6 Formal Elements of Design - Project 7

Introduction

    This weekend my partner and I decided to load up our children and take a little trip to downtown Lakeland. I wanted to shoot some photos that had more of a city feel. The trip started off kind of awkward, and everyone was trying to find their place as we stepped out onto the sidewalk. We parked in a parking garage with bright red staircases on the corners and a cool alley to the left. That is where our journey began.

BUT it did not end there…

    We ended up loading up again to travel back to downtown because I needed to take a few more pictures to satisfy my soul.

    It was hard choosing from the plethora of pictures that I took, but the ones I chose capture some interesting moments.

    In this project, we were supposed to focus on the 6 Formal Elements of Design. The 6 Formal Elements are: line, format, shape, value, texture, and color.

Value

    I am going to start with my second favorite shot for photo number 1. This shot happened later in our travels. It is a tree on Lake Morton casting its shadow on the water.  I was not expecting to capture this shot. I already planned a shot for value, but this ended up taking its spot. I changed this photo to B&W, and I increased the clarity by 25, texture by 40, sharpness by 59, shadows by 26, and contrast by 40. I removed a duck with the remove tool that seemed distracting, and for the finishing touches, B&W profile 6 was applied along with a -11 vignette.

Shape

    Photo number two was a MUST. As soon as we arrived at our destination, I knew I had to take this shot. It is my shape picture. It is a spiral flower figure. I added two masks to this photo.

    The first mask is the subject. I selected it with the brush tool. I reduced the shadows by -21 and the whites by -23 because it was a bit overexposed. I increased the blacks by 18, the texture and clarity by 37, and the sharpness by 35.

    The second mask was for the background, and I reduced the clarity, texture, and sharpness to -100 to blur the background. To finish it off, I applied artistic profile 1 and a -11 vignette.

Lines

    The third photo represents lines. I originally chose something else for this, but the parking garage seemed to represent many different types of lines. This is what I was after. I increased the contrast by 23, the texture by 47, and the clarity by 51 to bring out the realness and uniqueness of the parking garage. I reduced the highlight by -32 and the whites by -88 to clean up some of the overexposed and underexposed areas. For the final touches on this photo, I applied artistic profile 3 and a -18 vignette to bring this photo together.

Texture

    The fourth photo turned out to be great, as well. It is the spikes on the tree. I cropped this photo toward the middle of the top portion. The detail stood out more. I increased highlights by 5, the shadows by 47, texture by 67, clarity by 49, and dehaze by 58. The whites were a bit overexposed, so I lowered them to -84. I then added artistic profile 5 and a -11 vignette.

Form

    The 5^th photo I fought with a bit. I hadn’t quite mastered my removal tool, but I had some trees in the way. I was able to remove them once I figured it out. I created two masks.

    The first mask was for the subject. I used the add and subtract button with the brush tool to properly select my subject. Then, I increased the texture to 59, clarity to 50, and sharpness to 50. This made it POP.

    The second mask was for my background. I blurred it out by reducing the texture, clarity, and sharpness to -100, and I increased the dehaze to 21. To bring it together, I applied modern profile 4 and a -11 vignette.

Color

    I saved my FAVORITE for last. The light was perfect for this photo. It was not planned, and it just turned out amazing. This is my color photo. My partner wanted a picture posing behind this vibrant fire hydrant, and it just worked out. It POPPED. I created 4 masks.

This first is for the sky. I decreased the whites by -8 and the blacks by -20.

    The second mask was for the hydrant and my partner. I reduced the shadows by -25, clarity by -8, and the noise by -59, and I increased the blacks by 20, texture by 20, and sharpness by 38.

    The third mask was applied to the background. I reduced the highlights by -20, the shadows by -35, the whites by -18, and I increased the blacks by 9.

    The fourth mask was for my partner's shirt. It just seemed a bit off. I increased the texture by 44 and shadows by 35 and decreased the clarity by -1 to make the shirt fit in the picture better.

Conclusion

    This was a successful photoshoot. We had a great time exploring downtown Lakeland both days. Each day we explored a couple of different areas, and we even ran into a farmers’ market. I learned a lot more about angles and lighting. The lighting on both of these days was extremely different. Day 1 was bright and sunny, and day 2 was very overcast. I learned that you may not get all the shots you want the first time around, but you may not get to take a second round of photos. This is why it is important to take as many photos as possible. Needless to say, it was a good weekend, and the photos turned out great.