21st March 2014 (Week 8)
Seow Jie Yi (0318873)
Introduction to Photography
Exercise 4a: Rule of Thirds

LECTURE
Today we started off with quizzes about The Zone System through Twitter. After that, Mr Vinod started the class by saying that what we have learnt during Principles of Design about the Rule of Thirds is applicable to this week's introduction to photography class.

He explained that having a subject matter in the middle, as the image above, makes the photo looks still, mundane and uninteresting. 

Next, he talked about how the image above effects the viewers. When a subject matter is off centre, it makes the viewers curious as to why it is placed off centre. Other than that, it still gives people the feeling of imbalance and it will seem as though it has a lot of white space.

When the subject matter is placed closer to the frame and further from the middle, it gives off an unpleasant feeling and also a sort of tension to it. 

Intersecting lines, as the image above, is called the focal points. These are the strategic spot to place the subject matter to make a photo more interesting and will cause people to think about the photo and feel curious about it.

This is an example of a photo using the Rule of Thirds and intersecting lines. The subject matter took up 2 intersecting points. This photo will make people wonder 'what is he staring at' because there is a lot of spaces on the left side of the photo and also because he is looking at that direction.

This is called a counterpoint where the bigger subject matter is the main focus while the smaller subject matter is the least focus.

This is an example of a photo using the Rule of Thirds and counterpoints. The subject matter on the right is the main focus as it is bigger than the subject matter on the left of the photo.

Besides the Rule of Third, there are principles that can ale be used when composing and considering elements within a photo.

The principles are:

        - Domination / Emphasis

        - Isolation

        - Balance

        - Repetition

        - Alignment

        - Contrast

        - Rhythm

        - Symmetry / Asymmetry

        - Harmony

Exercise 4a. Rule of Thirds

INSTRUCTION

1. Capture 3 images adhering to the Rule of Thirds.
2. A photo with one person using the Rule of Thirds.
3. A photo with three person using the Rule of Thirds.
4. A photo with a scenery using the Rule of Thirds.

WORK

1 person

Aperture: f5   Shutter speed: 1/650   ISO: 400

3 person

Aperture: f4.5   Shutter speed: 1/1000   ISO: 800

A scenery

Aperture: f3.5   Shutter speed: 1/250   ISO: 200

SCREENSHOT

Exercise 4b. Principles Underpinning Composition

INSTRUCTION

Capture images adhering to any of the mentioned principles below:

- Domination / Emphasis

- Isolation 

- Balance

- Repetition Alignment

- Contrast

- Rhythm

- Symmetry / Asymmetry Harmony

Work

Aperture: f4   Shutter speed: 1/500   ISO: 400

Principles: Symmetry, Harmony, Balance

Aperture: f4.5   Shutter speed: 1/100   ISO: 200

Principle: Isolation

Aperture: f5   Shutter speed: 1/100   ISO: 200

Principle: Domination / Emphasis

Aperture: f3.5   Shutter speed: 1/100   ISO: 200

Principle: Repetition Alignment

SCREENSHOT

FEEDBACK

General feedback: Again, Mr Vinod reminded us that the reflection that we wrote for our eportfolio is important. Therefore, he wants us to write as much as possible. He also said that if someone is not fluent in English and might be worried that he will make a lot of mistakes, he or she is allowed to write in point form. He also generally told the class that most of the photo that we took for our previous assignment is kind of mundane. He wants the photo to be more interesting which also requires more imagination and creativity. Hence, he told us that we could redo the previous assignments if we want to. 

Specific feedback: Mr Vinod said that exercise 3a, which is the previous post in the blog, is relatively accurate except for the dark shade which did not seem to be dark enough. Besides that, he said that the photo that I have taken for exercise 3b was mundane and lacked imagination. He also told me that I may redo it if i want to.

REFLECTION

Throughout the lecture and the assignments that I have done, I have learnt and expanded my knowledge about photography. In this specific assignment, I have learnt the Rule of Third. I noticed that if I applied the Rule of Third into my photo, it makes my photo much more interesting than the subject matter that were plainly taken in the middle of the frame. This also arises questions and curiosity of people about why I decided to take a photo with the subject matter at either the left, right, bottom or the upper side of the frame.

When I went through my album, I realised that I do take photos with the subject matter off centre. It occurs to me that sometimes I should take the photo with the subject matter not being in the middle. I only realised this when my sister asked me 'why am I not in the centre' and I told her, ' I don't know, but I think it looks better' and she also agrees to my answer. Usually, I would first visualise it in my mind about how I want it to turn out before I take a photo of something and it unknowingly told me to adjust the subject matter onto the side. Furthermore, I have always liked it better with the subject matter being on the right side of the frame, which is the first column on the right of the gridlines. 

I first heard of the Rule of Thirds during Principles of Design class and it was just the day before Introduction to Photography classes. After learning about it, I understood more about the Rule of Thirds and I hope I could apply more of this rule into my future works in order to get more interesting and creative photos.

14th March 2014 (Week 7)
Seow Jie Yi (0318873)
Introduction to Photography
Exercise 3: The Zone System

LECTURE
This week,  Mr Vinod told us about the zone system. The zone system was created by Ansel Adams, he is a great photographer.  He mentioned that the light meter in our camera is not trusted and we should not take it for granted that whatever reading the camera gave is correct. This is actually caused by how the camera functions as it assumes all background has the same tone which is in zone 5, also known as middle grey. He explained that when the light meter is 0, it mostly signifies that the photo is in zones 4, 5 and 6. Besides that, we were told that each zone is equals to 1 stop of the aperture.

These are a few images that was given by Mr Vinod:

Exercise 3.a. Light, Middle and Dark Tones
INSTRUCTION
1. Choose 3 different subject matters of varying tones.
2. Firstly, take a photo of the subject matter that has varying shades of white.
3. Next, take a photo of the subject matter that has varying shades of grey (middle tones).
4. Then, take a photo of the subject matter that has varying shades within a dark area.

WORK

Light

Aperture: f5.6

Shutter speed: 1/60

ISO: 200

Aperture: f5.6

Shutter speed: 1/100

ISO: 200

Medium

Aperture: f3.5

Shutter speed: 1/20

ISO: 200

Aperture: f3.5

Shutter speed: 1/13

ISO: 200

Dark

Aperture: f4

Shutter speed: 1/3

ISO: 200

Aperture: f4

Shutter speed: 1/6

ISO: 200

REFLECTION

From this exercise, I have learnt that we should not depend on the camera too much as it is already proven that the light meter is dumb and it gives us false readings. If we follow the light meter reading of the camera, the photo taken may not be the desired photo as it will automatically change all of the tones of the photo into middle grey which will then make the photo unappealing.

Although I usually would play around with the black and white setting in the camera but I had never heard anything about the zone system. I have always loved this setting because the pictures taken that are in black and white always gives me a nostalgic feeling. When I first heard about it, I only knew that it is meant for the black and white setting but I have no idea of how it works. But after having this lecture about the zone system, I understand more about it and now I can snap better pictures with the black and white setting without worrying taking a picture that looks either too bright or too dark.

SCREENSHOT

Exercise 3.b.

INSTRUCTION

1. Choose a photo or take a photo of either a landscape, still life or human.

2. Sketch the photo that you chose of took and determine the zones that are found in the photo.

3. Write down which zone the shade belong to together with the aperture and shutter speed.
4. Determine the subject that is chosen to be prioritised in the photo.
5. Decide on the final zone, aperture and the shutter speed.
6. Take a photo using the settings that you have decided.

Aperture: f3.5

Shutter speed: 1/20

ISO: 200

REFLECTION
As I have mentioned before in the previous reflection that we could not fully rely on the camera's light meter and expect to get a photo that you desired because the light meter of the camera is dumb. It is not able to show the real readings as it automatically sets it to middle grey. Therefore, we have to learn how to get the photo that we desired by using the metering mode in the camera. Although it may be a little more complicated than just taking a simple photo but by using the metering mode to get the reading from each subject matter and finalising the readings that you want, you can take any photo and it will turn out as you have desired.

FEEDBACK
General feedback: Mr Vinod told us that our labelling of the assignments were a little bit wrong as we should have put 2.a.i. instead of just 2.a because for some assignments there are more than one part for the specific topic. Other than that, he also mentioned that the reflection that we wrote in our eportfolio is very important. Thus, we should try to elaborate as much as possible.

Specific feedback: Mr Vinod said that my reflection that I wrote for the previous post which was about the Terengganu excursion trip was written pretty well. Furthermore, he also told me that the part where I wrote about my experiences of using the camera is what he wanted us to write. Although he said that but he also wanted me to elaborate more if possible. Besides that, he also commented about the photo that I chose for the previous post that I had over exposed it a little bit because the batik is the subject matter in that photo and I wanted to focus more on that. Thankfully, he understood why I did that without me explaining the reason as to why it was over exposed.

14th March 2014 (Week 6)
Seow Jie Yi (0318873)
Introduction to Photography
Exercise 3: The Zone System

LECTURE
This week,  Mr Vinod told us about the zone system. The zone system was created by Ansel Adams, he is a great photographer.  He mentioned that the light meter in our camera is not trusted and we should not take it for granted that whatever reading the camera gave is correct. This is actually caused by how the camera functions as it assumes all background has the same tone which is in zone 5, also known as middle grey. He explained that when the light meter is 0, it mostly signifies that the photo is in zones 4, 5 and 6. Besides that, we were told that each zone is equals to 1 stop of the aperture.

These are a few images that was given by Mr Vinod:

Exercise 3.a. Light, Middle and Dark Tones
INSTRUCTION
1. Choose 3 different subject matters of varying tones.
2. Firstly, take a photo of the subject matter that has varying shades of white.
3. Next, take a photo of the subject matter that has varying shades of grey (middle tones).
4. Then, take a photo of the subject matter that has varying shades within a dark area.

WORK

Light

Aperture: f5.6

Shutter speed: 1/60

ISO: 200

Aperture: f5.6

Shutter speed: 1/100

ISO: 200

Medium

Aperture: f3.5

Shutter speed: 1/20

ISO: 200

Aperture: f3.5

Shutter speed: 1/13

ISO: 200

Dark

Aperture: f4

Shutter speed: 1/3

ISO: 200

Aperture: f4

Shutter speed: 1/6

ISO: 200

7th March 2014 (Week 5)
Seow Jie Yi (0318873)
Introduction to Photography
Exercise 3: Trip Assignment

Shutter speed: 1/400

Aperture: f3.5

ISO: 1600

My name is Seow Jie Yi and I am currently a student of Foundation in Design in Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus. My whole course of students went on an excursion to a batik complex in Terengganu by the name of Noor Arfa Batik Complex, which is the number one producer of batik in Malaysia. The objective if this excursion was to allow students to learn the traditional way of batik making and also to allow students to experience the drastic change of the culture, food and environment.

This photo that I have chosen was taken in Noor Arfa Batik Complex in Terengganu. It was taken after my group mates and I were finished with our 2 meters long batik. I tried to angle the edges of the metal table with the corners of my lens and this is the best out of all the other tries including taking photos of the batik in different angles. Moreover, I think that this photo that I took turned out quite well as it was angled just the way I desired.

I took about 400 photos during the excursion and I chose this photo to represent my experience in Terengganu because whenever I look at this photo, it gives the a memorable feeling to it. This photo was taken right after we finished the batik and it was the first batik that we made as a group. It gives me a satisfaction feeling as this photo shows the hard work and great cooperation that we had as a group in order to create such a great artwork.

The aperture is 3.5 with the shutter speed of 1/400 and an ISO of 1600. I took a few photos of the same angle but with different settings. Some of it turned out darker than the reality and some were not angled right. After a few tries, I finally had the hang of it and took this photo. The colors that we used for the batik were darker such as dark blue and black for the majority part of the batik. Therefore, I had to use a higher number for the ISO in order to get a balanced black and white photo.

We were separated into groups by the batik instructor on the second day of the excursion and I was assigned into a group with Jien Li, Regina, Mazhar and Jia Lun. Everyone did their part in making the batik and it took us half a day to finish it but the hard work paid off eventually as the outcome was great. The second I put down the brush that I was painting with for hours as we were done with the batik, I rushed towards the table where my camera was and started taking photos of our batik from many different angles. I wanted to make sure this event will remain in my memory as one of my treasured experiences in life and I know that I will regret it for the rest of my life if I did not take photos of the artwork.

In my opinion, whenever I look at this photo, I get the feeling of a great satisfaction rushing through me. I thought to myself that part of the reason as to why I was so satisfied and excited was because it was one of my first batik but it was the first ever batik made in a group. Another part of it was because I know that without the great cooperation that my group offered, the outcome of our batik may vastly differ. Therefore, every time I look at the photo, it brings back the good memories that I had while I was on the excursion especially when I was making this batik with my group mates. 

SCREENSHOT

PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN - ART MOVEMENT (ART WORK)

6th March 2014

We were suppose to present our self portrait that we created according to the art movement that we chose. But the whole course went for an educational trip to Terengganu to learn the traditional way of batik making. Despite that, we still had to post up our process while doing our self portrait.

I took this photo when I just started my self portrait.

This is the result of the previous self portrait from the previous photo. The colour I used is according to the its natural colour. For example, my hair is black so I used black marker to draw the hair of my self portrait.

This is another self portrait but with different colour. Ms Lisa wanted me to another self portrait with my favourite colour which is turquoise, black and silver.

PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN - ART MOVEMENT (RESEARCH)

27th February 2014

Ms Lisa wants us to do some research on art movement. She also wants us to choose one art movement that best suits ourselves and take notes about it and try to understand the chosen art movement as much as possible. After researching about various art movements, I have chosen Typography. I chose Typography because I enjoy playing around with fonts and sizes.

I drew this while having lunch at JC's Pancake and I stuck this on the mirror with everyone else's sticky notes. This are songs which are sung by EXO, a South Korean idol group. Unfortunately, it was gone a few days later when I went back to have my lunch there again. Luckily I took a few photos of it after I drew it !

This is a portrait of Bruno Mars.

This is a portrait of Justin Timberlake. I used these two as my reference.