Biography
Growing up with dyslexia was difficult, it was a constant challenge to fit in during lessons and feeling that you don't fit in anywhere. This meant that I was alone for the most part, couldn't really read , write or speak well and for some, that would seem terrible as it was time to time but for me, it gave me a chance to learn other things in life such as, drawing when my mother was doing her architecture sketches that thought me equilibrium or balance, playing video games with my brothers that thought me patience, or learning to fix things myself that thought me tidiness. In essence, there was no point in me wallowing on it rather that I should do something else and master that. I think that was what art brought to me, where someone views a painting one way and another views it totally different
The feeling of putting on some headphones, grabbing your phone or camera and heading out to grab some random pictures just has a sense of freedom to it.
I am Adam and this is my journey to be the best of what I can be.
Camera Exploration - use and settings
For the most part, I don't think this chart is something you would need to think about too much if your doing it for fun and just to play around. Yes it is important but for me, when you use your phone to take pictures, the phone already knows what settings are needed. Photography is a way to express somebody's idea or design and I think that is all you need.
After saying that, the main use case for this is to learn how to use a camera to get the best possible outcome and that's why it is important. When rating pictures from just "child's play" to absolutely amazing that "I want to throw my wallet at him", camera settings is very important.
To clarify, I am no where near a professional photographer but what I have learnt from photography for over 2 years is that photography is trial an error. Things are not always constant when you are moving around taking pictures such as, lighting, intensity of light and shifting objects.
Settings I use regularly (for portraits) with a 35mm lens,
ISO : 200 which I will adjust if light is really intense
Aperture : f/1.8 and above
Shutter speed : ranges between 1/8 to 1/60 of a second so that enough light is able to be processed in the camera
Videography has moved from stop motion to super slow motion recording at 1/2 million frames per second to even 10 trillion frames per second. Yes it is quite unnecessary for videographers but it's to show just how much we have progress from the first camera from 1816 called "Pin Hole Camera". And with that, videography can also be done with a budget, e.i using your mobile phone. There are amazing guides to using but what I recommend is Videography with a smartphone by Peter Lindgren. This has helped me grow my videography from an over exposed messed to something more viewable. There are many things to consider when making a video/short film but one thing that stands out is short telling, Visual Story Telling by Film Riot. What I have learnt is that camera movement, composition and lighting is important to get visually pleasing films. With using a smartphone, it does limit you on what you can film but its more than enough for me right now.
Using Software
There is numerous of editing softwares around, but what I personally prefer is the Adobe Suite as it has a variety of softwares that are compatible with one another, such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe After Effects.
For photography work, I mainly use Lightroom as it is versatile and it is available on Android and IOS. This ease of use allows me to edit on the go, for intense if I was travelling on the bus and wanted to post an image, I could just simply take out my phone and do some minor adjustments and it's done within 5 to 10 minutes. Agreed that it is harder to do it on a smartphone but the option is definitely a life saver. On the computer on the other hand. I am able to manipulate the image (as seen below), and bring it to Photoshop to complete change it.
Lightroom
Photoshop
Subject analysis and experimentation
Similarly to videography, Visual Story Telling by Film Riot, capturing a subject is not just about taking a picture of someone, it's about capturing the emotion and the environment. For example, the picture you see to the left was a weekly task that centered the idea around a self portrait with the equipment we have. What I did was to capture me and my cameras but I wanted to get more depth so I took the picture 5 feet from me so that I am in focus but and the background in slightly blurry as I was using my phone. With what has been applied in "Software Use" above, Lightroom helps to increase the focus by making a vignette around the subject or to self portrait more interesting, we could take the image to photoshop like what I have did above and transform it.
Other than the use of software, the other ways to make self portrait more interesting is maybe to use lights or a foreground such as the image of the car to the right.
Advances in digital photography and how this impacts my industry/specialism.
The Marketing industry is large, ranging from big budget movie ads to website development. I chose this sector as I think my use of photography can really help in ways like product photography, product trailers and even texture sampling for Graphic design.
Product photography has been one of the aspects of digital photography that I have really learnt to enjoy. Peter Mackinnon, Peter Lindgren and Marques Brownlee are one of the few that I have been observing and learning from as they are experts at creating a product interesting. I have noticed that product photography has ranged out of photography into videography with short films of the product in use of being assemble.
In many ways, Digital Photography could be used in line with Graphic Design as it could be used to capture a background or texture to be added onto a products design, use for web design and many more.
Digital Photography has evolved a lot from when it was first created, as we are now mainly bounded by our creativity and what we can do with the equipment. As everything with Digital Photography, key tips to pull from this is lighting and composition as that creates the story and the emotions attached to it.
Photo by Devin Avery on Unsplash
