Introduction to Photography: Week 14

4.7.2014 (Week 14)

Casey Chong Jing Ping (0318756)

Introduction to Photography

Presentation: Studio Photography Portraits 

Lecture

For today's lecture, we had a short discussion on the topic of Lighting, which is the different types of lights and lighting used in the studio for studio photography. Most of us watched the videos and read the reading material that Mr.Vinod posted on the facebook group page. We had the group discussion for 15 minutes and it was quite smooth and educating. After that, we listened to the presentation by Mr.Vinod on different types of Light and Lighting, which are both very different terminologies. The different types of Lighting are Split Lighting, Loop Lighting, Rembrandt Lighting, Butterfly Lighting, Broad Lighting, and Short Lighting, whereas the different types of Light are main light, rim light, fill light, background light, and hair light. After the presentation, Mr.Vinod brought us to the photo studio to do the photo shoot. Mr.Vinod showed us the equipment and how to use them properly. Each of us have something to do during the photo shoot, whether it is helping with the lights, make-up, camera, or anything else, we all can chip in and help. Each of us have to be the photographer once, and whoever's photograph we took will be the photograph that we post on our facebook page as our  photography work assignment. I did not model today but instead chose to model next week, but I did help in the photo shoot and I was Andrea's photographer. When the photo shoot finally wrapped up, it was already a few minutes after noon. We quickly packed up and cleaned the photo studio, then class was dismissed. Before we left, a few classmates and I stayed back for a while to ask feedback from Mr.Vinod for the final project photographs. My photographs from this week were not very good, as I did not put my all into it and I had lack of time to hang around and take even better photographs, but the good news was that out of the 5, Mr.Vinod really liked one of them, which was the one with the cracked ground, because it had good tonality and good texture. Apart from that, the rest were ot good. After that, we all went for lunch before hurrying to our next class.

Exercise: Final Project and Studio Photograph 
Final Project:

This is a section of the wall of an old building, and I like it mainly because you can see the mold and the moss on the floor from the long time usage of the building. The grey wall also gives off a certain gloominess to the entire photograph. The dark part of the floor is the moss, and as you can see, it has eaten up more than half of the floor.

This photograph is very messy, and it might be an ugly photograph, but I just love it so much that I just have to post it on the blog. If you look closely, it has a sense of repetition in it. This is a photograph I had taken when I saw a gigantic pile of unused benches right smack in the middle of the abandoned road. If you light a tiny spark in it, it probably would ignite into a giant bonfire. 

This is a part of the wall, and 2/3 of the floor. I like to emphasize the triangle shaped peeled section of the wall, as it is so unique that it peels off in such a uniform manner. But what I really like a lot is the floor. The floor actually has criss-cross marks which are originally in very light colours, but are now so worn out that the colours are darker than the floor itself. As you can see, the floor is also very worn out too.

This photograph is very simple, but as you may know by now, I love simple things, and simple photographs are no exception. This is a wooden crate I found lying on the road near the drain. It's still in perfectly ghood shape, and can still be used, yet it is thrown out and unwanted. I am intrigued by the surface of the wood, and that little bit of imperfection just makes it even more beautiful. In my point of view, this kind of implies that this wooden crate is the only unbroken thing in an area filled with destroyed things. I find a certain beauty in that.

If you do not know what this is, this is rust. I love rust. I do not like to touch it, but I like to admire it from a short distance away. It has a nice rough texture, like it's s tough, but when you actually touch it, it crumbles away, weak and vulnerable. This gives out a strong message, which is that something with such a tough exterior can have such a weak and vulnerable personality. This is actually a giant metal bin that is filled with a lot of junk and unwanted, dirty, and smelly things. What you see in the photograph is just a small part of the exterior. The dark patches are rust, and as you can clearly see, te rust has taken over 99% of the entire bin. Weak things can still be strong enough to take over giant tough things too. Remember that, and let that be your motivation.

Studio photography: 

Today, I am the photographer to Andrea Tan, my classmate. I had help from a few friends, especially Katrina, and Mr.Vinod too.

This is the photograph Andrea used:

As I had not gotten the final outcome photograph yet (it's in June's DSLR as I forgot to bring mine today), here is a sneak peek during the photoshoot session of Andrea getting ready. It is taken by a phone, not a DSLR:

And here is the final outcome photograph I took of Andrea:

Aperture: F11

ISO: 1600

Shutter Speed: 1/30

Screenshots for Hardcopies:

Photoshoot Exercise

Final Project

Reflections

Observations:

From the class, I have observed that the make-up on the model does not appear the same on the camera then in real life. It might seem as if the model's lips are dark enough, but in the camera, her lips could be way too light. I have also observed that photo shoots can be very time consuming and very tiring for both the photographer and the model, even for the people helping. It also takes a lot of people just to get one good photograph, such as the make-up artists, the hair artists, the lighting people and others. Also, i have observed that the studio photo shoots are much more complicated than I have imagined they would be. As I said, it is very time consuming and tiring, it also requires a lot of thinking on where the different types of lights should go and how the model should be positioned, and also the model's expression must be accurate and natural. I have also observed that even when they usually would  wear make-up and love to take selfies of themselves posing ridiculously and even dressing up nicely for occasions, my classmates are all extremely shy when it comes to being models for the photo shoot. I am pretty sure that when the time comes, I am going to be shy too, but I do not really take time to dress up outside and I do not use make-up. The only make-up I have now are a few lipglosses that I do not even use, and they are currently being neglected by me, collecting dust on my table. And given the choice, I'd much rather be the model, or even better yet the helper to the photographer, than being the photographer myself as it s very stressful being the photographer and telling the model what to do and how the lights should be positioned. I am more of the behind-the-scenes kind of person rather than the main photographer or model that is in the middle of attention. Last of all, maybe due to the recent excitement for the photo shoot, I have been neglecting my final project for the 5 photographs, and that is probably why I have been getting feedback that is not vry good. I shall try to take better photographs in the future, like for this week, but there are no guarantees as I am still a bit excited for the photo shoot next week, and nervous as I will be becoming the model and Mr.Vinod says that my photograph is the most difficult to achieve among all and I feel bad for my photographer, which will most likely be Katrina. One last thing I observed this week was that the lights used for the photo shoot are so harsh and blinding and very hot when you stand near them. Do not look directly at the lights, as they are almost like the sun and most probably might blind you.

Experience:

I had quite some interesting experiences to share this week, as it was the first week of the photo shoot, and it was all entirely a new thing for me. One of my experiences was the photo shoot experience. At first, I did not really help in the first photo shoot, which was modeled by Olivia, and I just sat in one corner and waited for my turn to be the photographer. But, it took a very long time for the first photo to be taken, and u got bored of doing nothing, so for the second photo to be taken, I helped out a little. It was the photo shoot for Wei Ning, helping to determine her position and the lighting for the shoot. Then it was Mae-Chel's turn to model, and I got into the shoot and helped out with the lighting and the way her hair does not look pouffed up enough and her eyebrow are not thick enough. I was also one of the people who helped decide that she was supposed to be leaning against the wall and so we had to convert the table she was sitting on into a chair and move it close to the screen. I helped out quite a lot for Mae-Chel's photo shoot. After that, it was Andrea's turn to be a model, and to my suprise, also my turn to become the photographer and I was so freaked out I just forgot everything I've learned and I was frozen. I have become comfortable in being the helper for the lighting and photographer but not th w actual photographer. Somehow, everyone who was helping for the previous photo shoots had all disappeared and I felt like I was the only one manning the photo shoot. Thankfully, after some time passed and noticing that I needed help, Mr.Vinod and Katrina as well as some others helped me out and what seemed like the longest photo shoot ever was over for me. I was drained and tired after that terrifying experience, so I decided not to help out with any of the other photo shoots. I went to a corner at the back of the photo studio to recharge my worn out batteries and rest. I did observe the going ons in the next few photo shoots and see how they do everything. Hopefully next week I will help out more and not be so drained from modeling or anything.
Another experience was the usual experience I have wheb I went to take photographs for the final project. I am still not very into it and I am still struggling to find very good eye-opening photographs that will make Mr.Vinod proud, and the fact that I had one great photograph on my previous post, even when the rest are very bad, it makes me feel happy and gives me hope that I can take more photographs like that. So, this Saturday, I arrived at church 30 minutes early, which gives me around 30 minutes to hang around and take photographs. I also had the opportunity to take photographs after church too as it ended quite early. As I went around searching for good photographs, my friend tagged along too. Surprisingly, it did not feel hot or humid, and maybe that is because I was so into my photographer mode. We wandered quite far away this time as all the near places don't have much things to take photographs of anymore. There was a random guy who was working that saw us and stared at us, wondering why we were there, but I guess I had grown immune to that fear and it felt like a normal thing to me. This week, I found quite a lot of rotten things, such as thrown away wooden crate things, an entire pile of unwanted benches, paint peeling walls, floor covered in mold and moss, and also chipped off, or worn out yellow road paint on the road. I took photographs of them all, some came out nice but others not so good. Hopefully, this week's photographs are a much better improvement than last week's.

Findings:
This week, I found out a lot, and most of the things I found out about are on the photo shoot experience. First of all, I learned about how people do photo shoots in photo studios during the past and also the present. It is much more difficult and tiring than I had anticipated it would be. I also found out that I'd much rather be the person that helps behind the scenes than be the main photographer or model for the photo shoot. I like to determine where to put the lights and what lighting to use rather than manning the camera and I do not know how to do hair and makeup so I cannot help in that department. Also, from the presentation and also experience in using them in the photo studio during the photo shoot, I found out about the different types of lights and lighting and when the appropriate times are to use them. Moreover, I have found out that I love determining where the lights go for a shoot and I enjoy pampering the model and helping the photographer during a photo shoot. I learned how to detect which kinds of lights and what lighting the photographer used in a photo shoot. I also learned a trick on how to see what kind of equipment, which is the lights, the photographer uses for a photo shoot, which is by looking at the eye, or eyes of the model. The eyes of the model will reflect the type of light the photographer used to take the photograph of them. Furthermore, I found out how to use the different lights provided in the photo studio and where to place them. I also learned how to use the background screen, and how to lower them properly and roll them up again. I also learned the different uses for each equipment in the photo studio, and we are going to learn more next week too, as Mr Vinod is not done showing us everything and how to use them yet. In addition, I have found out that it is very difficult, or probably impossible, to get the exact photograph replicated into a photograph by us as there are too many aspects we do not have, such as the clothing and the exact equipment for the photo shoot, but we can do a similar photograph that looks like the photograph we want to replicate, but it takes a very long time to do it too. Last but not least, I have also found out first hand that it takes a very long time to take just one photograph that is perfect, or near perfection, especially when you want to replicate a photograph from another decade. That is because of a lot of different reasons, some of which are determining the lighting, the lights position, the camera position and height and framing, the model's expression, position, and that they must look natural, the model's hair and make-up, the shadows cast behind the model or on the model's face or neck, the harshness of the light and the shadow cast, and a lot of other reasons and distractions. It is very very tiring just to do one photo shoot for one photograph, and you will feel drained of all energy after doing a photo shoot, no matter of you are the model, the photographer, a helper, make-up artist, or even an observer, you will feel very tired after doing the photo shoot.