Blog Entry #3 - American Gothic

Grant Wood - American Gothic (Original)

For this picture I used a Canon Rebel, and shot at a shutter speed of 500 because the studio lighting made sure the shot had lots of light. I chose to Photoshop the faces of Allison Clement and Sam Fuller into this famous picture because I liked how they were both similar to the original people in the portrait and I found that it was a good example of how lighting effects a photo-shopped image. I used 3-point studio lighting for both of the faces, and made sure the light was brighter on the left side of their faces to replicate the original image. I found this image in a book, and i was inspired by the long neck of the woman and the grumpy and disgusted look on the mans face, which brought emotion in the entire image. Though the colours are for the most part dull, the background with the yellow house and red barn shows a nice contrast to the clothing worn by the couple. For this Photoshop to look more realistic, I made Allison's neck a bit longer like the original, and used a "canvas" filter, to make the faces look as if they were painted on rather then photo-shopped in. The painting I chose for this project is a Gothic painting by Grant Wood, who was an American painter, born four miles east of Anomosa, Iowa. He is best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest.

(Ms. Zanini, I know this isn't from the renaissance era but the reason I chose it was because I thought it would work better for my Photoshop and you mentioned that a Gothic painting would be okay so I took the chance)