SEEING IS BELIEVING EVALUATION
Out of the four projects we got set this year ‘Seeing is Believing’ was by far my favourite as I actually enjoyed sitting down and editing my images. This was quite a shock to me as before I came to Leeds I was strictly film based and had no time for digital or digitally manipulated images as I thought it was an easy way to a decent image. After completing this module I now know that is not that easy. Whether my opinion on whether overly edited images are still photos is another matter.
The biggest lesson that I am going to take away from this module is that you have to embrace new technologies and you have to keep your finger on the pulse when it comes to new trends in photography. Like I said before I used to be more into the older style of photos and thought I would only ever produce images in that style because they were so classic and timeless. I now realise that whilst they look good that was the style of the past and they should possibly stay in the past. I guess what I’m trying to say is that shots like those by Henri Cartier Bresson documented the past are fine and are now legendary but one day so will the shots that todays photographers take with todays technology. So I say embrace this technology and use it to create new and amazing imagery but just don’t be an idiot with it and use it to deceive people.
In terms of what I have learnt technically I have to say I haven’t learnt much, anything I have learnt I have either taught myself or a classmate has taught me. I feel what we were taught in our lessons was very poor and too basic and to be honest not nearly enough to complete a Digital Post Production module competently. I also feel like there were not enough scheduled lessons and that we were left to our own devices too much, freedom is good but everyone needs a little kick up the arse every now and again.
Anyway that’s my little rant over, I think the reason that I managed to keep my motivation up throughout this module is because what I decided to base my project on stemmed from some quite personal reasons and feelings, and without them I think I would probably have given up this module quite a long time ago.
I think if I was to do this project again I would only change a couple of things. One being, I would have used only images from disposable cameras in my video, purely for continuity. The only other thing I would have done differently would’ve been to make a special request that I could print my three final images bigger than A3 maybe A1 so I would get a really nice pixelated look to them.
Monday, 19 May 2008
THE VIDEO
This is the final cut of the video that i planned to make. The whole thing was created with photo's i took on a dispoable camera or that i had taken previously and were on my computer. The original idea behind the video was to tell the story of a couple where the boyfriend dies and the images would show how you can slowly lose the image in your head of a loved one when they pass away or even just leave you. In the end i decided to go more from the angle of the boys group of friends and how they might remember him.
This video took me a pretty long time to make there's probably about 100 cuts in it each with it's own fade and zoom and pan effect. It is also cut to the music like i mentioned earlier in this blog. I hope you enjoy it, it is quite sad but then that was the idea i guess!
FINAL IMAGES
Here are the three images that i have chosen as my final three.
The reason that i chose this image as a final one is because;
A) I think the colours are really strong especially the greens
B) I like the shape of the silhouette
C) The expression on Emily's face is very real
D) The natural vignetting
The reason that i like this one is because of the links to the Beatles album cover for Abbey Road
I also liked the shape of the silhouette, it's a nice solid human shape.
This last image was chosen again for it's good colours and use of flash also because of the shape of the silhouette, good hand position.
EDITING TECHNIQUES USED ON THESE IMAGES
All were scanned in on my home scanner after having been printed at Snappy Snaps. Next i cut out my subject using the technique i discussed earlier on in my technique section. Then i put them all through Light Room and tweaked the temperature to make them a bit warmer, i also heightened the blacks a little and finally i did a little lens correction where necessary.
The reason that i chose this image as a final one is because;
A) I think the colours are really strong especially the greens
B) I like the shape of the silhouette
C) The expression on Emily's face is very real
D) The natural vignetting
The reason that i like this one is because of the links to the Beatles album cover for Abbey Road
I also liked the shape of the silhouette, it's a nice solid human shape.
This last image was chosen again for it's good colours and use of flash also because of the shape of the silhouette, good hand position.
EDITING TECHNIQUES USED ON THESE IMAGES
All were scanned in on my home scanner after having been printed at Snappy Snaps. Next i cut out my subject using the technique i discussed earlier on in my technique section. Then i put them all through Light Room and tweaked the temperature to make them a bit warmer, i also heightened the blacks a little and finally i did a little lens correction where necessary.
AN OBVIOUS SIMILARITY TO MY WORK
IPOD Adverts.
I didn't particularly want to use these ipod ads as research because i don't think it's particularly imaginative, non the less it is here. The way that is similar is because of the silhouettes and i suppose another link is that it is related to music but that is all i am going to say on these ads as it is boring me!
I didn't particularly want to use these ipod ads as research because i don't think it's particularly imaginative, non the less it is here. The way that is similar is because of the silhouettes and i suppose another link is that it is related to music but that is all i am going to say on these ads as it is boring me!
INFLUENCES IN TERMS OF CULTURAL STYLINGS
As you can probably tell by now after looking at most of my blog one thing that inpsires me heavily is music, but it is not just the music itself that is an inspiration it is the culture and sense of always looking for new and exciting artists. There are a number of magazines that cover the culture that surrounds most genres of music. I find these magazines a good way staying on top of new cultural movements, fashion, music, certain products and also styles of photography that are popular. As you can imagine these magazines are heavily imaged based and it is important for these images to come across fresh and exciting so almost always the imagery will be extremely eye catching and up to date.
With the introduction of such things as Myspace, Facebook, and Blogs making it very easy to find out a lot about people very fast, i think there is a need for imagery to be a lot more true to what is actually happening there and then. As a result i feel there is a huge decrease in the demand for very staged and heavily edited images within this section of modern culture of which i am interested in at this moment in time. There will however have been some digital based post production to most of these images all be it just minor contrast and colour changes and perhaps some cropping. All though these images may not have been heavily edited in the post production stages all these magazines and blogs are created on computers and the positioning on the page and the text and other images that surround them will have an effect on their meaning and in my opinion could be easily be classed as a form of digital post production.
Here are some examples of Magazines, Blogs and Websites that i think push forward these cultures through their imagery.
VICE MAGAZINE
This magazine has been around for a long time now and is still at the forefront of all modern culture, and is also very well known for having some of the worlds top photographers appear in it. Sections like Do's and Dont's have the sort of imagery i have been talking about.
What interests me about these images is the way they leave me asking questions who are these people, what do they do, where did they get that t-shirt from and so on. I find images like these just as interesting or maybe even more interesting than images by photographers such as Rankin and Martin Parr.
Another Magazine, quite similar to Vice is a magazine called Shut, that actualy seems to have disapeared as of late, non the less there are some nice images in there.
As you can see from these images they are all pretty raw, no exterior lighting and no obvious editing, it's mainly just people in the streets or at party's who happen to be well dressed and the magazines use them as models. I especially like the ones taken on polaroid shown below.
BLOGS;
http://fluokids.blogspot.com/
This blog here is primarily a music blog where people put music for you to download but also has some nice imagery related to fashion and hosts a few ads for other realted blogs and sites. It's mainly in french but you should be able to get an idea of what is going on. I feel the images on this blog, all be it of attractive girls are in a similar vien to those of mine for this project, colour, lighting and for use of a better word, vibe.
WEBSITES
http://www.berangereclaire.com/viewmodel.php?idm=FKARGR#top
This next one i used in my studio lighting project but i think it is also relevent to this project in terms of style. It's also in French!
http://www.thecobrasnake.com/partyphotos.html
Same applies to this one but it's in English.
http://store.americanapparel.net/women-sweatshirts---jackets.html
The american apparel site is a good example of a company using very basic photos in the style i have been talking about to sell their products.
http://www.terryrichardson.com/Start.html
After having recently bought a t-shirt from uniqlo because it had a cool looking guy on it, i found out that cool looking guy was Terry Richardson a world class photographer. I soon looked him up on the internet and was pleasantly surpprised to find that his work is actually really good. A lot of his photos are a similar style to that of which i have been talking about just of quite high profile people.
One more thing i would like to show you is this flyer i found at snappy snaps for a local artist named Claire Blundell Jones who is doing a performance piece in and around leeds called 'Kissing II'. Where nine couples will emerge in public spaces, group in close formation according to a prearranged plan, kiss each other ten minutes, and then disperse. The actual performance isn't anything to do with my project but the flyer is strangely similar to mine.
With the introduction of such things as Myspace, Facebook, and Blogs making it very easy to find out a lot about people very fast, i think there is a need for imagery to be a lot more true to what is actually happening there and then. As a result i feel there is a huge decrease in the demand for very staged and heavily edited images within this section of modern culture of which i am interested in at this moment in time. There will however have been some digital based post production to most of these images all be it just minor contrast and colour changes and perhaps some cropping. All though these images may not have been heavily edited in the post production stages all these magazines and blogs are created on computers and the positioning on the page and the text and other images that surround them will have an effect on their meaning and in my opinion could be easily be classed as a form of digital post production.
Here are some examples of Magazines, Blogs and Websites that i think push forward these cultures through their imagery.
VICE MAGAZINE
This magazine has been around for a long time now and is still at the forefront of all modern culture, and is also very well known for having some of the worlds top photographers appear in it. Sections like Do's and Dont's have the sort of imagery i have been talking about.
What interests me about these images is the way they leave me asking questions who are these people, what do they do, where did they get that t-shirt from and so on. I find images like these just as interesting or maybe even more interesting than images by photographers such as Rankin and Martin Parr.
Another Magazine, quite similar to Vice is a magazine called Shut, that actualy seems to have disapeared as of late, non the less there are some nice images in there.
As you can see from these images they are all pretty raw, no exterior lighting and no obvious editing, it's mainly just people in the streets or at party's who happen to be well dressed and the magazines use them as models. I especially like the ones taken on polaroid shown below.
BLOGS;
http://fluokids.blogspot.com/
This blog here is primarily a music blog where people put music for you to download but also has some nice imagery related to fashion and hosts a few ads for other realted blogs and sites. It's mainly in french but you should be able to get an idea of what is going on. I feel the images on this blog, all be it of attractive girls are in a similar vien to those of mine for this project, colour, lighting and for use of a better word, vibe.
WEBSITES
http://www.berangereclaire.com/viewmodel.php?idm=FKARGR#top
This next one i used in my studio lighting project but i think it is also relevent to this project in terms of style. It's also in French!
http://www.thecobrasnake.com/partyphotos.html
Same applies to this one but it's in English.
http://store.americanapparel.net/women-sweatshirts---jackets.html
The american apparel site is a good example of a company using very basic photos in the style i have been talking about to sell their products.
http://www.terryrichardson.com/Start.html
After having recently bought a t-shirt from uniqlo because it had a cool looking guy on it, i found out that cool looking guy was Terry Richardson a world class photographer. I soon looked him up on the internet and was pleasantly surpprised to find that his work is actually really good. A lot of his photos are a similar style to that of which i have been talking about just of quite high profile people.
One more thing i would like to show you is this flyer i found at snappy snaps for a local artist named Claire Blundell Jones who is doing a performance piece in and around leeds called 'Kissing II'. Where nine couples will emerge in public spaces, group in close formation according to a prearranged plan, kiss each other ten minutes, and then disperse. The actual performance isn't anything to do with my project but the flyer is strangely similar to mine.
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
TECHNIQUE EXAMPLE
Here is that last technique in practice...
The only thing that i would change about this is to extend the final flurry of flashes and then fade straight to the next image as soon as he turns to white. Also the song that accompanies this video is not the one i intended to use but i actually think this works really well and has now given me the idea that the boyfriend should only be white in the choruses. I think this would be a lot more effective and would help the video to flow as the lyrics are very apt, i might try and produce one with the other song as well and see which one i prefer at the end.
The only thing that i would change about this is to extend the final flurry of flashes and then fade straight to the next image as soon as he turns to white. Also the song that accompanies this video is not the one i intended to use but i actually think this works really well and has now given me the idea that the boyfriend should only be white in the choruses. I think this would be a lot more effective and would help the video to flow as the lyrics are very apt, i might try and produce one with the other song as well and see which one i prefer at the end.
Monday, 5 May 2008
TECHNIQUE
So far i have not been happy with the techniques i have been experimenting with in order to fade out the boyfriend. I then had an idea that i could use sort of flashes like when you turn a classroom light on and it flickers for a bit then eventually turns on.
A bit like this, i found this on youtube, i swear you can find anything on that site, this clip is actually really good, it takes a while to get into it but it's really clever and really well shot.
The idea is that the boyfriend will start to flicker white, just every now and then to start with and eventualy the boyfriend will flicker a lot and then will be completely white. This is the best way i have found for fading out the boyfriend and is the one that i think i will use as it is by far the most effective visualy.
Here is something i put together using that technique, it should give you a good idea of what i'm going on about...
The only problem i have come across whilst using this technique is you cant make it flash and zoom in at the same time, but i'll find a way round that. If i do this right it could look really good.
A bit like this, i found this on youtube, i swear you can find anything on that site, this clip is actually really good, it takes a while to get into it but it's really clever and really well shot.
The idea is that the boyfriend will start to flicker white, just every now and then to start with and eventualy the boyfriend will flicker a lot and then will be completely white. This is the best way i have found for fading out the boyfriend and is the one that i think i will use as it is by far the most effective visualy.
Here is something i put together using that technique, it should give you a good idea of what i'm going on about...
The only problem i have come across whilst using this technique is you cant make it flash and zoom in at the same time, but i'll find a way round that. If i do this right it could look really good.
Saturday, 3 May 2008
VIDEO
As i intend to put my final images into some sort of video i thought i should experiment with some video editing software. In the past i have used final cut to produce videos of images to music and it has worked fine, but for this project i wanted to try some other software out. I realised that i had Windows Movie Maker on my laptop so i thought i would play around with that and see what happened. It turns out that the software is really easy to use and in some cases better suited for what i want to achieve. Eg, i want to zoom in on the photos during the slideshow, this is surprisingly difficult to do on Final Cut, you may even have to use After Effects. Where as on Windows Movie Maker it is a built in effect and all you have to do is drag and drop, I will get some screen grabs when i can work out where my laptop stores print screens. For the reasons i just mentioned i will be using Windows Movie Maker for my project instead of Final Cut, which i originally said i would.
The images in this little video above are not my final images, i mainly produced this so i could get used to the software and also to give you an idea of roughly what it is i am trying to achieve in this project. Also it is not the song that i intend to use, that is still going to be a suprise.
It was whilst compiling this video that i decided i wanted to zoom in on the photos. When i first decided to make a video for this project i had zooms in mind but wasn't sure how i was going to achieve it, so i'm really happy that i found out that the Windows software offers an easy and i think effective way of doing this.
When i watched the video back, some of the zooms reminded me of a Beck video that i really like, 'Devils Haircut'
I cant get the video off of Youtube because some idiot has requested that the embeded code not be shown, but don't worry i used the same video in the Video Production Module so i have it on my Video page.
Here is the link...
http://videojonnyfinch.blogspot.com/2008/02/film-stylings.html
On a similar note, whilst checking out 'The Raconteurs' myspace page i saw their latest video for 'Salute Your Solution' directed by Autumn de Wilde, which is completely compiled of photos cut in time to the music. It's not that similar in style but it is the pretty much the same technique, just a lot more flash, but then so is the song.
'The Raconteurs'
'Salute Your Salution'
I also thought i would check out Autumn's website, and i was really impressed with her work, i especially liked her images of Beck. The only work of hers that i had seen before was the stuff she'd done with Elliott Smith and it was only the black and white stuff, looking further into her work i think her colour images are lot stronger than her black and white stuff and i really like her use of short depth of field.
Here is a link to her official website...
http://www.autumndewilde.com/portfolio.htm
Friday, 2 May 2008
HOW TO PRESENT MY PRINTED IMAGES
When i decided to print off my final images as well as put them into a slideshow i thought i should present them in a slightly different way possibly in keeping the style of the slideshow. So Neal and i thought of a couple ways to do this, one was to put the photos in the wallet that say Snappy Snaps give you them in or to put them into a photo album.
Here's what the wallet idea may look like...
and here is how the photo album might look...
Just imagine my photos inplace of the wedding photo's!
Here's what the wallet idea may look like...
and here is how the photo album might look...
Just imagine my photos inplace of the wedding photo's!
THIS FEELS A BIT DARK!
As i was not happy with outcome of fading the boyfriend using photoshop i moved onto doing it by as discussed with Neal. I went out and bought a bottle of bleach with the intention of wipeing the boyfriend out of the picture (sounds a bit evil that!). I poured a little bleach onto some toilet role and started to rub it on the photo. It didn't quite do what i thought it would, which was wipe off the image and leave white in it's place, in fact what happened was it just left a red firey effect, quite cool but not really what i was looking for. Here it is...
The red bit in the middle over the TV is where i rubbed the bleach, like i said it looks pretty cool but it's no good. So i tried scratching into it with a blunt piece of metal which you can see on the left hand side of the image over my friend Nathan. I felt a bit wrong scratching out a person in a photo, it just felt a bit dark and twisted, but i was quite happy with how it looks and if i was to do this gradually through out the series of images i'm sure it could look quite good but at this stage i am still not sure whether i want to fade the boyfriend out or just cut out him out in every image. Hopefully i'll make a decision soon.
The red bit in the middle over the TV is where i rubbed the bleach, like i said it looks pretty cool but it's no good. So i tried scratching into it with a blunt piece of metal which you can see on the left hand side of the image over my friend Nathan. I felt a bit wrong scratching out a person in a photo, it just felt a bit dark and twisted, but i was quite happy with how it looks and if i was to do this gradually through out the series of images i'm sure it could look quite good but at this stage i am still not sure whether i want to fade the boyfriend out or just cut out him out in every image. Hopefully i'll make a decision soon.
A HAZY SHADE OF WINTER
Here is nice piece of music to listen to whilst reading this post by the yummy Simon and Garfunkel.
Like i said before i thought i should try and fade the boyfriend out of the images gradually using photoshop, so i tried fading it and this is how it looks...
As you can see it doesn't llok that great and i don't think thar i will be using this technique to fade out the boyfriend. Even so here is the screen grab and how i achieved it...
It took me quite a while to work out how to do this as i don't have much experience using photoshop but i eventually worked it out. What i did was cut out Paul using the lasso tool like before then i coppied Paul, then deleted him, then pasted him to create a new layer and finally just messed around with the opacity. As i said before i am not happy with how it looks and will not be using this technique.
Like i said before i thought i should try and fade the boyfriend out of the images gradually using photoshop, so i tried fading it and this is how it looks...
As you can see it doesn't llok that great and i don't think thar i will be using this technique to fade out the boyfriend. Even so here is the screen grab and how i achieved it...
It took me quite a while to work out how to do this as i don't have much experience using photoshop but i eventually worked it out. What i did was cut out Paul using the lasso tool like before then i coppied Paul, then deleted him, then pasted him to create a new layer and finally just messed around with the opacity. As i said before i am not happy with how it looks and will not be using this technique.
USING A DISPOSABLE
After talking about using a disposable camera i thought i should try one out and see how they come out. They had a really good deal on them at Morrisons, £2 each, so i bought a couple and took them out and about with me to see what i could get.
Here are a few examples...
This one here of Fran and Rob is the sort of look i was going for, very much just a hanging out photo, only Fran and Rob would know what was going on and where and so on. Really like the expressions on their faces here, it's just what i wanted, it's like those photos where the person taking it is like, "Hey, you two, pose for a photo" and they're both looking at the camera, quite nice really. I think Fran set this as her wallpaper on her computer.
The reason i took this one is first of all to see how a shot in the daytime would come out and secondly because i wanted some of the shots to appear as if the girlfriend had taken it which of course would happen in a relationship. I was also thinking that there should be some shots of just the girl to show how happy she was at the time when they were together, of course the boyfriend would have taken it.
The reason i am showing you these is because of the lighting produced by the flash on the disposable camera. It gives the image a natural vingeting and i think looks really good. It is also quite similar to some of the photos on those party websites i mentioned in my Studio Lighting project like Cobrasnake and so on, which is a style that i really like at the moment.
After looking at how these images have come out i have now decided to use only disposable cameras in this project as i feel i could best achieve the look i am after with them.
Here are a few examples...
This one here of Fran and Rob is the sort of look i was going for, very much just a hanging out photo, only Fran and Rob would know what was going on and where and so on. Really like the expressions on their faces here, it's just what i wanted, it's like those photos where the person taking it is like, "Hey, you two, pose for a photo" and they're both looking at the camera, quite nice really. I think Fran set this as her wallpaper on her computer.
The reason i took this one is first of all to see how a shot in the daytime would come out and secondly because i wanted some of the shots to appear as if the girlfriend had taken it which of course would happen in a relationship. I was also thinking that there should be some shots of just the girl to show how happy she was at the time when they were together, of course the boyfriend would have taken it.
The reason i am showing you these is because of the lighting produced by the flash on the disposable camera. It gives the image a natural vingeting and i think looks really good. It is also quite similar to some of the photos on those party websites i mentioned in my Studio Lighting project like Cobrasnake and so on, which is a style that i really like at the moment.
After looking at how these images have come out i have now decided to use only disposable cameras in this project as i feel i could best achieve the look i am after with them.
THINKING ON TANGENTS
After a few talks with Neal we came up with a few more ideas to try in relation to my final idea. As you know i am planning on cutting people out of my images and leaving a white figure in it's place. An idea we had was to instead of just leaving the person white maybe i should slowly fade it to white as if it is a more gradual process when you forget what someone looks like. So i could start off with the person in full view then little by little through the series of images that person would fade to white.
Another idea was to intead of using photoshop to cut the person out i could actually scratch into the printed photo then scan it back in. Another way of doing this we thought was to use something like bleach to rub the person out and if any touching up was required then i would use photoshop.
We also discussed using a non-professional camera as these images are supposed to represent a couples past and i think it would be a bit more believable if the shots weren't taken on a couple of thousands of pounds worth of digital camera. So the we thought that a disposable camera could be a good idea to give it a more personal touch.
The last thing we talked about was how i am going to present my printed images, the idea i had was to present them in the sleave they come back in from snappy snaps say. This would tie in with theme of the disposable camera quite nicely. The idea Neal had was to present them in a photo album as if it was the girlfriends photo album compiled of photos and memories of her deceased boyfriend. Whilst writing this i thought that if i did either of these ideas then perhaps the photos presented should the unedited versions as these would the girls memory aids and the only pictures she has left of her boyfriend.
I will experiment with these ideas and see if i like any of them.
Another idea was to intead of using photoshop to cut the person out i could actually scratch into the printed photo then scan it back in. Another way of doing this we thought was to use something like bleach to rub the person out and if any touching up was required then i would use photoshop.
We also discussed using a non-professional camera as these images are supposed to represent a couples past and i think it would be a bit more believable if the shots weren't taken on a couple of thousands of pounds worth of digital camera. So the we thought that a disposable camera could be a good idea to give it a more personal touch.
The last thing we talked about was how i am going to present my printed images, the idea i had was to present them in the sleave they come back in from snappy snaps say. This would tie in with theme of the disposable camera quite nicely. The idea Neal had was to present them in a photo album as if it was the girlfriends photo album compiled of photos and memories of her deceased boyfriend. Whilst writing this i thought that if i did either of these ideas then perhaps the photos presented should the unedited versions as these would the girls memory aids and the only pictures she has left of her boyfriend.
I will experiment with these ideas and see if i like any of them.
Sunday, 13 April 2008
BON IDEA!
Right! My final idea came from a mistake in the mini breif we did recently, where i deleted a person out of an image instead of everything around it and probably a recent break up i recently went through. This mistake left a white cut out of a person and i thought it looked amazing. I then started thinking how i can use this to create a visualy interesting and thought provoking piece of art. As i said before i've just been through a break up and obviously relationships were on my mind. So i got to thinking, what if i produced a series of images of a couple where the man in the relationship had been cut out and all that was in his place was a white figure. These images would leed the viewer to believe that this woman is dating some sort of strange white figure almost a freak of nature but this woman loved him anyway. As soon as i came up with this idea i thought that the man in the relationship should actually be dead, and these images are actually looking back on their relationship and the final image in the series would be her by a gravestone. The reason for the man being i white figure is a way of representing how, sadly, the image you have in your head of a loved one that is no longer part of your life can slowly fade and you can find it hard to picture them without a visual aid.
The way in which i visualise this in my head is a sort of slide show, very slow paced, slow fades between each image and set to music. The song i have chosen i would like to keep as a surprise until the final showing but is very inkeeping with the images. I will probably produce the slide show on final cut as this will be the most appropriate piece of software to edit on. In terms of presenting my piece i would like to organise some sort showing in a space at the college using a projector. I think one of small rooms in the Vernon Street building would be nice.
Anyway! enough chit chat! Here are some images that i have edited on photoshop that should give you an idea of what I'm talking about.
This first image is a photo i took when in europe, the reason for using this image is because i think it is quite an intresting take on a photo of a couple and has strong representations of a shared memory, as if only the two in photo know where and why and so on.
First, the origional image...
Now the edited image...
All did for this image was use the lasso tool to cut out my feet, very simple, here is a screen grab from photoshop so you can see how i did it...
One image i wanted to include in this piece is of a couple hugging, so used this one taken in London by my brother. It's the exact same technique just with addition of a bit of eraser work were i didn't quite cut it right at the bottom.
Original image...
Edited image...
Screen Grab...
The last image is actually a film still from the film 'The Darjeeling Limited', i used it because i think it is a good picture of a couple. I actually made a mistake on this image because i made the edges of the cut slightly feathered, but once again it seems to be a good mistake, because i think it looks better with the feathered edges. Reason being that i think it gives it a more powerfull look, almost supernatural.
Original image...
Edited image...
Screen Grab...
The way in which i visualise this in my head is a sort of slide show, very slow paced, slow fades between each image and set to music. The song i have chosen i would like to keep as a surprise until the final showing but is very inkeeping with the images. I will probably produce the slide show on final cut as this will be the most appropriate piece of software to edit on. In terms of presenting my piece i would like to organise some sort showing in a space at the college using a projector. I think one of small rooms in the Vernon Street building would be nice.
Anyway! enough chit chat! Here are some images that i have edited on photoshop that should give you an idea of what I'm talking about.
This first image is a photo i took when in europe, the reason for using this image is because i think it is quite an intresting take on a photo of a couple and has strong representations of a shared memory, as if only the two in photo know where and why and so on.
First, the origional image...
Now the edited image...
All did for this image was use the lasso tool to cut out my feet, very simple, here is a screen grab from photoshop so you can see how i did it...
One image i wanted to include in this piece is of a couple hugging, so used this one taken in London by my brother. It's the exact same technique just with addition of a bit of eraser work were i didn't quite cut it right at the bottom.
Original image...
Edited image...
Screen Grab...
The last image is actually a film still from the film 'The Darjeeling Limited', i used it because i think it is a good picture of a couple. I actually made a mistake on this image because i made the edges of the cut slightly feathered, but once again it seems to be a good mistake, because i think it looks better with the feathered edges. Reason being that i think it gives it a more powerfull look, almost supernatural.
Original image...
Edited image...
Screen Grab...
Sunday, 9 March 2008
PART 3
For the third part of this mini breif we had combine two of our own images using some form of digital post production. The techniques i decided to use in both my final pieces for this part were cutting and layering. Here is how i did the first one.
The two images i decided to use were as follows.
First of all i opened the shot of me on the steps in photoshop, i then cut me out of the shot using the lasoo tool and pressed cut, leaving esentialy a white silouhet of me on the steps.
Now i quite like this image just like this but the breif states that it must be a combination of 2 images. So i got to thinking that maybe a bit of sky where my cut out is would be nice. So i layered the other image behind this one in the same way i've done all my others in this brief. This time i used a different blend on the layer and went for Hard Light which made the clouds come through real nice. Here is the finished article.
The second image i created in this mini brief is in my opinion the best image i have created in this brief and was achieved in pretty much the same way as the one above. The only difference is that i had to increase the canvas size and i also chose a different blend in the layering process, i chose Overlay. Anyway here are the two origional images.
The image you can see of me against the wall is actually from my studio project but i really like those images and wanted to work with them. As i said it's pretty much the same idea as the last one, here is the shot with me cut out of it.
Again i quite like it this but this one looks pretty good layered as well. Here is the final final image with the other image layered into it.
All of these images have at somepoint undergone some sort of colour and tone alteration in light room, all of this was done before the i started manipulating them.
One thing that i will take away from this little project is that i now know what i am going to do for my final images in the Digital Post Production module. Considering that i am so happy with the outcome of these last two images i thought i would continue with the theme of cutting myself out of images.
The two images i decided to use were as follows.
First of all i opened the shot of me on the steps in photoshop, i then cut me out of the shot using the lasoo tool and pressed cut, leaving esentialy a white silouhet of me on the steps.
Now i quite like this image just like this but the breif states that it must be a combination of 2 images. So i got to thinking that maybe a bit of sky where my cut out is would be nice. So i layered the other image behind this one in the same way i've done all my others in this brief. This time i used a different blend on the layer and went for Hard Light which made the clouds come through real nice. Here is the finished article.
The second image i created in this mini brief is in my opinion the best image i have created in this brief and was achieved in pretty much the same way as the one above. The only difference is that i had to increase the canvas size and i also chose a different blend in the layering process, i chose Overlay. Anyway here are the two origional images.
The image you can see of me against the wall is actually from my studio project but i really like those images and wanted to work with them. As i said it's pretty much the same idea as the last one, here is the shot with me cut out of it.
Again i quite like it this but this one looks pretty good layered as well. Here is the final final image with the other image layered into it.
All of these images have at somepoint undergone some sort of colour and tone alteration in light room, all of this was done before the i started manipulating them.
One thing that i will take away from this little project is that i now know what i am going to do for my final images in the Digital Post Production module. Considering that i am so happy with the outcome of these last two images i thought i would continue with the theme of cutting myself out of images.
Saturday, 8 March 2008
PART 2
For the second part of this brief we had to rework two of our own images with the edition of a scanned object. The first image i reworked was this one i took in Manchester of myself.
This one was done with a self-timer, i just propped it on the table and posed! the way i reworked was by first cutting it out on Photoshop using the lasoo tool, shown here.
The next thing i did was to scan in a few of my polaroids with a few other found images from my room at 300 dpi shown below. Reason for it being 300 dpi is because it is the optimum dpi for scanning, it's the quickest and you cant tell the diference between 300 dpi and anything above that quality wise. Here it is.
Once i had the two images on the computer i layered them on top of one another. I selected the scanned image (ctrlA+ctrlC) select all then copy then pressed ctrlV to add it as a layer. I then played around with diferent blends untill i decided on Lighten. Here is the final Image.
For my second image in this section i decided to merge one of my polaroids with one of my digital shots. The idea was to frame the digital shot within the frame of the polaroid creating a new polaroid. Here are the two origional images.
To start with i opened the scanned image of the polaroid in photoshop then i cropped it using the cropping tool. I then selected the cropped image (Free Transform ctrl T) and enlarged insuring that i held down shift whilst doing it so the image enlarged to scale, then pressed enter to render it to full quality. Once this was done i opened the digitalm image. I then layered the scanned image on top of the digital image the same way i did my first image. Because i wanted the polaroid to sit slightly lower than the digital image i increased the canvas size of the digital image. This allowed me to move the polaroid slightly off the edge of the digital image without loosing any of the polaroids frame. Finally i selected a blend that i wanted, lighten again and left the opacity at 100%, here is the end result.
This one was done with a self-timer, i just propped it on the table and posed! the way i reworked was by first cutting it out on Photoshop using the lasoo tool, shown here.
The next thing i did was to scan in a few of my polaroids with a few other found images from my room at 300 dpi shown below. Reason for it being 300 dpi is because it is the optimum dpi for scanning, it's the quickest and you cant tell the diference between 300 dpi and anything above that quality wise. Here it is.
Once i had the two images on the computer i layered them on top of one another. I selected the scanned image (ctrlA+ctrlC) select all then copy then pressed ctrlV to add it as a layer. I then played around with diferent blends untill i decided on Lighten. Here is the final Image.
For my second image in this section i decided to merge one of my polaroids with one of my digital shots. The idea was to frame the digital shot within the frame of the polaroid creating a new polaroid. Here are the two origional images.
To start with i opened the scanned image of the polaroid in photoshop then i cropped it using the cropping tool. I then selected the cropped image (Free Transform ctrl T) and enlarged insuring that i held down shift whilst doing it so the image enlarged to scale, then pressed enter to render it to full quality. Once this was done i opened the digitalm image. I then layered the scanned image on top of the digital image the same way i did my first image. Because i wanted the polaroid to sit slightly lower than the digital image i increased the canvas size of the digital image. This allowed me to move the polaroid slightly off the edge of the digital image without loosing any of the polaroids frame. Finally i selected a blend that i wanted, lighten again and left the opacity at 100%, here is the end result.
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