Learning Experience
Taking this photography class made me more aware that photography can capture many issues and I thought it was really interesting how photography was neglected as a part of an art form. This class taught me the basics of Photoshop which I really appreciated since I had always wanted to learn how to navigate through Photoshop. I also learned that there are many ways to capture a moment or item and they way its capture can manipulate the meaning of it. At the beginning, using the camera was a challenge for me, but after learning some basic skills about the shutter and aperture it became easier. I think something that is still challenging would be using Photoshop correctly since there are a lot of tools and specific ways one has to use and it becomes a little confusing, but with practice it could become less complicated.
Skills Learned
One of the technical skills I learned how to use in this class was exposure: shutter and aperture, ISO and light meter. Some of the basic tools in order to be able to use the camera. The exposure is the process of capturing light with the camera. The shutter controls the amount of light by the time it stays opened; slow shutter has to have more light; fast shutter must have less light. Aperture also controls light and it works well to control the depth of field. ISO is the sensitivity to light, and the light meter is when the bar should always be at 0. I also learned about the depth of field is the concept of it being from near to far and the amount of acceptable sharpness in an image rom near to far is what is in focus. There is shallow DOF where there is little sharpness and the background is out of focus. And deep DOF where the opposite occurs. I learned about the rule of thirds which is a composition device where the picture is divided into thirds and the main focus is on one of the centers of the intersection. I learned how to work on an image non-destructively where you use layer adjustments and after you flatten the image. Blended exposure was something else I learned how to do. It is when you take 3 high contrast images using extreme lights and dark and medium and combine them together to get the right exposed image.
Final Project
For this project I started with the idea of immigration and at first I wasn’t sure how I could capture it or what exactly I wanted to capture. As I started taking pictures I wanted to look for things that showed how the immigrant be oppressed, I wanted to capture how their working conditions are and how struggle financially which I did in two photos. But, as I began taking more pictures I wanted to focus more on how society views an immigrant, how they are seen through the eyes of others, and how the people who came to this country want to be treated. I incorporated religion because from experience I know they have a lot of faith and a positive mind that things will get better. I tired using the rule of thirds fro most of the pictures and a black and white filter to put more attention into the subject. I chose this subject matter because it is something that is going on right now and its affecting me in a personal way. I chose to make these pictures look like they were taken through a documentary lens because the meaning is then more powerful and it shows that this is something that has been going on for a long time.
My intention for someone who sees these pictures is for them to hopefully take away that immigrants are people. They shouldn’t be treated differently and they should not be belittled by people because they can do the same things they can. Hopefully people will careful of what they say about immigrants and try not to silence their words.
