Experimental photography task 2

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Experimental Photography Task 2 Patrick Gouldsbrough 1

Transcript of Experimental photography task 2

Page 1: Experimental photography task 2

Experimental PhotographyTask 2

Patrick Gouldsbrough

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Movement

The most obvious way of capturing a movement style image is to capture an object or subject in motion. Altering the shutter speed can help capture a better movement style image (a slower shutter speed will be better for capturing motion, rather than a faster shutter speed). This is because a slower shutter speed doesn’t freeze an object, instead, it captures it in motion. Another thing that will affect a movement picture is the timer on the camera,. If a few seconds delay are altered on the settings, it will capture longer and more effective ‘motion lines’, which, in turn, can create more surreal photographs (like the photograph at the bottom by Brian Yen).

At first, I found it very difficult to capture this image. This was not due to the complexity of the camera though, instead, it was the reluctance to capture image that were similar to Unit 57 shutter speed, which I captured car movement for. Even though I have got one car image, I have generally steered clear of similar images to the past unit. This car image was the only photograph I captured using a moving object. The other two images were a result of moving the camera during the exposure.

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This image was already relatively blurred, due to me moving the camera during exposure. However, I wanted additional blur, so the object was unidentifiable to the consumer, which would give it a surreal and effective nature to the photograph. I eventually got to this stage using the blur tool, even though I wanted even more blur. A swirl pattern was the result of 100% blur, which was very effective and experimental, but wasn’t what I wanted for this specific technique anymore. On the other hand, if I was to capture something similar for my final image, I may choose to use a 100% blur effect to produce my image, due to the good results I got out of it on this experiment section.

As well as the blur, I wanted another post-production technique that would make the central focus, the distorted badge, stand out. This, in due course, would be done by adding a glass filter from the filter gallery, before adjusting the amount of filter added to the image. The result, as you can see, brightens the central focus, while giving the image a more surreal feel, which, in my opinion is very effective. Even though I didn’t choose to emulate anyone on this particular shot, since doing this shot, I have researched this style and it’s quite a popular technique within experimental photography.

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Reflection This photography technique is one like no other, which allows the photographer to capture the subject/object in a unique and different perspective. It sometimes helps to capture smaller parts of the bigger picture, which then allows the consumer to make their own mind about the bigger picture (enigmatic codes).

This camera technique requires no settings or additional information. The camera can be left on automatic and the only thing you ill need is a steady hand/tripod and a good eye for photography (to see a small section of a bigger picture within a reflection).

Finding a reflection shot was not difficult to do, due to there been plenty of windows to capture a reflection shot. However, just because there is plenty of windows, it doesn’t mean that there is a good reflection shot to be had, due to a bad subject reflected, or no reflection (because of the angle it is taken).

Puddles and rainwater can make good reflective shots, but the day I captured the images, it wasn’t raining, so this feature was ruled out for my reflection shot. In the end, it eventually hit me that I could capture a reflective shot on my car in the car park. Due to it been dark, with a few artificial and ambient light pieces around the car park, I was able to capture various reflection shots; the result of which, some were better than others.

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Firstly, I wanted to add more emphasis to the central focus of the image, which was the initial reflection piece in the centre of the image. The only problem was how to get it like this. At first, dodging and burning various parts of the photograph to try and make the reflection sand out was the best way to do this. However, this ended up making the overall image look over-produced and therefore it didn’t work as a concept. Another technique I the tried was a filter from the Adobe Photoshop filter gallery. None of the filters worked and the original image was restored, until a better technique was decided on. The technique I eventually decided on was a feature that works very effectively if you’re trying to make a certain portion of image stand out. By selecting tilt shift blur, I was able to select the parts of the image I wanted to blur out, while leaving the central focus in visible focus. As you can see, it work very effectively and allows the central focus to be prominent, without been overbearing or cropped in any way.

After the blur tool had been added, it was apparent that the image was too dull in colour due to the car and the reflection been restrained colours (whites and greys). Even tough the filter gallery had been ineffective earlier in the post-production stage, I believed that I could add a filter on top of the blur, and make it effective. After searching through the filter gallery again, I stumbled upon a filter that added colour and light to the image, while still allowing the reflection to be the main central focus. The film grain filter adds artificial light underneath the car and on the reflection, which aids the image in looking effective and experimental.

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Out of focusIn conventional photography, some or all of the elements will try and be captured in focus, unless a low aperture is selected by the photographer. The technique of taking an out of focus image can produce some effective and surprising results.

A range of settings should be tested and tried before deciding on final images. However, if you want to blur an image, a wider aperture (f4) is usually selected, instead of a small aperture (f16). Even though a wider aperture is selected, this does not mean all the elements will be out of focus, due to the foreground subject/object still been in focus when a wider aperture is selected. As well as a change in aperture, the camera should be switched from auto focus (AF) to manual focus (MF), which will help you adjust the focus, using the focus ring on the front of the camera.

Task 2 in Unit 57 really helped with this technique, due to me learning all the camera settings and buttons in that particular task. Had I not had this prior knowledge, I would have struggled to not just alter the aperture, but also switch focus modes on the DSLR camera.

However, even though I had this prior experience, it was more difficult than I imagined it would be. At first, some elements of the image were still in focus, which wasn’t my objective on this particular technique. With some practice at experimental photography though, I managed to capture some photographs which had both the foreground and the background out of focus.

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When I first started adding post-production techniques to this image, I didn’t really know what to do with the image, due to it been out of focus and therefore I assumed it to be already finished. However, like with every image, experimenting with post-production techniques can help with deciding whether the final image looks better than the original image. After adding many filters, adjusting many layers and adding many colour adjustment, I decided that the image could do with a bit more blur. Even though more blur on an out of focus image sounds pointless and ineffective, the image, in my opinion, needed it. Like you can see on the previous slide, the original image features a glint on the top left of the image, which takes some focus away from the distorted number plate (main focus). This added blur, using the tilt shift blur, like on the reflection piece, gave the image some added enigma codes. Before, you could tell what the object was (a number plate), however, now it’s hardly identifiable, which, in turn, creates enigma toward the consumer of the image.

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Photomontages/joinersThis technique involves creating a bigger picture by arranging lots of

smaller images of a scene. There are 3 ways of creating a photomontage/joiner, which are:

1. Using Photoshop to create the photomontage. This process involves selecting the picture on the auto merge menu, before the software automatically fitting them together for you. This process is very quick to do and it gets very effective results. On the other hand, sometimes it is difficult to differentiate between an actual whole image and a photomontage, due to the Photoshop software doing a good job putting the images together.

2. Layer all the images together manually. This technique is equally as effective to Photoshop, while getting a more arty feel to the final image. However, this process is very time consuming and a fair amount of skill is needed also.

3. (Using printed images can also be used)

The key to success in this experimental photography technique is to get close to the subject or object. Another important element is to take plenty of images to ensure you cover absolutely all of the image. This is due to the consequences should you miss a piece of the image (it won’t merge properly and the image will have gaps, which will then lose the effectiveness of the image).

In this process, taking photographs is only part of the difficult, the min difficult coming in the arranging part of the technique. At first, I struggled with getting every single part of the bigger picture, so therefore struggled to put them together in Photoshop. However, as the task drew on, I realised that all the images had to be put together, but they didn’t have to look perfect, because the main charm of photomontages is to get it to look arty and creative, like famous artist, David Hockney.

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With the Photomontage already been an arty form, I was struggling of ways to make it more effective and creative. A filter, such as stained glass made the image distorted and blurred, while the cut-out technique made the photograph look cartoon like. Finally, after looking at other photomontages from artists such as Hockney, I saw that colour filters were altered on various pieces to give an effective and well-finished final product. After picking three different colour filers, it was time to add the filters to the different pieces. As you can see, the colour differentiation between the pieces works very well and makes the product look better than it did before the post-production techniques were added.