Lab 1 Reflection

     Hello internet. So I've just completed the first lab for my Visual Design course. The lab was simply taking a hike somewhere and taking pictures. However our photos had to demonstrate photography concepts we learned in class as well as well as techniques. The 5 concepts our photos needed to demonstrate were high point, low point, landscape, eye level, and close up shots. The techniques we needed to use were framing, balance, emphasis, and rule of thirds.
     High point shots are shots where you point your camera down at your subject, making it look like the picture is taken high off above ground. Low point is the opposite, where the camera is pointed up at the subject from a down position. Eye level photos are photos where the camera is not tilted up or down, the shot taken from the natural position of ones eyes/head. Close up shots are taken when the subject is very close to the lens or with the subject zoomed in on. Landscape shots are photos with the width of the photo larger than the length. Framing is a technique of drawing attention to the subject of the image. Emphasis further brings attention to your subject, making it stand out from the rest. Rule of thirds is breaking an image into a 3x3 grid and placing points of interest along lines and intersections. Balance is commanding attention evenly, either symmetrically or asymmetrically.
     There's more to what we had to do on our hike. We were supposed to take a total of 24 photos, but there was a catch. Those 24 photos needed to be taken from one spot. We could only move up o a few feet but not more than that. Each of the photos were supposed to be unique and were supposed to demonstrate the concepts and techniques previously mentioned. Finally we chose 6 of the photos that demonstrated all of the concepts and techniques and submitted them. The way we submitted them was quite simple. We created a new file in photoshop, imported the pictures from our camera and put 6 good ones in the photoshop file, resized the pictures and labeled their layers in photoshop, and finally submitted them to our teacher.
    These skills are important for a web designer because a web designer must know what is appealing to the eye to make their web sites attracting. This lab took us out on a hike with our purpose to take good and appealing photos using common techniques and concepts present in great photographs. This lab also made us use limited resources to their fullest potential. We could only stand in one spot and we had to take 24 UNIQUE photos. As a web designer you may have limited resources or little to work with but you need to make the most out of it anyway.
      In this lab I learned a different way of taking pictures, now I don't just point and shoot but put thought into my shots. I also got to use photoshop a bit and learn a few things about it. When we put our photos into photoshop I learned photos are put in layers. To edit a particular photo, such as resizing it, we were editing that particular layer. So overall I feel like I learned a lot and I got to experience a lot as well.