Class Exercise 6: Appropriation with Legal Implications.

Question #1.
Do you find the seminars on appropriation (2 seminars + assignment 5) useful in helping you to understand the copyright issues in your practices?
YES!
- It provides a different perspective to ‘art’
We didn’t know that appropriation can be art
And we’ve learnt very importantly – How to infringe without being sued! =D
- We were given very good examples on appropriation artists’ work

Question #2
Do you think originality exists?
Yes
- Even derivative and inspired works were derived from something that was original, so originality exists in that initial original work.
- Even if the source of the work is not original, the idea behind it and the way it was executed/expressed can be new and therefore it is original.


No
- Everything is inherently inspired by something else, especially in the context of today’s artwork where most original concepts have already been explored by someone before us.


Question #3
Will you consider using the strategy of appropriation (if applicable) in your future work (beyond NUS)?
- Yes, with regards to the use of images that might not otherwise be available, to assert your stand with regards to an issue you might be concerned about
- It’s essential in the making of parodies.
- To enhance other people’s works to highlight something that you want to point out.

Assignment 5: Appropriation.

Description:
All things sweet and delicious have a great tendency to mesmerize, fascinate and
tempt people, regardless of how unhealthy and fattening they can be for them.
Their bright, dazzling, enticing appearances never fail to appeal to people.
We somehow have an innate weakness for them and are constantly drawn to them,
disregarding the consequences that will entail if we consume too much of them.

People just want to enjoy themselves and live for the now.


------

To get the "candies are taking over the world" effect that I wanted to illustrate via my appropriation, I used QuickMask mode in Photoshop to extract the cupcakes and rainbow images that I wanted to use. I then made use of the clone stamp to make multiple copies of the sweets.

Here are the images I used:





These were all Googled images.

Here are some more images that I used, but these were taken using my own point and shoot camera:






Final Collage.
Trial #1


After showing this to Jing, she recommended that I adopt a vertical orientation instead of a horizontal one as that would result in a more favourable composition.

Hence I redid the whole appropriation, using my already extracted images. After putting everything in place, I upped the contrast for the appropriated image drastically to give a vibrant, bright and dynamic picture.

Final Piece:

Class Exercise 5: Appropriation.

Week 6 Seminar

Date: 15 Sept 2010

Appropriation

What a controversial and risky topic this is!

Our Theme was: RICE.

Here's what our group did:

Theme Explanation:
Basically we wanted to capture on how rice, a staple food, is perceived by different people around the world as a source of food. Due to huge differences in socioeconomic statuses, levels of poverty, prosperity, and wealth distribution in the world, there are so many ways RICE is perceived and viewed by different groups of people in the world. There is huge inequality in terms of how rice is distributed--ironically, those who grow it get the least of it. Looking at children alone, out of those children who rely on rice as a staple food, there are starving children and obese children. And sometimes I think that the obese children might not necessarily be more fortunate than the starving ones...

I helped google pictures of fat people, and was pretty disturbed by a lot of those I saw. x____X

Class Exercise 4: Experimenting with Lights.

Date: 9 Sept 2010

NO PORTFOLIO ASSIGNMENT FOR LIGHTING CLASS.

So thankful for that. The other assignments are already swamping me... X____X









Today our task was to experiment with lighting effects! So we used Jing's golden goat as our subject!
Different light angles:


























Different white balance:

Tweaking the white balance can help to change the colours of the photograph under different kinds of lighting. It's a very useful tool!

Using reflectors:
Adi without using the reflectors to reflect light onto his face:

Using the white reflector:



His face is notably brighter, and the features of his face stand out against the background.

Using the silver reflector:

The silver reflector reflects even more light than the normal white reflector! Hence Adi's face appears even brighter even in poor lighting.

I finally realised why wedding photographers always bring these things along on their shoots! They're so useful in helping to make their subjects' faces appear brighter and livelier even in inappropriate lighting.

Assignment 4: High key low key.

Work for Assignment 4

Low Key shots.
I did a series of photos on my brother, at an area with low lighting. I thought I could use them for my low key photo.

This was another photo taken at the same area.

However, Jing pointed out that the background of these photos was still too bright. So she suggested I retake the photos elsewhere.

I decided to take the photos during a gathering that my friends and I had at a bar. I know someone didn't recommend taking photos at a bar due to the low lighting and low tendency to get a good, focused shot, but I wanted to try it anyway. I'm really happy with the results :)

And here's the final photo after some post-processing:

High Key.
I chose to take high key photographs of my white-coloured X Mini speaker!

Here's the original photograph:

As you can see, it's not VERY white. And there's too much contrast in the photo for it to be high key. The photo is also a little dark, though I took it under bright sunlight and had an exposure value of +0.7.

My first attempt to post-process the photo:

Although I managed to get rid of most of the high contrast shadows, the photo was still relatively high contrast. Jing pointed out a certain shadow cast by the speaker and said that I should lighten it to reduce the contrast.

Final Post Processing:

Finally, after adjusting curves, brightness, and whiting out some of the shadows and the wire behind the speaker, I got a photo that looks mostly white, with little contrast and shadows.


Class Assignment: Exposure Values.
We were supposed to play with exposure values during this class assignment!

Exposure +1.0


Exposure 0.0


Exposure -1.0


Exposure 0.0


Exposure +1.0


Exposure +2.0


Attempt at a high key shot! Using the pretty white keyboards at the mac lab!


Overexposure! Blurs out all the details.

Almost ended up using this shot for my high key photograph. Because the details of the keyboard were sufficiently blurred out, and I was pleased with the effect.