D&AD New Blood Awards

The Decisive Moment is where the photographer captures a certain moment in a split second not a half a second more or after because the moment will have past, once it has past you can never recreate the moment again in terms of location and people.

For D&ad brief The Decisive Moment I was to use my own intuition to produce an image that is not disposable but represents a particular moment in time.

I struggled to spark up any ideas because I would always end up with an idea, which involved street photography but this area of photography is very common for the decisive moment so I wanted to stay away from this. I used prezi as a kind of mind map to spread out my ideas and see if any ideas had any potential that I could branch off on, the other ideas I come up with where slow motion and portraiture.

My slow motion idea was to capture water balloons popping and paint splattering but I didn’t have the right equipment, In the future I would like to experiment with slow motion photography, as it looks fun and interesting.

My portraiture idea stemmed from taken selfies and my passion for portraiture, this seemed to be the best option, as I wanted to make it personal, none disposable and interestingly funny. I made a throw away comment to classmates to do funny faces that I had done in the past but I couldn’t visualise them done professionally. It wasn’t until I was told do them because of how good the idea was that I become certain I will do them.

 

I am very happy with my funny face outcomes and I believe it speaks of the decisive moment because I have captured the movement and character within the models faces. I produced a set of six images in a grid because with the type of images I produced a set works well, but I am aware that the D&ad states one image, which is a shame.  

From the set of photos the image of Ben I believe is the strongest because it represented the decisive moment the most this is from the movement and character in his face. 

Experimental Practise - The Historic Process Part Two

Part Two – The Histroic Process

Now I have my digital negatives printed off I am ready to take them into the dark room but before that I had to apply liquid emulsion to water colour paper, this light sensitive emulsion can be applied to a multitude of surfaces, it is important to make sure I have applied an even coat to the paper and sometimes two coats as I found out with some of my prints the detail and colour lacked because of the uneven amount of emulsion.

Using my digital negatives to print is fairly straight forward once the paper is painted, firstly I have to find an average time to expose the light to the negatives so the image can transfer onto the light sensitive paper however this will only work if emulsion to emulsion is making contact.

From my six negatives I wanted to achieve four successful prints but looking threw them I can only find three, I believe if I experimented longer in the dark room I could of achieved a fourth. The image below is my favourite the effect the liquid emulsion has given works well with the subject I have photographed, it is very subtle and soft the colours are not too harsh.

Keeping with the same subject of Poland this image also worked well with the emulsion again it is very subtle and even complimenting the subject it is. I like the minimal detail and strong depth of field.

The third image that worked well is of a building outside Paris Photo I chose to turn it into a negative because of the detail and lighting, strong symmetry and the moon shining over the building made the image eye catching making me wants to experiment with the image.

One print that turned out not as good as the others was of Notre Dame, the reason for this is the liquid emulsion is uneven and the brush strokes are visible making the overall print flat and ruining the print because its destructive.

I have enjoyed working with liquid emulsion and experimenting with the technique and would like to use it again in the future especially with different materials such as wood etc.

Alternative Digital Image

Digital Imaging Part 2

For the Experimental Practice  I have explored with new techniques such as the digital pinhole and digital negatives, I started by creating my pinhole where I used a lens cap using a lens cap means images will be only be pure colour because I have no lens and glass to interfere. Taking a small square piece of aluminum I gentle tapped a tiny hole in the center this is where the light will enter hitting the censer, I then taped it to the lens cap which had a hole where it had been drilled directly in the middle.

I was now ready to go out an shoot I decided to go the beach as the weather was nice but not only that I had to think of a theme that would compliment the colours and outcomes of the images as pinhole produces a more softy outcome that is suitable for landscapes. The project is all about experimenting and that is what I did I took my tripod and shot at different heights and different long exposure times, some shots varied from 30 seconds to only 1.

The outcomes where hard to guess because of the type of technique I was using, without focus and knowledge experimenting is all I could do but I liked the idea of not knowing what I was going to produce.

Out of my final 6 images I have chosen this image is my favourite because the high exposure and no focus washes out parts of the landscape especially the iron man in the centre giving quite an extraterrestrial feel about the photo. I really like the unusual subtle purple colours the pinhole has created as on the day I shot these images the sky was blue and clear. I could say digital pinhole is unpredictable and that’s why experimenting with it was vital because it was unclear what the final outcomes would be.

This is my least favourite image from the set compared to the other five because it has less character and interest, I believe it just looks like a normal but bad portrait the colours are not as vibrant and unusual. I chose to use it in my set of six because it worked and it was coherent but looking at it as a single photo I dislike it. Overall I enjoyed experimenting with pinhole and would like to use it again in the future because depending on the theme and lighting the outcomes are very nice, I would like to use pinhole with a 35mm film camera I believe this would produce a whole different visual aspect and mood to the images.

To create my six digital negatives I started by picking out the best images from recent projects that would work well for being turned into a negative, which will be printing onto transparent film, but firstly I needed to take them into Photoshop to edit.

To change my images I started by going to the curve tool and adjusting the control points, after that I went to adjustments then mode and applied greyscale. The next steps where to invert and flip the canvas horizontal, once applying these settings to all of my images I was ready to print my negatives off and take them into the darkroom to experiment with liquid emulsion.

TD -PH1200 - Visualising Ideas Blog - Book review on Nadav Kander

I have chose to do my book review on Nadav Kander, this book shows different elements of his work but I have focused on his portraiture work because I connect more with this style of photography and have taken a great interest in his work. Throughout the portrait section of the book  we can see that there isn’t an obvious theme as he experiments with various compositions, lightings and techniques such as we can see he uses coloured gels quite a lot to add a mixture of lighting to the shoot. In the past when experimenting with different sides of photography I came across Kander and took a shine to his work that used coloured gels, by using this technique I was able to show a persons personality or emotion threw not just there expression but by the colours that I projected onto them. 

Normally I analyse  images from the internet as its a lot quicker and easier then getting a book, but in fact I have found it easier to understand an image as I have a closer connection with them, seeing his work on a larger scale is helpful as I can see up close the colours and detail that make the photo. Seeing a photographers work up close made me appreciate the art of photograph and how simple lighting and certain techniques can make such a beautiful image. 

One of my favourite photos in the book is of Mark Rylance this image is of a simple stance with his body facing forward and his head turned to his left but what I love about the image is how the light catches his eyes making them glossy, this is what stands out the most in the image and I feel without the light catching his eyes this photo would be nothing, by having it black and white it washes away  the mixture of colours making it very calm and innocent the expression on his face Is blank and I get a sense of sadness from it but I feel that I only get this because of it being black and white. 

My least favourite image from the book is Dream Girls where we can see a naked women in the background and a pot of flowers in the foreground, this type of portraiture photography does not appeal to me the photo is rather neutral and dull quite the opposite to the work I am inspired by and know Nadav Kander for, I love photography where the images are visually eye catching and are something special and where I can take time to look at it and build up thoughts. 

Nowadays everyone views images online but books are still important I found it a lot easier and beneficial analysing photos from a book, I have learnt that the internet isn't always the best option and I can get just as much insight into a photographers work by a book so in the future I will broaden my ways of researching.

TD - PH1200 - Visualising Ideas Blog - Website Review on Terry Richardson

I chose to do my website review on Terry Richardson as he is a well known portrait photographer I found his website at http://www.terryrichardson.com/ , at this moment in time I am starting to like portrait photography especially after a fashion photography assignment, I enjoyed the experience and learnt a lot such as making the models enjoy the shoot, by looking at Terry Richardson's images I could tell that the models enjoyed the Photoshoot and that would be because Terry engaged with them and relaxed them to make them comfortable and so he is able to produce natural and amazing images. 

His website is very minimalistic with a white background and black font, however this does not make it a plain and boring website because when you enter his website he has a slide-show of images which straight away catches your attention making you want to delve in further, his images are so strong both either black and white or in colour it draws the viewer to them and without any distracting colours in the background you're able to focus on the images more. The layout of his images are quite simply in the middle on the page vertically displayed with a brief caption under the images starting from his most recent work dating back to his older work, his photos are easily viewable on the screen but its very time consuming getting from say page 1 to 10 as you have to scroll down to the bottom and click older and do this repeatedly until you get to the page you want.

In today’s society we are surrounded by technology so its a lot quicker and easier to access photos of photographers work online,  but I do not think I would have the same feeling and connection with them as I would if I seen them in a book or at an exhibition just because of the scale they are at and the quality of them, I would love to see his photos printed up big or even in a book just so I can see the difference and get a more personal view on them.

This photograph of Rihanna as Terry Richardson is one of my favourites because I am a big fan of her but no only that I love the contrast of the black and white, the high exposure highlights a lot of the image which many people may think its too harsh but I disagree, by having a high exposure it has washed out the detail on her hand and features such as her nose and mouth, building a strong contrast with other features like her eyes, roots and the glasses which are all dark. 

The cropping of the shot makes the viewer focus on Rihanna's eyes because there is no distractions around her, the sharpness and bold contrast of her eyes immediately draw the viewer to them.

On the header of Terry Richardson's website are menu buttons which take you to different categories of photographs he has taken for example one menu button is named 01. Terry, this is simply photos of himself with the hundreds of clients he has photographed, I like the idea that it shows the people that he has met and he has a personal keep sake which in years to come he can look back on, Richardson is also known for putting his thumbs up in photos so a lot of clients have embraced that and again its great that he has a little personal trait that comes across in his photographs.

I don’t understand 02. Diary and the concept behind it as I just see it as random photos with captions that point out the obvious, I don’t feel any interest in any of his diary work and I prefer to see Richardson's portrait work which is seen in 03. People, 04. Models.

Richardson has always been one of my inspirations in photography and I will always be inspired by his work, I like how threw his photos you can tell he loves his job and that he has passion for photography by having confidence and enjoying what he does, he is able to produce photographs that people like myself look up to and are inspired by.  

TD PH1320 - Intro Digital Imaging

Part One - Composite Portraiture 

Sir Francis Galton invented composite portraiture also known as composite photographs in the late 1870’s, the process of this was thought to identify different types by appearances, composite photographs was hoped to aid medical diagnosis and criminology by identification of typical criminal faces. It concluded that such types were not attainable after a lot of exhausting experimentation.

Working in the borderland between art and science extending practise influenced by Galton, Nancy Burson uses morphology and genetic codes to digitally manipulate portrait photographs of the human face. This technique was used to update images of missing children at one point when the FBI enlisted Burson.

 

For this assignment I had to create two composite portraits using at least three existing photos to produce a new face, the portraits will come under the headings of Family, Fictitious, Killer, Celebrity or Gender.

I started by scanning in photos of my Grandad on a resolution of 4800 so that when I print the final image off on A4 the pixels wont look so pixelated.

Once I had the photos I needed I took them into Photoshop and began layering both photos of my Grandad on top of each other, it was very important to join up the eyes and nose so the faces fit together. By turning down the opacity on one of the images I was able to make good judgement when lining up the photos.

I added a third image, which was of myself to the layered photos on Photoshop and again played around with the layers and opacity until I was able to join all of them together. To merge the images together to make it look as realistic as possibly I played around with the layer effects such as overlay, hard light and multiply but I found that soft light worked the best as it gave the best natural looking complexion. However because I used old and small photographs they still showed up pixels but this adds to the outcome making it rough and dated. What is great about this style of portraits are you get a messy boarder around the image from each photo which adds to the final outcome making it artistic and graphic.

I am made up with the outcome of my first composite portrait and would not change anything about it, I have captured the resemblance between myself and my Grandad threw the photo and love how alike we are and have the same features I never really noticed this until after I produced the photo. I would in the future like to have another go at composite portraits using other members of my family because it’s fun, easy and a nice way to compare photos from different generations and ages.

 

My second portrait comes under the heading celebrity, I chose to firstly match my face up with Stephen Mulherns, (presenter) as I constantly get told we look alike, again using the same process as my first portrait I reduced the opacity of the top image so I was able to match up the faces. Our faces fitted surprisingly perfect together I just needed to now find a third image that would sit nicely with the others. 

After a lot of research and looking for celebrities that would compliment and add to the portrait I came across the actor Jim Parsons who is best known for playing the character Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory, I selected an image that had similar characteristics as the other two this way the final outcome would look realistic. 

I placed the image of Jim over the layers below and matched up his face, I noticed that his head needed to be flipped horizontally so that the shape fitted correctly, before I did this his features matched up right but unfortunately his head didn’t compliment the photo as it looked to messy and not as professional as I wanted.

TD PH1300 - Introduction to Photographic Practise

TD Part Six- Fashion

For this Fashion Photography assignment as a class we looked at a documentary on the photographer Rankin, we watched how he tried to recreate seven photographs that change photography these included photographers such as Cecil Beaton, Erwin Blumenfeld, Richard Avedon and David Bailey. Personally with a lot of the images he recreated I didn’t like; he missed a lot of the key elements that made the original photos like the compositions and framing.

With most things that are new to me it can be quite intimidating, and that is how I felt about fashion photography,  to be the one that controlled the models that I have never met before and having to communicate and to make a relationship with them did not seem possibly because I lacked confidence. What helped me to gain back confidence was when in a recent assignment I had to approach the public again people I didn’t no, so I knew it was not impossible and that once I got into something I would feel comfortable and relax more. Also I had to keep in mind that the models may also feel intimidated with the bright lights and everyone around then taking photos so this made me relax more.

I did not no what to expect and I got told that anything could happen and that using my own initiative and to improvise would be wise as not everything will go to plan as I found out with my first client, she was an older women and her stylist was inspired by an image that featured a younger model so there was my first problem of how to make her look similar to the image.

I used a simple light set up of a soft box and a black back drop to recreate the image, for this assignment I used a standard 50mm lens this lens is best for portrait photos, once I was happy with the photos I had taken I then had to edit one in Light room and Photo shop, on both software’s are a variety of tools and techniques that are great to edit images and make them look professional. Personally my opinion is the stylist did not do a great job on the make up so it was up to me to a least fix it up and make it look half decent.

I started by using the spot-healing tool to remove imperfections and wrinkles on her skin, then the clone and liquify tool to reshape her eyebrows and lips to the same shape as the photo they were inspired by. After reshaping her lips I then painted over the originals using colours that relate to the image then using highlights to create a realistic finish.

Dodge and Burn tools are nice to work with as they can add and change little aspects to the photo such as lightening up the eyes, I would use the dodge tool and click on highlights this would then brighten up any white areas such as teeth and eyes.

Burn tool would do the opposite and darken areas I wanted.

By turning down the clarify tool on Light Room to -100 then paint over the face were it may still be uneven, the clarify tool will smoothing out the skin washing out any detail this was one of the last steps to finishing my photo the last step was cropping the portrait to resemble the same shot as the photo I had be referring back to.

When retouching and editing my photos of the models I used basically the same techniques but I also was looking for other alternatives to use so I could widen my skills, Stephanie the model below was great to work with I found she was very photogenic, as the photographer I had to make her feel comfortable so by talking it doesn’t make the atmosphere awkward and then the photographs will happen naturally.

I noticed with the images of Steph the main focus were her eyes, the colourful makeup and her crimped hair these combined together tight would make the photo strong, so I cropped down the photo to a close shot of her face, instantly the photo was stronger and had no distractions. I then started to refine the image by using the clone and spot-healing tool to remove blemishes on the skin, as she has nice blue eyes I retouched them with the dodge tool to brighten them up slightly but not to harsh it looks unnatural. The photo was very warm so by turning down the temperature on light-room I was able to create an even realistic tone throughout the photo.

Photo-Shop has a tool in adjustments called replace colour using the pipette I was able to select a colour then increase or decrease the hues and saturation, as I wanted to make the makeup bold and striking I increased them some what until I was happy with the out come.

What drew me to this model was the makeup and how I could use coloured gels together to help enhance the makeup making it look more alien like, by placing two tungsten lights slightly behind her on either side with coloured gels over them I was able to project pink and purple to both sides of her head, this helped to light up her hair and define her cheek bones and jaw line.

Arranging a soft box directly in front of her face meant I was able to light the rest of her face up without washing out the colours from the tungsten lights.

I had to place myself right under the soft box to get close as possibly to the model as I was using a standard 50mm lens.

From the photos I had taken I chose to edit a side on portrait image because I liked the composition and how the coloured gels sat around her head and body. I started by using the healing brush tool to remove stray hairs from around her head, which are a distraction, to remove hair from her shoulder I used the patch tool, which replicates a selected area of the skin and removes the area I want. To remove imperfections I used the spot-healing tool, I liked using this tool as it cleans up small areas of the skin without a lot of effort.