PhotoVerse
How can a virtual environment be used to teach photography?
Problem definition
The current learning tools for photography don't provide the users with enough hands-on experience. As much as photography has evolved over the years in a technical and mechanical aspect, these learning tools however haven't seen much change. The three main ways that people currently gather information and skills to build upon their photography knowledge are through passive media such as YouTube videos and articles, through enrolling in photography courses or programs in schools or lastly through the use of forums and communities like a Reddit or Discord server.
What in my eyes is missing here, is the use of video games or simulations as learning tools. These media provide valuable practical application that could open up a whole new world of learning photography. Nowadays, a vast majority of people has access to a computer that could be used to facilitate this learning experience through video games or simulations. It is the combination of accessibility and hands-on learning possibilities that make virtual environments an exciting an promising tool to work with for photography.
Project goals
With this project I set out to create a video game that focuses on teaching the players the rule of thirds, which is one of the most fundamental rules within photography. This video game in itself is a research tool, because the goal of the project is to test the viability of virtual environments as a medium to teach photography as a whole. And to test whether or not it has any added value compared to the three other available methods.
Personal views
"Photography is a way of looking at the world. It is seeing the beauty within the ordinary."
For me as an aspiring photographer, the act of photography is much more than a simple click of the shutter-button and some image magically appears on your device. In my eyes, photography is a way of looking at the world. The camera itself is nothing more than a tool to allow you to capture your own visions. But how does your brain create these visions that seem appealing? Your brain intuitively focuses on certain aspects of a view or image. These intuitive methods that a person uses are translated into a set of photography composition rules. Once you're able to master these rules, you're going to start consciously noticing these compositional opportunities more easily during your photography journey.
Final product
PhotoVerse is a photography game set in a New York City-inspired environment. It aims to teach beginners about photography by assigning them specific photo objectives and providing feedback through a grading system. These objectives serve as a point of reference for the user to apply the rule of thirds to. The grading system analyses the users' photo by calculating the distance from the object to one of the focuspoints within the rule of thirds grid. This distance is scaled to a score out of 100 and the player is then able to analyse their photo to get an idea of how they can improve it.
Segmentation & Grading
The game's backbone is the grading of the images, so a solid system is vital for the project to work. The system starts with segmentation, in which the subject is masked out of the original image. This happens in the video game engine by tagging the object and putting it on its own rendering layer. This allows the game to output a blank image file that only includes the subject without the surroundings.
This image is then analysed by a python script to determine the relative size of the subject in the frame, the coordinates of the middle point of the subject and its distance to the rule of thirds' grid. This data is then forwarded back into the game engine that visualizes it for the player to see.
Results and conclusion
The results of all the prototypes and the final product give a clear indication that a video game is a good medium to facilitate learning photography. So to answer the main research question of this project; How can a virtual environment be used to teach photography? A virtual environment is an effective medium that acts as a canvas for designers to create curated learning experiences.
Through this research project, video games are proven to be an effective learning tool for photography. While this product focuses in on only the rule of thirds and is therefore limited in its use-cases, it does imply that it is applicable for the other compositional rules within photography aswell, such as the golden ratio or leading lines. Applications for these rules however would need a different method to analyze the image, because they require different data than the rule of thirds.
