Amber: A Junior Conceptual Transport Project by Benjamin Peterson (2017)

The subject of my photo was a single roller blade shot against the setting sun. I used a very shallow depth of field to take the photo because I wanted to emphasize one wheel while drawing the eye along the rest of the blade. I also enhanced this effect by taking my shot looking up at the blade near the back of it in order to create leading lines. This causes the eye to follow the edge of the skate into the distance. I chose a roller blade as my object because my dad used to use them to exercise around the neighborhood, and I wanted to see the small abrasions from years of use. The shallow depth of field and sun shining through the wheel created an effect that showed many of the imperfections on the wheel accumulated from constant use.

In Photoshop, I utilized my skills in creating masks to make all of the image black and white except for the wheel, which was in focus. This taught me how to make good selections in Photoshop and turn those selections into masks. Along with using selections to make the photo black and white, I also created masks in order to brighten the light shining through the wheel, and emphasize it’s detail more. In addition to masks, I utilized the smudge and blur tools to manipulate the areas around the wheel to bring it even more into focus, which taught me how to use those tools to alter perspective. These changes helped bring the center wheel into focus more and brighten the light shining through it, which amplified the effect of drawing the eye towards the center wheel of the roller blade.