Chapter 10: Implication of digital media

Implication of digital media

Digital image files

JPEG (jpg)

• Joint Photographic Experts Group
• is a commonly used method of compression for photographic images
• the most common file
• For long term, it could loose its quality. The solution is, zip the files.

Bitmap

• or pixmap is a type of memory organization or image file format used to store digital images
• The term bitmap comes from the computer programming terminology, meaning just a map of bits, a spatially mapped array of bits
• Like a raw file

Tiff

• Tagged Image File Format (abbreviated TIFF) is a file format for storing images, including photographs and line art.
• Usually it’s for printing purposes.
• Less compression

Gif

• Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) is an 8-bit-per-pixel bitmap image format. Smaller version of bitmap
• Because the file is smaller, it’s widely used for internet
• 256 colors pixels
• Most compressed

Png

• Portable Network Graphics (PNG) is a bitmapped image format that employs lossless data compression
• was designed for transferring images on the Internet, not professional graphics

Manipulation in Photography
Photographs are often allowed to be manipulated based on various reasons and intentions. However, because of the technology, manipulated photographs, digital images, and computer generated images are similar and difficult to distinguish them. Nevertheless, for the sake of photo ethic, any images for news and documentary must be authentic and original that only a few minor alterations are allowed just to improve its output quality: brightness & contrast, burning and dodging, minor color correction, pixel duplication/ retouch up, and cropping. Therefore, nowadays, any image or picture that looks more than a raw photograph, or the elements in the picture is artificial, it must have wording of disclosure to disclaim the picture is fictional or non fictional, unless the elements in the picture are obviously fake or montaged.


Digital illustration
A piece of art or image created or manipulated by an artist using computer editing software. it could be graphical, painting-like, or photographic montage.



Computer graphic art
done by using computer mathematical models that created by the artist, it could be fully 3D graphic and totally created by solely using computer software



Manipulated Photograph
Photographs that are manipulated by using photo editing software. Pictures can be altered in anyway as long as the pictures still have a photographic look to it.

Chapter 9: Wording of disclosure

The Wording of Disclosure

• with some sort of label or disclaimer would render manipulated photography ethically accepted.
• words can convince the viewer that a journalist photograph is authentic.
• moreover, it can avoid misleading and misunderstanding to the viewers.
• If the text that accompanies the picture is misused, it can cheat or mislead the viewer.

pic-01

• words that are widely understood for wording of disclosure
• photo illustration
• photo-fiction
  
• retouched
• altered
• manipulated
• montage
• mosaic
• composite
• fiction

pic-02

• However, to disclaim a fictional picture may not has to be too rigid or conservative by labeling it pic-02. it can be creative by simply having a statement that can suggest the picture is fictional.

pic-03

From pic-03, viewer won't be misled because this picture is conveying a symbolic idea about a father's role in the near future.

• in some cases, some manipulated pictures are too hard to believe to be true, hence, wording of disclosure to disclaim a picture is fictional can be avoid.

This is the front cover of "Spy" magazine. Viewer can easily perceive this picture to be digitally manipulated because Bruce Willis was never pregnant, and that this picture is to attract reader.

Finally understanding about photo ethic!!
is this picture misleading?



No, because this picture is implausible/fake enough to show the viewer that the picture is obviously superimposed. In fact, the texts on the cover also hint that there are two different pictures taken from different time period and they are put together for comparison purpose.

Chapter 8: Photo ethic and Photo fiction

Photo Ethic (for journalism)

Photo ethic is about the ethical aspect from the original scenery, to a photograph, and then to the public.

It is mainly based on the intention of producing a photograph to the public. Photographer, publisher, are responsible for not misleading the public.

Photographer could cheat or reinterpret the content from the original scenery in to a picture by simply controlling the way he compose a picture. In addition, the way he frames and the way he angles a picture could eliminate important information that eventually re-content the actual reality.

Moreover, simply using computer editing software, photographers, or magazine/newspaper editors could re-content a picture and mislead the viewers, for instance, cropping, adding and removing elements in a picture, montaging, etc. Nonetheless, anything is possible to fake a picture by using computer, you name it.

However, there are few ways to avoid violating the ethical aspect in journalism.

1. Burning and dodging: lighten or darken part of the image to preserve the details.
2. Brightness and contrast: lighten and darken or contrast a photo to improve reproduction.
3. Pixels duplication/Touch Up/pixels replacement: correcting technical defects in a photo by cloning pixels to cover dust spots or erase ‘line hits’, which are usually created during shooting when the lens is not clean.
   
4. Minor color corrections: to correct color shift and improve reproduction quality without altering the basic reality of a photograph.
5. Cropping: resizing or cropping the border of a photograph without eliminating any subjects or elements that can mislead the viewer.

**Photojournalism vs Documentary photography

• both arrive at a truth,
• for photojournalist
  
• the intention is to present the news 'objectively'.
• immediate and necessarily contemporaneous with events.
• Documentary photography
• reflective and most often separated from actual events by enough time that it is no longer newsworthy.
• documenting events
• May convey or suggest messages that reflexes the society, civilization, culture, or the world.
  
• Both must carry implications of authenticity, and are ethical.

Journalistic Photography

• picture is news worthy
• it's very objective, like a snap shot of the actual event with no intention of showing any hidden message or context.
  

Documentary Photography

• Picture content messages or suggestion that usually responds or reflects social aspects or humanities.
• the intention is to document or record an event or an issue.
  
• outdated Journalistic photographs can be considered as a documentary photograph.

Photo fiction
Pictures that are believed to be fictional: any altered picture/ fake or setup photo content / art photography

In photo ethic, as long as the content in the picture is commonly recognized as fictional or fake, personal use, print ads, and non journalistic, it does not relates to photo ethic concerns. For example

1. when you see beautiful models in a magazine like fashion or glamor photos, it is commonly known that these pictures are cosmetically touched up. Thus, public can accept and not being fooled by those pictures in magazine covers or websites.
2. Art photography, it's meant to be fictional, or abstract, thus, it is acceptable to have alterations and modifications.
   
3. Photographs for wedding, personal portraits, are also acceptable to have cosmetic touch ups since is rather for personal use.
   
4. for pictures that look impossible in reality or obviously montaged, especially print ads or magazines, are also publicly recognized as photo fiction

Chapter 7: Color Theory for Photography

Understanding how colors affect viewer is very important

1. it sets the mood and atmosphere of a picture
2. it beautifies the outlook of a photograph
3. technically, it can help the subject stands out from the background, or to melt the subject with other elements or the background.
4. it can be another method to imply certain ideas, symbols, or metaphors.

In color theory, colors are derived from the three main colors called primary colors, which are red, blue, yellow.

Warm colors
- range of colors from red-violet to yellow

• it gives viewer a warm impression visually and emotionally.
• it suggests heat or it could suggest sunset. *however, it's very much depending on the content in the picture.

Cool colors
- range of colors from violet to yellow-green

• it gives the viewer a cool impression visually and emotionally.
• it suggests coldness or freshness. *nevertheless, it also depends on the content of the picture.
  

***As long as a picture is dominated by warm colors, even with some elements of cool colors, the picture is still considered a warm color picture. On the other hand, if the major colors in a picture are cool colors, with a bit of red and orange elements, the picture is still a cool color picture.


Contrasting Colors

1. Warm colors vs Cool colors



when warm colors and cool colors co-exist in a photograph, it can make a picture looks vibrant or it can help making a subject stands out, like the picture above.

another example:

green grass [cool color] with red flower [red], it makes the flower stands out obviously without extra lighting setups.

In addition, when two opposite colors are put together in pair, it's called Complimentary Colors.



***when there are too many colors exist in a photograph, the picture could look busy, and it does not lead the viewer's eye to a specific subject.



because there's no specific subject stands out, thus, the subject in this kind of photograph is rather abstract, it could be the "city light" or "space of a city".

2. Bright/Light colors vs Dark colors



Any elements with bright color can out stand from a dark color background, or vice versa.

Chapter 6: Understanding light 2: Studio lighting

When used in portrait photography, the term “Key” refers to the overall tone of the final photograph. The elements of the portrait that play into the tone of it are the color of the background, the color of clothing used and the color of any props or foreground elements.

Generally, portraits are classified in one of three keys – low key, mid key or high key.

Low key portraits are created using a dark background and dark clothing and props. You can identify the key of a portrait by determining the average tone for the scene.

• more dark elements than bright ones
  
• Clothing and background might be black or dark browns giving the feeling of drama or rigidity.
  
• higher lighting ratio near 3:1(or higher about 8:1), which means, big contrast between highlights and shadows.
  
• Shadow takes over the subject, that a lot of details are gone.
  
• Usually only one key light is enough, or sometimes accompanied with very soft fill light or simply a reflector.
  

A high key portrait setup would involve the use of a white or off white background and brighter clothing.

• it requires a great deal of light control and has the most risk of overexposure and loss of detail.
  
• low lighting ratio near 2:1 to 1:1. In other words, there’s not much contrast between highlights and shadows on the subject
  
• A common background for high key portraits is paper which is slightly overexposed resulting in a pure white seamless background and a feeling of cleanliness.
  
• Great care is usually taken to separate the subject from the background to eliminate shadows.
• These portraits also tend to require more light and thus more power and lighting equipment to create.

mid key portraits will use skin tone to set the mood. In these cases, clothing may be used to accent the tone of the skin with contrast rather than allow all elements to blend together.

• Often a high key portrait can be converted to a middle key portrait by reducing exposure.
  
• Often the background sets the tone for the image and as such key should be a consideration at the beginning of a portrait setup.
  
• A background should not take focus off of the subject, but rather help lead the eye to the subject in the final image.
  
• Take time to identify your overall tone, or key before you arrange the lighting setup and you will be surprised at the results.
  
• Lighting ratio is about 2:1. Shadows and highlights are well balanced. The details are all preserved, and fill light is normally required.

3-point-lighting

key light

• main source light.
• stronger the light darker the shadow
  

fill light

• it's used to fill in the shadows created by the key light

Back light

• It creates a rim of light surrounding the model/subject that separates him/her/it from the background.
  
• It adds three dimensionality to the picture.
  
• it's set above or behind the model.
• It can be in high or low intensity, if it's in low intensity, we usually refer it as hair or head light.
  

Head light/hair light

• to give some highlight on the model's hair, to give his/her hair some details.

*let's clear up some confusion here. yes, back light, head light and hair light may be very similar, the differences are the intentions. Back light is to separate the model from the background by creating a rim of light around him/her. However, head light and hair light are usually in low intensity, and the intention is to have a nice shine on the hair. got it?

This is a youtube video about basic studio lighting. if you are interested, you can check it out. It's very informative and he mentioned a lot of tips that I couldn't cover during class.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6lsRu90jE88
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9crGU-QRCZE
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VUJ_nV4UXcQ
http://youtube.com/watch?v=eMY_uWZRNEg
http://youtube.com/watch?v=B4PK7gddT_s
http://youtube.com/watch?v=sJugEUrqCH4
http://youtube.com/watch?v=t49wbabsM5E
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9oFWgGIWRRM

Chapter 5: Camera, the practical side

Aperture

• Opening at the front of a camera that admits light. It is usually circular, and except in very simple cameras is variable in size, so regulating the amount of light that passes through the lens to the film.

Effective aperture

• The diameter of the beam of light that passes through the outer lens component along its axis to the aperture

• it increases or decreases proportionally as the real aperture is varied

Relative aperture

• The ratio of the focal length of the lens to the effective aperture.

• If lens has a focal length of 50mm and the effective aperture is 25mm, the relative aperture is 50/25 = 2, which commonly expressed as f number

• Larger the f number, smaller the aperture.

• Usual sequence marked on the lens barrel is

• F2, F2.8, F4, F5.6, F8, F11, F16, F22, each “stop” marking a halving of the amount of light which the aperture admits.
• F2 --> F2,8 = one stop down
• F8 --> F4 = two stops up
  

Depth of field

• Zone of acceptable sharpness extending in front of and behind the point on the subject that is exactly focused by the lens.

• if you have an infinite depth of field, it means everything that falls into the photograph is in focus, for example, landscape photographs with wide angle.
• three ways to manipulate depth of field

1. the distance of the point focused from the lens (shorter the distance, the more shallow the depth of field)
2. the size of aperture (smaller the aperture, the greater the depth of field)
3. focal length of the lens (greater the focal length, the shallower the depth of field)

Shutter

• Mechanical device used to expose film to light for exact period of time.

Shutter speed

• The period of time that allows the camera to expose to light.

Film speed

• Degree of sensitivity of an emulsion expressed numerically for purpose of exposure calculation.

ISO

• International standards organization
• sensitivity of the film or the sensors.
  
• greater the ISO number, more sensitive it is to form images in the film, yet, grainier it is.
• ISO 100 and 200, good for daytime outdoor; ISO 400 and 800, good for nighttime or indoor, or when light is insufficient; ISO 1000 - 2000, good for high speed shooting.
  

Exposure

• total amount of light reaching the light sensitive material (film) or light sensors (digital camera)
• Overexposed = too bright, the image looks washed-out
• Underexposed = too dark

Chapter 4: Understanding Light 1: Physics of light

Natural Light
Light used in photography from natural sources, for example, sunlight.

Sunlight
This is an example of natural light. This light comes from no other than our own sun. While the sun gives surely enough light for film to be exposed at, you must still do some serious thinking before taking the picture. For one thing, the time of day will affect the quality of your photo, as you will learn.

Overcast skylight
Though related to sunlight, this type of light is different in many ways. For one thing, you will not get the harsh shadows that appear in direct sun. Because clouds are blocking the sun, light is diffused, or scattered, thus softening shadows. Also, clouds can give a dramatic touch to your photos.

Artificial light
Light used in photography other than that from natural sources. Generally it refers to light specially set up by photographer such as flash or floodlight.

Diffused light
Light rays scattered, usually because of something such as fog or clouds in the way of the rays' paths

Bounce light
Light that is redirected or reflected from the light source.
If the reflecting surface is colored, the it will affect the color of the light, thus, white surfaces should be used for bounced light unless special color effects are desired.

Bounced flash
Technique of softening the light from a flash source by directing it on to a ceiling, wall, board or similar reflective surface before it reaches the subject. The light is diffused at the reflecting surface, and there is a decrease in light power because of absorption there and because of the greater distance between light source and subject. Bounce flash is particularly used in portraiture, where direct flash is often too harsh and unflattering and can cause red-eye.