A guide to seeing what you didn't know was there.
Hope you enjoy our video on a public contoversy!
____________________________________________
– Michael Magnotti
Part-time writer, Michael Magnotti, thrives on leading passionate people to see the world in different ways. Although Michael writes about very different topics, he uses them all as an easy-to-read guide for seeing what you didn’t know was there!
____________________________________________
When preparing my speech, I created my outline based on my essay. After I tried making the slideshow for the speech, I quickly realized that it wasn’t going to work. Because of this, and Professor Campbell’s comments, I rewrote my speech to follow a better path that was more chronologic.
With a well thought out outline, I could now rehearse my speech. To prepare for the recording I practiced my speech 4 times and fixed little comments here and there.
When the time came to record in the One Button Studio I was very confident and believe that I proved myself as a speaker. I made some minor mistakes, but very noticeable mistakes at the least.
My favorite part of my speech is the information I proved. In my speech, I have many relatable and relevant examples throughout my slideshow to make my points about packaging and the old system of beverage distribution.
The second question is “If you could do it again, would you change anything”? The answer is yes because I did. Our volume didn’t work for our group’s videos, so we re-recorded it with changes made to better the speech. Therefore, I changed the way I introduced my sources in a way that is understandable to the audience who I was referencing and where they came from.
____________________________________________
– Michael Magnotti
Part-time writer, Michael Magnotti, thrives on leading passionate people to see the world in different ways. Although Michael writes about very different topics, he uses them all as an easy-to-read guide for seeing what you didn’t know was there!
____________________________________________
Welcome back to the longest (only) photography blog I have ever written. The first 5 posts laid down the skills necessary for a photographer to start taking truly, easy stylized photos!
There are two main rules to photography: The Rule of Thirds, and there are no rules – when done correctly.
The Rule of Thirds is very simple yet very effective. Imagine two horizontal and two vertical lines intersecting on an image and separating it into a 3×3 grid. The subject of the photograph should be positioned at the intersection points. For a visualization, here is an example from a photo I took of a stranger in Urban Outfitters:
As you can see, the subject is on the edge and on the intersection points of the horizontal and vertical lines. However, the Rule of Thirds only works for portraits like this when the talent, or person posing, is facing away from the side of the frame he or she is on. Otherwise, it will create what’s known as negative space. For example, here is a similar photo without the talent facing the correct direction:
The photo is visually confusing. Where do you look? Your eye is supposed to look where he is looking, but there’s nothing there so you try to focus on the right edge and the tree at the same time.
The second rule: there are no rules. The Rule of Thirds is just one rule to follow in order to allow a photo to tell a story or at least imply that one exists. Although photographers can keep this ‘tried and true’ rule in their back pocket, much more stylistic photos can be taken by breaking or bending the rules. The only catch is that the photo has to draw the eyes somewhere specific.
The Rule of Thirds teaches photographers the positioning of talents and the surroundings. Using these techniques, one can venture off into other types of photos without using this rule.
To visually explain, I went out last night and took photos of a friend. I took these photos at night, while it was snowing, and in the most unflattering lighting, I could find. If you read the other 5 posts, the ‘taken at night’ aspect should already make you think about having to change the settings to even show anything on the camera.
Essentially, I took photos in the worst settings I could find but used some posing and positioning techniques to make them look much better than they could have been otherwise.
The first photo was positioned using “leading lines”, or natural lines in the surroundings of a photo that point to the subject of the photo. Here are two examples, see if you can find straight lines that point to the subject:
In the first picture, the vertical lines in the door point down to the talent in the middle or possibly help to point up to where she is looking. In the second photo, the lines on the sidewalk and the line between the road and the snow point to the center of the photo (where the talent is).
You can break the rule of thirds by using visible lines to guide you instead of imaginary ones. One trickier technique is to use what’s known as “framing” to very obviously tell the viewers where to look by blocking the subject in some sort of shape like in these photos:
The talent is blocked inside some sort of shape which directs the viewer’s eyes.
In conclusion, even photos taken in terrible conditions can be made to look great if you follow some rules … or maybe even break them.
I’m sorry to say this is my last blog post on this topic. Thank you for reading, I just feel bad ending so abruptly and with only a few techniques for actually taking better photos … alright, you convinced me, I’ll give you a bonus technique.
To add some flair to any photo, simply put some sort of light in the talent’s eyes or on their glasses. It will automatically appear to be a better photo (and you look like a more talented photographer). Here are some examples:
____________________________________________
– Michael Magnotti
Part-time writer, Michael Magnotti, thrives on leading passionate people to see the world in different ways. Although Michael writes about very different topics, he uses them all as an easy-to-read guide for seeing what you didn’t know was there!
____________________________________________