WeiChong.net BLOG: AOP Assignment 1: Variations

The Assignment

Pick one scene and photography it 10 ways, like Bach’s Goldberg Variations ir Monet’s Haystacks. You want to be forced out of your usual algorithmic thinking.

What this Assignment is to Me

I’m exploring improvements to my capacity for Creative Thinking. From where I am photographically in my own skill and creativity skill set. So I’m not trying to compete with anyone.

I took something that was something I see everyday, but never thought much about it: my front courtyard.

It turned out at the end that of the 10 shots I presented, the most meaningful shots were ones I learned the most from, and more importantly, had more curiosity and could visualize expanding possibilities after the assignment.

My Imposed Constraints

I will shoot B&W jpegs, as that is what I’m trying to improve. For the most part, completed assignments will be straight out of the camera. I know I can improve with LR6/plugins/Photoshop, as I’m fairly experienced in post-processing. But my challenge is in getting the image, not improving in post-processing what I’ve shot.

If I need to make post-processing improvements, it will be to make the image understandable to me. BASIC changes only, except for panoramas, and then only in LR6. I will not use HDR.

Normal ISO (100-800) and apertures (f2.8-f11) will be used, unless it will be very High ISO variations.

Learning How to Increase My Capacity to be Creative

Of the over 200 B&W shots I to make these images, here’s what I learned from trying to increase my capacity be creative:

a. View from My Eye Level, Walking Out the Front Door into my courtyard.

Picking an everyday scene was a good choice, rather than seeking a new place. It forced me to be more innovative, rather than shooting the newness of another scene.

Normal Front Garden View

b. Pano Vertical

I know how to do horizontal panos. I’ve always struggled with vertical panos. And struggle I did, from how to mount the camera to how to overlap pictures (vertically). Not only did I do one vertical Pano, but I had a double set of Panos, in order to capture the whole picture, without doing too wide angle, thus making the background too small (without pano). I spent most time with this item, and there’s a lot more to learn.

Double-stitch Vertical Pano

c. Depth of Field (DOF)

I’m fairly used to Near and Far DOF. But not with motion (changing focus while exposing image. And this led to a sub-assignment to shoot many DOF of self-portraits to understand by focal length, how much DOF each aperture lost. Work in progress for portraits.

Near Focus Far Focus

d. Point of View (POV)

I’ve done low POV, but need to get lower. And not much high POV. May need to explore POV within and between objects.

Low POV

High POV

e. Very High ISO

I’ve never shot Very High ISO 25,600 in normal (or even very low light…). So I decided to combine this shot with multiple exposure. I loved the grain and halation of this Very High ISO. and the ability for the B&W to create great contrast (as opposed to color). I found I like overlapping images. Later I intend to combine images in Affinity Photo to overcome the limit of 3 multiple exposure in the Nikon D7200.

Very High ISO with Multiple Exposure & Movement

f. Multiple exposures with Movement

Most challenging. Never shot much, and was always confused about how to do it, and what scenes speak to this for me. I took many shoots to discover I needed a darker background than the foreground--and movement to make the shot more creative. Lots of desire to expand this area with portraits. Not much with landscapes, however.

Multiple Exposure Movement, side to side

Multiple Exposure Movement, up & down

g. Moving Focus with Slow Exposure

Not much, unless I can change exposure during the move. The image turned out to remind me of IR photos.

Moving Focus, Slow Exposure

h. Moving Zoom with Slow Exposures

Most challenging. Learned I like overlapping images that are grainy (using very high ISO’s). See f. above. I also would like to shoot some portrait profiles that a offset a very small about—and shoot for 9-12 shots.

Moving Zoom, Slow Exposure

i. Time of Day (TOD)

Not much, except for night shots. Will be most challenging to get a different image. Early morning and mid-afternoon were pedestrian. Am looking forward to getting a picture in the night. Dark and mysterious, with some light in the courtyard.