Assignment 2 - Non-Traditional
For this assignment, we learnt how to utilise light in our photography, as well as adjusting aperture, shutter speed and ISO to engage in creative photography.
This were the photographs I took while learning to make the background blurry and the foreground clear.
It was after taking this photograph that I noticed that my autofocus was switched on, explaining why I could not get the desired effect of having a blurry background and a clear foreground.
Afterwards, we tried our hand at creating a photomontage. The process of photographing the various parts was not that difficult, but the difficult part was going through the photomerging process. My laptop didn't have enough RAM for Photoshop to use the Photomerge function, and crashed several times after processing for hours. Finally, I had to delete a game that was 7GB in size just to make room to allow Photoshop to use the Photomerge function. I started the Photomerge function at night, but it was taking a long time and was draining my battery, so I plugged my laptop in and left it to run overnight. The resulting image file was too large, and I had to reduce it to upload it here.
This was an overall photograph that I took after photographing each part.
'Lava Lamp'
My series, 'Lava Lamp', represents human emotions in the form of moving lights and colours. The name was inspired by the way the dancing lights amidst the coloured backgrounds make the scene look like the inside of a lava lamp. Furthermore, lava lamps have also been called 'mood lights', suggesting that some lava lamps are designed to allow the user to adjust the colour according to their mood.
This photograph depicts lights sprouting like buds against a green and white background. It represents a natural, calm and refreshed mood.
Similarly, this photograph evokes a calm and relaxed emotion. The spots of light resemble fresh dew on a healthy and bright green leaf, bringing out a natural feeling.
In this photograph, the lights have been shaped into curls, resembling smiles, or perhaps springs. Yellow is an energetic and cheerful colour that represents happiness. The lights appear to be springing with energy, complementing the theme.
This photograph represents anxiety, as someone who is beside themselve with worry may find themselves in a confusing place and unable to find the right words to express their thoughts, represented by the blurred-out alphabets. I picked a hue of a gloomy purple colour against a dark background to complement the mood.
This photograph represent sadness, dotted with spots of light representing rain, and falling like drops of tears from one's eyes. The shade of blue provides a moody feel to the picture.
This picture represents optimism. Rays of light appear to be beaming up into the skies, symbolising high hopes. The way the lights are reaching up into the sky represents the desire to reach out for the skies.
This photograph, too, represent optimism, but in a different setting. The twirling lights illustrate a stormy scene out at sea. Despite being amidst raging waves and howling winds, this scene is bathed in a white light, as if it was viewed through the eyes of an optimistic person.
This photograph represents mixed feelings, with white and blue spots being mixed together in the scene. I like this photograph, as the end result resembles an acrylic painting. Furthermore, the way the white light rises and mixes with the blue light is similar to the behaviour of the lava in a lava lamp, making it look like a multicoloured lava lamp.
Work-in-Progress Photographs:
The following were my early photos - I forgot to make my camera focussed before taking these photographs.
Reflection:
This week's lesson helped me to refresh my memory on the camera techniques which I first learnt in Year 1, and also taught me new photography techniques. Learning to to adjust aperture, shutter speed and ISO to capture a clear image is one thing, but utilising slow shutter speed, light and boards is another. I never would've thought of using a board with holes or coloured paper to create a photograph with dancing lights. This lesson is similar to scanography, as to both methods of image-capturing require movement to create an abstract piece of art. I found this concept to be very much interesting, and do hope to use it again in the future. We also learnt how to create a photomontage, and although I successfully created one in the end, it took too much time and effort for me to consider using it again, which is a shame, as I thought the the samples I saw in the slides looked interesting and I had wanted to create my own.
