Drag I

Drag is a black and white photo which kinda has quite an unique composition. The two doors, correspond with the cliche compositional rule, the rules of thirds. Whilst the bold white line runs along the bottom third of the picture, again complying with the rules of thirds. Also the main subject - which is the lady pushing the bike - is put into focus through the strong contrast between light and dark shades.

The three plants beside the doors also make reference to the rules of odds.

This shot was taken on the streets of Shanghai.

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The RAW file of this shot is as shown below

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EXIF Data:

• Nikon D3000
• 1/50 Seconds
• f/3.5
• 18mm (Using 18-55 VR 3.5-5.6/f, VR on)
• 200 ISO
• -2/3EV

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The photograph was processed in Lightroom 2.5

1. Converted in black and white
2. Curves adjusted to create more impact and contrast
3. Cropped and straightened to help the composition
4. Clarity increased

Afterwards it was just sharpened and converted to a suitable printing format in photoshop cs3.

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I chose not to add a border to this particular photograph; mainly because it was vertical photograph. I felt that borders would have diminished the overall impact of the photograph.

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The resulting piece can be seen:

Jonathan Lim

Restriction III

Restriction is a very conceptual piece, therefore some explanation of the concept would be significant.

Basically, Restriction is a piece that depicts the negative side of the Chinese workforce. It looks specifically at the working conditions of some workers, especially those who are caught in the trap of sweatshops.
The restriction element of this piece is created through the line structure, creating the shape 'X'. In addition to that the black and white scheme allows that element of seriousness to come about.

Overall, I am very happy with the piece. I felt that the line structure based composition is quite interesting and intriguing to the eye.

++ I love the bokeh (the circles) I felt that it really made the piece.

Jonathan Lim.

Restriction III

X - Restriction

By Jonathan Lim.

An abstract black and white photograph.

Restriction II

Restriction was taken in the hotel balcony I was staying at. I saw that there was quite an interesting line structure emerging from the balcony ledge. So, I took advantage of the moment.

By taking the image shown below. I was quite happy with the initial outcome as I thought I composed it quite well, capturing all the lines.

The unedited shot can be seen below:

EXIF Data

• Nikon D3000
• 1/13 Seconds
• f/5.6
• 55mm (Using 18-55 VR 3.5-5.6/f, VR on)
• 800 ISO
• 0EV

I felt that the shot lacked impact and punch. That is why the following edits were made.

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Adobe Lightroom 2.5

1. White balanced adjusted - Warmer
2. Decreased exposure
3. Increased blacks
4. Increased the vibrancy
5. Increased contrast
6. Recalibrated the shadow tint

From the edits done here, the image now looked like this:

From here the image was fine tuned in photoshop.

1. Shadows/Highlights - used to increase the highlights in the piece
2. Increased the saturation whilst decreasing the lightness.
3. Converted into the grey-scale through the use of a black and white gradient map
4. Added borders and watermark


After the processing done in Photoshop, the final outcome was achieved.

Restriction I

Restriction is an conceptual abstract photo that tries to illustrate the negative sides of the workforce in China. This is mainly referring to topics such as sweat workshops and unfair work conditions.

This shot again was inspired greatly from photographers on flickr.com .

There was one user truly inspired me when it came to abstract photography was an artist named Jeremy Walter.

Walter is a true photographer with a very unique eye for abstract shapes and line structures.

Some of his works can be shown below

As one can see from the images shown, Walter has an eye for patterns and interesting line structures. The colour in each photograph is very bold.

Deeper Issues IV

Deeper Issues is the first photo of my set of photographs that depict the Chinese workforce daily routine. It is a very dark dull start to the series but it immediately creates a striking atmosphere - serious atmosphere . But I really like this photograph. I think its composed quite well; like most of the subject is in the center of the frame but the only thing in focus is the back of the bicycle. The use of the vignette adds flow to the entire piece.
There's is lots of movement through the piece which was created through the use of panning.

Jonathan Lim.

Deeper Issues III

Declan McGarvey 

By Jonathan Lim.

An experimental emotional shot taken on the streets of Beijing.

Deeper Issues II

Whilst walking the streets of Shanghai, I took a number of experimental shots. One was a panning shot whilst the rest was just abstract shots. This can be seen in the screenshot below.

Shots were taken with a 18-55mm VR lens attached to a D3000 body.

All in all, I chose the experimental panning shot. The unedited version can be seen below.

This is quite a nice photo already but I really wanted to make different, and experimental.

The exif data for this shot is as follows

• Nikon D3000
• 1/15 Seconds
• f/5.0
• 30mm (Using 18-55 VR 3.5-5.6/f, VR on)
• 200 ISO
• 0EV

From here I started editing in Adobe Lightroom 2.5.

1. Increased the exposure and recovery of the photo (to preserve highlights)

2. Increase brightness whilst decreasing contrast

3. Cropped image severly

4. Adjusted curves (image provided)

5. Toned the highlights and shadows with greyish colours.

6. Added vignette

After Lightroom adjustments, the image was moved into Adobe Photoshop Cs3.

1. Sharpened
2. Added borders
3. Resized and converted to proper printing format and size.

After photoshop and lightroom adjustments, the photograph looked like this.

Jonathan Lim.

Deeper Issues I

The first photograph of my set is entitled Deeper Issues. It is a very experimental photograph with a dark colour scheme.

This photograph was inspired by experimental photographers across the world wide web, particularly Dennis Smith. I found Denis Smith's works through photo sharing site flickr.com. Smith has - in my opinion - a very unique and experimental style.

In all his works it features at least one light orb. Most of them are very simplistic in terms of composition, but simplicity most of the time is key. The pieces are unique as the light orb is exposed perfectly in the environment it is created in, he insists that there was no editing to the image, which therefore raises questions just how does he do it?

This photograph makes strong use of colours, using contrasting colours to create interest to the eye. 

As you can see from each shot, the composition is very strong. Through the strong and intelligent use of colours and shapes he is able to make the light orb appear as the main focus in the images whilst maintaining detail and proper composition in the background. This can be seen in the second photograph on the right side.

Personally, I love this unique style of his. He has very high skills in photography, which is shown by the way he maintains picture perfect exposure in all of his images without the use of editing programs.

Dennis Smith has been integral to the process of my own artworks as it teaches one to be unique and bold with their photography. In addition to that - for one to develop an individual style.

Jonathan Lim.

Selection + Order

From looking at an enormous amount of photographs, I have chosen the photographs that I wish to present as a set for this unit entitled 'cycles'. I have chosen a total of six photographs. Each photograph has been positioned precisely within the order, to create flow in my overall set. It the start it has a couple of day time cycling photos which are somewhat more expressive and conceptual compared to a few photographs in the set. Then a conceptual abstract is next. With that a transition from black and white photographs can be seen with the next half of photos presenting more themes of transportation/movement/business in colour.

Deeper Issues

Drag

X - Restriction

Stand Still

Movement

Stop Start Ending

\Here's a general link of all the photographs above: http://www.flickr.com/photos/glimjo/sets/72157625222012975/

Jonathan Lim.