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.

PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN - MIND MAP (PRESENTATION) AND ASSIGNMENT

13th February 2014

Ms Lisa told us to go around campus to look for recyclable materials that are suitable to be used to make a self portrait as our assignment for the second week. We were all given two hours to gather materials and create a self portrait with it.

This is the self portrait that I made using only materials found around the campus such as leaves, branches, plastic nettings and more.

After that, we presented our own mind maps to the class. I started my presentation with my favourite music. I enjoy listening to music and my favourite genre is K-pop and Ballad. After that I talked about my favourite colour which is black, turquoise and silver. To me, it doesn't matter if the animals are carnivores, herbivores or omnivores I like them a lot and I am against animal cruelty. I told the class that I would choose korean food over chinese food if I was given a choice between these two. However, if I were to choose from korean food and home cooked meals, I would happily choose home cooked meals anytime. One of my favourite sports is basketball. I have been playing basketball since primary school and I was also a school player. Besides that, I enjoy taking photographs especially especially candid and random photographs. I also enjoy playing games and I usually play online games. Next, I talked about my strength in art as I enjoy drawing as well. Last but not least, I love desserts specifically ice-cream and dark chocolate.

This is the mind map that I created about myself.

PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN - FIRST CLASS

6th February 2014

We finally began our classes after two days of orientation. However, Ms Lisa was not feeling well that day so she dismissed the class after she explained what we were supposed to do for our first class.

Ms Lisa gave us an assignment, which is to create a mind map about myself. The mind map needs to show who I am and it does not matter how it is portrayed as long as it shows who we are.

28th February 2014 (Week 4)
Seow Jie Yi (0318873)
Introduction to Photography
Exercise 2 Shutter Speed and ISO

LECTURE
In this week's class, Mr Vinod gave us some general feedbacks. After that, he started the lecture for the day. He explained to us about shutter speed and ISO during his lecture.

Shutter speed is the duration of time the shutter remains open to allow the light to reach the digital camera sensor. Shutter speed is measured in either seconds or fraction of seconds. He also mentioned that with the use of shutter speeds below 1/60th of a second, we will require the use of a camera support instead of hand holding the camera to prevent the camera from shaking.

This is an example of a photo taken using a very fast shutter speed.

ISO is the number indicating a digital-camera-sensors sensitivity to light. The higher the sensitivity, the less light is needed to make an exposure. Shooting at a lower ISO number requires more light than shooting at a higher number.

This is an example of a photo taken using a slow shutter speed.

A comparison between a photo taken using a very fast shutter speed and a slow shutter speed.

INSTRUCTION
Exercise 2b Shutter Speed
Keep the fan speed at 1 and capture images using shutter settings from 1/4th of a second till 1/1000th of a second. Repeat this exercise after changing the fan speed from 1 to 2 and then from 2 to 3 and so on.

SCREENSHOT

Exercise 2c - ISO
2c.i. You will be required to shoot a subject using the lowest ISO setting to the highest. Determine the right exposure (shutter speed and aperture @ ISO 100) and then increase the ISO setting to 200, 400 and so on.

Marking Criteria: The student must capture the evidence of the shutter's ability to freeze fast moving objects and blur moving objects.

WORK

ISO: 200   Aperture: f8   Shutter speed: 1/10 

 ISO: 400   Aperture: f8   Shutter speed: 1/10

 ISO: 800   Aperture: f8   Shutter speed: 1/10

 ISO: 1600   Aperture: f8   Shutter speed: 1/10

 ISO: 3200   Aperture: f8   Shutter speed: 1/10

ISO: 6400   Aperture: f8   Shutter speed: 1/10

2c.ii. Determine your exposure (shutter speed and aperture @ ISO 100) but this time, adjust the shutter speed and aperture to maintain the correct exposure as you increase the ISO.

Marking Criteria: The student must capture the evidence of degradation of image as the ISO increases in sensitivity. The student also must produce evidence that ISO can directly affect exposure.

WORK

 ISO: 200   Aperture: f8   Shutter speed: 1/10

 ISO: 400   Aperture: f8   Shutter speed: 1/25

 ISO: 800   Aperture: f8   Shutter speed: 1/50

 ISO: 1600   Aperture: f8   Shutter speed: 1/100

 ISO: 3200   Aperture: f8   Shutter speed: 1/200

ISO: 6400   Aperture: f8   Shutter speed: 1/400

SCREENSHOT

FEEDBACK
General Feedback: Mr Vinod wants us to correct our mistakes that we did in our eportfolio. The mistakes that we did includes the feedback and reflection part which he told the class that most of us wrote it too briefly. The lecturer wants us to explain more about what we have observed and learnt in class as well as when we do our activities outside of the class.

Specific feedback: Mr Vinod told me that I did not write about reflections for the previous class in my eportfolio, which was what I have learnt during the class of week 3. Other than that, the lecturer said that the lecture part of my post was a little short and he wants me to explain more about the lecture in class and maybe add a few images that explains about the lecture.

REFLECTION
I have updated the reflection for my previous post and written down what I have learnt throughout the class. Other than that, I have learnt that using a very fast shutter is able to capture a fast moving object and the photo will seem as if the object is frozen in place Likewise, a slow shutter speed are used intentionally to capture the movement of an object which will be seen as lines in the photo.

I have also learnt from this exercise that if I increase or decrease the ISO without changing aperture or shutter speed, the photo will turn out either brighter or darker. Therefore, I have to make sure that the arrow of the light meter maintains at 0 to ensure that I get a good photo.

I used to only adjust either the aperture settings or the ISO settings and the camera will adjust itself for a good picture with the changes that I have made because usually I use automatic mode. But after learning the proper way of using aperture, shutter speed and ISO with only manual mode, I have gained more knowledge on how to change these settings in order to get a picture that I desire.

21st February 2014 (Week 3)
Seow Jie Yi (0318873)
Introduction to Photography
Exercise 2: Aperture

LECTURE
During this week's lecture, Mr Vinod told us that most of us made some mistakes in our eportfolio. Therefore, he explained to us what needs to be fixed so that we would not make the same mistakes again. After that, he talked about aperture in class. From what I understood from the lecture, aperture controls the amount of light entering the lens.

INSTRUCTIONS
General instructions: Use a subject that is repetitive in nature. If you are using a zoom lens keep it fixed at 35mm (50mm). When you mount the camera on the tripod, do not move the framing till the exercise is concluded. The focus must be at the same point (centre of the frame) from the first image right till the last. Do not adjust it. Keep a record of the settings for each image shot.

Marking Criteria: The student must capture the evidence of the Aperture's influence in exposure using the various f-stops. The student must also capture the evidence of the Aperture's influence on the depth of field.

Instructions for Aperture Exercise 2a:
Take a picture of your repetitive subject starting with the right exposure combination of shutter speed and aperture. Start your aperture setting from the lowest number (f1.4/f2.0/f3.5). Compensate the increase of your aperture with your shutter settings as the aperture is increased.

 Aperture: f4.5   Shutter speed: 1/1600   ISO: 200

 Aperture: f5.6   Shutter speed: 1/1600   ISO: 200

Aperture: f8   Shutter speed: 1/1600   ISO: 200

 Aperture: f11   Shutter speed: 1/1600   ISO: 200

 Aperture: 16   Shutter speed: 1/1600   ISO: 200

Aperture: 22   Shutter speed: 1/1600   ISO: 200

Instructions for Aperture Exercise 2b:
Take a picture of your repetitive subject starting with the right exposure combination of shutter speed and aperture. Start your aperture setting from the lowest number (f1.4/f2.0/f3.5). Compensate the increase of your aperture with your shutter settings as the aperture is increased to maintain the right exposure.

 Aperture: f4.5   Shutter speed: 1/1600   ISO: 200

 Aperture: f5.6   Shutter speed: 1/1000   ISO: 200

Aperture: f8   Shutter speed: 1/500   ISO: 200

 Aperture: f11   Shutter speed: 1/250   ISO: 200

 Aperture: f16   Shutter speed: 1/125   ISO: 200

Aperture: f22   Shutter speed: 1/60   ISO: 200

SCREENSHOTS

FEEDBACK
General feedback: Mr Vinod told us that our eportfolio were done wrongly as the feedbacks were written in the wrong posts. We were told to fix it by the next class and he explained how it was supposed to be done in order for us to not repeat this mistake.