The HDR assignment was a relatively easy assignment since many of my shots outside of school is done with HDR. However, I did learn a few things while doing this assignment.
The first picture is an old industrial building near the Oak Bridge. The rusting iron, peeling paint, and moss are some element that brought upon me to take this picture. The second picture is more of a typical HDR image. The texture on the concrete is heavily emphasized to give the “over-edited” look. I was very pleased with how the sun flare, the rails, and concrete complement each other in the final product. In the third picture, the long exposure helped the house stand out extremely well. The fourth was made with a 4 minute exposure. As expected, the cloud movement created interesting streaks in the sky. The result of the fifth picture taught me a lot about car trail photography. When viewed on a computer, I noticed the car trails start and end abruptly instead of being long smooth lines. This was because my exposure was too short, which resulted in messy light trails too. Also reflections of the street lights on the cars caused random streaks across the image. Next time I take car trail photography, I will be careful not to repeat my mistakes again. My grandparents and my dad are all abroad, so I had to shoot my mom instead. My mom is quite busy so I wanted portray that in my photos. In the first picture, my mom is using her phone and computer right after eating dinner. I used a large aperture to try to isolate the subject(s) but as you can see, the background is still somewhat distracting. The second picture is my favourite. I liked how the lines and DOF accentuated the subject. Furthermore, the yellowish lighting in the background contrasts with the pink and purple in the foreground. The third picture shows my mom cooking. I placed the oil bottle on the right to hide some distracting elements while helping to push the viewer’s eyes to the subject. It also helps balance the picture. I did find the background distracting but on the other hand, it shows the actual objects found only in real kitchens and not in a fake studio scene.
The photos in this assignment are compiled from three separate outings. I first went to the outskirts of Vancouver to photograph birds. Focus and noise were big issues given the cloudy day and rendered many of my shots unusable. I had to balance between ISO and shutter speed to produce an image that is a compromise between noise and motion blur. On my second shoot, I went to Grouse Mountain with my friends. We waited a couple of hours for sunset, but in the end, it was well worth it. The clouds helped accentuate the landscape; it acted as a frame to draw attention to the subject and made the picture more interesting. On my third photo shoot, I went to downtown. I really liked the first downtown picture because the sun just catches the top of the building. Also, the clouds in the sky “pointed” towards the building which contributed in isolating the subject. The second and third picture of downtown, although taken metres apart, tell a very different story; the first one emphasized the cars on the street while the second one emphasized the pedestrians on the side walk. The motion blur on both pictures give it a sense of time. The raindrops on the lens and water on the ground greatly aided me in telling a story of a rainy Vancouver night. At this point, my pictures show the good side of Vancouver. However, if this set of photos is a book, I want the reader to know the whole story. This is why I included the picture of the quiet alleyway and the homeless person. I got yelled at by the homeless person for taking photos so I quickly retreated to avoid a conflict. Vancouver is where I live, and downtown and nature are what represents Vancouver. *note: on the third to last picture, the blob on the left was not done purposely. I included this photo because I liked how just the feet are sharp and how the people tried to walk around the camera instead of towards it. Sun flare, check. Silhouette, check. Self-portrait, wha….?
I set out this weekend to shoot my sun flare photo, but by the time I arrived, the sun was almost gone. I quickly took this photo with the sun between the tree roots. It was as if a giant hand came out of the soil to try to grab the sun before it came down. The second picture is a silhouette of a leaf of a Guiana chestnut tree with honeydew on the bottom. Making this picture a silhouette really brings the eyes to the droplets on the underside of the leaf. My third picture was the hardest to create. I usually shoot nature subjects and landscapes so I don’t have any experiences shooting portraiture. The picture of me conveys the stress and cluelessness I was feeling when I pondered about how I would take my self-portrait. I wanted the phone to light my face but it just wasn’t bright enough, so I had to use my other hand to hold a flashlight behind the phone. As well as being a prop, the phone also served as a remote so I could take the picture. However, the most difficult aspect of taking this photo was focusing. At 70mm f2.8, the depth of field was razor thin. It was too dark for the camera’s autofocus to find me so I had to use manual focus and move my body forwards and backwards to get my eyes into focus. Overall, I was very satisfied with the final portrait. This assignment put me out of my comfort zone and challenged me to use a variety of skills. I am looking forward to learn more about portraiture next term. The title of this assignment reminds me of flying in an airplane and looking down at the people below who look like ants. The memory inspired me to take the first photo. I waited for a bus to arrive so the picture would have a sense of scale. The bus and vehicles help frame the subject which is the group of people directly below me. This photo shows how small and fragile we are compared to the machines we’ve created. The second photo is a women meditating in the sunset. I experimented with different angles and exposures but I just couldn’t take a photo of what my eyes are actually seeing. I had to adjust the photo in Lightroom to create the feeling I wanted. The warm sunset greatly contrasts with the cold, lifeless tree. The third photo is cyclists in Stanley Park. The large tree and expansive seawall dwarfs the two cyclists. This picture creates a dark and gloomy feeling as if the trees are going to swallow the cyclists. All three photos show how small we are compared to nature and the things we’ve built.
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AuthorJerry Lin Archives
November 2016
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