Terry's Padlet by Lam (Terry) Phan

Make it Like Hurley Idea

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-08-22 04:52:46 UTC

26/08

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-08-26 12:37:57 UTC

Today I looked at some of the photos that I took last class and determined the setting with others components that I want to place around in the picture. One thing that I really like is how the kids is running in the foreground of the picture to create more depth of the whole picture, but one thing I would do differently is the sizing of the kids, because I think some of the kids should be smaller in order to fit in the right place that I want them to be in.

Composite & Negative 28/08

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-09-09 02:49:10 UTC

Today I played around with some photoshop techniques on the app to create my image. At first my setting was the kid’s playground in the backfield, but the foreground of the picture was still missing something, so I edited 2 kids running infants. Furthermore, I also edited in 2 kids sitting on the spinning wheel behind which before there was no one. Another kid on the sand just fell down from the slide. And lastly, a kid sitting on the grass just like it just got off the playground with a ball next to it. After that, I did struggle a bit with turning it to a negative image on the app, but in the end I did make it into a negative image in order to prepare to print next time.

Cyanotype 03/09 (fabric)

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-09-09 02:50:39 UTC

Today we learned about the blue print and how it works, so we did it on the cyanide fabric with our negative photo that we printed out on the film paper last time. At first we print the photo on the fabric with different intervals of time to see the perfect time in order for our photo to show up the best on the fabric. For me, I did an interval each 15 seconds, up till around 1 minute and 45 seconds. I found that my fabric after being soaked in water and hydrogen peroxide still needed a bit more exposure, so at the end I tried to print it on the fabric as a whole picture for 2 minutes. After that I still soaked it in hydrogen peroxide in order to fasten the oxidized process which turns out like this picture here!

Cyanotype 05/09 (paper)

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-09-09 02:57:18 UTC

Today we printed the negative picture that we did 2 classes ago on a different material instead of the fabric that we did last class. I used the amount of time that the exposure turned out perfectly when I experimented with the last class, so I did 2 minutes (120 seconds). First we coated the printing paper with the green chemical and brush it to create a light layer equally before I can print the cyanotype on. Then after the paper is dry, we print the negative film paper that we did last time on the fabric, instead we will print it on this paper this time. This picture is the one with the duration of 2 minutes of exposure and without hydrogen peroxide added on top. The second picture I did in class is the one also with the duration of 2 minutes of exposure but with the hydrogen peroxide. The second picture is a bit blurry because I accidentally moved it during the process. After this, I can compare how the picture turned out on the different materials. On the fabric last time it was more blue, with the dark shades of blue and light blue. So I think that being too blue might be a con because you can not see it as clearly as the paper, because the finish I feels like it is a bit blurred. But a pro for printing on the fabric is that it has a softer finish and it kind of reduce the intenseness of the light that comes through the white part. While on the paper, we can see the picture more clearly, even though it is blue but you can kinda tell it is more like black and white on the paper with a hint of blue rather than the whole picture being blue. I think that is a pro of printing on paper, because it turns out to be a bit more black and white and clearer to see the different details, but I would say a cons of this is the light that comes through like on the top of the picture, it is a bit bright and intense as well. Besides doing this today, we also created the different layers that are printed on the film sheets too!

Self-assessment document

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-09-09 09:40:02 UTC

Cyanotype large print on paper 09/09

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-09-11 01:51:47 UTC

End result of cyanotype print on large paper!

Cyanotype playday 11/09

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-09-11 11:33:58 UTC

I chose my negatives based on the theme that I wanted to do. So I wanted to do something with flowers and forest, so I choose all the negative with trees in the back as my background, then I added flowers, and lastly some animals like the deer and the bird. I think at first I was just really playing around with the layout not really thinking about the meaning, but as I play with it I want it to convey a picture of forest which will looks really cool since I know that the negative part will be filled out and the dark part will be white which will looks like the forest at night. I really focus on playing around with the negatives because I want it to look like the forest in the dark at night so my negative picture planning was really dark on the trees and leaves while the background is clear so the exposure can come through. The principle design that I focus on as I mentioned was really the contrast between the negative allowing exposure to come through and filled in so it will make like it is a forest in the dark with the animals and flowers.

Overall, after many trials with different materials, I have a better understanding on this process and how I can find the different intervals of time that will make the exposure looks the best. This way it can make my printing looks just perfect, not underexposed or overexposed that is harder to see the details in my image. I think that the applications that I could potentially use for is the exposure through the negatives, the darker the image is then it should be exposed to UV for a longer period of time in order to bring out that image better.

Playday Cyanotype Final Product! 11/09

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-09-11 11:35:13 UTC

Final cyanotype print on large paper 11/09

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-09-11 11:36:44 UTC

Lighting Set Up Plans 15/09

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-09-15 08:17:19 UTC

Today we were introduce to our next unit lighting and the position of it. So we were just experimenting the different set up and lighting position. Our main plan was the 3 points light which includes infront is the key light, and to the side a bit infront is the fill light which to fills in the shadow since th key light might be a bit too overpowering. And in the back we have the back light which will helps pop out the object more because without it the object will tend to blend in with the background more. So that is what we kind of experiment in the photo above with a Labubu. We have the key light which is the main light infront and it have a warm yellow color. But we try something different with the fill light and use cool tone instead so the Labubu looks less yellow and looks brighter as well. Then at the back we use a flashlight as a backlight so you can see the Labubu popped out a bit more from the background and there is a light shadow of it as well. Besides this plan, there are also alternatives that we came up with the different combinations of lighting. The second alternative was to not have the back light which will only be 2 lights, that way the object will blend in the background more and have the pop. The third alternative was to have 4 points light which I want to add another light right infront on top of the object, this way will really make the object brighter and enhance the front of the object. And lastly we can do the key light in front to the side and the back light in the back but we won't have the fill light. Without the fill light, and the key light infront to the side a bit will cause the other side to be darker like creating shadow on the other side of the object, and this might be a really cool option to consider.

3 Point Lighting 19/09

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-09-19 09:59:42 UTC

For today's lab, we did 3 points lighting with cool lighting with our plan and our object. Last class which is the same thing but with the warm lighting, but I was absent so I couldn't compare much. But from what I did today in class was 3 points lighting so the key light infront, then I have my fill light on the left side and a back light that are all cool lighting which makes the picture and the object looks brighter in white light. With this technique and my plan, I really think the back light makes a pop out of the object from the black background. The fill light really makes the objects brighter and doesn't let the key light take over causing the left side to be darker since the fill light fills in that part. With the use of the back light and the fill light that is why you can see the 2 shadow, but that way it can make the object looks brighter and stands out more than without the back light. I can't really say which one I prefer since I haven't try it with the warm lighting, but I think it also depends on the object and the background I'm taking it with too. I think now I do have a better understanding of how light affects the subject too because I learned that the 3 main lights which we have here: key light, fill light, back light all takes a very important job. Of course, we wouldn't need all of them, sometimes we have less, sometimes we even have more combination of lights other than just these 3. But the location and the placement of the light really affects how pop off the subject would be or what the mood is. For just taking an object like this and using this 3 point lighting is really good, because I think without the back light my object would blend in the background a bit more not really pop off and have that dense feeling when looking at it. And without the fill light, the left side will be darker because the key light infront is overpowering on the object. So the fill light is too fills that place in and make the object brighter in general as well. So overall, the placement of lighting is very important too, especially when taking a picture or shooting a movie it could really tell a mood of a scene or tells a particular story with the lighting.

Pattern Mockup Photoshop 23/09

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-09-23 15:08:14 UTC

Today we learned a lighting editing techniques that makes our photo lighting looks better than the original. After we practice that technique on 3 photos that we took from the past, we then did it on the lighting photo that we took last class on our object, which is the first picture on the left side above. After we finished editing that picture, we then did a mockup of a different patter on the object, in this case I chose a blue stars patter to put on my object and the result is the picture on the right side. I think that the most powerful insight or technique about masking especially AI masking in camera raw that I discovered in the video is being able to select a particular part and then use a pattern of our choice to put it on the selected part being blurred out to make it looks like the object have that pattern. I think that this might change the way I approach photo editing is because now I can play more with the different patterns and looks that I could have on an object to make it more interesting and fun rather than just playing with the lighting and angles. I think that during this process of using masking in photoshop camera raw, I faced a lot of challenges since it is also my first time, which is the picture turned out a bit more yellow than I wanted it to be. I think that the lighting and the edges could have been smoother and less yellow so it could make it looks more natural even with the lighting being brighter. I think that this happened because I followed exactly how the video showed me, but that would works better on photos that are taken outside that have a brighter background and overall lighting. But with the lighting photo that I used is darker, so using mostly the same numbers when editing the different parts like exposure, sharpness, dehaze, etc would cause my picture will turn out to be more yellow and a bit unnatural for some parts. Also the edges of the light shining in the corner I could play around a bit more of where I'm placing it too depending on the picture and where the object is placed not necessary placing it on the top right corner. I think that a way that I can overcome these challenges is I can follow the video steps but the number that I put in I need to be looking at the picture while editing so it fits with how my picture is going to turn out, wether if it is too yellow, too dark, or too bright. Monitoring how my photo changes throughout the whole process is what I need to adapt to in order for the result to look more natural and better rather than turns out to be a bit unnatural when following exactly the same thing as the video. I think that overall, the technique and the artistic approach is effective for some photos but not for every single one. I think it really depends on the composition of the photos and where the objects is place or what kind of photos it is. If we are focusing on a particular object or thing then I think this technique works really well to bring out the object and focus on it, but for some photos like the scenery without a particular object then it can look a bit weird with the top corner haze like sun shining inward. Like for example one of my picture where I edit the flowers on the ceiling in the atrium it looks very unnatural since the flowers is spreaded throughout the whole photo so the sunlight haze makes it looks a bit weird. While it looks way better with the photo of a singular tree with yellow flowers and the light is shining towards the tree. After watching, I think that I feel motivated to learn more about how to identify where is the best place to make the lighting brighter, or where to make it darker in order to create that pop and concentration on my object. A tool that I really want to explore in the future if can is maybe photoshop something out or blurred it out in the background in order to focus on my main object more.

3 Photos Photoshop with Lighting Technique 23/09

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-09-23 15:10:01 UTC

These are the 3 photos that I took beginning of the year and practiced the lighting technique that we learned today in class on these photos before doing the lighting photo and mockup photoshop.

Collage Effect 25/09

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-09-25 10:41:20 UTC

Today we did collage effect which is a technique that overlays different collages over a object picture. So we first used the 4 collages that were provided for us, and today I picked an image of a cake that I had which is easier to do the collage overlays without anything in the background. This collage technique is different from the overlay technique because this works with more layers. This we had 4 different collage layers while the overlay technique mock up is just another pattern that overlays on an object. This collage technique shows a more diverse with different patterns of collage and colors making the picture looks more creative and it have a lot of contrast of colors too. But for this particular technique, we couldn't quite work with the different colors yet because the different colors like pop colors might make the picture doesn't blend out well. So the 4 colleges that we use are grey, black, red, and white. While the other technique, while we only get to use 1 pattern but it can be any pattern no matter of the color and overlay it over the object.

Mockup Picture Picture 2

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-09-25 10:42:08 UTC

Situated Portrait Planning

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-09-30 08:30:50 UTC

So today we started planning for the situated portrait project. So above is my plan for the picture and the concept of what I'm planning to do. So the subject that I'm gonna shoot will be an older couple which will possibly be my grandparents or my parents. Because the concept that I want to do is more romantic style and the love between married couple that had been together for a really long time but it is like young love again when they were back in their 20s. This shoot will be taken at night to create that romantic vibe so the lighting I will be using warm lighting. The backlight will be the street light which is not so bright but create that warmth romantic vibe at night and making the subject not too dark. I will also turn the exposure down to create that dark vibe at night of a couple taking a stroll together. But I'll also be using a warm LED light infront as my key light so the subject wouldn't be too dark. I will also try a couple of flash shot if I'm taking a close up shot to see their expression better. So as I already mentioned about my concept, I really want to communicate a beautiful love story of a married couple taking a walk at night but still act like a couple that just started dating back then, like young love. The location will be taken place at a park at night fills with lots of trees and flowers and the walkside have street lights, it will be more like a realism photoshoot to convey a love story. For the costume part, the female will be wearing a long dress that is leaning towards a brighter color to make her look young again. While the male will be in polo shirt and cargo pants, preferably white so it will go well with the bright colored dress of the female. I will also be using make up but very minimal. For female I will be using a bright lipstick possibly red to make them look young again, and a little flush to the cheeks, but really focus on the hair make it curly to fit with the style of old school young love and also grandma/mother age right now, so it can go back and forth between the present style for older age women or old school style of women back in their times. And for the male, there won't be any makeup besides the hair, it will be slicked back to make it looks more clean and neat, and also old school style of men back in their times which will make them look younger too. I think that I will not focus too much on props because I'm making the park as my location and background for my shoot as well as the actions and poses of my subjects that will tell a story. But I'm also planning maybe I can also have a bicycle which is what old school love back then use when a man want to go see his lover, they would ride a bicycle to their lover house to meet them. I think that for my shoot the subject will be in the middle and I will also be playing around with the compositions a bit, but for now my top priority is still in the middle of the walkway, but I will also try some others angles such as lower angles looking up from the couple holding hand and the warm light shining down which makes it looks very romantic. The color of the background which is the park shouldn't be too overwhelming or too much color or else the audience wouldn't be focusing on the subjects, so the location of the background in the park shouldn't have too many things going on or somewhere with few to no people in the background so we can just focus on the couple.

Lighting Lab #2 02/10

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-10-03 06:33:21 UTC

Today for lighting lab #2, we went outside and find a location in school that doesn't really show that it is in SSIS and took some shot and play around with the lighting. We also did play around with the 3 points lighting and the different combinations in class with objects. But above is the 2 examples of the shot I took of Lila in the new ES library with lighting from the window shining in. I took that sunlight lighting that shine into the window as a natural back light. I think after today lab, I don't think I will change much from my plan besides I want to try a few angles for my plan not just the subject in the middle. Because like the first picture I took of Lila on the side, I think it looks really good with the light shining down, so I think this angle might works for my story too, but instead of the sunlight light it will be the street lights at night. So I think besides this, there won't be any changes because through these shots that I took around the library it made me feel like having the back lighting using the street light would be a good idea and also the key light infront to make it brighter like I planned, because in the library I didn't have the key light infront so when I do the shot where Lila is in the middle the front looks dark so we wouldn't be able to see their expressions and emotions through the photo. So I decided to stick with my original plan but during the shot I will try different angles like on the side and at last I will chose the best option that I got but the lighting plan I will still keep it the same.

Printing Technique Experiment 08/10

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-10-08 11:10:39 UTC

Today we finished doing this printing technique which is using the collage that we created and printed it out then stick it on the printing paper by using the white coat glue, after that we wet it then put the fabric on top, and on top of everything we put a wax paper then put it in the heat press so the image can transfer to the printing paper. The first layer, I cutted my image to 6 equal squares so it can transfer better without pealing. So after it went through the heat press, we damped it with water and start pealing the paper off which will left us with the image on the printing paper. Then after that I did another layer which is just the copied of the birthday cake but moved it down a bit. The only problem that I encountered for the second layer is that the image started to peel with the paper too and not sticking to the print paper. I think this is because it is still too damped when I glue the second layer so it doesn't stick well enough and transfer the picture to the printing paper, therefore it peeled off with the paper at the end too. But otherwise, I think the first layer turned out nicely with the whole image got transferred and the color showed up pretty nicely. But one thing I would do differently is wait for the paper to be dryer before doing the second layer to prevent the image from peeling as well.

Final Situated Portrait 10/10

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-10-10 13:02:44 UTC

I think that the final product align with my initial plan pretty much the same. Even though I did tried to take few others shot from the different places in the park, but my initial location that I wanted still turned out to be the best one. So my initial plan was having my grandparents in the middle properly holding hand or having a bike next to them as a tool just like old school love before. They did also dress up according to what I originally planned. I think everything turned out the way I wanted, the only bit difference was the lighting there was more lit that what I had imagined, but I think that contribute to the picture a brighter mood and also made it more romantic too. The lighting plan, I kept the same which is having the back light by using the street lamp, and infront I had my key light while shooting which did actually brighten my grandparents faces. I actually didn't intend to have fill light, but the lights on the left side kinda act like a fill light somehow as well. Now moving to the meaning of the scene and the elements part, the story that I was trying to tell in this situated portrait is a romance story of a married couple that still acted like young love again especially old school type of love. So I had my grandparents in the middle of the walking street in the park to show like a romantic date at night, he is on his bicycle which represents how old school love before when the male always ride bicycle to pick up their girlfriend. Then my grandma holding on to him to showing the affectionate love that they are having, and the smiles and eyes which shows that they are in love with each other. Furthermore, the outfits that they are wearing like my grandpa is wearing long pants with tucked in polo shirts while my grandma is a long flower dress which represent youth and her old days when she was still young. So overall, with all the elements, I was really trying to tell even though they were together for a very long time and love each other deeply, but this still show that mentally they still have a very pure love like young love back in the old days. So overall, based on this picture, there are quite a lot of elements that you can find as context to the meaning of the story and what is the story I'm trying to tell. And talking about the masking technique, at first the picture was not having much life to it, but I decrease the exposure and make the background darker, just really left the light shining which shows a more romantic night. Then I had the radical gradient on the backlight specifically the one on the right brighter to act as a back light for the picture, this way will make my subject pops out better and really focus on them rather than everything else that is going on in the background.

Masking for Field Trip Picture 14/10

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-10-14 13:41:57 UTC

Today in class we just looked over the field trip photos that we took the other day going to the fabric factory which was really fun! I choose 3 photos to do masking edit on, and this is one of them. For this picture, I lowered the exposure down more so we can see the details and also add some warm tone color to make it looked more like factory like and a bit of vintage vibe to it. Furthermore, I increase the main lighting on the light on the top and focusing on the light coming from the top direction downward not everywhere then it wouldn't make the photo looked popped out. So it was just trials on practicing the masking edits on different photos that we took during the field trip!

Intro to Street Photography 04/11

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-11-04 09:40:10 UTC

After listening to the podcast I think that the proposed rules and definitions shape the evolving practice of street photography in a unique way that no others type of photography can show us. Like the photographs must be candid so the subject shouldn't be aware of them being taken. Furthermore, it shouldn't be staged so it should be unplanned and capture in the sudden moment of time. Furthermore, street photography doesn't need to have people in there, but one unique thing is that it must leave behind presence of life like a shoe, or an bitten apple to prove that someone or something was there. And like the term street photography it should be in public or maybe just like semi-public, at a place where the scene occurs like we are just capturing moments in people's everyday lives. All of these had led up to the idea of street photography, and through times it evolve to be in a way that photographs can be taken and interpret with meaning behind those photographs. So it should have a meaning behind it or an interesting story that it could tell from the moment captured. So it is very different from others photographs since it is like capturing in the moment without anything plan or notice for the subject and that way it can really tells us a story or an event that happened in the moment being captured.

Photograph Contrast Scan Lines Editing 11/11

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-11-11 12:14:13 UTC

So today in class we are prepping the image that we took before printing it out next class. And in my opinion, for street photography, it would be acceptable to edit the photos in this manner because it is not adding in any elements or having layers of different things to make it something like a collage where you can edit things in. This kind of editing is just the lighting and contrast edit so it is not actually ruining the "candid" photo and unplanned photograph that we had taken, still keeping it natural and following the rules of street photography. And I feel like this somehow helps the fluidity of this picture a bit more as it flows better and somewhat captures the dynamic movements of the things happening in this photograph in order for the audience to follow through the story. Furthermore, it also focus on the object/subjects more with this kind of editing and somehow emphasize more on the key point to the story and I think that could potentially help move it forward making it better for the audience to follow through the story while still keeping the key concept of street photography that we are not adding layers or elements on top of each other and still keeping it "original" and "candid". So sometimes, I feel like it can be fine if we break rules, but depending on the rules that we are breaking. For example, we might edit it slightly a bit different from the original with different techniques, BUT still keeping the original photo not adding in any other components or elements or layers to the photograph. As well as the photograph still has to be candid and unplanned for sure in order for it to be called street photography. So overall, I think that sometimes we can make a few exceptions from the rules, but depending on the rules because some of it we still must follow it in order for it to be considered street photography.

Rastercut machine 13/11

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-11-13 05:26:41 UTC

Today in class we did the raster cut with the 5 images that we edited last class. Above was a picture of the raster cut in process, but it will take around an hour so we still haven't have our final result yet. I have a video but it couldn't upload of how it works but this is a picture during the process. So we use a mathboard as a substrate to the raster machine but I think it can also be used on other materials like earlier we also saw it can be used on aluminum/metal which was pretty cool. I think that the materials should be thick in order to use this machine and for the image to show up better. Besides, I think another material that it would be cool doing it on is wood. I think that beside just pressing a button for this raster cut, we can expand this tool by layer the different layers of value which would create a gradient effect. So our picture we have different tones, so black, white, and grey as well. I think what if we can have the picture in different tones and layers like 1 layer of the black, 1 layer of the grey, and 1 layer of the white. Then we can run the machine 3 times with the layers on top of each other, that would create a deeper gradient and effect I think. So overall, today was really cool experiencing with the raster cut machine and next class we will be able to see the results and work more on it.

17/11 lab experiment printing press

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-11-17 03:53:01 UTC

Today we got to see our raster cut which was pretty nice. Some of the pictures turned out a bit too dark because I think it was because of the grey mid-tones that is the dominant one causing it to not turn out with a lot of contrast. But the rest looks pretty cool. Then we used the printing press in order to get the carbon on the rastercut to the print paper, but it didn't turned out that clear so we added some charcoal on the raster to print it. But it still didn't turn out that clear, I think I will need to work more on the amount of charcoal that I will be using next time in order to make the print looks better. I think besides doing it on printing paper using the printing press, I think there are others materials that would be really cool to try on like maybe using water color to transfer the color, or maybe just markers and color pens to transfer the colors to the printing paper. Or maybe using markers to outline the details part so when using the printing press, the little details on the raster cut will showed up and we can see the picture more clearly.

19/11 Experiment Lab Day on Different Materials and Ways

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-11-20 14:16:25 UTC

Today we had a play day with experimenting using the raster cut and the printing press on different materials not just the printing paper. So the extensions that I made on the cuts through the press is first I know from last class that just printing the raster cut without adding the carbon would not show anything, so this time we found the right amount of charcoal that could be added which was thicker and more, and I also use an eraser to wipe up the charcoal on the white part so when it print out the white part will show more and we can see the details easier. Then first of all, I print on the piece of thin wood, but before that I need to sand the wood or else it wouldn't work on the smooth surface. Then when I print it out, it did showed up and with the wood textures it turned out to be pretty cool, but I think I still need a bit more charcoal on the darker side to show a better image. Then I also did the same image on the printing paper, but this time I cut out some more parts on the rastercut, I created more white lines because the whole picture overall was dominated by the black so I just want to make more contrast so I cute out some lines to make it white, which turns out pretty nice on the printing press as well, but I think it could have been better if I just add a little bit more of charcoal. Then the third one that I did was using the raster cut and water color to paint on it then print press the raster cut to transfer the color. I think this was a different way of printing it that I want to try, but I would also count it as not really successful as you can see in the picture. I feel like the color did transfer but I feel like the color could have been a bit darker as well, and the details didn't showed up that much so I think that what could help is using drawing black marker to draw out the little details on the raster cut, this way I think it would transfer the black marker on the print paper which would showed better details and turns out more clear. So I think that what I could do next time to enhance my work is for details pictures especially one that I'm not using my charcoal but even if I do use charcoal, for details spot on the raster cut I will still be using the black drawing pen in order to draw out the details and when it transfer on the print paper it will show up better. I think that the biggest take away from this play experience is that there are multiple ways to approach this and it can be a creative way that we didn't do but it is all about experiment and, if it does work it will turn out to be really cool. So I think that just keep trying with different materials and after each trial see what I could improve like especially focus on the details of the raster cut and see how we could transfer those details onto the printing paper. If the things doesn't work then just change the materials and our ways!

Play day 21/11

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-11-21 12:05:53 UTC

Street Photography

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-11-27 02:49:43 UTC

This picture is taken from a restaurant where you can see the chefs cook. This was taken when the chefs' assistants where preparing the plates for the food. I haven't done any post editing to this picture yet. I think this would be considered street photography since it is taken out at a public place, and it is a candid moment so it is unplanned and they don't know I was taken a picture of them. Based on the picture, you could also tell the story behind it.

01/12 Ink Day on my engraving drawing + Reflection

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-12-01 02:14:51 UTC

So in this picture I ink a picture of a drawing that I made instead of the editing. But if you look at the post below, I did edited a picture using the waves techniques to create the patterns on the photos that I can use for engraving in the future. But particularly for this picture today that I inked using my drawing, I used the engrave tool and worked around a lot of cross-hatching and lines using different pressures to create different darkness levels on the picture. I think that this affect the final pictures of how much ink it is being able to take in and the deeper I used the engraving tools the darker the lines going to be when we print them out. But I think that there are some lines I need to engraved them to be deeper and have more textures so it showed up better and clearer because some of the lines were a bit light in my opinion. So for the inking, how I control the amount of ink is first when we take the ink out, we need to massage the ink in order to increase the elasticity of the ink and make it more fluid in order for it to sit in the engraving lines better. Then we use the roller in order to spread it out evenly and just take an even layer of ink to roll it on our engraving. We just only roll an even layer of ink on our engraving picture and make sure the ink sits in the lines, then we use a rag in order to wipe of the excess ink leaving only the ink that sits inside the engraving lines so when we print it only showed that. I think that the challenges that I faced while achieving this is that my engraving lines some of it was not as deep as I wanted it to be, therefore there wasn't a lot of ink sitting inside so the final product didn't turned out that dark as I wanted to. Another challenge that I faced was I might sprayed a bit too much water therefore the ink kind of drip down when I used the printing press therefore the final product doesn't look that clean and white on the highlight parts. But overall, it was pretty fun and cool to tried out this new technique!

01/12 Engrave Editing

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-12-01 02:15:18 UTC

09/12 Reflection on the Different Printing Process

lphan27_1_1 — 2025-12-09 03:20:20 UTC

So the pictures above are the process of printing on the PCP board by using a printing press then after that we put it in the iron chloride so it can eat away copper so the photo itself is the emulsion itself resist the iron chloride creating an edging image that we can later put ink on and let it go over the printing press to create the final product. For the reflection of this process, I think that my understanding of texture and value evolves a lot as we edit our picture as black and white, editing the values so when we print out we have a balance of values that would eventually show a picture. After that we would print it on the different materials like we did the raster cut also the same idea as the copper plate but it is just different materials that we use. I think that the process is pretty much similar except it is using different materials. But for the copper plate, we also using the heat press to have the picture printed on the copper, while the raster cut is using laser cut machine to create the edging images. I think that the editing part is the most important in order for it to have different values and textures that would eventually affect how the image is being edges. If the picture is too dark, which is one of the case for my raster cut, there is too many grey value that it didn't really show up much values or difference therefore printing it on the paper wouldn't show much of a picture. But one good thing about the materials that we are using is that we can always go in with tools again to make more depth or make some modification to our prints. One similarity for all of the materials that we use is that the more depth the edges in our images is, the more ink it will get in therefore it will create a darker value, therefore to play around with the value we gotta play around with the depth of the cuts in the image not only the value that we edited. I think that out of the 3 printing methods, the most successfully conveyed my artistic intention is the PCB etching. I think that not only this process is a very cool process, but I think that by incorporating the iron chloride to eat away the copper help our image to create a better depth or image that we can use to print press. The only cons that I experiment through this process is at the end when I print it out, it is really dark which at the end we conclude that we used the wrong ink. But other that that, I love the process of PCB etching the most and we can also play with the different material as well as incorporating in the use of chemicals to create our edges. While the other 2 process also have its own strengths and limitations, like for the laser etching, I would say its strengths is that we can directly control the depth of the edges by the values that we edited on our computer, and we can use some tools to go in afterward so when we print it on the paper using the printing press some of the details will pop out more. But one of its limitation is that the printing color is a bit light so we have to go in and modify it with some tools so it can show more values at the end. The second process is dry point which we hand carved our own picture on a piece of glass which we will then print it out. What is nice about this process is that we can add any textures or how deep the carving can be to add a value and we can also have little details and be more precise. Based on our techniques and carvings it will results on the darkness and values of the image when we print them out. One limitation I would say is that with hand carving is that for the background we cannot do much if we don't hand carve it ourself, it is usually just a picture of a subject or an object that we can carve it out. Not as a whole picture like scenery or something that have a lot going on in the background, then this process wouldn't be suitable for those types of pictures. The surface quality for each of these process is pretty different as how the ink would also showed up when we print press it on the printing paper, like the raster cut would tend to showed up lighter than the rest of the materials. For future application, I think that the hybrid of digital to analog process is very important not just doing it without digital prep. This will help a lot in my future creative work or designs because we tend to edit the values and create different textures on the photo edit before printing it out and play around with the printings physically. With the use of digital editing, it helped the physical process later on faster and it is like acting like an outline when we start doing the physical process. I think that this workflow not only can be applied to experimental printmaking like we are doing right now, but with mixed media installation or product design it would definitely involved a lot of digital editing prepping before we can create a physical product or we can just keep the digital product as well. But in my opinion, the prepping stage of going through to edit the pictures is one of a must step that we need to have in all the process to create different textures and make sure there is a range of values that we can work with to make our final products pop out.

Textures Block Printing 09/01

lphan27_1_1 — 2026-01-09 06:37:20 UTC

Today class we try to carved out a textures and print it out to see if we can use any for our rubber block print. Today I tried out the Tiling pattern and printed on the paper as you can see in the picture. I think that after re-learning all the different textures and patterns I will be incorporating it in my rubber block printing with the broken hatches in the sea so there is more textures than just a blank sea with fishes and shrimps. I will incorporate more textures on the fishes or rock to make it looks even better and more outstanding. Carving on rubber is softer so its easier to control it too, but if we want a big amount of white space on the block print then we need to carve out a big amount. So instead of carving out a big amount I would just add in textures to carve out less but at the same time create more textures and patterns that will make the block print more interesting. But mainly I will be adding more patterns for the sea because it is a bit blank right now with only the sea creatures. Overall it is a pretty fun class today trying out the different patterns and block printing it on a different materials.

Planning Idiom Prints 27/01

lphan27_1_1 — 2026-01-27 15:20:42 UTC

Today's class we start on something new which is transforming an idiom into an illustration and then we will be making block prints on our illustration. So the idiom that I got was "Don't beat a dead horse" which means that don't waste effort and time on something that cannot be changed. Before research, the visual that I got from hearing this idiom was first was really literal of a dead horse and a person facing away from it because what can else can he do to this horse when its already dead. That is what I think at first since what's the point of beating a horse when it have no reaction since it is dead. But then after the research, when I saw I was quite close to the meaning I start to think of how I can infer it in a more different way rather than just thinking it literally like what I initially sketched. It stated that the meaning was established back in the mid 19th century when it means still discussing things when decision had already been decided. So after looking at this, it helped me understand more what the meaning behind this line so the sketch on the right which have 2 options I decided to approach is slightly a different idea than the meaning of this idiom. Instead of having the idea of don't waste time and effort on something that cannot been change, I modify it a bit in my interpretation which is no matter how much you are given or how much pressure others are pushing you when you are broken, it wouldn't be any better. I got inspired by the idea of how typical students and teenagers in our world today suffer from family high expectations and pressures which causes them stress until they are burnt out and cannot do anymore or sometimes lead to depression. So I thought of the image of a broken glass that is being poured water in. No matter how much water is poured its still not going to hold up any but the water will going to be flowing outside the cracks. But then I thought that maybe the cup is a bit too typical, so I had another option of doing cracked mirrors that are being taped with tape. What I mean behind this sketch was no matter how you tape the cracks, it is still visible and the process of just using tape to cover it up might even hurt you more, so it doesn't do any good to you or make anything better. I think that the research really enhance my sketches to be in a way that convey a deeper meaning behind the symbols not really making it a literal drawing word by word based on the idiom I'm given. On the sketches of the after ideas I also write down some planning on how I might be doing it on the block printing. I think that the way I carved the cracks will be really interesting to show and the color that I will be doing will lean towards darker theme which conveys a darker meaning behind these symbols of broken glass. I think for this project particularly, I wouldn't be using any technology because I would want it to be fully hand drawn and sketched then carved it out. I feel like for this idea of mine to turned out the way I wanted and convey the deeper meaning behind the symbols, it did be better to be illustrated by hands with the cracks and where I wanted all the patterns to go on. So I decided not to incorporate the use of technology this time.

Progress of the print 29/01

lphan27_1_1 — 2026-02-24 01:46:59 UTC

I currently don't have the picture of the prints, but this is the jigsaw puzzle that I'm currently working on carving and the AI picture that I generated from my idea. So after I have my idea, I chose to do the jigsaw print instead of the usual print that we usually do because I would want to challenge myself to do something more. Then, I use AI to generate the image that I've drawn and use the photoshop tools in order to cut the different parts so it can be put in the laser cutter so I can use it to carve and print it later on. I think that so far during this process of print making the product, one of the strength are the prints of the color turned out pretty well like what I imagined. I did multiple prints in case of mistakes but the color and ink turned out pretty good which I'm pretty satisfied with. And from the start I print my jigsaw inversely so the print would show it like the direction of the picture so that's why my jigsaw is placed in the other direction. Even though the prints of the color turned out pretty good but I did say a drawback was some of the copies i've made was out of placed because I didn't placed the print properly on the board so it was out of place for a few copies which made me realize how important the board is in order to keep the different parts stay in place. After I finish with the base printing and start on my carving, I think this stage is what I'm struggling the most since it is harder to carve on this material rather than the rubber that we used to carve. So the first few carves that I did took quite a while to get use to and adjust the thickness of the line and the directions of it. I think it was my major drawback since when I first started it didn't look quite as what I wanted it to look. But I think that after a while, when I got used to it then its better a bit, but I still think I need to work on my carving especially on the clear carve more and the precision of my carve. Otherwise, I think that my process is going pretty well of having the base prints all laid out and I just need my carving finish in order to print the last layer of the carving with black in.

Block Printing Reflection

lphan27_1_1 — 2026-02-26 14:19:26 UTC

Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1S0y0_fipwOOnV-M3AmFjnzb5_nismf5a4iEKN9fA_jw/edit?tab=t.0

Best Prints

lphan27_1_1 — 2026-03-02 04:27:44 UTC

07/03

lphan27_1_1 — 2026-03-10 07:55:25 UTC

sponge paint stencil 10/03

lphan27_1_1 — 2026-03-10 07:55:49 UTC

16/03 Layers Stencil Spray Paint

lphan27_1_1 — 2026-03-16 03:49:21 UTC

Stencils Reflection

lphan27_1_1 — 2026-04-17 17:16:03 UTC