Bokeh-dokie

"Bokeh" is the Japanese of "Blur" they said and the first time I heard it was in our Photography class, basically it's an image with a background that is blurred enough that little spots of light would form a shape, the default shape of this blur effect would be circles, but you can get creative with the shape by using a filter. You can make the said filter with a piece of paper and pair of scissors, but its recommendable if you use a black thick paper, a pair of scissors for cutting the cardboard and an X-Acto knife like tool to cut out the shape.

To make the Bokeh filter, you have to cut a piece of the paper small enough to fit in front of your lens. Then cut out a small shape, any desired shape, be it a triangle, a tear drop or even a word, as long as you can do it, cut out from the circular paper, the shape should at least be in sizes one inch and below and in the center of the paper.

Once you have the filter in front of your lens, you got to have a wide Aperture and a fast Shutter Speed, or a small Aperture and a slow Shutter Speed. You can either have a subject or not just as long it can be blurry enough with a manual focus and there're spots or dots of light on the parts that you want to be Bokeh'd.

Some examples which I used with filter with a cut out of a tear drop and an irregularly shaped star that ended up looking like a maple leaf:

Stage Two

Second semester is here and we continue our Photography lessons with our Concept and Creative Photography class, with the same professor, Sir Rey Mendoza. As an introductory we were asked three questions:

1. What have we learned from Basic Photography class
2. What can be improved on ourselves
3. What are our suggestions and expectations

Quoting from my previous blog post:

"I remember on the first day we were asked about why we want to learn Photography, and I answered: "Even though I already have experience how to use an SLR, the settings like Aperture, ISO and Shutter Speed and some others aren't really cleared up for me, I wanted to know what they are for. ", and after months of attending classes, my goal has been achieved and my questions has been answered, I learned a lot more than just the settings but also how to adjust it according situations."

After all that I've learned and experienced, I know I'm still not fit to go all out with Photography, I still have many things to learn in terms of situational and on the spot set up. I'm not fond of doing coverages for events within the campus because I'm not confident enough nor motivated enough to do so.

Since we usually do our shooting activities within the vicinity of the university, most of us students suggested for an outside activity.

We have four hours of class every Monday afternoon and our first topic was about Camera Raw files. Camera Raw files when compared to JPEG is that it has a larger file size, not ready for printing, contains the data of the shot that can be adjusted and reverted back to the original.

Camera Raw files can't be opened by built in image viewers, you still have to open them with another software, I usually use Photoshop to open it and it pops up a "Camera Raw" window which shows the image and its settings that can be adjusted.

Final Folio

After a semester of Photography class, and after so many shoot inside and outside university premises, we are required to make a printed layout of our best shots. I included photos which were before and after this semester and with all the new things I've learned from class, there were so many things I've done wrong in my old shots, and with that, I'm very grateful to have taken up this Photography class with our Professor, Sir Rey Mendoza.

I remember on the first day we were asked about why we want to learn Photography, and I answered: "Even though I already have experience how to use an SLR, the settings like Aperture, ISO and Shutter Speed and some others aren't really cleared up for me, I wanted to know what they are for. ", and after months of attending classes, my goal has been achieved and my questions has been answered, I learned a lot more than just the settings but also how to adjust it according situations.

Anyway, I have photos of our finals project which is the printed portfolio.

Pano?

We barely touched Photoshop or post processing with the pictures we took during Photography class but since manually stitching Panoramas would be hard, we dived right into Photoshop. 

First you'll need more than 1 shot of photos of any chosen surrounding, make sure when taking the next shot of the series, you shoot at least 20-50% of the previous shot so it would leave some room for the stitching.

And now for the stitching part, you have to open up the photos in Photoshop, go to File>Automate>Photomerge, select the "Auto" option under Layout, if your photos aren't in Photoshop yet, you can browse it, if its already in it, just click "Add Open Files" then click "OK", then wait until it finishes the stitching.

Make sure every shot has the same camera settings and in line with all the shots.

After it has done processing, you can just crop it.

Here are examples of Panoramas:

A Bridge I Thought I Wouldn't Cross

Adobe has a lot of branches when it comes to softwares which are mostly multimedia production related programs. In the Creative Suite series, one of the new addition to the family was Adobe Bridge. At first, Bridge was something I'd usually brush under the rug or panic when I accidentally click the "Browse in Bridge" option under the File menu in Photoshop and other Adobe products I'd usually use but since its a requirement for us to study the mentioned program, I've found reasons to appreciate and actually use it.

So what is Adobe Bridge exactly? To my understanding, it is a program that is hooked up to the Adobe System and Softwares, like the name, it bridges out to these other programs. Bridge's use is that you can organize files with its tagging, rating, and filtering system, process or edit files without having to open them one by one and do changes to several with one click but Adobe Bridge lacks the manipulating or editing capabilities like Photoshop or Lightroom so that's why its tied with the Adobe products.

In simpler terms, Adobe Bridge is used for organizing files.

In our second year in studying Multimedia Arts and having a Photography class this semester, we are automatically assigned to cover big events that happens around the campus. Since there will be more than one student to do the coverage, photos and videos that were taken during the events needs to be compiled for output submission of our organization and I asked one of my classmates, who was one of the photographers of the events, "Are they using Bridge for the files?" and they said "No." and I answered "Well, they should.".

Aware and Affect

Everything around us can affect us, inspiration, influence or harm. Mostly psychologically which builds up the personality and perception of a person. Anything that we see and experience can have this effect. What more of something that we encounter everyday. People, events, feelings, signs, billboards, TV shows, the internet. One of the things that are mostly and on purposely shown to people are advertisements, their primary purpose is to inform, to make you aware but that doesn't mean that's the only effect.

Most of the advertisements that has people in it would represent for the product, its their stand that they approve and believe of this product or service, and you should too, but is that just the case? Other than what they say, people also look on what they wear or do in the said advertising material and what is shown is said or implied to be ideal. Like children's TV show, they would have lessons and teach kids what should or should not do, for teenagers and above, we don't need a show to tell us what to do, its their own responsibility of how to process the things they see and experience.

An example effect of this would be gender roles in media, there would be ads showing how a man or woman would act or look in the advertisement and people would perceive it that it's what's in or how to be acceptable.

Some advertisements also conveys a message, a virtue, or an advocacy and showing it through an advertisement is a nice way too since ads makes you aware, why not be aware of what we should really do? For the better.


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image sources:
http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/woman-man-bourbon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGJSI48gkFc

Advertising Makes You Aware, But Are You Aware Of It?

We see it everyday, we either be convinced or not, but it is impossible to say and do that no form of advertising has not affected us. It's purpose is to invite people to buy a service or product in which of course will cost something.

Imagine if no one advertised anything, nothing at all. Getting informed about these products and services would be so much harder. Let's say you are in front of a bank establishment that you've never heard of, will you try your luck in it? Or go to a bank that you already heard of?

Advertising affects the decision making of people. It leads them to what they know is good. It's what drives the economy, if advertisements wasn't invented, the circulation of money would be slower and unproductive.

It can also be a form of entertainment depending on the cleverness of the advertisement.

So much for informing and convincing that it also persuades people to buying and spending. Which is a lost for the end of the consumers. Can result to materialism. Not all advertisements are true, sometimes misleading and sometimes just plain lying about the product.

Everything has its pros and cons.

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image sources:
http://junkbusters.com.au/the-latest/reclaiming-public-space-report-from-the-billboard-enquiry/
http://mychannel957.com/wendys-as-seen-on-tv-christmas-list/

A Light on the Shadow

There would be photos of subjects that has only one light creating a shadowed, hidden effect on the side where light doesn't hit. There would also be subjects that needs to show details ending up with two lights hitting the subject, the primary light would either be a spot light, or ambient light, then the secondary can also be another lighting emitting object or a reflector that would reflect the light coming from the primary light.

With subjects like products, be it a bottle of lotion, a bag, a phone, and camera and etc. There would be at least a  primary light and a reflector for its lighting.

Here are concrete examples:

Left is without a reflector, and right is with a reflector, you can see the bottom left of the jar is a bit less dark.
 
Same goes for here too, but now on the right side of the subject.
 


 


The reflector on this one is place in front.

 

FOOD TRIP

We did some food photography on our previous class in Photography, our group had Kwek-kwek and Fried Siomai as the ones to have taken photos of, I also took a photo from another group's food.

Another Step Forward

We we're already told since last year by the higher class men that we will conduct an interview at a company by first semester this year. Even though we were anticipating this project, we we're still unprepared. The said activity is for our class in Multimedia Arts in Business, Advertising and Marketing and we have to contact a company, or business related to our study that we're going to interview.

I was one of the chosen leaders by our class to lead a group with members that I've chose. We were all not confident enough to contact the companies via phone call so we had to point and push at each other to make the calls. We have at least six contacts, and as we we're running out of time, the last week before the presentation of our project, there was one business who approved our interview within one hour of contact which was a sigh of relief to us.

The following morning, Monday, July 7, 2014, me and my group mates met up in school to ask permission to excuse us from that day's class from our professor. Two of my group mates worked on their token of appreciation for the people we we're going to interview which was a certificate of appreciation, while I volunteered to buy something to eat for the interviewees as my token of appreciation.

Comparing our chosen interviewee to the other groups, we were the only one who were heading in the province unlike the rest of the groups who interviewed companies in Manila. Though it would seem a but underestimating but we're still proud of it, unique I would say because we were the only ones who will interview people who does sound production compared to the other groups which were all related to visuals like photography, graphics and animation.

As we arrived at the place of the business,C-Site Recording Studio in San Pablo City, we got to talk and know each other a bit with the interviewees which were Ernie John Clores and Michael Balanlayos, probably around twenty to thirty years old, easy to talk and associate with, and they are pretty nice. It took a while to set up the cameras and as we set up, we handed the interview questions to them so they can prepare their answers when we start rolling. We used their Condenser Mic for the recording of the interview which is a convenience to us because DSLR mics alone are not that good at capturing audio as much as it captures and images and footages. The whole thing took around 3 hours from setting up to packing up. I was the only one who doesn't have a camera but all of us in my group did the camera work.

I had to bring my group mates home to give me the copies of the videos they recorded during the interview. The next day, I started editing the videos and finished it the day after it. I was mostly taking care of the visuals for our project and I rarely helped with the written output.

All in all, it was a fun experience, teamwork, travelling, interviewing, associating with people. It's quite tiring, and stressful, but it has it perks.

A Touch of the Tradition

Even though we're at the age of Everything-is-Fast, we could still see things from the "Slow" age. We'd be seeing big LED screens in the big cities showing different advertisements one at a time or when you use the internet, you'd see them as well popping on your screen or disrupting your video as you watch one on Youtube, yet we'd still see the old way of endorsing like billboards, newspaper ads, posters and other non-digital form of showcasing it.

We won't see everything on screen but that doesn't mean it's not as good. Just like these vintages ads, they would come out as artworks.

    



  
And my personal favorite:



The way businesses has been endorsed hasn't changed that much at all, just the style, but the element of catching people's attention is still there.

Today's industry would choose to have their products shown in a digital way because that's what's in. It would take a long time before the old, traditional media will be completely faced out, and probably, that time would come if the materials to make them doesn't exist anymore. Speaking of materials, a lot of people would choose to do it digitally because it saves time, money and effort, basically, it is because this is the fast age, but they would also consider using old media to have more coverage of the audience because not all of the customers holds a phone or uses a computer which means no chance of seeing the ads they put up online.
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sources:

• http://video48.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html
• http://misterhubs.blogspot.com/2007/05/20-classic-filipino-commercials.html
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/_slideshows/ipad_slideshow.php?id=264296&entry=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/19/vintage-food-ads_n_2159888.html?utm_hp_ref=business
• http://www.vintageculture.net/vintage-coke/

Varied Values

If I were to make my own business related to Multimedia Arts, it would be a group of skilled artists that specializes in many fields like Traditional Art, Digital Art, Comic Illustrators, Concept Artists, Animators, Graphic Artists and even Photographers. I would name my group "Varied Values" which has two meanings, a kind of literal one, and a metaphor. The first meaning of the name would refer to the value when it comes to measurement in lighting, color, thickness, density, quality, quantity, etc, while the other and rather symbolic meaning is that it refers to the values or principles of the person or artists live by...which they also apply into their works.

We would showcase our works and projects via social media, in tumblr, deviantar art, facebook, twitter and some others. We will put up our personal projects and projects done for our clients as samples. We will open up workshops for the aspiring artists.

I could picture the business not just working for local clients but also world wide. As the head, I will be receiving jobs from clients that I can distribute to my team and the team could also do the same.

Art at a push of a Button

It was our first day in Basic Photography, and we already learned a lot, the professor is pretty good at explaining things.

Photography basically means "Drawing with Light". You cannot see anything without light, its hard to put your attention to something that isn't significantly lit. Light casts on objects, carving its appearance, and in Photography, it uses the light in the scene to capture a shot.

With a DSLR camera, you can manipulate how the light would act in your shot by tweaking the ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed settings.

Shutter Speed - it is the amount of time the shutter would open for the light to hit the camera sensor

• it is measured by fractions like 1/60 (1 second divided into 60 parts) or 1/80, 1/200,etc
• the longer the shutter speed, the more exposed, while the shorter, less light will enter
• it can also control ambient or natural light
• note: 1/focal length to minimize the blur if handheld
• sharp photos have fast shutter speed

ISO - sensitivity to light

• maintains the quality
• measured by hundreds and thousands
• ISO 100 doesn't have grain or noise but will need light

Aperture - controls the light by letting it in through the hole

• smaller hole = less light
• bigger hole = more light
• measured by f# (the number represents the size of the whole when divided by the number, e.g. f2 means the whole will adjust down to half its diameter
• controls the Depth of Field

Where are we on the Web?

Multimedia comes in many forms and has penetrated most of the world today. It comes in text, audio, still images, animation, video and interactivity. It's everywhere and used by almost everyone, and the widely used form is Interactive Media, and the best example of it is the Internet.

The Internet, also known as the World Wide Web, does speaks for its name, its available in all parts of the world as long as the signals and satellites can reach it. It's present from the first world to the third world countries. One of these third world countries is the Philippines, and surprisingly has a fast growth when it comes to this type of Multimedia.

The most used form of Multimedia in the Philippines is Social Networking, and because of that, it has pulled the country into the top ratings of internet usage within South East Asia, Asia and even the World.

"The Southeast Asia Digital Future in Focus 2013 report by comScore, an Internet analytics company, said the Philippines has second highest Facebook penetration rate in the world at 92.2 per cent, next to Brazil."

According to the statistics, there are 3.5 out of 10 Filipinos go online and 33.6 Million Active Internet Users out of the countries' population of 92,337,852.

With the growing technology, it has provided people an easy access to the internet and specifically to Social Media Sites such as Facebook and Twitter. 40% of Filipino

Smartphone owners browse the internet using this device. An average Filipino would spend an average of 16.4 hours on the internet per month and 41.5% of the time is spent on Social Media. 

As far as we got in Interactive Media, and usually pointed out our use of Social Sites, we also use them in other reasons than connecting and communicating with people, we also use this to learn and inform. From generation to generation, we find ways.

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Sources and Reference: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimedia

http://www.forward.ph/blog/the-state-of-philippine-internet-usage-2013-infographic/

http://investvine.com/filipine-internet-users-to-grow-to-41-million-in-2014/

Final Exam Creative Brief

Client: Sir Rey Mendoza
Project Description: An artwork about a specific virtue or bible passage to be submitted as the final exam for Color Theory and Principles of Design.
Goals:

• To interpret the virtue of "Perseverance" through a digital artwork.
• To portray or symbolize Perseverance using the techniques of what we've learned in Color Theory and Principles of Design.

Timeline: March 19 -25

Budget: Php 60.00 for artwork printing and Php1 for Creative Brief printing 

Design concepts: