Digital Photography & Imaging Exercise (Mr Fauzi)

Week 1-5
Chan Meiling 0337771
Digital Photography & Imaging / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylors University / Tasks

---

Week1 

On our first class, Mr Fauzi showed us how to sort our files and folders by using google drive. He said that it's important to sort our files for easier access and backup. Besides, he also showed us examples that are done by our seniors to get a rough idea on what's coming up and to be expected for our upcoming assignments.

Week 2

We did not have class this week as it is a public holiday.

Week3

This week's lecture Mr Fauzi briefed us about the introduction to photoshop.

Summary I have made to refer later on:

Double exposure photography (merging multiple images.)

- Using the Tilt-Shift Effect (Filter > Blur Gallery > Tilt-Shift.)

- Create fake reflection (double-exposure with the help of a separate window photo)

- Experiment with simple portraits and details textured

- Convert your results to Black & White (strengthen the emotions in your double-exposure images)

- Work with silhouette

- Pick two random photo

- Use Shadow

- Blend Modes

 

 

Later on in class, he explained some basic photoshop skills and showed us examples of the exercise that we have to do by using the fixed images given.

For this exercise, I tried to play around with different tools, effects and transparency to get the outcome that looks the best to me.

Here are the three images that I've done for this exercise:

Week 4

On today's lecture, we have learned about Match lighting. Adjustment layers, Filters.

Important notes I find helpful in the lecture notes:

Stacking Adjustment Layers

We can use multiple adjustment layers stacked on top of one another. For instance, you can adjust Brightness/Contrast in one, adjust Curves in another, and apply a Photo Filter on top of it all. 

Blend Modes and Opacity

- with the Hue/Saturation layer changed to Multiply, you can see in the top half of the image how the overall saturation becomes much more intense. Drop the Opacity back down, and it reduces that intensity, showing how much control you have over different parameters of each effect.

Controlling Adjustments with Masking

- with an adjustment layer, we can reveal the areas we want to change and hide the areas we don’t want to affect. 

-Hiding an Area from Adjustments( With the brush toolset to the colour black, you can simply paint out the area you want to shield from the adjustment, Conversely, you can fill the mask with black, then paint an area with white to reveal it for adjustment.)

Using Adjustment Layers in Composite Images

In a multi-layer image, you’ll select the layer you want to adjust, then select an adjustment layer for it. The adjustment layer is on top of it, and it controls the adjustments for all the layers underneath.

Now, when you use an image with multiple layers, you’ll have to keep in mind that any adjustment layer will affect the layers below — unless you adjust its mask to include or exclude the other layers.

You can make the adjustment layer like normal, then use a selection method like the brush or pen tool to draw in the adjustment layer mask above the layer you want to isolate. A better way is to make the selection first, so when you hit the adjustment layer button and select the adjustment, it will automatically mask off your selection.

If your layer contains an image already isolated in its layer, and the rest of the canvas is empty, simply hold Command, and click on the layer’s icon. This will make a selection that exactly matches your layer’s pixel information, meaning your selection if perfect. Hit the adjustment layer, and it will be tied only to your image layer.

On this week's tutorial Mr Fauzi, he showed us some examples of our classmates' work and explained about how does a good composition would be like. He also touched on the topic more about brightness, contrast and saturation. This week, we are also doing the same exercise but with different images and we are also required to come up with an explanation for our composition layout.

Here are the three images that I've done for this exercise for week 4:

Title: Chasing The Moon.

Reflective Writing:

In this composition layout, I have created, the concept that I’m going for is an astronaut on the moon that was being left out and the spaceship has already left him. There are planets all around the astronaut and I have tried to add some texture on the planets as well so that it will not look too simple. I have also added the tree branches image that sticks out from the spaceship so that it adds on more elements to it. I initially feel like the size of the astronaut should be smaller to look more realistic but I have decided to make it slightly bigger so that composition looks better to me. To add more fantasy and surrealism in this collage, I have changed the colour but remained the texture of the galaxy sky.

Title: Finding Purposes.

Reflective Writing:

We often spend too much time getting things done and accomplishing goals we have set for ourselves. However, sometimes we don’t actually realise that we are just doing for the sake of doing without realising what the purpose is. For this composition layout, I have decided to use the man with the binoculars to show that he is searching or looking for something but there’s no actual directions or even objects he is looking at. I also added some woods and lines to make it feel balanced. For this image, even though it’s the simplest and it’s quite minimalist, I find myself liking this image the most out of three pictures.

Title: The last tree standing.

Reflective Writing: 

The concept of this image is a girl walking towards the moon through a special bridge or portal. She has decided to leave the hustle and bustle of city life to find comfort from a tree left on the entire planet. I decided to use the building picture because it somehow looks like a pathway to me. I also added the tree branches to balance out the black and contrast in this image. To make the tree slightly bigger, I duplicated the tree branches a few times and arranged it to make it look like a tree.

Week 5

On this week's lecture, we learned about Exposure (Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO)

Before our lecture has begun, sir showed us a youtube video by Peter Mckinnon which is one of the most famous photographers that I have been following on Instagram. He showed us this video to have a better understanding of some camera basics about how do the exposure and other features work.

---

REFLECTIONS

Throughout all the exercises that I have done, I find myself enjoy doing the composition and collage exercises the most. I like how the way we are able to express things that we want in our own way and how we are able to come up with something unexpected by exploring different tools, modes and methods which is really fascinating for me. Despite having we are given with the same images, I noticed that everyone in my class have their own unique and different approaches thus creating very different outcomes while doing these exercise which is really interesting to me. I find that there could always be possibilities that are unexpected if we are willing to explore and try more different things.