Senior Project Overview

 Name:​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​  Luis Montoya

 

 Title of research paper: ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ The History of Photography and Editing Software Influences

 

 Synopsis of research paper: 

Photography is one of the most astonishing technological advancements in our world today. Dating back to the nineteenth century, the first camera was invented. The photographic camera originated with the discovery of the camera obscura, which was created hundreds of years ago. Today, digital photography has been introduced as the advancement of photography. Until modern times, photography was relatively a complex hobby to maintain. One had cameras with different lenses, manual focus, and complicated settings. With the introduction of digital cameras, this entire convolution vanished, and now almost every household owns a camera. In 1987, around the time when digital cameras began to appear, “a PhD student at the University of Michigan commenced working on a program to display gray scale images on a monochrome display.” The effect programs and camera technology advancement had on the world of photography is unbelievable; in fact, it made photo manipulation easier, and allowed people to spend less time editing while getting better results. Throughout several years, photography has advanced to a great extent, first starting off with pinhole cameras, later advancing into camera obscura, then into heliography, and finally into box cameras.

 

 Project description: 

My project consists of taking senior portraits, which, is focused on Photography, editing photos, and graphics design. I am going to learn about elements of photography such as lighting techniques, color balance, levels, brightness, contrast, dodging, burning, and many more editing and shooting techniques.

 

H ow the project evolv​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ ed: 

My project developed gradually through meeting with my mentor and learning by helping on hands-on photo shoots that my mentor had with his clients. Through this I experienced how a professional studio works, and how time consuming a photo shoot can be; in fact, a photo shoot takes up to about 3-5 hours each, depending on the package the client chooses. Editing each photo separately takes about 10-15 minutes each totaling up to about 10 hours per photo shoot, which includes shooting and editing time.

 

My background experience in this area:

My background experience in this area is only in the editing part of the photos. I am taking a learning stretch by learning how to actually take photos professionally through studio lighting techniques such as gelling, soft light, backdrops, diffusers, reflectors, and actually being in a professional studio setting, in which I can acquire skills to go out and do my own senior photo shoots with skills that I gained from my mentor.

 

Special things I would like the judges to consider:

 I have gained knowledge over SLR cameras through attending photo shoots my mentor had for his clients. I learned a lot of new skills that include: learning to work with people, new lighting techniques, learning new things in Photoshop that I have never known about like burning and dodging to increase catch light in photographs, how to run a professional photo shoot, and how to be prepared for a future job in the photography business. I was able to do more than the amount of hours required with having a very rigorous schedule with seven classes, five of them being AP and honors courses. On top of my rigorous schedule, I am also a part of 2 clubs including NHS and Link Crew. I am also a class member of the student council, which entails tons of service hours, as does NHS and Link Crew. I also have earned my fourth year academics in my final semester of High School earning my academic letter, my pin, my lamp, and now my honor cord. With my schedule being very time consuming, I was still able to schedule in many hours for my senior project. It was very stressful, but I was able to successfully find a balance between everything I had going on my senior year. I feel like I have earned my high school diploma, and I can’t wait until graduation to receive my diploma for all of my hard work.