Digital Photography & Imaging: Week 2

10/4/2023 (Week 2)

Seh Zi Qi/ 0355872/ Bachelor of Design(Honours) in Creative Media

Module Name: Digital Photography & Imaging 

Week 2

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LIST

Weekly Lectures & Major Projects

Lecture

Tutorial

Practical

Reflection

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LECTURE

[Week 2 - Lecture]

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Introduction to Composition

Introduction to Basic Compositions:

• Focal Point: Helps viewers' eyes naturally settle on the important pieces of the design.
• Scale & Hierarchy: Drawing attention toward and away from certain elements, thus signifying their importance in communication.
• Balance the Elements: Each element has 'weight' to it, smaller objects 'weigh' less while heavily textured elements may 'weigh' more than the flatly coloured elements.
• White Space: Mostly known as 'empty space', helps boost clarity and overall look by balancing out complicated and busy parts of a composition, helping the design to breathe. 

Rule of Thirds:

• Dividing the image into 2 horizontal and vertical lines, the imaginary grid yields 9 parts with 4 intersection points.
• Position the most important elements at the intersection, this helps produce a more natural photo.
• Using composition techniques that are in line with what's naturally pleasing to the eye. 
• Creatively use negative space.
• Create a conversation between the subject and the background.

Golden Ratio:

• A mathematical ratio, commonly found in nature.
• When used in design, it fosters organic & natural-looking compositions that are aesthetically pleasing.
• Creating and appreciating a sense of beauty through harmony and proportion, providing a sense of artistry.
• A useful guideline to determine dimensions in a layout, setting those dimensions to 1:1.618

Composition[Framing & Cropping]:

• A video to explain what it is: https://youtu.be/qQNiqzuXjoM

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TUTORIAL

[Composition Studies: Collage]

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Tutorial Briefing

1. Watched the video that Mr Fauzi sent to get an idea of how to do collages and what kind of compositions we can make.

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PRACTICAL

[Example Week 2: Practical (Collage Elements)]

[Week 2 Practical - Google Doc]

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Practical Briefing

1. Upload 3 collage ideas in the Google doc given in Google Classroom, the deadline is by Friday.
2. Cut up the materials for the collages, find 3 compositions that I like, and show them to the lecturer. 
3. Give the final physical collage on Week 3.

Since I was already finished with my collage ideas, I went ahead with cutting up the materials for the collage and finding 3 pre-compositions that I liked.

Fig 1.1, Cutting up materials for collage

Physical Pre-composition 1:

Fig 1.2, Physical pre-composition 1

Explanation:

The first collage utilises cut-up pieces to create a background and focal point rather than just a focal point collage. I was leaning towards an Asian night market scene with a colour scheme of red, yellow and black, this helps creates a put-together background which contrasts with the human's blue and black clothes.

Physical Pre-composition 2:

Fig 1.3, Process of physical pre-composition 2

Fig 1.4, Physical pre-composition 2

Explanation:

The second collage was made with scrap materials that I got from cutting up the materials, I had somehow arranged them to look actually decent which made me think of an idea where I would have my character as the main focus while the background is made of scrap material.

After that, I thought it lacked a bit of colour so I decided to add more colour and words to set out the contrast between the foreground and background as it felt very empty and bland. 

Physical Pre-composition 3:

Fig 1.5, Physical pre-composition 3

Explanation:

This collage was inspired by Japan and its culture.  I wanted something to capture the focus which lies in the landscapes, clothing and places that they have to offer. I mostly just tried to fit everything in a neat format to show each place as best as I could.

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FINAL Physical Collage

Fig 1.6, Final physical collage

Mr Fauzi liked this one the best as he felt that it resonates with his personal style the most, therefore I'm quite happy to find out that he liked this style since it improved from what I had envisioned before.

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REFLECTION

I thought this lesson was pretty insightful with the different compositions like the rule of thirds or the golden ratio, I may not be using these compositions in my physical collages but Mr Fauzi didn't mind it as I was experimenting. He said that experimenting is good and that even if it isn't what he had taught, he was happy to see that I was able to go off on my own path. It was also surprising to see that my second choice had become my final choice as the scraps of cut-up materials became somewhat of what brought my collage together.