Week 9

On Monday I went to the library and borrowed a four more books dealing with digital photography and visual effects. The books I took out are:

Basic Photography: Michael Langford
Digital Photography: Katrin Eismann, Sean Duggan, and Tim Grey
Digital Moviemaking: Scott Billups
The Visual Story: Bruce Block

As case study I watched the following films of thriller/horror genre:

Psycho 1960: directed by Alfred Hitchcock (horror)
Shrooms 2007: Paddy Breathnach (horror)
Cape Fear 1991: directed by Martin Scoresese (thriller)
Cape Fear 1962: directed by J. Lee Thompson (thriller)
Grudge 2004: directed by Takashi Shimizu (horror)
Splice 2009: directed by Vincenzo Natali (thriller, horror, sci-fi)


This week I have primarily been working on my Digital Imaging project. I am trying to get it done quickly so that I can concentrate on finishing up my report and go through my pre-production materials, tying up any loose ends. I will also need to start working on my Motion Graphics project using After Effects.
I prefer to complete one task rather than jump from one to the other because I like to fully focus on one subject before moving on to the next. I find the Digital Imaging very relevant learning for my honours project. It particularly helps me learn about the DSLR photography and how to improve my camera skills.

Supervisor meeting

My supervisor suggested I should challenge myself a bit more using this project to experiment with more techniques. I was already developing my ideas and deciding to make the sequence in black and white, which will help to mask a little imperfections due to my novice DSLR skills. I would also like to key in important colours such as red (a colour of blood, passion and anger) as it can be seen in a film called Sin City.

I was also encouraged to post and comment on any photos I take and explain what are the positives or negatives about each image and perhaps explain what I would do differently the next time.

HDR Technique

I researched a new photographic technique used for enhancement of images. It is called HDR or high dynamic range. This is achieved by taking three photographs often one is underexposed, one is overexposed and one photo is of average exposure. This is the minimum of photographs you need to create HDR image. These photos are then combined using appropriate software such as Adobe Photoshop or Photomatix and the final result is an HDR image that achieves high dynamic range of highlights and shadows. We can see the photo was enhanced but it results in a very attractive image. I find this very intriguing and have attempted to create my own HDR photos.


http://www.littletimemachine.com/hdr-guide/

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/high-dynamic-range.htm

See examples below:

New York at Night HDR - Wikipedia

Below is an HDR image I created from four photos.




These photographs were used:








Except the first the photos are very underexposed. The first photo's inbalanced with too dark areas (sofa) and too light areas (windows).

Cinemek Storyboard Composer

I have discovered a new solution to creating an effective storyboards and animatics. I purchased the Cinemek Storyboarding software that is a very handy tool for filmmakers, directors but also film students who can’t draw very well. It is an iPhone, iPod app available from the Apple app store. This software is amazing and allows you to create effective storyboards and animatics using just your photos of the scenes. The completed storyboard can be then saved as .pdf or quicktime movie, which can be then stored on your computer.

http://www.cinemek.com/storyboard/


I have tested the software and I found it easy to use. This will be a great help in visualising my project using this very useful tool. I do not have iPhone but I can use it on my iPod which I got recently so that I would have access to the Apple platform as I have only a PC available at home.