Term
The 35 mm Camera: SLR, Film Speed and Tools
SLR: single-lense reflex. What you see in the lens is what goes on the film. Light travels through the lens and hits an angled mirror and straight up into prism and into the viewfinder. That’s what you see. When you click the button, the mirror lifts up to let light in, and a shutter moves to the side to let the light hit the film.
Film Speed:
>100 asa/iso: outdoors with bright daylight, indoors with flash, and has a very tight grain. Makes excellent enlargements.
>200 asa/iso: outdoors with bright, overcast
>400 asa/iso: outdoors in most lighting, indoors in most lighting, or with flash. Has a medium grain, though. Maybe not the best enlargements.
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Definition
Aperture:
How big the hole is that lets light into the camera. Small number means a big whole. Big numbers mean small hole. In a dark area, you want as much light as possible, so use a small number. The size of the lens opening is also referred to as an f-stop.
Shutter speed:
The amount of time the camera's shutter stays open: lower for still objects, higher for moving objects. Sports photographers often capture moving athletes at 1/500 of a second (that's how long the shutter's open for). |
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Term
Composition
How elements are placed within the frame to gather and hold the viewer’s attention is called composition.
>Centering: you don't always want to center the subject in a photo. Use the rule of thirds. Divide the photo into thirds length-wise and horizontally. It makes the photo more interesting. Put the subject on one of the third lines.
>Framing: natural framing in the photo. Leaves and branches, for examples, or perhaps someone's hands.
>Contrast: dark blacks/light whites, fuzzy/sharp, etc.
>Shapes: circles, squares, triangles? Geometric shapes draw the eye.
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Definition
>Juxtaposition: placing two seemingly different things together in an image to compare them (e.g., a dead bird and an egg).
>Lack of closure: is the image a complete story, or do we have to ask 'what is really going on here?' Lack of closure is good: every viewer may see a different story in that photo. |
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Term
The Three Types of Images
>mental: those that you experience in your mind, such as thoughts, dreams and fantasies.
>direct: those that you see without media intervention.
>mediated: those that you see with some sort of print or screen (movie, television and computer) medium.
Mediated images are the most popular in visual communication, because they're ones we create to 'show' others.
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Definition
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Term
The Visual Process, VC Circle and Goals
"Sensing plus selecting plus perceiving equals seeing."
-Aldous Huxley
>sense: letting light into your eyes to see objects immediately around you, or gathering visual data from around you.
>select: to isolate and look at a specific part of a scene within the enormous frame of vision.
>perceive: making sense of what you select.
"The more you know, the more you see." -Aldous Huxley |
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Definition
The Vis Comm Circle
>The more you know, the more you sense.
>The more you sense, the more you select.
>The more you select, the more you perceive.
>The more you perceive, the more you remember.
>The more you remember, the more you learn.
>The more you learn, the more you know.
Just one big circle that repeats itself.
The visual communicator's goal is to:
"Produce powerful images so the viewer will remember their content." |
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Term
The Speed of Light, Color and The Human Eye
The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second.
>Visible light is part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
>ROYGBIV: the colors in visible light. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.
>The most noticeable color to the human eye is red.
>The least noticeable is violet.
Color Terms:
>chroma: the hue, name or description of a color.
>value: saturation, the amount of color concentration.
>brightness: amount of light emitted from an object.
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Definition
The Human Eye
>More than 70% of all the sensory receptors in the human body are the eyes.
>Retina: where images are recorded. Like the film in a camera.
>Iris: works just like an aperture (colored part of eye).
The Retina:
>The retina's just basically a big disc.
>The outside edges of the retina contain rods, or photoreceptors that see gray. They sense light movement.
>In the macula, or the center of the disc, the photoreceptors are called cones.
>There are three types of cones: R (for red), G (for green), and blue (for blue). Any color combination can be made with these three colors (at least in the eye).
>Rods and cones convert the electrical energy of light into chemical energy that the brain can use to interpret visual data input.
The Peripheral Field of the Retina:
>The outside edge of the eye.
>Does not see colors well.
>Does not have much clarity/acuity.
>Sensitive to slight movements.
>Most useful in darkened conditions.
The Macula Field of the Retina:
>The center of the eye.
>Sees with clarity and acute focus.
>Represents about 1 degree angle in front of the eye.
>Sensitive to variations of color.
The Eyes and Color:
>The eye responds more readily to warmer color (reds, oranges, etc.) because they emit longer and slower wavelengths.
>Cooler color emit shorter and faster wavelengths. |
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Term
The Four Major Attributes the Brain Quickly Responds to:
color: warm colors (red, orange and yellow) and cool colors (blue, green and violet and indigo).
>Tint is adding white to a color to make it lighter.
>Shade is adding black to a color to make it darker. Shaded colors tend to advance toward the viewer.
form: defines outer edge and internal parts of an object. Three basic parts: dots, lines and shapes.
>dots: eye suckers.
>lines: when dots are really close together (with no space), they form a line.
>shapes: the combo of dots and shapes into patterns that occur in nature and in graphic design.
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Definition
depth: aspects of depth: space, size, color, lighting, textural gradients, interposition, time and perspective.
>because we se in 3D, we want even flat images to portray depth.
movement:
>Real movement: motion not connected with a picture presented in the media (a bird flying in the sky).
>Apparent movement: an object appears to move on the paper. >Graphic movement: the eyes move around the image to get all the ‘meaning’.
>Implied movement: the brain perceives movement. |
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Term
The Six Perspective to Analyze an Image:
>personal perspective: what does it mean to you?
>historical perspective: what happened before and after the photo was taken?
>ethical perspective: not very offensive? politically correct or no?
>cultural perspective: shows times and places in the photo... what it was like.
>technical perspective: seven main tech. considerations: lens type, lens opening, shutter speed, film type, camera type, lighting and print quality. so the perspective is of the actual image, not it's content.
>critical: composition. was it altered using photoshop? is it biased?
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Definition
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Term
Sensual, Perceptual (Semiotics) and Gestalt Theories:
Sensual:
>visual sensation: a stimulus that activates nerve cells in the eye.
Perceptual:
>perceptual sensation: the meaning concluded after visual stimuli are received and understood in the brain.
>Semiotics: the science or study of signs. Images are interesting and memorable if people understand what signs are in the image.
...>Iconic: most closely resemble the thing they represent
...>Indexical: doesn’t look like what it represents, but has a logical connection.
...>Symbolic: we know what it means, but has now connection.
>Cognitive: the viewer arrives at a conclusion about the perception through mental operations.
...>Memory: yep.
...>Projection: how we see something (our mental personality).
...>Expectation: what we've become accustomed to (couches in living rooms).
...>Selectivity: for example, picking a friend's face out of a crowd.
...>Habituation: ignoring visual stimuli that are part of everyday life (cars passing by).
...>Salience: a stimulus will be noticed more if it carries meaning for the individual.
...>Dissonance: too much noise/interruption to focus on the message.
...>Culture: how we act, eat, think... (it's similar to us, but different in other cultures). Also includes religion and location, such as crosses or flags.
...>Words: when words and images are combined, they are profoundly impacting.
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Definition
Gestalt:
>Perception is the result of a combination of sensations, and not of individual elements.
>Discrete elements in a scene are combined and understood by the brain as a whole.
>Four Fundamental Principles of Grouping:
...>Similarity: simplest and most stable form to focus on.
...>Proximity: the brain more closely associates objects physically close to each other than objects that are far apart.
...>Continuation: the brain does not prefer sudden or unusual changes in a line.
...>Common Fate: mentally grouping things because of direction or non-tension (one thing facing a different way than the rest). |
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Term
Persuasion, Propaganda and Advertising
Persuasion: uses factual info and emotional appeals to change a person’s mind and promote a desired behavior.
>Ethos: refers to a source’s credibility.
>Logos: refers to the logical arguments.
>Pathos: refers to emotional appeals.
Propaganda: pretty much what it says.
Advertising:
A: attract attention
I: arouse interest
D: stimulate desire
A: motivate action
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Definition
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Typography
Placing symbolic messages on a medium for the purpose of communicating. Painting, writing, computing.
Six Main Typeface Families:
>Blackletter: ornate and decorative.
>Roman: most commonly used. Have serifs. There is no font family called ‘serif.’
>Script: replicates cursive handwriting.
>Misc: unique, special purpose fonts.
>Sans Serif: second most commonly used font. Without serifs.
>Square Serif: have block serifs. Very large serifs.
>Legibility: ability to distinguish difference between letters.
>Readability: ability of the mind to discern meaning from a word or black text.
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Definition
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Term
Principal Art Movements and Graphic Design
>Art Nouveau (ca. 1890): make products more beautiful and react to the industrialization of society.
>Dada (1916): rebels against harmony and symmetry.
>Art Deco (1925): decorative style, less threatening, with streamlined shapes and soft curves.
>Pop Art (1950s): pop culture and rebellion against authority.
>Postmodern (1970s): angry, rebellious, random combos of text and images.
>Grid Approaches (kind of feel like it’s laid out on a page):
...>De Stijl (1917): unemotional use of primary colors and simple lines and shapes.
...>Bauhaus (1919): emphasis on simple, clearly defined shapes.
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Definition
Graphic Design
>Digital period of graphic design began in 1984, when desktop publishing and the Mac were introduced.
>‘Good’ Graphic Design (agreed upon by most graphic designers):
...>Contrast (color: light and dark; size: big and small; time: now and past; texture: soft and hard; shape: curvy and edgy; and symbolism: peace and unity.)
...>Balance (the placement of elements within a design’s frame).
• Equalized optical weight: x and y axes.
• Symmetrical: formal, stable, or dull.
• Asymmetrical: informal and dynamic.
• Rhythm (how design elements control the viewer’s eye movement).
...>Sequencing: positioning elements so the viewer naturally views elements in the order the designer intends.
...>Simplicity: simple designs, with few elements, may attract the eye. Complex visuals may be confusing.
...>Unity (elements feel like they belong. Kind of the mood of the visual). Mood, style, color and language. Should be similar throughout a single design or across a family of designs.
>Ethical Concerns for Design:
...>Utilitarianism: the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
...>Hedonism: satisfying only commercial interests.
...>Gold Rule: add beauty to the viewer’s life.
...>Others:
• Perpetuate stereotypes.
• Promotion of potentially harmful products.
• Appropriation of previous designs (copyright infringement?). |
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