Seminar: OPTICS & PHOTOGRAPHY by Dr. Masahiro Oikawa

Many people have captured a moment by taking a photo of it, but how can we improve the photo we took so that it could look livelier and more beautiful? The tips for taking such photo were presented by Dr. Masahiro Oikawa in the seminar ?OPTICS & PHOTOGRAPHY?, which was held on May 2, 2013. Located at MYC Multipurpose room, this seminar was attended by approximately 60 participants from students and staffs of Faculty of Design UPH, students of UPH College and public.

Dr. Masahiro Oikawa explained how the difference of focus in the photos could change the photo?s quality. During the presentation, he also displayed and compared several photos with various focus so that the participants could directly see and understand how to make a better photo. As an example, he showed a photo with a person in it as the model of the photo. He compared one photo with a clear background with another photo but with a blurred background and a clear focus on the model?s face. Dr. Masahiro said for a photo with people as the model, it is better to put more clear focus on the face so that the viewer were attracted to the people, not the background.

After a 10-minutes break, the event continued by Ernest Irwandi, S.Sn., Head of Visual Communication Design Department UPH, who explained how the angle that was taken in the photo could make the photo become deeper and how the different usage of camera lenses could create a unique effect to its final result. Ernest told that the Scheimpflug principle is used to take a good angle in the photo. When this principle is used, the angle was positioned into a tilted angle, not linear, to create a better perspective. Next, he described the different usages of lenses to create various effects, for example, the usage of magnifying lens as the camera lens made the color of the photographed object into something entirely different to the original color.

At the end of the seminar, the participants enthusiastically joined the workshop where they could practice the techniques that had been previously explained in the seminar. Throughout the workshop, Dr. Masahiro and Ernest directly helped the participants when they were practicing to take photos. After the seminar & workshop ended, the participants had the chance to continue the event by joining the photo hunting with Dr. Masahiro at Kota Tua, Jakarta. (lau)