Unit 2: Materials, Techniques and Processes in Art & Design and Unit 23: Photographic Materials, Techniques and Processes

Photographic Skills Log Book

Project 1: Contact Sheet:

1. What did you make or achieve when using it? Provide example images, screen grabs, etc.

I made a contact sheet of my harbour-side shoot to decide which of the photos are the best/worst.

2. How did you use the process or technique? Explain how you use the process.

I downloaded my photos from my camera onto my computer and selected them in Bridge. I then adjusted the columns to make the amount of photos I wanted to appear on each page.

3. Is there a similar comparable process?

You could also view them on screen. Some people find it easier to use a contact sheet than scrolling/clicking through all of their pictures because they can’t view multiple images at once which means it’s harder to compare side-by-sides, and it takes a lot longer to scroll through them all.

4. What is it normally used for/in?

It’s used for viewing a roll of photos and deciding which ones to use by looking at them. Some people find it easier to use a contact sheet than

Evaluating the Process You must show the use of various materials, techniques or processes you have used. When writing consider these points.

1. What aesthetic value does the outcome gain from the different MTP being used?

It isn’t made to look good because it’s just for the practical purpose of viewing my photos. It looks quite plain.

2. How effective is the MTP in helping the outcome(s) meet your intended objectives?

It’s quite effective because it helps me to choose which photos are the best to include in further projects.

3. What difficulties did you have using the various MTP and how can you overcome this in future?

It was my first time using Bridge and I was confused when trying to figure out the steps. I could overcome that by using the programme more often.

Project 2: Health and Safety

1. What aesthetic value does the outcome gain from the different MTP being used?

It’s just plain as it’s just meant for being safe, not to look good.

2. How effective is the MTP in helping the outcome(s) meet your intended objectives?

It’s quite effective because it does help me plan out how to avoid the potential risks in my project but on the other hand, a lot of it is common sense and I wouldn’t need to plan it out to know the things that I wrote.

3. What difficulties did you have using the various MTP and how can you overcome this in future?

It was quite easy since the table was already made and all I had to do was fill it in. There are so many risk possibilities so they were easy to think of.

4. What did you make or achieve when using it? Provide example images, screen grabs, etc

I made a risk assessment listing precautions to take when taking photos for my next project.

5. How did you use the process or technique? Explain how you use the process.

I added writing to a grid and screen-grabbed it to post here.

6. What research of different media and materials have you done? Is there a similar comparable process?

It’s just the same as writing any other table, really.

7. What qualities does the tool or material have? Think ease of use, tools required, time taken, strength etc.?

It took me about an hour to think of the risks and write it up. There are a lot of possibilities so thinking of the didn’t take very long.

8. What is it normally used for/in?

It’s used for taking precautions while doing your photoshoot and planning how to avoid risks before they actually happen.

9. What are its limitations? Think price, scale, drying time, flexibility etc.?

One limitation is the fact that you can only write so many risks and you’ll never cover them all. Also, you can’t predict the future.

1. What aesthetic value does the outcome gain from the different MTP being used?

With the different shutter speeds, each picture has a different look to it. They look cool and artistic.

2. How effective is the MTP in helping the outcome(s) meet your intended objectives?

Quite effective.

3. What difficulties did you have using the various MTP and how can you overcome this in future?

I found it difficult finding moving objects to take pictures of but other than that, it was quite easy to actually do.

4. What did you make or achieve when using it? Provide example images, screen grabs, etc

I created some shutter speed images which are all shown in my contact sheet.

5. How did you use the process or technique? Explain how you use the process.

I set my camera on the mode ‘S’ and adjusted the dial for the shutter speed either higher or lower depending on which kind of photo I was going for.

6. What research of different media and materials have you done? Is there a similar comparable process?

It’s almost the same as taking photos normally but on a different setting.

7. What qualities does the tool or material have? Think ease of use, tools required, time taken, strength etc.?

It took quite a while to take the photos and I had to use my camera on the specific ‘S’ setting to end up with my result.

8. What is it normally used for/in?

It’s used to create images with either frozen effects or distorted looks to them, depending on your setting.

9. What are its limitations? Think price, scale, drying time, flexibility etc.?

One of its limitations are definitely light. If there’s too little or too much light the process might not work. Also, my shutter speed settings only go so far, so if something I want to take a picture of is too fast, it still won’t be clear.

Project 4: Aperture Depth of Field

Photographic Skills Log Book

1. What did you make or achieve when using it? Provide example images, screen grabs, etc.

I made photographs with different apertures and depth of fields.

2. How did you use the process or technique? Explain how you use the process.

I selected the camera mode ‘A’ and twisted the wheel depending on whether I was going for a high aperture or a low aperture.

3. What qualities does the tool or material have? Think ease of use, tools required, time taken, strength etc.?

It only take a few seconds to adjust the settings on your camera to the specific ones used in this project, however, it can take a few hours to find the subjects and take the photos.

4. What is it normally used for/in?

It’s used in different ways to create artistic photos.

5. What are its limitations? Think price, scale, drying time, flexibility etc.?

In order to the photos to come out well, you need the correct lighting. You are restricted with light so when you use a high aperture it can either be over or under exposed but when using a lower aperture you need to use lots of light otherwise making it very grainy.

6. What other artists use this technique/tool?

7. What Health and Safety concerns must you be aware of?

Evaluating the Process You must show the use of various materials, techniques or processes you have used. When writing consider these points.

1. What aesthetic value does the outcome gain from the different MTP being used?

Some of the photos (the shallow ones) have a blurry background and others (the deep ones) have more in focus. Sometime with the blurry backgrounds, light

2. How effective is the MTP in helping the outcome(s) meet your intended objectives?

3. What difficulties did you have using the various MTP and how can you overcome this in future?

Project 5: Manual Mode and ISO

Contact Sheet:

Examples:

As I was figuring out the settings, I took some photos where the bar wasn’t set on 0, resulting in them turning out too dark and difficult to figure out.

These were some more attempts at making the balance right. These were too blurry, which means I should’ve sped up the shutter speed and compromised the remaining two settings.

These two photos were taken in the same place but with different settings. In the first image, the settings were incorrect (the shutter speed was too slow), but it ended out having a cool effect to it. The second photo was taken with the correct settings, but it actually looks less artistic and more boring.

Using the fountain, I took one photo freezing the water and one photo blurring it. To achieve this, I adjusted the shutter speed settings to either one of the lowest numbers or highest numbers.

These photos above are three examples of when I was close to the right settings for the photo. The first one looks a bit dark but it creates a cool vibe which I like, the second one looks perfect and the third one looks a tad too light.

Photographic Skills Log Book

1. What did you make or achieve when using it? Provide example images, screen grabs, etc.

I made some images which have the correct manual settings needed for them.

2. How did you use the process or technique? Explain how you use the process.

I adjusted the modes on my camera and it set on “M”. I then turned the dial to determine the shutter speed, focus and ISO until it the “O” bar was even in the middle. My next step was to take photos while switching up the settings until I found the perfect balance.

4. What qualities does the tool or material have? Think ease of use, tools required, time taken, strength etc.?

It only takes a minute or two to adjust the settings to the correct ones and all you need is the right camera and lighting!

5. What is it normally used for/in?

It’s used to get the correct quality for your image.

7. What other artists use this technique/tool?

I think most professional photographers use it.

Evaluating the Process

1. What aesthetic value does the outcome gain from the different MTP being used?

It has the perfect lighting and blur for that specific image, so its aesthetic value is high.

2. How effective is the MTP in helping the outcome(s) meet your intended objectives?

It’s quite effective as it helps me get the perfect quality for my image, but on the other hand, if you put your camera on auto it usually corrects it, anyway.

3. What difficulties did you have using the various MTP and how can you overcome this in future?

It was quite difficult figuring out the settings and remembering how to change each feature but I got the hang of it by the end. To overcome this, I just practiced using them.

Project 6: Camera Choices

Project 7: Focal Length and Lenses

Contact Sheet:

Examples:

Photographic Skills Log Book

1. What did you make or achieve when using it? Provide example images, screen grabs, etc.

I produced some photos using different focal lengths.

2. How did you use the process or technique? Explain how you use the process.

I just twisted the lens on my camera until the dot aligned with the amount of zoom I wanted to use.

3. What research of different media and materials have you done? Is there a similar comparable process?

It didn’t really take much research to figure out how to zoom in on the camera.

4. What qualities does the tool or material have? Think ease of use, tools required, time taken, strength etc.?

You just need a complete camera with a lens. It only takes a couple of seconds to set the lens to the chosen zoom.

5. What is it normally used for/in?

It’s used to either take pictures far back which includes a large scale, what the human eye sees or a close-up.

6. What are its limitations? Think price, scale, drying time, flexibility etc.?

Lenses have a limit as to how close they can take a photo and if you want to take a photo even further back than where the camera is placed, you’ll actually have to get up and move.

7. What other artists use this technique/tool?

Almost every photographer uses a zoom on their camera to a certain extent.

8. What Health and Safety concerns must you be aware of?

Evaluating the Process You must show the use of various materials, techniques or processes you have used. When writing consider these points.

1. What aesthetic value does the outcome gain from the different MTP being used?

You can get different things in your image.

2. How effective is the MTP in helping the outcome(s) meet your intended objectives?

It’s very effective, however, sometimes if you want too much if a closeup it will go out of focus.

3. What difficulties did you have using the various MTP and how can you overcome this in future?

I didn’t have any difficulties.

Project 8: File Formats and Adobe Camera RAW

This is the original photo.

This is my version of the original. I adjusted the shadows to make the sky appear stormy in order to give it a gloomy vibe. In order to make the clouds look darker and more visible, I turned the highlights all the way down and the shadows quite far up.

This is how the photo looked before I put it in black and white. It looks so bad in colour but when you take the colour out of it, it looks good.