Jacob Ostroff - Identity

     The strongest technical aspect of my work is the cut-outs i made on the 4 athletes. This is my strongest aspect because I cut out all of the background only leaving the players perfectly cut out to be used without covering the background due to their own backgrounds. An aspect I could improve upon is my spacing on the league logos. This could be improved upon because they're all very different in shapes and sizes so I could've resized and worked them around to be more even looking.
     The easiest part of this activity was the background and the text. This was easy because the background required me to just drag and drop it in and the text just required me to type "Boston MA" and then color the 4 colors of the Boston sports teams. The most difficult part of this project was cutting out the backgrounds of the players. This was hard because it was difficult once there was barely any background left because it was very easy to cut out part of the player and have to redo the cutting.
     I demonstrated the objective in this activity by cutting out the backgrounds of the players, using the new tools we learned, and I used things such as opacity from the first project. If I could do this project again I would change how everything is spaced out to make it look less cluttered and clean.

Graphic Design - Text Art "MLK"

     This is my work entailed "MLK" made with text in Photoshop. The strongest aspect of my work is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as the focal point. This is the strongest aspect because it provides a focal point for the work and covers many of the requirements. Something that could be improved is the gradient in the middle, after looking at it for so long it started to look slightly off, I could change this by making a new gradient.
     The easiest part of this activity was the 2 arches I made. I made the first one using the warp text tool then duplicated the layer, flipped it, and moved it down to reflect the top one. The hardest part of this project was had to of been making MLK in the middle. This was difficult because I was not very familiar with using masks but I used a mask to mask the image over the J's and it took me awhile to figure out.
     I demonstrated the requirements in these ways: The arches for warp, flipped, and gradient text and MLK demonstrated opacity and size. If I could do this differently I would've made a different person in the center.

End Project - Collage

Coffee Camera

Artist Reflection:

     This is my work made with my Coffee Camera. The strongest aspect of my work is the 5x7 work shown in the picture. This is the stingiest aspect because it shows all values of light, and you can clearly see the thing we took the photo of (pumpkin with hat on). An aspect that can be improved upon is the camera itself. The can was fine but I would've improved upon the tin foil outside and the paper on top to make sure no light got through. When we did our initial testing a small amount of light got through allowing for a light gray spot in the corner of the paper. I would've covered up more on the can itself to make sure no light could bleed through.

     

     There were easy parts and hard parts to this activity. The easier part of this activity was taking the picture itself. All we needed to do was put the can on 1 stool, have the pumpkin on the other, and then lift up the tape for 3sec and we were done. The hardest part of this activity was covering and painting the can. I found this hard simply because I am not very good a small crafts like that and it took me a long time to do so.

     I demonstrated the objective in this activity by doing all the steps to making the camera work. First we had to put a test strip in and then go outside for 30sec to make sure light wouldn't bleed through. Next, we had to put a test strip inside then have something to take a picture of across from the camera, then we lifted up the light hole flap and held it there for 3mins. After we did 3 mins the picture came out black so we dropped the time down to 1min, 30sec, 25sec, 20sec, 5sec, and finally 3sec. After we had a successful test strip at 3sec we did our final on a 5x7 sheet and exposed it for 3sec and got our perfect picture. If I could do this activity again I would change the picture we took. While I do like the one we already took, I think it would be cool if we had done a picture of something bigger and have a detailed background of the tree line behind it to really show off the capability of the coffee canmera.

Walead Besthy Keynote

Contact Sheet & Prints

Artist Reflection:

     These are my developed test strips, contact sheet, and 5x7 prints of my photo. The strongest technical aspect of my work is my 5x7 print in the middle. This is the stingiest technical aspect because it shows all the values of light (white, grays, and black) and retains the white border without having any minor flaws. A technical aspect of my work that can be improved is the photo itself. The photo was taken in a spot with a lot of shade, so the photo came out some what dull/bland and didn't have much going for it besides the wheel in the middle.

     There were easy and hard parts of this activity. By far the easiest thing we did during this activity was taking the photos. All we had to do was take the already loaded camera and go shoot. The most difficult part of this project was the fact that I had to do the 5x7 print 3 times. I found this not necessarily hard, but more tedious then anything because the enlarger was ready and all I had to do was re adjust the easel and then re develop.

     I demonstrated the objective in this activity by getting all the values of light included in my 5x7 prints. If I could do this activity again I would do multiple thing differently. First, I would change the picture. While the picture was good for completing the objective I felt it was boring and didn't have much except for the wheel. The other thing I would do differently is to make less mistakes and have to make less 5x7 prints and test strips, keeping in mind, even though there are only 6 works shown, Cam has the other half of what we did and more test strips from before.

Photograms

Artist Reflection:

     These are my photograms. For this project we did 3 photograms, a magazine, symmetrical, and landscape. The strongest aspect of my photograms is the fact that they feature the different values of light. This is shown in the white, gray, and black. To get these colors I used an enlarger on f11 and, depending on the type of photogram, ran the enlarger (had the light on) for either 4 or 10sec (magazine 10sec, symmetry and landscape 4sec). An aspect of my work that can be improved is in my symmetry. As you can see in the top left, the tissue paper in the middle was too thick to come up gray and instead came up white, so that photogram had no gray on it. If I could redo it, I would design it the same, but take off some layers of tissue paper to make it gray.

     The easiest part of this activity was using the enlarger. When I first saw it, the enlarger looked like a complicated machine that would take ages to get to know and use. After my first photogram though, I knew the machine like the back of my hand. The most difficult/annoying part of this project was running the photograms through the chemicals. I didn't like this because I didn't like standing still shaking a tray for about 10mins, but it wasn't the worst thing in the world.

     

     I demonstrated the objective in this activity by having the 3 values of light shown in my photograms. In the 2 good photograms I had (magazine, middle and landscape, top right) they both featured white, black, and grays. If I could do this again, I would spend more time on the design of the photograms themselves. I would go back and make the landscape and symmetry look more appealing to the eye. That was my project on photograms.