Lecture 6 Reflection: Of shapes and lines

As I confessed in my first entry, drawing and designing is not my forte. I consider myself to be an artist in many other ways though. I can produce a radical idea but would readily admit incompetence when it comes to expressing it visually. Lines, shapes, tones and values were all undifferentiated in my cluttered mind. Visual theory was something I avoided with my life. Not surprisingly, this lecture scared the hell out of me.

There are a lot of theories about aesthetics and some were mentioned in the lecture. It never really occurred to me before why these elements of art is important. But I believe it forms the very basis for design. Without these elements, there will be no art. And more importantly, it allows an expression of the artist’s emotions and ideas. As a novice, there is still much for me to learn but I dare say I have a better idea of the theories I’ve shunned all these years.

Our class exercise was to design something that would describe any of the given adjectives. My partner and I did the following.

This is an image representing power. The tower of grey blocks is meant to create a “peaking” point that will intimidate and at the same time give a majestic and supreme impression.  The sharp edges reinforce this notion.

This is the symbol for ‘change’. Green was used as it represented momentum and movement. The crisp lines and curves are meant to create a spinning illusion to represent continuity and change. The edges of the symbol are pointy at the corners as sharp lines give an energetic feel as mentioned in lecture.

Assignment 3: Fat be gone!

In preparing for this assignment, I wanted to explore a plot with a twist. I started thinking about ways to evoke a reaction from my photo story and decided comedy to be the most entertaining way, in my opinion, to engage the audience. After gathering my cast, getting my props, making some minor amendments to my plot (due to constraints) and doing up a shot-list and storyboard, I proceeded with an afternoon’s worth of shooting under the scorching Singapore sun.

One of the key challenges I faced was in framing my shots the way I planned. As a stickler for details, I often felt that the surroundings and minor elements affected the framing such that it looked awkward or irritable. Things like my cast’s outfit, the placement of details and other objects within the frame were the key problems in my framing. I had to improvise on my shots on the spot and explore different angle to avoid such shots. This “forced” experimentation of shots actually showed some great results that I may not have otherwise achieved.

An integral part of my plot required some photo manipulation to enhance the story. I had to tamper with some physical traits of my lead to bring out the elements in the story that indicated a change. This became another potentially lethal part of my project because for one, I didn’t visualize how I wanted to edit the features and ending up having to work with several constraints and another problem in the technical aspect was that my macbook was lagging like crazy and couldn’t work the photoshop filters properly. It was time consuming working within the constraints but I managed to achieve something close to my vision. I believe this illustrates how more often than not, planning is never enough. I eventually worked on a friend’s computer and that helped speed up things a lot.

The different shots will be included in my final submission. And now, presenting my photo story… If you can figure out the plot, I can safely say I have succeeded in this assignment.

Assignment 2: Click, flash, oppps!

Right smack in the middle of Assignment 1, we were given the next assignment. This time, we were supposed to design a pictogram in the form of a sign that can be placed in any public place in Singapore. Given such a broad scope to work with, I found it difficult deciding what to work on. I eventually chose to do a “No Photograhpy” sign to be placed at the much hyped about Universal Studios theme park that every child in Singapore is anticipating to open. The sign is to be placed at the entrance of a special effects show as, in contrast to the rest of the theme park, no photography is allowed since it might disrupt the show and also due to copyright purposes, I believe.

In my abstraction process, I started off with a relatively simple photograph which gave me some minor problems when it came to abstracting.

Souce photo

Because the source photo was already so simple with no background or details like designs on the tshirt, I didn’t have much to work with when it came to simplifying. I chose instead to simplify the camera details and focus on the core subject which is the camera. In my first 3 steps I included the person although in the 3rd step I zoomed in to a mid-close-up framing. In these first 3 steps, I worked from a direct sketch from the source photo to a pictogram form of the person and simplified some details whenever possible (person’s neck, camera strap etc.).

In the final 2 steps, I made a shift in emphasizing on only the camera since I felt it was clear enough to send the message without the need of a representation of a person. To make the camera more generic to apply to all camera types, the lens was moved to the centre with a  flash directly on top (as with most SLR cameras).

Abstraction process

When I presented my work at tutorial, it was raised that the message of the sign can imply “No photography allowed in the theme park” but eventually after discussing, we all agreed that the placement of the sign at the entrance of the attraction gave the sign a clear message given its context since photography is obviously allowed at most of the theme park. Like one of my classmates said, “even my grandmother would know what the sign means!”

I felt the final prototype achieved its purpose of sending a clear message to its audience.

Lecture 5 Reflection: Framed! Part 2

After lecture proper, we were told to do another class exercise and experiment with framing by taking photos around the school. My partner and I set our subject on a little curvy walkway outside the LT, right smack in between 2 blocks (very random structure for a relatively “ulu” part of the school). Here are some of the many photos we took.

Bird’s eye view

Being amateur photographers, we decided to experiment with the rule of thirds and compare them to centre-framing from different angles.

Centre-framing

Line-of-third framing

Looking comparatively at the 2 photos above, I personally prefer the second photo. The centre-framing looks strange and I believe this can be attributed to the lack of symmetry in framing. The start of the walkway is curved and distracts the viewer from the subject which is the people walking further ahead. However, that said, although I prefer the second photo, the subject (in a checkered shirt) is too close to the railings and due to the visual complexity and hue similarity of both the subject the railings, it can be quite jarring aesthetically.

Canted low-angle off-centre

Low-angle centre

Like the centre-framing photo, the canted low-angle off-centre photo has details of the railings on the left that tends to make the photo look unbalanced. The photo is also at a canted angle which would be useful to create a sense of confusion. However I don’t think it worked for this particular photo. The placement of the subject is also weak as it is off-centre but not along the line of thirds. I prefer the second low-angle centre photo which has a sense on symmetry with equal details of the railings on both sides. The subject is distant but impactful due to its placement which I feel somewhat embodies the typical dramatic scene of the western hero riding into the sunset.

Looking again at the photographs, I realized that the little things, however small, like the trash bag in front of the structure (refer to “bird’s eye view”), can really be an eyesore. I suppose it’s the attention to detail that differentiates the good photographer and a great one. Hopefully, I will be able to make it point to pay attention to details while doing assignment 3 and not just be too obsessed with the framing.

So I left you with some food for thought in my previous reflection post.

The question was: Is this photo breaking the rule of thirds?

My photojournalism lecturer in another institution once said that as long as the eyes are in focus, the whole person would look in focus. He also said that the eyes should be used to fulfill the rule of thirds, not the whole person. In this particular photo, the subject’s eyes are slightly off centre (and so is the rose she is holding) so it seems as though the rule of thirds have been almost fulfilled. Except that it doesn’t exactly lie on the line of thirds.

Given how the rule of thirds is really the lazy scam to the Golden Mean, it really can sometimes be a rule to be broken. So although it looks like it followed the rule at first glance, it actually did break the rule if you look at it rigidly. But it doesn’t make it a bad photo, in fact I thought the framing was genius (intentional or not) cos lo and behold, guess what I realized?

The fibonacci spiral fit perfectly! Although this could be accidental (it probably is), it explains why the framing is so pleasing to the eye despite not having fulfilled the “lazy rule of thirds”!

Lecture 5 Reflection: Framed! Part 1

One of my favourite lectures for the module yet. Although I’m not a stranger to most of the concepts mentioned in lecture, the lecture was still interesting due to my interest in photography. It made me refer to some of my past photos and notice those that fulfilled the rules of framing. I realized I’m a huge follower of the rule of thirds but occasionally break those rules.

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I believe the “rules” mentioned are good guidelines but sometimes, breaking the rules can sometimes result in an even more interesting composition. Here are some photos I found on the internet (I do not take credit for the following photos) that broke the rule of thirds and yet still managed to achieve a wonderful photo.

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I especially like the 4th picture. It is with the idea of symmetry that allows such emphasis on the subject hence producing a powerful imagery. I believe one of the ways to break the rule of thirds is by producing a symmetric image that places the emphasis on the subject in the centre of the frame and works well if you have a dominant subject. In creative photography, it’s not uncommon to find photos that intentionally break the rule (and some other framing compositions) to defy tradition but does that mean that the photographer is incompetent? I think not.

Food for thought: Is this photo breaking the rule of thirds? (will upload my thoughts in the following post, together with the class exercise)

Lecture 4 Reflection: Gimme a sign

Who knew that a pictogram with a red diagonal dash across like this could be implied to represent the letters that form the word “NO”? That was the most interesting fun fact from the lecture. There are so many ways to represent things with something as simple as a symbol and pictograms can be seen as a genre of design on its own.

Pictograms for London Olynpics 2012

In my humble opinion, I believe a good pictogram should be simple, uncluttered and clear in its message to its audience. But although pictograms are meant to be simple representations, it can be further categorized under sigmatics into 3 different types; the icon, symbol and index forms. It was baffling trying to grasp this concept at first and differentiating the 3, but a further discussion with my lecturer and peers during the class exercise led to a better comprehension of this concept.

During the class exercise, we were tasked to come up with a symbol to represent a photo. We selected a photo of an ice-cream cart…

Photo of ice-cream cart and seller

And decided to create a symbol to direct people to the cart for some ice-cream lovin! We decided that the cart with the ice-cream man would be too complex for a sign. Since the product sold is ice-cream, we decided that a symbol of just ice-cream would be enough to imply its presence. And where there is ice-cream, there should be an ice-cream seller who comes with a cart/booth. Hence we created a simple symbol with an arrow to suggest to its audience that there is ice-cream just around the corner.

Final symbol

Assignment 1: Sneaker-y business

During the first tutorial, I presented my sketches and expressed my interest in using either my Chucks or TV concept for my final work. I felt that the general consensus was to go with the Chucks. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get much feedback in class except that the sneakers were unproportionate. I didn’t notice it before, but after it was brought up, I had to agree. There was in fact no room for the toes, unless you have really short and broad feet.

Knowing my artistic limitations when it came to sketching, I knew tracing from my sketch to CG would not work, I needed an alternative. Despite being slightly daunted by my lack of CG skills, I decided to take a leap of faith and try to use a photograph of my Chucks without laces and trace the laces in Photoshop and then blend photo and illustration together.

Original Photo

Armed with my sketch as a guide, I attempted to trace the laces only. After adjusting the size and shape of the laces to fit the shoe, I made some amendments from the sketch so it would look like it fit seamlessly into the shoelace holes. The tweaking of the laces (defining the shape, outline, adding texture, shadows and gradient) was a tedious process that took approximately 10 hours to complete, especially for a novice like myself. I had to experiment a few times with different styles before I finally got the final look. I went through the same experimental process for the conversion of the photo to illustration of the shoes although it was less demanding since its form already existed.

It was both a huge relief to complete the first draft. After staring at this for about two days, I believe I am too numb to critique my own work so I shall leave it till the next tutorial before making final changes to this draft.

First draft