Class Exercise 4 - Experiment with Lights

This week we played with different lightings. sadly we missed out on the chance to try out the reflectors. hope we can try that again next time!!

we used the flash from my phone as the lighting this time round... actually we felt that it was not bright enough! it could be brighter to make the lightings in our pictures not obvious.

front light


top light


side light




COLOUR CAST

For this week's critique session we were supposed to choose the best picture for each category from our group.. there they are:

best zoom

this is done by yingqi. we liked it because of the interesting zoom effects it has on the flower. i never thought of doing it on a flower before too... the composition is also not bad in this picture.


best close up

this is my picture. we liked it because of the colours in the pictures. it is very vibrant. and also it was not obvious that its a lamp.


best smile

This is done by yingqi again. we all thought it represents "smile" nicely as most girls can go crazy over dessert. we all like desserts too, and the picture made us smile when we looked at it. it's attractive. and also, the composition is good.


best perspective

this picture is done by yeechuan. we thought the reflection of the building in the glass panel was cool, as it completed the building. perspective wise we thought it could have been better, but we really liked this picture. the composition here is not bad too.

Class Exercise 5 - Appropriation

caption: There would have been MINE —-diamonds from Africa

this week's class was on appropriation. we were supposed to come up with a "mash-up" that's provocative about the topic that we got: jacuzzi...

it was so difficult to be provocative, i must say.. haha...

what can we think of when we see the word jacuzzi? i think of a rich man indulging himself in it, enjoying every moment of it. when we think of rich, we think of money, jewelery, gold, etc... we wanted to express the income gap between the rich and poor, therefore initially we wanted a picture of a rich man in the jacuzzi, bathing in diamonds, while poor kids from Africa looked at him through the window.
however jing reminded us that this would be too conventional. therefore she suggested us to put the african kid in the diamond jacuzzi instead. this would portray the irony more, and it is actually more through provoking.

lastly, we also wanted to place a pile of diamonds with the company DeBeer at the side of the jacuzzi. we wanted to show the inner voice of the african. the irony that he was the one who extracted these diamonds, but yet he cannot own them.

Assignment 4

A4 requires us to submit one high-key and one low-key photo.
it's really hard to differentiate high-key vs over exposure initially. but after a few tries... to me, high-key is more artistic than over exposure..



high key
taken with Canon EOS 500D, f/4, 1/25s, ISO-800, at 27mm focal length

i actually quite like this picture. it's what i normally eat in the mornings. haha but something funny about it is that it is cereal in a campbell soup bowl -__-''' my friends noticed that too.

critique: the bowl is a bit too low for it to be in the focus. and the cereal in the bowl is also out of focus. i should move the bowl up a bit and focus on the cereal instead of the bowl.



Low key
taken with Canon EOS 500D, f/5.6, 1/40s, ISO-1600, at 55mm focal length

i have to say taking low key pictures are so much harder than high key. in low key, we still have to consider the angle of light, and the angle of the camera, plus the amount of light that comes in. etc etc. difficult~ i think this picture is not good enough. there were a few pictures that i really liked that were shown in class.

critique: looks like a product advertisement. but OK.

FINAL

Low-Key



High-Key

Assignment 3

For A3 we were supposed to take pictures of the following themes: close up, perspective, zoom, smile (without face).


Close Up
taken with Canon EOS 500D, f/5.6, 1/80s, ISO-800, at 55mm focal length

This is actually a lamp in my room. I liked the colour of the lights that come out from it.

critique: nice colours. and it's not obvious that it's a lamp (that should be good right?)



Perspective 1
taken with Canon EOS 500D, f/3.5, 1/5s, ISO-1600, at 18mm focal length

I wasn't really sure of how to take perspective pictures. i attempted to place the cups in a row and try to take pictures of them, but mostly turned out failed. :(

critique: camera should be nearer to first cup, and at an angle that is about 90 degrees to them. this picture shows too much of the cups behind.



Smile 1
taken with Canon EOS 500D, f/13, 1/40s, ISO-800, at 25mm focal length

hmm this is a box of 1000 hand made stars by my boyfriend. haha...i thought it's pretty heartwarming.

critique: only the person who received the gift really knows what it means, so not much of "smile" from the other people.



Smile 2
taken with Canon EOS 500D, f/4, 1/80s, ISO-800, at 18mm focal length

I think the colours of the photo make the picture quite happy. i like bright colours as they can really set a light and happy mood to my photos.

critique: nice colours too. but maybe not to the extent of "smile".



Zoom 1
taken with Canon EOS 500D, f/3.5, 0.6s, ISO-800, at 18mm focal length

this picture was taken at marina barrage, at sinyee's birthday surprise.
ohwell i thought it looked quite cool when i took this picture. shows the dizzying effects of the casino. haha!


Zoom 2
taken with Canon EOS 500D, f/6.3, 1/3s, ISO-800

i quite like this picture. and it's the first of many that i took. i realised this was the most satisfactory one. but nevertheless i find it a little too boring in terms of colours... hmm

critique: they said it would be better if the centre and numbers of the clock were more in focus.. hmm

zoom 3
taken with Canon EOS 500D, f/9, 1/40s, ISO-800, at 39mm focal length

i like this picture cos of the colours. bright colours make me really happy! :)

For submission eventually the following were chosen:

Close Up
taken with Canon EOS 500D, f/5.6, 1/80s, ISO-800, at 55mm focal length


Zoom Shot



Perspective



Metaphor of a SMILE--candy shop. who will not smile at the thought of a candy tree?? We are all kids in our hearts.

Assignment 2

Shallow DOF foreground 1
taken with Canon EOS 500D, f/5, ISO-100, 1/60 at 41mm focal length

Actually i like this picture. It's pretty ZEN. the colours look very peaceful to me.
The critiques said this picture was ok. just that the stone could be a big bigger as the green behind might be distracting.


Shallow DOF background 1
taken with Canon EOS 500D, f/4.5, ISO-1600, 1/30 at 30mm focal length

This picture is taken at a friend's party with an Alice in Wonderland theme. i thought it would be quite funny to put the tag and the food itself together. And i was right. people thought it was quite funny... haha. but then again, the composition might not be interesting enough, although the idea was there.


Panning 1
taken with Canon EOS 500D, f/11, ISO-100, 1/30s at 18mm focal length

Panning took me a LONG time.... I had to walk so many stretches of road to get a nice picture! When I was about to give up and keep my camera, i chanced upon this mirror... and tada. i caught the car in action!!

response in class was that it's quite interesting to have the panning done in a reflection.
however i felt that the colours were not vibrant enough...


Motion Blur 1
taken with Canon EOS 500D, f/7.1, ISO-100, 1/4 at 24mm focal length

I always thought motion blur can be captured by flowing water most easily. I tried with the tap water at home, but the effects were not good. So i went downstairs to explore. and got a picture like this, and a lot more pictures with water.

Critique: shutter speed could be slower to make the water more "smooth". composition can also be more interesting.


Motion Blur 2
taken with Canon EOS 500D, f/3.5, ISO-800, 1/13s at 18mm focal length

well this was taken at the playground. nothing much. but i have to say the composition of the photo is too boring. :S the response in class critique session agreed with me too...



Motion Freeze 1
taken with Canon EOS 500D, f/4.5, 1/500s, ISO-1600, at 29mm focal length

i thought water can show motion freeze well too... the pool was a good choice to take water shots. this is actually water that's gushing down into the small pool underneath.

critique: composition was a little un-interesting.


Motion Freeze 2
taken with Canon EOS 500D, f/3.5, 1/250s, ISO-1600, at 18mm focal length

I really like this picture a lot! it's really a pity that the stream of water was not in focus. this is actually the first pictures of many that i took. i tried about 20 times after this picture to focus on the water but failed. this was done by holding some water in one hand and letting it flow down back inth to the pool. it's really hard to splash water with one hand and press the shutter with the other! :(

critique: not bad composition, but pity water wasn't in focus


Deep DOF
taken with Canon EOS 500D, f/16, 1/13s, ISO-800, at 18mm focal length

I think this looks like a condo advertisement. haha. i find it hard to take pictures with deep depth of field. to me, if not taken well, the picture will just look very cluttered and "random".

critique: looks like a condo advert. and maybe composition can be better.

After the critique session, the following pictures were chosen:

Shallow DOF (foreground)


Shallow DOF (Background)


Freeze Action



Deep DOF

Motion Blur


Panning

Assignment 1

After much consideration, i have decided to change the photos to the follows:

Colour


Shape



Texture


Lines


Form