The topic of lecture 4 was picture stories in their many and
varied forms. It was a topic that I had never really given much thought, so it
was interesting to consider pictures and their prevalence in today’s society.
As it turns out, pictures are literally everywhere, from television, movies,
magazines, advertising, with even money containing pictorial representations.
Pictures are one of the oldest forms of communication, with discoveries of cave
paintings confirming this, and their place in history as a form of storytelling
is both valuable for both informational and societal purposes. Images can be a
useful accompaniment to a written piece, yet also have the ability to tell a
story on their own.
With the relatively recent development of digital images,
the issue of photoshop was raised in the lecture, with question being posed ‘is
it good or evil’. Whilst many models and actresses will no doubt espouse the
greatness of photoshop, the prospect of manipulating images to present an
unrealistic image is potentially dangerous. Photoshop is useful when it comes
to altering light and shading, or changing a tone here or there, however
sometimes the results can be disastrous. Below is a link that looks at the
lighter side of photoshop and its outcomes:
The lecture also discussed the composition of a good
photograph. This includes framing, angles, focus, exposure, timing and the rule
of thirds. The first are all rather self-explanatory, however a new concept to
me was the rule of thirds or ‘the golden mean’. This concept revolves around
dividing up an image to create points of interest for the viewer. Here is a
link which illustrates this concept:
Cinema also plays an important part in story telling with
pictures, as it can be used to get a message across to a wide audience. Not
only for entertainment purposes, motion pictures were used to distribute
information, in the forms of news reels in cinemas. The power of the medium was
exploited by some, with propaganda films being released throughout World War II
by the Nazi party. The idea of capturing events on film, however, changed the
way in which we consume news, as many people regularly watch news programs. On
the whole, the use of pictures as a form of storytelling is effective and
informative, and given its place throughout history, is a fibre of society.
No comments:
Post a Comment