Student Posts

Did anyone else have a difficult time choosing an image for this assignment? I feel like that was the most difficult part! After much deliberation I decided on this photo. In the original the car is so far away it’s easy to overlook. The sky also shows more of a sunset or sunrise, with the blue around the edges implying a shift in time of day. The road is featured prominently in the center of the photo, with the sun off to the right.

In the crop, the car is larger and easier to take note of. The road is in line with the first vertical line of the rule of thirds grid. The sun is now almost centered in the image. All of the blue from the sky has been cropped out so the sky is a full fiery orange and yellow. This makes the image feel much warmer overall.

This derivative uncenters the main focus (the road), and it changes the mood of the photo.

There is a beauty to this world and some images can capture the magic moment to it.

While looking for a picture that resonated with me, I found “Latin Quarter” by Hernán Piñera. This picture reminded me of the magical aspects of the world such discovering or exploring a new place with someone you consider special.

When looking at “Latin Quarter” by Hernán Piñera, your eyes are pulled to the vibrant colors and lights, the reflections on the stone, and the people. I wanted to bring users to fixating on what I considered was a critical part of the image which was the couple in the bottom right which can be seen below this sentence.

The couple is what I envisioned the moment between two people were you are “the main characters”. The world revolves around you and you’re living in the moment with that special person. That’s where the magic is truly created and the moment a lot of people look forward to with their partner.

We should all strive to have that magic moment. It doesn’t matter if it’s with someone else or by yourself. You’ll know when you have it because it’ll become a memory of a moment in your life that you’ll be able to recall.

Seek the world and learn something new everyday. That’s how you’ll get those moments.

The year is 2020 and the inconceivable has happened. Human civilization became confined, stressed, and uncertain. In the meantime, something magical happened, the natural planet received a moment to reset. On a day when cabin fever became overwhelming, I made a large cup of coffee in my pastel travel mug, hopped in my car, and just drove. I had no destination in mind, just windows down, sunroof open, and stereo loud. I don’t recall where I was exactly, but I looked over and in my solitude, noticed that the entire median was an untamed field of wildflowers, pristine and quondam. With no other vehicles around, not a single person in sight, I pulled to the side of the road, though I probably could have parked my car right in the middle of the highway. I sat in the field and finished my coffee, enjoying the white noise of nature and the sun on my shoulders. I decided that the field wouldn’t miss a few blooms, so I wiped out the inside of my mug with napkins and gathered several handfuls. I’ll never forget the serenity I felt sitting in the sun that morning, watching the bees and butterflies experience their own moments of unadulterated existence.

The blooms did suffer a little on the way home with no water, but the joy and contentment I felt in the moment was undeniable. I wanted to remember it, so I snapped a photo. I did give them water and they perked up. I eventually hung and dried the bouquet and it still has a place in my living room as a reminder that sometimes what we need is a chance to reset.

The cropped photo creates a more dynamic image. Cropping removes some of the distractions from the subject of the photograph and simplifies the background. What do you think?

The image I chose to strategically crop is a beautiful picture of a mother deer and her two fawns. I thought this was a great choice to crop due to the subjects being centered in the frame and the clutter of the scene around them. 

By cropping out some of the scene, zooming into the deer and using the rule of thirds to place the subject slightly off center – I created a more dynamic image that clearly displays the deer and her family as the subject of the photo. 

I decided to go with a composition rule that is a little more standard instead of pushing the composition in a more adventurous place due to the peaceful horizon of the forest. I wanted to maintain that peaceful feeling through the rule of thirds. I think this compositional rule is easy on the eye and lends itself to this subject matter.

What was at first just a documentation of a moment, through simple cropping, became a dynamic composition that would look lovely hanging on a wall as a work of art. 

For this assignment, I was looking for an image which when cropped changes the focus from pain to pleasure or from hardships to hopefulness. After several attempts, I was convinced to use this picture.

The original depicts a man pouring water into vessel while sitting in a floating cart but the other focal points in that picture are the flowing dirty water. My assumptions made me judge that the man may not be leading a fortunate life. I inferred to this point because of the distractions in the original picture i.e., the water beneath.

When cropping the original picture using rule of thirds, I removed the flowing dirty water and the portions of the cart, so that the man becomes the main focal point. On seeing the cropped image, the viewer’s opinions may turn neutral rather than assuming that he is undergoing hardships. I was fascinated to see how the change of focus obtained through the rule of thirds can change our perspective towards the people in the picture.

After:

Let me guess. Didn’t you think, “Who are they?” as soon as you saw the first image? (or “What does it say?”) How about the second image? Do you think you know him? Or do you think you’ve seen him somewhere before? If you still can’t get it, then I’ll give you a hint: Squid Game 🦑

If you ever watched ‘Squid Game’ on Netflix, then you’ll probably recognize him. He is the lead actor and the most famous actor from Squid Game.

I was browsing my iPhone gallery to see if there was any image I could use for the Composition assignment. And I found something interesting. This is the photo I took last August when I was in South Korea. I had a chance to go to the stage greeting for a Korean movie called ‘Hunt.’ In South Korea, when a movie is released, the actors and directors perform stage greetings in the movie theaters for about two weeks for promotion. My seat was a little bit far away from the stage. My hands and eyes were very busy taking photos, taking videos, watching actors, and checking my phone screen to make sure I take good photos and videos. I thought this image would be an excellent example to make it derivative. I decided to crop the original image to create a new focal point: Lee Jung-jae, the most famous Squid Game actor (& 2022 Emmy winner!).

The main focus in the original image is obviously the actors. Therefore, I cropped the Korean words on the movie screen and the fans sitting. The two actors in the image are both famous in South Korea. Squid Game was very popular globally. So, I decided to crop the actor on the right and emphasize a focal point on the Squid Game actor on the left.

I wonder if anybody watched the Squid Game and recognized him. 😆

I’ve always had a fascination with skylines and how much definition they give to cities. Landmarks, mountains, buildings, all of these elements come together to create the cities that we know and love. I don’t know about you, but I’m a huge fan of the 2013 PS3 game “The Last of Us,” (yes, HBO picked it up and turned it into a show that’s airing right now! ) which takes place in a familiar, but dystopian future. One of the best features of the game is its use of skyline and landmarks to move the story along, almost as if the overgrown and worn cityscapes are characters in the game themselves. Though the locations change throughout the game and its sequel, much of the dramatic tension is focused on landmarks scattered throughout the game. Though these landmarks have changed, become overgrown, or broken, to the player of the game, they are still recognizable (yes, that overgrown and possibly zombie infested building is still representative of Boston!)

The first picture above is a complete skyline of Seattle with the Space Needle on the left and Mount Rainier in the background. I would think that the most recognizable landmark would be the Space Needle, and without it, Mount Rainier is brought to the forefront and becomes the most prominent feature to the viewer. Is it still Seattle? Of course. Though to the average viewer, this may not be as apparent (maybe without the Space Needle, this is more like other cities in the Pacific Northwest?) When I was thinking about this assignment, I wanted to look at how landmarks (and when they change or are removed) really give a sense of place and character to a city. It’s what makes a game like “The Last of Us” so compelling because those skylines and landmarks are so familiar to us, even though they might have changed in one way or another.

It’s amazing how much simply cropping a picture can change how it may be interpreted. In this example, while there isn’t anything inherently wrong with the original, cropping it to leave out some details and move the focal point changes its meaning. Although art never truly has only one meaning and it’s left up to the viewer to develop and interpret their own, between these two pictures, it is undeniable that they invoke different paths of thought. While the first one appears more distant and gives off an isolated feeling, my cropped version makes the subject feel closer and attempts to create a feeling that is a bit more grounded in the structure rather than the stretch of ground before it as in the first picture.

Both the original and derivative above tell stories and invoke emotions of their own. In my opinion, there is never only one way to portray a scene, and I don’t believe that one is more correct than the other. Cropping is important in how it alters how a viewer experiences an image; therefore, the one taking or cropping an image must keep in mind the focal point and subjects contained within as small changes can make the same image appear completely different even though they cover the same scene.

The original image is on the left and the adjusted image is on the right. I searched through a plethora of images for this assignment. This may not be the most dynamic image but it is the one I kept coming back to, and ultimately chose to use. The original image shows the scene of a fox dead center of a very serene setting. The reflections in the crystal clear water help create an intriguing image, that lends the observer a moment of pause. While this image is lovely and many may think it is perfect as is, I feel that the fox being completely centered was a miss by the original artist. This gives the scenery too much breath and life that seems overtake the focal point that is the fox. After playing with the image and performing multiple crops to find one that satisfied, I felt that cropping and moving the focal point made the image standout more. In the end, with a couple adjustments this image becomes more intriguing, at least to my eye.

I cropped this image with the photo editor software that came with my laptop. I used the rule of thirds and forced the fox, along with its reflection, to the right side of the image. I have the reflection and fox sharing the cross section of the bottom right of the rule of the thirds grid. I believe this makes the image more pleasing to the eye and more enjoyable to the observer because it enhances the fox and reflections visibility and the viewer can see nuances that were not visible before. This also lends more appreciation to the wilderness, snow and water that are in the image. By drawing the eye to the right, the scenery is somehow enhanced and becomes more appreciated. One can also appreciate the numerous textures and colors within the photograph due to the tighter crop. This makes one want to reach out and run your fingers through the water or the fox’s coat.