Digital Photography and Imaging: Project 4 Self Titled (Final)

18-10-21 - 22-11-21 (week9 - week 14)
Darren Liga // 0351480 // Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Digital Photography & Imaging GCD 61204
Final Project: Cinemagraph - Self titled

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LECTURE

WEEK 10:

Intro to After Effects 

Adobe After Effects is a 2.5D animation software used for animation, visual effects, and motion picture compositing. 

After Effects is used in film, TV, and web video creation.

This software is used in the post-production phase, and has hundreds of effects that can be used to manipulate imagery. This allows you to combine layers of video and images into the same scene.

Adobe After Effects takes a different approach for creating movement.

Motion graphics animation works by manipulating vector and rasterized art to create and tell a story. 

You can integrate physical based media as well through photographs and videography.

Fig 1.1: Intro to AE

Compositing Layers in Photoshop

Basically Photoshop is a platform to compositing the layers.

All the layers need to be arrange and rename accordingly so that it will be organize and easy to be animated in After Effects. 

Fig 1.2: Compositing in PS

Compositing Layers in After Effects

Adobe After Effects is a digital visual effects, motion graphics, and compositing application.

Basically we can import elements such as images, video, vector and more into After Effects. 

All the layer elements need to be organized and synchronized to the external software platforms such as Photoshop & Illustrator. 

After Effects files does not embed its media, it links to it.

Fig 1.3: Comppsiting Layers in AE

WEEK 11:

Digital Photography

EXPOSURE: In photography, exposure is the amount of light which reaches your camera sensor or film.

Fig 1.4: Exposure

The main parts of the camera: 

Camera body:

    - Shutter

    - Image sensor

    - LCD screen

Camera lens:

    - Aperture/ Iris

Fig 1.5: DSLR Anatomy

The camera body is a light proof box.

    - IRIS

    - SHUTTER SPEED

    - ISO

There are only two camera settings that affect the actual “luminous exposure” of an image: shutter speed and aperture. The third setting, camera ISO, also affects the brightness of your photos.

Fig 1.6: Exposure Triangle

IRIS: Iris/Aperture is control the flow of light entering the lens.

Fig 1.7: Aperture

IRIS: Iris/Aperture is measured by f-stop, indicated by sequence of f-number: f/1, f/1.4, f/2 , f/ 2.8, f/ 4, f/ 5.6, f/ 8, f/ 11, f/ 16, f/22 , f/32..

The lower the f-number, the larger the lens opening.

Fig 1.8: Aperture

2.   SHUTTER: The shutter is a small plastic sheet that opens and closes to allow light onto the film or prevent light from reaching the film. 

Fig 1.9: Shutter

Shutter speed is measured in seconds: 1/1000 s,1/500 s,1/250 s,1/125 s,1/60 s,1/30 s,1/15 s,1/8 s,1/4 s,1/2 s,1 s, 2 s, 3 s…

Fig 1.10: Shutter Speed 1

Fig 1.11: Shutter Speed 2

3.   ISO: Originally referred to the sensitivity of film—it's "light gathering" ability. For digital photography, ISO refers to the sensitivity—the signal gain—of the camera's sensor.

Fig 1.12: ISO

The common ISO camera settings are: 100, 200, 400, 640, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400….

The lower the number of ISO the less sensitive your camera is to light and the finer the grain. 

Lens Perspective

The are wide angle lens, standard lens and tele lens.

Fig 1.13: Types of lenses

Appropriate lens provided desire framing, lens choice affects angle of view.

Fig 1.14: Lens shot comparison

Different lenses are designed for different for different purposes. Lenses can be categorized by focal length.

Fig 1.15: types of camera lens 2

Focal Length

The shorter the focal length, the wider the angle of view and vice-versa. 

Focal length is the measurement (in millimeters) from the optical center of a camera lens to the camera’s sensor.

Depth of Field

The proportion of the image that is reasonably sharp and in focus.

Fig 1.16: Depth of Field

The smaller the aperture you use, the greater the depth of field.

Fig 1.17: Depth of field chart

Wide angle lenses are ideal for fitting a large area into your frame. 

Fig 1.18: wide angle lens

Wide angle lens is especially useful for landscape photography or street photography. With wide angle lenses, almost everything is in focus, unless your subject is very close to the lens.

Standard lens offer a fairly accurate representation of what the human eye sees, both in terms of visual angle and perspective. 

Fig 1.19: Standard Lens

Images created by standard lens are perceived as more natural than those taken with other types of camera lenses.

Fig 1.20: Standard lens sample

Tele lenses are great for isolating a subject that is far away. 

Fig 1.21: Tele lenses

Tele lenses allow you to photograph subjects from a distance thanks to their magnification. 

Fig 1.22: Tele sample

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INSTRUCTIONS

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Final Project

For this final project, we were tasked to do a surrealism artwork in a form of collage which needs to be composed properly using the methods taught in class, while having an additional animation to compliment this project. The project is named "Self Titled" which should be a visual demonstration of what identifies ourselves. 

"Self-titled is an exploration project for the students to express their own individuality and reflect their personality into digital art self-expression. 

The main idea is to build up self-confidence and discover their interest. "

We started by using the template given to help us get an idea of what to create:

Fig 2.1: Idea Development Biography

Fig 2.2: Idea Development Statement

I then proceeded to do a photoshoot with my classmate to progress on this assignment.

Fig 2.3: Shooting

Several shots were taken that day with the assistance of Mr Martin in guiding us with the lighting. 

I have no idea on how to light up a scene properly, luckily for us Mr Martin guided us and taught several technique on the scene.

Although on the other hand, I dont really have a problem with photography as it has been a hobby of mine since i was still in middle school. Equipped with several gears including camera body and lenses, i got to experiment in Taylors University an aspect of photography ive never tried before, which is playing with studio lights. As i usually shoot portraits and landscape with either natural light or street lighting, this is a new experience for me on how to balance lighting. 

For the whole shooting event, i set up my body to shoot in a raw format to not compress any wanted details as this outcome is for my final project which is very important. Since im shooting with a sony body, the raw format is .ARW which is seen below.

Fig 2.4: info

The gear i used for this whole shoot:

Sony A6000 body

Sigma 30mm f1.4

Tamron 28-75mm f2.8

After selecting which image i would use to start my post processing, I started by importing the chosen image to photoshop. As i shoot in RAW, photoshop gave me a pop up window to tweak and adjust the colors which is similar to Adobe Lightroom.

Fig 2.5: RAW photoshop popup

I then proceeded to create a layer mask to select just a part of me.

Fig 2.6: layer mask

As i want my image manipulation to be non-destructive, i chose to use a layer mask instead of deleting a part of the image. This is so that i have easier access to layers if ever i want to edit it again in the future.

I then added elements that represents me.

Fig 2.7: elements

After messing a lot with the colors and composition, i finalize my layout with this composition

Fig 2.8: final composition

Fig 2.9: Final Dark Composition

Fig 2.10: Final Light Composition

I have 2 compositions as when i animate it, the background will change.

Animating

I imported the .psd file to Adobe After Effects as instructed from the tutorial.

I animated the bottom mask of my image to have a liquid dripping effect.

Fig 3.1: animating liquid drip

Then i animated the folders circling my head to do a full circular rotation around my head.

Fig 3.2: Folder animation

I then added the iconic iphone slide to unlock to be animated in a sliding motion that will be masked.

Fig 3.3: slide to unlock

Then this is the whole composition in after effects brought together.

Fig 3.4: Animation

The final animation composition:

Vid 1.1: animation

Final Cut

After the whole render process in after effects, I imported the video to final cut pro to add sound effects and music.

Fig 4.1: final cut

Final Self-Titled Project

Fig 5.1: Final Dark Composition

Fig 5.2: Final Light Composition

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Animation

Vid 1.2: Final Animation

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Link to Youtube

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REFLECTION

For this final project, i had a lot of fun create the artwork as i am quite interested in all the aspects needed to finalize this project. I learned a lot from photography, animating, and finally video editing program such as final cut and premier pro. Although i have several experience in all those aspects, i still gained a lot of unknown skills to create the self titled artwork, such as lighting positions, the types of shots and the settings, several after effects key-framing and masking. Overall, i gained a lot of new knowledge and skills which in my opinion would be very useful and important in the real world application of this digital designing world.