The February photo and graphic of the month has been chosen! The winner of the photo of the month goes to News Editor Lizzy Sorensen, and the winner for graphic of the month goes to Staff Writer Ben Larson.
Lizzy Sorensen’s photo was taken for the cover for Mr. Pelzer’s “Teacher Feature” that she also wrote. The photo was chosen for its use of lighting, its angle, and composition.
The lighting of the photo was extraordinarily well for it being taken in an office space. Office lighting, like most indoor light, is very yellow, and usually drowns out the figure, but Sorensen did a good job avoiding this. The light is coming from the left upper corner of the photo, highlighting his facial features, which leads the viewers eyes to the more lighted areas. While highlighting Pelzer’s face, the lighting didn’t cause a glare with his glasses, which is very common with high light sources. Sorensen did a great job avoiding this by using the correct angle.
The angle was taken from a higher standpoint, which was a smart choice. The angle of the photo allowed her to capture a waist up portrait, making the photo look very professional. As stated earlier, the angle helped with the lighting of the piece, allowing the light to flow throughout the figure. The photo loses lighting towards the bottom, which helps to the focus on his face instead of his torso.
Lastly, the composition of the photo was also very well done. The background was blurred a bit, bringing more focus to the figure. The detail of the figure was captured nicely, and the folding of the clothing along with the highlights and sharpness of the facial features weren’t lost.
Overall, the photo was clear, didn’t have any fault, was amazing in many aspects, and was extremely deserving of the photo of the month title.
Ben Larson’s graphic was made for the cover photo of an arts and entertainment piece about Chris Brown’s previous arrests. The graphic, although having minimum color, really stood out because of the jail bar effect Larson conveyed. The graphic was also chosen for the technique and creativity.
Larson used three colors: black, white, and dark pink. Although a risky choice, it worked out well because the piece really popped. The figure being the dark pink draws the viewer’s eye to it, and the rest of the bars and background created contrast throughout the rest of the image.
The creativity was phenomenal. Most would have made the bars grey, the background brown, and done a realistic figure, but Larson decided to take a more abstract path. Making the figure a silhouette was an interesting choice, let alone making that silhouette pink, seeing as most are usually filled in with black. The background being black and white was also smart because it was abstract but also didn’t take away from the silhouette.
Lastly, Larson’s technique, although not perfect, was exceptional. The lines of the black jail bars were sharp and straight. The silhouette wasn’t perfect, but overall, the lines were done well. The only thing I’d change about this graphic would be that the silhouette doesn’t completely meet the bottom of the page, leaving a small white gap at the bottom, but was well hidden by the black bars.
Both pieces are definitely deserving of the graphic of the month, and were both very well made. I’m proud of both Sorensen and Larson for their hard work this month.
