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Co-ordinator of A Level Photography at Hautlieu School, Jersey

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AO4 Present Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation, Unit 1 Abstract

Week 6 | Working towards Final Images

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This week your emphasis must be on selecting final images for Unit 1 Abstract Photography.

You must demonstrate in your choice of images

  • a range of camera skills that you have learnt recently
  • influence and inspiration from a key photographer(s)
  • editing, enhancing and manipulation skills
  • a sound understanding of abstract photography
  • application of The Formal Elements in your images
  1. Line (horizontal, vertical, diagonal, thick, thin etc)
  2. Shape
  3. Form
  4. Texture
  5. Pattern
  6. Colour

Your final images will be uploaded to our commercial printers (printing is not normally done in school) on Monday 15th October by 11.00 am

1 x A3 print + 1 x A4 print + 1 x A5 print

To do  this you must add High Resolution JPEG files (4000 pixels on the long edge / check in Photoshop > Image Size) to the folder:

M:\Departments\Photography\Students\Image Transfer\PRINTING\AS Mon 15 October Abstract Final Images

IN YOUR OWN AREA YOU MUST CREATE A FOLDER TITLED “ABSTRACT PROJECT FINAL OUTCOME” WITH YOUR CHOICE OF IMAGES IN FOR CHECKING

Display : You must look at a range of possibilities for grouping, sequencing and arranging your images before you make your final decision…

Single Image Examples :

Image result for single image abstract photography

Image result for single image abstract photography

Double Image / Two Frame / Juxtaposition / Diptych Examples :

Image result for diptych dual image photography

Image result for diptych dual image photography

Triple Image / Triptych Examples :

Image result for triple image triptych abstract photography

Image result for triple image triptych abstract photography

Typologies / Multi-image / Grid / Row / Column Examples :

Image result for presenting photographs in a grid

Image result for typologies

 

Alternative Image Display Examples :

Image result for sculptural photographs

 

Image result for sculptural photographs

 

Image result for letha wilson
Letha Wilson

Complete this week (by the end of Friday 12th October 2018)

Blog Post 1  create a visual blog post(s) that includes your initial choices of final outcomes. Analyse and justify your choices and then  evaluate your decisions. Be critical and purposeful. Show examples of what you are intending with your choice of image and how they relate to what you have LEARNED ie : camera skills, artist references 

Blog Post 2 create a visual blog post that demonstrates an understanding of various sequences of image, display techniques and your FINAL IMAGE SELECTION once you have completed a range of editing / manipulation. Show your process thoroughly and edit recent images so that ypour camera skills are clearly demonstrated. Do not mask your camera skills with “over-editing”

Blog Post 3 create a range of responses to the creative prompts below and demonstrate clearly your ability to convert original images into something creative. These could then be considered for final outcomes and printing too.

  1. Mirror image / kaleidoscope techniques : symmetry and repetition
  • Image Size > Canvas Size
  • Copy Via Layer (CTRL J)
  • Transform Tool (CTRL T)
  • Selecting and positioning / re-arranging layers

Image result for multi image abstract photography

Image result for kaleidoscope images photography

Image result for kaleidoscopic images photoshop

 

2. Double exposures : multiple viewpoints / meanings

  • Opacity control
  • Blending Options
  • Area selection
  • Layer Mask

Image result for in camera double exposure

 

 

 

 

Image result for idris khan photography
Idris Khan

 

Image result for double exposure in camera

Extension Task : Creative Ideas

100+ Creative Photography Ideas: Techniques, Compositions & Mixed Media Approaches

  • Choose 1 x example from the link above and respond with your own images, experiments and outcomes
  • Include artist reference
  • image
  • process
  • evaluation

Remember to use this model when discussing and analysing photographs :

TECHNICAL -VISUAL-CONCEPTUAL-CONTEXTUAL

Picture

ALWAYS choose 1 x key image of your own to discuss in detail

ALWAYS choose 1 x key image of an influential photographer to discuss in detail

Follow the 10 Step Process for each unit to ensure you tackle all Assessment Objectives thoroughly :

  1. Moodboard (AO1)
  2. Mindmap of ideas (AO1)
  3. Artist Reference / Case Study (AO1)
  4. Action Plan (AO3)
  5. Photoshoots + contact sheets (AO3)
  6. Image Selection (AO2)
  7. Image Editing/ manipulation (AO2)
  8. Presentation of final outcomes (AO4)
  9. Compare and contrast (AO1)
  10. Evaluate and Critique (AO1+AO4

 

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation, Homework, Unit 1 Abstract

Week 5 | Homework | Final Photoshoot | Abstract | Colour and Texture

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Start Date : Wednesday 3rd October
Completion Date : Wednesday 10th October

Ernst Haas – water and reflections

Haas pioneered colour photography and is also famous for his images of movement using long shutter speeds. He photographed water throughout his career, fascinated by its ability to reflect light and its dynamic movement. He crops the subject to increase the sense of abstraction.

Aaron Siskind – natural and urban surfaces

Siskind was interested in surfaces and textures, both from the natural world but also the urban environment. He gets in close to his subjects and fills the frame with detail. There is always a strong sense of design and all over interest for the viewer.

Alfred Stieglitz – patterns in the sky

These pictures were an attempt to demonstrate how “to hold a moment, how to record something so completely, that all who see [the picture of it] will relive an equivalent of what has been expressed.” The ‘Equivalents’, as they are known, aim to create a sensation in the viewer similar to that experienced by the photographer. Is this possible, do you think?

Nick Albertson – repeated forms

These images explore the idea of repetition, rhythm, line, shape, texture and pattern. They are all created with everyday objects which are transformed through careful arrangement and photography. The edge to edge compositions help concentrate our eyes on the formal properties of the objects. Contrast is important. Sometimes we need to consult the title before we’re sure about exactly what we are looking at.
Some examples of student work:
AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation

Week 5 | Class Challenges | Selecting, editing and presenting abstract ideas

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By now you should have generated plenty of images in response to abstract and formalist themes…

Man Ray Lampshade 1938

 

The Formal Elements

  • Line (horizontal, vertical, diagonal, thick, thin etc)
  • Shape
  • Form
  • Texture
  • Pattern
  • Colour

Ensure that you are incorporating the formal elements in your decision making process at all stages of the process…

Task 1

Exploring high contrast images with Keld Helmer-Petersen

 

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.

Click on the images for more…

 

 

  • Choose 4 x images of your own to work with
  • Edit the images using the THRESHOLD ADJUSTMENT in Adobe Photoshop
  • Add a “stroke” to the final image
  • Present your final images in a grid of 4 x square format

 

Original Image
Threshold Adjustment in Photoshop
Adjusting the threshold level slider
Cropping the image
Rotate the image if necessary
Finished image

  • Create a blog post that includes your experiments, including original images, edits and final outcomes
  • Include key information about Keld Helmer-Petersen
  • Add annotations to describe and explain your process
  • Critically evaluate your outcomes
  • Print your final design A4 to Photography Printer

Task 2

  • this task is designed to encourage you to explore Adobe Photoshop further and select areas of an image to reveal / conceal
  • You will begin to use LAYERS and LAYER MASKS
  • You will also use the 2 x OPACITY sliders

METHOD

  1. Open an image in Adobe Photoshop
  2. Add a new layer from the LAYER PANEL > SOLID COLOUR
  3. Reduce the opacity in the LAYER PANEL to reveal your image
  4. Click on the LAYER MASK (white box) in your LAYER PANEL
  5. Choose the brush tool from the TOOLBOX
  6. Adjust the size of the brush using the {} keys
  7. Check / adjust  the opacity level of your brush (top bar)
  8. Click on various areas of the image to create circular “holes”
  9. Using the opacity slider in the LAYER PANEL, bring the level up to 100%
  10. You have a completed image. Flatten the layers, save and upload.
  • Explore ways you can extend this basic idea
  • Create a blog post entitled “Conceal / Reveal”
  • Describe and explain your process and include visual evidence
  • Critically evaluate your process

Remember to use the model :

TECHNICAL -VISUAL-CONCEPTUAL-CONTEXTUAL

here are some helpful examples for you to work from…

Picture

Extension

Now you must carefully select from your images, including homework photo assignments to decide what you will present as a Final Outcome (AO4). You must look at a range of presentation methods, and show in a range of blog posts that you can…

  • sequence images
  • create diptychs (pairs) and triptychs (sets of 3 images)
  • design a grid of 9 x images (square format)
  • explore circular shaped images
  • juxtapose contrasting images

Deadline for final selection of printed images = Monday 15th October

Follow the 10 Step Process for each unit to ensure you tackle all Assessment Objectives thoroughly :

  1. Moodboard (AO1)
  2. Mindmap of ideas (AO1)
  3. Artist Reference / Case Study (AO1)
  4. Action Plan (AO3)
  5. Photoshoots + contact sheets (AO3)
  6. Image Selection (AO2)
  7. Image Editing/ manipulation (AO2)
  8. Presentation of final outcomes (AO4)
  9. Compare and contrast (AO1)
  10. Evaluate and Critique (AO1+AO4)
AO3 Record Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation, Homework, Unit 1 Abstract

Week 4 | Homework Task # 4

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Homework 4 | Practical / photoshoot

Due in WEDNESDAY 3RD OCTOBER (Week 5)

Minimum Expected frames/ exposures = 150-200 images

Choose from a range of camera skills that you have learned in Week 3 and 4 to complete a new photo-shoot…

We want to see that you can explore and extend your handling of

  • exposure settings
  • focus control
  • depth of field

INSPIRATION >>> choose from the following to inspire your ideas.Look carefully at the examples and aim to produce similar images that work well as a group…together.

1. Ralph Eugene Meatyard: 
‘No Focus’

Meatyard made his living as an optician. He was a member of the Lexington Camera Club and pursued his passion for photography outside the mainstream. He experimented with various strategies including multiple exposures, motion blur, and other methods of photographic abstraction. Two of his series are particularly concerned with focus and depth of field, both stretching the expressive potential of photography, film and cameras when looking within the ordinary world.

‘Zen Twigs’

2. Saul Leiter

Leiter was foremost a painter who discovered the possibilities of colour photography. He created an extraordinary body of work, beginning in the 1940s. His images explore colour harmonies and often exploit unusual framing devices – shop signs, umbrellas, curtains, car doors, windows dripping with condensation – to create abstracted compositions of everyday street life in the city. Leiter was fond of using long lenses, partly so that he could remain unobserved, but also so that he could compress space, juxtaposing objects and people in unusual ways. Many of his images use negative space, with large out of focus areas, drawing our eye to a particular detail or splash of colour.

“When we do not know why the photographer has taken a picture and when we do not know why we are looking at it, all of a sudden we discover something that we start seeing. I like this confusion.”
— Saul Leiter

3. Uta Barth

Uta Barth describes herself as an artist who works primarily with photographs. She is interested in drawing attention to the viewer’s perception and separating the image from the thing depicted. Her images can appear quite abstract, partly through the use of deliberately blurred information. In this film she describes her interest in “light, perception and this visual acuity to the mundane, fleeting, ephemeral, everyday kind of information.”
Throughout the past two decades, Uta Barth has made visual perception the subject of her work. Regarded for her “empty” images that border on painterly abstraction, the artist carefully renders blurred backgrounds, cropped frames and the natural qualities of light to capture incidental and fleeting moments, those which exist almost exclusively within our periphery. With a deliberate disregard for both the conventional photographic subject and point-and-shoot role of the camera, Barth’s work delicately deconstructs conventions of visual representation by calling our attention to the limits of the human eye.
— Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

You must:

  • Research the work of Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Saul Leiter and Uta Barth. How have they experimented with focus and depth of field in their work? Choose specific images to comment on in detail. You could also find other photographers who are interested in experimenting with focus effects.
  • Explore the effects of changing the aperture settings on your camera to alter depth of field. You could illustrate this with a series of photos of the same subject shot with different aperture settings.
  • Create a series of deliberately out of focus images. Consider the degree of abstraction in the final image. How out of focus are the subjects and are they still recognisable? Experiment with colour and black and white. REMEMBER TO USE MANUAL FOCUS AND THE INFINITY SETTING (MAKING THE IMAGE OUT OF FOCUS)
  • Create a series of images which explore dramatic depth of field (selective focus). Experiment with switching between foreground, middle ground and background focus. Remember, you will need to use a wide aperture (small number e.g. f2.8) and/or a longer lens for this. Remember to share all of the images you make (including those that you deem failures) in a gallery/contact sheet.
  • Curate your images into different groupings (see below). Experiment with editing the images in each set differently. Give each set a title and write a short evaluation explaining your editorial decisions.

Other inspirations

Examples of student work:

 

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation

Week 4 | Camera Skills | Editing | Analysing images

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Lesson 1 

  1. Check  homework  # 3 is complete and uploaded.
  2. Complete Case Study on Albert Renger-Patszch / New Objectivity

Lesson 2 :

  1. Camera Skills (focus control, depth of field, focal length)
  2. Photoshop skills

Lesson 3:

  1. Camera Skills (ISO / WB / Exposure settings)
  2. Photoshop skills

Lesson 4:

  1. Complete blog posts on camera skills / photoshop skills
  2. Analysis skills (look at key example)

 

Click this PDF link for a range of resources and that we will be exploring to help you generate new and different ideas whilst learning what ABSTRACT PHOTOGRAPHY can be and how to use your camera and adapt your photographs…

AS Photography UNIT 1 resources

Camera Skills

You must experiment with ease of these skill areas and produce a blog post on each that includes evidence of your experiments and successes…

The images should be of an abstract nature, and show an appreciation of abstract qualities such as line, shape, colour, form, texture, pattern, repetition, symmetry

  1. Using Auto-Focus
  2. Using Manual Focus
  3. Using focus points
  4. White Balance
  5. ISO
  6. Aperture
  7. Focal Length
  8. Depth of Field
  9. Fast / Slow Shutter Speed

Photoshop Skills

  1. Cropping
  2. Selections
  3. Adjustments and corrections
  4. Transforming an image
  5. Layer control
  6. Image size / canvas size
  7. Double exposures
  8. Opacity control
  9. Blending layer / options

 

Working towards a vision…

canon

 

Image result for canon camera control dial

Use this method to analyse key images

Rule of Thirds

camera-skills-jc

James Welling

Although these images, entitled ‘Abstract Photographs‘ resemble sheets of paper they are, in fact, made from filo (phyllo) pastry dough. The artist explains: “A lot of my work is intuitive and comes from just trying different things. With the money from the sale of my first aluminum foil photograph, I bought a wooden 8-by-10 camera and started photographing draped cloth. At the same time I was also photographing crumpled shards of dry phyllo dough. Without much premeditation, I combined the two, and sprinkled dough on the draped cloth. Against the dark fabric, the dough suggested, perhaps, torn book pages from the diary I’d photographed, or geological debris fallen from above.” Welling has also experimented with other unlikely materials such as tinfoil, gelatin and ceramic tiles.

Brendan Austin

Brendan Austin creates imaginary landscapes out of crumpled pieces of paper. He calls them ‘Paper Mountains‘. Austin examines what we mean by nature and the way humans have impacted upon it. “The isolated desert city running on oil generators, the mars like landscapes of a volcanic environment and the mountains made from paper all attempt to start a conversation concerning the loss of meaning and reality.” The resulting images appear both recognisable as landscapes but also suggest a sense of artifice. Humble materials are made to carry an important message.

Example instructions

You could:

  • Research the history of abstraction in photography. Check out the images on this Pinterest board. Watch this video discussion about the history of abstraction in photography. Watch this vodcast which explores some famous and not so famous examples of photographic abstraction.
  • Write a short introduction explaining your understanding of abstraction in photography.
  • Choose a quotation that helps you to think about the meaning of abstraction in art and photography.
  • Find your own resources and document them on your web page or in your book with a description of what you have learned from them.
  • Create a series of Galleries featuring the work of Francis Bruguière, Jaroslav Rössler, Vjeko Sager, Jerry Reed, Tamara Lorenz and James Welling including your understanding of their work in the context of abstraction.

 

 

 

AO1 Develop Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation

Go see !!! Exhibition : Lewis Bush “Trading Zones” !!!

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Lewis Bush (Archisle Artist in Residence 2018) is now exhibiting his recent work in response to Jersey’s financial past, present and future…

Please make the effort to go and visit a unique and well-researched show by a young, up and coming photographer and photo-book maker…

LINK TO LEWIS BUSH WEBSITE

MORE HERE

AO1 Develop Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation, Homework, Unit 1 Abstract

Week 3 Homework Task | The World is Beautiful

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Homework 3 | Practical / photoshoot

Due in first lesson of Week 4

Minimum Expected frames/ exposures = 150-200 images

Respond to Albert Renger-Patzsch 1897-1966

We will aim to expand our approach to photographing things around us…whilst responding to influential approaches in the development of modern photography.

Watch this…

By responding to The New Objectivity you will be able to classify a greater range of your images whilst learning more about the Formal Elements and Adobe Photoshop techniques including :

  • Cropping
  • Image Adjustments

Extension : Karl Blossfeldt (1865 -1932) vs Maholy Nagy (1895-1946)

Both photographers were revered for their objective approach to photography…and were re-known for applying technological approaches to creating their imagery.

thumbnail

Maholy-Nagy

Image result for blossfeldt photography

Karl Blossfeldt

Compare and contrast the 2 approaches by analysing a key example from each artist and responding with your own examples.

Try to demonstrate core skills eg :

  • Camera : Manual Focus (Blossfeldt)
  • Photoshop : Multiple exposure / blending options

Describe, explain and evaluate your process carefully.

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation, Unit 1 Abstract

Week 3 | Generating Ideas | Camera Skills | Using Photoshop

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Click this PDF link for a range of resources and that we will be exploring to help you generate new and different ideas whilst learning what ABSTRACT PHOTOGRAPHY can be and how to use your camera and adapt your photographs…

AS Photography UNIT 1 resources

Camera Skills

You must experiment with ease of these skill areas and produce a blog post on each that includes evidence of your experiments and successes…

The images should be of an abstract nature, and show an appreciation of abstract qualities such as line, shape, colour, form, texture, pattern, repetition, symmetry

  1. Using Auto-Focus
  2. Using Manual Focus
  3. White Balance
  4. ISO
  5. Aperture
  6. Focal Length
  7. Depth of Field
  8. Show Shutter Speed

Photoshop Skills

  1. Cropping
  2. Selections
  3. Adjustments and corrections
  4. Transforming an image
  5. Layer control
  6. Image size / canvas size
  7. Double exposures

 

Working towards a vision…

canon

 

Image result for canon camera control dial

Use this method to analyse key images

Rule of Thirds

 

 

 

 

 

AO1 Develop Ideas, Homework, Unit 1 Abstract

Week 2 | CCA Gallery Visits | Homework

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Here is the schedule for the gallery visits…

  • Mon 10th Sept = Class 12B (meet at 2.00pm at Reception with signed permission slip)
  • Wed 12th Sept = Class 12E (meet at 2.00pm at Reception with signed permission slip)
  • Fri 14th Sept = Class 12C (meet at 2.00pm at Reception with signed permission slip)
  • Tues 18th Sept = Class 12A (meet at 2.00pm at Reception with signed permission slip)

We will be walking to The CCA Gallery in Hill Street, St Helier to view this exhibition by Clare Rae in response to Claude Cahun’s pioneering work in the mid 20th Century…

ENTRE NOUS by CLARE RAE x CLAUDE CAHUN

 

Bunker.jpg

Homework Task 2

Due Week 3 | First Lesson

  • Write a short, visual critique of the exhibition
  • (Ensure that you have your own photographs of the work)
  • Choose 1 x key image by Claude Cahun to discuss
  • Choose 1 x key image by Clare Rae to discuss
  • Describe and explain what you see, feel and understand about the 2 examples you have chosen
  • How do you think Clare Rae has been influenced by Claude Cahun?
  • Discuss how well you feel the exhibition is curated, organised and presented

 

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation, Unit 1 Abstract

Week 2 | Contact Sheets | The World Is Beautiful

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Task 1

Create and publish a contact sheet (evidence of a photo-shoot)

Then develop and publish a blog post with the following…

  • Describe and explain what a CONTACT SHEET is…
  • Create a gallery / grid of images from a recent photo-shoot and upload to a blog post
  • Answer : Why are contact sheets useful / essential ?
  • Try annotating / colour coding / cropping / arranging your contact sheet to show the start of a selection process
  • Look at the examples below which include work by William Klein and Elliott Erwitt. Both photographers were known to include contact sheets as part of their final images as well as experiments.
  • Remember…you can Add your images to a Powerpoint, then convert to a JPEG and upload to the blog using JPEG File Interchange Format or try creating them as screen shots.

 

 

 

 

Task 2

Photoshop experiments based on your selections from your contact sheet

Layer Adjustments

Task 3 Practical / photoshoot

Respond to Albert Renger-Patzsch 1897-1966

We will aim to expand our approach to photographing things around us…whilst responding to influential approaches in the development of modern photography.

By responding to The New Objectivity you will be able to classify a greater range of your images whilst learning more about the Formal Elements and Adobe Photoshop techniques including :

  • Cropping
  • Image Adjustments

Extension : Karl Blossfeldt (1865 -1932) vs Maholy Nagy (1895-1946)

Both photographers were revered for their objective approach to photography…and were re-known for applying technological approaches to creating their imagery.

thumbnail

Maholy-Nagy

Image result for blossfeldt photography

Karl Blossfeldt

Compare and contrast the 2 approaches by analysing a key example from each artist and responding with your own examples.

Try to demonstrate core skills eg :

  • Camera : Manual Focus (Blossfeldt)
  • Photoshop : Multiple exposure / blending options

Describe, explain and evaluate your process carefully.