Assignment 3 « :: Digital Photography & Imaging

Assignment 3 – Focal Length, Sensor Latitude September 15, 2008

Posted by jhchen in Assignment 3.
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Learning Experience & Difficulties Encountered

As usual, I started off with some planning and brainstorming of ideas to fall under the different sections for this assignment. Here are the list of objects and scenes that I would like to take and and would be looking out for this assignment:

Element	Objects / Scenes
Perspective	Objects that have lengths that illustrate deep depth of field which would also give a strong illustration of perspective. E.g. Railway track, corridor, buildings from top / bottom.
Zoom shot	Zoom shot can be applied on any objects, but personally, I wanted to use zoom shot to further enhance the effect of movement. Hence, I would be looking out for objects that are naturally moving. E.g. Cars, lights, roads with people.
Close up	Close up is to show focal point on a specific area of interest or a small object. E.g. Plants, flower bud, dew on leaf, ants.
High key	Taking photos in their rightfully shades. Context is also an important factor. E.g. of high key: Light bulb. E.g. of low key: owl in the night, bat in the night.
Low key
Symbolic of the sun	Bright objects to illustrate the grazing characteristic of a sun. Red, Orange, Sunlight are some of the characteristics of a sun. Abstract illustration of a sun. E.g. Headlights, plants that are bright.

For the perspective element, I went down to the commonwealth area hoping to take some interesting photos of the railway. I found a track where residents always used to cross the railway. I don’t think it’s legal though because there isn’t any proper walkway and the fence has been intentionally brought down by the residents. ^.^ Nonetheless, I went ahead and stood onto the railway to take a few shots of the railway.

To start off, I took some safe shots to make sure that I have some photos that falls under long perspective. After which, I tried to explore with different angles, different aperture to toggle between the depth of field. For those who are new to photography like myself, I recommend you to take some safe shots before proceeding to input your creative sense because the result might not be successful.

It was a sunny day, thus I am able to capture high quality deep depth of field photos of the railway without the need to increase the ISO setting.

When I was on the way home, I came across a very straight and long corridor. I took some photos of it to illustrate long perspective as well as some zoom shots on people walking away from me to give it an eerie kind of feeling that the person has been followed. The first thought that came to my mind is that it could be used for campaign on neighbour safety. I learnt that planning is important, but situation awareness and the ability to notice a good scene are also crucial. If I followed closely to my plan, I might miss out the spectacular scene on the corridor.

As for the close-up photos, I took photos of nature to illustrate it. I made a trip down to the botanic garden to take some close up photos of beautiful plants. The trip down was well-spent as I managed to capture very close-up shots of plants and flowers with a 60mm macro lens.

The experience gained from the exercise at the botanic garden was mavellous and it kind of helped me to destress from my hectic schedule. Through this exercise, I also learnt how to apply the different metering on different scenario. There isn’t any best metering amongst the 3 metering techniques (Evaluative metering, Spot metering and Partial metering), it all depends on what kind of effect do you want to achieve. I used the different metering on different elements for this assignment, for example, spot metering on the flower of focus so that the exposure is correct for the flower and evaluative metering for the perspective shot on the railway to give a more balance exposure throughout the whole photo.

As for the low key, I managed to capture the cat eyes at night. Everything was dark expect for the eyes of the cat which reflects some light from the road lamp and the moon. It is one of my most favourite photos because it gives viewers an eerie feeling. It also creates the suspense, horror and the sense of unexpected and that’s what I think a low key photo should portray.

In my opinion, the composition of high key photo should consist mainly white, which may have different representations. For this assignment, I would explore into purity and innocence. Hence, I took some photos of babies so as to enhance and purity and innocence of adolescence.

Here are some photographs that I have taken for my assignment 3:

Element: Perspective