Video Installion

Video Installtion Link

Video installation moodboard

Photoshop

Pizza Tree

I acquired the picture of the pizza and the tree online. How I did the pizza tree is by first creating a white background so that I can place the photo of the tree onto it without it having the checkered pattern background. I then opened a new file which is the pizza and got the quick selection tool to highlight the white area around the pizza, after I did that, I went to the edit tab at the top of the screen to inverse the white. This means that I 'cut' away the white part and was just left with the pizza.

Clicking on the move tool, I dragged the pizza onto the first file with the tree on it, and placed it where I wanted. I then went to the right of the screen and right clicked the pizza layer to duplicate it. I did that 4 more times and dragged the duplicated pizzas on other areas of the tree.

Health and Safety

The importance of health and safety is crucial because if they were not followed through, the lives of other and those around them would be in danger. If companies and businesses didn't follow these strict procedures they would be viable for a law suit if the person who was injured didn't die. It would also destroy the reputation of said business.

Magazine Video Pitch

Video Pitch

The Traditional Photographic Processes

The traditional photographic process that has become less common as digital photography has taken the world by storm with its convenience, however they're still found on educational facilities and professional photographers' studios. The steps to developing photographs in a dark room requires some knowledge beforehand.

After you've snapped some photographs on film you should develop them so that you can have individual sheets of whatever you shot.

The first step is to get your negatives from the film. A negative is a mirrored image of the photograph, except where the lightest parts of the shot are it would actually be the darkest parts in the final product. An easy way to explain this is that if I took a photograph on film of a white sheet, the negative of that would be black.

To get that image onto photographic paper, you would need an enlarger, developer, fixer, stop.

These are typical equipment within a darkroom, the first step to getting a final print is to take the film out of the roll without damaging it by extracting it in complete darkness. Then the negative is put into a solution that sets the image onto the plastic and then you can take it out into light.

The enlarger is where you put the negative sheet into between the light source of the enlarger and it is projected onto a photographic paper. Depending on the exposure time you leave the image to project onto the paper will be the final result. Once it is up to satisfaction, you take the sheet away from the enlarger and place the sheet in developer.

Developer is a solution bath that typically consists of ethanol and water. This helps to bring out the image that was exposed onto the sheet, this would usually take a minute or two.

Next you move onto the stop bath which is another solution. This could consist of just water to wash the chemicals off, however this method will leave minute traces of the developer and this could affect the final result of the image. Another way to stop bath is to neutralise it with acetic acid or citric acid and this would immediately stop the developer as it is an alkaline solution. Both acids need to be diluted with water as it could cause chemical burns.

After the stop bath you move the paper to a fixer bath, this is usually an alkaline solution and it sets the image onto the sheet so that light and such doesn't affect it anymore after leaving the darkroom.

Final Photography Project Evaluation

The initial idea was to use natural substances and ones with vibrant colours and I decided to go with the primary colours but that idea quickly dissolved when I started researching on different methods to capture an image rather than using a DSLR camera. After researching unusual methods of photography, I came across x-ray photography that mainly focused on animals and flowers. Not having an x-ray at my disposal, I had to find a new but similar method, that uses a scanner as a photographic capturing device.

I went on to research Scanner Photography (Scanography). Although it is only limited to an A4 paper surface area on the glass, the photos showed an array of colours that were heavily contrasted against black backgrounds and even with the default white background. The photos typically have a very shallow depth of field (usually 12mm). Most of the works shown tended to lean towards flowers being the main subject as they can easily be manipulated on the glass surface and the colours from them were vibrant, however there were a few that had people as subjects.

Scanography is considered to be fine art as it differs from the traditional use of it being used to scan documents, by using atypical objects that are often 3D. This method of creating photographic art started out with just simple photocopiers which gave way to xerox art in the 1960's, these tended to produce images that looked rather haunting and ghostly as the light from the machine couldn't reach around the curvature of some objects. People now use scanners instead because it produces a much clearer and sharper image, with richer colours compared to the photocopiers' images, it also allows for digital manipulation as a scan creates a digital negative. With the affordability of scanners becoming more available to people in the 1990's, it meant that people could now purchase it without renting or hiring someone to operate it for them. Darryl Curran produced 'scanograms' between 1993 to 1997 and they appear to have this dark but chic look and feel to them. Another photographer who uses this method of capturing an image is Harold Feinstein who created a series called One Hundred Shells & One Hundred Flowers that appeared side by side to each other with traditional large format photographs.

Having never practised Scanography before, I thought that I should just focus on flowers thinking this would be a good start because of the complete manipulation I had of them, and I could begin to see how they would appear in the form of an image. I began by collecting various objects that I would find outside, after I was satisfied with my collection I placed them on the glass surface and carefully placed a black cloth on top of them. I got the idea to use a black background from the images I saw on scanography, it was also partially because the black material would absorb any light that escaped or seeped in. After scanning my first image, I was able to understand how the light and the objects interacted with one another and then rearranged them so that they would layer on each other.

After understanding the images that the flowers produced on screen, I noticed that they looked rather textile and patterned similar to decorative arts and crafts artists like William Morris. I decided that I wanted more variety on the flowers so I purchased two bouquets of flowers and I placed some down as a whole flower and scanned some images, however using the whole flower started to limit what I could with them. With that in mind, I took some of the flower heads apart or pulled the buds off. I eventually had more material from what I already had. I did the whole process of placing them on the flatbed however I saw fit and then placed the black cloth on top, some times I would get rid of the cloth and just put the lid down as much as I could without completely crushing or disrupting my display, this gave me a white background that would work with some of the colours however if the flowers were too thick that it let exterior light in, it didn't work so well.

Although aesthetically pleasing in terms of it being decorative, they lacked narrative. I wanted to experiment with different surfaces such as, cling film; plastic bags; and tracing paper, however I didn't acquire the cling film and plastic bags merely out of absent mindedness. I did acquire tracing paper and was making Japanese-esque paper screen doors, but they were accidentally torn in the process of erasing the pencil guidelines I created in order to cut out the shapes with a craft knife. I believe the images would appeal to the magazine because it shows individuality and a creative take on photography, even though the images shown on the magazine tend to be shot on a camera, some lean towards fine art photography, which is something I wanted to touch upon.

I believe that if I did use these materials, I could have created a narrative that would have began to approach the ideologies and awareness of the environment as a possibility. Like I previously said, it lacks narrative but I think if I managed to put more context in it, it would have a chance with the magazine as it would have fit in with the ideologies as the rest of the photographers that appear on it, all of whom seem concerned with social issues. To further this approach I would have gotten bits and pieces found on the streets that are considered to be litter and perhaps give them a new purpose with the images that I was creating. Another flaw that I would say is that in some of the images, even with methodical placements, there seemed to be too much happening or seemed too 'busy', which deterred me from the initial concept of keeping it simple, like Ars Thanea Studio's image "The Ash" whose concept was simple but had a powerful impact. I did however notice this when I observed the images and opted to stay with no more than a few elements at a time per image.

In comparison to Harold Feinstein's works, mine is minuscule, as he makes more use of the surface and captures a much richer sense from one flower. I feel like my images look like they are from a larger perspective while his seems to more about the detail of the flowers' colours and the veins that ran through the petals. He mainly focuses on the flowers petals as they are what carries the colours which is what I did as well, but I wanted make uses of the greens as they came out vividly on the black background.

I would consider this to be the first iteration as I can see myself using this technique again. What I would keep the same is the use of flowers but maybe with more variety of plant species, and then incorporating it with man-made materials that I find on the ground. Another thing would be to use up more of the flatbed surface area without it becoming too cluttered. In conclusion, I should focus my efforts into making more of a narrative while keeping the aesthetic simplicity of the appearance that the images produce.

Mood Board

Jesus is closed for business

On along Dudley Street, there is a row of closed down businesses, one of which is a place called "Assembly of God Church" with a sign with "Jesus Saves'. I found it ironic as its almost like Faith has closed for business in the crashing economy and people lose faith in God.

Flowing Water

Close by to college there is a water canal the flows by, and some of the apartments there associate their architecture. As I was watching the water overflow in this shallow basin, I was thinking about

Liquid Gold

Red Sunset

Primary colours

Coloured Filters

The refraction of light

The elements, science. Kaleidoscopes x-rays

The big blue chicken in Trafalgar square

Python and Protea Flower in X-Rays

Light Fabric, Rhythmic Gymnastics

Sergei Polunin - AestheticsScanner photography, nature related

Scanner Photos

Inspiration for the Scanner Photos

Photos by Arie van ’t Riet

http://www.bbc.co.uk/earth/story/20140904-life-in-x-ray

Reproducing An Image

Portraiture Photos

Natural Lighting

The first 3 photos I took were taken in the library of the college as there are large windows and the sun was casting down in that direction, so the light source was strongest in this location.

Flat Lighting

Above is an example from using the sun as a light source. Flat lighting is when you have the subject fully illuminated, looking in the same direction as the light source. This is used to highlight all the features in this case.

Side Lighting

Side lighting is similar to Flat lighting, it just involves having the subject facing away from the light source instead so that it hits the side of the subject. This would cast a shadow on the other half, accentuating the creases. typically this wouldn't be used in a fashion shoot, especially when it comes to women, as you wouldn't want to show their wrinkles.

Side Light + Fill Light from a Reflector

With this photo, I began with the subject in the same position as the previous photo and then got an assistant to stand on the darkened side with a reflector to help bounce off the light from the sun on his face to help illuminate it. You can see that I used a gold reflector because you can see the skin tone on the left of his face has a warmer tone.

Key Lighting

Key Lighting

Key Lighting

Key Lighting at a 45° angle from the subject's front view

Above are some examples of key lighting in low lighting.

Key lighting is simply a strong light source that creates a large contrast between light and dark in low lighting and in high lighting situations, it helps to make an upbeat/ethereal ambience within a frame. 

Rim Lighting

Rim Lighting

To achieve this sort of appearance I stood parallel to the light source with the subject standing in between the camera and the lamp. With the light being so intense it makes the side I was standing on look like it was shrouded in darkness. The reason this happens is because the light is basically one straight line and it is being blocked by the subject, however some light is able to seep through around the outline of the subject, or the 'rim', hence, the name Rim lighting.

This creates something like an eclispes effect in the frame and is good for sci-fi themed shoots in this case.

Lens Flare

Lens Flare

Here is an example of a photo with lens flare, now lens flare is those little beams or spheres of light. They are created when light is scattered or reflected within the lens systems. Generally this sort of element is something photographers try to avoid, but depending on what the theme or your own personal aesthetics, this is a good way to add character to the photo by creating a somewhat "ephemeral" sense of impermanence.

As you can see in the photo above, the light source is directly opposite me, key lighting was used in this one, but it doesn't necessarily have to be artificial lighting, personally I think the Sun on a good day is far better at achieving a stronger and more distinct lens flare.

Soft Box Lighting

The light source is coming from the right of the photo. As you can see the other half of her face is still darker but because the light is being more dispersed, you are able to see the higher contours of her face on the left side.

When using a soft box kit, you are basically creating a fill lighting situation. Using fill lighting is mainly used to soften out harsh lines and help add a more naturally softer texture to the subjects. This is done because the bulb is encased by a flared pyramid shaped sheet that is lined with a reflective surface (foil) with the open end being covered by translucent sheet that diffuses the light, which helps to scatter the light further.

Above is a photo that I took with me and the light source being parallel to each other but still further in front of the subject. As you can see contrary to the key lighting situation, the darker side is more highlighted and it flatters more of the subject's features, such as her cheeks and the hollows on the neck.

45° angle from subject's front

Again, unlike the key lighting situation the darker side still has more features emerging from the shadows.

Clam Shell Lighting

Clam Shell lighting is where the light source is parallel to a reflector to make the light bounce back, highlighting as much as possible. Fashion shoots tend to use this technique because it helps to highlight all of the models' features, particularly female models.

Here you can see where the light is in the subject's eyes. The reflection of the soft box above her and the reflector hidden away from the frame.

The light above helped to capture the features from above, and the light that wasn't caught on the subject's features was then reflected back onto them from underneath. The reason why fashion shoots would use this technique is because it creates a slimming effect on them. In this photo I decided to use the golden reflector as I thought it made the subject look more warm and fitted her best instead of the silver reflector.

Favourite Portraiture Photos

It would seem that I have a particular taste towards black and white portrait photos as I'm drawn in with the ones shown below. I suppose being able to see a photo in black and white, especially when its of people is very fascinating to me because if anything, people aren't but just black and white, but yet it fits so well when it comes down to taking photos of the subjects.

I'm not very experienced in taking portrait photos in black and white but I imagine it to be a lot more technical than what people like to think it is. You get various tones of colour when you take photos in normal shooting mode, that is, normal shooting mode in today's standards. 

Many in between hues, possibly even between two contrasting colours, but with black and white photos, you just get a variety of grey. Its the subtle differences between the shades that makes the photo more interesting, and harder to achieve as you would be restricting yourself from all the colours on the pallet possible to the human eye.

Al Pacino (1995)

Irving Penn is known as a fashion and portrait photographer but is mostly known for his works on portrait photos of celebrities as well as his still life ones. I find his work to be very similar to Annie Leibovitz's work in terms of using mainly black and white when taking a portrait photo, however they seem to be less glamorous than Annie's. 

Maybe because I feel like his work focuses on the subjects' face and expression rather than having some background like Annie's, giving it a more humbling sense, when it comes down to it celebrities are people as well. I also find that the expressions on his subjects' faces appear to be more natural and relaxed, which links to a quote he once said

"Sensitive people faced with the prospect of a camera portrait put on a face they think is the one they would like to show to the world... Every so often what lies behind the façade is rare and more wonderful than the subject knows or dares to believe"

I think when he takes his photos, this façade is something he wants to eliminate from them.

What draws me in about this photo of Al Pacino that Irving did is that I believe it to be one of the rare and wonderful expressions that Irving tries to capture. You may or may not know, but Al's life wasn't particularly easy when growing up; considering his parent's divorced when he was 2, was drinking and smoking by 9, started using cannabis casually at 13, and dropping out of school at 17 which lead him to being homeless at times when working minimum paid jobs. Clearly he has not had an easy start to life.

I wouldn't describe his expression as sorrow though. I see it more as "quit complaining and get on with it" sort of look to put it in nice terms. I wouldn't imagine him to be someone who can tolerate being around people who whines about their life but doesn't do anything to make it better.

Twiggy (1967)

Above is a photo of supermodel Twiggy that was taken by Bert Stern in 1967. Bert is a self-taught American Fashion and celebrity portrait photographer who died in 2013. Stern's photos, much like Penn's, has this organic expression that his subjects portray, however in a different approach. I feel that his approach is to capture the innocence of a child within an adult especially within beautiful women.

In the photo above, Twiggy was 17 when that photo was taken. If you're not familiar with Twiggy and who she is as a person, you would guess that she is a very expressive  individual with a light hearted exterior, quirky even, just from looking at this photo. A quote by Richard Curtis from the 45 minute documentary on Twiggy by 'Biography' seems to back up my statement on Twiggy's charisma.

"I love the photos of her with Kate Moss, because I think they share that same quality of this rather astonishing, chilly, perfect beauty, and then when you talk to them, they're utterly natural, kooky girls"

What drew me to this particular photo that Bert Stern did of Twiggy is that it lacks this symmetry that most, if not all supermodels' faces, are based on. I'm not saying Twiggy's face isn't symmetrical, but rather the element of her asymmetric haircut and the underexposure of light on right eye, even though the soft box lighting is placed to the right of the photo. Another thing to take into account is how the shadows have a grainy texture compared to the white surface, which looks as smooth as porcelain.With the light coming from the right of the photo, the left side flaunts Twiggy's features with the shadows casting on it, much like the shadows sand dunes cast when the sun sets in the desert.

Kurt Cobain (1994)

This is a photo that Mark Seliger took 2 months before Kurt Cobain killed himself.

Mark Seliger is an American Photographer who is known for his celebrity portrait photos. He has photographed front covers for 'Detail', 'The RollingStones' and 'W' magazine and seems to favour taking them with a CU or a MS composition when taking them.

What I like about his photos is that they appear to be simple but intricate, his subjects, particularly his male ones, have a distant look in their eyes. Although most of the portraits that he has done are in black and white, some are done in colour. His use of blues and golds appear to be a favourite and shows a spectrum of temperature which adds more dynamic. I've noticed that he likes to set his male subjects in blue themes, giving them a rather cold and detached demeanour to them even when they are looking into the camera lens. When he uses gold on his female subjects, they create a warm glow within the frame, however they seem to lack narrative and intensity in terms of them seeming more like stoic in comparison.

Salvador Dali - Philippe Halsman

A Photo I Admire

"The Ash"

The Company 'Ars Thanea' used its own creative studio to create something that was supposedly simple. Glowing Roses. From there it started to develop into something a bit more meaningful as they progressed putting this together. It became something representative of sharing a simple idea, or even a whim, to people who are willing to make that idea a dream come true'. They proceeded to set a bouquet of roses on fire.

To be frank I thought this photo was something to do with 'Lost Love', but apparently I was wrong. I was interpreting it as something of a passion burning too brightly for something so delicate to withstand. Even so with the flames of passion gone, there still lingers remnants of the love that was.

I think what drew me to this photo was seeing how intact the bouquet of roses was still in after being set on fire, and the contrast between the glowing embers and black of the smouldered petals.

Behind the scenes of the photo shoot

Using both scenography and digital art, as well as working as a team they managed to create this piece. As you can see from the above photo, there is a team member putting touches here and there to make the piece appear as it should on camera during production to make it as authentic as it possibly can before it goes of to the digital artists to enhance its already apparent features in post production.

Ars Thanea - The Ash

Presentation On Fashion and Documentary Photography

Prezi Presentation on Documentary and Fashion Photography

Well there's the link to my Presentation but it doesn't have all my notes on it because I was ad-libbing. To help with said ad-libbing, I had sheets with points on to help me along with the presentation 

Light Graffiti

Trying out some light photography today in class, which was interesting to say the least. Starting of we got the equipment which is just basic camera equipment, like a camera and a tripod. That's it. I suppose you could do it without a tripod but that's for another day.

Before beginning, we set the camera to a slow shutter speed, in this case to 20"or 30", the ISO was set to 100 because we are dealing with low lighting and having a higher ISO would make the final result look all fuzzy and brighter, which is bad considering you want your light source to be as concentrated as possible. Below are some examples of the photos taken in today's session.

For this photo (above) we used 30" shutter speed so we would have more time to draw the light because the subject wanted to make it look like she was holding up light. When the capture button was pressed, I shunned the light on the subject's face for a few seconds to help highlight her features better in the final result. After I did that I started to move the light around and took in consideration hands as I wanted to show them as well in the photo.

Same subject again, but this time she is lying down on the ground while I traced around her body while the camera was going off, we set it to 30" again so I could have more time trying to manoeuvre around her body with the light source.

In these photos, both above and below this text, I am the subject and the top one was achieved through me standing still while another person was 'scanning' my body behind me with the light source so they could get my silhouette to look sharper and more defined. Again the camera's shutter speed was set to 30". Below we used a different light source with colours and I was traced with it instead of it going back and forth behind me to capture my silhouette .

Above we tried to use the flash light on my phone instead of the other light sources becaus ethey were currently occupied, we wanted to achieve stars and to some degree we succeeded but the red light is from a finger blocking the light on my phone and is just the light going through the flesh, resulting in a red line.