For my homework into capturing the interior and exterior of my home and the area in which I lived, I experimented with a range of different locations and places in order to best present the place in which I lived, and to best show the personalities, attitudes and lives of the people I live with/around through presenting their houses and what is included inside/outside of them. I captured a range of photographs, ranging from my street to the inside of rooms and houses, in order to encompass both the “interior” and “exterior” aspects of the project.

Below my contact sheets can be found where I have made a selection of images to bring forward to the editing process:

After selecting the images I wanted to use, I moved onto Photoshop to experiment with the editing of the images:

For this first image of the exterior of where I live, I decided to make the initial version of the image black and white as this gave the shapes and textures of the image more emphasis. After turning the image mono-chrome, I decided to further experiment with the image by adding a small amount of colour.

I used the lasso tool to cut around the water of the image, and copied this onto a separate layer so that I could edit the water and the background separately.

After separating the 2 components of the image, I used the “selective colour” tool to increase the cyan and blue colours of the image, giving the water a heightened colour which contrasted the monochrome background.

I then went around the edges of the water layer with a soft eraser tool to soften out the edges of the water, allowing them to blend more with the edges of the background. I also used the eraser tool to erase the green plants that I had accidentally included in the layer, which meant that the only thing left in colour was the water. I feel like this gave the image a cleaner look, with the blue water looking more “natural” as opposed to simply being cut and pasted over the background.

After heightening the contrast of the whole image after I had finished editing the water, the above was my final result. I feel like experimenting with the flash of colour in the water allowed for me to compare the 2 versions of the image, and in turn I was able to decide whether I felt the pop of colour was effective at drawing attention to the image or not.

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Above are the 2 possible outcomes. After comparing the 2 visually, I decided that my final image would be the purely monochrome image. I found that experimenting with colour allowed me to gain a better understanding of what worked for the image, and I concluded that the simplicity of the monochrome image allowed for more attention to be drawn to the texture, shading and shapes of the surrounding without distracting the viewer with unnecessary colour.

After editing this first image, I went on to use the same sort of process (increasing contrast, using selective colour editing or using monochrome) to edit the remaining images. Below is an example of one of the interior images I used:

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In order to create this image, I increased the contrast of the image, and used the selective colour tool to increase the brightness of the white in the background:

I decided to use this blurred image, as I felt it gave an intimate view into the interior of an individuals private life. The lack of focus allows for the interior to retain some privacy, and draws attention to the fact that the viewer is looking into the most private aspect of an individuals life; their home. I feel like although this image does not stick to the norms when it comes to its visual and technical layout, the concept behind the image fits the title of the project well, and therefore I decided on it as a final image or this reason.

I then decided to edit the image which I originally decided had an issue with its perspective. I used the photograph of the bookcase which I had initially taken using a handheld camera, and thus the image came out with the bookshelf appearing uneven and lob-sided, as shown underneath:

I took the image to Photoshop, where I turned the image monochrome (as I disliked the yellow tint to the image and felt the textures could be best emphasised using black and white) and then proceeded to alter the perspective of the image using CMD-T in Photoshop:

This allowed me to better straighten the cabinet, and thus I created a much more in-line, symmetrical image.

I then had to fill in the gap at the bottom of the image, left from where the image had been lifted due to the perspective change. To fill this, I used the spot healing brush tool, and allowed the software to fill the gaps in:

I then decided to remove the table corner in the bottom right of the image which distracted from the cabinet itself, and to do this, I also made use of the spot healing brush tool:

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After this editing was complete, this was my final product:

I followed the same sort of process for the rest of my images, and developed the following as my final images:

I feel like my final images for this project reflect the meanings of both “interior” and “exterior” well, with a range of images for each criteria. I feel like my final images give a feel and understanding to the viewer of the public and intimate aspects of the lives of individuals living in the houses and areas that I photographed, and the intimacy of rooms such as the bedroom and kitchen allow for the viewer o gain an understanding of the personality of the people living inside and around these rooms. I feel like the editing process allowed me to emphasise certain aspects of the images, and downplay others, which I felt was an effective method for drawing attention to certain components of the image which helped to better convey the meaning of the image.

As part of out research into the Liberation and Occupation of Jersey, following the path of portraiture in order to document the lives, experiences and stories of those who experienced the liberation and occupation, we were lucky enough to be able to meet and listen to the stories of 2 individuals who experienced both the initial occupation of Jersey in 1940, and its liberation in 1945. Henley (14 at the time of the occupation) and Joan (6 at the time of the occupation) both gave detailed accounts of their experiences with life under German rule, with Henley recalling the time that, at the age of 14, he was able to render a German guard almost unconscious by continually giving him glasses of cider, and the soldier was drunk enough to not notice when the farmers had time to hide a lot of the wheat they had farmed in order to avoid having to hand it in to the Germans. In contrast, Joan was able to recall her experience with walking to school through a number of German outposts and identification points, as she passed by the fenced off and mine covered beaches. The lack of transport (confiscated by the Germans) and the censorship and limits imposed during the occupation brought the native community together, with adults crafting bicycle tyres out of hosepipe and rope, and children knitting water bottle cosys for the Red Cross. Both Joan and Henley recalled the liberation of Jersey as being a huge event, with Henley not being able to see the liberation ship for the huge crowds of people blocking his view, and Joan missing the crowds at the harbour altogether due to her inability to travel across the island from her home to town.

After listening to the stories of Henley and Joan, we had the chance to photograph them in the school studio. I was able to collect images of both Henley and Joan, and singular images of just Joan. In the studio I had my IOS set to 100 (as the lighting in the studio was already very bright) and my shutter speed was at F16. I also used the Daylight white balance in order to slightly correct the colour based on the studio lighting and colours. Below are the results of my photoshoot, shown in a contact sheet:

Key: GREEN “S” = Small issue with the subjects pose – GREEN TICK = candidate for final image – GREEN HASHED AREA = problem area/needs editing out of final image – RED HASHED AREA = problem area too big to edit out – RED “x” = rejected image

The first row of the contact sheet includes images that are so over-exposed that they appear as white boxes. This was my own error as I originally failed to adjust the IOS from 6400 down to 100, and so the amount of light that entered the lens was way too much to produce a clear image. I adjusted this afterwards and the rest of my images are shot at the right IOS.

After taking the images in the studio and using the contact sheet in Photoshop to nail down my selection to my final choices, I moved the final images onto the editing stage. The following are the results of the images I edited:

I was able to use Photoshop to adjust the contrast and colors of most of these images, in order to make the initial edits. I then moved the images to Light-room to further make use of the tools available on that software. In Light-room I especially focused on the last image, as I was able to edit the image to draw up the contrast in order to give it a more bold look. Below is the before and after Light-room edit:

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The image on the right was the original from the Photoshop edit, which I found to be too over-exposed (especially around Henley’s right-hand shoulder). I used Light-room to adjust the contrast and more specific colour settings (highlights, shadows, blacks, whites and clarity). I feel like the final product (left) looks much more bold and eye drawing than the original on the right.

For some of the images, I adjusted the colour settings so that they were in black and white. I did this in order to make a link to the imagery of the occupation and liberation of Jersey, which was all taken in black and white as colour photography only became common for the average person in the 1960’s. I feel like black and white images also allow for the details in the textures and shapes of the images to be better emphasized, and it allows for certain aspects of the image (such as eyes and clothing) to present as more eye-catching, and can between hold the attention of the viewer. Below is an example of an image I edited into black and white for these reasons:

Furthermore, on some images I made the decision to simply lower the saturation of the images in order to dull down the colours of the image, giving the final image a more somber and dulled image. I made this decision as I feel that it accurately reflects the atmosphere and feelings surrounding the occupation of Jersey, as the overall atmosphere at the time (and the feeling that came with many of the stories given by Joan and Henley) was solemn and very close to being hopeless. I therefore tried to reflect this through the colour of some of my images, which are dulled and almost drained completely of colour. An example of one of these images can be seen below:

For the final image, I made the decision to raise the saturation and contrast, and made some colour adjustments in Photoshop that involved heightening the colour balance so that it fell more towards a lilac/subtly feminine colour (especially in the background). I did this in order to highlight that through the occupation, many individuals were still able to keep hope, and regardless of the solemn circumstances, many individuals were able to find pleasure in small things (such as dances and cycling). The editing of the colour in this image is a reflection of the subject being able to maintain her femininity and hope for a better future, even through the difficult times of the occupation:

After the initial editing of colour and saturation, I began to experiment with some of the images, using things such as boarders, adding in other images to the initial image in the form of collaging, and experimenting with different techniques in order to enhance the image further.

In the above image, I used the spot removal tool in Light-room to remove some of the light colored fluff that was on Henley’s jumper, which distracted from the image itself.

The above 2 images of Joan have been edited to produce a different framed effect on each of them. I experimented with this in order to see if the frames make the image seem more eye-catching.

I further experimented with the above image, using the same template for the frame as I used in the original, but this time cutting and stretching the damaged effect of the frame more over the subject, allowing the contrast between her darker shape/outline and the white damaged effect to become more clear. Below is the process I used to do this:

I selected the colour dodge option on the layer that the frame was on. In doing so I only kept the white damaged effect, removing the black background so the subject could be seen through it.

I then copied and pasted the frame onto multiple layers, and used the lasso tool to cut the frame so that I could fit it into the correct areas of the subject so that the damaged effect covered the darker areas.

The final effect was the damaged effect that can be found more clearly in the image above. I decided to do this because the effect that the frame gives the image reflects the same kind of damage that happens to old, archival images. Therefore here, I am referencing the past/youth of June, and contrasting it with the present, using the style of the image to reflect past trauma (through “damaging” the image) while the subject can still be seen smiling as her current self, a survivor.

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I decided on my final images, and the below images are the final images after editing in Photoshop:

In Photo-shop, I was able to use the following techniques to produce the final images:

In the above 2 images, I was experimenting with the width of the boarder around the gas mask, and to do so, I used the brush tool to draw outlines of different widths. I also experimented with the softness of the outline, originally working with a hard line, and then moving towards a softer outline version. In this image, I was attempting to make a distinction between the background and the gas mask. The concept of this image was to show how, during the war, conflict and violence became a common part of life, and to do this, I made a distinction between the gas mask, and the teacups and kitchenware placed directly next to it. By arranging the gas mask and familiar kitchen ware together, it can be established that fear of an enemy gas attack lay around every corner, and nowhere (not even the safety of home) was safe from the threat of violence. This image merges the two opposites together (fear and safety), and in editing an outline around the gas mask, it draws more attention directly to the mask itself, and also disconnects the mask from the rest of the image. In doing so I am able to make some distinction between the kitchen ware and gas mask, hopefully drawing more attention to the fact that these 2 things should not be seen as normal together, and yet also presenting the fact that in reality, they were.

The 2 images above are examples of the colour editing I worked on in the below image. I used two different layers when it came to editing this image, the first image including the background, and the second layer including the soldier in the foreground. I reduced the saturation of the background in order to give it a more somber tone, reflective of the reality of conflict and war, and in order to contrast this, used the layer on which the soldier sat to heighten the saturation, showing contrast between the background and the individual soldier in the foreground. As a concept, I did this because I was attempting to reflect the reality that all soldiers during the occupation were individual people too, with hopes and fears, many of which did not want to leave their families in Europe to come and occupy Jersey. I chose a single soldier and made him easily distinguishable from the rest, regardless of his own insignificance in terms of the whole image, because I wanted to convey the idea that all individuals, German and Jersey, were people that were individually affected by the impact of the war/occupation, and should not all be grouped together as “enemy” or “friend”.