the composition.

 Joan and I rode our bikes to Foster Park while looking for subjects to photograph for this assignment. The D is a metal hand railing on someone's side porch. The A is a stepladder on my neighbor's patio. N is timbers on a Tudor style home. A column from the pavilion works for the I and the vinyl fence section looks like an E. The door handle looks like an L, but does not stand out as clearly as the other objects.
Overall, I am generally pleased with the final result.

Problems with Blackboard

This video attempts to document some of the problems that I have been experiencing with instruction delivered through IPFW Blackboard

Please add any comments or suggestions that might help to resolve these issues.
Good News! I installed an update to Windows Explorer 9 on Friday and everything is working on my home computer now.

Cropping Photos

This is an arrangement of fruit on my kitchen tabletop that was photographed for the composition assignment for Unit 1.

In this example I have cropped the same image to remove some of the surrounding areas and focus attention on the fruit and the light.

After looking at the cropped photo for awhile I decided to crop even closer to get this trio of primary colors. This is a very basic arrangement of Red, Green and Orange in groups of three. The light on the tabletop provides a warm foreground and a cool background. I also used Photoshop to remove some of the stains and stuff on the tabletop for a cleaner closeup.

Adjusting Contrast

The photo on the right was taken in the evening and has a low contrast level, due to the soft diffused light from the environment.



In this version of the same photo the contrast level has been increased using the "curves" feature in Photoshop. I have been using Photoshop for at least 15 years and it is the primary image software of most graphic designers.

Be sure to check out my Wiki pages at djb24.pbworks.com