USER’S GUIDE TO VISUAL LITERACY.

By Dani Mullan and Madi Hinds.

SHOTS AND ANGLES.

THE EYE LEVEL SHOT.The eye-level shot makes you feel equal to the character/object and

would be used when the photographer wants to make the audience feel equal to the character.

THE LOW-ANGLED SHOT.The low angle shot is designed to make the audience feel powerless and

intimidated because the angle of the shot makes the character/object look bigger and demanding .

THE HIGH-ANGLE SHOT.The high-angle shot is used to make a character feel taller, and more

powerful then the person/object in the shot, this shot is also used when the photographer wants to make the person seem vulnerable, and to

make someone feel sympathy.

THE MID-SHOTThe mid shot shows from the middle up of an object/person, its usually

used to make the audience feel familiar and comfortable with the character, and it allows you to see their body language, e.g. Angry, happy,

etc.

THE FULL-SHOTThe full shot shows all of the person/object , from head to toe giving a clearer image for body language , it allows the audience to not feel so ‘in their face’ and would usually be used to advertise clothing or shoes. etc.

THE LONGSHOT.A long shot makes you feel less connected and distance from the character or object, this would usually be used to establish more about the setting rather then the character.

THE CLOSE UP.A close up makes your feel connected to the person or object in the picture, it shows little of the background. It is usually usually used to draw attention to a significant area to the object, or to express emotion.

THE EXTREME CLOSE UP An extreme close up makes can possibly make you feel scared,

intimidated and in someone's person space, it’s usually used to emphasis emotion and to sell products like lipstick, mascara etc.

TECHNIQUES

DEMANDA ‘demanding’ photo is a picture with a character or object that connects

to the audience usually with eye contact.

OFFERAn ‘offer’ picture, is a picture with the main character making you feel

rejected by not making eye contact with you, giving the impression that they aren't interested.

HIGH MODALITY.This picture is a high modality picture because you can see that the

character/object is real, and hasn’t been drawn or re-enhanced.

LOW MODAILITY.A low modality shot is a shot that is clearly not real, and has been re-

enhanced or is a cartoon. In this shot, you can easily tell its low modality because its a cartoon.

VECTORSVectors are imaginary lines that gives you the impression of the direction

the producer of the advertisement wants your eyes to go, for example this one starts at the face, and the girl is looking down to the Kellogg's

symbol, then finally to the shirt that runs of the page.

SALIENCESalience is where something stands out, for e.g.. If you have a black and

white picture, with a red circle in the middle, your attention will automatically been drawn to the red circle, this technique is usually used

when advertising all sorts of products.

COLOUR SYMBOLISMColour symbolism is where a colour is used to stimulate a feeling or

emotion, for example we usually see red as anger, yellow as happy, or black as ‘emotional’.

FONTFont is used also to help with emotions, for example if you had ‘increase’ and used a

font that slightly leaned downwards, it wouldn’t work, because you would be creating the wrong sense of the word. The type of font is usually used to emphasis a word or

phrase.

FRAMING.Framing also adds to the mood created, or in some cases can complete the picture by ‘framing’ the outside of it or drawing a viewers attention

to the framed object/character.

THE END.