Week 10: Food Photography

Today, we focused on Food Photography and how we can use reflectors to get even more lighting. We went to the food tech rooms and took photographs of the food they were making. We also made some reflectors using tin foil to use in the food tech rooms but I don't think it was very useful because even if I shined my reflector on the food, I couldn't see much of a difference.

These are some of the best pictures I took and then edited in Lightroom.

(I think that this background is too busy however, I like how I accidentally captured the moment when she was pouring in the vanilla essence in)

Week 9: Abstract Photography

This lesson we focused on abstract photography. Abstract photography focuses on shape, form, colour, pattern and texture. Moreover, it is unlike most other types of photography because there are no rules- composition, focus etc. Instead, the photographer has to use their own imagination to create a photograph.

The viewer is often unable to see the whole object or even tell what the subject is because usually the photographer has taken just a small portion of the subject so that the viewers may only know the essence of the image subject and understand what is implied. Abstract photography may not mean the same thing to everyone.

Things to think about when taking abstract photographs:
- Subject
- Lighting and shadows- use black and white to emphasize this
- Perspective
- Focus- you could use a slow shutter speed to get a blurred effect
- Patterns
- Shapes
- Colours
- Cropping- crop an image tightly

These are some images that I took today- some images I cropped tightly using Photoshop while some I just left them be.

We also had some Abstract Challenges to do like...

1. M&Ms

Place a piece of glass or perspex between two stands. Spray the glass or perspex material with water using a spray bottle and then place an objects underneath to create some bubbly images. 

Camera settings should roughly be:

• ISO 100
• Aperture f/16 – f/18
• Shutter speed 1/250

This was the effect I got:

I chose not to focus on the last two images because I wanted to see how the colours would look like when I am not focusing.

2. Cutlery

We simply placed some cutlery against the wall and included some shadows. I don't really like the way I photographed this and I would definitely try again to improve. 

 3. Slinky
Again, I focused on the shadows of the slinky.

4. Oil on Water

Place a glass dish on top of some colourful background material like coloured paper. Fill the dish with water and add a small amount of dishwashing liquid and oil

Camera settings should roughly be:

• ISO 100
• Aperture f/16 – f/18
• Shutter speed 1/250
• Manual focus 

 

This was the effect I got, I think this would have look nicer if the background behind was even more colourful.

Week 8: Halloween Portrait Photography

Since Halloween was just a few days ago from our last lesson, we had to dress up in our Halloween costumes to take portraits. We left school to Bowen Road and took a few pictures there as well as in the school. I lent my camera to my classmates to take some pictures of me when I had to pose. We had to compile a shot list of things we should try to take pictures of; my shot list included: rule of thirds composition, framing, close-up, posing, contrast of colours and maybe perspective.

I like this image because of the composition and how she is staring at something far off. This fulfilled the close-up in my shot list.

I like this image because of the rule of thirds composition, the background and how the sword reflected light. This fulfilled the posing in my shot list.

I like this image because of the cool natural background at the back and how again the subject of the image is staring at something out in space. This fulfilled the rule of thirds composition in my shot list

I like this image because I framed her face unintentionally with diagonal handrails. This fulfilled the framing in my shot list.

I like the rule of thirds composition and how there is unintentional reflects of light around in the background.

I like this image because of the blurred background and how we cannot really see where she is looking at exactly.

This picture shows perspective but I don't really like the composition of the image because my arms are cut off and you can't really see what my arms are holding onto. This fulfilled the perspective in my shot list.

Week 7: Street Photography Part 2

This week we went on a trip to Hollywood Road in Central. We had to think about composition a lot and capture at least two images from the challenges below:

Portraits - Candid: shots of people going on with their daily lives
Portraits - Ask a stranger: asking a stranger whether or not you can take a photograph of them and basically getting rejected a lot
Rule of thirds: taking photos where the main subject is falling in one of the divisions or on the line
Viewpoint: changing the angle you are getting your shot from- up, down etc.
Diagonals: gives a picture some perspective and makes it look more dynamic
Pattern: taking pictures of the patterns, textures, shapes and colour which can make a photograph visually compelling
Shadows & Reflections: using light creatively to capture unique patterns
Leading Lines: when subjects in a photograph are placed in a way so that it paves a line for the eye to follow through- typically leading to a subject
Framing: using the natural surroundings to frame your subject
Symmetry: a photograph that looks the same on one side as it does on the other
Photo Essay: capturing images for your photo essay

I couldn't get all of these photographs during our trip, but I got most of them. Some pictures I am proud of from the trip are here:

Portrait: Ask a Stranger

I asked this particular stranger to take a photo because I found it fascinating how her face was looked so hard and how weirdly it was. I felt very rushed when taking this picture and couldn't get the composition right- the head looks cut off from the body and the neck

Portrait: Candid

This is a candid photograph of this girl I saw sitting on the streets. I liked how she was staring at something faraway and how she sat right in front of a really nice diagonals background. I also thought about the composition, placing her on the left third.

Although this didn't fit any of the challenges, I really like the street art and therefore took a photograph of it. 

Patterns

A photograph of some fabric patterns I saw on one of the fences when walking by. I thought about my composition in a way that I took a close-up to "fill" the pattern on the whole shot area.

Patterns

I was trying to imitate what I saw when researching for photo essay ideas- dense architecture with close ups of the windows. I think it turned out okay except that it is slanted but it looks a bit more interesting this way anyways.

Rule of Thirds

I really thought about the composition here because I placed the guy and the eyes on the line if there was a rule of thirds grid here.

Viewpoint, Symmetry, Leading Lines

This photograph is a mix of many things. It shows view pointing because I took this photograph from a low angle to show the height of the building. There is nice symmetry here too and there's a leading line pointing to the sky.

Since I couldn't get all the challenges done on the trip, I had to take photographs as homework as well. I took the opportunity to take some photos when I was at Ocean Park over the weekend. Here are my shots:

This shows pattern and contrast between colours

This shows contrast between colours

This shows symmetry

This shows horizontal lines (instead of diagonals)

This shows view pointing and pattern

This shows reflection