So University is done and dusted for 2009. I won’t be returning until September 2010 which makes for a nice break. In the end I got my grades (A,A,B,B,B,C) which I was very happy with. To top all this off I thought I’d showcase some of the work I did to receive these grades.

Visual Design (B Grade)

I’ll start with a Module I didn’t thoroughly enjoy this year due to boring briefs, however, I did a little bit of illustration for it which included some postage stamps, posters and even included some Video in After Effects. You can see the video, the illustrations and the posters over at http://turnitoff.info/ (the posters reside in the footer of the page)
The site was built using the latest in Javascript and jQuery technology so check it out, hover over the elements, play with the buttons. Your probably better off using FireFox too, as IE couldn’t really handle it’s superior web modernness. Make sure you check out the video at the bottom of the website too (yes that is me speaking sounding common as muck).

For Visual design I also illustrated the stamps shown in the header image. It’s based on Music Technology over the years and I think I captured the best four from the past century or so. You can see them in all their vector glory too.

Multimedia Product (C Grade)

This was a complex one, which also means I can’t demonstrate it online. The idea was simple, Unique Bidding auctions.

The site featured a worlds first in online bidding. Live real time bidding in auctions. You could actually watch LIVE bidders placing their respective amounts on the page as it went along. This meant users could bid against each other based on other users’ bids. Clever eh! It was all jQuery and PHP grabbing the data from a database. It was awfully complex and also included a 10,000 word document explaing the process and research behind it. There was also a very fancy presentation which explains the fundementals if anyone wants to watch it. Its the branding, the functionality and the UI all rolled into a short few slides.

It also had it’s own iPhone web application which tied into the whole site shwoing live bids from anywhere in the world at any time.

Web Programming (A grade)

Another interesting one. And one which I actually really enjoyed.

Assignment one involved building a file based Guestbook with full admin features, the ability to edit posts and delete them, a swear word filter to stip out those naughty words and a slick simple UI. It also had AJAX editing of comments right in the page. No loading, no navigating, just click and change! I think you can guess what Lady Part and Ping Pongs were supposed to say! It maybe available as a free download if anyone is interested in the future.

Assignment two was a dog database website. Very similar to Battersea dogs homes website. It needed full admin controls and the ability to save dogs as favourites and have the ability to search the dogs too. The brief was very extensive, and I covered everything. Check it out online right now. I ended up building a commercial site based on this for Cliffe Kennels.

Authoring (B Grade)

It was basically Actionscript 3.0 work. For assignment 1 I had to develop an interface which included an animation, using the drawing API and the components within Flash 8. I ended up building a Spirograph kind of application which allowed you to colour it yourself and watch the application build it for you. Very nice! Have a look at it. I also built a flash gallery using XML and class files. But it’s not something I have online at the moment.

Multimedia Design & Production (A Grade)

This is a group project, and something which is a real challenge working with four different creative minds. My University chum Chris Kovalenko was part of our A grade group which created a chairty website and CDROM called the West Yorkshire Autistic Society (completely fake). Check out the site.

Intro to Video (B Grade)

My mate Adam Fisher helped me out with this one as I couldn’t star, edit and film the whole video. He rode the bike, I edited it, The Chemists supplied the music. It actually works quite well for my first every video. So I’m quite happy with it as a 2nd year project.

That’s it! I hope this gives someone some kind of inspiration either for university or for their next project. If it did help you in any way shape or form, drop me a comment!

Starting off in digital photography can be a very unrewarding and unsatisfactory time.

Many beginners try photographing normal subjects without actually playing with the settings on their camera. We hope to quash any questions you may have with what your settings mean and what you can do with them as a beginner.

For this article we will be using light trails as a starting point as you can produce beautiful looking images while at the same time working out what each setting does. Please also note that each image used in this article will also display the settings used. Every image is taken using a Canon EOS 400D (aka Rebel  XTi). Please also note this is an article for digital beginners.

1. Shutter Speed
   This is simply the length of time the shutter stays open for. It is quite often the reason behind blurry or under lit photos. The faster the shutter opens and closes, the less light enters the lens and there is also a smaller chance of blurry photos. This can have a massive impact when taking photos of moving objects as the results can mean a dramatic difference.
   If you set a faster shutter speed (for example, photographing a formula one car) you will capture a sharper image with little light. This is when you need to change your ISO setting and your f-stop/aperture (see below) to let in more light to the lens.
2. F Number/Aperture
   This area of the camera quite often confuses people the most due to its name. Many different terms and phrases are used throughout each camera but usually it is denoted with an F in front of a small number (often decimal).
   Basically, the higher the number, the more detail your camera will capture. For instance, if your photographing a close object the background maybe blurry with a small f-number.
   However, by upping the f-number you lose light in the photo, so to counter-act this we need to raise the ISO-Speed and/or the shutter speed to bring more light into the photo.
   
   
3. ISO/ASA Setting/Film Speed
   An ISO/ASA setting can have undesirable effects. This needs to remain a low number  in order to produce a clearer picture. Quite often you may find yourself in a low lit area with no flash and an unsteady hand. This means your shutter speed will be slow (to let in more light) your aperture will have a small number (to also let in extra light) but you will be shooting something moving or will be getting regular blurred shots. This is where ISO/ASA may come in handy. It simply makes the camera more sensitive to light when the photograph is taken.
   It can be a big help, but in digital photography it will cause your image quality to degrade significantly. You will see a lot of noise in the image due to the sensitivity. The higher the ISO/ASA, the more light you will see but then more noise you will capture as a consequence.

These are the three main setting we will need when photographing our light trails. You will need a tripod (or a flat surface where your camera can sit) and some sort of moving light source, such as a motorway/highway/road or a small torch.

First of all we need to decide how long we want to capture the image. For this example we are using a busy motorway. We are setting our camera up for a 20 second shutter speed (which means 20 seconds worth of light and cars will be captured) and will set our ISO as low as possible (ISO-100 is good enough). We also need to ensure our Aperture is also a low number (around F-5) as we are not photographing a close subject and need more light.

Once we are setup we take the photo. Ideally we need to have a remote control to stop the camera moving or even setting the camera to the self timer mode (counts down 10 seconds and takes the photo itself).
Once all this is done bask at the glory which is your light trail!

Get playing and see what you can create with a bit of imagination!