Visual Perception and Scale - Week 7 - #oneperday2018 - Photography (QUT DXB202)
For this week, we had to use camera trickery to convey scale in our photography. Since I only got to do these at home with my phone, I had a bit of trouble, but I managed to take some alright photos in the end, I think. Emphasis on "alright", not amazing.
Papo Tyrannosaurs Rex figure
Technique -
Small to Large photography (Moto G4)
Process -
Since I'm a loser who collects tons of toys, I had a bunch of dinosaur figures around that I wanted to try and do some fun scaling with in the backyard. Unfortunately the full grassy area of my backyard doesn't have tons of room to sit down in and get the camera low for, so it wasn't easy. Also the ground was wet from rain. I put my phone down into the grass to get some nice angles looking upwards, and had a very near-sighted focus.
Reflection -
This photo actually came out pretty good I think. It's not as good as lots of the photos I have seen out there that other people have taken using these toys, but it's fine. Especially since I could hardly see my phone's screen while taking this image, because I had it on the ground titled upwards.
Spider
Technique -
Large to small photography (Moto G4)
Process -
Is this really large to small? Not exactly, but it's the best I got. I simply saw this spider next to the area I was taking photos of my T.rex with and figured I should snap some pics of it while I had the chance. Angling the camera downwards helped create a sense of towering above the spider...I mean, that's just film & camera composition 101.
Reflection -
I like this photo quite a lot, actually. I took it as I was working with my dinosaur figures since I just happened to realise that there was a spider web right in front of my face. I think the background elements really help to accentuate the scale here, mainly with the camera angled downwards to convey height from the viewer, and lack of size in the object. However it certainly isn't perfect, and a use of more discernible background objects would have helped a lot.
Texture - Man-Made
Technique -
Photography under natural lighting (Moto G4)
Process -
The worn brick of the corners of our house was perfect for a gritty, believable man-made texture for this photo. I tried to frame it in as interesting of a way as I could, with the blurred trees in the background against the harsh detail of the brick.
Reflection -
Nothing too special with this photo, but it looks fine. I think the contrast between the orange/pink tones of the bricks and then the green/brown colours on the left is quite appealing, at least.
Texture - Natural
Technique -
Photography under natural light (Moto G4)
Process -
This tree had a really unique look to it compared to most other natural elements I saw around the backyard, so I stuck with this as the natural texture. I made sure to use a closer depth of field to focus the viewer's eyes to the middle/bottom of the tree.
Reflection -
I really like all of the small cuts and cracks across the wood, it tells a lot about the age of the material. I would have liked to have gotten a more dynamic shot, perhaps with some dramatic lighting against the wood, but since the tree is outside, I didn't really have too many options in terms of controlling the light.
Another of Our Choice - Man-Made Texture (with natural wear and tear!)
Technique -
Photography under natural lighting (Moto G4)
Process -
Since we were told to do one more of our choice, I took this photo of the outside ground in my backyard (and yes, that grassy area to the left is the tiny amount of space I had for my T.rex photo) and I think it looks quite nice! I had my phone down on an angle with a really specific depth of field to get a nice view of the rough texture on the floor.
Reflection -
I like the contrast of colour from the pink floor covered with brown dirt and other things, and then the tiny little out-of-focus greenery in the foreground. It was kind of a mix of man-made materials with natural elements taking over, so I thought it was appropriate for the final image of the week.
(I think on QUT Blackboard it said for us to do Light Painting, but Anthony told us to do simply do another of our choice from the existing image subjects)
Some of my other experiments that didn't turn out as well as I would have liked - hence why I did not use them as my final images. Just felt like adding them anyway.
EXTRA PHOTOS
I go in-depth with this in my "Week 6 - Portraits" post, but these are some of my personal in-game photos from Jurassic World Evolution that I feel capture the ideas of scale that I was aiming to achieve in reality with my dinosaur toys. This is a digital photo mode, of course, and is not fully relevant to this assignment, but I wanted to add these for the sake of it. I feel it shows what I can achieve when I have a bit more freedom, but even then, a lot of these could be heaps better. Keep in mind many of these were taken as a spur of the moment thing during gameplay, so I wasn't always spending several minutes tweaking every little thing.
More photos and more information is available in my Week 6 post - https://www.behance.net/gallery/69999985/Portraits-Week-6-oneperday18-DXB202
