Unit 2 Exam Covert and Obscured
Set Task 1 Half-Term Work
Mind-Map
This is a mind-maps of words that I associate with Covert and Obscured. These words gave me a few ideas for what I could do for this exam, Like getting into the life of other people and displaying them. I came across a very interesting idea which i found on the internet, It showed a person putting a disposable camera out in the center of town and he just left it and random strangers took pictures with it and put it back. I think this would be a very interesting idea as you would get to see random strangers act with a random camera at their disposable.
Harry Callagham
Harry Callaghan is a street photographer, I like his work as it shows a lot of emotions and feeling of other people in his work, he gets very close to his subject and displays a story. I especially like how he has use double exposures in his work as it looks really creative and imaginative. I would like to try and use this technique in my work as I think it could be a interesting stance on Covert and Obscured. I like his work because it is well composed and thought out, I like the use of the Black and White photographs as it gives a very nice effect with the dark blacks and bright whites that you don't get with colored photographs. I think the use of Black and White is very good and I think when I come to edit street photographs I will make them black and white as it gives a very strange and beautiful effect.
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Gordon Magnin
Gordon Magnin is a very strange and interesting photographer, in his work he defaces the face of a subject by taking out certain shapes and moving them around to create a pattern. I think is this a very good because it is like a puzzle for the audience to put the face back together. I like how he uses the same shape for all the different sections and how he only moves around the face for the person. I would like to use this effect in some of my work as it is very cool and I think it is a very beautiful effect that creates a very different type of photography as it destroys part for the photo making another.
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Brassai
Brassai is a very talented photographer as he really captures the street life and the lighting in his photo's is fantastic, he also uses Black and White which makes for beautiful Dark shadows and Light streaks across the image. I love his use of shadow and the darkness of his photo's. I like the use for the mysterious in his work and you don't get to see much of the subject as they have been blacked out and shadow cast across the plain of the photograph I like the picture of the car in the mist with the headlights guiding the car to safety as it is a beautiful photo which is well composed and throughout the Lights in this photo are fantastic as the street lights and headlight light the way through the misty field of view. I would like to use these effect for my work in this exam project as it makes for very beautiful pieces of art. I would like to use lighting to cast an extreme and powerful shadows on the subject and create a mysterious theme.
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Simon James-Mind The Gap
These are a group of photo's from Simon James, who has a set called Mind The Gap, the photo's shown are the photo's from his book. I think these are very good photography's as they capture the other side of the tube network that the public don't get to see. They have been framed really nicely and they look really arty and give the audience a evocative response as they are very powerful photo's. The photo above is very well framed with the old rail cart in the centre with the rails leading towards it. It is almost like the train is heading towards you. It is a very pure photo with not much going on apart from the train. Although it is powerful as it is realistic and the colours give a sad feeling to the viewer and shows how dark it is in the tunnel on which the trains move. This gave me inspiration to take photo's of the tube network as it gave me inspiration to capture the underground world.
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Set Task 2 Surveillance Task
For this task we where told to go out and take pictures like we had never been to the city before, I decided to take my pictures of people and how they interact with the surrounding. When I got back to edit the photo's I decided to make them black and white as the artist that i researched had photo's in black and white and they looked really beautiful as the shadows and light looked amazing, I wanted to capture the beautiful underground shadows and light. When I got out of the underground I wanted to capture individual people and how they are different from others. I took close up pictures of them and tried to display them in their natural form. I think this catalog of photo's could be improved by having closer pictures and a nice environment with less people around. So to improve this i would like to go to a less busy environment and later on in the day when the street lights are on so it casts shadows on the people.
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Dryden Goodwin - Response
I then wanted to carry on the surveillance and I came across Dryden Goodwin and I decided so take photo's of strangers then scratch into there face. This is my response to Dryden Goodwin's work below, I printed out an image and then scratched into it with a knife and make lines appear on the image. I think it came out quite well as I followed the contours of the face, and used drawing techniques such as cross hatching etc. It could be improved by having the hole face to draw around and maybe be more experimental and cover more of the face.
The photo's below are photo's from Dryden Goodwin, I think the work is very good as the scratching is really artistic and strange, it follows the contours of the face. This makes the photos rather abstract and different because it combines drawing with photography. |
Set task 3 Obscured Portrait
Gordon Magnin response 1
I then decided to use other ways of distorting the face, I then looked at the work of Gordon Magnin and I liked how he used shapes to distort the face. This is my response to Gordon Magnin. The image below is the Gordon Magnin's original image that I took for inspiration and the image to the left is my first response I think it came out quite well as It moves around the face and the part of the person that defines them has almost been rubbed out so it is quite hard to recognise them. It could be improved as for my next response i'm going to make it look much neater and have all the polygon points in the same direction. As in Gordon Magnin's work he has all the polygon's lined up neatly and it looks a lot better than my first response.
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Response to Gordon Magnin 2
This is my second response, I think it came out quite well as it looks more professional and neater as all the polygons are pointing in the same direction it looks a lot more polished and more artistic. It looks like you can mover them round to solve the puzzle of the person and reveal who they actually are. I think this is a very beautiful piece of work and the technique is rather cool and makes for a very strange and puzzling piece of work. It was done of photoshop and the steps are shown below. I think this piece of work could be improved by making the gap between polygons smaller so you can fit more in and make it look even more strange and muddled up.
How I did the response to Gordon Magnin
This is a step by step guide to how I did my 2 responses to Gordon Magnin, I first made the triangle shape and then I cut the shape from the base layer, I then changed the orientation and where the shape is placed. I repeated these steps for several shapes then merged the layers and made it black and white. I think this is quite a good technique as it makes for a very interesting and artistic piece of work.
The use of shadows
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I then looked for other ways to distort the face of my subject without destroying the shape of the face, I then looked at the work by Julian plast who uses a latex screen and pushes the subject through so you see the outline for the subject. This is a group of photo's I took to show the use of shadow can make for some interesting photo's. I used a fabric screen which was stretched I think they came out quite well and they look really mysterious. I looks like someone is trying to escape. I like this photo as it doesn't show all the detail of the face but you can still make out there face and body components. I have edited these photo's on photoshop, I changed the colour to black and white, after doing this I adjusted levels to make the blacks darker and whites a little whiter. I think these photo's have come out quite well and I think I would like to carry on with this theme. I may want to try and use film camera's, I would like to try and use more people in this set-up. I think it would be quite interesting to have maybe one face and several hand's to make it look like a monster.
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This is a video I have done with the fabric sheet. I asked the subject to move in and out of the sheet. I thought this gave an interesting effect. I slowed it down and added some soft music. I really like the outcome as it is quite scary and unreal. I like the use of the subjects hands in the video as it makes the feel of escape even more real. I think I could do another video with this because it gives for a really abstract and artistic piece of work. I think it could be improved by not having any voices in the video and maybe the video could be longer and have different movements of the subject in the video. I could also maybe have more than one person in the video's as it could give an interesting effect with a different meaning.
SET TASK 3 - SHADOW AND SILHOUETTE
I then wanted to experiment with shadow and use 3d shapes to create cool interesting shadows following on from the shadows of the faces. These are a group of pictures that show shadow and silhouettes, I really like some of the abstract photo's of different shapes and shades. I also like the photo I did of the morph, I think it came out quite well as the shadows are of different sizes. I edited these photo's on photoshop with changing the colour to black and white and then adjusting the levels to make the darks, darker and have a smaller range in shade. I like the photo with the rings and a poll the best as there is a different shades of shadow on different parts of the object. I think these photo's could be improved by having a few more objects and playing around with the lighting a bit more to give a more abstract effect.
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Kate Jackling
kate Jackling is a photographer who cuts out card into different shapes, it creates some interesting shadow and colour. I took inspiration from Kate Jackling for the work that I did with shadow and shapes. I think they came out quite well. I also like Kate's work as it looks really strange and different. I like how the objects link together without touching. I really like the different shades of shadows and the sharp edges. |
Shadows video
Trip to the photography gallery
Below are some of the photo's I took while we went on our school trip, I tried to keep with the idea of following someone and getting close to them (Surveillance task). I think I have achieved this with some of the photo's. I edited them on photoshop, I used colour curves and I also made some black and white. I think some of them came out quite well and from the pictures you really get to see who they are. These photo's could be improved by having the photo's in focus as some of them are not in focus. I like the use for the fish-eye in some of the shot's as you got to see what was all around the subject and how that affects them. I think this catalog of photo's show how different people are and how no one is the same. I think this catalog does this by showing a wide range in people, it shows working people, people relaxing etc. I would like to carry on and take pictures of how different people are by capturing them when they are most comfortable so they are not acting and they are natural and therefore most like themselves.
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While we were at the exhibit we where told to comment on some of the pieces of work. I decided to do a little sketch of the art work that I thought looked interesting. I then wrote what I liked about the work and how it was made and set-up. I really liked the work by Sobras as it was very beautiful work with small shadows and pieces of photo's. I also liked how the pieces of work where 3D and came out of the canvas. I would like to try and do some of this myself. I could maybe combine the work with the digital manipulation and making the work come out of the image to create shadow and make it more artistic.
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Laura Letinsky
This is a piece of work that was displayed at the expedition, I like this one because it had nice shadows with sharp ending. I liked it because it used everyday objects to make a wonderful collage which made the audience have to think about what was going on. |
Roy Arden
This is a piece of work that was displayed at the photographers gallery, I really liked this collage because it consisted of lots of bright colours and there was little white space. I also liked how the different photo's and colours link together to create one big piece of work. |
Develpoment-Observation set 1
These are a set of photo's that I took around my local area, I was trying to take photo's of run down and abandoned areas, which no one uses. I think some of them are pretty interesting because of the strange textures and colours I like the colour of the photo's and how they are a bit run down and rustic and old. I also like the shot with double exposure as it gives and interesting effect as it is like looking at three photo's the bottom layer the top layer and the layers together. I would like to carry on my use of these double exposure shot's as it looks really different because of the two photo's laid on top of each other.
Development- Observation set 2
This is another set of photo's that I took, I like the double exposures and the close up's I think the framing is very good and the shots look thought out. I would like to carry on with double exposures as it looks really beautiful and it makes the audience think about the photo and look at the 2 frames of the photo. I think it looks good because the two shots link together. I think these shot's could be improved by having a wider F stop so more of the frame is in focus and not just the line of focus.
Delopment-Reflection
SEMI-PERMANENT 2013 TITLES from Danny Yount on Vimeo.
As I liked using double exposure I found this video which also used 2 frames , so when I saw this video on the internet I was immediately drawn to creating one of my own. This is a video that I found, It gave me a lot of ideas's and inspiration. I would like to do a video and do this effect of reflection certain parts of the frame. I would like to do this effect because it completely changes the image and how you perceive the clip. The video above is really good I really like the clips where you cant see the road and you can only see the lights and signs. I would like to make my own video like this, from the view out of the window. I think it would look strange and it would capture the audiences attention because it would draw there eyes into the centre of the frame.
The picture to the left is one of my photo's that I have reflected and I think it came out quite well, the wide-angle for the photo makes for an interesting photo once flipped. It could be improved by having the shot centred and maybe make the escalators touch each other so you cant see any of the hands. |
These are a set of photo's that I took on top of the gherkin, I used Photoshop to manipulate them to reflect half of the photo to create a cool looking effect. I used the selection tool to select which part of the photo I would like to reflect. I then copied the selection and pasted it in place. I then flipped the photo to reflect the other half. After doing this I moved it into place and merged the layers. After that I used the Brightness and Contrast to adjust the lighting in the shot. Once I edited the lighting of the shot, I used colour curves to edit the photo's colour to make them look interesting and arty. I think the photo's could of be better if I had been less dramatic with the colour curves and also if I had maybe changed from the vertical reflection to try and mess around with horizontal reflection. I may also want to capture natural reflection with water and glass. I like the idea of using software to reflect the image. I also like the video above as it has given he inspiration to go out and create my own video with reflection of the environment as it looks cool and rather scary as it shows a different world.
How to create a reflective image on photoshop
These are a set of photo's that follow the reflective theme. I think that some of these photo's look really strange as there is a clear vanishing point, I really like the photo of the spear thistle as it creates an illusion of another object as I think it looks like a spider or another animal or insect instead of a plant. I like it because it looks quite scary and spooky and creates a cool effect as it makes the audience have to look in detail of the photo. I also like the photo of the sunset and line of tree's. The whole photo of looks like a tree which I think it really cool because it makes a whole new photo out of the same photo. I like the contrast of the black tree with the colourful sky. I think these photo's could be improved by having a consistent theme as the photo are of greenery, the motorway and streets, so the photo set could be improved by having a consistent theme of nature for example. If I was going to carry on and do some improvements to this set I would use the reflection in nature. For example I would take some pictures of plants and animals.
First Draft of the final piece
This is my first draft of my final piece, I have decided to create a video which consists of a reflected video. I filmed my journey from London to Edinburgh. I then put the clips onto Adobe After Effects which allowed me to flip the video and create the reflective mirror. Once I had edited all the clips and made them into reflective clips. I imported them into Adobe Premier Pro which is another video editing software. This allowed me to put all the clip together and adjust them using colour curves and noise. I also was able to speed up some of the video's and slow them down to create some cool effects. The video above is a draft the shows my basic idea. I think it came out quite well as the video flows and looks interesting and arty. I think it could be improved by using a different audio track that fits the video. I think it could also be improved by having some clips that consists of horizontal reflection as all the clips in my draft have a vertical reflection. I also think that the colour correction is a bit too dramatic in the draft so when I come to create my final piece I would be use less dramatic curves. I also think that some of the clips don't have much going on so when I make my final version I won't use these clips because they don't fit into the theme of the video. I also think some of the clips are a bit slow and go on for too long so I will shorten them and make them faster.
Final piece
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This is my final piece, for the project covert and obscured. I did this video for my final piece because I think it looks really interesting as you only get to see one side of the road so the other side of the road is covered and the audience never get to see that side. I think it is also really cool because objects in the middle merge at the center and it looks really strange and it's almost like an illusion. I also like how there are two videos in one frame I think it came out very well as it follows the task title of being covert and obscured. I think it could of been better if I had included more slow motion and maybe I could have included some clips from late at night or some black and white clips. I think it could also be improved by having some shots from the rear of the car looking back onto the road going past the car.
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