World of Objects Discussion

For my world of objects project, I chose to observe the theme of food. Food is something that we come in contact with every single day, multiple times a day. It is something that defines us because without it, we wouldn't be able to survive. Since I have a sweet tooth, I want to capture all the desserts and sugary goods that I come into contact with. I want to use natural light to capture my photos and give it a more domestic, kitchen feel. 

An artist that inspired me for this project is Lara Hata. She is a San Fransisco based photographer who captures both sweet and savoury food. I gained inspiration from her sweet based photography, mostly. Her photos are mostly set in the kitchen and on platters, obviously staged. She captures the texture of all her food perfectly, which gives it a mouth-watering effect. The photo I like best is of a glaze being poured on a bundt cake - it captures human interaction with food as the object.

Another artist that I found to be helpful for my project is Adam Pearson. He also specialises in food photography, although more of the savoury kind. Regardless, I like that he incorporates silverware into his shots. It adds to the human interaction feeling - you know someone was or is eating the food in the photo. The colours in his photos also pop out which adds to the composition of the shots. Adam, as well as Lara, highlights the textures of his food so prominently. I want to use that effect in my photos as well.

Sense Of Place Reshoot

I had to redo my project for sense of place. My pictures were of too well-known places and were rather boring because they were of places locals see everyday. After getting some peer criticism, I decided to still keep to the city theme, but follow a different path. I want to capture a "night out in the city" through this project. My plan is to shoot at night with a tripod and slow shutter speed. I want to capture the view of the streetlights and the glow from the neon bar signs. I want my five photos to tell a story of a night out, but with a bit of abstract. 

I researched Rut Blees Luxemburg for inspiration for this project. She captures urban landscape in a unique way. Instead of conventional tourist shots, she photographs city-life in an abstract way. She incorporates streetlights and signs into her work and that is what I plan on doing also. A lot of her work has shadows in them and I like the feel they add to the composition. I like the way that you have no idea what city she is photographing because of the abstractness. 

Another photographer I researched is Allan Coker of Australia. He has a lot of city-life pictures of Melbourne that inspire me. I would never have guessed his photos were taken in Melbourne had I not read the descriptions, and that is what my goal is for this project. I want to capture city life in an abstract manner but still providing a sense of place theme. Allan's photography is mostly shot in daylight, which I will do differently, but he does use a low shutter speed to capture blurring movement around the city. He shows various kinds of city life, but the one I am focusing on is a young, 20-something's night out in the city vibe. A lot of Allan's photographs from Melbourne are shot at Hosier Lane, which has a ton of graffiti. I think shooting there will help tie in my theme of a night out and provide a sense of place to my project as well.

Lecture Week 5

Camera Raw

• white balance
• exposure
• set image preferences 

Photoshop

• check profile - change to Adobe RGB 1998

Adjustments in Layers (able to remove layers)

• levels - most important
• curves
• color balance
• hue & saturation
• brightness & contrast
• spotting - dust on lens or small spots on image to remove

Save master file as TIFF or PSD with all layers, 16 bit & full size

Print copy

• flatten - gets rid of layers
• 8 bit
• double check profile is adobe RGB 1998
• resize/add borders if needed

Levels & Curves

• levels & channels - refer to the way digital colour is divided
• each channel represents a specific colour (red, green, blue)