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Color Corrected
For these photographs, I did not want to make any super drastic changes to the composition, as I liked how they looked in their raw form. I did, however, come into the editing with the goal to make the colors pop a bit more as well as add a bit more dynamic range to my photos. The first thing that I did was attack the histogram in order to make it look more like a normal distribution. This fixed a lot of the exposure and shadow looks on a lot of my photos, as it really added a good amount of highlights. I then made sure all of the pictures had a consistent white balance before attacking the reds. I thought that the background red wasn’t popping enough where I was at, so I manually adjusted the red hue and saturation in order to just add a nice splash of color to my photos, while also livening up a lot of the flesh tones. All in all, I think the changes I made are a good amount of color added without making the picture too crazy saturated or colorful.
Pulitzer Prize Photography
Matt Rainey’s work with The Star Ledger after the tragic fire at Boland Hall in Seton Hall, NJ is outstanding. His use of black and white as well as close-ups on faces does a great job in helping to convey great emotion through his photographs.
The first photograph I included because I think it does a great job of letting you put together a whole story from a singular moment. The ominous “Third Floor” label over the door as well as the complete darkness of the window except for the handprints that show a struggle to get out combine to create a beautifully composed image. From the image you can see that there was a fire on the third floor of this dorm hall and that there was a struggle to get out by students, and from the handprints you can almost see the way that students were struggling to get out.
The next photograph I selected because of it’s incredible lighting. The doctors light shining on the subjects horribly scarred face as well as the lack of light on the doctor in the background creates a very ominous silhouette on the picture. It also does a very good job at drawing attention to the horrible injuries suffered by the student with the lighting on the face.
I chose the next photograph because of the raw emotion that it captures. You see the subject seeing for the first time his burn injuries. Rainey excellently captures this very vulnerable and raw moment that the subject is going through, and it really reflects in the picture.
The last photograph also does a great job of showing raw emotion. Rainey shows the subject looking at himself in the mirror as he wears a mask to help the burns on his face to heal. You because of his angle on the subject, you see a very clear look at his eyes of pain as he struggles with the new reality that is his life. Rainey also does an excellent job with the composition of this photo, with a foreground that is the back of the subject’s head, making it very clear that this is a mirror photo. This picture, like the others does a great job in capturing emotion in the subjects Rainey is shooting, after this truly emotional event.
In conclusion, Rainey’s photographs are so effective to me because of the way that he can capture pure emotion and stories in every photo that he takes, even if it’s just a photo of something inconspicuous like a door. That is what makes these photographs worthy of a Pulitzer prize.
50 Photos
Top 10 (No Particular Order)
I chose these photos as my top ten because all of them are well in focus and exposed. I also think that these separate from the rest of the photos I took because they have interesting compositions going on within them. I think they do a good job of incorporating lines, interesting foregrounds and backgrounds, as well as a good use of space to provide for really interesting photographs.
Photos 11-20
Photos 21-30
Photos 31-40
Bottom 10
These pictures are in my bottom ten for multiple reasons. The main reasons are poor framing, poor focus, or overexposure. I had bad usage of space in a lot of these pictures, making the pictures seem either too full or too empty. There were also some photos in which my focus was set just a little off of the subject, making the photo unusable. There was also one photo which I forgot to change my settings from my indoor settings to compensate for going outside, causing for the picture to turn out extremely overexposed and blue. To fix these I would just have to be shooting with a little more concentration during my shoots, in order to not make these small mistakes.
Famous Photograph
This photograph, taken by Morry Gash during the 2010-2011 NBA season, is very impressive to me. I appreciate the framing of the two players, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. It is very pleasing to see Wade running with his arms out in celebration without even looking at the dunk that is happening behind him. I think it shows a level of trust between the two players that goes unnoticed without this photo. I also like the aperture used in this photo, as the two players are both in focus. Lastly I enjoy the lighting, as there is a ray of light that is hitting LeBron’s face, adding another layer of almost holiness to this photo. This photo sticks out to me because it is one of the most iconic sports photos of all time, and just shows that being in the right place at the right time would mean nothing if Gash never snapped the shot.
Jacob Meyers COM220 Blog 