Nicole+Holzhauer+Texture+Combine+3

=Overall, this unit was a lot of fun to work through and I think I was fairly successful. In order to meet the requirements for the texture combine project, I chose 3 of my best photos (a background, and two objects) and combined them into one image. The 10 changes I made include: darkening the tree and sun pictures and adjusted the contrast, cutting out the background of the sun and the tree, placing the sun on the knot of the tree, my focal point, erasing the edges on the sun to blend it in, coloring with brown with a lighter opacity around the sun, and increasing the saturation of the sun and tree all together to help it stand out. Next, I pasted the tree with the sun onto my background image. I edited my background image's brightness, contrast, and saturation so that it had less color, causing the tree to stand out more. Lastly, I erased the edges slightly on the tree to help it blend in better and not look so pasted. Some compositional techniques I used in order to create my piece include: the rule of thirds, fill the frame, and leading lines. I used the rule of thirds because the main focus, the tree, is set off to the right. Next, I filled the frame by using an interesting background that is not too overpowering. Lastly, I used leading lines because the lines on the tree cause you to move your eyes around the sun. I really wanted to emphasize the texture on the tree because it looks so cool. After editing the picture a little, you are able to really see the bark and the different colors in it. Some other elements and principles I used are color and contrast, pretty much together. I was hoping for the tree with the sun to pop out compared to the background and that's why the saturation differs so much between the two. My concept for this project is confidence. When you have confidence you stand out in a crowd and you "light up". By making the tree's colors bolder than the background, I hoped for it to feel that way.= =I think at first I had a hard time coming up with a creative idea with the pictures that I took, but after trying many different combinations, I came up with this one. I think I was successful, but if I were to change something I think I would work a little harder to blend the pictures together. It was difficult for me to do this because of being new to the program and in a short amount of time.=