In photography. The aperture stop of a photographic lens can be adjusted to control the amount of light reaching the film or image sensor. In combination with variation of shutter speed, the aperture size will regulate the film’s or image sensor’s degree of exposure to light. The higher the aperture the more you will be able to view everything in frame. A lower aperture will allow for more focus on a certain part of what is in focus.
I experimented using a 18-55 mm lens, a 75-300 mm lens and different aperture levels. Here are some examples of my experimentation,
These were taken using the 75-300 mm lens, with a high aperture.
The following were taken with a low aperture of 5.6 and the smaller lens.
First I anchored the image to the middle-left of the canvas, then I doubled the width of it. This makes space for a duplicate image.Here is the image after the canvas size has been doubled. The purple area is the empty canvasHere is the image once it has been duplicated. Using Ctrl+J and Ctrl+T I have duplicated the photo and flipped it onto the empty canvas creating a kaleidoscope effect.
Gary Gay was born in Glendale, California in the year of 1951. He has been taking digital photographs since the year of 1993. Garry Gay has had a successful carrier as he has been elected president in many photography clubs. In these images he captures a range of colourful household objects and spreads them out to capture the different objects that stand out.
The main focus point of Garry Gay’s work is the different colourful objects that are satisfying to look at. The formal elements found in Garry Gay’s photography are shape and texture. Shape is shown with the different sized and shaped objects in the frame of the image and texture is shown through the materialistic objects. The lighting used in Garry Gay’s photography seems to be bright and artificial, which allows the main focus point to stand out. To capture these amazing images I think Garry Gay has used a quick shutter speed, this is because there is no intended blur in his images. The photograph is taken at a straight on angel, allowing Garry to showcase the different objects. Contextually, these images are usually transferred onto puzzles, mugs etc which informs us why so much colour is presented in his photographic series. This makes the product eye catching and will want the customer to buy the product because of the bright colours he has captured. The background of Garry Gay’s photography seems to be something plain which allows the main focus point stand out more, or Garry does not use a background as he is showing a collection of items which cover up the background. This informs us that he has used a wide depth of field as usually the whole frame is in focus. Moreover, this tells us that the aperture used to capture the images is high, which also allows the whole frame to be in focus. Within this image, we can see that there is no noise, which tells us the ISO is low, as it is not that sensitive to the artificial lighting. Overall, I like Garry’s work as it presented both colour and texture in a unique way. It shows simplistic objects, but the images are captured in a way to make them seem much more interesting.
Planning
For this photoshoot I am going to look at capturing a collection of items, food and look at using a quick shutter speed to capture food colouring falling into water. I intend to copy Garry’s idea of collection of items, however the food colouring idea I thought of myself and thought that it would work well.
When Capturing the images, I will be using my DSLR camera on the manual setting, allowing me to control the aperture, shutter speed, focus and ISO. I will probably set these on a ‘standard’ setting but change them as and when I need to. I will capture these photographs indoors, using artificial lighting, allowing me to create different shadows. I will attempt to use a plain background as well, to make the images more like Gary’s.
For editing these images I want to look a different ways I could display the images, and manipulating them to make the photographs seem more captivating. The edits are not likely to be simplistic, however, I feel that it will help to presented the formal element of colour and texture.
Contact Sheets
Edits
Screenshots
First of all I created a new document which was landscape. I then copied a graffiti wall image onto the page. Using a gunge paint brush I taped on it to create texture in the photograph. I then opened the photograph I wanted to use and used the quick selection tool to cut around it. I then pressed layer via cut and place it onto the graffiti wall page. I then used the cutout filter on the sweets. The I added a new posterize, hue/saturation, brightness adjustment layers. I ensured these layers were clipping masks to the sweets. I then on the brightness layer used the same brush tool as before to reveal some colour. Next I then created a new layer and pasted the sweet cut out on again. I then went to filter and added a photocopy sketch and then another artistic cut out. Then to make the image blend into the wall I set the blend mode to multiply
I am really happy with the way this edit has turned out. My image has been blended in with the graffiti wall, making it seem more realistic. The colours are complimenting each other making it pleasing for viewers to look at. Texture and colour has clearly been presented by the graffiti wall. Although this edit is not like Garry’s I feel that I still have met the same artistic intention that Garry had when capturing and editing his images.
Screenshots
First of all I opened a new landscape document. I then went into the filter gallery and then into texture and then selected the texturize filter. I ensured that the scaling was 150% and the relief was 3. I then pasted the photograph I wanted to use onto the textured document and desaturated it by pressing ctrl + U. I then went into the filter gallery and set the filter to water colour. I then added a vector mask to this layer. I then used a paint brush tool and black paint on the vector mask to dissolve some of the photograph, in order to add the bursts of colour later. I then created a new layer. Using pastel colours a used another water colour paint brush and started tapping around the sweets. I made sure that the colours blended well.
The three edits present the theme of colour, through the watercolours which are bursting out of the main focus point of the edit. The subjects have been pixelated, to present the formal element of texture and the background has been kept plain. This allows this edit to be more like Garry’s and allows the subject to stand out more, has more emphasis on the subject.
Screenshots
First of all I selected all the photographs I wanted to use. I used the ellipsis and tool and cut out a circle in the centre of the photograph. I then created a new document in order to put the circles on. I then turned the background colour to cream. I then moved the circle onto the new document and resized it by pressing ctrl + T. I then repeated this step till all the circles where on the document. I then added drop shadows to all of the photographs to add depth to the photographs.
The circles are used to help display certain aspects of these four images. Each section clearly shows colour and texture, making them all like each other in a way. The circles have a drop shadow and stroke, which pushes the sections forward making them stand out more. In this edit the background has also been kept plain, to allow the circles to be the main focus point and to make this edit more like Garry’s work.
Screenshots
First of all I selected the image I wanted to use and re levelled it. I then ensured that black and white where my colours on the colours panel. I then added a gradient map by pressing the adjustment layer > gradient map. I then ensured that the vector mask was white . Then using the paint brush tool I used the black paint and paint over the areas I wanted to be in colour. As I painted over the colour started to reveal. If I painted over an area which I did not want coloured, I used the white paint and it went away.
I really like the use of the colour splash, as it allows the tips of the pencils to have a burst of colour. This edit only really presents colour, however I still believe that this edit is still as successful as the rest. I like how only a certain section of the image is in colour as it allows the viewers eyes to be drawn to there first, making it the main focus point. I also believe that this edit still has met the same artistic intention that Garry had when capturing and editing his images.
For this task I took inspiration from Aaron Siskind. He focuses on aged and peeling surfaces, for example: old posters left to rot or old wall paint.
Aaron Siskind’s work
From the stimuli given from Siskind’s work, I focused on the ‘decay’ of walls and buildings which all fitted into our urban lifestyles. My first shoot was based in the old Jersey Brewery, which is now being slowly nocked down and being turned into apartments. However this means there’s more parts of the old building being revealed. I mainly focused on the decay of the building’s crumbling walls and peeling paint.
My response
My second response involved focusing more the textures and lines that came naturally either from natural or decaying objects.
In photography, depth of field determines the closest and farthest objects in an image. This can involve the entire image being focus or something in the foreground or background being sharp while the rest of the image appears unfocused. This is useful in highlighting a certain aspect of a frame and can enhance the importance and effect of an object.
Three main factors that affect a photographer’s control over depth of field are the aperture, proximity to the image being photographed and the focal length of the camera lens.
Large aperture = shallow DOF
Small aperture = deep DOF
My Examples:
As visible in the frames above the depth of field greatly affects the appearance of an image. The first two images are focused on the furthest away section of the plant in relation to the position of the camera and create a relatively bland image while the bottom two images are focused on the section of plant in the foreground highlighting the stem in the centre of the image, giving the composition much more life and dimension with different colours and shapes making the image more interesting.
Further Examples:
This is another example of how depth of field reveals different layers of an image, creating different focal areas. This creates a more dramatic image as aspects of the frame are much sharper and bolder.
In this photo I had to use a very quick shutter speed so that I could take a sharp photo despite my dog moving around. To keep the image bright (and to show details in the hair) I also used flash.In this photo I used a short exposure and a longer shutter speed to capture a little movement of the clouds and to keep the photo dark in order to capture the colours in the sky properly.In this photo I used a very fast shutter speed to capture the waves created by the ducks swimming around. In this photo I also selected the ducks and inverted their colours to make them blend in with the water more. This stops the focus of attention being the ducks and brings more attention to the waves.
Shutter-speed allows for a camera to pick up on movement, and record the movement in a single photograph. Shutter-speed is the length of time that the sensor of the camera is exposed to light, and so the longer the shutter-speed, the more movement and light the camera can track.
Shutter-speed is useful when attempting to give the sense of movement, and can allow for an image to seem like it has captured a subject moving from one place to another. Examples of images taken with slow shutter-speeds can be seen below:
As using a slow shutter-speed tracks movement, this setting is useful for sports adverts, travel adverts, and any photograph used to show a busy area or the speed of an object.
Shutter-speed can be adjusted by turning the main control dial. Doing this makes the shutter-speed wither faster or slower, and so the shutter-speed can be adjusted easily depending on what kind of photograph is being taken.
The following are examples of photographs I have taken using a slow shutter-speed (of 0 “4 or 0 “6):
These images are taken of light, late at night, as this best shows the movement in a clear and obvious way. In some of the photos the source of the light itself was moving (e.g a cars break lights), and in others I manually moved the camera. The movement of the light was tracked due to the slow shutter-speed, and an be seen in the images.
Shutter-speed can also be adjusted to become faster than normal, meaning that clear images of objects that are moving fast can be captured, showing a freeze-frame of the object without showing it’s movement. Examples of images using a fast shutter-speed can be seen below:
Images like these can be taken and used to show a different perspective of a familiar situation, freezing what is normally a fast action (like a dog shaking). This gives the viewer an interesting look at a situation, and can be used to draw the eye and increase interest.
Keld Helmer- Petersen was a Danish photographer who took abstract photos for his career. He was inspired by Albert Renger- Patzsch and achieved fame for his colour photographs. He typically took his photographs in daylight. His images had strong tone with light and dark contrasting each other. Peterson was thought to be very fond of line as it is the majority of his work. He also used a lot of patterns.
My interpretation..
After researching about Helmer- Petersen and taking influence from his photography pieces i have chosen four abstract images i have previously taken to edit on Photoshop. In order to edit my images to make them look similar to Helmer- Petersen’s, i have adjusted the threshold, by selecting ‘ adjustments’ after uploading my previous image to Photoshop. I then adjusted the threshold until i was happy with the contrasted image.
My final piece
For my final pieces, i have made my images heavily contrasted using Photoshop as well as removing all the mid tones and i think they have turned out very successful. Because of the bird cage i have used for two of the pics has the cage effect, this has created the ‘line effect’ that Helmer- Petersen was known to be fond of. I also think that because there was an original reflection of the spoons in the first image it has helped to add more shadowing to the image as well as adding more depth.
Helmer-Petersen was born and raised in the Osterbro quarter of Copenhagen (Denmark). His interest in photography began in 1938 when he received a Leica camera as a graduation present. He became aware of international photography trends early on in his photography career. Helmer-Petersen’s interest in contemporary art and architecture heavily influenced his work, as he became one of the first Danish photographers to begin working on abstract photography.
Helmer-Petersen used high thresholds to give his work a dramatic finish. The frames below are examples of my response to the work of Helmer Peterson.
