Photo Montage

Starting off for this week’s blog I’ve developed a simple cross-fading project that includes pictures that I took at the recreational park located in downtown Lawton. Although I don’t consider myself a professional photographer, I do enjoy getting out and taking pictures of nature. The overall theme for my cross-fade project is tranquility of nature juxtaposed with mankind. The first half of the video shows both of these subjects; however, artificial devices are concealed by elements of nature. Following this, I display rust and decay of the man-made objects. I finish the video by further emphasizing the relevance of nature and how both coexist with one another.

Rationale
The reason that I created this cross fade project was to improve my photography skills and showcase my skills in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Instead of creating a static image gallery, I thought that it would be beneficial to create an intriguing video. I believe that an animated video will capture and engage others.

Materials Used

I started by first taking images using my Nikon CoollPix L120 camera. I imported the images to my computer and reduced the size using Photoshop. I then developed the cross-fade video in one of my favorite video editing programs, Adobe After Effects (AE).

Technical Difficulty
Surprisingly, the video editing task was not as difficult as I assumed it would be.  I’ve had similar projects in the past where I had to develop cross-fading videos using Flash. This process is somewhat time consuming because I would have to keyframe each image to fade in and out. However, AE had a very handy Effect that I dropped on each of the pictures; the process was basically done for me. Moreover, AE has so many different features that I never had the chance to really explore  the various plugins and effects that the program has to offer.

Closing Thoughts
This was also a reflective process for myself. I not only learned how to use effects in AE more effectively, I also improved as a photographer.  As I was integrating the images into the program, I singled out the best photos that I had and discarded the ones that were not up to par. I considered content, contrast, use of elements, and theme. As you will notice in many of my shots, I incorporated some long-shots and quite a lot of close ups. I believe that close ups to me are very personal and allow the viewer to get a better feel on the intended content. A lot of my photos have are closeup shots.

Tips or Other Comments
I recently learned about AE when I took my first 3D course at Cameron University and I fell in love with it! For those of you who aren’t familiar with the AE, it is a digital motion graphics and composting software program that can be used for 2D and 2.5D animation.The program offers a variety of features and plugins to make video editing a less daunting task. Of course, it has its draw-backs--one being that it is very CPU intensive. However, it is overall a great program that I would recommend.

Final Product