Adventures of NMIT

One of the first things we learnt in Lens class was about aperture and depth of field, or DOF.

Aperture is one of the fundamentals in the exposure triangle of photography, with the other two including shutter speed and ISO. Aperture is like an eye, letting in different amounts of light through the camera lens. When it’s dark, it’ll let in as much light as can so the image isn’t too murky while when it’s bright, it’ll let in less light so it doesn’t over expose an image, making it too white.

Depth of field is about how blurry the background of a picture is; a shallow DOF, also known as Bokeh, indicates a blurry background while a deep DOF shows the foreground, midground, and background all in focus.

Both of these elements are connected because using a large aperture (e.g. f/1.4 letting in more light) generally results in a smaller DOF with little in focus. When using a small aperture (e.g. f/22 letting in less light) the DOF is increased with mostly everything in focus.

Below is a diagram which helps to explain aperture and depth of field:

Next are some of my examples of aperture and depth of field with a quick analogy of each:

One of the first photos I took for Lens class, this image captures a yellow flower plant I saw at Queens Gardens. We were practicing DOF and I’m really happy with how the Bokeh turned out, and how the subject in focus is sharp.

Another flower photo from Queens Gardens, this time orange. I’m again in love with the shallow DOF it captures, and the brightness of the focal point draws your eye into the middle.

More flowers and a butterfly I was lucky to capture at Washbourn Gardens. I really like how it sort of shows the foreground and background blurred, yet the midground is in focus. I think I was also lucky to be able to take it with the butterfly in the middle of the composition, making it more pleasing to the eye.

This would be one of my all time favourite photos I’ve taken. I love the subject matter, colours, composition, and how it seems to draw you in, enticing you to follow the trail of leaves. I think I managed to capture a shallow depth of field, although you can see beyond it slightly further into the background. To create the image I had to get down to the ground, practically laying on it to get the shot, which was also at Queens Gardens.

In this photo I was looking to capture a large depth of field which showed foreground, midground and background. Most of it is in focus and you can see how far the path goes which suggests I was able to show a large DOF. I did definitely find it harder to create a large DOF than to find a shallow one as I think the composition and what you’re taking a photo of matters so much more as you can see the whole image sharply. The image also hints at the rule of thirds, repetition and leading lines.

To conclude, I think aperture and depth of field are in fact awesome aspects of photography, with my favourite pieces having a shallow DOF. I’ll be sure to use these techniques in my future to create and produce new images which will hopefully in turn increase my abilities.

In this post I’ll be covering what light painting is and some of my studio practice in Lens class. The other day we split into groups and were asked to capture light paintings, which we had just learnt about in class.

There a two different types of light painting, one where you can violently shake the camera or light source around, and another where you have a dark area and want to light up an object, sort of painting in the light to show it. I’ll be focusing on the former technique in this post.

To create a light painting photograph, you need to have certain camera settings + a tripod to keep the camera steady. A very low shutter speed is a must, as that determines how long you have to move the light source around and capture the exposure. When I made my light paintings, I generally kept my shutter speed from around 1-10 seconds.

Aperture is also important, as that determines how much light is let into your camera and how bright the image will be. Generally photographers use a small aperture to let in more light, but I personally found that my camera captured too much light using the lowest setting so I kept to a medium aperture size.

ISO can influence light painting too, as it will make your image either more or less grainy. When I was taking my photos, it automatically changed my ISO to match my aperture even though I was on manual mode, so I don’t think I had full control over this.

Anyway, here are some examples of light paintings below:

As you can see, photographers can get really creative about how they use light painting in their images, whether that be creating wings, stick figures, seemingly other worldly portals that I want to escape through from Dr. Strange, giving instruments an awesome glow, or painting pictures and words in the air. To create these images, the photographer has moved the light source around to capture these photos while on a long shutter speed.

I think that light painting photography is so interesting because you can get lots of different results from it, and you don’t have to be an expert to try it yourself. Of course it will take a little to get the hang of, and to create images/words in the air can take quite a bit more skill than shaking a camera around.

Now here are some of my amature attempts at light painting:

These two photos are both apart of my first attempts at light painting, where I used a small light up fan to create the patterns and colours. I was initially experimenting to find out how it works, before we covered this subject in class. I really like these images because I think the motion stands out, as if you can actually see the light source moving, with the colours capturing your attention.

I included this image because I really like the two different types of light sources in the photo. The bottom streaky white lights almost look like shooting stars, while the above red/blue light is similar to the aurora. The ghostly sheet in the background also seems to give a feeling of offset, as if something isn’t right.

The light in this photo somehow reminds me of the traffic flow of cars. How seamless it can be, with the cars intertwining together to create a sense of flow. I think the colours could also remind me of traffic signals, with the red, orange, green, while blue perhaps symbolises technology.

I really like this photo because the light trials look very curly, almost bush like. The reflection on the ground also helps to make it glow, which I think looks quite interesting.

In this photo you can also see more of the background, and how someone is moving the light source around. I think the colours compliment each other which makes the composition look pleasing to the eye.

Overall, I think these photos are okay for first attempts and I know I can definitely improve more if I were to do this again. After looking at what other people have achieved while using light painting, I want to maybe try to draw pictures or words, making the photo even more interesting.

In total, I think learning light painting in Lens was really interesting and helped me to start creating my own light paintings. I highly enjoyed it and am looking forward to the next images I create using light.

A secondary artist that piqued my interest last year was Herakut. Here are some of their artworks:

After a little bit of research, I realised that Herakut is in fact 2 artists working together; Hera (Jasmin Siddiqui) and Akut (Falk Lehmann).

I think Herakut’s art is unusual due to the uniqueness of their style. I like how they have a messy and unkept yet complex and intricate method of painting, almost water colour like at times, that can easily still be defined. They have a great subtle colour pallet that works really well. The figures are interesting and individual, especially the hybrid like ones.

Another thing I noticed about Herakut’s artworks is the small writings that appear in some of them. For example, the image of father and son with wolf headdresses reads, “Don’t listen to their stories son! They only hate us because they don’t know us!” Understanding this, the image becomes a lot more emotional, as the father and son bond is strengthened knowing why they are there, and why his son may be upset.

In future studio studies, I could try and use Herakuts more carefree art style with less straight and defined lines, instead using more gesture like movements. Maybe I could use a similar colour pallet as well with more earthy tones.

In essence, I think that Herakut are amazing artists with an awesome style which I want to try and incorporate into my studio works.

An artist I came across last year was Paul Jackson, who has a very interesting art style. Below are some of his works:

Looking at these, it seems that he only uses paper, pencils, pens/fine liners, white pens, and sometimes digitally scans in his work to edit and create these images.

Paul Jackson’s artworks inspire me because of how unusual and other worldly they are. It’s such an odd concept which makes the drawings really interesting. They’re simple, with a plain white background, yet complex at the same time, having loads of detail in the main subject/s. I love how he uses shadows and highlights to create an engaging depth.

I really like his technique of making it look like the skeletons are floating or being sucked out, with the stretching looking like the texture is sticky as if it doesn’t want to be pulled from the subjects body.

In my future studio work, I could maybe try and integrate Paul Jackson’s techniques of realism, using intense shadows and highlights to make the image stand out on a white background. I really like the ‘skeleton coming out of an animal’ concept as well, so I could perhaps have an experimentation with trying to recreate his art style.

Overall, I think that Paul Jackson has a very unique artistic style and genre which undeniably caught my attention last year.

In this weeks class, we have been asked to find a couple of people who inspire us and write a post about how they will influence our studio practice. For my first inspiration, I’ve chosen the famous American photographer Steve McCurry.

Steve McCurry is most famous for his photo called Afghan Girl, which is well known around the globe due to National Geographic using it as a magazine cover in 1985.

All of the following photographs were taken by Steve McCurry:

I really like Steve McCurry’s photographs because of how vibrant with life and colour they are. They show us the eyes into different cultures and what it’s like to live in another country. To me, McCurry’s photos scream ‘life, culture, individualism, pride and humanity.’ The ability to capture such rawness is astounding, and makes me go ‘wow.’

In my studio work, I want to try and integrate some of his techniques into my own photos. For example, I love the vibrancy of the colours and how he tends to shoot outdoors, so I’ll try and work more outside capturing bright nature. His techniques of view point, depth of field, composition and contrast also stand out to me, so I’ll try and keep them in mind while composing my own photos.

In summary, I’m very inspired by Steve McCurry’s photography and his abilities to capture such amazing stories and the nature of humanity.

Fresh from collage at age 18, I decided to continue my studies at NMIT and pursue my interests of art and design. I’ve only been here for 2 weeks, and I already really enjoy my classes, although they are very full on!

Growing up, I always enjoyed drawing on paper, but I was never confident or happy with how it turned out. I loved wanting to make something, but could never understand how to make it look ‘right‘.

One day during the start of college, I was inspired to try and draw a cat. Instead of how I would normally try to draw something, from imagination, I actually considered how someone else I looked up to would draw it. Keeping their style in mind, I ended up with something I was extremely proud of. It looked similar in a cartoon style, but I could tell it was still uniquely my own. This was the moment I realised that hey, I can actually draw something and it’s not too shabby!

I knew it still wasn’t the best but for me the drawing of the cat was a huge leap. From here, I really started to understand art and continued to have the moments of realisation throughout the years and are still having them today.

I started to draw more often, and eventually during my senior years ended up drawing on hundreds of pieces of scrap paper that I collected, and getting multiple tiny note books that would only live in my pencil case for doodles during class. Occasionally, I look back at these and realise how far I’ve come, even though sometimes it feels like I’m still going backwards.

During college, I took Level 1 Painting, Level 2 Design, Level 3 Painting and Level 3 Design. When deciding subjects for Year 13, I was extremely upset when my favourite class Digital Technology Medias would be canceled due to not enough students choosing it. I was distraught, and ended up replacing it with Painting. Although I’m still sad to think I never got to do Level 3 DTM, I’m also thankful for the opportunity it gave me to take Painting, where I learnt to better my skills in art.

Today I still love drawing, painting, and recently became passionate about taking photos. It’s also quite interesting when random ideas pop into my head, telling me to try this or do that.

From this course, I want to build my foundations as a creative person. I want to better my techniques and thinking abilities when it comes to art and design so I can more practically engage in these activities for my future.

I’m yet to discover my full creative voice and path in life. I’m still trying out different things to find which will work best for me, and I hope this course can help with that. I really like doing different creative activities and exploring the different realms of art and design. Sometimes it can feel intimidating knowing that others know exactly what skills they have, exactly what they like to make, and exactly where they’re going to go and what they’re going to do. For me, I’m still testing the waters in different coloured puddles around the city.

In my future, I want to be able to use this course and arts and design in my career. Again, I am not sure yet where this will take me but I’m excited to find out. So far, I think photography is looking promising as I find it enjoyable and a more practical style of art for my future.

Maybe this blog will also help me to understand where I’m going with arts and design, as it seems very self directed unlike class essays where you have to write in a certain way and research specific things.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to where this year takes me and the new techniques I’ll learn! 🙂