Monday, 2 December 2013

Unit 32 Image manipulation

Paul M Smith-

Paul smith is a course directer Coventry university. He had a short army career before becoming a photographs, and his first ever portfolio was based on his time in the army. Paul smith is known for being very creative and having very good Photoshop skills, he edits himself into one photograph several times. In his career he has one many awards including 'serco competition' where he came first.
Smith also did a big shoot with Robbie Williams, Robbie had seen Smiths work and was inspired to do something like that for his album cover.

This photograph is one of my favorite from his portfolio based on his army career. I really think this is a nice personal subject to him so i think its nice that he expressed this through his photography.








I also really like this photograph as i understand that it must of took a lot of work on photoshop to have to edit in so many of yourself. Paul has ten of himself in this photograph.









Here Paul is showing off his photoshop skills, this was originally himself, but he photoshop around that to make he look like david Beckham. This takes great skill on photoshop as he had to change the face shape, hair line, lips ect..












This is the album cover for his shoot with Robbie Willaim's.  Robbie wanted this to go with his album 'sing when your winning'. I really like this photograph as clearly Robbie is pretending to have just won a football match and looks very real.












This is another photograph that Smith has based round his army career. This portfolio however was based on the 'lads nights out'. I really like this photograph because it shows Smiths creativity.








Overall i really like Paul's Smiths photography, i think he has a really cool style which suits him and his personality well.

My Scan-

Here is my sketch plan, the people are meant to be floating. I'm planing on doing this by sitting on a chair and then when rubbing out the background i will rub out the chairs as well.



How to create and image like Paul M Smiths.

To produce a image like this you will have to set up a camera on a tripod, the make sure you have it on self timer or someone to take the picture for you. You need to make sure that all you poses are going to fit into the frame as its very important that you don't move the camera, because then the background wont line up. Once you have the camera set up you can begin taking your photographs but you need to make sure you take at least one photograph of just the background, as this will be the key to building up your image. Once the photos have been taken, you need to download them your computer and open in photoshop bridge. Then you must open the back ground photo and your first self protrait photo. Yu will then need to seperate the tabs and drag one photo on to the other, and then turn the opacity down to about 50% so you can see both images.  You will need to zoom into a part of the photograph to make sure that they match up, ideally you should zoom in to something like plugs, blinds, or patterns, so you can make sure that the are lined up perfectly. Once you have done this you can start rudding out one layer to make to two one, and then every now and again you should turn the opaicty back up to a 100% to make sure its working correctly. After this you just need to keep dragging the other images onto this one and building it up. This is all you need to know on how to create an image like Paul M Smiths.
Here is my Final image, inspired by Paul M smiths.

My own photograph-


  
Evaluation-

Here is my own photograph that was inspired by Paul Smiths work,i tried to make it look as though i was floating in the air, i think i did this quite well but i did find it difficult however. As you can see i changed my clothes for every picture to make it more creative. If i was to do this again i would include more self portraits, so instead of 4 i would have around 8. I really develop some photoshop skills while doing this topic and really enjoyed it.


Communication Through A&D.




As you can clearly see, this models skin has been retouched to hide spots and blemishes. This beauty shot could easily been a make up advertisement, even though the eyes and lips of the model don't look to different in the before and after shot, this can be seen as manipulating the public into buying an item that isn't what it seems.

This can be very harmful on young girls, as many girls look up to models and celebrities as role models. Photoshopping models and celebs face/bodies could be giving young girls an unrealistic body image, which could be harmful for there confidence, self esteem and health. Young girls already worry about their weight and Photoshopping models to look 'perfect' is really harmful to a young girl as people can't help getting spots. They have also tinted the eyebrows more, and the bags under the eyes have disappeared and also the eye appears whiter. Also the natural blush has been erased.

Photoshoping-
The original photo.
 I first changed the curves to make the right side of her face a little less light.
I then went on to dodge, to help clear up any blemishes. My model had pretty clearless skin anyway, so there wasn't much work that needed to be done, but if my model suffered with acne for example, this would be a great tool to make there skin look much clearer and flawless.



Andy Warhol. 

Andy Warhol is famous for his unique photoshop technique, his most famous one being a photograph of marilyn Monroe. 


After researching Warhols work i created my own piece in his style, here is the one that i created using Morgan and photoshop. Theres a lot of work and editing involved, even though it only uses one photograph. First you select your photograph and put an using photoshop you take the detail away from the face. So you are just left with the key features, such as eyes and outline of the face. After this you choose a colour, the most Famous images all include bright colours. Yo I found it easy to learn and a good skill on photoshop.

Vinget.


I created this image by highlighting a square around the key object, and giving it a border of a colour to make it more visible. i chose the colour red as i believe it worked the best and suited the picture as the is a red post box in the background. After this i then soften the background, so nothing else is a sharp accept the rectangle with the border around. This is a very well known popular style and is used often in photographer, mostly in movement and wedding photography.

Ten years younger.

Photoshopping a woman over 50..

Here is my After image, i have used Dodge to blur the wrinkles around her eyes, mouth and cheeks. I have also used Dodge to clear up some blemish, as you can see in the before photograph the lady has a mole upon her top lip. I tried to leave some of her wrinkles and lines however, because i wanted her to look realistic, as everyone gets lines when they smile.

Here is the before photograph.


Victorian hand tinting-


This is a very simples technique in photoshop as all you do is turn the photograph black and white. and the using a photoshop tool to rub out the area you want colour. However you do have to zoom in some you can make sure you only rub away the black and white to the section you want which can be quite tricky.
This style is most common in wedding photography, with the bride or some flowers in colour, and the the background and everyone else in black and white. This is a very good way of creating a key focus for a photography, which is why its so popular in weddings photography, because everyone wants the bride and groom to be the main focus.
Here are some examples of when this technique is used.
Here is an example of how this is used in wedding photography.

Snow Image.

I created this picture of snow by using many techniques on photoshop.
Here is my before 
And here is the same photograph after i edited it and created snow.


Twenty Selfies.
I took twenty selfies of myself over 30 days, each photograph is different with either having friends, family and even a few pets included. I did this over Photoshop and had to create many layers and adjust all the photos to suitable sizes and areas where there all visible. 


Here is a mind map of all my ideas to go towards the Digital slide show.




Monday, 21 October 2013

Unit 04 Communication and design.


Copyright Rules-


Copy write is a law when you cant use a photographers work without giving them credit for it. For example a student is aloud to use a photographers work in there own work as long as they mention who took it and don't pretend that it is there own work, but if you are in advertising and you choose a photographers work to advertise your product you would have to contact the photographer and get his/her permission and most likely pay them for it. If a photographer has copy right there work, it will be copy righted for the rest of there life and then another 70 years from the date of there death.

An example of copy right infringements is this image-
The Photographer Art Roger took the image of a couple holding some pups to go on friendly greeting cards, and then several years later Artist jess koon's came across the image and decided to make a statute of it. This idea was successful and Koon's sold several and made a good profit, but when Roger discovered he sued Koon's for copy write.



How to Copy right your own photographs- I have made on of my own photographs have copy write by uploading a photograph to photoshop, adding text and fading it. Which is called watermarked. The reason i have faded the text into the background is because i don't want to take the focus of the photographer but i still want them to be able to see that its copy written. It is important to make the watermark your image somewhere it cant be easily removed.

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Book report-

Black beauty

 The book was written by Ben Arogundade, It contains 8 paragraphs in total, and about 200 pages.

My book was based on how racism developed and eventually stopped through time, Its starts of talking mainly about black women who suffered in slavery.  It tell you how badly people
were treated based on the colour of there skin and how black people just had to accept it or there would be punish means for them. Later on in the book, its get a little more cheery with talking about how black people started making a stand, and popping up in magazines, tv, and adverts. At first this was frowned aproned  by some, but people soon came to accept it as it was getting more and more common for a black women to be called 'beautiful' instead of' ugly'. It talks about different peoples opions from across the world, England was the first country to have a black model on the front cover, America was second. The book is called 'Black Beauty' and is really just talking about how black people struggled to be seen as equals to white, and just as beautiful, and in some cases more.

My book the goes on too talk about famous Black people, who have helped change the media idea's on beauty, a young Naomi Campbell, Mariah Kelly, Michael Jackson, Will smith and Orpah all being listed and mentioned on there achievements. I personally did not enjoy this book, I enjoyed reading about the struggle black people had to be accepted and be seen as beautiful,  but after about the first 30 pages it just goes on to list celebrities and what tv shows/magazines cover they were in/on. Which as most of this was before I was born, and it didn't really say how they helped with 'black beauty' it got a little boring.


5 Minute presentation.
Here is a photograph with me just before i did my five minute presentation.

Here are some screen grabs of my presentation-


Evaluation-
I found this presentation very useful, i enjoyed telling people about why i have chosen this Photograph to research and why i find there work so interesting. I'm not a very good public speaker so i was surprised how comfortable i felt. I really feel like this has built my presentational skills and i definitely feel more confident when speaking in public.


Graffiti.
Tag to Riches-


Over the past few years Graffiti art has caused mixed opinions on whether it should be classed as vandalism of street art? A lot of this is down to Bristol's famous Graffiti Artist Banksy, who has earned thousands for his work and is even working away in New York. Even though his work has brought money and tourism to Bristol, not everyone is so pleased with his art work, some people even find it 'tacky' and makes places look unsafe. So in this essay i will talk about whether Graffiti should be seen as Art or Vandalism.  



The City council have change their view on Graffiti since banksy, and now have set places where Graffiti artist can paint/spray there art work. Many people who live in the cities think it gives an Urban look and some character to buildings, Many will argue than it brings so colour to old grey buildings, which aren't very attractive to the eye. Unsurprisingly the main people who aren't keen on the modern way of Graffiti is the elderly? Many older people find some of the meanings of the art disrespectful. Many of the Artist works do have Political views and stories behind them. However many elderly people focus on the 'tags' which isn't what most Graffiti is about,  so this could easily affect their views.

The most common places you find Graffiti is in skate parks, parks and on town buildings, Which for most of this the Graffiti artist has had permission to create their Art work, but there are many cases where Graffiti artist havent have permission and have Graffitied on the sides of peoples home, buses, and in bathrooms. This causes a lot of complaints, ad the government/city council have to pay Hundreds to have this removed, so Graffiti Artist are known to have Vandalised someones property which builds them all a bad reputation. There are now fines, and even small jail sentences for Graffiti Artist whole do there work in illegal place, such on the side of someone's property. This Raises another Question, is Graffiti only suitable in certain areas? Such as cities? Many people wouldn't find it attractive in the country side and in villages says one survey. Why is this? 

There is an argument that there is a skill to being a Graffiti Artist, and some people actually believe some of Graffiti pieces are better than Famous Art work. There is in fact a lot of time and effort put into doing Graffiti, such at stencils, paints, planning, designing ect..
The elderly are the people who are most against..

Graffiti is seen as a way young people can express themselves, even some schools are having graffiti art done outside to make the school look more friendly and enjoyable for children and students. Even famous stars, such as Justin bieber have taken a liking to the Graffiti work bristol has to offer, as he has now even had a tattoo of one of Banksy most famous pieces of work.

Reading an image.



In my image i can clearly see that it is a nice day, theres lots of people gathered around and even some braving the sea. I'm guessing the Weather is fairly sunny, as theres clear blue skies but also not the warmest considering what some people are wearing. I personally think this Photograph was taken in England, but if not i would say America. The culture and lifestyle makes me think this, and England are known for loving the Beach and trying to make the most of the sun. Its also common to have a ride on a Donkey while on an English beach. I'm guessing the period in time is the 80's, just guessing on the style of clothes, swimwear and hairstyles. This Photograph has a lot going on, Theres many huddled around the Donkeys at the back, a few people scattered in the sea and also a randomly placed man relaxing in between all the crowds. 

I think the reason the Photograph took this photograph is because it sums up everything that happens on a beach, swimming, to playing, to sunbathing and enjoying a ride on a donkey! The photographer literally captured everything all in one shot, which is probably unlikely to happen again. 

After researching the Photograph i found out that it was publish in 1989 and was taken in Blackpool beach in North England. The Photographer thought it looked like a trow back to the 1950's and thought about the condtraints there were about during war time. The photograph was origanlly printed in a Newspaper. The photograph was taken by Chris Steele-Perkins, who has said that everything in the photograph just came together and he is very pleased with the outcome.

Evalution-

Overall i think this is a great photograph, and agree with everything the Photographer had to say about it. I think this photograph repersents the time period it was taken well. I found this excirise helpful as it taught me all the different idea's a photograph can give and all the different reasons why the photograph was taken, and then once you've reshearched it you could be surprise or see it completely different from before.


Here is my triptich.



The reason i choose this three images is because i think they best describe me.
I have chosen a photograph of a cake and cookies, because i love baking and also enjoy unheathy snacks. The i have another two photograph of my friends and little sister.



The Taylor Wessing photographic exhibition.



The winner of the 2013 Taylor Wessing exhibition is Jordi rulz Cirera. Jordi won a huge prize of £12,000 for his photo of margarita. Jordi’s description of the Photograph was ‘Almost all of the houses have tables in front of their windows giving fantastic light to the scene. Sitting in front of the camera was not easy for Margarita, photography is forbidden for Mennonites and having her direct portrait taken was quite difficult so I could only take two frames of her. Even though we were enjoying the situation, Margarita posed with this sort of awkward expression.’


Personally I love Jordi’s photo of Margarita, as he seems to have captured something that you don’t often get to see. Also you can see in margarita face that she does feel a little uncomfortable which also brings something to the photograph.


The 2nd prize goes to Jennifer Pattision for her photo of her friend Lynne, which was taken in an empty bedroom of one of their houses. Lynne is standing naked against the wall while holding a chipped china cup. When Jennifer was asked about her photograph she said ‘There is an interesting shift in the consciousness of the sitter during the slow process of making these portraits; a moment in the quiet where they become unaware that they are naked. I capture them as they drift to another place. With no direction Lynne adopted this straightforward pose, bare and undaunted, looking straight down the lens and beyond. Personally I don’t like Jennifer’s photograph, as I don’t think all the elements come together quite right, I do however think its q good photograph and that the lighting is really good in this photograph.



3rd place goes to Spencer Murphy, who won a good prize of £2000. Spencer gained a BA in Photography at the Falmouth College of Arts when he was younger and has been in the Taylor wessing portrait prize six times before this however this was the first time he’s ever won a prize.


When asked about his photograph Spencer said, ‘I’ve always enjoyed working with actors as there’s no awkwardness or discomfort in front of the camera and they are able to understand direction and react to it very easily. Mark was no exception.’ Personally I like Spencer Murphy photograph because the lighting really brings him out in the photograph, and it’s very simple.

4th place goes Alma Haser who won a prize of £1000. Alma was bored into an artistic family in Germany and studied for a BA in photography. He photograph is of her two friends Luke and James taken in her shared house in London, She was struck by their hairstyles and Alma tried photographing them separately at first but neither of James or Luke could concentrate so Alma decided to try photographing them together

She says, ‘I asked them to sit on a tiny, wobbly coffee table, forcing them to almost cling onto each other. Ultimately I wanted to turn their verbal banter into a visual image. The title is designed to help viewers make up their own stories about what is going on.’

Personally I like Alma photograph of James and Luke because I think the space between the two is good, and the taller boy has really could lighting and eye contact with the camera.

Photographs that I like-
I like this photograph of Melquidina and her family because even though the people are posed and ready for the photograph to be taken it looks very real. The point and aim for this photograph was to make people aware of the diversities around the world. Personally I think this photograph has capture that as you can see there clothing, houses, market stall in the photograph as well. The photographer really wanted people to see the difference in Cultures, religions and ethnic origins.
 This photograph is called 'Displaced' and is a displaced migrant worker from Libya. The reason I like this photo is because I think it is very original and I love how the rain almost covers his face completely. Then man in the photograph also has quite a touching story about how he's trekked across Liyba and he is now on a bus departing for a camp to try and raise money for a sponsored flight home which I believe also brings something to the photograph.

Jeans-

jeans were first made for workers in the 18th centery  but only in the last 70 years have they became a fashion statement. The average pair of jeans cost around £30-£45. Jeans are for people of all ages and for both men and women.

.here are some jeans advertisments  that i like-










Here are my own jeans advertisments -

I really Enjoy doing this assimeant, i enjoyed working with my model and feel like i got some good images. The only thing that i found difficult was finding a place to put the logo's. I feel like in the first image i should of placed it somewhere where it was more visable.



Photographers Gallery.Home truths.

Janine Antoin, Elina Brotherus, Elinor carucci, Ana Casa Broda, Fred Huning, Leigh ledare, Katie Murray and Hanna Putz. The home truths portfolio includes insights to- motherhood, photography and identity. The Gallery was laid out very nicely. There was lots of natrual light coming in, all the walls were nice clean and white without even a mark on. The were specail lights to shine on the photographs to make them catch your attetion.                   


The idea for this portfolio was to embrass the truth of what goes on at home, the strain on mother’s bodies, how some people can be embarrassed and feel discomfort. The artist’s we’re trying to express the truths of parenting.I personally don’t like this range of photographs. I find they don’t tell the whole truth about motherhood and what goes on in the home. The Artist have mainly focused on the mother, who is nude in every photograph. I don’t feel as though the photographers got across both sides to parenting, they only show the mother looking strained and tried, when there is a happier side to being a mother. Even though I dislike this portfolio, I do think the artist were very creative and had really interesting lighting for each photograph. In some photographs its very light.

The reason i don't like this Photograph is because even though she's covered in her children's drawings, she looks really dark and unhappy. I also feel like the drawings aren't really children's drawings. Personally i find this photograph a little disturbing and is not my taste in photography. However this photograph does make you think about the story behind the lady and why she is unhappy.


The photograph below is probably my favorite out of this portfolio  but its still not my taste in photography. The reason i like this photograph more than the others is because its a little more tasteful, the women is showing her love to her newborns and is showing motherhood well. I personally think this is a more accurate vision of what mother hood is like. 

 
I really like the setting of the photograph below, as because the lady s naked i would expect to see her in a bath room, which she's not. Instead she's sat in a room which doesn't seem to have any furniture with a shadow of someone in the room next door. I like how random the photograph is, with the tiles on the wall, to the china cup by her feet. The lighting in the photograph is good too, the room she is sat in is very bright and clear, but the rooms behind are dark and its difficult to make things out, like the shadow, you are unable to tell if it is a man or woman, which could bring some suspense to the photograph.
The photograph below is very sweet, i like the harshness of the lighting and the simplify of the photograph. It shows something very beautiful that a mother shares with her child. The light is shining directly on to the woman and child's face which really makes them glow and my eye goes straight to them before exploring the rest of the photograph.

Even though i did enjoy visiting this photographs gallery, i found most of the photographs not to my taste. However i did find it very interesting looking into the different aspects and creatively that can be express through Photography.


JACQUES HENRI LARTIGUE
Bibi

The exhibition focuses on photographs from the 1920s, it focuses on the life of Bibi and his first wife and only child. The photographer  Gallery was the first place to ever publish this portfolio international and open to the public. The photographs are mainly all black and white, and include lovely photographs of when Bibi and his wife went to visit London. The photographs almost tell the story of Bibi and his wife's life together, from early happy years, to being parents up to there divorce.

I really love this photograph, its very realistic and even her expression makes you believe this photograph is real. As it doesn't look staged at all, it makes you think of the story that could be behind this photograph, she's in a dress so she could possibly be on a night out, at a restaurant.. a date? i also like the angle of this photograph, if it was taken looking straight onto the women i dont think it would of been as good because you wouldn't be able to see the room and the bath tub.


This photograph is very nice because it shows what young ladies use to do for fun back in the 1920's. You can see the girls are generally enjoying themselves. The photograph suits being in black and white, obviously when it was taken black and white was the only option, but i really think this photograph would not look as good in colour.

This photograph really shows what paris used to be like, its can be seen as very historic as its capture a moment in time. I like the angle of the camera, and how instead of looking at the table and chairs straight on you have a diagonal look down the outside of the restaurant. 


The photograph below reminds me of titanic, everything looks so grand. I love how the light is shining through the Window onto the chairs, its captured what a lovely day is was. 

Overall i like this portfolio, the photographs are really nice and show a happy life that was lived in the 1920's. 


Wildlife photographer of the year.

The winner of the wildlife photographer of the year 2013 was awarded to greg du toit, who lives in south africa.
He won the awarded for his photograph of some african elephants. He quotes 'I've always wanted to capture their special energy and there state of consciousness'.
He used a titled wide0 angle lens to create atmosphere and had a narrow aperture to create a depth of field so tha elephants in the back ground would also be in focus. 
His camera- Nikon D3s, 1/30 sec at f22.