Portraits

 

                                      TEACHER'S WORD TO PHOTO

About The assignment:

For this assignment, we were asked by our teacher to take pictures that depicted a certain word, which had already been assigned to us randomly on chits in class. The word I got was “Addiction” and I have to say, I was quite satisfied with it as there are many ways in which this concept can be shown. The only difficulty this task had, was the time limit and premise, because we had to take our image on campus, with a limited time of 30 minutes. Nevertheless, I asked my classmate Khaled to be my model, and I asked him to sit on a chair with one hand gripping his hair stressfully, and the other holding a leaf of medicines towards the camera. I chose to follow Daido Moriyama’s style of photography for the picture composition and editing, as I wanted to show a more chaotic and abrupt vibe. Daido’s style is characterized by monochrome, high contrast, abstract and grainy photos which some people describe as “dirty” He describes it as “ Are, bure, and bokeh” which means “ grainy, blurry, out of focus.

My Image:

 

REMBRANDT LIGHTING

About The Assignment:

Our first task was to capture an image using “Rembrandt Lighting” in the given time period (which was approximately 30 minutes). Rembrandt lighting is a standard lighting technique that is used in studio portrait photography and cinematography. I used my classmate, Areeba Batool as the subject while using natural light as the light source. I used my iPhone 12 to capture this image, using the stage light feature. Although it was a bit tricky to capture the image in monochromatic tones while keeping in mind the harshness and softness of light and shadows, I believe that the iPhone portrait feature has aided me tremendously in working out the correct compositions. It was my first time experimenting with such lighting technique, and I hope I can do better next time.

My Image:

STUDENT'S WORD TO PHOTO

About The Assignment:

Similar to our previous assignment, this one was recommend by one of our classmates, Noor. We all got a piece of paper on which we anonymously wrote one thing we wanted in life. After receiving a couple of diverse answers, the chits were randomly distributed amongst class and we all captured photographs of those specific words.

My word was “Friends”. I went for a more aesthetic, vlog inspired, modern gram mood picture. That focused more on today’s abrupt and purplish social media photography language. I’m happy that I got together all my classmates to participate in the photo session. I placed the phone on one of my friend’s shoes, and then opened the camera that phone. All of us posed for the picture as I took the reflected image from my phone.

 My Image:

VLOG ESSAY

Are videos better than photos?

 In this assignment we were given two options; either to create a vlog to record a day in our life, or to show the same concept through photographs. Surprisingly, or rather, obviously, it only took a second to choose video option over photos- and I would like to talk about why I came to that conclusion for this assignment.

So, ARE videos better than photographs? The concept of ‘technological convergence’ seems fitting to point out here. Now, about a decade ago from today, the invention of cellphones and photographs brought upon a new age of media that everyone marveled upon. People and the web connected, through immense communication. But the technological convergence of the concept of pictures led to more coordinated’ videography’. Technological convergence is basically the result of disruptive innovation that combined the previously siloed fields of telecommunication, IT and Media (1)

I believe that the word ‘technological convergence’ is synonymous with ‘innovation’ because anything that is converged brings about new innovations and possibilities. It is important for businesses and investors to have visual elements while marketing their products to attract audiences. Even though images are also considered conceptually visual, they cannot produce the same amount of audience engagement as compared to videos. Today, 81 percent of businesses are using ‘video marketing’ in their strategies to appeal to audiences and over 55 percent of people online watch videos every single day! (2)  Another reason for the recommendation of videos over photos is that they make the viewer stop and pay attention. Videos are combinations of various visual elements/ they have motion encased in cinematography, auditory elements and podcasts along with informative text based content.  Most people prefer videos over photographs because they deliver messages/ entertainment in an exquisitely short period of time which is definitely an eye opener in today's fast paced world.

Taylor Hurff of 1SEO IT Support & Digital Marketing says:

“As consumers, we’ve gotten better at digesting content while scrolling, making it easier to scroll through images without giving the posts the time of day. With videos, you inherently have an extra second to grab the user’s attention. Capitalizing on this with engaging video content to back it up is key.” (3)

In conclusion, I’d say that even though videos are greatly used and expressed more often these days, the drawback to this is - everyone can do it. Ultimately, there’s so much competition that it is hard to stand out in this field. Photos and videos are not superior to each other, both in terms of representation and outcomes. Both means have their own uses according to different strategies and content. For a vlog that shows what I do in a day, and which has to gather an audience amongst people similar to my age, I felt like making a vlog is safer option than photographing the events.

References

 

1 https://searchconvergedinfrastructure.techtarget.com/definition/convergence

 2 https://kennected.org/videos-vs-pictures-engagement/amp/

 3 https://databox.com/videos-vs-images-in-facebook-ads

Blog Link:

https://youtu.be/woWJhg9Yjto

 

 

 

 

 

FISH MANIPULATION

About The Assignment:

For this assignment, we were asked to practice and apply some Photoshop techniques we learnt in class onto an image of a goldfish. As for me, since I don’t have a laptop at the moment, I decided to apply those techniques while working on my art program, that is the internationally recognized drawing app called “Procreate”. I wanted to create an image that would go deeper than just editing, something that would have a slice of life, and a part of myself in it. So I edited headphones on the goldfish for manipulation purposes. I also changed the hue and color grading of the fish from orange to pinkish, to give it a more aesthetic and laid vibe. Several techniques were used during this like selection, cloning, layers and color balances. After I was done with the editing, I decided to add one last touch to it to make it more creative, that is the “Music playing”. The fish basically depicts the feeling unworldly feeling of peace you feel when you listen to music in an emotional state, somewhat similar to what someone would feel underwater. I named this picture “No Longer Human” referencing to Dazai Osamu’s book.

 Original Picture/ My Picture:

HUMAN SELECTION

About The Assignment:

As we recently learned how to work with the selection tool in class, we were asked to apply the techniques to a human figure. I chose Yoshizawa Ryo, a famous Japanese actor, to work on for this project. I basically tried to apply selection in a way that I removed his upper body, leaving out just the hand and face. The hair was a bit tricky, but since I worked on this with my iPad on the app Procreate, I still enjoyed the process as I was already familiar with it.