There are two main objects in this photograph, a bike with a race plate and a gift bag. The color of the race plate stands out against the background, which attracts attention. From there, you will notice the gift bag on the right side of the bike. The reason for the placement of the gift bag was to align with the race plate, which draws a line roughly on the right line in the rule of thirds. All of these strategies were to attract the attention of the person viewing it, which starts to establish the theme of the photo. For the setting/background, I chose to go outside and take it in the grass with a bush behind the subjects for a few reasons. The idea of biking is enhanced by the fact the image is taken outside in nature, and the bush in the background was to make sure the background didn’t have too much going on because I didn’t want it to take any attention away from the subject.
The relationship the race plate has with the gift shows the connection to the concept statement because gifts are a kind gesture, with racing being the competition aspect. Gifts can be literally anything, so that relates to the bike depending on how the image is interpreted.
My process in Photoshop was to lighten the image, increase contrast, and then apply a vignette. The reason for this was because the image itself was a little dark to begin with so I lightened it, and I also increased the contrast to make sure that the subjects of the image weren’t blending in with the background. This brought out the bold blue of the race plate and reds/pinks of the gift, and the vignette helped dim the background to ensure that the subject was prominent in the photo.
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