Chelsea Dyjak's Recipe B&W/Mystery

Phone: iPhone 5 

App: Black & White Master 

This photo was my POW and was taken right after a storm up the mountains had passes. The fog had prevented me from seeing across the lake and I thought it looked mysterious. Other people had come out on the dock to look at the calmness of the lake but I decided to frame my picture so that they were not in the shot. I got down low so that the angle made the close rather than looking down at it. The Black & White Master allowed me to turn the photo to black and white and make the shadows and lighter parts more distinct. 

Rachel Burkey Crit 1 Recipe: B&W Mystery

            My POW was done very specifically. I used my iPhone 5C. It was around dinner time that I took this photo (5-7pm). When I was taking the picture of the tea cup from an arial point of view I didn’t focus on the space around the tea, I only clicked the focus once on the tea and took the picture quick while everything was washed out around the tea cup. Another factor that helped construct this photo is that the tea was still steaming when I took the picture, therefore creating the soft look in the picture. As far as b&w goes, I made the photo b&w first then went into a different app and added the light sepia tone on top of the b&w. I really love how the photo turned out. I used the following apps; Aviary and BeFunky.

Ross Shaffer Recipe Crit 1: B&W/Mystery

I'm only choosing one photo for my recipe because i think it is by far the best and follows the assignment the best. It also got a vast majority of the votes for my Photo of The Week. So in short, i chose this photo because its my best black and white photo that has a good sense of mystery. I was taken with an Iphone 4s with the most updated ios. It was taken with my phone held normally, vertically but the phone was just above my head because my subject was above me. I wanted to frame it so we just saw the patterns, shadows and light, with a tight enough shot as to not lead on exactly what it is.Many of you came very close though! For editing i used Snapseed, which i think is owned by google. Its a fantastic and free app that i highly recommend. So i cropped the photo to make the shot tight and then after that i added a neutral contrast black and white filter provided in the app. I was so happy with how it came out, i didnt mess with it anymore.

Emily Gilmore Reccipe Crit 1:B&W Mystery

To create this self-portrait, I used the Apple Iphone 5S with IOS 7.1.2 software, and it was edited in Afterlight version 2.5.
This shot was taken in the early morning. I had just woken up, so naturally, I opened the Snapchat application to inform the world of this thrilling event.  After rolling over on to my stomach and haphazardly taking my daily morning “Snap”, I observed the unintentionally interesting self-portrait that I had created. So, I opened the camera and carefully repositioned my face and hand within the frame. 

            Using the application, Afterlight. I completely de-saturated the photograph (sometimes I'll add tone, but not this one), and from there, I lowered the exposure, deepened the shadows, and boosted the highlights, and clarity. For this particular photograph, I intensified the drama due to its type of photograph (self-portraits tend to be strengthened with deep blacks and light whites). Two important editing elements that I include at the end of every photo recipe is refining the detail (sharpening) and adding a border. A border around the final photograph will help it to look professional in presentation and it draws the viewer’s eye inward to the content of the photograph. I am a stickler for detail, so I made sure that every blemish and freckle just shouted, “good morning, Snapchat world!”

Self-Portrait One by Emily Gilmore

Ryan Landis - Recipe Crit 1: B&W/Mystery

This photo was taken with an iPhone 5 IOS 7.0.2. and was edited with the snap-seed application as recommended by the professor. This app allows you the ability to put your photos in black and white and adjust both the contrast and the brightness manually at ease.  The shot was taken in an urban setting in New York City while there for the movie premiere of "The Identical". I took multiple photos at different angles to see what worked best for me.


I was attracted to the opportunity to take this photo instantly, it was simply a shot i couldn't turn down. I've always thought of myself as a risk taker and this situation was no different and I'm glad i took the shot because it ended up being one of my favorite black and white photos. Its always more fun to go against the grain and break the rules but to do it and end up with a cool picture made it even better. The barbwire and the background makes the picture look edgy like its somewhere you wouldn't want to be. I shot the photo at an angle so it wasn't just the typical head on shot, something I'm trying to get away from as i expand my horizon in photography. This is the first photo class, or art class at all for that major so its been a learning process seeing what i can do to make my photos better. The picture cam out clear and being able to adjust the contrast gave me a rich deep black color while keeping the white areas from washing out.

David Shiraki - Recipe Crit 1: B&W/Mystery

Although this wasn't voted my POW, I wanted my first recipe post to feature a photo with an interesting story behind it (plus people seemed interested in this one). This was one of my favorites from this assignment for a number of reasons. The general critique for my posts were to avoid graffiti and focus more on "urban decay". Forcing a story or scenario to make for a good photo is uninteresting to me so I focused more on what comes natural.

My friends run a skateboard magazine called Skate Jawn and this photo was taken inside of their warehouse (they also live here). If you are familiar with North Philly, this warehouse is located on 5th & Cecil B. Moore. There's tons of visually interesting things going on in that area. "$14 The Hard Way" is actually the title of a skate video that was premiered at the warehouse last winter (I wrote the title on the ceiling beam for the premier). There are ramps inside so its a good hang out spot. I figured most people would have no idea what they were looking at with this photo because of the graffiti, mattress, piping system, etc.

This photo was shot with an Apple iPhone 5 IOS 7.0.2. I shot this from ground level looking up while centering the title of the video. I thought if I framed this section of the warehouse people would definitely feel the mystery. I used VSCOcam for the black/white filter. The preset filters aren't bad but I didn't want it to look over processed so I reduced the levels on the filter before playing with the contrast, temperature, and exposure. First I turned the exposure up then I turned the contrast up. I didn't touch the temperature at all. I wasn't trying to do anything crazy with the photo since there was enough interesting things going on as is, so I just made sure the exposure was able to show the letters nice and clean. The contrast made for an interesting take on the mattress area on the right hand side.

I basically wanted an interesting photo that had more to do with what was actually being shot rather than the effects I could use. I played with the contrast and exposure with the other photos but I felt that this photo didn't need too much. I hope that after people read this they feel differently about the graffiti because its not just "found graffiti" that I stumbled upon on a walk to find good photos for this assignment. This means a little more to me and it also came more natural than going out and trying to force an interesting photo.

Alexandra Schulsinger - Recipe Crit 1: B&W/Mystery

All of my pictures were taken on the iPhone 4s with an iOS 7.1.2. I use the app Snapseed to make my photos black and white and I used the basic camera on the phone to take the photos. 

On the picture below, I framed these butterfly stickers upside down. I tried to get close enough to make the viewer not quite sure what they were looking at. Based on the comments from my fellow classmates, my strategy seemed to have worked. I changed the balance between the blacks and whites in Snapseed in order to make the the picture lighter.

The below picture is my Picture of the Week. After continuously looking at other students' pictures, I noticed a lot of people were experimenting with blurring an image. I tried to do this many ways, but in this picture I took the image of moving people while also moving myself. I tried to focus on the man walking alone, but to also blur the entire image. In Snapseed, I toyed with the black and white balance by making the darks stand out slightly more than the lights. 

Brooke Edwards - Recipe Crit 1: B&W/Mystery

I want to describe to all of you how I went about creating the photo that I believe is my most interesting. What makes this photo more unique than the other photos I took are the steps I took to achieve it. I feel that a lot of my other photos weren’t as individualized in the creation process as this one and I hope to make more improvements in this area! The photo that I chose to describe received so much good attention from you guys, so thanks!

The photo here is my POW, this self-portrait received the most votes quite possibly because of how much thought and effort I put into creating it. This photo as well as my others were taken by my IPhone 5c iOS 7.1.2. To be honest, I was nervous about taking my self-portraits and I thought a lot about how I could take a photo that wouldn’t reveal too much. (You might guess that I am not one to open up quickly and you would be right.) And so, I came up with the idea to silhouette my figure.

 

How did I do it? Well, one night when I was driving home when the idea struck me. I parked in my drive way and set up my phone for the photo. I left the headlights on and sat down with my back to the car. Luckily I had downloaded a self-timer app called TimerCam Version 1.3.4 so I could be hands free. However I did have to use trial and error in order to get the photo how I wanted it. Sit down, snap a picture, check it, and try again. Finally I was centered and the headlights weren’t obvious. In the original photo you can see the car, recognize the headlights, the driveway and grassy surrounding but what I wanted was just to focus on the effect of the lights.

 In order to do this I had to play with adjustment tools and filters. So I went to an app that I had been experimenting with called Afterlight Version 2.5. This app has a wide variety of adjustment tools, filters, textures, and frames. It is truly great, I suggest trying it out! I started with basic adjustments, first I dialed down the saturation completely for B&W effect. Then I moved to contrast and increased it as high as possible in order to reduce a lot of the glare created by the headlights. After that I turned the exposure all the way down – this is what created the silhouette look. The last adjustment I made was increasing shadow which is what gives this photo a kind of softer matte black appeal.

Although at this point the photo was doing exactly what I wanted it to I still felt something was missing. Looking back I feel that without these last additions the photo would have been boring and lacking in keeping your attention. So I played around and decided on a light leak effect, where the light sneaks in on the edges. The light came in and faded into the photo on the top and bottom horizontal edges of the photo with the addition of some dust or light specks. I dialed it to a respectable amount so I didn’t take away from the content and subject matter. This light addition helped keep the viewer’s eyes in the frame and balance the use of light from just the central focal point of light flooding over my shoulder.

So many steps were involved but now you get the picture!

Thanks again for all the comments, you guys helped me see my highpoints but also where I need improvement!

Breanna Keohane - Recipe Crit 1: B&W/Mystery

All of my photos were taken with an iPhone 5s with iOS 7.1.2. The above photo was my Photo of the Week. To get this look, I used a macro-type of technique. I got very close to the plant, but instead of letting my camera focus on the flowers (in the background), I tapped on an area closer to me to really focus in on the water droplets. I edited this photo with a combination of apps called "PicTapGo" (for the black and white filters) and "VSCOcam" (for editing purposes). I started with a simple, basic, black and white filter. I added contrast to bring out the texture of the flowers below, and played with the shadows and highlights to add a little of the same effect.

This shot was taken right before a storm, so the clouds had a lot of shape and definition with the sun shining behind them. I converted this photo first into black and white using PicTapGo.  For the toning, I then used an app called "Picfx", which has a lot of really cool filters, and even a whole category for vintage toning. I believe the one I used was actually called "vintage film". I used VSCOcam again to add in some contrast, silhouette the trees some more, and add in more highlights for the sun.

I would definitely recommend the apps I used. There are so many options and combinations to really bring out the effect you want in your pictures.

Jordan Otto; recipe b&w/mystery; POW

Black and White Recipe

Jordan Otto

The phone that I use is an Iphone 5 with iOS 7.1.2.  For my POW, I used the PHOTO FX app.  First, I selected Black and White.  I was surprised when the next option gave me colors to choose from in black and white, if anyone knows what this is all about, let me know.  I went with normal to be safe.    Next, I added a tiny bit of grain that is almost impossible to see.  What I really appreciate about this app, is that it has a before/after icon.  This allows you to view the original and filtered image you are editing.  I am still trying to grasp more knowledge about this specific app if anyone wants to give me some tips!  

Unfortunately, my technique wasn't as elaborate as I would have hoped.  I chose to find an area of the barn that I thought I could really catch a good angle.  I was also satisfied that I could get the windows from the loft into the photo. The windows ended up making a great reflection, which added a mysterious feel.  I laid on the ground and messed with a couple different views, took a couple of shots and then ended up loving this one.  

Sarah Criswell Crit 1 Black and White/ Mystery

Oh what a week! I learned a lot about this myself, my phone and how to take a picture beyond a selfie this week. I am about as beginner as they come for this class so I did a lot of learning.

My phone is a Samsung Galaxy S5. I played around with a few different apps. My standard camera on my phone, Snapseed and Photo Editor Pro.

My first photo I chose for my recipe this week was my POW.  In case you did not see my comments from the blog, this is the inside to an artichoke. It is what you find near the heart when you are peeling it apart. As for the picture, there is not much of a recipe besides beginners luck.  I took this photo with my standard camera on my phone, I was trying to use the flash and couldn't get it to work right (like I said beginner) I actually almost deleted it. When I was looking through my pics later that day I started messing with the color and was surprised how it came out. It was dark already (lack of flash) but it had deep purple hues and they really seemed to stand out when I worked with the colors on Snapseed. I wish I could say something smart or magical about it but I really can't

My next picture I chose is my personal favorite this week. I really had fun doing close up pictures to help with the mystery. I had a hard time at first keeping my camera still enough at times due to some health related issues but I found when I was able to balance my camera on something , in this case the ground, it really helped and made this weeks crit a little easier for me. I like the option on my standard phone camera to help the with the focus with just the touch of a finger. I was really happy with the clearness, and deep colors that came with this picture when changed to black and white. The contrast of the tiny rock stuck in the metal grate is my favorite part.

Lauralea Sharra - Recipe Crit 1 B&W | Mystery

I did not choose to use my photo of the week, rather two other photos that got a lot of attention in my critiques. I used a Galaxy S2 Android OS 4.1.2. I have an app that I use called "A Better Camera" which is free in the Play Store. It is a camera replacement app, meaning it replaces the stock camera interface. It allows you to shoot in multiple settings, including HDR, which is what I used for all of my photographs, except two. To process the photos into black and white, adjust brightness and contrast (etc), I used VSCO Cam.

The photograph of this fence is probably on of my favorite from the set. I specifically chose to take it from this angle because I not only wanted to avoid looking straight at the fence (a predictable angle), but I wanted to counter the texture of the fence with the texture of the brick layered ground. I used the HDR setting on my camera, as well at the macro lens, allowing me to achieve a highly dynamic, sharp close-up shot with shallow depth of field. I processed the photo into black and white (filter B5) and upped the contrast, separating the blacks and whites of the fence's texture even more.

This photograph is one of my two self portraits and was significantly one of the hardest photos for me to achieve, but I think it looks awesome, after trying and failing at it about 20 times. In order to achieve this photo, I stood in from of a mirror that I have attached to my bedroom door, that way, when facing the camera at me, I could still see how I was framing myself in the mirror (avoiding the front facing camera at all cost). For this photograph, I did not use the HDR setting. I used single shot, (HDR takes 3 shots for each photo and combines them for one image) because the HDR reduces motion blur and that was the complete opposite of what I was trying to achieve. I stood completely still, started waving the camera left to right, horizontally in front of my face and as I was moving it, I snapped the photo. It blurred the background and my face, but since I was so still, you can see some detail still intact. Then again, once done, I processed it into black and white (filter B5) and upped the contrast and brightness in order to bring those few details of my face out even more.

Allison Goldman - Recipe Crit 1 B&W/Mystery

This was my Picture of the Week.  I used an Iphone 5 IOS 7.0.2.  I did not download any apps for this set.  The phone I use allows me to easily make photographs black and white, and there are a 3 different filters that are actually fairly decent.  This one is taken in "Noir" which creates high contrast black and white photographs.  

This is a photograph of a table that was so perfectly waxed and shined I could see my own reflection in it.  I took the picture at a slight angle to avoid getting my phone in the photograph.  Changing the photograph to black and white caused the photograph to look more like a sketch than a photograph.

The strategy used for this photograph was much more deliberate.  At home I have a glass sliding door for the bathroom shower.  I ran bathwater, which fogged up the glass, then stood inside and smudged the fogged glass a little bit before taking the photograph of my face behind the glass (you can kind of make out the hand print).  This one is also angled to avoid having the camera in the picture.  I then made the photograph black and white through a filter called "Mono."

Debora Charmelus' recipe for my POW (#3 from Crit 1: B&W/Mystery)

This photo was taken on a Galaxy s 3 telephone (android OS 4.1.2) . The photo was taken on the camera app then edited on the application Snapseed. From there I change the photo to B&W and adjusted the brightness and contrast of the photo. This was done so that the reflection in the photo could be more evident. 

As an artist I try to stray away from taking photos head on unless there is some sort of linear pattern or symmetry that I want to highlight. By taking photos on an angle not only does it warp the items in the photo to make them more dynamic but it usually ensures that the focus of the photo is not centered. When taking the photo I did not expect the reflection to show up. I primarily wanted to capture the "Open" sign and the bust in the window. (I thought the bust would come off as an enigmatic figure in the window.) I am very content to have captured the figure walking to his destination. Had I taken the photo in the daytime, I would not have seen the reflection and the photo would have had a completely different feel to it. 

To take this photo I walked up to the window. Before my photo session I made sure my flash was off. Earlier I had been experimenting with a taking photos with a higher exposure value so I had to also make sure I changed it back to 0. I put my phone on an angle and started to take some photos. I knew I wanted to include the bust but I tried various heights, types of angle (overhead vs under shots) and distances from the window. Afterwards when I was reviewing my photos, I decided this was my favorite and I posted it.