For the presentation of my final photographs in my exam I will be presenting the photographs in a typology grid. I believe that this method of presentation is very effective and appropriate because I have experimented with it throughout my project and have studied the likes of the Bechers’, who pioneered the use of typology grids. Originally, when planning on how to present my final work I had the below four photographs planned as my final four, as I was experimenting with the different layouts I found that it looked slightly off – I eventually decided that the photograph in the top left did not fit in well with the other photographs as it depicted a more brushed steel texture as opposed to the rusted texture in the other compositions. Saying this, I still thought that this photograph was very effective and aesthetically pleasing so I decided that I would include it by presenting it by itself as a side piece to the typology and replacing it in the typology with a more fitting composition. The resulting piece is a set of photographs in a typology grid that portrays how a standard house face can be so similar in features but at the same time can be completely different due to their own individual features. This idea is added to by the rusted steel layered over the building face as the steel represents how the materials used in house construction has changed over time from granite towards steel modern structures. The photographs will be printed as four A5 photographs and one A3 photograph.
Layout 1
Layout 2
My final typology layout
My final photograph
How will the photographs be laid out?
I plan to present the typology grid made from four photographs and the individual photograph on a foam board. One way in which I could present the photographs is by using a window mount method – in order to mount the typology grid I would first stick the photographs to a piece of white card and then tape it to the mount like an ordinary picture. I could also present the photographs on white card as shown below. After experimenting with both options on photoshop I believe that the most effective layout of the photographs would be to use window mounts and black card because the slight white border contrasts well will the black mount board, which also brings out the colours and shaped within the photograph. This contrasts with if I was to set it out on a white background as the contrast in colours and shades does not exist in this option, making it the weaker option. I have also experimented with which side to place the individual photograph and have come to the conclusion that I will place it on the right as I want the viewers attention to first come to the typology grid.
Experimenting with a white background
Experimenting with a black background and the single photograph on the left
My decided final presentation
PART 2
The second part of my presentation will follow the same guidelines as the above presentation but will be made up of my compositions in which I layered building faces over granite. It will include four A5 photographs made into a typology grid along with a single A3 photograph all on one black window mount. The idea behind this presentation is the exact same as in part 1, except that the granite is replacing the steel by giving an insight into the internal structure of the houses to show what material they are based upon.
Layout 1
Layout 2
My Final Typology Layout
How will the photographs be laid out?
I will present these granite compositions in the same style as the steel compositions in order to ensure consistency in my work – I will window mount all the typology photographs onto white card and then window mount that card and the A3 photograph onto a larger black card.
In this shoot I have created more photographs of steel surfaces for me to work with in my edits. My previous photographs of steel surfaces were mostly of brushed steel and therefore there was not a lot of texture to add interesting features to the photographs. I have photographed more worn and rusted steel to provide character and more emphasis to the steel exposed over the building faces. This rust also hints at the age of both the steel and some of the houses, and links back to political landscapes due to showing how something can be changed over time through wear and tear.
Edits
The below edits are edited in the same style as my previous double exposure edits. I did this through photoshop – I layered the photographs of the steel over the photographs of the building faces and used the ‘darken’ blending option in order to bring the rusted and ruined textures to the forefront resulting in double exposure edits that are more characterized and interesting than my previous edits due to more colour and layers.
Analysis
When capturing this photograph of a house face I used the natural lighting from the area, as I did when capturing all the other similar photographs of building faces in the shoot. This use of natural lighting allowed for the shadows and contrast to be displayed naturally within the image, which was helped by using a deep depth of field, shutter speed of 1/60 and an ISO of 200. These settings ensured that there was enough time to allow light to enter the lens but not so much time that the photograph became overexposed. There is a slightly cold colour cast in this photograph which matches to the metal structure layered over it (which have connotations to cold).
The photograph is in black and white it appears due to the natural silver of the metal face layered over the building face. This lack of saturation allows the shadows and contrasts to be brought forward in the photograph which leads to a wider tonal range and a more dramatic and effective photograph. The texture of the metal can also be seen throughout the composition as the metal bolts go up the side of the photograph whilst the lower half shows the texture of the brushed steel and brings the photograph to life. The photograph is set up so that the door is set along the lines of the rule of thirds which makes the photograph more aesthetically pleasing for the audience.
This photograph is from a set of compositions that I have made in which I have layered photographs of steel over photographs of building faces resulting in abstract compositions with texture. The idea behind this is that houses and office buildings are increasingly being built with steel structures in Jersey rather than the traditional granite base used. This steel gives a forecast into the future of housing and shows what will potentially be the base of houses as buildings develop and change. When this photograph is seen as part of a set it shows how buildings are all unique and different even when they are designed as batches.
The drone images I produced came out nicely however I think its important to share the time it took to really get those images. We were at Noirmont for around 3 hours shooting, it can take 10 minutes just to get one shot right, especially on the accuracy level I was aiming for to ensure my images were perfect.
Noirmont Lighthouse
Trying to capture an image such as the one above looks simple but requires skill and patience, two things that I honestly don’t have with drones! I have very little experience but luckily I had someone to talk me through and help me along the way. The drone will hold its GPS position automatically however this can drift in around a 1 meter size area which is not good when you are trying to get a perfectly straight top down image such as the one above, You can see the light bulb on the top is perfectly in the center and it may have taken up to 10 minutes to get it perfect, you end to find that you make a slight left correction for example and it moves too far and you want to go back a bit but its too far and it will never sit perfectly where you like it when you’re shooting a subject close such as this with a high requirement for visual accuracy. I took a number of images I believed were central and confirmed this later then selected the best images to go forward to editing.
As part of my experimentation stage, I have taken a number of my own images and experimented with editing them in Adobe Photoshop. I have used the ‘extrude’ tool, which has split my photographs into geometric shapes. I found this to be interesting as it portrays every pixel of colour in my photographs individually in shape form. This tool also gives my images a sense of movement and dynamism which isn’t achieved in a usual still photograph.
The shoot at Noirmont comprised of air and ground shoots. My main aim was to scout around looking for circles with my camera and snapping what I saw that formed a circular shape, I would also map out places to look at from the air using a drone. I then took the drone up and photographed circular shapes from the air over the Noirmont headland and Janvrin’s Tomb in Portelet.
Below are my final outcomes:
German Gun barrell
Lens
Logo
Wood
Janvrin’s Tomb
Range Finder
MP1
Noirmont Lighthouse
Lighthouse
Portelet
Gun
Gun
Emplacement
Emplacement
Water storage
I am very happy with my final outcomes above, they really capture the more rural side of my project and show how circles can be found everywhere.
Image Analysis
Wood
The above image was a wooden post on the Noirmont headland as part of the shoot you see above. The pole itself caught my eye as I was walking looking for spots to shoot with the drone. I positioned myself above the pole and shot top-down with a low aperture, automatic white balance, 100 ISO and a medium shutter speed. The low aperture produced the effect where the grass below is not in focus yet the pole is extremely sharp. This allows for the viewers eyes to be drawn straight to the pole and have little to distract them, it also makes the image very simple and eye catching.
The rings on the pole are the growth rings of the tree the wood came from. Each year, a tree forms new cells, arranged in concentric circles called annual rings or annual growth rings. These annual rings show the amount of wood produced during one growing season. Therefore this pole shows the life of a tree that once stood and lived and grew, each circle representing the growth and age of the tree and this can be interpreted into human life and human context.
The image clarity really brings out the textures and feel of the wood and you can almost feel is as you see it, you can imagine your fingers passing over it and feeling the roughness of the wood and feel the individual rings. The high aperture creates the effect of blurring the background giving it depth. The colors itself have been brought out through editing, the original image made the wood looked quite pale and the grass quite bright however through editing the nice woody color and textures could be brought out to their best.
I wanted to digitally edit my images to interpret the appearance of cyanotypes, but I also wanted to experiment with the solarize tool on photoshop which I have previously researched looking at the creation of sabattier effect and solarization relating the the photographer Man Ray. With the cyanotypes, I am taking inspiration from Anna Atkins who is said to be the first woman photographer and made the first photo book. Taking inspiration from both these techniques and editing them digitally, rather than the effect being created inn real life is quicker and easier. I will compare the photograms I made myself using sunlight with the images I’ve post edited to see which ones I like better and to see which ones I will include in my final outcomes for this project.
Creating solarization and the appeance of a cyanotype:
I made the original image image black and white
Then used the solarize tool on photoshop to create the appeance that image was recorded on a negative or a photographic print that’s wholly or partially reversed in tone.
I then created a layer and inverted the image to make the darker area lighter, which is what is seen on a cyanotype and adjusted the curves in the image.
With another layer, I chose a solid block colour, simialr to the colour of cyanotype and overlayed both.
I also added a blue photo filter to emphasise the blue tones in the image even more.
I think that this process of editing creates a similar appearance of a cyanotype is effective in changing the appearance of my images to make them seem more scientific. I also like how it creates a version that looks completely different from the original and has a completely different atmosphere to it. In the image above I think that the cyanotype edit emphasised the movement and shape of the lines/branch of the plant on the right, as the dark parts became light, and the light arts became dark. This made the lines much more brighter against the water in the background which I think is effective. Because of the slow shutter speed I used to take this image, the edit emphasises the movement and blurriness of the plant, which makes it look more spiritual and other worldly. Although this was not the aim of cyanotypes originally, which were used to make copies of drawing and to scientifically look at plants, I think that this effect builds on the original motives of a cyanotype and emphasises the transcendent qualities, in a not so scientific way.
I decided that I wanted to make solarisation and cyanotype edits of images I have previously taken in this project to experiment and create different versions of the same image to see if this appearance would be more effective for my final outcomes of this project.
Cyanotype Edits
I think that is edit was one of the most successful as I think it interprets the appearance of a cyanotype the most. This is because of the large amounts of negative space that I turned blue, similar to how in a cyanotype, a lot of negative space is normally seen (especially with plants) as the light only prints the objects on the paper. If this were a real cyanotype then the plants underneath the water would be were the plants would be placed. One aspect that takes away from the appearance of a cyanotype is that I kept the dark reflection of the plant in the water. This wouldn’t happen in a real cyanotype as where the object is placed turns white and not black. I decided to do this as I thought that the contrast of the dark in the foreground to the white plants in the background was effective and created a more interesting image. I also experimented with different tones and intensity of blue as the background from light to dark and found this one was the best as I didn’t want the blue to be too light and take away from the negative space that’s seen.
Solarization Edits
I also experimented by using the solarisation tool on photoshop to respond to my research on the sabattier effect and solarisation and the photographer Man Ray where his experiments with photography included rediscovering how to make “cameraless” pictures, which he called rayographs. Using the tool on photoshop is a much quicker and easier way way to create a similar appearance.
Cyanotype Edits
I think that these edits are also effective as the details of the branches and lines are emphasised even more by turning them from the darkest points to the lightest points of the image. I also think that the balance of light blue to darker blue is good as the darker parts are around the corners of the image, with the lighter parts in the centre, drawing the audience’s eyes to that point. I feel like this is one of the images that looks the most spiritual with this edit, this is because you can still see the connections of the small lines and branches of the tree, through the reflection that are quite far away. I also like how you cannot obviously tell that this image was taken through the reflection of a puddle on the floor, which i think the edits hides even more. The surrounding floor has turned into a blurred pattern around the corners, framing the image.
Solarization Edits
I experimented by using the solarisation tool to edit many different images take I’ve taken and found that the most effective were close up images that focus of the pattern in the nature. For example the edits of the water above were effective by completely change the appearance making it harder to tell what the image is taken of. I think that this makes the image more interesting and creates a mystery behind it that wouldn’t be achieved with the original. I also like how the waves on the water are emphasised even further through the different light and dark tones of grey, making it look like a material to me than an aspect of nature. Both of these edits are very different, the first one emphasising the light on the water, by turning the dark areas the image light making it seem softer and more exposed. The second image emphases the dark and shadows through the solarisation tool, which makes the rare light parts of the image stand out even more. I would chose the first edit as a final outcome as I think that it links well to my concept of texture and spirituality by emphasising the light and softer parts of nature.
Cyanotype Edits
When editing this image I found that I preferred how the blue colour wasn’t as intense as the other images and liked how the light pink is emphasised. I think this was because the original light colour of the bubbles is highlighted and the overall appearance of the image is softer. I think that this image will be good to use a final image as it contrasts with other images in my project where i have emphasised the contrast between light and dark colours. In this, the colours complement, rather than contrast which i also think makes the image have a more spiritual quality as i’s focusing on the light. I like how the texture of the bubbles is still noticeable against the light pink background.
Evaluation:
I think that both the physical photograms I’ve created, and the digital experiments I have done with solarisation and cyanotypes were successful. To decide which ones I will include in my photobook, I will try out different combinations of images to see which are the most effective displayed together. I think that I will use a combination of both the physical photograms and the digital edits as they both add a different aspect to my project that wouldn’t be achieved with only my natural landscape images and would create more of a story within my book. I will try to contrast some of these edits with my other landscape images on double page spreads as I think I will like the contrast from personal images that have a spiritual quality to the edits that have bright cool colours.
When taking these photos I focused heavily on images in the style of Larry Clark. I found that the black and white film really allowed me to capture the vintage, documentary feel to it as the images are seen to be quite grainy and consist of a strong contrast throughout. Using black and white film allowed for me to use a monochrome palette which created heavy shadows to give a fairly raw, gritty look to the images. I aimed to produce a set of images that represented the skateboarding lifestyle in a straight forward, traditional documentary style. By using a more documentary approach to these images it allowed for me to fray away from the sport itself and show more of an insight into the subjects without a skateboard as I believe that it creates a more interesting story behind the images and also allows for stronger final outcomes.
My 8th photographic shoot is based around ‘light’, an element of nature. I have captured the sunrise, the sunset, golden hour and full exposure light in this shoot to capture light during different periods of time.
Golden hour: In photography, the golden hour is the period of daytime shortly after sunrise or before sunset, during which daylight is redder and softer than when the Sun is higher in the sky. The opposite period during twilight is blue hour, just before sunrise or after sunset, when indirect sunlight is evenly diffused.
Green is often associated with nature. I thought it would be an interesting angle to complete a photo shoot based around solely the colour green. Photographing in the field, I have looked at a range of sceneries, all linking back to my theme of diverse nature. In order to capture a variety of images, I had to complete my photo shoot over the space of multiple days and a number of locations. I have increased the contrast and saturation slightly on the majority of my photographs, in order to emphasize the vibrant colours and shades of green. I am very happy with my outcomes of shoot 7 as I have a variety of photographs that differ in terms of subject focus and visuals but are interconnected by the colour green.
