soft light & hard light

Soft light refers to light that tends to "wrap" around objects, casting diffuse shadows with soft edges. Soft light is when a light source is large relative to the subject, hard light is when the light source is small relative to the subject.

This depends mostly on the following two factors:

• Distance. The closer the light source, the softer it becomes.
• Size of light source. The larger the source, the softer it becomes.

The softness of a light source can also be determined by the angle between the illuminated object and the 'length' of the light source (the longest dimension that is perpendicular to the object being lit). The larger this angle is, the softer the light source.

Hard light sources cast shadows whose appearance of the shadow depends on the lighting instrument. For example, fresnel lights can be focused such that their shadows can be "cut" with crisp shadows. That is, the shadows produced will have 'harder' edges with less transition between illumination and shadow. The focused light will produce harder-edged shadows. Focusing a fresnel makes the rays of emitted light more parallel. The parallelism of these rays determines the quality of the shadows. For shadows with no transitional edge/gradient, a point light source is required. Hard light casts strong, well defined shadows.

When hitting a textured surface at an angle, hard light will accentuate the textures and details in an object

soft light 

hard light

rule of thirds

The rule of thirds is a "rule of tumb" or guideline which applies to the process of composing visual images such as designs, films, paintings, and photographs. The guideline proposes that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections. Proponents of the technique claim that aligning a subject with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject would.

The photograph to the right demonstrates the application of the rule of thirds. The horizon sits at the horizontal line dividing the lower third of the photo from the upper two-thirds. The tree sits at the intersection of two lines, sometimes called a power point or a crash point. Points of interest in the photo don't have to actually touch one of these lines to take advantage of the rule of thirds. For example, the brightest part of the sky near the horizon where the sun recently set does not fall directly on one of the lines, but does fall near the intersection of two of the lines, close enough to take advantage of the rule.

The rule of thirds is applied by aligning a subject with the guide lines and their intersection points, placing the horizon on the top or bottom line, or allowing linear features in the image to flow from section to section. The main reason for observing the rule of thirds is to discourage placement of the subject at the center, or prevent a horizon from appearing to divide the picture in half. Michael Ryan and Melissa Lenos, authors of the book An Introduction to Film Analysis: Technique and Meaning in Narrative Film state that the use of rule of thirds is "favored by cinematographers in their effort to design balanced and unified images"

When filming or photographing people, it is common to line the body up to a vertical line and the person's eyes to a horizontal line. If filming a moving subject, the same pattern is often followed, with the majority of the extra room being in front of the person (the way they are moving). Likewise, when photographing a still subject who is not directly facing the camera, the majority of the extra room should be in front of the subject with the vertical line running through their perceived center of mass.

example of rule of thirds 

all the pictures i took today at college

today at south downs college at photoshop lesson as part of out major assignment for paultons park we have decided top make our logos for our rides for my group our ride's theme was a spider and our subtitle was "conquer the fear" so as the them was a giant spider we made a web and we drew a grey spider with the paultons park logo in the corner in our logo for our ride showing where the ride belongs to it was a really fun lesson yet very complicated to create the logo now i can relax :D

today we are learning about the start of our photoshoot for our "ride" for paulton's park and we have decided to our ride based on a spider (my worst fear)

what the colours mean.

what the colours mean.

advertising posters

today in photography we had to annotate on poster advertisement either on  music, fashion, perfume/aftershave or sport i decide to do on based on music and on my favourite band slipknot  here is my work sorry about the handwriting :/

complementary colours

Complementary colors are pairs of colors which, when combined in the right proportions, produce white or black.  When placed next to each other, they create the strongest contrast and reinforce each other. They are widely used in art and design. The pairs of complementary colors vary depending upon the color model, and how the color is made. In painting, which uses subtractive primary colours the traditional primary–secondary complementary color pairs, described since at least the early 18th century, were red-green, yellow-violet, and blue-orange. In the more accurate RGB colour model, used to make colors on computer and television displays, red, green and blue light are combined at various intensities to make all the other colors. In this system, using addictive colours, the complementary pairs are red–cyan, green–magenta, and blue–yellow. In color printing, another system of subtractive colors, the colors cyan, magenta, yellow and black are used to produce all printed colors; the CYMK- system complementary pairs are the same as in the RGB system: red–cyan, green–magenta, and blue–yellow.

colour

Additive colour is colour created by mixing light of two or more different colours. Red, green and blue are the additive primary colours normally used in additive colour system. Additive colour is in contrast to subtractive colours in which colours are created by subtracting (absorbing) parts of the spectrum of light present in ordinary white light, by means of coloured pigment, or dyes, such as those in paints, inks, and the three dye layers in typical colour photographs on film. A subtractive colour model explains the mixing of a limited set of dyes inks paint pigments or natural colorants to create a wider range of colours each the result of partially or completely subtracting (that is, absorbing) some wavelengths of light and not others. The colour that a surface displays depends on which parts of the visible spectrum are not absorbed and therefore remain visible.