Studio Setup

Canon Camera Simulator Screenshots

The Aperture, IOS and shutter speed are well balanced, and there is an invisible motion created by the slow shutter speed on the propeller of the toy plane. 

Because the aperture and IOS were unbalanced the image turned out to be very overexposed, this was caused by a slow shutter speed which allowed too much light exposure.

Because of the shutter speed being quite fast, it captures the movement of the propeller very quickly which causes the propeller to look like it’s not moving at all. There is also a very shallow depth of field making further away objects blurry. The main subject in the image is the toy plane that is why it is the sharpest looking object in the image since the camera is mainly focusing there.

Because the ISO is unbalanced, the image is underexposed which makes it harder to see the content in the image. 

Definition: Formalism means the way a piece of art or something has been made and the works visual aspects.

The Formal Elements

Line

Definition: A straight or curved geometric element that is generated by a moving point and that has extension only along the path of the point.

Lines are either straight, curved, or a combination of the two. Lines can be solid, dashed or interrupted, implied, or psychological. They can be vertical, horizontal, or somewhere in-between. They can be mostly seen in man-made but can also be seen in nature too.

Here is an example of a photograph that includes lines:

Shape

Shape has many definitions: The visible makeup characteristic of a particular item or kind of item, spatial form or contour, or a standard or universally recognized spatial form. Shapes are two-dimensional. They can be measured by overall height and width. Shapes can be the outline of an object—familiar or unfamiliar.

There are two types of shapes, Geometric and organic.

Here is an example of a photograph that includes geometric shapes:

Here is an example of a photograph that includes organic shapes:

Form

Definition: The shape and structure of something as distinguished from its material.

Form has an overall height, width, and depth.

Just like with shapes, there is also two types of form, Organic and Geometric.

Here is an example of a photograph that includes form:

The shadows in this image shows us more of what the actual form of the plane wing looks like.

Texture

Definition: The visual or tactile surface characteristics and appearance of something.

In a photograph, smooth objects might have reflections or specular highlights. Rough objects might have aggressive areas of light and shadow without reflections. Different patterns could indicate/show texture. Different angles of lighting can also show texture and even hide it and whether the camera is quite far or close to their subjects, if the camera is also out of focus.

Here is an example of a photograph that shows texture:

Colour

Definitions: A phenomenon of light (such as red, brown, pink, or gray) or visual perception that enables one to differentiate otherwise identical objects or the aspect of the appearance of objects and light sources that may be described in terms of hue, lightness, and saturation for objects and hue, brightness, and saturation for light.

Light itself has no actual colour. But, sending light through a prism or a drop of water and we can see that it is comprised of a literal rainbow of colours.

Different colours may represent different things, for example red may symbolise danger, and yellow may symbolise happyness.

Colour has three properties:

Hue– It is simply the description of the colour (e.g., blue, red, yellow, etc.).

Value– It is the relative brightness or darkness of a colour.

Saturation– It is the intensity or purity of a colour. The purest colour is a hue with no white, black, or gray added to it.

Here is an example of a photograph that shows bright, neon colours:

Size

Definition: A physical magnitude, extent, or bulk : relative or proportionate dimensions.

Size in a photograph is relative and can be an illusion. There can be a variety of sizes, however the most common names for these sizes are: Large, medium, or small.

In the real world, the eye and brain automatically adjust the retinal image in what is known as size constancy. This means the perception of an object as having a fixed size, despite the change in the size of the visual angle that accompanies changes in distance. 

Here is an example of a photograph that shows size:

This image shows the size difference between the persona and the ship.

Getting close to an object can emphasize the size/it can make the objects/subjects/things in the image look much bigger or much smaller than they actually are.

Below is an example of this effect:

Overlapping objects/subjects/things is another way to render a scene virtually in three dimensions, and overlap can also give hints to size.

Depth

Definition: It is the direct linear (using converging lines to show the depth in a frame) measurement from front to back.

Depth is rendered on how well the objects in the frame are dependent, composition, and perspective.

Most images have a foreground, middle ground, and background. The stronger the delineation (Any kind of accurate or vivid portrayal of something else) between successive “grounds,” the stronger the sense of depth in your image.

Depending on the quality of the surrounding air or atmosphere, distant objects in a photograph will have less clarity and contrast than objects in the foreground. 

Texture can also show depth within an image by using shadows and light.

Here is an example of a photograph that shows depth:

All of these formal elements are used to make any pieces of art, they are often being used together and are composed/organised in certain ways, which will determine what the final piece would look like.

Visual Elements

There are seven visual elements, these are:

Formal Analysis Poster

What Is still life? 

Still life is inanimate objects (objects that cannot move). 

Examples of still life paintings and photography: 

Provide a chronological timeline of still life photography. 

Still life has been well known ever since around 1504 when it was first invented by an Italian Early Renaissance painter Jacopo de Barbari, however, it did not officially become it’s own genre until the 17th century this was known as the “golden age” of still life painting. Later on Still life had then been adopted by photographers during the 19th century.

The first still life photograph was taken by a man named Jacques-Louis-Mandé Daguerre.

Analysis of an image using the matrix

What is Vanitas? 

What is Memento Mori? 

What kind of metaphors and symbols are used in still life and why? 

Symbols are used to remind viewers of death, the fragility of human life, and the brevity of our existence through objects, as well as presenting a moral message through them. They can also be used to add meaning to photographs.

Below are some symbols used in photography and the meaning behind them:

What is etymology?

Etymology is writing with light coming from the Greek roots φωτός (phōtós) and γραφή (graphé).  

What was the first photograph made in camera?

1826 (Joseph Nicéphore Niépce). 

When did the first photograph of a human appear? 

1838 (Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre). 

Who made the first ‘selfie’?

Robert Cornelius (1839). 

When did the first colour photograph appear? 

1861 (James Clerk Maxwell).

What do we mean by the word genre? 

A style or category of art.

What do we mean by the genre of still-life? 

An image that shows inanimate objects from the natural or man-made world. 

What was the main purpose of the Pictorialist movement?

To affirm photography as an art form.

How do we describe the term documentary photography? 

Provide in-depth information about a subject over a long period of time. 

What is exposure in photography? 

The amount of light that reaches your camera’s sensor. 

What controls exposure on your camera? 

Aperture, shutter speed, ISO.

What control on our camera records moving objects? 

The Shutter and it’s speed.

How do we explain depth of field? 

How much of your image is in focus.

What factors affect Depth of Field?

Lens aperture, distance from camera to subject, and lens focal length. 

What is composition in photography? 

The arrangement of visual elements within the frame. 

What is your understanding of aesthetics in art? 

Concerned with the nature of beauty and taste.

What are contextual studies in photography?

To provide historical, cultural and theoretical understanding of images. 

How many images are captured on average every day worldwide? 

4.7 billion images on average.

Which portrait is the most reproduced in the world? 

The Queen (Elizabeth II).

my first experiment with editing photos and adobe Lightroom.

here i have experimented with a few different types of effects on still life’s i took earlier in the week if i need to achieve similar effects in the future i will refer to this post.

above I attempted to use adobe Lightroom too create a soft grey scale image, I believe I achieved this effect well considering its a first attempt utilising the recourses shown above.

due to the nature of the objects in this photo i wanted to create a vintage effect in the images above and bellow.

in the image above i went for a grey scale effect and although i managed to create an image with depth it didn’t provide the “coming off the page” effect i wanted to achieve with this vintage style of edition so bellow i experimented with still giving the perception of a grey scale photo but attempted to bring forward some duller colours to bring to image into more of an interesting colour rage to perceive and think about.

here i worked to create a blurry an almost out of focus effect with Lightroom in order to make the war related items seem far off and hazy to represent the death throughout war and bring forward a “heaven” like effect.

above is a still life with war related items,

i wanted to create a dulled image as if yellowed with time and experience, i also brought forward the sharpness if the image to give almost a “grainy” effect as if taken with a poor quality camera .

above i began experimenting with creating more abstract edits with my images, i really enjoy the style of this image and think i will begin to incorporate it in more of my word if appropriate, i enjoy the alien effect of the image.

above i continued experimenting with tints to create an abstract effect although i find this image interesting it is too flat to the screen.

Still life is a painting/ drawing of an arrangement of objects. These typically include fruits and flowers and other objects that contrast with those textures e.g. bowls and glassware. Still life pictures are often rich with symbolic depth and meaning. It first emerged as an independent genre in the early 1600s in Dutch and Northern European paintings.

Image analysis:

I think this photograph is interesting but also intimidating to look at due to the dark colours and skull, potentially symbolising death.

The various gold objects, book and guitar give me the impression that whoever owned these items was potentially rich and might have passed away (hence the random placement of the objects suggesting to me that the owner didn’t have time to arrange them properly). The objects being unorganised may also represent how we take for granted time and let things pile up until you realise you don’t have enough time to organise them and leave it for others to clean up. This idea can also be seen by the candle which has been blown out, implying the person who owned these objects time was up sooner than they expected.

I think the photograph was potentially taken in natural lighting coming from a window due to the light hitting the objects from the left in a non overbearing way. Most of the objects and table have a smooth like texture furthering the idea of wealth as it is like the objects are perfect and unflawed.

Overall, I like this photograph as I think it allows the person who’s viewing it to interpret it in their own way and come up with a story behind the picture and its meaning. The clarity and quality of the photograph is also very good.

Still Life photography Timeline:

Still-life art has existed from the 17th century until the modern-day, but in the 19th century, artists adopted photography as a new medium for still life art, to express their concepts in a novel format, and thus the still-life photo was born.

What is Vanitas?

Vanitas is a still life painting of a 17th-century Dutch genre containing symbols of death or change as a reminder of their inevitability. 

What is Memento Mori?

Memento Mori is an artistic or symbolic trope acting as a reminder of the inevitability of death. It is a Latin phrase that translates to ‘remember you must die’.

Metaphors and symbols used in still life:

Many of the objects depicted in still life images are symbolic of some quality of the Virgin Mary or another religious figure (for example, the lily stands for purity), while other objects may remind the viewer of an edifying concept such as worldly vanity or temperance.

Some common symbols in Still Life paintings include:

• Fruit: Varying Symbolism In Still Life Paintings.
• Skulls: The Certainty Of Mortality.
• Candles: The Passing Of Time.
• Flowers: Symbols Of Life And Growth.
• Seashells: Birth, Purity, And Fertility.
• Mirrors: The Soul In Reflection.
• Insects: Transformation And Decay.

In this photo we can see that the objects in the background is blurry, this is because the aperture is low meaning the depth of field is shallow. This makes the main subject of the photo (i.e. the plane) a lot sharper and easier to focus on. The faster the shutter speed, the faster the photo takes which means that the motion of the plane has been frozen as it is spinning.

Whereas, in this photo there is a wide depth of field because the aperture is higher than the first photo. This means everything is in focus, including the background and the objects that are further away. Using a slower shutter speed means that any moving object will be blurred, which is shown here.