Timothy O'Sullivan - Western and American Civil War Photography

White House Ruins, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, 1873

I've chosen to research and discuss Timothy O'Sullivan. I have always had a love and penchant for western photography with the flat lands perforated here and there by high-rising plateaus, deep-cut valleys filled with rivers and streams, the ability for certain cultures to have sustained life in this desolate place, and the immense vastness that is the western frontier. Timothy is also know for his American Civil War photographs, but it's the western region that fascinates me the most.

Shoshone Falls, Snake River, Idaho, 1874

Black Canyon, Colorado River 1871

This is the original that I took of an reddish evening sky with clouds. There are some dark grey spots along with pink and peach in the palette. 

This is the photo after I tweaked it in Picasa. I gave it about one third fill light, and about half of that highlights and shadows to make the dark grey areas a little brighter while keeping the pink and peach palette even brighter to make those areas pop out even more.

Here is the original picture I took of my sister's dog that we are watching at my house while she is on vacation. There was no light on in the room, only natural lighting from the Sun shining into the window from the left side. As you can see, it is fairly dark for this reason.

Here is the brightened version. I increased the fill light to almost half of the original and increased the highlight just a bit. The picture looks much more natural and brings a softer feel to the dog as well as the feel of the carpet.

Here is my name, nice and short as it is, in various images.

I placed my banner logo as a widget to the right but wanted to upload it here as well to get a bigger view of it.

This is an original picture from assignment one where I believe there is extraneous noise in the background and the flowers would stand out even more if cropped.

Here is a cropped version where a lot of the extra noise is removed, leaving enough to highlight the flowers in the foreground compared to the background. This picture still shows all of the flower as you can tell from the original picture.

Here is an original I took for assignment one in which I believe the scene could be lightened a little more.

I adjusted the fill light to almost half, adjusted the highlights to about 1/3, and adjusted the shadows to a little less than 1/3. This helped to brighten the picture and make the shadows pop a little more than they do in the original.