This image (below) which I have decided to use as my page spread in the student collaborative ‘Future of st Helier’ newspaper article is a combination of a photograph from the Societe Jersaise photo-archive and some of the images from my first photo shoot. The idea behind this piece was to show how the aesthetics of the modern town are considerably less visually pleasing that those of the old urban landscape, and when imposed upon the archive photograph take away the charm from the photo. I believe that this image would work well in the newspaper due to its rustic and dated aesthetic mixed with the modern corporate elements that are included within it. Also as a full page in a newspaper, I believe that the boarder around the edge will frame the image itself in an eye catching way, and will look very effective in a newspaper.

Without actually knowing exactly when the original photograph was take, the ‘God Save The King’ banner in the foreground of the image shows the age of the archive photograph, as the image would’ve had to be taken before 6 February 1952 as that was the latest date of a reigning male British monarch. The clothing of the office worker, the street signs, the modern building and modern lamppost that have been added into the original photograph are the give away signs that the image has been manipulated as I have tried to make this obvious when editing, but also having in mind that I want the first glance of a viewer to just think that it is just a dated photograph.

Here are the information references from the archive of the original photo taken by photographer Francis Foot.

Here is my first draft layout of my zine design. I believe my choice and sequencing of photographs and my use of basic text is very effective and clean. I have tried to keep things as minimal as I can as i didn’t want to draw any attention away from the photographic content itself. However something that I am not too sure on at this point is the layout in terms of alternation and sizing of the images, I think if I was to experiment with alternative layouts using full bleed spreads and maybe overlapping images this could make for a more visually interesting sequence of images. So this is something which i will try when coming up with my final design for my zine. I may also experiment with the placement of the text used in the zine because at this point it is all very central rather than alternating or randomly placed etc.

ZINE IDEAS / RESEARCH / INSPIRATION

Here is the creative process of an existing zine called Ooi Qui Min which I was fond of, it shows a range of different presentation techniques and compositions which I think makes it a good zine to explore in order to get layout ideas for my own zine.

Here are some images of the creative process of the Ooi Qui Min zine…

 I believe that this zine is a very successful outcome as it covers various different compositions and layouts of images whilst remaining minimalistic. I also like the basic fonts used in the zine as they do not distract of draw attention away from the images themselves, this is something which I hope to do in my own zine.

Here are some alternative simple layout ideas for a zine, which look at different compositions, use of text, framing, colour and sequencing. I believe that it is good to look at many different examples of what it is that you are creating, as it will give you as much creative inspiration as you may need.

Using some of my photographs from my first and second shoot and a newspaper article about heath and safety issues such as injury, death, drugs and assault. The point of this collage was just to explore ideas about the concerns of the new hospital that is being planned for in the near future. The two street portraits of two diverse subjects in the collage are meant to signify the fact that people of any class, race, religion etc. will all be in need of health-care at some point in their lives. The photograph of the back of the current hospital is simply meant to show how dated and in need of renovation the current building is. The photographs of signs that have been included in the collage are all supposed to be a symbol of danger or warning which is commonly something that leads to injury and therefore peoples’ need for healthcare.

Here is a photograph of the physical collage before then being digitally manipulated…

I then went on to use Photoshop in order to make the collage digitally versatile. I did this by cropping down the original and then increasing the exposure of the image. I then made the image black and white and adjusted the monochrome tones until I was satisfied with how it looked.

Here is the outcome of this…

Critical Selection

This blog post covers my critical selection of images which I have made using Adobe Light room from all 3 of my photo shoots which I  took in my allocated area of St Helier. These are the raw images before any editing and I have chosen them based on various aesthetic aspects such as the simplicity, colours, textures, and with the portraits based on the physical content of the images such as the expressions of the subjects of their surroundings. The images which I believe need to be slightly altered or manipulated I will caption with those needed changes, most of these slight alterations needing to be an increase in contrast, but i personally don’t believe that any of my favorite images which I have chosen need major changes to be made.

Shoot 1 Favorite images :

Could be slightly increased in contrast

Possible black and white, definitely increase contrast

Increase brightness and contrast to enhance the white

Black and white, possible increase in contrast

Enhance and darken blue tones

Experiment with saturation and hue of tones

Increase in contrast and slight decrease in brightness

Slight increase in contrast

Shoot 2 Favorite images :

Slight increase in contrast, maybe alter hue of red tones

Shoot 3 Favorite images :

Cropping, Increase contrast, possibly black and white

Cropping, slight increase in saturation

Slight decrease in brightness, maybe alter the hue

RED = UNSUCCESSFUL 

YELLOW = SUCCESSFUL / POSSIBLE USE

GREEN = SUCCESSFUL / USE FOR EDITING PROCESS

This blog post shows some of the experimental Photoshop edits which I have done on some of my favourite photographs from my first shoot…

This first image is a combination of a photograph from the Societe Jersaise photo-archive and some of the images from my first photoshoot. The idea behind this piece was to show how the aesthetics of the modern town are considerably less visually pleasing that those of the old urban landscape, and when imposed upon the old photograph take away the charm from the photo.

The idea for the second edit, which I produced on top of an image of the current hospital building, was looking at the indecisiveness involving the situation with the construction of the new hospital. The coloured mist represents the covering up of the important details in the situation and behind that the image/situation is in black and white, showing that once the details are exposed it can be dealt with in a much more basic manner.

The next two following edits were experiments using the liquefy tool in Photoshop, I thought that the textures and text elements of these photos would work really well with this effect, as once the photo is liquefied these parts of the images will become distorted and stretched.

Black & White Experimentation

This post displays some of my favorite images from my first and second shoots that I have manipulated in black and white on Lightroom. I believe that the absence of colour in these edited images is successful as it gets rid of any visual distractions that may prevent the viewer from looking at the whole image and missing important elements of the photographs which add to their meaning and context.

From these outcomes I personally believe that images 1,3,5,11,16 and 17 are the most successful of these edits as I believe in monochrome the images are an improvement upon their originals.