Experimental Question:

How do different perspectives of photography affect the way people notice?

Recipe:

Based on the experimental one, I chose Royal Arcade as the place and took photos of it from different angles.

For this question, I prefer to choose a smaller subject as the example and then took some photos of it from different perspectives to create a sense of multiple shapes of photography. In addition, the images are the best method to reflect my question as well because people’s feelings and the things they notice are the best ways to solve the question, to achieve these ideas, the stillness images would give people enough time to help them to have further ideas on photos.

Ingredients:

• Ice-cream cup (as the main subject)
• Camera/phone for photographing
• Potted plant （as the prop)

Method:

STEP 1: Choose the main subject (ice-cream cup) and take it from different perspectives.

STEP 2: Ask some people as the viewers to discuss their feelings of these photos with different perspectives. The questionnaire as the following:

-Use one word to reflect your feelings of the series of photos.

-What do you notice in the series of photos?

-Do you prefer the photo from the detailed view or the whole?

-Do you think the light has an influence on the photo?

-Does the auxiliary item affect the photo?

-Which one of the series of photos gives you deep impression? Why?

STEP 3: Collecting the answers from the viewers and compare the same and different aspects.

Here are answers from five respondents:

Reflection:

From the experiment and responses from the viewers, people always have similar feelings when the main subject is a certain tiny thing. For example, the responses are ‘colourful and make them hungry’ for the first question.

In addition, the viewers may more focus on the main subject than the prop. In another word, the prop, such as leaves, did a small work in the images.

By combining the feedback of the second question, there is a deeper thought, when the viewers looked at the series of photos, colours, lights and different perspectives are the aspects they noticed at the great extent and these elements would have different feelings of the combination of the structure of photos.

To combine the feedback of question two, four and six, I found the effect of colours and lights did a huge role in photos. One of the respondents said ‘the light and the shadow can bring different composition and colour to the photo’ and another one said ‘I think the lighting highlights features of the dessert and light capture certain details such as the chocolate sauce or highlights the creamy colour of the ice cream.’

Based on their responses, I found noticing the subject from different angles have the influence on colours, lights so that bring them different feelings. Meanwhile, there are inner links among lights, colours and photos and the changes of lights would cause the changes of colours on photos. Moreover, most of the viewers would change their focuses and understanding of photos because of the changes of colours. Therefore, for the next experimental question, I would like to research on the influence of colours on the viewer’s understanding on photos.

Media:

Studio Discussion – Some Prompt:

Are you making patterns to notice new things or are there patterns out there in the world that you are trying to notice?

-For the three experimental, the patterns I made are more closing to the pattern of noticing new things. Three questions I came up with do not only rely on the surface of the photos, I prefer to have deeper thoughts of the meaning of photos and the influence of them, such as the observation and emotion; angles of photos and noticing and colour of photos and people’s understanding.

Are you glimpsing in or observing slowly? What are the differences?

-For the first experimental, glimpsing in is more suitable because I would like to the respondents more focused on the first impression/feeling. The key word for the first question is ‘observe’, so the things they notice for the first glance would decide their emotions and this is the answers what I need from them.

-The second experimental is more biased towards to observing slowly. The photos of the same subject from different angles would be boring, but it is necessary for the respondents to discover the differences and similarities of these photos so that to come up with the conclusion through their noticing.

-The last experimental is combined these two methods. The colour of photos would affect people’s first feelings directly, especially the conditions I set are warm-toned colour and cold-toned colour. Therefore, glimpsing in is the initial step in the experimental. However, to reply the questionnaire, it is necessary for the respondents to think further about photos in the aspect colours through the process of noticing,

How is the medium (photography/video/sound) you’re using to notice shaping what is available to be noticed in the media?

-I used photography as the media for all of three experimental because photography can make things still so that it is easier to give the viewer’s time to think about the emotions and feelings.

How is the particular technology you’re using (IPhone, DSLR, Zoom recorder) shaping what is available to be noticed?

-For the first experimental, I used iPhone to take photos because I needed to more focus on the first feeling or something you notice at the first glance, so it is not necessary that photos need to be very beautiful, the responses I needed is the first impression.

-For the second one, DSLR would be a better choice. The condition I set up for the second experimental is to choose a subject as the main item and shoot it from different angles. DSLR could adjust the focal point and have higher quality pixels etc. and these advantages are helpful to get the viewer’s attention and easier to compare each photo in a deeper form of noticing.

-I used DSLR for the third experimental as well. The different colour tones are the crucial point in this experimental, so the quality of photos would decide people’s emotions and feelings. The quality of iPhone and DSLR is obvious, to get more accurate responses, DSLR would be more suitable for the experimental.

What does your media pay attention to?

-The viewer’s feelings.

Would you position what you are making as documentary, nonfiction, experimental or somewhere in-between? Why?

-I believe I am making the experimental because the focus I pay attention to is people’s feeling, emotions and understandings, there is no references or storylines as the background, it is more like experiments what I am doing.