Elisa Task 1 Part A

Photography Today Application and Purposes of Digital Photography in Digital Media industries Photos have become a significant part of living. The main purpose of photography is to capture life moments that last. They tell a story and allow us to store precious moments that we as humans cannot do forever. Digital photography can not only be used for documenting joy in our lives, but also to tell a story that can be presented in the media. They have promotional uses such as increasing sales for a certain product or to make awareness for charity and campaigns.

Anchoring Written Publications Newspapers are a prime example of a type of media print which puts forward the use of anchoring. The purpose of anchoring is so that there is a fixed connotation of the picture being presented. It is easy to come up with connotations of pictures ourselves.

Generally, this is what many people do when looking through photos. However, when anchoring is included this takes away all the possible connotations the public has come up with, and leaves only one fix connotation. With no anchorage, in the first magazine, the picture alone shows a white male in uniform in a rural/ desert place. The uniform suggests that he is in this particular area on charitable work. As he is old, the interpretations made from this picture would be that he is vulnerable, harmless and pleasant. Below the other picture shows a black woman wearing a dress on the sand or dusty ground. There are also small buildings which could almost be bungalows.

The interpretations made from this can be that the male is there on a holiday or he is partaking in helping the people in that community. The anchorage for this photo reads ‘Top Oxfam staff paid Haiti survivors for sex’ Once the anchoring has been added the initial interpretations of the photo has been eliminated and now there is only one fixed connotation which has been told from the anchorage.

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Without anchorage, the second newspaper uses an image of a famous passed actor; Robin Williams. The photo has a black background. Robin, who is famously known as a stand-up comedian and starring in comedy films, is seen to look distressed and unhappy. This is particularly significant as he is seen as a comedic person, therefore seeing him in this state can be confusing for many people. From this picture, many assumptions can be made from what the situation is. The audience would have gathered many different opinions in what to make of this picture. However when the anchorage is added, which reads ‘Robin: his final hours’, assumptions surrounding the newspaper front page is taken away. Anchorage’s serve a purpose of guiding the readers in the right direction when looking at photos. In conclusion, the purpose of anchorage is to direct an audience in the correct direction in order to ensure they have all the truthful information.

Marketing

The second advertisement uses effects to make their photograph more appealing. The advert is promoting an eyebrow pencil. Within the image, the model has one very thick eyebrow which can be related to ‘gorilla hair’ and one neatly pencilled eyebrow. The thick eyebrow can relate to gorilla air as there is an animals furring hand holding the eyebrow products.

This photo is significant as it draws the attention of people (especially females) who like to wear make up and have neat eyebrows. It also appeals to people who have very thick eyebrows and see them as ‘messy’. They would in turn buy this product as they would believe they could ‘fix’ their eyebrows to have a look like the model. These adverts exemplifies how photographs are crucial when designing a marketing product. Photographs are what draws the audience in. They are specifically made to be aesthetically pleasing in order to increase sales.

Print adverts have a particular purpose to take exceptional photographs which help their marketing product. The photos used in marketing are presented in such a way to draw an audience in.

The use of photos in print adverts are significant as they can engage with the audience. From the type of pictures used, the audience can feel connected with them which would result in more sales for the magazine. The first advert uses a photograph of a famous singer who is dressed in a seductive manner to market their product. The singer, Beyoncé, is posing wearing a silk, red, short dress with open cleavage. The dress stops at her thigh, conveying seductiveness. Using Beyoncé as the main image of the advert is the unique selling point as she is portrayed as one of the sexiest, talented, beautiful woman in America. This will cause more people to buy this perfume as they will aspire to be like her.

Moreover this teases the male audience as females who use this perfume would expect to look, feel, and smell like Beyoncé which would make them entice men. Beyoncé gives direct contact, looking lustfully into the camera which engages her with the audience and lets out a seductive vibe. The title of the perfume, Heat, is written in bold red lettering. It is positioned at the top centre of the advert and stands out the most as it should be one of the first things the consumer notices.

Promotional

Promotional advertisements such as brochures also serve the same purpose to use alluring pictures to further entice their audience. This particular brochure exemplifies how they have used a particular aesthetically pleasing photograph of a beach to attract their audience. Within the picture there is an empty beach with bright blue water and mountains. An empty beach connotes relaxation, paradise and sanity. Many people long for a relaxing holiday and free space. The brochure serves a purpose of creating a fantasy for the audience. Therefore, this particular image is used as a ploy to feed into the consumer’s needs and desires. The picture promotes the product to be a ‘great escape’ as described in the slogan.

The second promotional advertisement appeals people who love home designing and decorating. This catalogue front page uses a picture of a highly decorated room.

The room has bright colours which connote happiness and positivity. This is significant as people would buy the catalogue to read and find out how they could make their home also appal to their inner nature. The cover line on the catalogue reads ‘make room for life’. This could suggest to the audience that decorating and refurbishing adds life and purpose to your home.

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Tell A Story In addition to advertisement, digital photography can also be used to tell a story. Not all photos can be easily interpreted, some photos are made to have different layers of meanings. The first photo shows a woman holding a flower with her arms crossed.

In front of her are army police who are standing in a line holding weapons up the woman is standing directly in front of the army police. From this picture, it can indicate the photograph represents a story of peace. The woman is holding a flower. As flowers have connotations of delicacy, elegance and peace, it is a significant element in this photo as it can in tell the theme of the photograph. The weapons and the flowers juxtapose with each other as weapons are dangerous and violent, where as flowers are elegant and soft. The flower and the weapons are being held opposite each other can further propose that the picture is about a war between peace and violence.

When interpreting stories from pictures, it is important to look closer at certain details and elements of the photograph which can help to show the story being told. Moreover, photographers purposely do not use any anchorage when creating a ‘story telling photo’ in order for their audience to have their own thoughts and feelings regarding the photograph.

The second photo shows a man being physically handled by multiple police men. The man who is being handled is black, while the police men are white. The colour of the people being used is significant as it shines light on the problem of police brutality on ethnic minorities. Police brutality against black people is an extreme case that is still going on (and now rising) in this day. It is evident that the photo about police and them arresting people.

However it is not clear whether the photo could be about police brutality, police brutality against coloured people, or about racism in general. Once again, the photographer has purposely added no anchorage or any clear elements to show exactly what the picture represents. It is up to the audience to decide their own thoughts and story on the photo. They are free to make their own assumption of the photo. These two pictures are bold demonstrations of how photos can hold different layers of meanings and that they cannot be easily interpreted – they require a lot of thought.

Increase Sales Digital media industries use photography to also increase the sales of their product. The photographs they use are vital to increase their sales therefore they have to be professional and eye-catching. This magazine advertisement in particular uses a famous singer and entrepreneur, Rihanna, for the cover of their magazine. As many people (especially females and young girls) idolise Rihanna, the views and sales of the magazine would evidently increase as people are eager to know the different ways she is featured in this magazine. In the photo she can be seen looking directly into the camera with a seductive expression.

As her eyes are looking directly into the camera, it suggests that she is looking directly into the eyes of the audience, alluring them to the magazine. She is posing in a gold bikini top which emphasises her cleavage.

The purpose of portraying her in this manner leads in a certain type of audience who aspire to look/be like this or who are genuinely moved by her appearance. The magazine itself uses a simple colour scheme of gold, white, and black. Although the colour scheme is simple, the colours themselves have deeper connotations. Gold connotes royalty, extravagance, sophistication and elegance. These connotations would cause people to buy this magazine as they believe they would be part of the sophisticated, royal, wealthy group. One of the cover lines on the magazine read ‘973 new looks’. This is written in bold white lettering which makes it a lot more visible to the consumers. This cover line is used to draw attention of people who like to change their style and stand out. This lures them into buying the magazine to fulfil their desires. Moreover, the main image of the magazine is placed centre of the page. It is placed in front of the masthead which in tells that the image is more significant than the tile. In addition, the image is paced in front of the masthead as the company would want the image of Rihanna to be the first thing consumers see.

The second product is an album by the rapper Lil Kim. The album uses a photograph of Lil Kim herself to promote the album. Lil Kim is one of the most popular female rap artist and is known for her raw, sexual energy and her creative word play in rap. The main image features Lil Kim herself, dressed in a gold sequin suit. Using Lil Kim for the cover is one of the unique selling points of the album. When the album was released, it was a time where female rappers had to work hard to be successful in the music industry, and Lil Kim was able to do this. For women, this is particularly empowering. The purpose of her wearing gold is to exemplify her wealth. She is also positioned on her knees in a seductive, sexy pose. The way she is portrayed on the cover can add to the increase of sales as many people (especially women) would want to be labelled as a sexy icon and empowering female just as she is. The image contains multiple roses in vases, a champagne bottle in a bucket, fire place and a polar bear for a rug. The roses and champagne have connotations of romance, love and sensation. The polar bear rug in addition to the sequin gold suit further emphasises royalty and wealth.

This use of these props is significant as it would increase sales of her album as women in particular would want to be as confident, wealthy and sexual as Lil Kim.

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Applications: Fashion Magazine This application is a fashion magazine. The fashion magazine is a famous one called ‘Bazaar’. ‘Bazaar’ is presented as an upmarket magazine. The magazine is neatly displayed with fine, sophisticated lettering and has a limited colour range which all work in a way to complement each other. As a unique selling point, the magazine uses the world wide singer Beyoncé Knowles for their main image. Beyoncé Knowles is seen to be a role model to everyone, an inspiration, a person who people aspire to be like. She is one of the most popular worldwide singers, having her imaged displayed on the front cover of magazines evidently attracts more attention from the target audience and from people who are genuinely moved by her existence. In the image used, Beyoncé is eyelevel with the audience showing direct address. She is staring intently into the camera, her eyes give off an alluring, hypnotising effect which engages with the reader more.

Beyoncé is the only image of the magazine and takes up a wide majority of the cover which suggests how she is considered the most important image and how there shouldn’t be anything else which distracts you from her. The image is a mid/close up and denotes a professional photo-shoot from the way she is dressed and her body language, which also contributes to the magazine being upmarket. Beyoncé is dressed in a deep red revealing dress and electrifying dark makeup. In contrast to this, she is placed in front of a plain white background.

This may have been done so the focus is only on Beyoncé herself and nothing else, hence why she is the main and only image of the magazine.

Furthermore, the white background connotations of sophistication/ innocence/ purity.

However, this goes into contrast with Beyoncé’s look for this magazine as her electrifying look argues with the innocent white background. The deep smoky eyes and the vibrant red dress give a Femme Fatal vibe to the magazine and to Beyoncé. The dress makes her appearing irresistible and striking. As a lot of her skin is revealed in the dress, this makes a visual impact on the audience and would buy it for the way she looks or hoping details of her looks will be provided within the magazine. In the magazine the anchorage text reads: ‘strictly sexy’. This is written in striking white lettering with a cursive text. The cursive text used not only makes it appealing but also makes it appear flirtatious and seductive. This anchorage text suggests how the magazine will be intimate in numerous ways. Furthermore, one of the cover lines reads: ‘up close with Beyoncé’. This line is more announced to its target audience as it appeals to the percentage of people who are inspired by Beyoncé. It would lead the consumer to think that by reading this magazine it would bring them closer to their idol, thus resulting in more sales.

Application: Fashion Magazine

This application is also a fashion magazine. The ‘Vibe’ magazine and content pages attract a lot of consumers as they use international stars for their main image which is also one of their unique selling points. The magazine choses stars which they know are very popular and have a wide fan base. Kanye West is an American rapper, songwriter, singer and newly discovered fashion designer and entrepreneur. The content page is displayed in a sophisticated manner with a monochromic colour scheme –grey. The effect of this makes the magazine appear classy and professional. It also does not take attention away from the rest of the magazine as the colours are quiet dull and would not be focused on too much.

The content page is displayed in a sophisticated manner with a monochromic colour scheme –grey. The effect of this makes the magazine appear classy and professional.

It also does not take attention away from the rest of the magazine as the colours are quiet dull and would not be focused on too much. The word ‘Contents’ is written in a prominent black large font. The word is split into three lines rather than the whole of it being produced on one line. It also contrasts with the background as the rest of the magazine is in light grey colouring and the word ‘Content’ goes against this as it is sharply written in black colouring.

The effect of this makes it hardly impossible for the audience to miss and makes it one of the first things they notice. The masthead for this content page is a large letter ‘V’ which stands for the magazines name ‘Vibe’. Along with this, the colour of the letter ‘V’ is designed in a pale blue/grey colour which also adds to the professionalism. By using the letter ‘V’ only makes the magazine appear original. Many of the Vibe content pages contain this feature. It shows consistency and professionalism. The magazine uses a monochromic colour scheme such as the one featured in the ‘V’ is grey which complements the background and the image of Kanye West as he is in black and white. The colour scheme adds to the fact that the magazine is upmarket as it is limited colour schemes making it look elegant and dignified.

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