Improvements to my previous assignments (part 2) November 19, 2008
Posted by jhchen in Assignment 6.add a comment
Title: Feelings towards Knowledge
My aim for this series of photos is to portray our feelings and reactions towards knowledge during different phases of life. For this series of photos, there is no particular sequence to follow, that is to say, viewers can view the photos in any order, be it chronological based on the age of the characters or any other ways. Each individual photos will tell a story on its own and there is a general idea behind the entire series, that is Feelings towards Knowledge.
Child
At a tender age, we do not see the importance of knowledge. We tend to reject knowledge. Hence, forcing knowledge to us is a norm for many of us.
Teenage
During the teenage, we learn that knowledge is important but most of us would face difficulty during the transition from child to teenage. Pain, agony and misery are some of the common feelings during the learning knowledge process at that moment.
Adult
In this phase, many would want to fulfill their dreams and would like to see themselves as professionals. Thus, knowledge is view as one of the priorities in life so as to aid them in pursuing their dreams.
Elder
Lastly, in this phase, many would have retired and knowledge to them is leisure. Gaining knowledge would be at their own discretion. Many would be enjoying the process of learning knowledge with passion.
Here is the series of photos for this assignment:
Forcing Knowledge
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I wanted to portray the kind of rejection for knowledge that a young secondary school student is going through. I purposely did not want to use a hand to force the book in so as to maintain the conceptual elements. Instead, I focus more on the facial expression and hope that viewers can get the feeling of rejection from it.
Agony of Learning Knowledge
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In this photo, I wanted to portray the agony feeling of learning knowledge in the expression of a young teenager. Being aware of the important of knowledge, but was having difficulty in absorbing the knowledge is the kind of feeling that I want to bring across to the viewers.
Misery of Learning Knowledge
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This photo is to portray the misery that the teenager is going through while trying to absorb as much as possible for the examination and coping the stress going through the tough period in absorbing knowledge.
Urging for Knowledge
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While focusing too much in absorbing information, many would end up being a “geek” and urge for more. This photo is to portray that kind of feeling. For this photo, I have manipulated the reflection onto the glasses to show the learning of knowledge through sight.
Fond for Knowledge
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Although some may feel that learning knowledge is a difficult task, others may find interest in it. Finding passion and interest in learning knowledge is the idea that I want to bring across to the viewers.
Enjoying the Consumption of Knowledge
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In this photo, I wanted to show a person going to consume on a stack of discs that resemblances a burger. Knowledge is portray by the digitalized knowledge in interactive knowledge based CD-ROM. At this point of time, I hope that viewers may get the feeling that as we age, we tend to be able to accept knowledge more willingly or even want to grasp more knowledge.
Mesmerizing with Knowledge
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For this photo, I wanted to show a person holding on a roll of newspaper. The character positioned himself in a dog-kind of feeling to resemblance the action of holding on a dog bone. This is to portray the mesmorizing feeling of the character that he enjoys knowledge just like the dog enjoys its bone.
Last but not least, I would like to thank all the models (fyi, they are my family members) for posing with such weird expressions in this series of photos. Without them, I would not be able to bring across the idea of my assignment. =)
Improvements to my previous assignments (part 1) November 17, 2008
Posted by jhchen in Assignment 1, Assignment 2A, Assignment 5.add a comment
After going through this module, though it was quite tough at times with the tight project deadlines and presentation every week, I feel that I have learn a lot from this module and i am able to take better shots now with better composition, angles and especially exposure. Thinking back, it was really not easy initially when i started out. I still vividly remember the monotonous shots that I have taken.
Throughout the course of module, I have been always reviewing on my previous assignments and was hoping i can improve on them but didn’t have the time to upload to the blog. Sorry for that. =)
Here are some of the shots that I have improved. Feel free to comment on any of them.
Assignment 1
Subject Element: Colour (Title: The Bright Side of School)
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Location: Walkpath from the central library to COM1 (near LT15)
For this shot, as the title suggestion, I wanted to portray the bright side of the school. Being a student, studying is our top priority. Most of the time, students are rushing from places to places to attend lesson and thus not noticing the bright side of our school. I also hope that this shot can help to bring the awareness to observe the surrounding and enjoy the process instead of just study, study and study.
Assignment 2
Subject Element: High Key (Title: Innocence)
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For your information, the baby girl in the photo is my niece. For this shot, I wanted to use the low key effect to enhance the innocence of kids. My experience from this shot teach me that it is not an easy task to take a clear nice shot of small kids because they keep moving around! To achieve this, it took me multiple shots in order to get the angle and feeling i wanted to portray. Nonetheless, it is a nice experience taking photos for my niece. Isn’t she adorable? =)
Subject Element: Low Key (Title: The Fake)
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For this shot, I wanted to enhance the mysterious effect of the mask. The low key is to portray the more evil side of human using a mask. I used a black cloth when taking this shot. It was taken in a well-litted room and was taken without a flashlight. Personally, this is one of my favourites as it brings out the eerie and mysterious feeling when I view this photo. Comments and feedbacks from my friends are positive too.
Subject Element: Perspective (Title: Taking Off) or Adjective for assignment 5 (Title: Progressive)
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I slightly tilted my camera to take this shot. Perviously, it was taken at a less interesting angle. I went back to the same block of building to take this shot. By the way for those that can’t make out the place, it was taken at a newly erected 4o storey HDB flat next to commonwealth mrt and the view was marvellous. From this shot, I have learnt that sometimes breaking the rules and tilt the camera, the effect might be magnificient. Thanks Evan for your feedback. =)
Assignment 6 (Concept: Sources of Information) November 9, 2008
Posted by jhchen in Assignment 6.add a comment
Text
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Mobile
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Computer
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Software
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Storage Devices
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Neurons
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To be updated. . .
Ethics November 7, 2008
Posted by jhchen in Exercises.add a comment
What are the ways readers can judge the credibility of an image even in this era of digital manipulation?
For the days when we all thought that the camera never lied, digital will call into question that almost everything we hold dear about the camera’s ability to document the world around us accurately. In the digital age that we are living in right now, it is not realistic to expect people to blindly trust unfamiliar photographs; no matter how “undoctored” those images may look. As compared to the past, the general public now should be photographically literate to be able to tell from the genuine and fake image. As a result we now live in an age when the once-held belief that photographs are the definitive record of events is gone. Thus the safest approach for viewers in the 21st century is to assume that photographs put before us often are “content-manipulated unless labeled otherwise.”
While a good manipulation can be very difficult to detect visually, there are a few ways readers can judge the credibility of an image. For the more minor changes, Lighting is a cue to look out for in photographs; lighting is often very difficult to match perfectly as there will be differences in shadow directions and softness, therefore lighting gradients can be a god cue to detect any form of manipulation. Also, a small white specularity which is a reflection of the light of its surrounding is often spotted in a person’s eye, thus any difference in colour and shape of this specularity would reveal any manipulation. Another way to check if an image had been doctored is to magnify it by several hundred percent to check the pixels difference, but care must be taken for this check as many of the image had undergo compression which might affect its pixels as well. As for the more complex form of manipulation, readers should check if the photographs had been made by combining multiple photographs, or if it had been made by inserting, moving, reshaping various forms and shapes, or if it misrepresented the scene it depicts (e.g. the famous manipulation of the ‘Helicopter shark’ where two image were combined to give an impression that a great white shark is leaping out of water to attack a military personnel climbing a suspended ladder attached to a special forces UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, when there were actually no sightings of great white shark in San Francisco Bay). Certain logical sense would then have to be taken into consideration when an image is judge for its credibility.
Lastly, a suite of photo-authentication tools under development by Adobe Systems could make it possible to match a digital photo to the camera that shot it, and to detect some improper manipulation of images according to Wired News.
Imagine yourself as a reader representative for a newspaper. What would you tell a reader who complained to you about a picture of a car wreck that was particularly upsetting?
Based on the journalistic categorical imperative, a picture of a car wreck is depicted as just news. But from the reader’s point of view, it might be portrayed as a controversial picture that upsets the readers. As a result, readers will ponder over the question over the impact that it may have on the friends and relatives of the victim. Due to the differences between the 2 philosophies, the tension will increase among the 2 groups.
As a reader representative for a newspaper, my job is to soften the tension between the 2 extreme points of view. More common than often, newspaper has only taken into consideration from the journalism point of view (i.e. the categorical imperative) and disregard readers point of view (i.e. veil of ignorance). Hence, I would like to make use of the Golden Mean philosophy to find a middle way between them. Firstly, I would let the reader know that his / her complaint is truly important for us to maintain the ethical values uphold by our journalists and also our editors. I would then further investigate on the public views of the picture and feedback to the editors of the newspaper so that such sensitive news article would be taken into more consideration next time and dictate that the controversial images used would be smaller and possibly in black or white and on an inside page or, as part of a newscast, not as the lead story.
Subsequently, such occurrence would be considered as the misjudgment of the editor and he / she must be responsible for the article published and it will vary from sending a warning letter to eventually losing his job. This will act as a reminder for the team of journalists and the editors of the news to be aware of the ethical issues pertaining to the broadcast of it.
Assignment 5 November 3, 2008
Posted by jhchen in Assignment 5.add a comment
For this assignment, I am tasked to create photographs without using “human expression” as subject to depict some adjectives from a list of them. In short, we are strictly not allowed to include any humans, not even body parts. I feel that the purpose of this assignment is to express emotions without using the simplest form of tell-tale signs from the facial expressions.
The first idea: Chaos
After brainstorming for a few days, I came out with an idea of showing the scenario that one will come upon but would not take note of. For my first piece, the theme that I want to portray is chaos. When one is frustrated in completing some tasks, he / she would tend to vent their anger on papers and throw them into the waste paper basket.
I have also added noise to the background of the photo and adjusted the contrast to give a more rough and messy feeling. I hope that when people look at the photo that I have taken, they will subconsciously relate it to a frustrated and chaos scenario that I am experiencing during the scene.
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The second idea: Mess
I wanted to create the idea of mess by using an artist used palette. In the midst of creating a painting, this scene will be very common to them and viewers can relate it easily. For this photo, I only adjusted slightly on the contrast to bring up the colours in the palette so as to enhance the messy feeling of this photo.
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The third idea: Peace
As for the third piece, I wanted to have the theme: peace. By having a candle commonly used in aroma-therapy, I wish to give viewers a feeling of serenity and peace. Besides that, candles are commonly used during prayers. Furthermore, light is an element from scripture associated with peace and harmony.
Aesthetically, I have blended a bluish-white background to further enhance the mood of the photo. Overall, I hope that this photo will give the viewers the feeling of peace.
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The fourth idea: Lonely
Last but not least, I would like to portray the theme lonely. I have made use of the activity, fishing, which generally depends on oneself and most of the time, alone. Even if it is done in a group, people tend to focus and fish within their own confined space at some point of time. Lastly, I have adjusted the colour scheme to sepia in order to bring out the feeling of loneliness.
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