Art 318 Intermediate Photo SP 2022: Assignment 2: Isolate the Essence (Building emphasis)

Due: Monday 1/24

General versus Specific

The goal for this exercise is to practice seeing, in both a general and specific way. Photography is largely an art of selection. A photograph tends to be democratic...if its in the frame, it counts! Include too much and the viewer might not know what is important. What happens when you get very specific about what you share with your camera? A good practice is to isolate exactly what you wish to share...no more, no less. Build emphasis into the photograph through framing, or in-camera cropping.

Rules of the Game:

Natural light (window or outside)
No flash (so please use plenty of natural light)
ISO 100-400
Shoot RAW
Auto Exposure and Auto Focus is okay for now
Shoot 50-100 images
No camera phones —use a proper camera

Directions:

Look. Look for unusual or surprising subjects that strike your eye as interesting. It really doesn't matter what the subject is, but how it looks. The subject could be a scene or landscape, an object or a person. Be adventurous, recognizing something exciting, original and/or unusual. Weird or unusual can be good!

You will make two photographs of each subject: one general, one specific.

General view. Make an initial "general view" picture of your subject.
Close-up, specific view. Get specific and isolate the essence. What exactly grabbed your attention in the first place? Be very discerning and specific. Was it a detail? A shadow? A color? A facial expression? Isolate this specific thing by moving in closer to your subject, so that one specific thing primarily appears in your frame, and little else. Make a picture of that.
Move on to your next subject and repeat the sequence.