This picture is an advertisement of Club Med Company. It is a company which provides vocation tours to people. The whole picture can be divided into three layers. The front layer describes plants, animals and fruits of tropical islands. The middle layer shows some images of visitors. They are modern lady, young men with casual clothes, model with wedding dress and others. In the back layer, a tanker is sailing in the calm sea with blue sky. In the top left corner stands the logo of the company. The author of the picture aims to attract visitors to the islands via prosperous voyage.
1 Chapter 4 Color
1.1 Cone receptors and color-processing
According to the reader, cone receptors come in three subtypes—short-wavelength sensitive, middle-wavelength sensitive, and long-wavelength sensitive. And we have few and weak blue-sensitive cones than other cones, similar colors that can be catch by blue-sensitive is difficult to be distinguished. In the example of reader, blue text on blackboard background is illegible. (P66-67)
However, the icon of the picture can be seen as white texts on blue blackboard, and it is very distinct. White and blue are absorbed by two types of cone receptors, so that they are much easier to be seen in detail. Besides, the blue-sensitive cone are weak than the white-sensitive one, which makes the white icon more distinct.
Figure 1. White logo on blue blackboard
The reader presents red- and green-colored cones are clumped together, thus we are far less able to see detail where the differences are purely chromatic. (P68)
In the central of the picture, there is an obvious color contract between black glove and whit tanker. Black and white parts of the image to fall on two different cone receptors, which makes them easy to distinct. However, colors of flowers, fruits and animals are all kinds of blue and red. They fall on clumped cones and are hard to see in detail.
Figure 2. Discrimination of different parts
1.2Channels and Contrast
In the reader, there are three channels in color: red-green, yellow-blue, and black-white. And the effect of simultaneous contrast, which occurs in each channel, leads to the increase of difference between colors as illusion. In the front layer, most colors are red and green. These colors are two contrast colors in the red-green channel. And the differences in the colors are increased in brain. However, in the back layer, the color changes from blue to white. It can be seen as luminosity change, and the contrast created by brain is less complex.
Besides, chromatic channels have less capability to convey detail information. This is the reason why the fine detail information cannot be captured easily in the front layer.
Figure 3. Contrast within different channels
1.3 Semantics of color
Colors are often used symbolically. The semantics of color differs from countries and cultures. (P84) In the picture, the background is mainly blue and white. Blue represents calm and cold, while white represents purity. The color of background ensures customer that the trip via tanker is safe and pleasant. The colors of objects in the front layer are saturated, which implies high quality of fruits, vegetables and animals in the island. These colors are mainly red, green and yellow, which helps to create a happy and fresh atmosphere. Besides, author of the picture uses black, white and gold in the visitors. This colors implies modern, fashion and rich in most cultures. All these colors imply that this trip is safe and pleasant, all the stuff on the island is fresh and lively, and the trip is worth for modern people who search for high quality life.
2 Chapter 5 Getting the Information: Visual Space and Time
We live in complex three-dimensional world. However, when we use paper to convey information, we only have the up dimension and the sideways dimension. Information on the towards-away dimension is easily to lose. However, people present depth cues in portrait or photograph to convey depth perception. (P89) In this picture, the author combines some methods to show depth cues.
2.1 Occlusion
According to the reader, occlusion acts as the strongest depth cue when there is a completion with other factors, such as size. Besides, occlusion has a metaphor meaning of ranking. The most important object can occlude other ones.
In general, the front lay occludes the middle one, which occludes the back layer. It suggests the beautiful flowers, fresh fruit and lovely birds of the front layer, are the key information of the picture. They are the gifts for customers as well as the main attraction of the company. While, the images of visitors and tanker are less important, so that some part are hidden. Besides, although the logo of the company lies in the back layer, it is not occluded by any object. It implies that the logo is very important in this picture.
The occlusion can express depth cues as well as show more objects in limited space. However, it is critical that occluded objects should still be identified. The author of the picture obeys this rule. Take the piece of the lower right corner for example, it is a small part of the whole picture and it contains more than ten objects: lemon, banana, pineapple, parrot and so on. If people see this corner in detail, they can distinguish the objects easily. None of these are occluded so much that cannot be recognized. In this way, the picture shows information clearly.
Figure 4.The lower right corner
2.2 Perspective: Size gradient
According to the reader, size gradient presents cues to depth information. More distant objects are smaller on the picture plane than similarly sized nearby objects. Besides, the size suggests the importance of objects. The most important object takes up the largest place in the photograph or portrait. (P92)
During images of people in the picture, the modern lady takes a largest space. It helps this image of lady to attract people’s attention. The man dressing informally looks much smaller than the lady. All these suggest that the trip is a modern one rather than a casual one. The interesting point is that there is a small image of young man in the front layer. There is a contradiction: the man occludes the lady while the lady is larger than the man. This cannot happen in the real world. It suggests that the lady is so important that the author magnifies the image of lady on purpose.
Another interesting point is the image of duck in the front layer. The duck is so big that it seems abnormal to the perspective rules. People can judge that the duck is popular animal in the islands of the trip.
Figure 5.The size gradient of people
2.3 Shading
“Surfaces of objects reflect more or less light depending on how they are oriented towards the light source.”(P93) By observing the shade, people can judge whether the picture is an original one or it is pieced by several pictures with different light sources. And the stronger the light source is, the more detail we can find on images. And the object with stronger light source can attract more attention.
This picture is surely a pieced one. The images of modern lady and the golden lady are taken with strong and close light sources. While the images of fruits and lemons are taken with weak and distant light sources. In this picture, people are easy to be attracted by details in the ladies and only glance at the fruits. The ladies stand out for the importance.
Figure 6.The shade of objects
2.4 Depth of focus
To show the depth information, photographers focus objects at the specific distance, and objects that are farther away or nearer are blurred. (P93) Although this picture is a pieced one, the author also chooses sharp and blurred objects to give depth cues. Besides, the sharp object often catches people’s attention and has a meaning of importance.
In this picture, the focus distance depends on the modern lady. The image is so sharp that all the details of the lady’s face can be seen clearly. The fruits and animals in the front layer are nearer, while the tanker on the back layer is farther away. It makes the whole picture looks like a nature one and the lady stands out at the same time.
Figure 7.Sharp and blurred
Besides, the logo is also sharp and it seems at the same distance as the lady. Also it shows that the logo contains important information.
3 Chapter 7 Visual and Verbal Narrative
3.1 Linking deictic gestures
When people communicate face to face, they use the gesture “pointing” to express the meaning of “look at that one”, “it is here” and others. When the communication is moved to paper-based environment, author selects images which contain deictic gestures to draw people’s attention.
In the picture, there are some deictic gestures to draw people’s attention. Firstly, the tanker with the name of the company lies on the back layer of the picture, which cannot catch people’s attention easily. However, there are two big the modern lady is pointing at the tanker. One is the modern lady’s hand. She takes important part of the picture and her left hand is pointing at the tanker. The black glove makes sharp contrast to the light color background. This gesture stands out and turns peoples’ attention to the tanker. The other deictic gesture is much slighter. The man with casual clothes is gazing at the tanker too. It also draws people’s attention to the tanker.
Secondly, the gesture of the parrot is interesting. The wings of the parrot point to the logo of company and help the logo to stand out. It is an interesting finding. In the reader, the gestures only refer to human being. However, this can happen on any objects. But to make it more clear, the gesture should be large enough and make obvious contrast with the background to catch attention of people.
Figure 8.Deictic gestures
3.2 Mirror neurons and empathy communication
The discovery of mirror neuron in human being shows the complexity of brain activity. “They have been called empathy neurons because they may allow us to read the emotions of others through the same pathways that generate our own facial expressions when we are expressing emotions.” (P137) When the theory applies to picture, people can read facial expressions and body language in pictures by generating the same expression. Then they can experience the same emotion. In this way, author of picture can achieve their emotional goal.
There are two main points of empathy communications in this picture. The modern lady is reclining on the floor with the support of elbow. One of her hand lies on her knee casually. Her head lifts slightly, as if she is watching something. Her facial expression shows she is relaxed and calm. When people see this, the mirror neurons work. They copy this action and facial expression in our own brain and experience this emotion. They feel relaxed, leisure and enjoyable. In this way, this advertisement does a good job. By watching this picture, people get positive emotion and get attracted by the imagined feeling of trip.
Besides, the image of golden lady does empathy communication with people. The lady looks up slightly with closed eyes. Her facial expression is relaxed and stretched. When seeing this image, certain region in people’s head works and this facial expression is imitated. People feel the delighted thoughts and the relaxing environment as if they are enjoying sunshine on the beach or smelling flower in the garden. In this way, this picture conveys the information that the company provides some service that brings relaxing and joyful enjoyment.
Figure 9. Empathy communication
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