Uneasiness When Taking a Risk: A Junior Design Student Conceptual Project by Michael Welch (2015)

The main object in my photo is a lone penny. There are no other objects except for a cold dark floor and a beam of light. The lighting was placed behind the penny to give a divine effect, with a stream of light showing the way to a seemingly innocent penny. The objects and aspects of the photo make it feel almost inviting, but there is a sense that not everything is what it seems. The penny is placed centrally to give a sense of importance and there are no other objects in its way. The photo is taken through a crack, giving insight that the penny might be precious or be in a dangerous place.

I started by giving the photo a vignette and playing around with the coloring to try and give it a dark but cold feel. After that I cropped it to fix positioning issues, such as the rule of thirds and started choosing a filter. I used a grain filter on the penny to give the effect that it was old and abraded. In this piece I learned how to use the pen tool more effectively, to make a path and then selection around the penny. I also learned how to add filters inside a selection. The entire ''set'' of my photo conveys a feeling of a tight space. The cramped almost claustrophobic framing of the image really exemplifies my concept statement. Whenever I thought of unease I thought of being trapped and the setting of the photo really emphasises that. The penny was the main object that portrayed taking a risk. It was as if it was the reward for a perilous journey through a dark, cold and unsettling location.