Lighting in Photographic Capture

Lighting can be natural can be artificial or it can even be momentary light like say lightning.

Momentary - Light that appears for a short time then disappears. Can be natural like lighting or a camera flash. Shutter speeds not as important for exposure as no time to react.

Continuous: Light which is there all the time. Natural (sun) or artificial (tungsten, street lights, building lights etc). Shutter speeds and AP needs to be balanced for good exposure.

In terms of light control photography there are two main types of light. Key and Fill light.

Key - The main light source. Responsible for shadows and highlights. The sun is considered a key light.

Fill - The ambient light that adds a little light to shadow areas allowing them to be seen. Fills in the nature the light is bouncing off. If no fill, one half of our faces would be in a shadow. Sometimes a reflector is used for fill light. The fill is typically placed opposite the key light source.

Reflectors ca be used with fill light. It could be white cardboard or a professional reflector. It could even be your assistant with a white t-shirt that is strategically placed.

The next issue with lighting is contrast or quality of light. 

The harsh light of a high contrast can allow you to be focused into one area of the photo. Where the highest contrast exists.

During the day lighting varies from soft to hard to soft again. Strong sun can produce harsher more directional lighting. Overcast conditions soften the light quality and are a better choice for some subjects.

It is posible to affect the contrast of any light by altering it's size.

Quality of Light - Is important as it can create the right 'feeling' within the photograph. It is often necessary to match your idea or subject with an appropriate light quality. A 'softer' style of shadows and highlights is controlled by the height and direction of your key light source.

Typically positioning the key light source slightly above the subject is best. As the main source of light in our world is always shining from above.

Back lighting is always generally nice. Side lighting is when light comes from the side of a subject.

Front lighting is the least interesting source. As it flattens the image. Rather than side or back lighting that creates a sense of depth.

The intensity of light is also important for a number of factors. The output level of the light itself. The distance the light source is from the subject. Use of diffusers or bounce-light techniques can affect the quality of light.

Lighting can be used in landscape photography. This usually requires allot of waiting for something special to occur.

Autumn Lighting

Principles of Graphic Design

Design is purposeful... Design explains the how of things: how to order a gift, how to navigate a website, how to serve the clients interests. It communicates ideas functions and ideas to specific ideas.

Design is informational... Provides information to the user.

Design uses a visual language - negative / positive, falling / rising, front / back, coming / going, thick / thin, opaque / transparent.

Leading the viewers eye - A composition may be broken down by reads. What is the viewer going to read first second third and so on.

Collaboration - People from different diciplines, clients or stakeholders, other designers.

Form vs Function - You will encounter a range of designers some prioritize aesthetics, beauty while other prioritize it's function. The key is a good balance.

Music and Music Technologies in Film

The 1900s had largely silent films until around the 1920s.

“the pure cinema must have had a ghostly effect like that of the shadow play–shadows and ghosts have always been associated. The major function of music…consisted in appeasing the evil spirits unconsciously dreaded’ the role of music in the silent film play, then, was to ‘exorcise fear or help the spectator absorb the shock’ – Hanns Eisler


Music Libraries - Silent film was generally never ever silent. There was normally an accompanying musical melody.

By 1919 Universal Films sent musical songs to attach to movies. This allowed for the movie producer to have more control over how the movie was played and heard. A famous song book at the time used was released know as a catalogue by Gulsseppe Becce's.

The first feature-length "talkie," "The Jazz Singer," 1927 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1HURXWH9FA

Within 30 years of silent film being created allot of ideas came up for importing sounds to an audience.

Early Sound FIlms were between 1928 - 1933 - Blue Angel, 1930, Friedrich Hollander... King Kong, 1933, Max Steiner.

1934 - 1940 The use of sound behind voice was widely recognized also known as underscoring.

In 1940 Disney's Fantasia was the first movie to use a multi-channel surround sound format known as Fantasound. It used screen left, screen centre and Screen right channels.

At the time a sound system that could playback all three channels was worth $85,000. It was installed in two theatres in New York and L.A.

1941 - 1951 - Patriotic style films were made to boost morale. Film Noir is an example of this. The movies during this time where generally used to transform from selfish to selfless - an important war message in the early 1940s.

1950s - The impact of

The the late 40s around 500 films per ear, by the 1960s around 250. By the 1950s there was a profusion of high quality films in an expanding range of film gneres, horror, sci-fi, life, etc.

1960s - Classical Film Score is used more sparingly and to create general moods rather than depict individual or changing emotions. Popular music was featured in movies such as Easy Rider (1969) or The Pink Panther (1963)

1965 was the introduction of Dolby a Noise Reduction as well as iMAX a sound innovation.

Dolby Stereo was introduced during the 1970s. It produced a high-quality sound.

Reporting on Disasters - 9/11

9/11 Terrorist Attack on World Trade Center

Struggles surrounded the reporting of 9/11 which lead reporters to have patriotic reports. Some facts about 9/11: 

• The largest mass killing on US soil.
• Technology brought images from the scene so that public eye could view the events. 
• Rise of amateurs documenting events.  
• Divided the world - created distrust. 
• The enemy framed as the Islamic peril. 
• Lead to legislations against certain 'types'. 

"It wasn't just a terrorist attack but attacked the economy.

When a journalist attends any disaster there is always grappling with context for the event.

Screenshots of online newspapers at the time when the attack occurred - click here.

"The picture conveyed by the media was as follows: a benevolent, democratic, and peace-loving nation was brutally attacked by insane evil terrorists who hated the United States for its freedoms and affluent way of life." ~ George W Bush.

The Media as meaning maker - Work through trauma has not only individual but collective repercussions. 
The media needs to serve as a conveyer, translator, mediator and meaning maker. 

How does a disaster effect the practice of journalism. 

How does a journalist cope with such horrific events? What does 'best practice' mean?

Media painted those who objected to war as 'the decadent left.'

Limited and Biased Media Coverage

Experts controlled the dominant discourses on terrorism. Produced a rational debate. Little focus on lapse of security. Media spotlight focused on the incidents rather than broader ideas.

Those who were Muslims were forced into a position of apologising for their religion after the attacks.

The Issues with Muslim representation

Militant Islamists as spokespersons for all Muslims. Problems developing effective leadership (democratic), Four major TV networks shared footage - Commercials disappeared.

The main-stream media removed image-intensive graphics. Reduced advertising content - WashingtonPost.com removed all it's homepage advertising.

Newspapers - Provided analysis, typeset was larger and pictures were more prominent.

Amateur news reporters used blogs as a decentralised media. Several major sites connected to the internet were severed but the main back-line stayed functional.

36% of online uses went online looking for news within the first 2 days. 29% of internet users - more than 30m people. Online news category grew 80% in one week.

Blogs - Hundreds of blogs made available eye witness accounts, photographers, video footage. Challenged mainstream media coverage which relying on 'talking heads' to 'man in the street.'

Lenses the Goss

To capture an image on the sensore, light rays are captured by the camera censor.

Lenses are comprised of an elaborate series of glass elements held within an engineered housing.

Lights is transmitted through the lens and interpreted by the film or sensor.

Most modern lenses are based on a convex lens, thicker and one end and wider at the other end.

A and D are two halves of the convex lens. B and c are colour-correcting elements placed between.

Zoom lens most popular, but to get what you see, use a 50mm lens (35mm equiv) when starting to learn about photography. 

This type of lens is called a normal lens for 45mm film as it provides a normal point of viewasdf 

Where does this focal length come from...

Short focal length = wide angle lens. 

35mm filmed. Sensor size variation: large sensor requires larges lens to ensure all surface of image censor covered. Handy reference point. 

Zoom vs Prime

The primary advantages of prime lenses are in cost, weight and speed. Inexpensive prime lens can generally provide a good (or better) image then a high-end zoom lens. 

If using only a small fraction of focal length range then a prime lens with a similar focal length will be significantly smaller and ligher. 

The best prime lenses almost always offer a better light-gathering ability (larger maximum aperture) than the fastest zoom ability. 

Digital Lenses

Specific digital lenses - film can be properly exposed with light falling on it at any angle. 

An image sensor consists of a matrix of light-gathering photo sites set in "wells." This construction means light falls on it at a right angle.

Focal length Multiplier - Read more at Wikipedia

Normal Lens - Approximates the impression of human vision. The relative size of near and far objects seem normal. About the same in length as the diagonal measurement of the 'film.'

Prime - Good for low light, fast, easy, portable, light-weight.

Zoom-Lenses / Prime - Don't open so wide, are limited to the light they can gather.

"The normal lens gives the photograph an 'everyday' look, very suitable for everyday life. 

Shorter Lens

Increases the angle of view and shows more of a scene than a normal lens from the same position. It is commonly called a wide angle lens. A common wide angle lens is a 28mm. 

A wide angle lens is useful for photojournalism, as it allows the photographer to include the contextual information. It also offers unusual distortion effects. 

Longer Lenses

Greater image magnification. Commonly called a telephoto lens. Narrower angle of view than normal lenses. Less DOF. Anything longer than 70mm (bigger number) is a telephoto lens for 35mm film. 

These lenses appears to flatten the space. 

Zoom and Telephoto Lenses are not the same... ? Zoom lenses contain lots of different focal lengths in one.

Adv and Disadvantages of zoom lenses

Great travel lenses, They save wear and tear on lens mounts. Are typically more expensive and heavuer than fixed focal length lenses. 

Soca Logo Design - Client Briefing

Good design goes to heaven bad design goes everywhere...

The university is an educational, artistic and business enterprise. The university departments face challenges and issues in marketing what they do, like larger enterprises and government departments.

Three Aspects of the Design Brief that JCU's SOCA Director is looking for.

Looking for a logo that will capture everything that SOCA is about. In a compelling, powerful and magical way.

A brand for SOCA that's compelling, brilliant and magical.

Three Things: 

• The Market - Knowing what the market is about. 
• The Intention - Should follow on from the market which will allow an intention to be formed. 
• The Competition - Those in a marketplace by definition are competing for business from similar clients. 

The Market - SOCA have many different markets. It needs to give a strong sense about the ethos of the organisation. 

The most powerful designs are those that are upfront and simple, that capture the complexity of meaning. 

First Market - The target group is potential students as well as current students. 

Second Market - Staff members. 

Third Market - Those who are external to the university. That range from government, arts organisations, academics etc. 

The key about marketing of JCU's SOCA is a mixed group. That create's an image of SOCA both in text and typography. 

The Intention of the Design  - Think about good design as being the art of capturing opposites. 

The department wants to be able to capture what the school is - An enterprise that does many things. 

The oppositions... of JCU SOCA... The art of design is about the manipulation and effective utilisation of such contrasting oppositions. 

Gravity and Grace 

Sobriety and Wit

Institutional and Intellectual

Weight and Likeness

Duty and Development

Static and Dynamic

Continuous (Continuity) and Change

Competitive Edge... Need's to represent what makes us different to everybody else. 

The Client's Belieft - A Balancing act - The school encompasses something of the old and something of the new. A school that relies upon old techniques. 

Balance the old against the new, by not using words but the medium of images, typography and by utilizing techniques that utilise space. To create something that's simple and stands for something else... It stands for showing the balance between the old and the new. 


Other Ideas - No particular colours - Use the colours that capture the relationships and audiences... Colour meaning. The Logo is going to be shown alongside the JCU logo.

This project came out of a request to co-brand a conference.

If a sub-heading it would be something that represents a whole audience of art disciplines.

A good design represents your knowledge of design history.

Wouldn't want everyone to have an idea of self-indulgence or amateur behavior. A sense of life balanced by seriousness.

The client knows exactly what he wants!

The Meaning of Colour - Diptychs

The meaning of colour… with Diptychs

A diptych refers to just what it is, It’s two images that work well together to see something from another perspective on the same subject. In a sense the images can tell a story. Colour is associated with the Diptychs produced for this assignment. The colours selected include; orange, red, yellow and blue.

Orange – Diptych

Image Folio - Orange

Orange unlike similar colours such as red can indicate a number of meanings from creativity, stimulation or darker oranges like the image above depicts, ‘thirst for action.’ (About) The images chosen have been used to portray the aftermath of the Tornado that some Townsville residents and businesses faced. The image featured on the right shows a lady with a ‘desire’ while the left image depicts a damaged shop-front. The ladies desire to see action may be for the shop to be restored to its former state.

The images were captured at different moments in time. The shop-front was captured the morning after the Tornado using an exposure time of 1/100 in overcast conditions which provided for nice even lighting allowing for a low ISO of 100.

The second image was captured inside a building at a slow shutter speed of 1/60, to compensate for the lack of lighting the ISO was boosted to 500 well below the usual recommended maximum value of 800.  

Red – Diptych

Image Folio - Red

Red is generally seen as meaning danger, strength or determination. However red is generally accepted by most people as ‘fast,’ likewise it is also seen in many types of signage. (Color Wheel Pro) Red on a traffic-signal or stop-sign indicates to traffic and pedestrians to stop otherwise face danger; likewise a flashing red light can mean danger. The diptych has been produced to show the irony between ‘fast’ and ‘stop’. 

The above images where captured during the daytime and red stood out as it’s highly visible. Both images were captured at midday which meant a high shutter speed was required to eliminate the abundance of light.

The above images used no filter other than a UV filter used predominantly for protecting the lense. However it may have been beneficial to use a ND filter.

 Yellow - Diptych

Image Folio - Yellow

Yellow is a stimulating colour that can range from darker shades similar to Gold to bright yellows like that of sunflowers or roses. Yellow is often seen as one of the colours of autumn and stimulates the memory as well as communication. (Sensational Color) Looking deeper yellow is often seen around hospital wards to show joy or to represent getting well. The image above draws on what yellow roses signify, ‘Friendship.’ (ProFlowers)

 

Unlike the other diptychs the image of the yellow sunflower was taken at sunrise. That provided nice intense light from one direction focused on the front of the flower. This allowed for a side-on cross section image to be captured. With the source of light mostly coming from one direction the flower stands out from the background.

The bottom image was a literal interpretation of the colour meaning. It was captured under trees in a park setting that meant scattered lighting was dominant. This proved a challenge when finding the best angle to allow for all the notes to stay in focus.

Blue - Diptych

Image Folio - Blue

 

Blue is a colour that is predominantly the favourite among both the male and female genders. Blue is generally associated with the sky and ocean. It prompts feelings of; calmness, trust, loyalty and faith. (Sensational Color) The diptych has been developed to show, ‘calmness,’ ‘trust’ and ‘faith.’ The calmness of the water can be seen as the boat travels through while a rocky surface is visible in both images to prompt trust and faith.

The images were captured during overcast conditions that allowed for filtered sunlight to spread evenly throughout the frame. Both the images use the rule of thirds. The boat is centred on the upper-thirds while the rock wall on the left is centred at around the same third – which draws the viewer eyes to the wide-view across to the wider view of the right image.

The diptych also flips the ocean and atmosphere as the left image’s waterline lines-up with the mountain range in the second image.

Advertising

Obama Rama

How has advertising affected the media?

Narratives are created - The different events of the day are put into a narrative format.

News readers speak with an authoritative, attractive, well spoken creating a distance between events and the sense of feelings.

Buying Bad News - "It's  now a very good day to get out anything we want to bury."

Those who want a say in News - Governments, Social movements, Corporations.

New-Media offers many new advertising opportunities - Geo Advertising, Pup-Up Under. Publicity is designed to turn advertising into news, or editorial content.

Rise of Infotainment - Content or programming that also includes entertainment content is an effort to enhance popularity with audiences and consumers.

Journalism has evolved into a form of entertainment... How much of our news is actually news?

The Obama Crush Video... 

You become a star by manipulating the forms of media that are there to your own ends.

The meaning of Celebrity - Something that we can't quite reach.

Celebrity means celestial ... An Angelic being. Celebrities provide a bridge of meaning between the powerless and powerful.

Celebrity is constructed rather than immanent.

Reality TV forces regular people to conform to the life of a celebrity.

Production of Reality TV is much lower than fictional dramas and increases the amount of infotainment in news.

Self-Improvement plays on our thought of wanting to see what happens.

Documentaries... Can they capture the truth.

Tools are used to select and frame events, editing, point of view and a commentary.

Bowling for Columbine - A documentary by Michael Moore

Moore won an Oscar for the best documentary.

Heston was giving a speech a year after the Columbine as a feature of gratitude for being given a handmade musket - Read more about how the Documentary was exposed - Click here. 

The cameraman/director is still choosing what to focus on.

Analyzing a Documentary - What was the role of the narrator, The position, Read more from the powerpoint for tips. 

The rise of Spin - PR and Promotion

Those working in PR are planners of meda events and situations. You facilitate the understanding between an organisation and the public.

PR workers are governed by the Public Relation Institue of Australia - http://www.pria.com.au/.

Publicity - Is one of the best ways to promote events and is a way of gaining advertising space without paying for it. PR allows for manufactured advertising.

PR's objective is generally to sell the companies product rather than tell you about it. It provides information / knowledge. 

The media act as promoters - They use checkbook journalism which is where the media pay for interviews. It's a way to make news through 'exclusive interviews.' Other media than take up the story. 

When did PR begin?

The readings this week talk about the 80s as the time when PR become apart of media. Around the time when investigative journalism started to decline. Major expansion of PR companies since the 80s. 

In 2008 there were 47,800 PR practitioners and just 45,000 journalists in Britain.

The increased use of PR by government departments (Malcom Fraser 22 staff - Paul Keating 299) 

QLD Government spent $32 million in 2008 - Government had 200 ministerial advisers, the opposition just 20. 

Why the increase in spin... It feels the pages. It's cheap, It's easy, It's free advertising, It's 

Technology makes it easy to blur the facts. 

MediaNet

The AAP runs a service that companies pay for to distribute their news or advertising from the PR operators, it's called, "MediaNet." - Some releases from MediaNet are unedited in-text ready format. Video is also able to be distributed via MediaNet. Audio news releases can also be completed. 

What Journalists say about newswires... 

What Journalists have said about the AAP Newswire

"A touchstone for journalists in the gallery (press) to check what's happening." David Speers - Sky News Australia

"Accessing the wire service is a routine part of the daily hunt for stories and a service we regularly draw upon in our presentation of news."
Commercial radio talkback producer

"AAP is vital for our news gathering ability because it gives you raw material to work with." RG Capital Radio news director

"AAP's ability to sum it up quickly and succinctly is the prime reason we use it." Commercial radio talkback producer

The BBC editorial Guidelines... Discusses The Press Association (equivalent of AAP) as a single source... http://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/ 


The effects of PR - Stories are cheap, quick, lots of celebrity stories, reduced number of sources.

State of Print Media in Australia - By the Australian Press Council 

The study found that out of 2,400 articles across 14 major papers. 40% of stories were only from one source, 60% quoted two sources or less, 5% of newspaper stories quote PR sources.

60%-90% of stories use PR as a source (Tiffen R.)
PR Practiners generate more than half of the content in newspapers - 64% in the Australian alone!

How is the influence of PR measured??? 


PR companies enlist the expertise of officials or experts. Press releases are traced to see if they are taken up by the media.

PR also manages the media... 


Media management - Restricted the flow of information to the public by replacing key personnel in an organisation with former journalists to create new spins on situations that may arise.

Media Managers are advisers... and get paid heaps. (Public Relations - Spin)

Journalism is about Pro-Conflict - PR is Anti-Conflict.

An example of spin regarding the NSW Health Department and a McDonald's Restaurant in Fairfield, NSW is viewable here.

SpinWatch - Is a website that monitors PR and Spin - Spinwatch.org.

Assignment 3 - Image Folio 2 - Play/Fear

How aperture and shutter speed can be applied to bring out the art of the subject. The depth-of-field, the foundation that we must build upon.

Aperture - Size of Aperture, Depth of Field. "Half stops"

The aperture is an adjustable diaphragm in the lens.

Most of the time it's controlled by the camera itself, but can be controlled on a manual lense via an aperture ring on the base of the lens. 

Each number is exactly half or double the area of the one beside it. 

The higher the "F" - The darker the image. 

The depth-of-field (DOF) is the distance that will be in acceptable focus, in front of an behind the point of actual focus. 

On any lens you can measure focal length, you can measure aperture, but you can't measure depth of field. 

Pinhole photography is basically an infinite depth of field.

The issues with DOF (Three things affect it) 

Aperture, Physical distance, Type of lense. 

IMPORTANT: DOF is NOT a well defined zone over which everything is in sharp focus. There's no defined edge to a DOF. The only area which will be essentially sharp is the focal point. 

To get the Max-DOF, choose the smallest aperture, correct... But another technique is the decision of where to focus.

In landscape photography you'll see aperture settings as (large numbers) selected by photographers. In Portraits often a large aperture is chosen to get a shallow DOF. 

ND4 filters reduced by 2 stops. Like a UV filter. 

ND Filter Example

The shutter is an on/off device that declares the exact moment to take an image.

Read more about the Pinhole Camera.

Tech > Tripod not always stable.

Applications of movement blurring against the subject matter. 

Due: Week 14

The art of the basics

How aperture and shutter speed can be applied to bring out the art of the subject. The depth-of-field, the foundation that we must build upon.

Aperture - Size of Aperture, Depth of Field. "Half stops"

The aperture is an adjustable diaphragm in the lens.

Most of the time it's controlled by the camera itself, but can be controlled on a manual lense via an aperture ring on the base of the lens. 

Each number is exactly half or double the area of the one beside it. 

The higher the "F" - The darker the image. 

The depth-of-field (DOF) is the distance that will be in acceptable focus, in front of an behind the point of actual focus. 

On any lens you can measure focal length, you can measure aperture, but you can't measure depth of field. 

Pinhole photography is basically an infinite depth of field.

The issues with DOF (Three things affect it) 

Aperture, Physical distance, Type of lense. 

IMPORTANT: DOF is NOT a well defined zone over which everything is in sharp focus. There's no defined edge to a DOF. The only area which will be essentially sharp is the focal point. 

To get the Max-DOF, choose the smallest aperture, correct... But another technique is the decision of where to focus.

In landscape photography you'll see aperture settings as (large numbers) selected by photographers. In Portraits often a large aperture is chosen to get a shallow DOF. 

ND4 filters reduced by 2 stops. Like a UV filter. 

ND Filter Example

The shutter is an on/off device that declares the exact moment to take an image.

Read more about the Pinhole Camera.

Tech > Tripod not always stable.

Applications of movement blurring against the subject matter. 

Due: Week 14