I took this photo of my boyfriend and daughter while they were playing together at my mother’s house.  I felt I had captured a moment but decided that a few tweaks would turn this picture into a beautifully framed portrait. The editing program I had used for this image was Photoshop. I have done some previous digital editing work so I was a bit familiar with the program. I started off by cropping the picture just enough to centre it and have it look proportioned. Next, in order to change the mood of the photograph I converted the color into gray scale and sharpened the photo because my daughter’s eyes were a bit blurry.  The couch and the wall color in the background seemed to crowd the picture so I wanted to get rid of it. I decided to go with a plain background and remove the contents by using the clone stamp tool. This created more of the portrait look I was going for and cleaned up the clash that was going on in the background.

After finishing the main adjustments there were still a few things I felt the photo needed in order to be “frame worthy”. The black shirt on my boyfriend seemed to be contrasting with the white background. In order to fix that, I had to use the blur tool to soften the edges which caused him to blend in a lot better with the background. There was also a bit of shadow that bothered me on his forehead which I wanted to get rid of. The dodge tool seemed to work great for that and drew less attention to his forehead. The flaws in the photograph were then properly adjusted and I was able to add along some extras. I darkened the corners of the photograph in order to add a more comforting and warm mood which seemed to fit well with the picture. The burn tool seemed to do the trick which was very quick and easy. Then to finish off the whole edit I decided to add a quarter inch of white frame which made the photograph go from casual to portrait.

This edit was simple but very effective and taught me that less can sometimes do a lot more. Without all the contrast of the colors like the red couch and yellow wall, and the clutter the contents created in the background the photograph became very professional looking. It seemed to capture more of the moment instead of all the other things that were distracting in the photo. In the end I was left with a portrait that showed love and the beauty of a moment. This definitely went from a photo in the photo album to a framed piece of art.

      The next photograph of my daughter was taken about 2 weeks ago. She was being her curious self and exploring her surroundings when she came across the mirror. She looked so beautiful in the reflection I decided to snap a picture of her and captured what I felt was a very unique image. Of course there are always a few things you can improve to get your ideal image. 

      The first thing I felt needed some improvement were the yellow trimmings underneath the doors. It gave a 'grungy' look to a picture I wanted to look classic. To remove this, i used the clone stamp which did a great job replacing the trimming with the tiled floor. This helped clean up the small details in the picture. Next there were a few paint chips missing from the wall. For the same purposes of creating a neat image I used the clone stamp to and pulled some of the peach colour onto the white chips which blended the wall paint to look even. 

       After the minor adjustments, I noticed the smudges on the mirror my daughter had made while she was 'exploring'. A clone stamp would not be so efficient for a mirrored object so I decided to remove them with the healing brush. Now that  all the small details had been fixed, I felt there was some more I can do to create a captivating photo. The colours for me where nice, but I felt they needed some more coordination. I decided to change the tone of the photograph, not to black and white but I thought a softer look would complete it. I desaturated the picture by -50% by using hue saturation to get rid of the brightness of the photo and just keep the hues. At this point, I wasn't sure of my decision but decided to play on some tools to see if I liked it. I opened the colour balance tool and added about 10 points of red which creates a bit of a sepia effect. It was nice but felt a bit regular and commonly used. The purpose of my editing was to make the photograph more appealing. I lastly adjusted the flatness of the sepia by using auto levels which made the darker colours appear darker and the lighter colours appear lighter.

      In the end, I felt the sepia went along way with the small amount of tweaking I did. The auto levels created a more appealing feel and made this image look spectacular. It reminds me if a classic photograph and I feel it captures such a beautiful moment. The mirror image and large wooden frame makes it appear timeless as well as the position my daughter is in. With a few adjustments it simply went from a candid to a piece of art.

What are the main differences and similarities between portraits in the early days of photography and portraits today?

       Portraits in the past were only taken of people who were in a higher social status position. Not many regular people who have had the opportunity to have their potograph taken. This was due to the new innovation and high cost of reproducing photographs. These photographs were also a lot more difficult to capture. The subjects had to remian still for several minutes in order for the negative to be produced. It was difficult to capture color in the past, onjects that were completley red or green turned out completely black on film. The photos were also either black and white or in sepia tone. Direct exposure from the sun would also cause a black image which they called solarization. They did not have the color technology that we do today to create vibrant colorful images true to real life. The similarities between decades of portraits has been the art of capturing a still in order to be passed down to families and be remembered through time.



Who was the photographer and who was the subject of photographs in the past and today?

     Portraits today are taken by any and everyone of any and everything. This is because it is a lot easier for people to get their hands on a camera. In the past only a few were able to acquire such prominent and innovational equipment. It was also a lot more difficult than to just press a button in order to capture the image you wanted. It took several minutes and a patient subject in order to produce a negative. Which is why photographers were very few and in higher positions in older days. In the past portraits were reserved for prominent people, but today they are taken of anything that is around us. Digital photography has made it easy for anyone to capture an image whether it be a family portrait or a view of the beach.



What was the impact of technology on the portriats in the past and today?

    Reading through the articles on "click!" and becoming familiar with all the ways photography affects our lives, I concluded that it has the strongest impact on how we remember things. Photographs play a major role in capturing moments in time. A simple snap of a camera leaves you with a beautiful image that can be shared in the future, for people to remember, and learn what you have lived in the past. Photos can also change your perspectives on situations and the ways that you remember them. When you walk into a persons home and see the photographs on their walls and in picture frames on tables, it reads a story of their past and present and act as an anchor for how you remember them. The story they have set up in their homes can be very different from reality, but these photographs have a strong effect on the memories you have of them.


    Photographs can also be a mnemonic device. Jeff Sandozs' " Photography changes how we access the memories necessary to function in everyday life" is a great example of this. He tells a story of a retired physician and octogenarian, Dr.H, who self diagnosed himself with Alzheimer’s disease. Alzhiemer's disease is a disease of the brain that causes memory loss. After Dr.Hs' self diagnosis was confirmed, he could no longer live on his own and had been moved into a nursing home. During his time there he was determined to find ways to cope with his disease and ease his loss of memory. He carried a pencil and pen around with him and took pictures of everyone he would meet and make notes about them on the back of each photo. Dr.H also posted these pictures on his walls and would review them each day in order to refresh his memory. This type of memory retention through photographs enabled him to maintain a certain level of his daily activities.Thanks to the beauty of photography he was able to retain memory from those images and instead of changing what he remembers, caused him TO remember and trust that these photographs told the story of his day to day life.

     I found photography has the greatest impact on what we remember because our memories are what we have left after moments have passed, and what better way to spark that memory than with a photograph?