Visual Depth of Landscape Photography into Digital Illustration

Tunjung Riyadi

and Pratikta Aditya Setiawan

Animation Program, Visual Communications Design Department, School of Design, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta,

Indonesia 11480

Keywords: Visual Depth, Landscape Photography, Digital Illustration.

Abstract: One of the attractive factor of natural scenery image, either it is a photography or digital illustration, is because

there is a sense of depth in the visual of the image. The existence of depth in photography can be learned and

developed into form of digital illustration. Method that will be used is by observing the photography image

from its color, lighting and objects size which will lead to depth of the image. The purpose is to make it easier

for illustrators or learning person to make a scenery image with sense of depth in it. The end result is an

application example of observing results of depthness in photography into digital illustration with sense of

depth in it.

1 INTRODUCTION

The definition of image depth is an imaginary image

that the dimension of space can be identified from the

image. This space represents sense of spaciousness,

explaining the place that the condition of its

dimension is understandable or measurable. Images

from camera are replica from the real world which

have 3 dimensional space. Three dimensional space

has 3 size of dimensions, that is height, length and

width. In 3D program, these 3 size of dimension

translated into 3 axis coordinates, that is X axis

representing length, Y axis representing height, and Z

axis representing width. The existences of Z axis or

width dimension is the reason why a 3D space or a

room possessed a sense of depth. The simple example

is when we see a photo of a person with natural

scenery background behind him, from the image we

can easily detecting the depth sense of the image

based on the order the objects in the image. We know

that the person in the image is located in front of the

scenery which made us unconciously knew that there

is a space between the person and the scenery,

therefore there is depth in the image. In order to create

a depth in an illustration, we need to understand about

the depth of an image that can be created by photos,

which can be mimicked, or by formulating the visual

keys in the photo for reference material for the

illustration.

Today photos are more known as a "materials" or

"footages" for later to be processed, rather than as a

"final images" or "final photos". Besides being

duplicated, a photo produced into a new photo by

various montage techniques. More photos are being

produced, resulting in a lot more photos that are being

deleted. This fact made the direction of this study

easier that is how to use photography as a foundation

of visualization background and references for the

illustration itself. Photo is a "proof of the existence of

an object" (Sontag, 2005). Photo is an index or trace

of a material object. There is a causal connection

between photo and objects in front of camera, objects

in front of camera resulting an image in the photo.

Therefore, observing a photo will simulating the

existence of objects in front of camera when it was

being photographed. A photograph recording objects

that are in front of the lens as it is when it was being

photographed. With techniques and experiences of

the photographer, the beauty of objects in front of

camera can be interestingly presented with various

interpretations. One of the interpretation is the beauty

of scenery image with sense of depth in it, the popular

phrase in photography is "depth of field". This type of

image is affected by various tools in recording

process, lighting, ambience, time and location of

photo shoot.

The question arises, what if it was done in the

domain of illustration picture and translated into

various ilustration with various illustrator's

understanding. The important matter that will be

dicussed is how to move photography's image into

Riyadi, T. and Setiawan, P.

Visual Depth of Landscape Photography into Digital Illustration.

DOI: 10.5220/0010004700002917

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Social Sciences, Laws, Arts and Humanities (BINUS-JIC 2018), pages 185-189

ISBN: 978-989-758-515-9

185

scenes of digital illustration, an images that have

depth or as if it have a dimension.

For common people, including students who is

learning about drawing and illustration, there is a

need for a guide in observing visual photography

before later imagining it in drawing a landscape

illustration that have dimension. One of the things

that they need to understand is the discipline of

cinematography. Cinematography is similiar with

photography, both are also have same specification of

image recording tools, the utilization of lens, lighting

and angle. Transforming photography into digital

illustration is a visual reconstruction in new media

(Latif, 2012). This is in line with Noor Lateev CM's

(2012) idea in Pramowardani Photography comic.

The difference is his visual reconstruction is

discussing about the strategy in designing a character

with support from empiric data based on Form Follow

Culture (Harmer, 2010). Meanwhile this study

focusing on visual reconstruction (illustration) of

natural scenery.

Generally all of visual element in photography

have three main function. First function is to help

directing the eyes on the main object, second function

is as a filler for the empty space in frame, and third

function is as inductor of feels or emotion which will

make the photo more meaningful. Every category of

visual element (line, pattern, shape, texture and color)

have its own way in fulfilling common function as

mentioned above (Felix, 2011).

2 METHOD

This research use practice based research. To

facilitate the explanation, the flow is simplified as

follows:

1. Literature study supporting visualization

2. Observe the image recording location

3. Determination of visual key from visual data

of recording (photography)

4. Specify selected photos for illustration

example

5. Applied some sample illustrations from the

specified photographs

Literature study will be needed to deepen the

understanding of all key elements in this research and

to help researcher in observing research materials.

Key elements in this research are photograph, depth,

color and illustration. Research material in this

research is landscape photographs. After gathering

research materials, it will be observed using

knowledge of photography and illustration,

specifically in the aspect of color, lighting and

perspective of the photograph, in order to find factors

that are creating sense of depth in material

photographs. Research materials will be observed one

by one until researcher reach general conclusion, and

later translating it into illustration based on

observation result.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

For the mutual benefit and protection of Authors and

Publishers, it is necessary that Authors provide

formal written Consent to Publish and Transfer of

Consent ensures that the publisher has the Author’s

authorization to publish the Contribution.

Discussion done through observation of feels of

depth in photo which focusing on lighting and color

that existed in photo. Color and lighting considered as

closest reference in providing depth in illustration

image.

3.1 Color, Object and Depth

In this study, researchers will limit the discussion to

color as one of important factor in creating sense of

depth. Color is one of design element that closely

connected to human psychology. Every color have

ability to create certain feeling in human psychology.

For example, blue color can create cool or cold

feeling, yellow color can create warm feeling, white

color can create holy or sacred feeling, etc. In creating

sense of depth, color is one of important factor to

create sense of space and depth. In visual design,

there are term called hue and color saturation. Hue is

a color from the image itself, and color saturation is

intensity of hue. The higher the color saturation, then

the color produced will be more contrast. Primary

color like red, blue and yellow considered as the real

version of color because they have full level of color

saturation. When the saturation of color is reduced,

the color will looks dull or not contrast. According to

Paulina, theoretically, color is one of important

element in photography, colors are strikingly had an

impact towards visual respond of human, also color

can stimulate feeling (Gunawan, 2012). Color also

can create emotion stimulation, so each individual

can express deferent feelings in commenting a color.

Color also often be symbolization or used to

represents a purpose or to identify things.

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3.2 Natural Scenery

Using photograph of natural scenery we can identify

how color are affecting sense of depth in an image. In

a photo of natural scenery, we can see a difference of

color between objects that are close to camera and

objects that are far from camera. The color of objects

that are close to camera tends to looks contrast,

meanwhile objects that are far from camera tend to

have a dull color. This happened because in real

world there is an atmosphere which contains dust,

moisture and air pollution in it, so when an object is

far from camera, all the elements that exist in

atmosphere are getting thick and reducing the

intensity of color of the object. Also we often see a

blueish color on top of the color of distant object, this

happened because atmosphere reflecting the color of

sky and the blueish color intensity is stronger than a

distant object's color intensity. This differences in

color saturation in real world also create sense of

distance between one object to another object.

Therefore reducing color saturation value on distant

objects in illustration can create sense of depth,

especially on landscape illustration. This

manipulation of color saturation had been used since

a long time ago, especially on painting, for example

painting of Pieter Bruegel the Elder titled "The

Peasant Dance" (1576), the intensity of color

saturation is low in the background, so the painting of

buildings on the background will looks like it placed

so far away from the eyes.

3.3 Foreground, Midground and

Background

Differentiating size of an object in illustration will

also have the same effect with photograph that is it

will give impression of depth. In digital compositing

and matte painting, this is related to layering system.

Generally there are 3 type of layer in compositing that

is foreground, midground and background.

Foreground is terms for any visual elements located

in front of midground. Midground is terms for any

visual elements located between foreground and

background. Background is terms for any visual

elements located behind midground. To make an

impression of distance, a compositor or matte painter

will make foreground objects size bigger than

midground and background according to its real

object size and scale. If there is a tree at foreground

and mountain at background, it doesn't mean that the

tree is bigger than mountain in real world size, it just

to give differentiation between closer object and

farther object, and at the same time creating depth in

composition.

Color and also differentiating object size or scale

according to object's distance from camera will

creating impression of distance therefore create feels

of depth, especially in illustration. The most effective

way to know the nature of these factor is with using

real world or photo of real world as reference and later

observes them. Below are the process of observation

from scenery photo that are being translated into

simple illustration in purpose to prove that color is

one of main factor in creating depth in illustration.

3.4 Photography to Digital Illustration

(a) photography (b) illustration

Figure 1: Morning scenery at Punthuk Setumbu near

Borobudur temple. Photo and illustration by Tunjung

Riyadi.

(a) Photo analysis:

 A: The most distant objects from camera

(background layer): have the lowest

saturation value, so the color looks dull, also

the color looks a bit warmer because the

color of the sunrise have higher saturation

value than the objects.

 B: The objects between the closest and

farthest from camera (midground layer):

have higher saturation value than the farthest

object and the color looks a bit dull , also the

color looks a bit blueish than background

objects because of atmosphere color.

 C: The objects closest from camera

(foreground layer): have the highest

saturation value than another objects in the

photo, so the color looks more contrast, also

it looks not so blueish anymore.

(b) Illustration analysis process:

 Based on photo analysis, each layer that are

already observed are created into simple

illustration.

 Identifying base color of each layer then

reducing saturation value starting from

foreground layer to background layer based

on photo analysis

Visual Depth of Landscape Photography into Digital Illustration

187

 Adding atmosphere color into each layer

based on photo analysis

 By adding atmosphere color, we can make

the illustration to looks like it have different

level of lighting intensity in each object

(a) photography (b) illustration

Figure 2: Morning scenery of mountain ranges at Ciater,

West Java. Photo and illustration by Tunjung Riyadi.

(a) Photo analysis:

 A: The farthest objects are the mountains

(background layer): have the lowest saturation

value so the color looks dull. In this photo, the

farthest object not looks as warm as previous

photo because the saturation value of sunrise

color is not as high as previous photo's sunrise

color.

 B: The middle object is the land in front of

mountains (midground layer): the saturation is

higher than the mountains and also the land's

color not so blueish anymore, this is because the

amount of particles in atmosphere is not as thick

than previous photo.

 C: The closest object from camera are the poles

(foreground layer): the color is much more

contrast and have a lot more saturation value than

the land, this means the object are a lot more

closer from camera than the foreground layer of

previous photo.

(b) Illustration analysis process:

 Based on photo analysis, each layer that are

already observed are created into simple

illustration.

 Identifying base color of each layer then

reducing saturation value starting from

foreground layer to background layer based on

photo analysis

 Adding atmosphere color into each layer based

on photo analysis

 In this illustration, the sunrise's color is not

strong enough to effect object's color

(a) Photography (b) illustration

Figure 3: Morning scenery of mountain ranges at Puncak,

Bogor, West Java. Photo & illustration by Tunjung Riyadi.

Photo analysis:

 A: The farthest objects are the lands behind the

house (background layer): have the lowest

saturation value so the color looks dull. In this

photo, object's color almost totally washed out by

sunrise's color because the saturation value of the

objects is a lot weaker than the sunrise's.

 B: The middle object are the house and the land

in front of the house (midground layer): the

saturation is a lot higher than the background,

also the original color of objects are a lot clearer.

 C: The closest object from camera are the trees

in front of blue house (foreground layer): have a

bit more saturation value than the house, this

means the object are very close from camera.

Illustration analysis process:

 Based on photo analysis, each layer that are

already observed are created into simple

illustration.

 Identifying base color of each layer then

reducing saturation value starting from

foreground layer to background layer based on

photo analysis

 Adding atmosphere color into each layer based

on photo analysis

 In this illustration, the sunrise's color is so strong

and affecting the color of every object in

illustration

4 CONCLUSIONS

Simple method for common people who want to draw

any scenery objects that create certain perception of

dimension. Simple method in understanding the

depth of an image also can help illustrator in making

their illustration to have a lot more dimension even

with just using simple object shape. Differentiation of

color saturation and contrast are only one of the way

to create depth in illustration.

This study applied the concept of depth of a digital

scenery image which developed from photography

approach. The method that used is observing part by

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part of photograph starting from color, lighting and

perspective of object's shape that will lead us to the

depth of the image. With the purpose of simplifying

study method for any learners or students in making

of illustration with interesting 3 dimensional

depthness. The results above are the examples of the

application in the simple illustration which create an

interesting perception of space depthness or

illustration dimension. The study is possible to

develop further using other photography approach or

art approach with the same purpose that is creating

illustration, drawing or picture that have depth as its

attraction value.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to express our great appreciation to all

those who have helped our private study. This study

is prepared to attend seminars in art and culture.

REFERENCES

Felix, J. (2011) ‘Penggunaan Elemen Visual Garis Dalam

Fotografi’, Humaniora, 2(1), pp. 48–57.

Gunawan, A. P. (2012) ‘Peranan Warna Dalam Karya

Fotografi’, Humaniora, 3(2), pp. 540–548.

Harmer, J. (2010) Improve Your Landscape Photography.

Los Gatos, California: Smashwords.

Latif, N. (2012) Perancangan Komik Fotografi

Pramodawardhani. ISI Yogyakarta.

Sontag, S. (2005) On Photography. New York: Rosetta

Books, LLC.

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