Urban Phenomenon

Images of Surrealism are founded in the subconscious – usually based on fantasy and daydreams, but expressed with maximum realism. In the same way that dreams seem so believable at the time, surreal images are often pervaded by strange occurrences and juxtapositions which appear perfectly realistic.

The few images below were used in my photomontage.

Image 1: Bukit Panjang Park

Image 2: Lasalle College of the Arts

Image 3: Lasalle College of the Arts
Image 4: Fusionpolis

Image 5: Ministry of Education
Image 6: Fusionpolis

Image 7: Fusionpolis

Since this assignment is on Urban Phenomenon and we are suppose to represent it using the surrealistic approach, I decided to start with the simpliest object I have on my list which is Image 3. I cropped it and used it as a base of my artwork which I will build upon.

I attempted to work like a surrealist artiste, cropping and trimming every image I have chosen above and placing them together. All the while, I was letting my subscious mind guide me. I didnt really think much about the subject placement and just went ahead with the flow.

As I progress in my work, I realised that I was generally moving towards a particular direction and where my subconscious mind was leading me to. One after another, my cropped images were placed together.

In this urban jungle we live in today, many generations today are chasing their dreams enthusiastically. Some are so engrossed in it that they are oblivious to the happenings around them. Others are so comfortable with the 'journey' that they fail to realise the danger which lies ahead of them (the edge of the 'river').

The block of grey building facade was rotated and used to symbolise a running river on a cliff but it has a shape drop at the edge. The edge of the river symbolises dangers and problems.

Buildings 'drifting' on this river were distorted to look like sails, giving the idea of a 'smooth and calm' journey the youths are experiencing.

The two brightly colour figures running represents the younger generations who are charged with energy and ambitions. Since the 'journey', as mentioned above, for them might be a smooth one, many are complacent and unguarded towards the dangers and problems they might encounter. Therefore, although they seem to be moving nearer the edge, they are unaware of it.

The older generations, represented by the old men, have their backs turned aginst this phenomenon. It portrays a case of "been there done that" and it is time the younger generations give it a go. Advices from the older generations often falls on death ears and the older generations would like the younger generations to face the consequence of their own actions, thus turning their backs against them. They tend to be sadddened by the unrealistic and over zealous nature of the younger generations today.

The many trees we see growing along the roads in our urban areas today adds a touch of nature into this concrete jungle. However, we have to remember the fact that these plants are planted there by humans and the natural habitat has long been manipulated and destroyed by us. Therefore, I added in two metallic looking plants into the picture as well.

The above is my 1st attempt at the assignment.

I would be adding more old men into the picture to push the visual aspects of the image further. Also, slanting the 'river' further, might better give the idea of an alarming phenomenon that requires our attention since the possiblity of slipping off the edge seems even greater.

Veristic Surrealism

Veristic Surrealism


Some background on Veristic Surrealism

- Veristic Surrealists allowed the images of the subconscious to be undisturbed so that meaning could be understood through analysis.
- They linked images between the abstract spiritual realities and the real forms of the world.
- For them, their paintings were a metaphor to inner reality.
- Veristic surrealists hoped to follow images of the subconscious until consciousness could understand the meaning.
- The expression of the subconscious is the image and the consciousness had to decode the image and translate it into the language of its own.
- Thus paintings of the Veristic Surrealists portrayed people and objects which looked close to reality, although were represented in quite strange ways.

Information from: http://www.artsz.org/veristic-surrealism-dali-magritte-max-ernst/

Veristic surrealism has a marked difference from other types of surrealism whereby the artiste has already interpreted the work. Unlike other forms of surrealism, veristic surrealism allows the viewer to imagine the story on his or her own, and to glimpse the inner world of the artist.

The Belgian Rene Magritte had a good ability to paint ordinary objects in unusual contexts giving new meanings to familiar things.

The above painting "The Son of Man" was by Rene Magritte in 1964.

What we see in the first instance is a fruit covering a man's face.

Magritte has used the fruit out of context in this case by allowing it to appear infront of a man's portrait or seemingly, growing out of the man's face. This leaves much room for interpretation by the viewer.

Personally, I interpret it as that human beings often put on a very 'nice front'. The fruit in this picture looks very fresh and suggest perfection. However, unknown to many is what lies behind the fruit. What if the man behind is smirking or crying? We will not know unless we look beyong that seemingly perfect cover in front of his face.

Humans are difficult to understand. Emotions varies and changes constantly. Unless you can read into a person's mind, you will never know and comprehand what he is thinking.

CNM Class Shots

Shooting under florescent lighting is not very idea for portrait shots since the white-balance tends to be bluish and cool. On top of that, the uneven lighting makes phots very unevenly exposed.

So before the start of the shoot, I did some test shots and adjusted the white balance to give it a warmer tone. I also mounted an external flash and have the flash bounce off the ceiling so that it will not be too harsh on the subject.

Some pointers that I have in my mind when shooting.

1) Know what you want to shoot before you start. Have a concept in your mind.
- For me, I prefer action shots and shots whereby the subjects are not looking straight into the camera (do not want them to appear to posed). I would like to take my subjects in their most natural self.

2) Make my subjects feel comfortable. Many a times, though I might be hiding at one corner of the room trying to steal some shots, but once the students realise that my lens is aiming at them, they can get quite uncomfortable and awkward. When the students are uncomfortable with my presence, the shots will turn out lifeless since they are very cautious and mindful of my camera.

3) Do not try incorporate too many details in a photo unless it is meant to be a general wide angle shot. A large aperature actually does the job quite well since it is able to blur out the background of the subject in focus.

4) Take from a variety of angles. Some people look better at certain angles and I think as a photographer, it is crucial that you bring the beauty out of your subject and make them look their best. The last thing I want to know is the subject getting angry with me because I made him/her look bad in a magazine (if the pictures are published).

5) Be ready, informed and alert at all times. Before the start of the lesson, I actually had small chats with some students in the class to find out from them how the class discussion actually goes about during tutorials. When I am better informed, I can better guage what to expect and be ready to capture the moment.

In this photo, the subjects are limited to 2 person. From this picture, we can see the gentleman in green explaining something to his tutorial mate. The eye contact between the two subject is also vital to show the interaction and connection between them.

There is a varied number of actions from the 3 ladies as shown in this picture, depicting a sense of "busy`ness", adding a level of 'excitement' to this picture. The varied expressions on the ladies' faces also added a certain sense of varied emotions experienced by the 3 ladies.



This photo was taken with a screenshot of the CNM webpage in the forground. I think it adds a sense of self-explanation to the viewer that this is a CNM lesson and that a student is giving a presentation on her work.


When the students are making their presentation, I think it is also important to incorporate the audience into the photo so that they do not appear to be talking to a empty class or even talking to themselves. Since the main focus of the picture is on the lady making her presentation, the forground (showing the heads of the audience) is not in focus to minimise the attention grabbing conflict between the lady and the audience. However, the incorporation of the audience into the photo actually shows that she is making a presentation to a group of people.

Having the subjects all look in a specific direction actually suggests something is going on at that particular direction (in this case, the left side of the picture).



In this photo showing the tutor offering her suggestions and advices to the students, I have actually incorporated the overhead projector screen into the background. If the tutor had been shot against a white background, it might not be reflective of the situation that she is tutoring in a class.

During critic session, the students actually get to walk around the class to view their friends work and to share their opinions. In this picture, I particular like the fact that the lady on the left has some sort of gestures, adding a touch of action to the picture.

Acknowledgements or enjoyments can be expresses through smiles and laughter and I think this image above has conveyed the idea that they enjoyed the lesson/sharing session.

Lastly, this close up shot above actually conveys a idea of the cosiness to the viewer and the camera caught in shot actually adds a touch of glamour to the picture. Every CNM student should feel special.

ISO

In traditional (film) photography ISO (or ASA) was the indication of how sensitive a film was to light. In Digital Photography ISO measures the sensitivity of the image sensor.

Generally for digital photography, the higher the ISO, the brigher the image. However, the higher the ISO, the 'noiser' (more grainy) the image is as well.

A higher ISO is typically used for low light condition such as indoor photography.

Personally, pushing the ISO up is the last resort for me when taking under poor lighting conditions. When a place is not well lit, first I will attempt to widen the apperature size by lowering the f-stop. If the picture is still underexposed, I will lengthen the shutter speed (the lowest I would possibly go is 1/30 secs since anything longer than that might result in handshake blur). If the combination of both still produce a underexposed image, I would then proceed to increase the ISO setting. However each increment meant a 'noiser' image and this is not really advisable if I would like to blow up the picture when I develop the photo.

To better illustrate the differences in photo effect taken with different ISO settings, the aperature was set at f/5.7 and shutter speed at 1/80 secs for both photos.

ISO 100

ISO 1600

From the above, the most obvious difference is that the 2nd photo with a higher ISO appears brighter then the 1st picture with a lower ISO. Upon closer inspection, despite the brighter image, it seems 'noiser' as well as compared to the first photo.

Symbolic of the Sun

It was quite tough trying to decipher and express the theme "Symbolic of the Sun".

When I first started out shooting on this theme, I came up with the following.

f/5.7 & 26mm & 1/250secs & ISO 250

f/5.6 & 85mm & 1/2500secs & ISO 250

Both of these pictures were shot at the Esplanade. However, after the presentation in class, I felt these two photos were more actually more like iconic or direct representation of the sun.

I thought about it and realise that when we say something is "symbolic", it should be referring to an object having a relation with or representation to another object.

I did a second attempt on this theme.

f/5.7 & 64mm & 1/640secs & ISO 400

This image above is of a few bamboo poles. A bamboo pole is used when we need to hang our clothes to dry. So logically speaking, no one hangs their clothes out to dry when its raining. Therefore, I thought this would be quite reflective of the theme.

However, talking about drying of clothes when the sun is out, why not try an attempt at that?

f/5.7 & 85mm & 1/80secs & ISO 100

So I took this photo of my neigbour drying their towels at the corridor on a sunny day. Some might think that the colour blue (it was purely coincidental) does not really reflect a warm sunny day but to me (I actually did notice that), I think that it is a very interesting contrast.

Most importantly, the fact that the towels are left out in the open to dry shows that the weather is good and reflects very well on the theme "Symbolic of the Sun".

Metering

For Canon users, there are basically 3 basic kinds of metering (Partial Metering is not discussed).

1) Spot Metering
This is for metering a specific part of the subject or scene. The metering is weighted at the center covering about 3.8% of the viewfinder area.

2) Center Weight Metering
The metering is weighted at the center and then averaged for the entire scene.

3) 3D Matrix/ Evaluative Metering
This is an all-around metering mode suited for portraits and even backlit subjects. The camera sets the exposure automatically to suit the scene.

Different metering can be used to draw attention to the different focal point in the photo.

The above was shot using spot metering on the light blub. Notice now the whole lamp is well exposed but the surrounding seems under-exposed. The beauty of using spot metering is that it draws the attention directly to be subject/object in the photo.

The above was shot using center-weighted metering. Basically in, the camera does the calculation of the exposure based on the middle portion in focus in the viewfinder. Subsequently, it uses this calculation to average out the overall exposure for the whole picture. However, in this case, since there is a brighter spot in the center of the picture, the original contrast between the lighted and unlit part of the image is quite high, the center-weighted metering is not very useful in achieving a overall balanced exposure for the whole picture.

A 3D matrix metering was used for the above picture. Unless the center-weighted metering, the 3D matric metering actually takes into account the exposure of the varies parts of the picture and takes and average of everything exposed. This allows a even and balanced exposure for the whole picture taken.

Although the 3D matric metering does not have the dramatic effect as produced by spot-metering, it ensures that all subjects in the picture are well exposed.

Close-Up

Close-up is also usually known as macro photography.

The easiest way to achieve macro photography is to use a macro lens. Otherwise, alternatives like adding a close-up filter, reversing your lens or extension tubes might also work.

When I took the following shots, I didnt use a dedicated macro lens. Was actually experimenting taking macro shots using manual focus (since at such near distance, the auto focus cant really work).

This was actually taken with a 17-85mm lens - not a macro lens. It is definately not close up enough and I will be getting a dedicated macro lens to work on this theme.

The macro lens in school is always unavailable for loan and a dedicated macro lens is too ex for me... so I purchased a +4 close up filter for my 50mm lens instead...

f/7.1 & 50mm & 1/40secs & ISO 640

f/7.1 & 50mm & 1/40secs & ISO 640

f/5.6 & 50mm & 1/40secs & ISO 640

f/7.1 & 50mm & 1/40secs & ISO640

I decided to do a close up on ice. I thought those "cracks" and frost in the ice are very interesting subjects to shoot.

Played around with various lightings to add an additional dimension to the photos.

High/Low-Key Photography

For high-key photography, generally, the histogram would lean towards the right.

f/5.7 & 85mm & 1/1000secs & ISO 250

Usually, in order to get a relatively high-key photography, the exposure (EV) might have to be adjusted slightly to push the brightness up. Some processing using Photoshop to increase the contrast might also enhance the photo.

In order to avoide the picture looking too flat, there is a need to provide a focal point and it is also helpful to have small areas of darker tones to outline the distinct feature of the object captured.

For low-key photography, the histrogram would lean towards the left.

f/4.0 & 24mm & 1/1600secs & ISO 200

Similarly, the EV (exposure compensation) can be set to 1 stop lower to give a greater contrast. Low-key photos turn out better using a smaller aperature (large f-stop) as you have lesser light entering through the lens.

Composition of the picture is also very important when taking high/low-key photograph.

Without a proper composition, the photos might just look like over-exposed and under-exposed photos without any artistic value.

I experimented with a few other high-key photos.

f/6.3 & 24mm & 1/800secs & ISO 200

f/6.3 & 35mm & 1/1600secs & ISO 200

Both pictures above are taken at the St. Andrew Cathedral. It was actually quite a daunting task to keep the pictures appropriately exposed, to ensure that details of the objects are not lost, but yet at the same time, capture it fairly high key, keeping the colour tones toward the higher end point of the histogram.

f4.5 & 50mm & 1/40secs & ISO 640

Back home, I experimented with a piece of tissue paper too! The shadows were essential in bringing out the outline of the tissue paper.

I did another attempt at low-key photography too.

f/6.3 & 26mm & 1/160secs & ISO 200

This was shot at the stairways of the Asian Civilisation Museum. Quite a similar concept as my first low-key photo but this time round, I paid more attention to the details and ensure that it is not too under-exposed that lots of details (especially those on the railings) are lost.

Zoom Shot

When I first got this assignment, I was thinking "zoom shot? meaning using a zoom lens and capture something that is far away?" haha. But of course I was partly right and partly wrong. Of course we have to use a zoom lens to capture something further away to bring it close to us. But, in order to show that we did zoom in the process of capturing the photo... okay.. it quite difficult to put it in words. Let me show you some shots I took.

This photo was taken at f/5.6 at 1/2sec. So basically, I focus my lens on the esplanade (zoomed the lens in to the max) and upon clicking the shutter, I slowly and carfully zoom my lens out. One problem I encounter was that I only have 1 pair of hands and having to click the shutter and turn/zoom the lens wasn't easy. Thus, I recommand anyone trying this method to use a timer (about 2secs) so you free up your hands from the shutter button.

Various effects can be created depending on whether you choose to zoom in or zoom out when taking the shot.

This photo was shot at f/4.0 at 1/2seconds. In order to keep the light sensitivity down (to prevent overexposure) I set the ISO at 100. This picture was taken in with the lens fully zoomed out and when the shutter is open, I gradually zoom in.

This shot was taken at f/4.0 but at 1 second with an ISO of 100. When taking this shot, the lens was zoomed in fully and when the shutter is open, I zoomed out.

Was told that if you want the subject (in thise case the square lightings on the Singapore Flyer) to be more prominent, when the shutter opens, you should hold the zoom position there for a moment before zooming in or out.

f/14.0 & 70-2oomm & 2.5secs & ISO 100

This photo was taken at the Fusionpolis. In this zoom technique picture, I used a combination of zoom with a additional rotation of the camera on the tripod. The resulting effect I feel is very interesting. The swirls are caused by the camera rotating on the tripods whereas the streaks of light are caused by the zooming of the lens. The constantly changing LED lights on the buildings also provide a spectrum of colours in this picture.

Depth-of-Field

The depth of field refers to the portion of the photo that appears sharp in the image. With a larger aperature (lower f-stop) one can achieve a shallower depth of field. A shallow depth of field is good when taking portraits to remove/blur out the background which might be distracting or cluttered.

This photo above was taken at f/1.8 with a focal length of 50mm. As you can see, the depth of field is very shallow creating a blur at the background. This actually focuses the viewer's attention on the subject and minimises distraction from the background.

This photo was also shot at f/1.8 with a focal length of 50mm. Idea is to focus on the guy in blue (listening attentively). In order to minimise the clutter at the background, a large aperature (lower f-stop) was used to blur off the background but still reveal a hint of what the subject might be focusing on (which is his friend doing a presentation).

When taking images of building and landscapes, most of the time, we want everything in shot to be in focused unless there is something in particular that we want to focus on. So in-order for everything in the picture to be in focus, the aperature should be smaller (f-stop larger). This picture above was taken at f/5.6 with a focal length of 17mm @ Biopolis. However, do note that when an aperature is smaller, this means that less light will be entering the lens and this has to be compensated with a longer shutter speed or higher ISO.

For a better comparison between the different depth-of-field, I have placed this two photo side by side for a comparison. The picture on the left shot at f/22.6 has a smaller aperature but deeper depth-of-field. The picture on the right was shot at f/2.8 and has a larger aperature and shallower depth-of-field.

Notice how the image on the right has a much blurrer background as the one compared to the picture on the left. Therefore, the choice of f-stop, which will affect the depth-of-field, very much depends on how much of the background you want to keep in focus in your photo.

Shallow Depth-of-Field

Went to the Hort Park (Alexandra Road) over the weekends and caught this shot of a flower.

This was shot at f/5.6 with a focal length of 73mm and ISO 200. I could have used a smaller aperature but cause it was a rather impromptu shot, I overlooked on that aspect. I should also have paid more attention to the two flowers at the back, perhaps to keep them out of the frame, because they look rather distracting in the picture now.

This picture above was taken at the Botanical Gardens at f/4.0 with a focal length of 50mm and ISO 160.

This is the same flower as of above but taken from a slightly different angle to show the who bloom of the flower. This was taken at f/4.0 with a focal length of 50mm. and ISO 160

This photo was also taken at the botanical gardens at f/4.0 with a focal length of 50mm and ISO 200. I particularly like this photo because of the high contrast between the sharpness of the flower buds against the blurred background.

Deep Depth-of-Field

Both pictures above were taken at Biopolis with f/5.6 with a focal length of 17mm for the first picture and 20mm for the second picture and ISO 200. With a slightly smaller aperature (larger f-stop), I am able keep more subjects in the photos in focus. Comparing this two images above, I prefer the 2nd picture as comperatively, it has a strong and more interesting picture composition.