Maggie Gottschalk's Recipe of Trial and Error

Device: Samsung Galaxy S2

App: Camera360

All of my photos were taken through the standard camera app that comes with an Android phone.  For me, the most difficult aspect of the shooting process was actually finding objects to shoot.   I searched for objects with unusual features that would reflect light well or create shadows.  Upon finding pieces to shoot, it then became a process of trial and error.  I took photographs at various angles and strove to capture the shadows that were created from the light.    In the end, I usually took around ten photos of each object or scene and then limited it to my favorite five.  Aside from self-portraits, the majority of my photographs were shot in close proximity to the item; thus, there seems to be a trend in my photos that the objects take up the entire image.

For these specific photographs, lighting was my main focus.  I looked for areas in my house that produced strong, yet unusual lighting.  I did not want the light source to overpower the image, but instead I wanted the lighting to complement it.   Artificial lighting was used to create strong shadows in both images; the lighting in the self-portrait came from spotlights in the garden and the lighting from the lamp was created from a simple light bulb.  It is interesting to note that during my trial and error process, I took photos of the spotlights on my front door.  As I continued to shoot photos, it seemed like something was missing; once I placed myself in the image using a self-timer on my phone it seemed like the picture was complete.  I then used the same editing process for both pictures.

After I picked my five favorite self-portraits and five favorite photographs of the old lamp, I opened them in an App called Camera360.  Each photo slightly varied from the next, and I edited each different photo through the filters and then chose my favorite angle and color combination.  For these specific photographs, I first changed the colored photos into black and white.  This app includes multiple black and white options, but I settled on the “standard” filter.  Next, it was time to add toning.  One could achieve toning using a variety of effects on Camera360.   I utilized the “warm” filter that can be found within the “enhance” effect because I think this enhanced the lighting most beautifully.