Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I. Copyright © 2003 – 2009 Kenji Tachibana Story: Half full & More 24 slides

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Story: Half full and more KIS EVERYTHING Let KIS (keep it simple) become your mantra on: 1.Story 2.Subject 3.Prop 4.Background 5.Location 6.Lighting 7.Technique 8.Write up 9.Self critique 10.Photoshop 11.Presentation 12.And more…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Story: Half full and more S till-Life Shot: 1.Objects tend to be less interesting than people shots to most viewers. Therefore still life shots must look striking in some way to grab the viewer’s attention. Doing it with high skill in camera, design, and lighting technique makes for a strong start towards making it look striking.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Story: Your attitude shows S till-Life: Thing shot 1.Another important aspect can be your personal attitude about Things. If a Thing does have much value to you, that lack of caring can show up in the final image. Shoot Things that have personal meaning to you. Then you can shoot a still-life as a portrait. As an example, I put a lot of thought and caring into this still-life. I used backlight and a black shiny surface to make the object look its best.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Story: Draw it with light L ighting: Direction matters 1.Use top-back light to both to draw glass and water which are both transparent. 2.Except for the shadow, the black tabletop surface has been over-exposed to look light gray. 3.The shadow in this case is not a true shadow. It’s more of a reflection allowing the true black to show through.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Story: Simple Illustration Illustration: It was shot as a story illustration. It’s asking the classic question about… “Half full or … half empty?” half empty?”

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Story: Packed story Saying: Half full: I ‘packed’ this image with a prop to help tell the story. I used a vibrant blue to say both water and pure. The position of the bottle was determined by the cup handle, which intern favors the right handed person. A lot of thinking, planning, and choices were made before shooting the shots.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Story: See clearly by compare T ransformation: From still life to a story illustration… It’s about clear thinking and decisive editing. It’s not about roaming around trying to ‘accidentally’ find a shot.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Story: Summary C onclusion: Doing an assignment is a complicated process with many steps. It’s not about snapping bunch of shots hoping for a few happy accidents. I will introduce several different ways to develop story ideas from ‘Sketching’ to ‘Mind Mapping’. Continue to the next slide …

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Addendum I sac Asimov: On story title He wrote 'It is the essence of a good title, that it means more after you have completed the story than before you started. If that is not true, then either the title or the story, or both, is trivial. The same can be said for our class. Most students who have taken Art 114 and Art 115 have experienced phenomena of having a simple title take on much more meaning by the end of the quarter….

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Case Study: Jenny’s Process O rdinary Starting Point: ‘spEnv’ There is a story idea but it’s too cluttered, not very focused nor visually interesting. The required ‘living environment’ background is missing altogether. The subject and stuff are all in the foreground and middle ground. And the Wall color and sweater color are so similar that they are blending together.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Case Study: Jenny’s Process R eshoot: Selective packing Much more selectively packed for story, visual interest, and there is a background now that is still a bit too close. She listened and applied class feedback ideas making the end result much more on target. Although now, it might be a bit too sparse or staged looking…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Case Study: Jenny’s Feedback T ight Layout: Stage 2 Edit stage 1 image into a Stage 2 Tight Layout for The next re-shoot. The lab work goal was to:  Add the medium gray ‘cropFramed’ using the 10% safety-margin.  Balance the lighting, even out the tonal rendering, and warm up skin color. Darkened and colorized both the TV table and the milk. Use squint-view to compare the two images. Stage 1 Stage 2: Tight layout

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Case Study: One more time M atching: Tight layout Reproducing your own image as a tight layout requires true appreciation of geometry. Often, much of what went into the stage 1 shot was an accident. Jenny’s re-shoot was not very successful. The redo is visually stiff and flat. That is because of the softer lighting, longer focal length, and the lower camera angle. Covering the TV table was a good idea but the tone is too bright. Stage 2: Tight layoutStage 2:P Re-shoot Stage 2: Tight layoutStage 2:P Re-shoot

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Case Study: Lost the background light and image depth L osing the Background: Tight layout version has a nice cool glow behind the shoji screen. That is lost In the re-shoot. The blue glow is coming from an illegal 2 nd light source. I gave her permission to continue using the 2 nd light because it worked out so well. Although the cool light is either turned off or over powered by the new different lighting used in the re- shoot. Stage 2: Tight layoutUnsuccessful Re-shoot Stage 2: Tight layoutUnsuccessful Re-shoot

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I F inding the Geometry: There are several ways of finding the geometry in a layout as shown to the right. 1.The simplest is the ‘X’ which finds the center and the four (4) triangle shapes. 2.This breaks up the rectangle into four (4) smaller rectangles of equal size & same shape. 3.This is the most complex layout geometry breakup the shape using a combination of 1 & Notice how the smallest shape is identical to the original shape. This grid technique is used by billboard painter to enlarge small scale image to full billboard size paintings. Case Study: Get the geometry

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I M issed the Geometry: It does not take a complicated grid lines to see that the re-shoot missed duplicating the ‘tight layout’. Lens Physics: The stage 2shot was done using the wide angle lens and its lens physics allowed a more top down view on the cookies. The re-shoot was done using a lower camera position and a telephoto lens. Both things combined to lose the top-down- view of the cookies and the sense of depth in the image. Case Study: Didn’t get it

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Case Study: Jenny got lucky S aved by Serendipity: Most ‘setup shots’ can end up kind of mundane as exhibited by the Best choice example. Sometimes, an interaction from another can help to bring life back into the shot as in the Next choice. Work with simple story ideas that allow for serendipity intervention from the real world. Besides getting her room mate’s arm involved, the lighting also changed giving Jenny back the background glow ‘effect’ that was lost in Best choice. Background Glow Best choiceNext choice

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Case Study: Shoot with a safety margin C ropping: For story Often, cropping can help to improve image presence. It does so simply by making the subject larger. Darkening the table cloth as per my tight layout tones down the importance of the table cloth (towel) which focuses the attention back to Jenny and her story. Crop, process, & darken table cloth for … …Focused Presence. …Focused Presence.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback: Jenny’s story G ood Idea: But… In case you have not noticed, the plate has been lifted in the back to show more of the cookies. But once notice, its hard not to be distracted by the ‘levitation’ trick.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Feedback: Jenny’s story D efy Gravity: Use digital editing Lift the horizon line to meet the plate and make the drop Shadow of the plate larger to meet the new reality. Notice that the simple change also affect the Sense of the image depth BeforeAfter Horizon line

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I. Don’t U Dare!

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Bonus Assignment: T hree Things Learned: Write 3 paragraphs about three new things learned from this ‘Digital Camera’ PowerPoint show. File Name:firstnameLearnSto (kenjiLearnSto.doc) Due Date: Turn in next class if you want to earn the bonus points. Use: Turn to the next slide to see the Word™ layout and requirements.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Knowledge Gained Writing Format: Student Name: First and Last Assignment: I Learned Class: Art 114 or 115 Digital Photo Campus: South Campus Date: Actual creation date Report Title: Story Half Learned 1: In the slide x, I learned that ….. ……… ………… ……….. ……. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. Learned 2: In the slide x, I learned that ….. ……… ………… ……….. ……. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. Learned 3: In the x, I learned that ….. ……… ………… ……….. ……. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. Use Ariel 12 or 13 font and don’t double space (conserve paper please). And use Word’s ‘default’ page layout with 1” x 1” x 1” x 1” margins Right aligned the header info Center align the title Left aligned the paragraph titles Don’t include gray text Don’t include the red text

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I x End