Individual Photography Assignment: HDR Process

In this assignment we were assigned to create a series of photographs using a photography technique that we were interested in. I have always been a fan of HDR(High Dynamic Range) photographs so i decided to pick that for this assignment. 

What is HDR?

The average camera only has a dynamic range of about 5-7 F-stops, while the human eye can see around 10-14 at a single time. This is why some photographs look flatter and duller than if we were to see the scene with our own eyes. We can achieve this same effect using the HDR. HDR is taking 3 or more photos of the exact same scene, but at different exposures (1 Normal, 1 overexposed, 1 underexposed. Then when combining them it creates a high dynamic range image that gives it a lot more depth.

I chose to shoot photos of different skate spots in toronto and what skateboarders see vs what the average human sees. A normal person might see a bench or a flight of stairs but a skaters mind is adapted to see the spot differently. Our minds automatically start creating spots in our heads and the possibilities of tricks that could be done down it.  I chose HDR for this because it shows what we see instead of the average person. Something vivid and exciting. I will be shooting photos around Toronto of the spots that have influenced my skating style the most. This includes different photos such as skateparks a well as skatespots. 

I had first come across HDR when I was given an assignment to research a photography technique back in grade 9. 

Here are 2 Photos that i took of my backyard and a wall of tv's in our school. 

Animated GIF

Career Infographic

Weekly Blog Post: Long Exposure Photography

I was on my youtube home page the other day and saw a tutorial for long exposure photography. I had figured it would be something like this.  

These photos are really great. I love working with light and shadow to create sort of surreal environments. The tutorial was on long exposure photography with absolutely no light. These images almost remind me of HDRI's. Here are some examples of Long exposure photography without lights.

I want to take out a tripod sometime and try to create some images similar to ones above. I would suspect they used a high aperture rating like f/22 or f/32 with a shutter speed of maybe around a minute or two. This is the tutorial that i saw.

Weekly Blog Post: Shadows

I saw this video a little while ago. It's basically a video of some basic skateboarding tricks but instead of filming the person, they have filmed their shadows instead. It seems rather confusing at first but once you start watching it for a couple of seconds your eyes will adjust. I love the amount of creativity in this. The amazing colours from the sun that reflect off of the pavement, mixed with the distortion of the figure and a mysterious song Give it a dream like state. We cast a shadow almost all of the time yet we never seem to realize its beauty. This video has inspired me to be more observant in hopes of finding more creative angles when I'm out filming. I would love to create a video of my own with something like this.

Chair Design: The Rest

DIY Lighting For Video

This are some simple tips for creating a professional looking video without spending to much money. One thing to be careful of is the colour temperature which are measured in kelvin.

DIY Special Effects: Paranormal Activity

In this blog assignment we were asked to find a tutorial on cool DIY special effects. I found this video on some of the effects of Paranormal Activity. Paranormal Activity is a horror movie about a couple. The woman caries a Demon that runs through the female side of her family.

They recreated these parts of the film with masking 2 clips to erase the objects that created the effects

Movie Parody Trailer

In this assignment, we were told to find a movie, and create a trailer that changes the genre and overall mood of the film to prove that music in films and television shows play a very important role in describing the mood. I choose to use "The Final Destination 3D", which is originally a horror/thriller, and then changed it into a comedy/parody. Kind of like the Scary Movie series. I did this by changing music to The Clash, and using clips that dont involve the scarier parts of the film. The digital copy of the movie I found conveniently had 6 different audio layers. Including the original audio from the microphones, over dubs, music, and then 3 layers of sound effects. This made it easy to then add separate audio in and still have the sounds from the actors without hearing the background music.

Kinetic Typography

I chose this video because i think the combination of the original video... unfinished