Daniel Antunes is a self taught photographer mostly known for his black and white street photography. He was born in Portugal and began his photography education at a young age but only really began to develop and present his work two years ago.
by Daniel Antunes
There is natural lighting from the outside as well as the lighting from the chandeliers. Light from the chandelier is also being reflected off the top of the piano and the floor. There’s a lot of contrast in the image as you can see with the really dark tones next to the light shades. There’s not a gradient because of the high contrast. The focal point is the reflective surface because it immediately draws the eye. There’s no colour in the image because it’s a black and white which Antunes’ is more known for. I would say the image has a smooth and shiny texture to it because of the shiny smooth floor and piano. I would say there’s quite a bit of depth to the image because you can see across the room and the trees outside. The image is composed so you can see the ceiling reflecting on the piano and so you can see the whole room including the ceiling upright and upside down. I think the leasing lines are the door ways and the outline of the piano.
Contextual info-
Daniel Antunes was born in Portugal . The place in the photo is the Queluz National Palace in Portugal built in the 18th century. People often compare it to Versailles.
Within these edits I wanted to recreate the double exposure technique that Gina Socrates used in her photo shoot of capturing Jersey Sea wall. Doing this technique will allow to showcase the before and after of the sea wall, presenting the Journey of the sea wall in Jersey, plus showing a part of Jersey’s journey through the second world war. I decided to create three double exposures, using different images, to create different effects and present different formal elements.
To prepare the images, before combining them, adjusted the levels and curves, in order to have the textures of the walls to stand out (presenting the clear formal element of texture and shape). I then adjusted the hue and saturation in order to make the images black and white, which made a clear contrast in tonal regions. At first I experimented with changing the hue, in order to present the modern image of the wall to have a different look to the ‘older’ image to create a clear contrast and meet the aim of this photoshoot. However, I did not believe that this suited the effect I was trying to present and decided to turn the images back to black and white. Once I had all my images ready I opened up a new document, and placed both images onto the document. Using the transformation tool (ctrl + t), I adjusted the size of both images ensuring they fit onto the page. Then the image on the top layer, I turned down the opacity of the layer in order to reveal the layer underneath it. I then flatten the two layers and adjusted the levels again to ensure that the photographs had similar tonal contrast. I repeated this step with all the images until I received the outcomes I wanted.
My first edit has been the most successful as I believe that it clearly meets my artistic aim of present old vs new of the Jersey wall, presenting its Journey from the second world war. Moreover, I believe the two images used work together and create an overall visually stimulating photograph. The image shows successful photography techniques; for example the formal elements of texture, space and shape, clear focal points and depth of field, it also uses lines to help guide the viewers eyes around the image. This image has been the most successful edit from this process.
In my next edit I used two contrasting images, a macro image and wide angle image in order to show the contrast of the walls during the war and after the war. The two images fit nicely together and makes a visually pleasing image. Moreover, the formal element of texture and space which makes the image interesting to look at. Due to the two images being levelled differently, leads to the overall image being high in contrast, making the whole photograph as a whole look ascetically pleasing. Although, I like the way this image came out I believe that it is too busy and therefore not as successful as the first edit.
I believe that this edit is my least successful image from this process, but still wanted to showcase it in order to show the development process and my critical picking of images. The two images used do not work together, and makes an overall awkward looking image. Both images look similar and the effect is not as good with these two images. The space near the back of the image, also makes the image awkward looking and less pleasing to look at. Moreover, one of the images is a bit blurry, which shows a lack on camera control, however I used this to try and convey an old camera taking an image, but the effect did not work in my favour.
Images Used
To Create
My Double
Exposure
Comparison :
My Image
Gina Socrates
To compare my image to Gina Socrates there are multiple similarities and differences, but both present the same idea and contextual factors. One of the similarities is that we have both captured the same subject but have both taken different approaches in order to do so. I looked at macro images and focused on different areas of the wall which would showcase different formal elements. However, Socrates looks at the build up of the wall from a wider angle. In contrast, my images are presented in black and white as I wanted the texture and lines (detail) of the wall to clearly be presented to my viewers, however Socrates presents her images in colour with a hint of yellow/orange which also presents the texture of her subject. Personally, I believe that the black and white looks much better as it presents a more visually pleasing image overall, however, Socrates work is still successful. Another similarity is that we both took our photographs with the same aim, but both came out with different outcomes. We both used a double exposure effect in order to present the journey of Jersey’s seawall during the second world war, however she managed to do hers by changing the camera settings whereas mine where created using photoshop. Her blend of images is a lot smoother and the images fit nicely together, mine also do this but only slightly have areas where the two images do not fit (these are very small and therefore hard to notice. Moreover, my images are much sharper, presenting the formal elements much stronger creating a more powerful overall image, where as Socrates work are much weaker but still showcase a powerful image. My image is quite busy and lacks space, however Socrates work has more space and emptiness allowing time for the viewers to take in the message of her work. Overall, I believe that mine and socrates work share many similarities but showcase our preferred artistic style within the image. I also think that we have both come out with similar outcomes and therefore showing the success of my photoshoot and final images from the section of the project.
My favorite image of Adams is “Face of Half Dome”. The reason for this is because it is a sharp image that has a large amount of detail within it.
Technical
This image was taken on film in black and white originally. He also used a very high f-stop meaning that the image is sharp throughout. He also used a deep dark red filter.
Visual
The monolith is the main focus of the photo but there are other things like the ledge on the bottom right section of the photo and in the bottom left of the photo has detail showing the snow and the tree.
Contextual
Adams went to the spot where the photo was taken, first when he was 14 and then 11 years later, he want back to take this photo. When taking the photo he had his camera on a large tripod and had to take it on a two day hike to get to the spot.
Conceptual
The concept that Adams was aiming for and the point that he was trying to make to the viewer was that the American national parks are something that has undergone some change and he wanted to preserve the image before they changed beyond the point of no return. He also wanted to show the views with a level or Romanticism meaning that he would exaggerate the beauty and the views that he saw the ways that he did this is using colour filters and using very high focal lengths.
I wanted to focus on Le Hocq beach as I lived nearby and I wanted to be able to take pictures throughout the day. I wanted to capture the journey in which the sun, clouds, water takes on a typical day in Winter. I was lucky to have enough that the weather was good and the sky was clear, but that did mean I had to ensure my pictures weren’t over exposed due the harshness of the sun, this was difficult. I started taking pictures at 1 pm and took pictures every hour until 7 pm. I held my camera for the post part but for several photos I put my camera on the wall. The picture below aren’t of every hour but are the best to represent the movement of the sun and change in brightness. I aimed to create a timeline for an afternoon at the beach, to show the true beauty of one of my favourite beaches in Jersey.
trees 2pm
trees 4pm
trees 5pm
trees 7pm
front 4pm
Analysis
Overall I found my first experiment to be reasonably successful. If I were to do it again I would have used a tripod and kept it in the same place for the duration of the shoot in order to have more emphasis on the change in just one particular part of the beach, but this is useful to know for my next photo shoot. I feel like my photos are pretty self explanatory, as they are just a timeline of Le Hocq beach, I used a medium to large lens for my photos as I wanted to focus in on specific parts of the beach but also capture the full atmosphere. I edited my photos in Photoshop by lowering the brightness, increasing contrast and lowering the exposure for the pictures I took earlier in the day. These pictures are personal to me as they are the view I having being seeing for the last 8 years, day in day out, so for me it’s nothing special in day light, but when the sun goes down it creates a different scene for me, something familiar yet exciting. I wanted to empathize how repetitive views don’t always have to be boring, the weather changes, the sun position changes, the sky is never the same, clouds are always moving, they change shape, the sun is always moving.
