Diptych Blogpost
By Mia Date: 10/27/2020
Name of the Project: Virtual and Reality
Concept:
There’s an old saying that seeing is believing, which means we should trust all the things that we have seen in person, but not always trust the word heard from others. It may be applied to people in the past time, however, with the rapid development of technology, it seems not quite appropriate. Due to the digital world we’ve lived in, we should not totally trust your eyes all the time, for the image you’ve seen might be adjusted or even created by others who want you to see such a picture. What we have to do to seek the truth of the world is to have our own deep and critical thinking, and constant reflection on all the things we’ve encountered, avoiding being stuck into the trap and losing our minds.
Process:
- Part one
In fact, I gained my idea of taking a candle accidentally. At the weekend, I found a candle shining at the corner of a hotel, for all the lights have shut down, there’s an image of hundreds of virtual candles suddenly rushed into my eyes, which impressed a greatly. Therefore, I wanted to share this fancy scenery to let others also can get this magic phenomenon. At first, I tried different angles to shoot the pictures and found various forms of the composition of the candle and its shadows on the glass. Then, I chose different lights and modes, which gave me more imposing images than before. As time passed by, I found the candle were changing all the time, and I decided to take another series of photos which can compare with the former one. Therefore, after the candle burning a whole night, it demonstrated a condition that was very different from the condition it had last night. With changing ways to shoot the candle, I recorded such a big shift.
The biggest problem that I encountered was adjusting the light because if it’s a little bit dark, the candle would like very dirty. However, when it went too bright, the image would not be very legible. The solution I’ve tried was just to try every mode and method with great patience.
- Part two
At first, I was really confused with my concept of part two works, because all the images I took in part one were too similar, and I could not easily make them into one combination. But I turned my mind into another thinking way that, though there were many similar photos, however, it can bring me more convenient to gather some special elements that I can apply to my part two work. And then, I carefully choose the best shot photo among those similar candles. When I composed them together, I found a new color appear when two layers were put together, which was truly interesting. After finishing the main character of my photograph, I’m willing to add something more to make the image more integrated. Thinking of the critique from my classmates, I was inspired to find some religious elements which might work well. Then, I found the picture that the obvious icon was in the middle of the photo, and many small circles were around it. So I came up with the idea of add five circles that represented the basic elements of the world—gold, wood, water, fire, earth. To make them more connected, I put them in a circle instead of letting them around the candle.
During this process, I think the greatest trouble I’ve met was to create the whole concept of the image. To find my inspiration, I roughly come up with the general way that I wanted, and then gathered plenty of information both from the internet, and others’ suggestions, which is really helpful for me.
*The elements that I used in my part two:
Conclusion:
If I have more time to work on my project, I will definitely collect more data and visit more places, which may give me more inspiration to add more feelings, visual effects to the image. In addition, I will learn and practice more photoshop techniques to make the photograph more natural and vivid.