18th April 2014 (Week 10)
Seow Jie Yi (0318873)
Introduction to Photography
Final Project Process

WORK

REFLECTION
The theme that I have chosen is 'Beauty in Nature'. Although nature is supposed to be greeneries but there is none of it in these photos because we are needed to take photos using the black and white setting.

When I first walked to the park, I felt embarrassed when people were staring at me while I was taking photos. It bugged me to the point where I would just skip some beautiful sceneries just because I was ashamed to take photos of it especially where I have to stand at the edge of the rock just for some photos. But as the time goes by, I felt like I was in my own world where I did not care about the joggers and cyclists that passed by me and not to forget their stares. Furthermore, I actually walked back to the places that I had skipped earlier on and I did not regret the photos that I captured.

The hardest part of taking this photos is that there are a lot of people walk, jog, and cycle around this park. Therefore, giving me all the difficulties in producing my desired photos because I do not want any people nor pets in my photos. Sometimes I had to stand there and wait for the joggers or cyclists to go far enough so that I could not see them in the photos but after taking just a few shots, another train of people passes by. I could not blame those people either as the park is a public area and people are living a healthy lifestyle by exercising.

Other than that, the second and third photo took me quite some time to get the shot. Luckily, the insect was still there after I had managed to get the right lightings and the focussing of the lens. I was also at an awkward position just to get these shots but to me, it was worth it. I do not own a zooming lens and so I had to angle my camera as close to the insect as possible while hoping that it does not fly or crawl away.

FEEDBACK
Mr Vinod commented on our photos that we edited through Facebook after we had posted it onto our photography class' Facebook group. He said that my picture was edited a little bit too much as he said he could not see the right exposure for the picture anymore.

I was actually confused when he commented that because I heard Mr Vinod saying that he wanted us to edit our photos but also maintain the exposure. But after that he changed his mind and said we could edit it however we want so that we can take this ungraded assignment as a chance for us to explore and play around wit h photoshop for us to get used to it and therefore I edited it a lot.

11th April 2014 (Week 9)
Seow Jie Yi (0318873)
Introduction to Photography
Exercise: Editing Selfie

INSTRUCTION
1. Take selfies using both camera and phone.
2. Edit it with Adobe Photoshop.
3. Post it onto Facebook as profile picture.

WORK
Before:

After:

Screenshot of homepage:

Screenshot of results:

REFLECTION

This week's assignment was pretty difficult for me and i believe it was also the same for most of my classmates as this was the first time we have ever used photoshop. Though using photoshop was new to me, I was willing to learn because it seems interesting to me.

When I first used it, I feel so lost. I did not know most of the functions in the software and the way to use it. I spent my weekend playing around with the functions before I officially start with my assignment. Although Mr Vinod explained some of the functions but my friend and I was not there as we have gone out of the class to explore for places with suitable lighting to take the photos required for this assignment. When the both of us went back to class, the lecturer was halfway through with the functions in photoshop. I remembered he was explaining about the usage of layers and feathers.

Due to the lack of understanding of photoshop, I did some research on it. For example, I searched for the shortcuts to undo and redo which is essential for editing. Furthermore, I read about the usage of the layer tab as I had difficulties to insert a background for my photo at first. I also went through tutorials on how to create some effects that I wanted to try editing onto my selfie.

Initially, I planned to use a black and white photo of myself before I found out a function to make it into the result of my editing. Besides that, I was using the lasso tool to crop my face and it did not turn out well. I then found out there was a function called magnetic lasso tool where you could crop your photo easily without getting worried that you might not get the lines right.

Nothing could be done according to what you want on your first try and I was no exception. I saved my progress even if I only edited a little bit because it took me so long just to do a small part as I was still unfamiliar with photoshop. I have done a total of 3 slightly different editing.

I was not satisfied with the first one that I edited. Therefore, I made a second one but unfortunately I was still not satisfied and I went on with the third one. Editing it carefully and fixing the parts where I was not satisfied with by comparing the previous edited one and the one I am currently working on. In my opinion, photoshop is a very useful software if someone would like to edit and make the photo seem surreal and more appealing. I would also like to do more research so that I could make myself familiar with the functions in photoshop.

FEEDBACK

Specific feedback: This week, we had out feedbacks through the projection so that everyone could see what the other classmates had done and how they portrayed their principles of composition. Overall, the photos that I have taken and chosen for the previous assignment were good and that the principles that I have stated for the photos were accurate except for the one that I have chosen under the principle of domination. Mr Vinod said that domination should be a close up photo whereas the subject matter should be obvious. Therefore, I have changed the photo that he mentioned was incorrect and replaced it with another photo.