Assignment 3's Photos

Assignment 3 is done. HDR makes photos of alleys look so good.

Pickup Shots, Alleys, and Midnight Snacks

2 weeks before this photo-essay is due and I've found my topic. Alleys and laneways in Melbourne. Since a lot of the photos I took during the break weren't alleys or laneways, I had to take pickup shots. I spent a few days scouting for interesting alleys around the CBD in between classes and finally got the chance to take photos last Thursday night. I found that night shots had a more colourful and dreamy effect when processing into HDR, and it made the shots that were bland very vibrant. Still in the process of creating all the HDR images, but what I've got so far looks awesome.

Perspective Photography for the Photo Essay.

Melbourne CBD is a very boxy city. Not that there are a lot of boxes, just that the streets are in a grid formation and little alleys and laneways cut perpendicular to the streets. The amount of 90 degree angles in this city lead to a lot of opportunities for single point perspective photos.  As a result I've been taking photos with a wide angle lens to really show the effect of single point perspectives.

A couple of the photos are below.

The Day before Mid-Break and I've Narrowed my Ideas to 2

The title says it all/ I've been looking at artistic photography in general and I'm really attracted to the whole lomo effect and the lo-fi film grain look. It gives of a sense of nostalgia and uniqueness that can't be found in digital photos. Also, I've found an interesting technique call high dynamic range imaging (HDRI) where you take 3 identical photos, one underexposed, one overexposed, and one with normal exposure. Then, using Photoshop or some other digital darkroom tool, combine the three pictures. The effects achieved can extremely bright and vibrant, or detailed to the point of hyperrealism. I'm still confused on which of the two I'll eventually use.

A couple examples

Asignment 1 & 2 are done. On to assignment 3

Its week 7 and assignment 2 is done and handed in. Now to tackle the next assignment, assignment 3: the Photo Essay. Again, what to do it on. So many choices, I love the city, and I really want to show things in the city no one would normally see unless they actively search for it, but how? Best to do research.

Some initial ideas were long exposure, fisheye, or panorama, but other than panorama, these effects are better produced with the actual camera instead of photo-editing with Photoshop, and the photo-editing part is a requirement.

Long Exposure

Fisheye

Panorama

Task 2 Assignment 2

So far I've come up with a theme: Religious Extremismin Indonesia. Now I need pictures. What better way to show religious extremism than to look at the Islamic Defender's Front (FPI). Being from a Muslim background I find their actions objectionable to say the least. My family has taught me never resort to violence, yet a simple image search will show the FPI regularly being violent. Why can't we all just get along?

I'll probably use some of these for the poster/website

Update on Assignment 2

The essay for assignment one is almost finished. Assignment 2 is well on the way.

I've been looking at the different things I might do for the self-portrait, and I really want to represent my views on the world and my home country of Indonesia. I hate that religion is so important that it has to be on our ID cards back home. Why does it have to be there? I'm essentially an agnostic now but that's not allowed in Indonesia. So since this is assignment is to show what we are, I think this is the best way to express myself, with the symbol for agnosticism/atheism.














Now on to the second and third task of assignment 2. Like I said I don't think religion should be important enough to be recognized on IDs. However the socio-political climate back home disagrees. There has been an increasing amount of religious violence lately, all from radicals attacking religious minorities. Not only that. the religious conservative parties are gaining ground in parliament. I want to make a poster and web layout  going against this kind of action. One that promotes my country's motto: Unity in Diversity. So with this, I intend to make the main colours of tasks 2 and 3 as red and white, the colours of the Indonesian flag.