this week and the week before.

I forgot to write a blog last week. This is what I did. I tried to collaborate my installation class project with the jr. seminar class project. I wanted to have clown images in my installation so I painted my face like a clown. Unfortunately, Utrecht disappointed me once again. I was looking for Non-toxic face paint and they had none. I’ve been there three times. They said they ordered some and they didn’t. SO I bought non-toxic finger paint instead and it makes me look like a horrible Crayola paint tribal woman. So, I abandoned the idea and did something else.




I started documenting my installation when the crit was over. I've decided to expand on the nightmare idea. Just make it more surreal like. SO here’s a picture that influenced me. That’s what I’m doing this week. I scheduled a studio session Friday and Saturday.

Michelle Posadas links

MICHELLE POSADAS

Overview of Recent Images of my work as an artist, teacher, organizer, and facilitator:
http://s181.photobucket.com/albums/x313/michelleposadas/AAI%20Photos/



- As a sophmore in college I was an intern at Philagrafika and was the main coordinator for a giant public art extravaganza. I worked with hundreds of artists, students and volunteers, created a 260 foot print called Broadstreet Broadside. This mammoth accomplishment allowed Philadelphia to set the worlds record for
the longest print.
Images of Broadstreet Broadside: http://www.printcollaborative.org/pressmaterials.shtml
More information: http://www.philagrafika.org/pdf/articles/broadstreet_broadside_stops_traffic.pdf

- Here are my images of my Senior Thesis in 3D Fine Arts at Moore.
Senior Thesis: http://s181.photobucket.com/albums/x313/michelleposadas/American%20Still%20Life%20-%20Senior%20Thesis%20May%202004/

- Spiral Q is a non-profit arts organization that bring communities together and using art as a vehicle for social change through parade and pageantry through the construction of giant puppets. I worked with Spiral Q Puppet Theater for 5 years as an artist, teacher, program manager and facilitator. During this time I was also in intern my Junior and Senior year in college.
Organization website: http://www.spiralq.org

- Here is an example of the work that I did with Spiral Q. Last summer, I planned and conducted a week-long residency for a "Peace Camp," with a coalition of high school students in Southern California.
Images of "Peace Camp:" http://www.flickr.com/photos/spiralq/sets/72157600684657572/
More information: http://www.spneighbors.org/2007Brochure%5B2%5D.htm

- Last fall I spent 5 months in Asia. I was invited to Taiwan as a international artist to teach and spend three months building towards a giant puppet parade in Taipei. Following my work in Taiwan, I travelled primarily in the Philippines to do research for an original performance that I did in March 2008. I received the Leeway Foundations Art & Change Grant that made this trip possible.
Organization website: http://www.dreamcommunity.org.tw/
My Blog in Taiwan: http://michelleposadas.blogspot.com/
My Blog in the Philippines and Thialand: http://theluckestbird.blogspot.com/
Leeway Foundation's Art & Change Grant Profile: http://www.leeway.org/grantees.php?s1=1&s2=29&ID=528

- Here is more information for the original performance I did this March that was inspired by my travels. I collaborated with other local Filipino artists, Lovella Calica and L. Capco Lincoln. The show was a sold-out success at the Asian Arts Initiative and presented film, poetry, performance and puppetry.
Bumalik Blog: http://bumalik.blogspot.com/

- This year I am honored to be a recipient of the Leeway Foundations Transformation Award which will significanlt support me financially this year.
Leeway Foundation's Transformation Award Profile: http://www.leeway.org/grantees.php?s1=1&s2=30&ID=567

- I edited the "color correction" and designed the website for the independent movie, Young, Jewish and Left. It was shot throughout the US and focuses on Jews who came of age after the New Left movements of the 60's and 70's.
Movie Website: http://www.youngjewishandleft.org/

website

the website i got my images from is: http://www.istockphoto.com/index.php

sarah's final

The above pictures are the 3 that I choose to edit for my final project. I got them off istock.com. It worked like this:

-Create an account on istock with a username and password
-Once the account is created, I used my credit card to buy "credits"
-Each picture comes in different file sizes, and each file size is priced differently
-I got 30 credits for about $40.00
-All of my pictures were 10 credits each, about $13, at a file size of about 1920x2560

Hi Michelle

Hope you are well, it's quiet here without you.

Please post a picture of your little guy after he is born (and watch out for Sarah... who knows what she will do.)

good luck!

Should we try to reschedule with Hyunjin?

BIOGRAPHY

Hyunjin Jo
Writer/Director/Producer

Hyunjin Jo was born in Seoul, South Korea and was raised all over the United States (as varied as Hawaii and Kansas), but primarily grew up in the western suburbs of Philadelphia. She received a BFA in photography from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts where she was honored as a Lew Wasserman Scholar and received the New York Governor’s Award of Distinction for Community Involvement from Governor George Pataki.

After a successful career as a fine art and documentary still photographer shooting in North America and throughout Europe, Ms. Jo turned to the motion picture field in 1996. By being a background player, Ms. Jo gained accessed to her first motion picture film set where she met the late, famed cinematographer, John Alonzo (“Chinatown,” “Scarface”). Through Mr. Alonzo’s guidance, Ms. Jo soon became a union member of The International Photographers Guild and gained valuable production experience working as a camera assistant and film loader on movies, music videos and commercials (including many Super Bowl spots).

Using this practical production experience, in 1997, Ms. Jo wrote, directed and produced, “Basic Items”—a 35mm short film ($2500 film budget and a shooting ratio of 3:1) that soon received distribution. She then began working as a script & production consultant for many first time filmmakers as well as for such companies like Miramax. As an independent producer/line producer/UPM, she has teamed up with such Academy Award winning and nominated documentary filmmakers such as Jessica Yu, as well as regularly collaborating with industry respected actors such as Jane Lynch and Jeremy Sisto.

As a published photographer and poet who continues to thrive to bring unique film projects to the viewing public, today Ms. Jo mentors as well as provides consultations to actors, screenwriters and filmmakers and serves on many filmmaking discussion panels.

Currently, in addition to bringing her award winning feature script “More Things Change” to the screen, Ms. Jo is also attached to direct an international feature production of a political thriller while also writing her first novel.

Hyunjin Jo visit

Hi folks, I'm not sure if Hyunjin will make it in because her flight got cancelled, we'll see if she manages to get on another tonight.

In any case,
here are some links she sent for us to look at. (I'm not including her
personal company website because it isn't working right now.)

Filmography

AllExperts
click on: View Past Answers

Michelle's Notes

hi everyone!

well I've officially been grounded, my doctor does not feel that it is safe for me to travel to philly for school, sad :( i know, i miss you all!

I'm going to do my best to continue to keep up with the blog, but my final project will most likely have to be put on hold until the fall. I'm going to get a new computer since my laptop is pretty much worthless so i can work on building my tree... it's a massive file but i'm really excited to see how it's going to turn out. My mom has some kind of mini-dome tent in the basement that she said i should take a look at and see if i want to use the frame.... it might save me some money and frustration when the time comes to assemble the installation, so I'll probably make someone set it up for me here and i'll decide if i'll use it or not.

i'm bummed that i'm going to miss the rest of the demos, the photos sarah posted turned out really cool... and kind of creepy!! haha

What I did this week and today.

After and Before

I learned to retouch up pictures today from Sara's Demo. That before picture is terrible.

In the past week, I've been brainstorming for my final. I'm still having trouble figuring how what I'm passionate about doing for my Final.

I was either going to do something surreal or something to do with my random collects that I have at home.

I've been doing some research. I've looked at Cindy Sherman's work. Where she dresses up as different people. This is from her gleams and reflections series. I really like how she uses her lighting in her pictures.



I've also looked at Steven Shore's Work. He takes pictures of like towns and found objects. It's more of a snap shot. I really like his work. I was thinking of the possibility of bringing in something from the outside. Creating a scene.


Then I looked at some fashion pictures. They usually have crazy scenes in their fashion ads. SO... i thought maybe I do some crazy things and photograph it.



I guess I'll just make a elaborate scene and photograph it.

Sarah's lesson

Here is my before after:

Heres the text from the photoshop handout

Reducing facial redness:
-Choose “hue/saturation”
-In the dropdown menu choose “red”
-Desaturate the red until it looks better
-You may also want to increase the hue by 3 or 4 points, adding a bit of yellow.

Make lips pop out:
-Using the burn tool set to shadows, opacity set at 10%, burn the lips until satisfied
-Using the dodge tool, set to highlights, opacity set at 8%, sweep over highlights on lips.

Color correction in curves:
-In RGB mode, double click the right eyedropper. Set the brightness to 95, hit ok.
-In the image, click on a bright white section that still has a bit of detail in it.
-Back in curves, double click on the left eyedropper, set the brightness to 5, hit ok
-Click on something dark in the image that still has a bit of detail.

Advanced blending in curves:
-If the darks are to dark, or the lights are to light, double click on a previously existing curves layer.
-At the bottom of “layer style” make sure “blend if grey” is selected from the dropdown menu.
-Under “this layer” drag the slider until it looks better.
-Option click on the slider to break it in 2 parts; adjust to make the transition smoother.

“High Fashion” muted tone:
-Totally desaturate the image.
-Duplicate the background layer and make it the first layer by dragging it to the top of the layers pallet, set the blending mode to soft light.
-Going down to the desaturated layer, adjust the curves for more detail in the highlights.
-On the top soft light layer adjust the color balance to make it more yellow and set THAT blending mode to soft light.
-Adjust the opacity and curves of each layer until you achieve a look you like.

Changing hair color:
-Make a good selection on the hair
-Create a new layer
-Fill the selection with a solid color of your choice.
-Set the blending mode to soft light
-Reduce the opacity to make the hair look more natural.

Making skin “glow”:
-In a new layer, select “color range”
-The highlights should be automatically be selected, but if you want you can choose “highlights” or sample your own color. Hit ok.
-Using the paint bucket, fill in the selected areas with white.
-Change the opacity for a more natural look.
-Add Gaussian blur to the layer to make it blend in more. Use curves to adjust further.

Using Liquify to reduce stomach, hips, and arms:
-Duplicate the background layer
-Under filters, select liquify
-Using a large brush, select the “forward warp” tool, which looks like a little hand with a pointed finger.
-Really gently, a little bit at a time, simply use the brush to push in the fat parts. Hit ok.
-The pucker tool may also be used.
-Doing this may cause the area to look fuzzy, so select the area and add a noise filter.

To make boobs bigger:
-Duplicate the background layer
-Select liquify.
-Using a fairy large brush, select the “bloat” tool from the tool pallet on the left. It looks like a little oval with arrows pointing out.
-Put the brush over boob and click. Continue to click until boobs have reached desired size. Hit ok.

Other Liquify tips:
-The “pucker” tool can be used to reduce the size of eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.
-The “forward warp” tool can be used to change the shape of facial features.
-The best was to learn is to just play around until you get the effect you want.

How to Reduce Under eye bags, and double chin:
-Select the clone stamp tool. Set the blend mod to lighten and the opacity to about 6%
-Slowly paint over undesireable areas. When it’s become light enough, you may use the healing brush to completely get rid of them.


Websites for further information:

Lynda.com
username jim@artnerd.org
password moorepda

Flickr photoshop support group:
http://flickr.com/groups/photoshopsupport/discuss/

Photoshop tutorials can also be found on YouTube

example

here is my example from our in class lesson

tomorrow

okay, i think i'm ready for tomorrow. i'm going to demo changing hair color, liquify, and getting rid of under eye bags and wrinkles. i'm giving out a worksheet that explains everything else i've learned.

Sheppard Fairey poster

Here is the Barack Obama bus poster I was talking about... that reminded me of communist hero posters, and inspired us to take Cho that way.




It's by Sheppard Fairey,
http://obeygiant.com/post/check-it-out
and
http://obeygiant.com/


who is famous for these obey posters that used to be all over Philly (Back in the day.)

Links I've Used over the weeks

This link is about Raw digital Files : http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/u-raw-files.shtml

This link is about posing as a model. I thought it was funny. I should have showed you this site before we started posing in my demo.

http://www.bleeek.com/modeling-posing-tips.html

In this link, it talks about using umbrellas in the studio. I didn't show you how to use the umbrella but this link is nice because it shows how the reflected light works.

http://www.photoflexlightingschool.com/Equipment_Lessons/First_Studio/The_First_Studio_Portrait_Kit/index.html

I like to look at this website for studio lighting advice. It's fun to look at. http://www.studiolighting.net/

continuation with other post

so...
This week, I practiced again with a box because I forgot to get a model. This session was yesterday. And I worked on this outline. I typed up the outline in class this morning. SO here is the outline again for reference.

Studio Lighting
A simple portrait studio light
• Even light on background
• Soft single light on subject with reflected light

STEP 1
GATHER UP EQIPTMENT
• Generator (model light)
o Yellow and brown cords
• Lights and Softbox
o Light stands
o Lights
o Large metal cones
• Light Meter
o Black curly cord
• Camera
o Tripod
o USB Cord
• Computer

STEP 2
SET UP YOUR EQUIPTMENT
• Put up background (roll of paper)
• Setup the lights
o Put on cones – clock wise
• Setup Generator
o Before for you do anything make sure the power is off!!
o Look at the chart on the back of the generator
o We want an even light on background so use 200, 200, 400
o The higher the number the more the power.
• Plug in cords
o Yellow in that special socket
• Turn on Asymmetrical, Model, then POWER

STEP 4
• Set up the camera and tripod
• Set up the computer
o Turn on and use special password.hint baby dogs
• Set up a file on the desktop
o Make sure the camera is off
• Put USB cord in digital outlet in camera and plug into computer
o Turn camera on Switch, but not on that line thing
o Put camera on Manuel
o Launch CAMERA WINDOW software
• Remote Shooting
• Start Remote Shooting
• Choose Folder
• Click File on Desktop
o A window panel comes – highlight to change features of camera, press arrows
• Put camera on Manuel
• ISO 100
• RAW setting
• Use daylight (looks like sun)
o To preview: Drop File in Adobe Bridge

STEP 5
LIGHT METER
• Power
o Change ISO to 100
• Press button down while also using side buttons
o Mode – Cord
o Time - 125
• Slide buttons: arrows on side
• Plug curly cord into light meter and into brown cord on generator
• Do not Block Light and aim meter towards Camera
o Hit the side button for the Flash Test in front of subject, background
• Adjust lights Accordingly to make even background
• After you are down w/ the light meter you plug in the black cord into the lightening bolt
THEN START SHOOTING: YAY!!!


Then I did the Demo. I think that it went well. I feel like I still need to learn a lot more, but I most definately feel more comfortable in the studio than I did before.
I just need to practice a lot more. --- SO I'm going to sign up for studio time sometime this week
And I'm doing research for my FINAL.

Summary of what I've been doing

I'm a little behind on my blogs. So guess I'll just post what I have been working over the past weeks up at once.

So the week after spring break-- I've been working on learning about the science of light..here's an outline of science of light- I may have missed a few sections of the terms, it was just a lot to write down...so here's the link for reference

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/lightandcolor/indes.html

I took these notes from the website:

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/lightandcolor/indes.html

Electromagnetic Radiation
• Visible light, a phenomenon that is explained through a model based on rays and wavefronts
• Proposed in late 1600s by Dutch physicist Christiaan Huygens
• Electromagnetic radiation also known as radiant energy
• “Mechanisms by which visible light is emitted or absorbed by substances, and how it predictably reacts under varying conditions as I travels through space and the atmosphere, form the basis of the existence of color in our universe.”

Light: Particle or a Wave?
• Both because as certain times light acts as either particle or wave
• We know this through: refraction, reflection, interference, and diffraction, to the results with polarized light and the photoelectric effect

Sources of Visible Light
• variety of sources are responsible for emission of electromagnetic radiation, categorized according to spectrum of wavelengths generated by source
• shorter visible light waves produced by energy state fluctuations of negatively charged electrons within atoms
• shortest form of electromagnetic radiation, gamma waves
o result from decay of nuclear components at the center of atom
• visible light that humans can see is from a mixture of wavelengths whose varying composition is a function of the light source

Fluorescence
• Middle of 19 century by British scientist Sir George G. Stokes observed that the mineral fluorspar exhibits fluorescence when illuminated with ultraviolet light
o He made the word fluorescence
o Fluorescing light has longer wavelengths than the excitation light
o A phenomenon that has become known as the Stokes Shift
• Fluorescence microscopy- method of studying material made to fluoresce
o Either in natural form or when treated with chemicals capable of fluorescing
o Fluorescence microscopy devised in early 20th century by August Köhler, Carl Reichert, and Heinrich Lehmann
o Good for cellular biology

Speed of Light
• In 1983, speed of light is 299,792.458 kilometers per second by the Seventeenth General Congress on Weights and Measures
• Meter is defined as distance light travels through a vacuum during a time interval of 1/299,792,458 seconds
• Speed of light is rounded to 300,000 kilometers or 186,000 miles per second

Reflection of Light
• (and other forms of electromagnetic radiation) occurs when waves encounter a surface that does not absorb the energy of the radiation and bounces waves away from the surface
• Incoming light wave is referred to as an incident wave
• The wave that is bounced away from the surface is called the reflected wave

Refraction of Light
• Light travels in a straight line with no change of direction
• If the light impacts a boundary at any other angle other than 90 degrees ( it will pass through 90 degrees), then the light will be bent or refracted (basically when a wave of energy changes in direction)
• “Early scientist realized that the ratio between the angle at which the light crosses the media interface and the angle produced after refraction is very precise characteristic of the material producing the refraction effect.”

Diffraction of Light
• The bending or spreading out of waves
• Scientist have utilized diffraction of neutrons and x-rays to elucidate the arrangement of atoms in small ionic acids
• Magnetic lenses can focus diffracted electrons in the electron microscope
o Glass lenses are very useful for focusing diffracted light to form an optical image that can easily be viewed
Polarization of Light
• 1669 Erasmus Bartholin discovered that crystals of the mineral Iceland Spar ( calcite) produce a double image when objects are viewed through the crystals in transmitted light
o unusual phenomenon – “When the calcite crystals are rotated about their axis, one of the images moves in a circle around the other, providing strong evidence that the crystals are somehow splitting the light into two different beams.”
• Human eye lacks ability to distinguish between randomly oriented and polarized light
• Plane-polarized light can only be detected through an intensity or color effect

Fundamentals of Interference
• Close relationship between diffraction and interference occurs because they are actually manifestations of the same physical process and produce ostensibly reciprocal effects
• example is light reflected from a film of oil floating on water

Optical Birefringence
• “Anisotropic crystals, such as quartz, calcite, and tourmaline, have crystallographically distinct axes and interact with light by a mechanism that is dependent upon the orientation of the crystalline lattice with respect to the incident light angle.”
• When light enters the optical axis of anisotropic crystals
o it behaves in a manner similar to the interaction with isotropic crystals
o passes through at a single velocity
• when light enters a non-equivalent axis
o it refracts into two rays each polarized with the vibration directions oriented at right angles to one another, and traveling at different velocities
o termed double refraction or birefringence is exhibited to a greater or lesser degree in all anisotropic crystals

Color Temperature
• If color temp. of light source too low for film
o Photomicrographs will have an overall yellowish or reddish cast
• Will appear WARM
• If the color temp. of light sources is too high
o Will appear Blue

One of the weeks I've been reading from a book from the library, Light, Science and Magic
I'm still working on my outline for that

After that week...I've been practicing in the studio.. I took picture of sarah.
I practiced with the lighting that I did in the demo for the class. After that I tried to learn about RAW

So here are some pictures of the studio session and other of Raw in photoshop.

progress

I used what i learned about changing hair color to turn his fur from yellow to red. I also used liquify to reshape his eyes, teeth, and wiskers. I also added a lighting filter.
yesterday i finished typing the worksheet i'm going to give out during my presentation.