Keld Helmer Peterson was an architectural photographer who did a lot of working regarding experimentation with high contrast images featuring man made structures.
A similar effect can be created using the threshold tool in Photoshop
I found that Graffiti translated well into the threshold tool however it creates a rather boring image. I also like how the barbed wire looks when using the threshold tool as it creates an abstract, repeating but chaotic pattern.
I found that introducing grain into the flatter images helped the image react better to the threshold tool. however i was careful not to add too much grain as it would result in the image simply looking like a grainy black and white image.
This was one of my favorite images of the photo-shoot. The fence reacted very nicely to the threshold tool giving a strong contrast to the white walls littered with graffiti.
This is my favorite image of the photo-shoot, while the original image was taken in very low lighting, the threshold tool works nicely to highlight the main subject of the photo.
Here I experimented with photographing various signs. On the second image the rust and the peeling vinyl on the sign creates some interesting texture to prevent the image from being too flat.
Keld Helmer-Petersen (August 23, 1920 – March 6, 2013), was a Danish photographer who became renowned for his abstract colour photography in the 1940s and 1950s. Petersen worked with photographer Erik Hansen, after which he established his own studio specializing in architecture and design photography, in 1956.
Over his career, Petersen’s focus shifted onto architecture and design, not only in his photographs but also as an artistic field of interest. In the following decades he worked as a photographer for his generation of architects and designers.
This is an example of Petersen’s architectural work. In this photo you can clearly see the great amount of white negative space which contrasts the heavy and solid black shapes.
Response
To create a response to Petersen’s work I used photographs I already had from my summer task. Then I edited them in Photoshop using the threshold adjustment, I just slid through the bar and selected how I wanted it. Image > Adjustments > Threshold.
After I had edited all 4 photos with different layers of Photoshop, I arranged them together on a blank page to create a collection.
Keld Helmer-Petersen was a Danish photographer who achieved widespread international recognition in the 1940s and 1950s for his abstract photographs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keld_Helmer-Petersen
Peterson typically uses natural daylight in his photographs. However the vast contrast on the subects and the backgrounds in his images gives off the impression that he uses the threshold tool in photoshop, even though that wasnt physically possible because the first personal computer was invented in 1975. Petersons work has a strong tone, with both the light and dark contrasting eachother. Peterson was thought to have an obsession with line as it is often a major feature in his work. Also many patterns appear in his work, especially phoyographs involving buildings and structures.
Here is an example of Peterson's work:
My Interperatation:
These are screenshots of some of the photos I took in my shoot. I went to both indoor and outdoor locations and took photos of images I thought looked interesting and aesthetically pleasing.
Here are the images I selected for manipulation and my final image:
I then manipulated these images using photoshop. I cropped them into squares then applied the threshold tool and adjusted them until I got the result I wanted. I also rotates some of the images to distort the feeling of the final piece. I feel these images are both a reflection of Peterson's work, however there is an obvious indication that I have also inputted my own creativity into these images. Here is my final image:
Slide the curser up and down to get different depths of black and white contrast intensities
Create a new separate A4 page
Ctrl + A and drag image into page
Ctrl+ T to change the shape of the image
My Own Idea with Threshold
After experimenting with several different images, and trying different levels of threshold to help represent the contracts of black and white I chose these four photos as my final pieces. In these four photos I have used fairly high levels of threshold meaning the images are more strongly black compared to white.
For my final four photographs, I wanted to try closely link the textures and theme together to ensure the final piece looked well put together. To complete this idea I used a theme of nature, due the fact all my images were well linked as they included, a flowers and leaves in each photograph. This gave the final image a well grouped together appearance. For the texture of the image I wanted to go with ‘block’ like colour to give the feel that the image has been filled in with white and black pens. To do this the threshold on each image was slightly higher than the middle level on the scale, I did this because as previously mentioned I wanted the piece to be darker using black to reflect that rather than white, so each image contained more black shades than white shades. This made it a lot simpler when I put the four pieces together as they all merged into each other well together. For the presentation of my four images which had now been transformed i wanted to keep it simple, therefore i just placed evenly all four images on an A4 piece of paper and this was my final outcome.
On the other hand I wanted to complexly contrast with my original idea of solid colours and little texture. Therefore I began to experiment using different images and different levels of threshold which soon presented me with many different textures. I yet again put another four different images together but this time tried to portray texture and threshold in a different light and this is what I came up with:
Ralph Eugene Meatyard was born in 1925 in Illinois. He studied pre-dentistry but later changed his studies into become an optician. He bought his first camera in 1950 to photograph his first new born child. In 1954 he joined the Lexington camera club.
Though Meatyard experimented with lots of different ways to take images such as using multiple exposures and blur. He often worked with very heavy depth of field effects in his images and normally worked in black and white. He may have worked with heavy depth of field effects to reflect his job as an optician. These can be seen especially well in his “Zen Twigs” project.
Ralph Eugene Meatyard
This is a selection of my favourite work by Meatyard. These are all images from his “Zen Twigs” project. In this project he focused mostly on depth of field to make the images look simple.
After researching about Meatyard, I went out and took some images like the ones from his “Zen Twig” project. After I went out and took some photographs I went into photoshop and edited the best ones. I have done this to crop them down to the parts I wanted, to make them black and white so they’re more similar to Meatyards project and to change the exposure levels to make some of the images a lot darker than the others. I have changed the exposure to make them darker so that the blacks in the images stand out a lot more over the whites. These are the best images I took on this photoshoot:
The image shown above is my favourite image that I took. In this image specifically I have added a lot of exposure to make the dark areas stand out a lot over the white. I think this image mimics Meatyard’s work the best out of the images I took as it shows a very heavy amount of depth of field around the focus point. While the image below don’t show nearly as much.
The images above and below show branches in focus in the foreground with a lot of depth of field in the background. These images follows closely with Meatyard’s work due to the main focus point and the huge amount of depth of field in the background. If I were to take the above image again I’d focus further in on one part of the branch rather than the whole thing. While the below image I am happy with how it turned out.
I am not sure what I think of this because of the photo and the fact that the bunker in the foreground is too big to put in one circle.
Then I developed my ideas and made these:
The above slide shows me using the content aware fill to remove some of the larger imperfections.
i chose this photo because the main subjects (the ends of the piers) are small enough to fit in a circle and i can get the sun and the reflection in it to.
After experimenting with just using a solid black layer and the circles I will continue to experiment using different coloured layers, different circle arrangements, different opacity of the layers and using previously edited photographs for different effects.
Solid Colour Layers and Circle Arrangement
EditingEditingEditing
Final Outcomes
Fianl
Solid Colour
Final
Solid Colour and New Arrangement
Final
Solid Colour and New Arrangement
Above are all my final outcomes for the experiments I have produced. I feel they have worked well and I have been able to find different ways to arrange my circle holes and also the effects of using different colours as the solid colour.
Different Opacity and Previously Edited Photographs
EditingEditing
Final Outcomes
Final Outcome
Using a Different Opacity
Final Outcome
Using a Previously Edited Image, Different Opacity
These are more of my final outcomes for other experiments that I produced, I feel these I my most successful as I think they show a range of experiments by using my previously edited photographs and also the different opacity of the solid layers.
For this experiment I will be exploring using layers as layer masks to reveal and conceal areas of my photographs and exploring different ways to do this.
Helmer-Petersen was a Danish photographer who was inspired by Albert Renger-Patzsch, the experiments at The Bauhaus in Germany and by Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind at the Art Institute of Chicago. He achieved fame for his colour photographs but he also published several books of black and white images that explore dramatic contrasts of tone. In some, we are only presented with images that are black and white. All mid tones have been removed. He created and found these images, using both cameras and flat bed scanners to achieve the effects he was looking for. These books are beautifully designed and encourage us to consider the space around the image and the accompanying text as integral to the meaning of the work.
These are my experimented ideas, I have chosen to use different pictures and seeing the result of the threshold adjustment.
Here i have chosen my favorite 4 photos out of my edited photos using threshold. I have chosen the photos as they still contain a lot of detail which is what I wanted especially the close up of the plant, this is my favorite image out of my for images as it has more character than the others. the second best image is the one of the close up of the Eiffel tower as threshold effect has made the solid lines more solid and the image I found is the most abstract out of this project as there is only focusing on the detail of the lines it also looks better in black and white instead of using colour.
Grid With My Favorite Photos
This picture below is of a close up of the plant I like this picture as in black and white there seems to be more detail within the image which is presented. I used the threshold adjustment which made it go into black and white and it adds more detail and a sense of it coming out of the page. I have included the original photo before I started editing the photo so I can compare the differences of before and after. In my opinion I prefer the edited version as it makes me feel that the picture is actually coming out of the page which is different to the other picture. In the second edited photo I used the edited photo but afterwards I changed the contrast and brightness so that it was darker. I have included it but i didn’t like it but included it as a comparison.
Plant Close UpPlant Close Up 2
For this photo I decided to again use the threshold adjustment, but I didn’t like this outcome due to the fact the detail within the photo was taken this was because it wasn’t very abstract and the lines were very close together so the shadows collided making it darker.
Eiffel Tower
For this photo I used the threshold adjustment making it into black and white. I like it as the detail within the picture is still present however I don’t think it would be classed as abstract as there is a definite lines and it isn’t close up. I also after using the threshold adjustment i decided to add a and invert which converted the picture into white and then the lines were black I found this very basic and I didn’t like it however i decided to include it as a comparison between the original and both of the edited photos. On the threshold edited photo I included a Stroke to identify my favorite out the of the edited photos.
Eiffel Tower 2Eiffel Tower 3
I decided to use this photo below to see what happened when I choose the very basic picture and used the threshold adjustment to convert into black and white however I found that the edited consisted of little detail and I preferred the original photo as it contains more things to focus which maybe not abstract however the edited would be classed as abstract.
Leaf In Corridor
I chose this picture as it was very simple and I thought about the idea What would it look like if i used the threshold tool. I thought that it was a good outcome as all the shadows reflect the tree. Comparing it to the original photo I prefer the edited photo as you can see the shadows more clearly than the original.
Trees
This picture is of a bicycle wheel I chose to edit it as i found that it was abstract as it only focused on the wheel and its shadow, I thought that if I edited it with the threshold adjustment that it would bring out the detail and it would make the lines bold. For comparing I Prefer the edited version of the photo as it is more unique to the original which I think is very dull and has no personality.
Bicycle Shadow
I think for this photo it would be classed as abstract as it only focuses on a little section unlike the other photos. I used the threshold adjustments which converted the photo into black and white and the lines are solid and bold which is what Keld Helmer-Peterson. I included the original so I can compare how different the adjustment did to the photo. Personally I prefer the edited photo as it seems so much more alive and it brings out the uniqueness of the photo.
My Own Idea with Threshold
