During my experience experimenting with hard and soft light, on different objects, at different distances, and with different sizes lights, I have learned a lot concerning lighting and how to properly create different types of shadows. A main lesson that I learnt was the different shadow types and their rigidity/sharpness that are caused by the two types of lighting tested (hard and soft). Hard light creates hard shadows, and occurs when the light source is smaller than object being photographed. However, soft light creates softer shadows, and occur when the light source is large than the object being photographed. Soft light also fills in the photo and gives light to all the detail, while hard light sculpts out subject's faces and parts with it's harsh shadows.
In addition to the different shadows and the sharpness of those shadows from the different types of light, I also discovered that the high points of any subject will stand out even if the subject is in complete darkness, because the light will still catch that surface, and draw attention to that surface. This lesson is equally important to the types of shadows because with the different distances and different types of light, different effects are cast on the high points, for instance, if a light source is closer to the object, the high points will be more bright, yet if the light source is farther away, the high points will not be as prominently lit. Straying away from the artistic affects that I viewed and learnt from during the experimentation, I have also learnt a great amount about safety and precautionary tasks an individual should take before using and jumping into the world of lighting. Some of the safety information the class was informed on was obvious such as do not touch the lights because they get hot, and such as paying attention and tripping hazard. Additionally taught was other less obvious information such as assembling, dissembling, and wrapping wires so the equipment stays in a very well kept condition. All of this preparatory information was crucial for us to understand because without this foundation of knowledge the students could have not understood how to use the equipment, or worse, someone could have gotten hurt, or the equipment could have been damaged. Lighting truly is so much more work than it seems to be, so learning how to artistically and professionally control light is important. Whether using hard light to cast those crisp edged shadows, or soft light to capture some blurry edged shadows, lighting has many uses that make it a very important portion to photo taking that can truly make or break a photo. Scenario Breakdown: "You are employed to photograph the president of a major college or university in New England. He or she would like their pictures taken in his or her office. What type of lighting would you use, where would you put them, where would you put the lights, and why?" If I was tasked with taking a photograph of a president of a major college or university, I would have to be meticulous with my lighting and angle choices so that I can properly highlight them in their natural habitat, while still making them look their best. The type of lighting I would personally use is soft lighting because I personally would not want to see my president of my college look villainous by the harsh lines and harsh angles the hard light sculpts, as that would not show them in their "best light". By choosing soft lighting, I could fill in all of the details of their face, and highlight their face appropriately, which would allow for the president to look more youthful, approachable, and more desirable because the soft lighting would not make harsh shadows. Harsh shadows caused by hard lighting tends to make people look older as the shadows make lines and wrinkles more prominent, and can cause the face to appear sunken in. This sunken in look is not desired in photographs of a person's face because most often than not photographers want to make the subject seem more youthful, so their client will be pleased by their product. On top of using soft lighting, I would position the president's face in the upper left hand corner third of the shot to make their face the first focal point, then in the upper right corner I would try to position awards or such. In the bottom two corners, I would have the president fold their hands, and then maybe be have documents or some sort of work in the bottom right corner third, to make them seem like a hard worker. By highlighting certain aspects of their office, and manipulating the focus pattern of human beings, (Rule of Thirds), I can successfully capture the professionalism of the president, their credentials, and work related objects that can be related to by the grand public. I would want to showcase their professionalism so that the viewers would take the president and the school they are representing seriously. Likewise, I would want to show their credentials to prove their worthiness of the presidents position and stature, and to show how much work the president went through to be at the spot they are now to give them respect. Lastly, I would want aspects that anyone can relate to such as work and papers because I would still like the public to recognize that this individual, although a president, is still a human and is still like everyone else in some ways. In relation to the president's position, I would place the lights at a level angle to them, to make sure that no shadows, harsh or blurred, make the president look chiseled, I would want to highlight their natural face without any shadow manipulation, unless requested. This positioning of the lights and the subject in the field of vision would create a flattering image of the president and ensure that they would be presented in the best way. The president, with my set up would be portrayed as a beautiful, powerful, and striking image of the school they preside over, and give a great face to the school, that is welcoming and well-built/structured.
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Out of these two posters, my personal favorite is the "Buried" poster. I believe that this poster most accurately uses the Principles of Design to attract the viewers eye to the "product" being pitched/advertised. The "Buried" poster uses pattern, movement, and rhythm to attract the viewers eye to be pulled into the poster, and not leave. Pattern is used by the spiraling rectangular shape repeating over and over again, leading the viewers eye throughout the spiral and to the individual who is at the end of the spiral. Movement can be applied to this image for the eye moves with ease throughout the image thanks to the stark white lines against the black background and the connecting of the white line that winds throughout the image, leading the viewer's eye accordingly. Lastly, rhythm is applicable to the "Buried" poster because the white line is repetitious and is constant and the line is organized in a regular way that attracts the eye and such. By using all of these Principles of Design, the designer of this poster was able to successfully create a truly entrancing poster that perfectly attracts the viewers eye to the "product", and has elegantly organized their poster to accurately demonstrate their product they are marketing. (Since the line is going deeper and deeper into the background, it creates a sense of going into the ground, relating to buried.
The main attraction of the poster, for "Buried", is the white line, for it stands out like a "sore thumb" against the background, making it the main focal point, and an amazing leading line for the poster. Secondly, the red title spelling out "Buried", also stands out for it is the only red text or red colored object on the poster, making it a very close second, for focal points, Although the poster is very attractive with the colors being used intelligently to create focal points, there are distractions on the poster including the small text at the bottom and at the top. This small text is a distracting element of this poster because there is only these two pieces of text on the black and white surfaces and they distract the viewer from the image because it seems like the black and white surfaces are dirty because this small text is just there, and is the only piece of text on the vast surfaces. With distracting and attracting elements, the poster has faults and successes that make it the poster it is, and overall it is a truly enticing poster that does justice for its cause or product it is marketing. The idea for this surreal photograph was truly inspired by the idea of having someone crawling out or escaping from a room that is submerged in the ground. That person then escapes through a door that connects that "underworld" with reality. The idea seemed complicated at first, but then with further thought I figured out how to position each photo so that I would be able to pull off this surreal image. For the photo of the frame on the ground I positioned the frame so that when I went into photo shop I could have enough room for the individual to be crawling out while not too much space or lead-room so that the illusion would be the focus of the image. Now moving onto the image of the doorway to the library, I took a direct image of the doorway from straight on, making sure to include the door as well so that I would be able to add some three-dimensional aspects. I wanted to capture the door straight on so that I could edit the doorway and the door into the frame perfectly. Lastly, for the image of the individual climbing out of the door, I staged her in the position that would be most optimum for her to be believably climbing out of the door. To do so, I had to have her lean on a chair to ensure she would look like she was in a genuine climbing position. Now, to edit all of the images together, I first expanded the frame on the ground image to fit the entire canvas, and then cut out the door/doorway from the doorway image. After I successfully cut out the door, I first sized the image up to roughly an equal size of the frame, and then warped the image into the frame's interior. After warping the image into the frame, I ensured that it was beautiful laid in the frame so that it did not look like a random image awkwardly overlaid on another. In addition, I also adjusted the brightness and exposure levels of the door image to match that of the environment around. After beautifully overlaid, I cut out the image of the individual who would be crawling out. Then once she was cut out from the rest of the image, I inserted her into the photoshop document and adapted her exposure and brightness levels to match that of the scene she was emerging in to. Then after adjusted and put into place, I distorted and warped the individuals body, including legs and arms, to make sure she looked as though she was climbing out of the doorway onto the grass. After warping and distorting, I copied the layer of that individual to begin the making of her shadow. To begin the shadow construction process, I lowered the brightness and exposure levels to turn the copied layer of the individual pitch black. Next I lowered the opacity of the layer so that there was not a harsh black shadow, but something of a realistic nature. Once I lowered the opacity, I aligned the shadow to the individuals feet and hands, not precisely, and warped the shadow to look realistic as shadows are more oblong shaped than perfect replicas of a humans figure. After that shadow was completed I wanted to make a shadow for the door so that the door would have a three-dimensional feel. To create a shadow for the door I selected the frames layer, and drew, with the polygonal lasso tool, a believably shaped shadow the door would cast with the lighting of the sun. To make the shadow I drew the shape as said and then adjusted the brightness of that selected area to make it seem like a shadow cast by the door. In addition, I selected the frame layer so that I would be adjusting the settings of the grass, which is where the shadow of the door would realistically appear. The problems I encountered whilst compiling this photograph were, selection issues that made some parts of the shadows darker than others, brightness/lighting inconsistencies, and issues with warping the images into my desired position. Some parts of the shadows were darker than others were because as I was selecting the spots to be shadowed, I did not select every part I wanted to be shadowed so there was inconsistencies and overlapping of the shadows making for an inconsistent shadow overall. The brightness and lighting inconsistencies were problematic because as I tried to brighten up some images they would get grainy because of the settings I had to use in those environments. Overall I would have chosen better lit environments so I would have more leeway with editing the brightnesses to match them with each other. Lastly, I ran into issues with warping as sometimes when I tried to stretch an image into a certain position it would distort other sections of the images leading for a very "unique" looking edit. Ultimately, I believe that for one of my first times dealing with surreal photography and the editing involved, I did a pretty darn awesome job at making the effect feasible. In the future I would alter the light of the different images when taking the picture to make them more crisp and easily edited without making them grainy, and be more precise when selecting areas to edit (shadows). I would also recommend for myself to be more patient when warping/transforming images to increase the believability of the edits, and to be more patient overall to increase the quality of my work.
Surreal: Making the impossible seen some type of way realistic by mergining photos together to manipulate reality.
I believe this photo to be a beautiful representation of Surreal Photography because it capture something impossible/out of this world and makes it seem as though it was a true part of reality. This aspect makes it a true specimen of Surreal Photography, because making the impossible seem possible is the underlying goal of Surreal Photography as a whole. This photo has some beautiful aspects caused by composition, settings, and my personal interest. For composition, this photo in a way follows leading lines and rule of thirds. This photo follows leading lines because the edges of this sheet/blanket leads the viewer up and around the subject taking them from the suitcase to the subjects upper body, or vise versa. In addition, the crushed leaf path is also a leading line/vector leading the viewer down the path, which maybe is where the sheet subject will go. The rule of thirds can be applied to this photograph as well because the missing part of the subjects body is positioned in the upper right third along with the subjects head. This is an important use of the rule of thirds because it leads the viewer right to the illusion being played, making the image useful as the viewer is not searching around or the illusion, their eye is drawn directly to it! Then from that third area, the eye is drawn down the subject by the leading line on the sheet, making the image a true masterpiece of both composition and Surreal Photography. The settings of this image also make it a truly beautiful image because the settings are crucial in creating a mood and a focal point in the photograph. The Aperture is truly the most crucial in creating a focal point because it establishes what in the frame is in or out of focus. In this image, the artist most likely had a shallow-medium aperture as the focal points/points in focus are close to the camera, whilst the farther points of the image are blurred. This setting allows for the viewers eye to be drawn to the foreground aspects such as the "sheet man" and the suitcase, and be more drawn to those than the background. In addition, if the image were to have a deeper focus, making the background more in focus, then the image would have to many focal points, making the image too busy for the illusion to be pulled off as well as it should have. The texture of the sheet too is mesmerizing and I feel it tells a story as well, I believe the wrinkles on the sheet tell us that this being has been kept shut up in this suitcase for a while and is now being let out into nature, maybe where they belonged? The ISO and Shutter Speed are not as important in this photo, as all they do is tune the lighting of this image, which is beautiful nevertheless, not too light yet not too dark, but in the right lighting for the message I received from this image. Lastly, I truly enjoy this image because it struck my curiosity unlike any of the others because it is a mysterious subject, with mysterious past that I try and figure out by myself. I believe that this subject has been locked up and now is being let free and is going to follow the path crushed by leaves behind it, but who knows where it will lead them? I was just struck as well by the sparingly colored background, with the mono-color being and its suitcase because it made me think that the being had been kept locked so long that it had lost any individuality or creativity, represented by the lack of color. The composition of this image, the beautiful staging, the thoughtful setting adjustments, and the photographs overall appeal to me made me choose this image as a spectacular representation/example of Surreal Photography. To get this twelve inch ruler to seem to be the same height as the two subjects I had to put the ruler in the foreground/mid-ground and then position the subjects in the background, just far enough to make the illusion occur. As I positioned the subjects, including the ruler, I noticed that the ground was an issue because the viewer could see the length in between the ruler and the subjects, making the illusion debunked because of the visual discrepancies. In reaction to that flaw, I positioned the grass right up against the camera. In addition, I made sure that the camera was flush with the ground so that the grass would just seem to continue on in that direction at that height, and that some girls appeared, and were measuring their height. For settings I programmed the camera at 1/60 shutter speed to eliminate hand motion, yet allow an abundance of light in, so that I could maneuver the other exposure settings more freely. For aperture I set the F-stop to F29 so that everything was in focus from the grass, to the ruler, to the far away subjects. In addition, for ISO I set the camera to 100 because I already had an abundance of light available and did not need to turn the sensitivity up. In addition, since I set the aperture so wide, I had to set the ISO low so that the picture would not be black. Lastly, I choose to have the sun directly beaming on my subjects and the ruler so that there would be no oblong shadows disrupting the illusion. If I had a more angled light then the shadows would have shown the truth behind the image, ruining the magic it displays. Using a bottle and a subject I was able to capture an image that seemed to defy all logic. To achieve this photograph, I had to position the subject in the far background, and the bottle in the near foreground so that the subject would be equal in size to the bottle so it would seem as though she was leaning on it. Even though the shadows are very contradictory of the image as the viewer can easily depict the shadows at different distances, the image still does an impressive job at demonstrating forced perspectives as it forces the viewer to imagine the impossible. In addition, to get the sun to not be glaringly bright, I sped up the shutter speed to 1/250 to darken the image by letting less light into the image. The aperture was at F29 so that both the subject and bottle would be in the frame and in crisp focus, Since both of the other exposure settings were set fast/wide, this meant that less light was already coming into the photo because of the lack of light being allowed in, so ISO needed to accommodate, meaning I had to set the ISO at a lower level of 100, also for outdoors. I choose to have lighting show the shadows of the subjects in the frame so that the illusion might pull off even better, but in reality, the shadows actually dimmed the illusion. If I were to retake this photo, I would personally get the sun shining directly on the subjects so that the shadows would not destroy the illusion, and so that the shadows would be masked behind the subjects. Sadly, with only natural light available, I could not just move the sun to get the photo from this angle with the lighting I wanted, so sometimes you have to lose some to win others! Seeing things that are not there may seem fictitious, but with the power of photoshop, photographers/editors can make the things once deemed out of reach, within distance. With this photo in particular, I have made the mirror reflect an image of the same person that is adjacent to the mirror, which would seem impossible because a mirror reflects the image of what is in front of it, not what is beside it. The settings used for this image were a shutter speed of 1/80 to control the manual human hand shakiness, so that the image would turn out crisp. For aperture, I set my camera to a F-stop of F16, to mainly focus on the foreground subject, and just a portion of the background so the true focus was on the foreground illusion. Lastly, for ISO I chose a setting of 100, so that just enough natural light was coming in to allow the other settings to have leeway with the control of light coming into the image. I created this photograph by first positioning my subject and the mirror directly across from each other, then, after that photo was taken, take a separate picture of my subject's face to edit into the mirror in photoshop. In photoshop I first rasterized the layers, then cropped out the previous image in the mirror and pasted it into the my other photoshop document with the other picture of the face that would be installed in the mirror. Now I reselected the barrier of the mirror outline onto the face that would be installed, cropped it out, then pasted that face cutout back into the original document. Then I adjusted the face cutout into the mirror, cleaned up the edges, and saved the image! That is how this image was produced!
During the shoot of this collection, I observed multiple beings that cast shadows/had shadows cast on them, and then I took it upon myself to edit these photo to emphasize their apparent shadows, and their contrast. For each image, I choose to use a shutter speed, ranging from 1/60-1/400. These shutter speeds were chosen as they allowed for little to no handshake, and for some pictures I needed to darken the image so I sped up the shutter speed to let in less light, resulting in a darker image. My aperture stayed in between f5.0 and f7.1, which allowed me to hone in on one subject/being in the picture, and blur the background making the focus on that one object. The shutter speeds, being so low, allowed me to pinpoint the focal points of my images, and allowed me to get more light in the image that could be controlled by other exposure controllers. In addition, my ISO had a very broad range from 100-1600, which was due to my different environments. Whilst I was outside, I had to turn my ISO down because there was already a lot of light coming in from the sun, so I did not need to have a high ISO because I had plentiful amounts of light. The reasoning for the higher numbers such as 400 and 1600 is that I was indoors so I needed to have a lot more light coming in because of the lack of light (overhead), explaining the enormous ISO. The angles I used and shadows I captured were chosen as I sought to find images that would truly capture the beauty even in the darkest places. By striving for that goal, I tended more towards the most shadowy parts of the world and those are exampled below. Although some of these photos may be seen as in day light, that is due to my editing/photo-shopping of the image, and my adjustments to the exposure settings. I wanted the shadows to overcast the beauty so that I could challenge myself in photo-shop to bring out the beauty through contrast and such tools/settings. From the up close and down low dandelion sprout, to the up high and guarding camera of the hallways, I wanted to get angles that captured objects/beings in their habitat, and not force them into some artificial habitat by zooming out. I wanted to be up close and personally with these subjects, so I did so and made sure my photos were very close to the subject. Even with the door as the subject, I still captured the door within its habitat because I photographed it within its confines, and within its cornered habitat, that happened to supply ample shadow! This wraps up my run down of the ins and outs of my light and shadow photographs taken on October 16, 2017.
For each of these photos the following settings were used... Mode: Manual Aperture: f22 Shutter Speed: 1/2 ISO: 200 A photo of a baseball field usually would not attract much attention, but this photo captures the renovations Southeastern is currently making. I choose to include this newly built field in the frame because it truly does show the changes the school is beginning and has been making. In addition, further on in the picture the viewer can see another field and parts of the school, again showing the progression of the school, and where it is going. Nature is truly a mesmerizing subject to photograph and by using such a broadly-focused aperture, I was able to capture the beauty of the foreground nature and the background nature elements. I decided to include multiple subjects of nature to show that nature can come in all different types, man-made and earth-made. A pile of junk would usually not be paid much attention, but when put into a frame and captured for eternity, it becomes some form of art. I have chosen to include all the scrap looking cars/roughened up cars in this frame, and not the brand new mobile cars, because I only wanted to capture the trashy portions of this scenery and leave the newer parts alone. I only desired to photograph the parts that would be overlooked so that I could cast some light on the parts of life less looked at. Lens flares are debatable whether necessary in a shot or unprofessional, but within this photo I believe it adds character the photo and truly emphasizes the brightness of the day. In addition to the lens flare, the beautiful straight edges of the building and sign are very pleasant for the eye to view and gives some sense of shape for everything else within the shot. Lastly, my favorite part of this photo is the driveway that curves to meet the building, this driveway acts as both a vector leading the eye directly to the building, and establishing mystery of where the cement leads to. Life, frozen in a moment, is the true base/foundation for photography, documenting our presence. Even though no human or life is present, this photo still shows a way of life, work, work, work. The cars lead to the stair case and then the stair case leads to the "street", and everyone is focused solely on work, signified by the cars facing forward, and do not pay attention to the beauty (trees) or life that surrounds them. My favorite element of this photo is the perfectly centered staircase that easily guides the eye up and down from the cars to the pavement. Last but not least, this beautiful capture of the American Flag with the beauty and symmetry of America in the background. I choose to include the bushes and symmetrical greenery in the background and the less symmetrical trees in the very back because I wanted to show that America focuses on being a beautiful countries in those places necessary for representation of the country, but then sometimes skimps out of rewarding and making other areas as beautiful too. In addition, if I could have gone back to take this photo again I would have liked to include the entire flag pole so that the viewers could see the flag was at half-staff to again reinforce the hardships America faces, beyond not fairly distributing funds.
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