Halloween

Scary

Cute

Activity 2.9: Thematic 2 Person Show Proposal

WCI Idol: passion, determination, and talent all on stage

For this two-person thematic photography project, our chosen theme is revolving around the “WCI Idol” competition, where the chosen top ten and top five contestants will share the stage and reveal their valuable singing abilities.

“WCI Idol” is an ongoing, popular tradition held at Waterloo Collegiate Institute for many years, providing an opportunity for young singers to experience the sensation of performing and intense competition. This particular event would be an excellent theme to showcase to the audience how much dedication is put into a show in the span of three weeks. Our theme would also represent the atmosphere of “WCI Idol” with a “behind the scenes” look at as well as big performing moments onstage. We want to capture the full essence and beauty of the art of performing, and a large aspect of that is seen in singing. With the shows being no longer than an hour each, so much compassion and spirit can be released in a school event, which is what we want to show in our photographs. From the instrumentation and lighting to the highest note in a singer’s voice, we want to capture it all.

Using this theme will also be perfect timing since the show times are on Monday, October 15^th and on Wednesday, October 24^th. This allows us to create desired pictures during two shows and gives us time in between to edit and prepare the project.

We have several ideas as to how we want to approach our theme. This involves a variety of techniques such as lighting, angles, close-ups of performers, shots of instrumentalists, etc. We plan to make the audience visualize the feeling of being up on stage by capturing performers singing with the audience 

By implementing these ideas into pictures, the audience will gain feelings of joy and pleasure, remembering the moments of these singers and the incredible journey that brought them to the stage. We will also capture the roaring cheers of the audience to remind them of their own reaction. The overall tone and environment we want to set for our viewers is a motivating and enjoyable experience for both the performers and the audience.

Below are more specific selection of photographs that we would like to incorporate into our thematic design.

View of guitarist:                    

Singer belting out of high note:

Audience shot:

However, backstage can be applied to “WCI Idol” theme, because backstage is where the singers are doing their rehearsals. We can focus on the face expression, their feelings through their eyes such as frustrated, worried, tired …, when they're praying, or just trying to relax and calm theirselves down before their turns to perform for the show, doing make up,  taking photos with the fans, friends … or talking to the directors before the show. Therefore, we could do some close-up shots to express as much feelings as the singers express. 

Photo Sketches

Reflection

Style

B&W

Food

Life

Sacrifice

Landscape

Animal

Humor

Elegant

Passion

Activity 2.3: Camera Skills Activity

Manual Exposure

Jump 

Motion

Portrait

Landscape

Recycle pack

Flash

Activity 2.4: Camera Accessories

• Tripods and monopods: Tripod is the portable 3 leg frame, it is used for supporting the weight and maintaining the stability of one object such as a camera. It reduces camera shake.

• Flash: Flash is a device used in photography producing a flash of artificial light. There are some cameras that produce flash automatically when there is not much of light. Flash also helps to change the quality of the picture.

• Strobe:  Strobe is a device used to produce regular flash of light

• Continuous lighting: Continuous lighting is a electricity light usually used in the studios which has 3 leg frame, body and a bulb.

• Softbox: Softbox is a type of photgraphic lighting device, it produces soft light. The light is bounced off a second surface to diffuse light.  

• Umbrella: In photography, it is also known as the reflector, the light is bounced to the umbrella and bounced back, by the artificial light.

• Barn doors:  Barn doors are devices that you can add to your lightning. It helps to adjust the level of light that hits to the subject. There are many types of bandoors: strobe  heads ...

• Gels: is also known as color gel or color filter. It is a transparent colored material that is used in photography, videography, and cinematography to color light. Gels have a limited life, especially saturated colors. 

• Gobos:  is also known as Go Black Out or Goes Before Optics. Gobos are often used in film sets, it is a physical template slotted inside, to control the shape of emitted light

• Reflectors: is a specialised reflective surface used to redirect the light toward a subject/scene

• Snoots: is a tube that fits over the studio light or camera flash. It allows photographer to control the direction and radius of a light beam. (conical, cylindrical, rectangular shape...)

• Light meters: is a device to measure the amount of light. It determines the exposure for photograph. It could be either digital or analog, which allows a photographer to determine the shutter speed and f-number should be used to shoot.

• Card Readers: it is a data input device which reads the data from memory card, SD card ...

Photo Sketches

Animal

Photo Sketches

Humor 

Activity 2.3: Camera Skills

Landscape

Terrible shot

JPG challenge:

Activity 2.2: Camera Basics

• Image size/quality: The image is measured by the number of pixels. The quality of pictures depend on the pixels. The higher of the pixels are, the higher resolution of the pictures could get.  JPEG is a default format that is used by every digital camera. RAW images are often better than the JPEG images because they are not processed on your camera but on your desktop. RAW images can be edited, viewed, and converted to any other formats on a photo editing program such as photoshop, photobucket ...  

• Picture modes and Custom color modes: There are many picture modes on a digital camera such as manual mode, automatic mode, landscape mode, portrait mode ... These modes are used in certain situations like where, when, what and how you are taking photos. Custom color modes are used in different times, locations such as day mode, night mode ....

• Burst shooting, timer shooting, and intervalometer: Burst shooting is also known as high speed shooting which means it allows the photographer to capture every moment of the motions quickly such as a soccer player runs on the field. Then, the photographer can choose the best image. Timer shooting is when the photographer sets a limit time and the camera will shoot automatically after the countdown.  

• Metering modes: Spot, Area, Dynamic: the metering mode refers to the way in which camera determines the exposure. Spot metering is the metering that camera will only measure a very small area of the scene. 

• AF modes: Continuous, Servo: AF stands for Auto focus. It is a system that is used in the digital camera: sensor, control system, focus point. Once you learn how to focus, it would be easier for you whether you want to blur something on purpose.

• Histograms: It is a graph which displays where all of the brightness contained in the picture, from the darkest to the brightest. 

Sources: 

Reichmann, Michael. "Understanding Histograms." Understanding Histograms. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Oct. 2012. <http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/understanding-histograms.shtml>. 

"DSLR Autofocus Modes Explained." Photography Life. PHOTOGRAPHY LIFE, n.d. Web. 01 Oct. 2012. <http://photographylife.com/dslr-autofocus-modes-explained>.

"Metering Mode." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Sept. 2012. Web. 01 Oct. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metering_mode>.