Transport: A Junior Conceptual Transport Project by Tanshi Mohan (2017)

For the Transport Project assignment, students were asked to take pictures of wheels on non-motorized objects that transport people or things. Our task was to take a minimum of 100 photos from interesting angles and composition. We then were asked to edit our final photo in Adobe Photoshop. My photo is a close up of an eighteen year old, dark blue stroller. I chose to photograph this object because of its age and story. While the stroller itself reminds one of youth and childhood, the scratches, cobwebs, and darkness tell a story of growing up, and that youth being left behind. I placed the stroller in front of a light brown wall, under the edge of a roof. This casted a shadow on half of the stroller, illuminating the foreground and darkening the background, creating an almost ombre effect with light. While the stroller actually contains 3 seats, I chose to zoom up on the last seat right above the wheel. I chose this angle because I liked the way the wheel and scratches on the seat are emphasized by the light.

My Photoshop process began with adding brightness to the previously underexposed photo. To do this, I lightened the blacks, whites, and highlights in the photo. I did not adjust the Shadow layer bar because I wanted to keep the previously mentioned effect between the shadow and light. From there, I increased contrast to further emphasize the light-shadow duo, and I added a yellow tint to make the photo look older. I applied a Content-Aware Fill to get rid of a tag in the top left corner of the photo. Additionally, I used the Dodge Tool to add emphasis on the white highlights on the blue metal bars and screws, and to further brighten the illuminated part of the seat. I used the Sponge Tool to desaturate yellow markings on the seat and wheel to dull the color, making it less distracting. Finally, I brightened the wheel in the foreground, again using the Dodge Tool, to emphasize it as well as fix patches of black and grey that were not visually pleasing.