Assignment 1

[erja kaikkonen]

I chose a very boring object, a cushion, and tried to make it interesting in the short time I had. This is what I came up with.

[Duncan Rawlinson]

Welcome to the student forum!

The assignment:

Lesson 1: Assignment Assignment Title: Beast to Beauty

We want you to find something particularly boring in your home. It could be a doorknob, a remote control, a garbage can, a plain couch, tiles or anything else which you would rarely notice around your home. Something totally forgettable and uninteresting.

Now what we want you to do is to take 2 pictures of the object. Take one picture of it as you normally see it. Stand back and take the picture of the object with disregard for its relation to other things or any interesting elements within the object itself.

Now, I want you to get close to the object and see it with fresh eyes. How can you make this object interesting? What if you changed the lighting? What if you added something to it? What if you zoomed in? What if you blurred your camera to make it more abstract? What if you put it in close relation to something else to make it more interesting? These are all just ideas, but the possibilities are endless. Now Take a second picture and turn this ordinary object into something much more visually pleasing.
Now what we want you to do is upload these pictures to our online student workspace.

You have submitted two very different photos!

Admittedly there isn’t much exciting about a pillow. This is a plane jane ordinary item that is very boring.

In order to add a layer of interest and dynamism you’ve done a few things. You’ve moved it, you’ve changed the light, the framing, and you’ve added some post processing effects.

All of which means you’ve done well on this assignment.

[attachment=0:1ugosrmb]pillow.jpg[/attachment:1ugosrmb]

1. Light
The light is quite nice and soft and it makes the image quite nice. The pattern of the light on the floor is quite nice as well.

2. Dark Spot
This image has quite a high dynamic range. The darks are quite dark and the lights are quite bright. Sometimes it’s hard to capture all of it. As a result there is a relatively large dark spot in the middle of the frame. (usually not a good idea)

3. Amputation
The shadow of the pillow is an important element in the frame. As such you should try to avoid ‘amputating’ or cutting it off. This is akin to cutting someones’ head off in a photograph…

Good first assignment.

I look forward to your next batch or photos!

[Author]

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