Working with Manual Mode. Photography Post #2

Owen Paznokas
The Beginner's Photography Guide
By Chris Gactum

It's time to take control of the camera. Working with aperture priority mode can alter depth of field and allow more light into the by width. Shutter priority mode is great for capturing motion, or blurring it for that matter and allows light in by rate. However, the next step is to combine these in manual mode to create more controlled pictures. Manual mode puts the photographer closer to the picture than the camera, you are pushing all the buttons, taking over auto focus points and altering aspects of the image that cannot be done with more basic renditions. 

"What it does...is allow yo to set the aperture and shutter speed yourself (as well as the ISO), and no matter where you point the camera it won't change the settings" (Gactum 74). No camera override can be daunting at first, but it can help in particular situations like low lighting. One thing to take into account when shooting in Manual mode is the Camera's metering system. Metering is a camera device that is designed to measure the light in the scene to create an accurate exposure (Gactum 76). Most camera's meter off the center of the scene and this can result to be problematic if there are different light levels in the whole frame. To combat this you can meter off multiple parts of the shot you want to take and determine what settings to shoot off then. 

I took my camera into my backyard a few days ago and worked with manual mode around sunset to create some vastly different shots. 

ISO: 400 135mm f:5.6 1/125 Sec

ISO 800 113mm f:5.6 1/1000 Sec

 The first picture had more light touching my subject, allowing me to use a lower ISO, my zoom lens put out it's full force to capture the plant, the shallow temperature blurred the background and the shutter speed fell into place to allow just the right amount of time in. This photo in other modes would probably not have had the same blurred background affect and would have washed out an image in that lighting. 

The second picture was being shadowed by my deck and created more of an orange light, it was slightly darker which made me bring the ISO up a little more. I got really close to my subject and only had to zoom my lens into 113mm. I used the same aperture to create the blurred background and allowed a very small amount of light in by a time of 1/1000 of a second. 

My question is, what cool affects would you try to create by taking manual control of your camera? How would you create it?

Recources
Gactum, Chris. Beginner's Photography Guide. Dorling Kindersley Ltd, 2016.

Working with Aperture: Photography Post #1

Owen Paznokas
The Beginner's Photography Guide
By Chris Gactum

Hey! I'm Owen, I aspire to be a better photographer everyday! In the past I have worked with basic digital cameras and 35 mm film cameras, but I want to be able to head out of the darkroom on certain occasions and start shooting on DSLR's. Photography is certainly a passion of mine and despite previous knowledge being able to work a DSLR and produce a quality image is integral for me to succeed in the world of photography.

On this post I will be fiddling with Aperture priority mode on my camera. Aperture is the size of opening your lens creates when you're taking a photograph. This influences the amount of light reaching the sensor of you camera and creating an image. "When you choose the aperture, you're deciding what depth of field you want in your shot, which is one of the most important creative decisions you can make when taking a photograph" (Chris Gactum 54). Basically, you are deciding what you want to hone in on.

I recently went into Seattle to take Pictures and the sights of the great wheel and the shops in Pike's place didn't catch my eye as much as other things, signs with Graffiti and fishermen down on the pier struck far more chords than the same things everyone else takes pictures of. I was able to create many photographs with different subjects in mind but I think the two below show a very good representation of how depth of field controls a picture (Gactum 55).

The first picture above is shot at an aperture of f12 which has a relatively small opening. It isn't small enough to get everything in focus but the background is clear. This picture also had a slightly longer shutter speed than it needed which overexposed it slightly.

The second image was shot from an aperture of f5.6 which is a smaller opening and is able to capture the sign in detail while removing the sharpness of the background.

My question for you guys is what image looks better? How does changing the focus of an image alter your perception if the photos meaning?

Recources
Gactum, Chris. Beginner's Photography Guide. Dorling Kindersley Ltd, 2016.

ART- Drawing, Painting, and Photography - The Artist's Handbook

For my final post I wanted to focus on lighting. Lighting is very important for a picture as it gives the photo certain emotion and feeling towards it, and besides what is a picture if you cant even see what the photo is of.

IOS 800

For a Canon EOS Rebel T5 I found that when working with lighting the aperture comes in to play (in which was discussed in my last post). Although this does affect the picture  the IOS of your manual setting does as well. Your camera's IOS scale goes from auto to 6400. As you go higher up the scale the pictures become a lot brighter so when in certain situations, adjusting this to your setting is fairly helpful. Especially when you have a specific layout for what you what that photo to look like. Like Smith says "the type of lighting in which a photo is viewed has a great influence on its appearance."



IOS 1600



For this photo taken I had used it for my last post to show how aperture can effect physical appearance of the photo. With this post I hope to show the IOS and lighting of a camera, with an everyday object because "all good art prompts the viewers to look again at everyday objects and event with a new focus and a new perception" (Smith 322)

To me having the ability to control the way your viewers see things is a game changer. To be able to tell a story with a single picture or even artwork coming from your own perspective. Not only does this help me grow as an artist but as a person when learning new skills that can later benefit me. 

What has helped you grow with new skills and knowledge?

In what ways do you think lighting can affect the "backstory/deeper meaning" of the picture?

 

Outdoor Photography with Dylin Wen: Coping With The Weather

Outdoor Photography with Dylin Wen

Coping With The Weather

"Our cameras have taken us places we would never have dreamed of going otherwise. And we find that the more we shoot, the greater our wanderlust grows" (L.L.Bean 135).

Welcome to my last blog for a while. This time I will be talking about coping and dealing with the weather. If you are planning a trip to an unfamiliar area, make sure you understand the weather before you get there. Bringing the correct equipment and material will be a big factor in your photo taking quality.

What are some problems that emerge from the weather and how can I resolve these problems?
At this time of the year cold weather will be the biggest issue against your photo taking skills. Cold weather causes a huge drain on camera batteries. If you will be out for a long period of time it is recommended that you bring a fresh new pair of batteries. Warm and hot weather is overall the largest issue against photography. Since most people will be out taking photos during the Spring and Summer, you should always be aware that the heat can cause parts of your camera to become weak. It's very important that you keep it away from the sun and in the shade.

Light Shining On The Green River

Other than that, the weather is the most important part of your photograph. Yeah you can always use picture formatting, lighting, or perspective, but what would a photograph be without the warm sun shining down at a calm river or the frost of a cold morning thawing on a bridge? I hope you enjoyed this and learned something valuable in any of my blogs.



Do you see yourself using any of the tips I provided in the future?

#SelfieSchool and InstaGold (The Final Blog Post)

#SelfieSchool and InstaGold (The Finale)

My last flat-lay photo got recognized with 550 likes! I still have a lot to learn about flat-lay's and i'll always be looking to improve my skills.

It's finally the last blog post and I'm really proud of the effort and dedication I've placed into these blog posts. It was an enjoyable experience to learn and imitate things I learned from my book, Capture Your Style by Aimee Song, and take photos that I feel complimented me as a unique individual. In this last blog post I'll be covering the process behind advertising your social media platform for income and the language that doesn't require words, selfies (A good one)!

Making money off of something like Instagram seems absurd but in this day and age, it's more accessible than most people would argue it to be. Aimee says that "No matter how big or small your work goals (or your number of followers), Insta is an amazing place for marketing and launching products, connecting with customers, showing off a visual portfolio, and even directly making money off of outfit posts" (Song Aimee, 186). If you have work ethic, a lot of motivation, and you're willing to put yourself out there for companies to see it isn't so far out. According to a report from firm and think tank, Instagram boasts the most engagement and highest conversion from browser to shopper out of any social media platforms (Aimee, 184) and is still a viable way to show off while making cash.

The first step for InstaGold is to devise a strategy! What are you trying to do with your account, are you selling products? Are you going to increase brand awareness (That's what I do)? Are you going to drive traffic to a different blog or website? Have a solid plan that you'll follow and stick to it. The next important thing is to maintain an authentic and aesthetic feed. Stay true to your business and post things that your followers can connect with! If you're trying to sell products, hosting contests and giveaways are a great way to drive a lot of attention to your account and gives people an incentive to follow and pay attention to your brand.

The next step is to join an affiliates program! Aimee defines it as "A marketing strategy that allows a company to sell its products by signing individuals or companies who market the company's products for commission" (Aimee, 192). This can come in the form of branded posts and or a percentage of the pay when you sell a product successfully.  An important thing to note is that you want to find a program that offers a commission rate that best fits your needs while offering rates that are competitive (8 - 20% is the usual for a sale). Putting myself out there I was able to land myself a program with a company called AIWO and now I earn 8% of every sale I make and get sent free products to take photos and promote with!

The final step is to simply put yourself out there! Reach out to like-minded individuals who share the same style and goal as you to collaborate. You can also talk to brand owners themselves and work out different deals; keep in mind most brands look for people with 5k followers or more but I got lucky. Even recently I dmed a small store called @shop.inusagi and was able to land myself another promoter spot by telling them how much I appreciate their brand! Be kind, be respectful, and grow your account so you are more visible in the community (Look back on my last blog post to learn about growing your audience).

Practically everyone in the world takes selfies and it's not hard to do. But it's taking good selfies that I'll be covering in this blog post. I'm personally not the biggest fan of them because I feel that other kinds of photos better tell a story but the occasional one when I'm feeling attractive can always be nice to post. Just like any other topic I've covered, there's always technicalities behind the simple concepts I cover and selfies aren't an exception. The vibe I'm trying to produce with this selfie is a cool, bad-boy look and here's how I did it!

Really good lighting is the most important part for a selfie! As a rule of thumb, Aimee's most important tip is that "Natural light makes for the best photo of your face, so try to get yourself outside or by a window where sunbeams flood in" (Aimee, 107). Don't worry if it's too dark, editing can make it brighter but always remember that if it's too bright it's probably best to delete as it's difficult to darken a bright photo. The next important step is the background. Take those extra sen seconds to consider what is inhabiting the part of the photo that isn't your face! Generally clean, open spaces tend to perform better for selfies and if you're taking mirror selfies, avoid having smudges and remove any eyesore lurking in the photo (Aimee 109). I chose to use the outer exterior of my house because it isn't complicated, it's clean, and the lighting outside enhanced my features.

Already Edited

The next step ranks second next to lighting, angles! Angles are all experimental so you really have to find out what your good side is. I've found that showing a majority of only the left or right side of my face looks the best to me but it's all in preference. Just keep in mind that you never want to take photos too far underneath your face or the photo will turn out with a few extra chins. One tip to really bring out your jawline is to clench down with your teeth (Aimee, 112). This makes it sharper and more defined, a look that I specifically wanted to achieve in my selfie. The final step in taking a good selfie is the distance away from your face that your phone is.  I didn't hold the phone in my hand but the best advice Aimee gives is "Hold your phone far enough away from you face so that it frames your face, hair, and part of your torso" (Aimee, 113). When I take selfies, I personally like to use the 3-10 second timer so I don't have to hold the photo myself but if you're familiar with an app called Snapchat, dog filter is a savior (Although it may be cliched).

I'm satisfied with the end product and hope to be able to improve my selfies in the future. I'm especially a fan of the white, smooth, aesthetic selfies that many people take on Instagram and will try and look into incorporating that trend into my own feed.

I've grown a lot since the first post I created about OOTD's and you can see a significant improvement in quality and style in my recent posts. Whether it's just a hobby or you take it seriously like I do, make your Instagram your own. It's about being unique and showing your creative acquisitions while interacting with amazing people around the world. Stay true to quality and share how you see the world through your lenses. Now let me ask you, how have you used Instagram to capture your style?

Works Cited

Song, Aimee, and Erin Weinger. Capture Your Style: Transform Your Instagram Images, Showcase Your Life, and Build the Ultimate Platform. New York: Abrams Image, 2016. Print.

ART- Drawing, Painting, and Photography - The Artist's Handbook

On my last few post I wanted to focus more on photography as there are tips and how to functions within Smith's text "The Artist Handbook." While reading the book I noticed that there were very specific details that helped me understand the setting of the camera and how certain things can change the outcome.

 I first read about the aperture and lighting of a camera, that as the aperture on the setting got higher the picture becomes darker depending on your setting. Aperture is basically the hole and how small it gets, the smaller the hole the less light that's able to go through, making a dimmer picture. I found that certain apertures fit towards the type of setting and environment you're in.

What I liked most about the digital cameras were that as you changed the lenses it gave certain aspects towards it. "A 35mm single lens reflex. This is extremely versatile and can be used for original work...the film size is large enough to be able to produce images on fine-grain film which, when greatly enlarged, retain a reasonable crispness" (Smith 325). The crispness of picture definitely made a visual difference as well as making it look more professional.  

How else do you think I can use the aperture to my advantage?

If you were to have a camera, what'd be the first thing you photographed?

ART- Drawing, Painting, and Photography. - The Artist's Handbook

For my third post I wanted to explore more with painting techniques, specifically with oil painting/pastels. Through as early as I can remember the mention of tigers has always been in my life, from toys, to movies, to stories, etc. So while I was creating this piece I decided to make it a close up of a tiger with ocean blue eyes. Smith's Artist Handbook came in very handy as it had useful tips about blending colors, color choices and again the types of paper that would help create more  texture and depth.

When first starting with a completely blank sheet the best decision is to start with a rough sketch on where the basic things are, in this case it was just the eyes, nose, and spots. Afterwards you go in with a base coat, and since the tigers main color is orange I went in with a light yellow/orange. The best way to create depth most of the time is to take the time to layer color after color, creating one smooth gradient. Because the tigers fur has a somewhat glare to it, in real life there would be some type of highlights in certain places, so with the help of the Artist Handbook I found the saying "a white

ground shows the purity of individual touches of color, especially if they're applied thinly." (Smith 191) to be the most helpful in this situation. I darkened the places were I thought there'd be more shadows, and lightly went over the places where there'd be highlights. Last but definitely not least, the back outlines of the tigers eyes, nose and spots. This final step ties together the whole entire picture as it makes certain things look a bit more bolder.

After creating the tiger I noticed some lines that could've been sharper and places that could've been smoother, besides using my fingers what could be some other techniques that could help accomplish a smoother gradient?

Outdoor Photography with Dylin Wen: Picture Format

Outdoor Photography with Dylin Wen

Picture Format

"Horizontal or vertical? Since most of us photographers shoot at least a proportion of photographs with a 35mm camera, we're generally working with a rectangular format (L.L.Bean 50).


Picture formatting is a great and easy way to enhance your picture taking skills. Not only can it significantly affect the meaning behind the picture but it also can make it look nice overall.

So what is Picture Formatting?
Picture formatting is the way the camera is turned or angled. The two types of picture formatting are identified as horizontal or vertical, horizontal being the longer x-axis while the vertical being the longer y-axis. Not only does this change the way the photo looks but it also gives a whole new tone to the photo. A horizontal format tends to create a more peaceful, harmonizing affect while a vertical format can promote a greater sense of energy (L.L.Bean 50).

Vertical View of a Tukwila Pond

Learning about what picture formatting could do to a picture motivated me even more to go out and take pictures. As I was passing by a pond in Tukwila, I couldn't help but admire the scenery. The vertical format of the pond gives a more mysterious feel to the image while if you get verything in the horizontal format, it feels calmer.



Which type of format do you prefer to use?

Horizontal View of the same Tukwila Pond

Growing Your Audience and Flat Lay Shots for Instagram!

Growing Your Audience & Flat Lay Shots

Starting off with post recap, the previous food photo I posted was quite successful! I was pleased with the results and it commemorated my accomplishment of two-thousand followers.

Growing your audience and gaining Instagram fame certainly isn't easy. It takes time, dedication, and knowing the inner workings of socializing in and out of the web to grow. Even I've only reached a tip of the iceberg recently hitting two-thousand followers since I started last year! In this blog post, I'll take the things I've personally learned from my book, Capture Your Style by Aimee Song and share the tips and tricks I've used to gain a decent following. Disclaimer, growing your audience requires time, effort, and dedication. If you're not passionate enough about a hobby, you won't see improvement, that same rule applies to Instagram!

Before I begin discussing hashtags, this is something Aimee said that everybody must keep in mind: "It's not all about growing numbers; it's about engagement, as well. It means nothing if you have millions of followers, yet only a hundred people are liking your images" (Song Aimee, 168). This means that even if a person has thousands of followers, if only a small fraction of those people are paying attention to their posts, the following counts importance decreases; we call those people ghost followers. As I said in the first blog post, be engaged with the people who like and comment on the things you decide to put on your page! Try and reply to every comment, spam your followers with likes, follow people back, and be nice! I wouldn't want to follow someone who's consistently rude to the people that support them. With that said, hashtags are a perfect way to get yourself out there and begin engaging with others who have similar interest.

A hashtag ("#") is a discoverable piece of text that allows you to see other images on Instagram that are also hashtagged with the same text (Aimee, 170). They are important because it exposes the photo you posted to a whole library of other photos that people can view! For example, if I posted a group photo with my friends and used the hashtag #groupselfie and clicked on it, any other images with the hashtag #groupselfie on it would also appear. Although, it can now be seen by others with the same hashtag, Aimee explains that using specific phrases that already have a lot of reposts would make it difficult to be seen; so be specific! A cliche you'd want to avoid would be using too many hashtags in a post. Your followers are more likely to be annoyed and it ruins a clean caption so it's important to keep it at the maximum number of five hashtags. Another variation of this would be geotagging; essentially the same concept but for places! Posting a photo with the geotag Starbucks at that specific location would show any other images at the same place. Hashtags and geotags have become the universal search engine for Instagram so using them in conjunction would drive more traffic to your page. Besides hashtagging and geotagging, there's a ton of other ways to get noticed.

If you're into fashion and post an outfit of the day, tag the brands! This will get you noticed by the companies and can be a way to market yourself, more on this in the next post. Another would be to shout-out and tag the people who appear in your photos because now you also appear in their tagged photos. Also, don't forget to comment on other people's posts! Aimee says that "When you comment on other people's posts, you're not only spreading goodwill among the community, you're getting your own username out there and making yourself discoverable to the masses" (Aimee, 170). So comment on posts whenever you can! The last piece of advice from Aimee is consistency and timing. Post at least once a day and if you can't, on the days you do take photos, take extra shots so you're never running out of quality content. Know your audience's habits and the time-zones so you can figure out when your posts receive the most attention. I tend to post around twelve to four pm because people are the most active around those times. Lastly, stay true to quality! Only ever post if you feel that what you are putting out is the best you can. Quality is king!

The definition of a flat lay shot is "a bird's-eye photo of a grouping of strategically arranged item that typically share a color scheme or theme" (Aimee 152). The purpose of this kind of image is usually for retailers to show off new or in-store products but can also be a visually dynamic piece of art that showcases what you love in a neat way. Applying the rules for photographing food, (Lighting, angles, etc) it becomes the same concept but taking organization and neatness to another level. Here's some examples of layout images other people have done.

                           

As you can see, each photo has a separate purpose but uses the same techniques. I'll be demonstrating the tips Aimee gives to post something that I feel represents the goal of a flat-lay. The anchor piece, or the central point of the image is important to a flat lay because it holds all the images together (Aimee, 156). An important question to ask yourself before taking the photo is do the items make sense in a larger, overall lifestyle scheme of the things? After deciding the items that I wanted to attempt to style, I neatly arranged them in a way I thought would look aesthetically pleasing and took several shots in different layouts until I ended up with an image that I liked. I tried to keep the background simple so each piece in the image has space to breathe and shine individually. This is the image I ended up with!

I tried to go for a urbanized, modern look with the glasses and the sweater while giving it a breathe of life by adding plants. I've also tilted some of the items so they didn't look so uniformed and boring and this is the image I ended up with!

Head to my Instagram page @cameralenzz to see the edited version!

What hashtags are trending currently and what have you been using in your own posts?

Works Cited

Song, Aimee, and Erin Weinger. Capture Your Style: Transform Your Instagram Images, Showcase Your Life, and Build the Ultimate Platform. New York: Abrams Image, 2016. Prin

Behind the Scenes: Editing Photos for the Gram and how to Correctly Take Food Photos!

Editing and Food Photos!

In the last blog post, photographing landscapes and creating exceptional captions was the topic at hand. As always, the photo recap! One week since the photo was posted and it received 460 likes. This definitely did not get as much attention as I would have liked it to get but it was to be expected because it was mainly to fit my feed and take a nostalgia trip to old my style of editing.

Editing is everything that happens after you take a photo so I like to call it the behind the scenes. The goal for editing, as stated by Aimee, is that "You don't need to transform yourself or your photos into an unrecognizable state... rather, use them to enhance the sharpness, color saturation, brightness, and other technical elements that make an amateur shot look super professional" (Song Aimee, 52). The apps that she recommends would be Snapseed, VSCO Cam, and Facetune (Aimee, 52). The functionality of each application varies and has different purposes for the photo that needs to be edited; which can all be found in your app-store. Her regime includes: "Snapseed for brightness and contrast, then Facetune for any unwanted clothing wrinkles or acne abolishment, and then VSCO cam for a very, very light filter so that the images in my grid all look uniform" (Aimee, 53). For the reason that Facetune is not free, I'll be switching it out for an app called PicsArt which essentially has the same capabilities. I've already gotten the feel of how to use each app so I'll give my take on how I personally use them to my Instagram advantage.

Snapseed has a selection tool that most editing software doesn't have which allows me to choose different parts of a photo and increase its brightness, contrast, or saturation. For example, if my face was too dark in a photo or I wanted my outfit to pop out, this is what I'd utilize. PicsArt is helpful because it acts in the same way as Photoshop and many helpful features but I mainly focus on its selection and blemish removal tool. Self explanatory and allows me to remove impurities that would taint a photo. Keep in mind with PicsArt and Facetune that you want to make your Instagram photos authentic, don't make them look too edited and fake. Lastly, VSCO Cam is an application I've used since I first started Instagram. It has it's own grid function so planning out feeds can be extremely useful on this app. There's a multitude of editing options to change the look of an image and it has copy and paste edits functionality. It is a must for anyone who wishes to get serious with editing photos and the best part of it is that it's free. Smart, and proper use of each app (and consideration of my feed theme) has allowed me to take my photos to the next level to strive for uniqueness.

Applying what I learned from editing, I will be demonstrating it on a food photo! My sister started Instagram first and I always got annoyed at her for taking photos of the food because I just wanted to eat, oh how the roles shifted. I visited a Hawaiian-Asian fusion restaurant in Seattle called Sam Choy's Poke to The Max and ordered a chicken katsu with pulled pork dish. The aroma of the small area had been welcoming and was decorated nicely with an open well-lit modern style room.This was a perfect time to show the things I have learned from my book!

Five of the essential things that Aimee explains are important when capturing a food shot are: timing, arrangement, lighting, angle, and most importantly; styling the shot. Here's the photo that I took.

NOT EDITED!

First, Aimee points out to always take your food photos before people start to eat as it can be quite annoying to have someone pull out their phone right in the middle of dining, unless you're eating by yourself of course; just remember to make sure your food doesn't turn cold! Next, I neatly arranged the dishes on the table to give it the look I'd like to have when I take the photo. Lighting comes next and the most important tip about lighting for food photos would be to "Snag a booth by a window whenever you can" (Aimee, 125). Remembering to always aim for natural light we sat near a window spot. The best kind of angles for photos such as these are the bird's-eye view from overheard or straight on (Aimee, 126). This gives the full depth of all the food you're trying to portray and gives it a clean, professional look. Lastly, styling your shot! The last piece of advice to remember would be: "Don't add anything too distracting or busy that takes away from the real star of your shot - your edible subject" (Aimee, 126). In other words, keep complex objects away from the main focal point to highlight the dish you're trying to portray. All of this was taken into consideration when I took this image!

Now comes the less fun part, the editing. I always turn to VSCO Cam first to put a preset filter (HB2 if you want specifics) to set the mood I wanted for the image and then put a bit of fade to match my theme. I turned the temperature lower by a little to offset the brown and to give it a slight tint of blue. Moving onto Snapseed, I saved the image from VSCO Cam and imported it into the application to make the dishes pop out more. I selected both dishes and increased their contrast. Facetune didn't need to be applied here and this is the finished product!

EDITED!

Maintaining an Instagram looks easy but to me there is a certain science to it that I'm truly passionate about. I hope you've learned something while reading this blog post and the photo will be uploaded shortly after this has been posted as usual. The next topics I'll be covering are flat lay photos and growing your audience!

 What are the photo editing apps you've discovered besides the one's I've stated previously? What are their advantages?

Works Cited

Song, Aimee, and Erin Weinger. Capture Your Style: Transform Your Instagram Images, Showcase Your Life, and Build the Ultimate Platform. New York: Abrams Image, 2016. Prin

Outdoor Photography with Dylin Wen: Lighting

Outdoor Photography with Dylin Wen

Lighting

"Our favorite time to explore and photograph small subjects is a day with flat, even lighting. Because this is often the wrong time for shooting dramatic landscapes, a cloudy day can offer a wealth of photographic material you might not have thought to shoot otherwise (L.L.Bean 85)

What is lighting in Photography?

Lighting is the illumination of an image. In other words, lighting records patterns of light, color, and shade. It can have a great impact on the tone and mood of a photo. An example of this is with sunny weather. A bright and sunny day can create a harsh lighting and prevent your subject from taking center stage, such as a branch in an open plain (L.L.Bean 86). There are two main types of lighting, natural and artificial lighting. Natural lighting occurs on deep forest floors or under branches where there is a low amount of light. Artificial lighting occurs when you add extra equipment to add or reduce lighting to an object such as a camera flash or a piece of cardboard blocking the sunlight.

A tree at Alki Beach with light lighting

After learning about the affects of photograph lighting, I decided to take advantage of the cloudy weather we had today and find the perfect example for this blog. While driving around the Alki Beach Waterfront I felt repelled not to take a photo with the gray but also unique sky. The bright gray tone of the top photo gives a happier mood while the bottom dark gray tone gives a grimmer and more concealing mood.

A panoramic picture at Alki Beach with Darker Lighting

What is your favorite lighting to take a picture in?

Drawing, Painting, and Photography - The Artist's Handbook

Through random times of the day i'll find myself holding a pencil sketching whatever comes to mind, on whatever paper that's in front of me. Never did I take the quality of paper into much consideration. 
While reading The Artist's Handbook By Ray Smith I found that the quality of paper can impact the piece of art and the texture of the drawing or even painting.

For my second post I decided to do a watercoloring of an apple. By using rough paper with small little indents "the pigment had settled in the hollows of the paper" making it more vibrant (Smith) Another plus side to using rough paper was that when the painting had dried it wouldn't fold over on itself making a clearer look. Deciding on what to watercolor was fairly easy as an apple was a classic and could come in different looks depending on the artist creating it. The apple first had to "been painted using just overall washes" to set the undertone, later on you'd continue layering the different shades including the shadow (Smith). After finishing up painting you could go over with a dry paint brush to soak up some pigment, leaving a type of highlight for the apple. 

Thinking back about the process of making the painting i noticed that the variation of colors used for the apple wasn't very wide. Is there any other color that i'd be able to add that'd make it pop? 

Using the the quality of paper to my advantage, what're some objects that i can paint that would benefit from this technique? 

Outdoor Photography with Dylin Wen:Composition and Perspective

Outdoor Photography with Dylin Wen

Composition and Perspective

"Good photographs don't come from fancy camera equipment, dramatic lighting equipment, or special effects. Photographs that stand out in terms of their ability to engage an audience's interest and imagination have one source: the vision of you, the photographer" (L.L.Bean 35).

If you were able to see my last blog post, I talked about aperture and its impact on photography. Today on the other hand, I will be talking about something even more important than aperture, composition and perspective. We all see images every day that attract our attention, but have you ever stopped to ask yourself why a particular scene causes you to pause? What is it about the scene that makes it so special? I chose the topic composition and perspective because it is one of the biggest factors of photography but might be the least noticed one.

So what does Composition and Perspective really mean?

Composition in photography is simply arranging elements within an image in a way that suits the core idea or goal of your work best. Sure you can change your composition by zooming in or out with your lens, but if you want to change your perspective, you are going to need to move around. "Don't let your feet, or tripod, root you to one spot, get ready for some bending, turning, walking, or climbing to get the perfect photo" (L.L.Bean 36).

A Bridge at Coulon Park

Taking these tips into mind, I decided to change things up a little. Instead of taking a photo of a tree, plant, or flower, I decided to lean towards taking a photo at a lake, specifically at Coulon Park. These are two of my results using composition and perspective. Using what I learned, instead of taking these photos at an eye level, I either leaned back or crouched down to get a different perspective.

A low level photo of Lake Washington

Have you guys ever wondered why an area, object, or image attracts your attention?

Photographing Landscapes (Cities) and Instagram Captions!

 Landscape Photography and Instagram Captions!

In the previous blog post, I covered the topic of full body shots and as promised I would recap on the amount of attention it got. My post received an insane amount of interaction with 534 likes in a span of four weeks since the last blog post. I've started to notice a trend on my feed that full body shots would generally get more attention than any other kind of photos so if I'm starting to lose retention with my followers, I'll generally post an #OOTD shot. As stated by Aimee "A smart strategy for outfit shots is to imagine that you're costume-designing a scene in a movie or styling an editorial photo shoot for your favorite magazine, minus the assistant and wardrobe trailer (though these things help, I assume). That is the essence of a cool story, and your caption should follow suit" (Song Aimee, 76). Being able to tell a complex story without the having professionally taken shots in every photo shows a level of mastery that I have yet to achieve but at the least, I'm able to create relatable captions.

Creating a caption that's witty while maintaining a sense of character can be really difficult. It's more than just putting random words into a sentence; it has to be relatable. The main goal for almost every post is to be able to have my followers relate with me. The caption doesn't always have to correspond with image, it could be completely random but Aimee reminds her readers this: "Don't be afraid to infuse some self deprecation and wit into your post... As long as you can laugh at yourself, your followers will, too" (Aimee, 159). Being on Instagram long enough, I'm able to pick out the captions that I feel are too overused. Whenever I feel inspired I'll write my caption down in my notes and edit later when I post. More often than not, many of my captions come from texting my friends and realizing I said something really edgy. At times I may even ask a simple question such as 'when's your birthday?' because it drives user interaction. Here are some examples of captions that I've used for some posts.

Not Edited

"make every good thing you do a lifestyle" 

Edited

"obsessed with things we can't have and have the things we don't need" 
"it's positively positive to have some negatives"

Each one has a unique statement that samples who I am as a person. Much of my emotions and thoughts are embedded in each post I make, and although they may be slightly cheesy, the caption is like the icing on a cupcake; it completes it.

Instagram isn't mainly for selfies and food photos, when I don't have the energy to post a photo of myself or think that none of my recent shots are appealing to me, I'll turn towards photographing the world around me, specifically, cities. I've been in love with cities ever since I've been given the chance to explore downtown Seattle as a child for field trips and was entranced by the bustling people, the tall buildings, and the busy atmosphere that feels like something is always going on. In this post I'll be exampling some of the tactics I've learned to take a photo that truly captures Seattle's sense of place. Aimee says "You're technically traveling any time you leave the house. So learn to embrace all your adventures and share them with your followers in a beautiful way" (Aimee, 132). Recently having the chance to travel downtown, I took a picture of Seattle from the Space Needle.

The methods and techniques I've used to make this image my own is through the capturing and the editing process. Three things I kept in mind were to "Lose the zoom... take the photo as close as you can get to your subject and crop later so you don't lose quality and get stuck with grain" (Aimee, 135). By not using zoom, I'm able to capture a wider depth of the city and because of the Iphone 7's capabilities, using zoom reduces the overall quality of the photo. The second advice I kept to mind was "Don't forget to look down...press your phone up to the glass to minimize glare" (Aimee, 138). Because the natural light of the sun created unwanted radiance in the photo, it turned out to be really helpful holding it right up against the glass. The last piece of advice was to not forget the details; minimal things should be shown to better example the culture. Because my goal was to capture Seattle's sense of place, I tried to include everything, even the Puget Sea water can be seen in the right corner to create a shot that I think justified Seattle.

A touch of my own style was added to the photo with the editing I used to better match my feed. As previous, I'll be posting this iteration and uploading it with a progress report in the next blog post. Look forward to learning about taking pictures of food and editing! Since the people who view these blog posts are all from Seattle, what's places that you personally like to take pictures of when visiting downtown?

Works Cited

Song, Aimee, and Erin Weinger. Capture Your Style: Transform Your Instagram Images, Showcase Your Life, and Build the Ultimate Platform. New York: Abrams Image, 2016. Print.

ART- Drawing, Painting, and Photography. - The Artist's Handbook

As a young child I remember make small storybook, and drawings during class. At the time those pieces of art seemed like masterpieces, as if Van Gogh himself had created them. Looking back from present time I realized first of all how many things I was missing, how much I’ve improved, how much creativity that was put into those drawings, and lastly how as I grew art became my outlet. My relations with art had always been a hate love relationship because the amount of patients it took for it to look presentable, and the amount of patients I actually had, in which was little. It was through art that I had gained and done so many things.

For my IRP I chose “The Artist Handbook.” By Ray Smith, know that I had and objective and something that I wanted to improve on. The book gives off multiple methods and tricks for things like pencil drawings, water coloring, acrylics, and even photography. This book specifically could help improve as an artist, by learning not only methods but the history behind the art. For the first month I started with a basic pencil drawing, using cross hatching “which involves using intact pencil lines running in two or more different directions,” and also working with a hard led pencil to give of a feathery look to the drawing (Smith 72).  As I was creating the base of the face I figured using guideline was the easiest method to get the right proportions to the face, and while adding the details such as the eyes I followed some of the tips given by the book, and some things said by an artist I was talking to a day before. Simple guidelines such as a circle and a few boxes to help get the base turnout to be fairly helpful when creating a piece of art. What I struggled with most when drawing was making the eyes look not symmetrical but also proportional, for them to look the way they should at certain angles. 

-I myself struggle with what to make on a piece of paper or a canvas, so is there any suggestions what you can give me? Or any inspirations? 
-How does the different tones of cross hatching give a drawing depth or form?

Outdoor Photography with Dylin Wen

Outdoor Photography with Dylin Wen

These past few years, photography has called out to me, even if I may not be that talented. Everyone has that slightest photogenic side of themselves that may find its way out at any moment. Like many others, I only know the basics of taking a photo, whether it's tapping a button on your phone to snap a quick picture or smashing the circular button on your camera to capture something quickly passing by. For this project, I chose the book "Outdoor Photography Handbook," by L.L.Bean to help me dive more in depth with photography.

"Another aspect of photography that has always motivated us is that it can take you to some of the most interesting and beautiful places on earth. It also can introduce you to fascinating people, customs, and ideas that you might not have known without the magic of a camera and film" (L.L.Bean xii). Photography has many outputs and can introduce you to new things you never knew about.

These are the most common types of aperture sizes.

Aperture

Aperture is the measurement that indicates the size of the lens opening (L.L.Bean 6).  The size of the aperture determines how much light will reach the film, a small transparent plastic sheet that determines the sensitivity, contrast, and resolution of the photo. To the right I made a quick visual of different size f-stops. The size of the f-stop determines the aperture diameter in millimeters.

The photo above was not focused.
The one below was focused.

Aperture Example

"Aperture controls depth of field, the amount of the image frame that will be in sharp focus" (L.L.Bean 8). For my sample picture, I decided to use a maple leaf I found while walking around my neighborhood. On the original photo on the left, you could see everything in the photo clearly, my hand, the leaf, and the cement. For the second photo below, I used the same exact location and leaf but I changed the size of the aperture to F/2.8, which decreased the diameter of the lens, focusing onto the leaf and my hand. Focusing onto these two objects represented their importance and showed they were the spotlight of the photo instead of the background cement.

So far, this book has taught me very valuable techniques and skills needed to take a photo, especially the importance of the lens aperture. I look forwards to reading more and discover new tips and tricks. Do you guys like taking pictures too?