DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY & IMAGING GCD 61204
Name: Isaac Yaw Wai Zac (0343197)
Course: Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) Mechanical Engineering
Module: Digital Photography and Imaging // Mr. Fauzi Yusoff
Group: A
WEEK 2: LECTURE
Figure 1.1: Class session on week 2 (30th August 2021)
In the second week, the topic introduced is the 'Introduction to Composition'. It is a very interesting topic because there are many subjective and creative manners of looking into the composition aspects such as the balance, use of space, rule of thirds, ratio, and framing in the compositions of videos and photos. More detailed notes and information extracted from the lecturer slides are as shown:
1. Introduction to basic composition
- Focal point- a strong focal point can help all the viewers to naturally settle onto the most important pieces out of the entire design.
- Scale and hierarchy- the use of this aspect helps to slowly transition the focus of the viewers towards and away from certain elements.
- Balance of elements- this aspect puts the feature or concept of 'weight' to each element to show the asymmetrical balance.
- White space- known as the 'empty space' that can allow the balance of main focus of the composition to take place and also allows the design to be less complicated to 'breathe'.
2. Rule of thirds
This rule uses the concept of gridlines and points to allow certain elements to fall into the points or regions of the grid to create different compositions and allow the focus of the image to be enhanced. Out of all the images provided in the lecture slides, my most favourite picture is shown in Figure 1.2 because it consists of a fully black and white image so that all the elements are created or enhanced equally. However, the position of the cyclist is at the top-left point which obeys the rule of thirds so that the cyclist can be focused. Other than that, the stairs take up most of the space in the picture and create the leading line concept from the top of the stairs towards the cyclist. This shows that although the cyclist is the main focus, the leading lines from the stairs will further bring the viewers' attention towards the cyclist.
Figure 1.2 & 1.3: Example of picture obeying the rule of third
A few examples were shown with video illustration and explanation:
3. Golden ratio
As an engineering student, this rule is also known as the Fibonacci sequence but in the creative media field, it is known as the golden ratio. This is a very interesting format of composition when it comes to the placement of elements and objects in a picture. The reason why this concept is integrated is that it creates a sense of beauty through harmony and proportion.
Figure 1.4: Golden ratio rule with examples
WEEK 2: PRACTICAL (COLLAGE ELEMENTS)
INSTRUCTION:
1. Choose and identify your collage's design elements
to be cut out and compose into your own concept & story.
In this given exercise/task (Project 1), all the magazines were compiled in week 1, and then the theme was selected when the available magazines were browsed. The theme that I have selected is about TIME and the importance of visions together with goal settings in the form of a timeline. Therefore, the collage will be entitled 'Race Against Time'. Figures 2.1 and 2.2 below show the process of choosing the needed materials such as manila cards, colour paper, and magazines.
Figure 2.1: All the needed materials used for Project 1
Figure 2.2: All the cut-outs selected for Project 1
As shown in Figure 2.1 above, there were many materials that I could find in my house such as used magazines, coloured papers, postcards, and a lot of scraped wrapping papers. However, some of these materials and cut-outs were not used such as all the postcards because they are either too extra or did not fit the chosen theme as mentioned above. Therefore, the few cut-outs were shown in Figure 2.2 above and each individual cut-outs were further shown in the (PDF) file under Figure 2.3.
Figure 2.3: All the individual cut-outs/elements for Project 1
Access Here
<iframe src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GEu5nBmYvD7IzdiIolnVtFUM0RS_MI52/preview" width="640" height="480" allow="autoplay"></iframe>
In the first slide, the few elements chosen revolve around humans and can bring in many hidden meanings such as the young child and the silhouette of an adult which can show the past and future of a person. In the second slide, all the round elements were grouped to make the overall composition more aesthetically pleasing and create a contrast between other elements. The slide consists of cut-outs of words that can directly show a certain message to the viewers or readers. Lastly, the last slide consists of the other elements in the form of patterns or small cut-outs that can fill up the negative spaces and make the background more pleasing.
2. Pre compositing your collage's design elements into
a composition.
Reference: https://youtu.be/2KqXGMf0HNk
In the process of positioning the cut-outs to find out the best layout/composition, a few pictures were taken before pasting them permanently to the background sheet as shown in Figure 3.1 below and the further descriptions of each pre-compositions were given in the section below.
Figure 3.1: Pre-composition layouts
3. Take 3 photos of your collage pre-composition and
insert it on the section below
1. PRE-COMPOSITION #1
Figure 4.1: First pre-composition
In the first pre-composition, it brings out many meanings behind all the included elements, but the composition seemed to be really messy because many things are going on at the same time.
2. PRE-COMPOSITION #2
Figure 4.2: Second pre-composition
In the second pre-composition, the very complicated background pieces such as the cursive wordings sheet, and the 'checkerboard' design sheet were removed to have a cleaner background so that all the focus by the viewers are towards the middle of the frame onto the more important elements. However, the layering of the elements in this pre-composition seemed to be odd and can be further improved to look cleaner. The background also seemed to be very empty and have quite a large portion of negative space. Therefore, some extra elements such as colour papers were included in the next pre-composition.
3. PRE-COMPOSITION #3
Figure 4.3: Third pre-composition
In the third pre-composition, the elements seemed to have their own proper positions to fill up the parts of the entire frame. The selected aspect ratio for the picture taken is 1:1 because this aspect ratio makes it cleaner to be displayed and is more versatile when publicising it on social media such as Instagram. Furthermore, the positioning of the elements also obeys the rule of third and also the golden ratio as learned in lecture 2. It obeys the rule of third because the elements of vision such as the eye and the elements of coins fall into both the points at the bottom whereas the overall structure of the pre-composition can be seen to match similarly to the pattern of the Fibonacci sequence or golden ratio.
Figure 4.4: Third pre-composition obeying the rule of third
Figure 4.5: Third pre-composition obeying the golden ratio rule
A short description can be made to explain the meanings behind the third pre-composition and the overall theme of this project. The project is called 'Race Against Time' and it mainly displays the small child who is still actively running and his future-self is still unknown, thus represented by the silhouette of the adult cut-out. Along the journey and as a part of growing up, life can be made more interesting by having goals and visions so that we can move closer to our goals along the way. On the eye, a target is placed together with the bullet shots which are relatively scattered, and this means that there will be tough times and not all the tasks in life can be done perfectly, but it is about not giving up and being persistent towards hitting the goal/target. In the bottom right, there are cut-outs of coins and a small cut-out of people's hands coming together. This can have 2 totally different meanings; one is that we shall not be greedy especially when it comes to money, and another meaning is that we should all come together because 'teamwork makes the dreamwork', for example, building a successful business as a team. The circular 'brain' at the top right further explains the obstacles and hardships in life that have to be overcome to achieve our goals. The other small elements such as the basketball player show that we must work hard, train hard, and fly high towards milestones and goals, which is further represented by the airplane cut-out. 'LIFE IS NOT SHORT, YOU JUST HAVE TO DO MORE!'
Feedback from lecturer
After uploading all the pre-compositions as shown in the figures above, Mr. Fauzi Yusoff agreed that my third pre-composition is the best composition among all the ones that I have shown above. I too, agree with his selection because this composition looks very well balanced in the placement of each element. Other than that, it obeys the golden ratio and rule of third under the previous class syllabus.
Figure 4.6: Final composition
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