BCA LEVEL 3
TECHNOLOGICAL
|
Although I mostly draw, I much prefer graphic design to traditional fine art. My main hobbies include video games and Japanese animation, and despite believing that both of these fields would be interesting to work in, more than anything I hope that I can continue to help and support others in the future. |
Above you can see my chosen images, along with a final short video to represent my project's theme of Technological Advances. With technology having become a prominent part of our everyday lives, developing more each and everyday, it has both its advantages and disadvantages. In these shoots, I was able to convey the negative impacts technology has on us, specifically of that with the ongoing crisis of technology addiction.
For my final project photograph, I manipulated an image of one my models, Lucy, onto a collaged background comprising of four photos I had previously taken in my shoots.
|
PHOTO
|
For my background, I used the layer presets on Adobe Photoshop to blend each component together, creating a captivating and intriguing background for my model's photo to be situated on. After this, using the Quick Selection Tool, I first 'cropped' out my photograph's subject to create a new, transparent layer. From this, I was able to add several adjustment layers, where I edited the vibrance, RGB levels, and saturation of my image. Once this was complete, I used a soft brush tool to 'paint' onto my model so that her image used a similar bright colour scheme to the background I had previously created.
As I believed that the composition as a whole was still lacking, I decided to add two more images in order to fill the space leftover. For this, I first flipped my main image of my model and re-sized it, later adjusting the colour channels to simply green and blue so that the photo was able to blend into the background. Below this, I again cropped an image of one of my other models so that I could create the illusion of Lucy herself holding a gaming console to convey addiction, therefore relating to my theme. Finally, I added a linear line texture on top in order to resemble broadcasting lines, and add small sections of Photoshop's generated Wave filter to create a glitch-like effect.
With this mirrored image approach, I believe I was able to capture the two sides of any addiction- the denial and facade of being 'fine', and the action of the issue itself. I therefore believe that this image is able to relate to my theme of Technological Advances, specifically technology addiction, by capturing the struggles seen in the modern world. Having represented the newfound issue of technology addiction in the recent issues, I also think that I was able to relate this image to my project's theme of 'Time' from this.
As I saved my file as a PNG, the 300 dpi file was able to remain having high quality, whilst the file size was still relatively small. Despite PNGs being generally suitable for digital graphic files, and JPEGs often being used for photographs, I believe that the file type was able to fit my greatly-adjusted original image, and I did not have to struggle with the great loss in quality as seen in the compression of JPEGs. I was originally going to save my file as a TIFF, but I decided against this in order for the file size to be small enough to allow me to upload my image online. Nonetheless, I was able to capture the majority of the quality seen in a TIFF, in a file more than half the size. I also ensured the colour space would remain as RGB when adjusting the levels of my photo, with the image I produced only needing to be seen online on a computer monitor, and therefore not having to change to CMYK.
Overall, I am very happy and proud of my final image, and having used no content other than my own, I do not have to worry about any ethical or legal issues such as copyright. As well as this, my image was not too large to upload onto the group website. However, due to a selection of my photos from my shoots being blurry, I would definitely like to continue to improve my photography techniques themselves (rather than my photo-editing skills) to ensure that I have many more images I can use for any later final project outcomes.
As I believed that the composition as a whole was still lacking, I decided to add two more images in order to fill the space leftover. For this, I first flipped my main image of my model and re-sized it, later adjusting the colour channels to simply green and blue so that the photo was able to blend into the background. Below this, I again cropped an image of one of my other models so that I could create the illusion of Lucy herself holding a gaming console to convey addiction, therefore relating to my theme. Finally, I added a linear line texture on top in order to resemble broadcasting lines, and add small sections of Photoshop's generated Wave filter to create a glitch-like effect.
With this mirrored image approach, I believe I was able to capture the two sides of any addiction- the denial and facade of being 'fine', and the action of the issue itself. I therefore believe that this image is able to relate to my theme of Technological Advances, specifically technology addiction, by capturing the struggles seen in the modern world. Having represented the newfound issue of technology addiction in the recent issues, I also think that I was able to relate this image to my project's theme of 'Time' from this.
As I saved my file as a PNG, the 300 dpi file was able to remain having high quality, whilst the file size was still relatively small. Despite PNGs being generally suitable for digital graphic files, and JPEGs often being used for photographs, I believe that the file type was able to fit my greatly-adjusted original image, and I did not have to struggle with the great loss in quality as seen in the compression of JPEGs. I was originally going to save my file as a TIFF, but I decided against this in order for the file size to be small enough to allow me to upload my image online. Nonetheless, I was able to capture the majority of the quality seen in a TIFF, in a file more than half the size. I also ensured the colour space would remain as RGB when adjusting the levels of my photo, with the image I produced only needing to be seen online on a computer monitor, and therefore not having to change to CMYK.
Overall, I am very happy and proud of my final image, and having used no content other than my own, I do not have to worry about any ethical or legal issues such as copyright. As well as this, my image was not too large to upload onto the group website. However, due to a selection of my photos from my shoots being blurry, I would definitely like to continue to improve my photography techniques themselves (rather than my photo-editing skills) to ensure that I have many more images I can use for any later final project outcomes.
SCAN
|
For my final scan, I use layers with various set presets (especially the Overlay layer adjustment setting), and moved, cropped and resized several copies of my scan around the art board.
|
Using Adobe Photoshop, I manipulated a scan I had taken of several mobile phones in a variety of ways. I first removed simple faults that I saw as part of my scans (fingerprints, dirt on scanner, etc) with the Spot Healing Tool, along with sharpening each image and adjusting their colour values and brightness settings. From this, I then experimented with changing the composition of my original photo. For this, I simply copied and pasted my image, re-sizing and adjusting it across the canvas. Once I had created a composition I was happy with, I used the Overlay and Screen layer presets to create a mesmerising edit to relate to my theme.
Understanding the file-size limitations of the group website, the initial scan I took was in 300 dpi in comparison to 600 dpi. With the higher the resolution causing the larger the file size, I decided I would rather the image had a smaller canvas size than I would reducing the bit depth when compressing the file. This is because the RGB colour space I had used in both my scan and edits would have been reduced in terms of the colours available, and I did not wish for this to happen. Similarly to my chosen photograph, I also chose the PNG file type for my scan, again because it was able to capture the high quality of my edit in a relatively small file, and the compression did not affect this (unlike JPEGs).
Although the intellectual property of the Apple logo is featured in my chosen scan, I am able to avoid any potential copyright issues by crediting them here, and also not producing the image in a commercial setting. With the logos also being seen on the devices themselves, and not being adjusted, nor used to advertise another brand, I was therefore able to avoid any potential legal and ethical problems.
Despite believing my chosen scan is fairly simple, I am quite happy with it as a whole. With the somewhat mesmerising atmosphere created allowing me to convey how people can be 'drawn' and attached to their mobile phones and other technological devices, I believe I was able to again link this image to my my theme of Technological Advances and technology addiction. With smartphones now being seen as an 'essential' item, and it being estimated that 5 billion people own one, I was further able to relate this scan to how technology and its use over the years has changed, for both the better and worse.
Altogether, I am again fairly proud of this image, and believe that the refracted lines of light created by the scanner were able to allow me to come up with a unique final outcome. However, I could also have improved this image by adding other scanned components, such as video game consoles, so that the image was able to relate to technology addiction as a whole, and not simply that of mobile phones.
Understanding the file-size limitations of the group website, the initial scan I took was in 300 dpi in comparison to 600 dpi. With the higher the resolution causing the larger the file size, I decided I would rather the image had a smaller canvas size than I would reducing the bit depth when compressing the file. This is because the RGB colour space I had used in both my scan and edits would have been reduced in terms of the colours available, and I did not wish for this to happen. Similarly to my chosen photograph, I also chose the PNG file type for my scan, again because it was able to capture the high quality of my edit in a relatively small file, and the compression did not affect this (unlike JPEGs).
Although the intellectual property of the Apple logo is featured in my chosen scan, I am able to avoid any potential copyright issues by crediting them here, and also not producing the image in a commercial setting. With the logos also being seen on the devices themselves, and not being adjusted, nor used to advertise another brand, I was therefore able to avoid any potential legal and ethical problems.
Despite believing my chosen scan is fairly simple, I am quite happy with it as a whole. With the somewhat mesmerising atmosphere created allowing me to convey how people can be 'drawn' and attached to their mobile phones and other technological devices, I believe I was able to again link this image to my my theme of Technological Advances and technology addiction. With smartphones now being seen as an 'essential' item, and it being estimated that 5 billion people own one, I was further able to relate this scan to how technology and its use over the years has changed, for both the better and worse.
Altogether, I am again fairly proud of this image, and believe that the refracted lines of light created by the scanner were able to allow me to come up with a unique final outcome. However, I could also have improved this image by adding other scanned components, such as video game consoles, so that the image was able to relate to technology addiction as a whole, and not simply that of mobile phones.
I used Sony Vegas Pro 13.0 to make my final video, where I was able to crop and rotate the original clips I used. Since my camera does not have a video recording function, I had to use my phone, and therefore the quality of my video is not the best. Despite this, I believe that I was still able to make a professional-looking video, and am fairly happy with the edits I made as a whole.
Once I had cropped my videos to size, I made 'borders' out of frames of colours in which I had resized. From this, I simply added text and transitions, finally rendering the full video with a choice of royalty-free stock music. I initially attempted to use copyrighted music, but my video including this was unable to be uploaded by YouTube as a result. Since then, I have changed the soundtrack of my video to that of a free-to-use soundtrack, and have therefore avoided any legal and ethical issues.
I believe that my use of sans-serif fonts were further able to link my documentary-style video to that of my theme based on technology. With sans-serif text signifying modern time periods and graphics, I was able to again link my outcome to my project's theme of Time, and convey my artistic intention of recording the effects of modern technology has on us. Looking at all of my final outcomes together, I believe that they are all able to link to each other, and follow the same group aesthetic of bright colours often seen in media nowadays.
To again be able to upload my video online, on YouTube in particular, I chose the universally-accepted video file format of MP4. Much smaller than traditional AVI files, and more supported than MOVs, I was able to render my video at 1080p 60fps, allowing me to preserve the quality of the original file even when streaming. This also enabled me to link the video itself to the advance in technology over the recent years, with HD videos like this being strictly used for industry work in the past.
Even though my video is quite simple, I believe that I was able to carry across an important message about addiction, especially with the use of my model, my brother Finn, having allowed me to convey the message more wholeheartedly and easily. If possible, I definitely would have made the video slightly longer, and believe that I could have experimented more with transitions. Despite this, I am quite proud of my final outcome as a whole, and enjoyed creating it.
Once I had cropped my videos to size, I made 'borders' out of frames of colours in which I had resized. From this, I simply added text and transitions, finally rendering the full video with a choice of royalty-free stock music. I initially attempted to use copyrighted music, but my video including this was unable to be uploaded by YouTube as a result. Since then, I have changed the soundtrack of my video to that of a free-to-use soundtrack, and have therefore avoided any legal and ethical issues.
I believe that my use of sans-serif fonts were further able to link my documentary-style video to that of my theme based on technology. With sans-serif text signifying modern time periods and graphics, I was able to again link my outcome to my project's theme of Time, and convey my artistic intention of recording the effects of modern technology has on us. Looking at all of my final outcomes together, I believe that they are all able to link to each other, and follow the same group aesthetic of bright colours often seen in media nowadays.
To again be able to upload my video online, on YouTube in particular, I chose the universally-accepted video file format of MP4. Much smaller than traditional AVI files, and more supported than MOVs, I was able to render my video at 1080p 60fps, allowing me to preserve the quality of the original file even when streaming. This also enabled me to link the video itself to the advance in technology over the recent years, with HD videos like this being strictly used for industry work in the past.
Even though my video is quite simple, I believe that I was able to carry across an important message about addiction, especially with the use of my model, my brother Finn, having allowed me to convey the message more wholeheartedly and easily. If possible, I definitely would have made the video slightly longer, and believe that I could have experimented more with transitions. Despite this, I am quite proud of my final outcome as a whole, and enjoyed creating it.
EVALUATION
Having been initially inspired by the portrayal of technology in media, I believe I was similarly able to represent the risks involved with the growing use of technology on an everyday basis. Although modern technology can be beneficial to us, such as allowing us to keep in contact with others more easily and improving medicinal care, technology addiction should not be ignored. By using this website to share my project, I believe that I was able to spread this message to others, and am glad I have and can continue to do so.