Emily-P5

Photo Assignment Name: Ambiguous Space

Student Name: Emily Smith

Group Name:The Snapshots

Title: Right On

Tags: cropping, hand, ambiguous

For this assignment, I debated on a few shots that I had taken. I finally decided to do an extreme cropping of this photo. I feel like this photo meets the requirements of this assignment since one of the options we could choose from was doing an extreme cropping of something to make it ambiguous. I could probably go back and crop this photo more or change its position, but I liked the way this photo appears. I thought about changing this to black and white and then decided against that photo. Have you figured out what this object is?

For me, I am usually the person who rarely crops and "cuts away" part of the picture. Even when I was scrapbooking a few years ago, I would hardly ever crop a photo very much. Now that I have experimented with cropping for this class, I know that I can make some every day items appear ambiguous and that can be a creative writing prompt for my students. I am not afraid to crop away the pictures now; I know that the original is also saved on my computer. I can always go back and view the original and also show the original to my students once they have done the writing or guessing. I enjoyed this ambiguous assignment. This is an extreme cropping of my Dad's right thumb nail. :O)

Self Evaluation (45-50 pts.) || 80 – 89% (40 - 44 pts.) || <80% (<40 pts.) || Critique Comments:
 * Category || Strong || Adequate || Weak ||
 * Concept || Does an outstanding job of communicating the concept. || Does an adequate job communicating the concept. || Does a poor job communicating the concept. ||
 * Composition || Photograph uses composition principles very effectively. || Photograph does a good job using composition principles. || Photograph does a poor job using composition principles. ||
 * Focus || Focus is a perfect match with the concept of the shot. || Focus is an adequate match with the concept of the shot. || Focus is a poor match with the concept of the shot. ||
 * Technical Aspects || Shutter speed and aperture were perfectly chosen to match concept. || Shutter speed and aperture were adequately chosen to match concept. || Shutter speed and aperture were poorly chosen and do not match the concept. ||
 * Depth of Field || Excellent use of depth-of-field. || Adequate use of depth-of-field. || Poor use of depth-of-field. ||
 * Title/tags || Title and tags were perfectly chosen and written to express the content and concept. Spelling and word choice are excellent with no mistakes. || Title and tags were adequately chosen and written to express the content and concept. Spelling and word choice are good with only minor errors. || Title and tags were poorly chosen and written to express the content and concept. Contains multiple spelling errors or wrong word choices. ||
 * ** Instructor evaluates this section ** ||
 * Self Critique || Excellent self-assessment. Written comments meet or exceed requirements. || Adequate self-assessment. Written comments meet requirements. || Poor self-assessment. Written comments do not meet requirements. ||
 * Peer Critique || Excellent peer assessment. Written comments meet or exceed requirements. || Adequate peer assessment. Written comments meet requirements. || Poor peer assessment. Written comments do not meet requirements. ||
 * Peer Comments || Peer comments exceed expectations. || Peer comments meet expectations. One or two comments might be missing. || Three or more peer comments were missing, incomplete or poorly written. ||
 * Total Points || >89%
 * Total Points || >89%

Peer Critique Name: Jacki (45-50 pts.) || 80 – 89% (40 - 44 pts.) || <80% (<40 pts.) ||  Critique Comments: Jacki - Emily, I had no idea what your picture was, until you said that it was your dad's thumb nail. I still then had to look and see what I was looking for. So, it definitely fits the ambiguous space assignment. I know it is really hard to get perfect focus for an extreme close-up and cropped picture, but that would be my suggestion; more in focus. I would try and add more light to the object to see if that would clear it up. Good job! Mike - Emily, Good shot. This has been the most difficult assignment that I have had so far. I was not sure when I saw your picture what part of the body it was ( I thought it was an ear). It definitely fits the ambiguous assignment. I know that it is hard to get a photo that is cropped //to the extreme// to be in focus. That might be the only improvement I might suggest. The slightly out-of-focus makes it hard to define and that is also the beauty of it. I don't know what type of camera you have, but you could possibly use some type of close-up filter to help (if yours accepts filters).
 * Category || Strong || Adequate || Weak ||
 * Concept || Does an outstanding job of communicating the concept. || Does an adequate job communicating the concept. || Does a poor job communicating the concept. ||
 * Composition || Photograph uses composition principles very effectively. || Photograph does a good job using composition principles. || Photograph does a poor job using composition principles. ||
 * Focus || Focus is a perfect match with the concept of the shot. || Focus is an adequate match with the concept of the shot. || Focus is a poor match with the concept of the shot. ||
 * Technical Aspects || Shutter speed and aperture were perfectly chosen to match concept. || Shutter speed and aperture were adequately chosen to match concept. || Shutter speed and aperture were poorly chosen and do not match the concept. ||
 * Depth of Field || Excellent use of depth-of-field. || Adequate use of depth-of-field. || Poor use of depth-of-field. ||
 * Title/tags || Title and tags were perfectly chosen and written to express the content and concept. Spelling and word choice are excellent with no mistakes. || Title and tags were adequately chosen and written to express the content and concept. Spelling and word choice are good with only minor errors. || Title and tags were poorly chosen and written to express the content and concept. Contains multiple spelling errors or wrong word choices. ||
 * ** Instructor evaluates this section ** ||
 * Self Critique || Excellent self-assessment. Written comments meet or exceed requirements. || Adequate self-assessment. Written comments meet requirements. || Poor self-assessment. Written comments do not meet requirements. ||
 * Peer Critique || Excellent peer assessment. Written comments meet or exceed requirements. || Adequate peer assessment. Written comments meet requirements. || Poor peer assessment. Written comments do not meet requirements. ||
 * Peer Comments || Peer comments exceed expectations. || Peer comments meet expectations. One or two comments might be missing. || Three or more peer comments were missing, incomplete or poorly written. ||
 * Total Points || >89%
 * Total Points || >89%


 * __Kevin__-** Emily, I never dropped pictures much before either. Now, I am rather addicted. It can make such a difference and create many pictures out of one. This is a good example of cropping and of extreme close-up (one of my favorites). To that end, the space is ambiguous, but some other perspective would make it more ambiguous. That is, some other stimuli to compare and be confused over- if that’s possible in this shot. A suggestion for improvement is to lighten the shot. The shot is nicely conformed with the sunken space or darker area at the top of the screen.

Donna- Emily, it took me several minutes to see the thumbnail even after you identified it. To me, it looks like the space on a hand between the thumb and index finger. Very ambiguous:) and an interesting selection. The photo could be more focused, but if it were, it wouldn't be as ambiguous. Another idea would be to apply a Photoshop pattern filter to further confuse your viewer.