Last day of shoot – Bali Bagus

The big problem we encountered was the weird angle from our master shot camera. I was responsible for the 2nd camera so I didn’t check again when the angle was changed on the 1st camera. In order to capture the whole blackboard behind the main actress, our camera operator changed the 1st camera’s angle as director requested.

Doing close up shot at Bali Bagus

Another issue was the exchanging role between 1st camera and 2nd camera. The reason was because it seemed that our main talent wasn’t familiar to work with 2 different cameras and this also was one of the common issues in this project. Therefore, she mainly looked at the 2nd camera instead of 1st camera.

Main actress didn’t look at 1st camera

We also faced with light at that time because it kept changing when cars passed this restaurant. Thus we had to moved a little bit and this problem effected on the editing process when we needed to make sure to match the same position of our main talent for the whole video.

Besides that, with the rough schedule of borrowing gears and the unwelcoming from the restaurant, we didn’t have enough time to record enough B-roll footages for the editing stage so we planned to reshoot again when we have time next week.

We also decided to cut from 5 videos to 4 video due to the lack of time and we need to prepare all of rough cut videos for the next progress presentation. We want to focus on quality instead of quantity and this decision also is based on advice from out lecturers when the accident happened. Therefore, my group did suggest me to join as one of our editors in order to fasten the post production stage.

Overall, although we had some issues in the production stage due to the tight shooting schedule, we will try to fix those disadvantages during post production stage as our learning process for this semester.

2nd day of shoot – Royal Stacks and Tiba’s

In this day, we had to shoot 2 restaurants on Sydney road at 12pm and returned the gears before 5.30 pm. It was quite tough because we not only had to reach the tight schedule but also carrying all heavy gears around. However, we tried to finish this day as much as we could.

Royal Stacks Restaurant 

Due to the dead pixels problem of RMIT Canon 5D, we have decided to change our plan a little bit. We used the 5D as the 1st camera and captured master shot of our talent because if it didn’t move, then our editors were able to cover those red dots by using photoshop in post production.  At the same time, I had resposibility for the Canon 70D which was used as 2nd camera to shoot all B-roll footages.

Suggestions from Editors

I was quite nervous because I didn’t feel confident about doing tracking shots and close up shots without using tripod as my hands were quite shaken. I had to reshoot a few times when the actress was going to the counter and ordered her burger. However, I did try my best to overcome this weakness by applying what theories I learned through previous workshops and courses. I remembered my lecturers recommended me to hold the camera closer to my body as much as I could in order to make it more stable.

Doing close up shot at Royal Stacks

In order to increase the sharpness of footages, I tried to research to learn more about how to improve camera focus while shooting. I have known that I should zoom out at max on the object to check wether it’s clear or not (https://photographylife.com/how-to-quickly-test-your-dslr-for-autofocus-issues). I did double check the focus of every shots before recording and I think that I have done a better job than yesterday.

Moreover, this location was quite bright because all the walls are made from glasses so the footages were overexposed when I did some test shots at the beginning. Therefore, I chose to decrease camera sensor (ISO) as well as keep aperture as small numbers to reduce the brightness. It was quite hard for me to change those numbers all the time because I had to shoot many different corners in this restaurant which have different light conditions.

Besides that, there were a scene that I needed to shoot while the waitress serverd the  burger. I only had one chance to capture that moment so it was quite stressful cause I couldn’t control the movement of her as I wanted. Thus, I would suggest we discussed our shooting plan with them before recording to have a better result.

Tiba’s Lebanese Restaurant 

We ended up here because other restaurants that we chose before were closed. This restaurant was quite dark inside although it was around 3pm at that time.

Our shooting was delayed approximately 30 minutes due to the lack of battery. Although we fully charged them last night but we didn’t have any back up ones for the 70D camera which belongs to our director. We only had extra batteries for the 5D. As a result, it effected on our shooting plan when the light were changed so I suggested to move to another table. The light condition was better but it still didn’t have enough light. We were planing to increase the brightness by using both camera functions (ISO, apertures) as well as editing process.

Before the change

After the change

Again, we had another serving scene but the waitress came out when I just finished all of settings for my camera. Thus, I couldn’t shoot that shot perfectly and there were crew members in the frame at that time. In order to cover this problem, we planned to zoom in the frame when we edit our videos.

Crew member was in the frame

The last issue we encountered was the lack of memory cards of 1st camera. Therefore, the final scene we will need to use footage from 2nd camera instead. This problem happened because we forgot to delete all the footages we have done yesterday after transferring datas.

In conclusion, I think that we will have to face with some big disadvantages during our post production stage. For the future project, I suggest we should have location tests before real shoot to avoid those problems such as overexposure, darkness, movement planning. We also need to nominate one person to double check all the gears again before every shooting day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1st day of shoot – Nene chicken Melbourne Central

Before the shoot:

Our plan for shooting has been delayed due to the unwanted issue of one group member so I did try to prepare as much as I can because my group doesn’t have much time now. We promised to our lecturers in the 1st presentation we will produce 5 review videos for our main website.

I looked some examples that might be useful for our project in order to explore how camera work is used in those video clips.

The first example is from Mark Wiens who is a full time travel eater and popular Youtuber. His videos have basic format of food review videos and don’t use many after effects for sound and images but those videos are still very attractive to viewers and have good quality as well.

Kok Sen Restaurant: One Of The Best Zi Char in Singapore

Another example I have looked at is from Simon and Martina channel on Youtube. They also make videos about food, travel, adventures etc. Comparing to Mark Wiens, I think they have different review style which is modern and funny by using many video effects such as texts, emoji icons, animation etc as well as sound effects to make their videos more interesting. Moreover, I have noticed that they also use 2 cameras to create various angles for their review videos which is quite helpful for my project as well, especially this is the first time I have to work with 2 cameras.

The Best Korean Barbecue in the World

After watching those examples, I created a general pattern on our Google Drive for 5 videos in order to help the camera operator and director can have a general ideas for the shootings.

General pattern I would suggest for our review videos:

Part 1: Introducing the restaurant and dishes we’re going to review

• Camera 1: medium shot – capture the main actress – Maria

• Camera 2: close up and pan shot – showing different angle of the actress and restaurant atmosphere/space, menu etc.

Part 2: showing individually dishes and review

• Camera  1: medium shot, pan shot, close up shot – capture Maria when she reviews each dish

• Camera  2: close up shot from high angle and bird’s eye view angle to capture dishes individually

Part 3: conclusion and ask for subscribers

• Camera 1: medium shot of Maria
• Camera 2: B-rolls of restaurant’s inside and outside

Besides that, I also shared on Google Drive some basic camera movements and angles to all members to help them gain general ideas about those things

(Source: http://digitalwriting101.net/content/excerpt-camera-angles-and-shooting-tips-for-digital-storytelling/)

(Source: http://chrisduplockmedia.weebly.com/unit-22—single-camera-techniques)

During the shoot 

The plan was changed when we used 2 different cameras for the shoot. One is Canon 70D and another is Canon 5D. This change contributed to one of the big challenges that we have to overcome in post – production stage.

The first location we had to shoot was Nene chicken restaurant in Melbourne Central. Although this brand has 2 different stores which locate on Elizabeth Street and Melbourne Central, only the brand in Melbourne Central has Halal certification.

As a DOP of this project, the main problem I faced with at this location was setting camera angles because this store was so small and crowded at that time as well as the limited area we were allowed to use for shooting process. There were so many customers walking in and out of the frame during that time.

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Another issue was the focus of the main camera. Honestly, after 4 months of break, I almost forget all the skills that I have learned and practiced last semester. I chose “auto focus” mode to capture the main actress but there were so many customers during that time so my camera kept changing the focus points.

In addition, although the main background was to bright, the main actress’s position was quite dark as we recorded in the evening. I didn’t prefer the angle of the main camera but it seemed that our director wanted to shoot from that angle in order to capture the main logo of Nene chicken brand.

Overall, if we could do again, I suggested we took time to recheck all of footages before finishing in order to see the quality of them to avoid those issues. I also believe that we should have one camera assistant who could control all issues from outside that might effect on the shooting so I could mainly focus on my role. For example, I had to check whether someone/something was in the frame or not and checking the sound from my camera while recording. Doing a test before the real shoot is highly recommended in order to figure out which one would be the best angle for our video but we didn’t have enough time to do that.

 

 

 

 

Test shots and mock up video

I have done some test shots and mock up video in order to prepare for Halal Food Chronicles project.

Finding triangles

In food photography, creating triangles in food images can keep the viewer’s eyes on it, so we tried to use this tip in

our mock up session to see how we go. (Young 2010).

Following images were shot on our mock up shoot at Aussie Dera Restaurant.

The overhead shot

This angle helps to eliminate depth in the shot and makes food become sharper and colorful (Peters 2014).

3⁄4 Angle

It can be considered as starting point to capture food photos and works well for almost dishes. This angle is around 30-60 degrees. (Shutter Stock 2014)

Rule of thirds

Although this rule is quite traditional but we still prefer using it because putting objects at the thirds position will create nice balanced image.

 

The Halal Food Chronicles – Mock up video (LINK)

The general format of video review will be different journey of the main character through different Halal restaurants around Melbourne. She will enjoy delicious dishes and give her opinions on them. The main character is placed at centre of the frame with dishes around to attract viewers. In order to present the format we want to apply, I did make a rough cut.

 

Adobe Premier and Photoshop will be used to edit project’s footages. Moreover, colour grading will be done in the post-production stage to enhance food’s colours, increase contrasts, brightness etc. if necessary.

References 

Mathis. T, ‘ How to choose the best camera angle for your food photography’, Shutter Stock, viewed 11 March 2016, <http://www.shutterstock.com/blog/how-to-choose- the-best-camera-angle-for-your-food-photography>.

 

Peters. C, ‘What is the best camera angle for shooting food’, Food Photography Blog, viewed 11 March 2016, <http://foodphotographyblog.com/what-is-the-best-camera-angle-for- shooting-food/>.

Young. S. N, ‘Food Photography: Finding Triangles’, Nicolesy Blog, viewed 11 March 2016, <https://nicolesyblog.com/2010/01/28/food-photography-finding- triangles/>.

Week 1 – Digital Narrative Analysis: Journey to the end of coal

(Source: http://www.honkytonk.fr/index.php/webdoc/)

Journey to the End of Coal is an interactive document that I would like to analyze for the homework this week. This web documentary was made in 2008 by French production company Honkytonk. It takes the audiences to the downside of coalmines in the remote areas of Mainland China where miners have to work in very poor conditions with low payment as well as risk their lives everyday. The integrative web document was created by using 300 photos, 3 hours of video and 10 hours of sound in China by directors Samuel Bollendorff and Abel Ségrétin.

• Story elements

Although it has linear storyline because there are a beginning and an end, the middle is quite blurry because it depends on the decisions of viewers in each scene. Audiences always have to start at Beijing train station and end their investigations at Qijiagou due to the limited access of the coal mines.

Besides, it seems to be no such an event in this interactive document because it doesn’t have any conflict with the protagonist in the story. It simply provides questions for audiences to choose or ask the miners in order to continue the adventure in the movie. There are some actors in the document; the main actor is the journalist who is performed by the audiences to explore the whole story and communicate with other characters in the document. The other actors are miners and theirs manager. Although the audiences act as the main character in the story, they can’t decide the ending of it because creators set it.

In addition, with the description from the web, people can easily recognise that the story happened in that current time, which was 2008 and the specific place of this story is Shanxi Province, only a couple away from Beijing. The journey starts from Beijing train station to the around regions such as Datong, Taiyuan and Qijiagou to visit their major coal mines.

• Narrative elements

Although Journey to the End of coal has the arrange of narrative elements when the story starts at Beijing and ends when the journalist is prohibited to explore more about some accidents, it doesn’t need to follow specific chronological events. Audiences can choose to continue their journey through having conversations with miners or going to another places. They can either skip places or go back or choose different questions for miners to make the story occurs differently.

In the journey to coal mines, audiences will meet and interview poor miners who have to work with pollution, accidents and unfair work conditions to earn money and support their families. In the own pace, audiences seem to have real conversation with character to find out about characters’ lives. Thus, the speed is quite slow to make the audiences feel like they are truly in the conversations with the miners at that current time.

This document chooses the first person perspective as its point of view to demonstrate the narrative through the view of the journalist. Thus, it is clearly that the journalist, also the main character is the narrator who is telling the story inside the narrative. The story depends on what questions he decides to ask the miners as well as the destinations that he wants to visit.

Photos, videos and sounds were used as the web document format to recount the narrative of the whole journey.

• Traditional narratives

This interactive document still has linearity in order to guide the audiences from the start to the end of the story. However, it doesn’t have series of conflicts that lead to a climax and resolution. Although there are several options in the middle of the story, the creators already set the specific ending for the story.

Besides, the story has the journalist as protagonist as well as manager and authorities as antagonists. However, the protagonist doesn’t act like the traditional model. He doesn’t fight to overcome specific conflicts and achieve any goal at the end. Thus, it is convinced that there is a lack of traditional three-act structure. The story simply happens from the beginning to the end through the road trip of the journalist.

• Digital narratives

The numerical coding element is presented clearly in this interactive document. It is the combination of various kinds of media such as photographs, videos and sounds. Besides, text is mainly used to support the main character to tell the story. It also is seen as choices for audiences when they are on the journey to explore the movie, which happens in China.

(Source: http://www.honkytonk.fr/index.php/webdoc/)

The modularity is presented quite well in this interactive document. The whole journey was made from 300 photographs, 3 hours of videos and 10 hours of sound. The creators chopped down those materials and turned them into many different scenes to build up the journey for audiences to explore. As users, we can choose the destination that we want to visit or go back to whatever scene that we need to investigate more. Therefore, it also shows the variability of this digital narrative. Although audiences can skip or go back to specific scene, they cannot arrange the order of those scenes in order to create different structure or different ending. That is probably one of the limitations of this interactive project.

The programmed elements in this example are quite simple when the web only allows users to have elementary interactions with the story by providing some options through the text interviews between the journalist and Chinese miners during the journey. It doesn’t have complicated programming such as rotating a three dimensional (3D) model, changing the colour of video file, scaling images etc.

Besides, the participatory aspects in this example are obvious because the audiences clearly participate in the story by making their decisions in each scene rather than watching the movie passively. However, the participatory seems to be not strong enough because the web document doesn’t provide various ways to make the viewers have more creative options to interact effectively with the story.

My blurry day

Basing on the feedbacks from the last studio, I have changed some points to complete my final video work. Although it’s done but I think it can be developed more.

I got some useful feedbacks after I did my Iteration 2. I didn’t have many problems with footages in comparison with the sound part. My lecturer suggested my to think about my transitions. Although the feet transitions worked to connect all footages together, it appeared too much. So I tried to shoot more footages to make my transitions become various. In the Iteration 2, I tried to combine still images and videos and then back to still images again, so it made viewers a little bit confused. I was recommended to think about using either still images or videos for my final work. However, I love the combination of still images and videos so I decided to keep that direction and only took out the still images after videos to make it smother. I didn’t like my ending but I couldn’t find the better one to replace so it currently is the best solution I have.

For the sound part, I couldn’t create effects to match them with my blurry images in my Iteration 1 & 2. My lecturer also suggested me to find away to blur my sounds. I can’t hide the truth that I don’t have experience with sounds. So I was totally clueless. However, with my teammate’s suggestion to use surround reverb for that effect, I did try to play with it by using Adobe Audition. I applied the effects of low pass echo and surround reverb to blur my sounds. I’m quite happy with my final result and at least I tried to complete it rather than giving up on sounds. With the sound effects, I think that my final video work is completely blurry.

Through this, I learned how sounds can make a large change on the video. My future plan after this course is upgrading my knowledge about soundscape which is very useful and necessary for media practitioner.

Here’s the link to my Report

 

PIM Portfolio Essay

Time flies really quick and now my second semester is coming to the end. This is probably one of the courses that challenged myself a lot because I never think of and try to use smartphone for creative filmmaking.

• How has my practice changed in the studio?

Over a year ago, my practice was a communication executive who was mainly in charge of media publications and media reports for clients. So I usually worked with traditional media and didn’t have a chance to approach digital forms. This course definitely pushed me into a digital world and brought me closer to the current technology to produce contents for online audiences by using smartphone. Before, I only used it for my recording my daily life, my family and friends but now I have explored how smartphone can afford filming, recording, taking photos, editing to create stories and sharing contents to online viewers. It also took me out of my comfort zone when it required me to deal a lot with editing skills for both images and sounds.

• What have I learned?

I have learned many things from technical perspectives through this course. When I did sketches for project 3 with my group, I figured out that a smartphone is able to shoot, edit and post contents online without using the support from laptop. I never knew about it before and I think it helped me come closer to current audiences who are becoming content producers by only using their mobiles and social media platforms. Besides that, rather than relying on traditional editing software like Premiere Pro, Final Cut etc. I realised current apps on the market are really awesome and can take over the editing role of those software. We can use apps to create many creative effects for our films and make the smartphone act like professional cameras.

Also, after 4 projects, I was taught that sounds always are a very important factor that contributes to the success of video work. I did underestimate the crucial role of sounds in my Iteration 1 but the video’s effect changed significantly after I started working with sounds. My phone recorder also is good enough to capture clearly the sounds that I want so I don’t need to use the Zoom H2 recorder as usual.

• What do I now do differently?

I believe there is a big difference between my very first draft and my final work. I chose to develop the idea from one of my sketch in project 3 but I only concentrated about the visual factors and ignored the sounds. For my Iteration 1, I used background music for the whole video so it was really weird because the sound didn’t match with the images effects. So my Iteration 2 was recommended to change sounds and add transitions for still images. With those feedbacks, my second Iteration was improved a lot but I still needed to find a way to make sounds become blurry like the image’s effect. So in the final work, I did play with the surround reverb in order to create that blurry effect for my sounds.

• What could I develop further?

I do wish I had time budget to continue improving my work because I think working with still images needs more time than video. And my brain also is freeze cause of many other assignments so I can’t think of creative factors to add in. Also, I think I need to develop my skills in presenting ideas in front of many people because I couldn’t do it well in this course.

• What of my strengths and weaknesses?

I believe my strength is the love with photography and experiences I have gained through my hobby. It really helps me to use techniques that I already know when using my own DSLR to support all of my projects. Also, the capability to adapt to new apps also is another strengths of me. It assists me to explore more angles to clarity my affordance in my own way.

Overthinking is one of my weaknesses that stopped me so many times in producing sketches. If I could do it again, I would follow Buxton advice that is using sketches to find out the suggestions rather than seeking for the exact confirmation. With communication background, another weakness of me is lack of skills in filmmaking and editing so I think I have learned and pushed up those skills into the next level throughout this course. Working with sounds is probably my final weakness due to the lack of experience in soundscape. Also, I think that I don’t have good sense for doing sounds. I’m still seeking for the appropriate solution for this problem. Currently, I’m trying to observe from my friends when they are doing soundscape for their projects.

• Reflection on collaboration

I really enjoyed working with my group during this course. Although we own have different opinions about our affordance but I couldn’t achieved all the projects well if I didn’t receive useful feedbacks and support from my teammates. We collaborated and worked really hard to clarify our affordance, which probably is one of the hardest ones.

Also, I really appreciate those valuable instructions and feedbacks from my lecturers that really help me to overcome many issues of producing sketches and complete final video work.

• How this semester changes your thinking about becoming professional media practitioner?

This semester helps me to break my own barrier and go to the next level of filming and editing which I always think that I couldn’t do it. I also gain experience in using smartphone to produce contents, which can go online and explore many useful apps. Using smartphone in filmmaking is very flexible in comparison with professional camera. It also can be seen as a trendy technique for current time when people always live, eat and sleep without smartphones. I think this course is a good start for me as a communication and media practitioner to think about how we can adapt to this change by using smartphone to produce contents to reach more online audiences rather than using traditional media. Besides that, the process of producing sketches to test ideas and using theories to guide those sketches is really helpful that I didn’t realise at the beginning. It not only gives me suggestions to continue develop my ideas but also shows me which works and doesn’t work. Those reflections create chance for me to look back what I did well and what I need to fix to build up my idea. In my future plan, I want to use smartphone to make an online short film series and make it go online through many different social media platforms such as Instagram etc. to explore how it will work.

***Link to all of my PIM blogs***

Iteration 2

I continue using the idea from my Iteration 1 in order to develop my video work for Iteration 2.From last studio, my lecturer gave me suggestions that I should think about the transitions, colours, sounds to improve the second video work.

In the first Iteration, I didn’t concentrated on the sounds so I only took pictures without recording the sounds. Therefore, I tried to records all sounds for my previous pics as well as taking more footages for my video. I faced with the challenge when recording sounds and images separately which I can’t have the right sounds for those moments because I have to do them one by one. So I have to takes pics first and then wait for the right sounds to record. Sometimes, it’s good to record sounds separately but the recording usually happens at the same time with the images. However, my sounds were recorded after images happened. Thus, I had to listen carefully again as well as wait for the things happened exactly at the same time with those images that I took first.

On the other side, creating transitions for my still images also is another difficulty. For most of the time, I’m familiar to use the video transitions of Premiere Pro for my video work. However, I don’t feel that way can fit with those still images when I try to apply those transition effects. Thus, I decided to use still images as my main transition for the whole video. I took images of my footages when I was walking and recorded the sounds for it. Because my story is my day with long exposure, so I think this transition works quite well to connect all images as well as telling my ideas which going around the city. However, this idea just popped up at the very last minutes, so I didn’t have chance to capture different shots of my food steps to create the variety for my transitions.

For the colours, I did think about changing it into black and white but those footages’ colours are so beautiful so I decided to keep them as origin. Besides that, another problem I pointed out in my Iteration 1 is lacking of tripod for long exposure technique. Throughout the making process, I believe I don’t need tripod anymore because blurry images have their own beauty. Even when using my DSLR camera, I rarely use tripod when I want to capture moments with long exposure. Moreover, we have more flexibility with mobile phone, so I tried to move the camera while doing long exposure instead of letting the subject move around and capture it. With the results I got, I think this way also works to create nice blurry images in the way that I expected. Those creative blurs also strengthen my affordance, which is new realism. We can’t see those blurs in reality but with our phone camera and lights we can draw or create them.

I used real sounds for my video and combine them with still images by Premier Pro. However, I’m still finding the way to edit those sounds in order to match the images which are quite blurry. I’m thinking of blurring my sounds but I haven’t figure out the methods to do. Now, I’m playing around with the echoes to see how they are working with my images.

In general, I’m quite satisfied with the results I have gained through the making process and it also helps me to explore different ways to continue developing my ideal for the final project. During those last weeks, I’m going to work more to create the title for my video work as well as thinking of the ending. Besides that, trying to match images with sound effects is also another job that I have to do.

PIM Lecture Week 10: Iteration 1’s reflection

Today, I presented my first Iteration in the studio and received feedbacks from lecturer but my peers didn’t give me any opinions. I thought the reason is because I still struggle with finding the appropriate narrative for my video work. Now, it seems like I’m trying to put random still images together. I feel that my Iteration can’t describe and bring my ideal to viewers effectively. I’m thinking of solutions for my lecturer’s feedbacks to improve my second Iteration.

The first issue is transitions of my video work. I couldn’t find the best solution for this issue because I chose to work with still images so I think I also have to use still images as transitions for my whole video. However, my story is about one day with long exposure so it contains many different activities during a day so I think it’s really hard to find different transitions to connect those activities together. Thus, I plan to shoot more footages for my Iteration 2 and do some small sketches in order to find new suggestions as Buxton said. The second issue is the sounds of my video. I already knew it would be one of weak point in my iteration 1 because I didn’t know what effects I should use for the sounds so I used the music background instead and it turned out really weird. I didn’t think of the sounds when I took images so I didn’t have any resources to work with. After the class, my teammate suggest me to do something with the sounds to make it become blurry like my images so I’m finding the way to do it and plan to record again all of the sounds in my video. The final suggestion from my lecturer is colour grading for my images. He suggested me trying to play with black and white but I think I will keep the original colours for my images because my affordance is realism so I want to keep the reality of my footages and I love the way my images are blurry but beautiful with their true colours.

In general, shooting more footages and recording sounds are urgent task for me to continue working on the second Iteration, which is submitted next week. Hopefully, I can fix all of issues to push up my low D to high D. I also need to start thinking of the portfolio structure as well as the final report when the time is running out.

Iteration 1

After completing 5 sketches for PIM 3, I have many potential directions to continue exploring my affordance, which is “realism” for my final project.

I chose using long exposure technique as the main direction for my project from now on. However, the big problem I have to face now is the lack of creative story as well as main theme. I tried to capture one-day activities of me by using long exposure. However, I’m not really like it because the idea seems too simple. So I’m still on the way trying to seek for another good story. For this first iteration, I used long exposure to make people and vehicles disappear in some shots. Otherwise, I played with different light sensitivity levels to use mobile camera to draw things as well as making moving water becomes smoother.

Besides that, there are some technical issues I have to deal with when using mobile camera to do the long exposure. Firstly, mobile doesn’t have any good functions to support taking long exposure images like the others DSLR cameras. Therefore, I tried to use free apps to make it in PIM 3. However, those free apps didn’t provide the high quality images as I expected. Then, to get the better result for the Iteration 1, I did much research and decided to purchase the app, which has most positive feedbacks called Slow Shutter. For me, it’s quite good because it not only allows us to have HD resolution for pictures, but also has many capture modes including light sensitivity and shutter speed. Thus, I can play around with this app to create effects that I want. Secondly, using long exposure always requires stable place for the camera can stand on, which means I need to have a tripod. However, I don’t have any tripod mount for my iPhone so most of my images were quite blurred because of shaking hands. Although I try to avoid holding the mobile by putting it on the stable place but I only can do it with some of shots.

In order to improve my work in the second iteration, trying to explore my own story is a must to bring life to my images. Considering to have a tripod mount for my phone also is necessary in order to have good shots and effects.

References

Sound track

http://freedownloads.last.fm/download/346921725/A%2BGirl%252C%2Ba%2BBoy%252C%2Band%2Ba%2BGraveyard.mp3