Keld Helmer-Peterson was a Danish photographer who took abstract photographs. He was heavily inspired by Albert Renger-Patzsch and Aaron Siskind. This photographer took images of things like buildings, and edited his photos until the contrasts were very high. He published many books that contained heavily contrasted images, like the one below. He took the images in the books using cameras, and also bed scanners. All the images in the book are surrounded by a lot of space and sometimes even text.
My images
For my following experimentation, I have chosen 4 abstract images I have previously taken to edit on Photoshop. To edit all the images I have adjusted the threshold, by going to image then selecting ‘adjustments’. For each image I have then adjusted the threshold until i has satisfied that I had a heavily contrasted image that i was happy with. Below i have included screenshots of my process for each image.
The original image
My final image.
My second image
My final image.
My 3rd image
My final image.
My 4th original image
My final image.
My final piece
For my final pieces, I have attempted to create images like the ones Helmer- Petersen presented in his books. I think my images turned out very successful as they are very heavily contrasted and all the mid tones have also been removed. Because the paper I took pictures of was very scrumped, there were many different points on the paper that were illuminated by light, and other parts that were more shadowed. I think that has helped my images look very interesting after I had photo shopped them as there is a nice blend of both black and white on my final images.
Barth is a contemporary Photographer who was born in Germany and lives and works in Los Angeles. She focuses a lot on the nature of vision. She enjoys exploring the way humans see things, compared to the way a camera sees things. A lot of her work is purposely captured out of focus, and some of her work also creates a bokeh effect. This is when light appears in images in a type of spot formation, as it is not sharp and in focus. This means that most of her work is abstract.
Barth Mood Board
Analysing Barth’s images
This image uses a variety of successfultechnicalelements. For example, her image looks to be taken outside in natural daylight. This image is also very bright and almost unnaturally white. This could be due to many elements. For example, she could have used a high ISO making the camera allow more light into the image. She could have also used a slower shutter speed which would make the image look overexposed. Lastly, she could have also used a White Balance setting that made her image have a lighter tint.
Thevisual elements are also very interesting. Although the image is highly unfocused and not sharp its clear that the scenery the photographer was standing in front was very aesthetically pleasing. I like how this image has captured a bokeh effect, as it helps add a more interesting visual point to this image. I like the composition of the image because there are many successful elements to it. It is interesting how you can vaguely make out some distant buildings in the background, a long road with symmetric tyre tracks through the snow in the ground, and also some snowflakes falling in front of the lens.
Firstly, there are many technicalelements that make this image a success. The lighting in the image is interesting, it seems to be taken in daylight outside. This image is also very blurred, and not sharp or in focus. The ISO of this image seems to be quite high as the image is very bright, as due to the high ISO the lens is allowing a lot of light into it. As the image is very white it is possible that the photographer used a type of White Balance setting like daylight, for example.
The visualelements are also helpful when making this image successful. The color of this image is attractive to the eye because it is very white and plain, and the tonal contrast in this image is also very high due to the present black and white tones. I really like the layout of this image as the trees fill the entire frame in the background, and I like how the photographer has captured this image with random people in the frame.
There also may be an underlying concept in this image. The photographer has chosen to capture street photography in this unclear manor. She may be trying to voice her opinion on everyday life. Because she chose to capture the photo unclearly, she may be trying to portray life as being unclear.
Mood BoardMy response to her work
2nd photo shoot
Editing my images
This my my original, unedited image.
This is my final, edited outcome
This is my original image
This is my final, edited piece.
This is my beginning image.
This is my edited outcome.
My final 3 outcomes
This image contains many technicalelements. This image was taking at night, when it was dark. This helps make my image successful as it meant that the lights coming from the town were even brighter in contrast to the black sky. The image was taken using manual focus, which allowed me to purposely make it blurry in order to achieve the bokeh affect. The ISO was set at 12800. This helped make the lights in my image stand out even more because the higher ISO helps to make light more noticeable in the image.
The visualaspects of this picture are also interesting. This image contains a lot of light. All the colors seem to blend in together nicely, as they are similar shades and tones. This means that the photograph is very pleasing on the eye, as it all seems to go well together nicely. Because the photo is also blurry and out of focus, it has an interesting overall “soft” looking texture.
This image also includes many technicalelements. Like the other images, it was taken at night in the darkness as this helps to emphasis the small specs of light as it highly contrasts with the darkness. I also used manual focus on this, to be able to blur everything within the frame.
This image is very visually simplistic compared to the others. This is due to small amount of light captured. In a way, although there is less light, this image almost stands out more than the others due to the darkness surrounding it. I also cropped this image on Photoshop so that the object pictured was on the first third of the image. I think the rule of thirds helps to make this image more successful as it will attract more of my audience’s attention.
The technicalskills used to take this image really help to make is successful. To begin with, I took this image using manual focus, this allowed me to focus my lens on the rain drops, while creating the Bokeh affect in the background. My ISO was set at 6400, as it was dark outside, and I wanted as much light to be seen as possible. I also had an f/5.6 for this image. This helped let a medium amount of light it, and also helped slightly blur the background. The shutter speed was set at 1/60 meaning that it didn’t have much of a long exposure, which allowed the image to come out focused.
The visualcomposition of the photograph is also very interesting. The colors captured in the photo are very captivating, as they are bright and they stand out. This makes my image successful as it is eye catching, and will attract peoples attention. There is also a contrast in colors within my image due to the colorful lights and the plain, dark background. This further helps the colored lights stand out. The rain on the glass is also very helpful in making the light more prominent.
The next technique I will be experimenting with is a “kaleidoscope” technique. For this method, I will be duplicating and copping my image to reflect it 4 times to create an unusable visual affect, similar to looking through a kaleidoscope. Below are the steps I took in order to achieve my final image:
Firstly, I opened up my image so that I was able to modify it. First the changed the canvas size by doubling the width.
Next, I pressed Ctrl + t to be able to drag out the second layer that I had copied to create the image in the screenshot below:
Next, I also doubled the length of the image above.
I then repeated the previous steps and added another layer, the dragged it down to complete the picture.
Original image:
Edited outcome:
I really like the effect I was able to achieve using Photoshop on this particular photo. In my edited outcome the image has been reflected a few times. I think this definitely helps my image fit more into the abstract theme, as now that it has been manipulated it is a lot harder to tell what it is at first. I think this effect definitely helps the image become more pleasing to my audience as the image now has more of a symmetry to it, which perhaps makes it more attractive.
Here I will be experimenting how to make my images more abstract by using a Photoshop technique where I purposely cover most of my image, and then reveal selected parts on my image. I think this is a very interesting technique as it means that the photo will be a lot more mysterious as most of it will be covered.
Firstly, I chose the image I wanted to use. For my first attempt I chose this image that I took during the Martin Creed inspired part of the unit.
Next, I added a new layer, and I also added a layer mask so I was able to change the opacity on my layer.
I then ended up with the back overlay of my image, that looked like this. This the layer that I would be selectively getting rid of to be able to only view certain parts of the photo.
Next, I had to lower the opacity so I was able to see what parts of the image i was rubbing away.
Lastly, I rubbed out the parts of the image I wanted revealed through the black layer and when I was finished I turned the opacity all way way up to 100% again so it was fully black.
This was my final outcome. I’m very pleased with how this photo turned out for many reasons. I really like how the Black layer contrasts really well with the white paper. I also really like how the black layer meant that i was able to reveal the most interesting aspects of my image. I made sure that the most successfully scrumped part of the paper could be seen from a bigger circle than the rest so that the audience’s attention would be drawn to it first. I also made sure that part of a shadow could also be seen through a circle, as this is another successful contrast created in the original image.
White balance is a camera setting where you are able to choose the best colour setting for taking pictures in your location so you are able to get the colour in your pictures as accurate as possible. On my specific camera there were 5 different options; Auto, Tungsten, florescent, daylight, cloudy and flash.
Auto is the automatic mode where the camera will decide which mode is the best based on where you are shooting. Tungsten is mostly used to shoot indoors under household lighting, as it usually cools down a picture. I noticed that the florescent mode warmed up my images. Daylight mode makes your images have a fairly normal white type of filter. The cloudy mode made my images look similar, except it warmed it up slightly more. Usually when you take pictures using flash, it can make your images turn out quite white and washed out. The flash white balance warms your images up a bit more to reverse this.
When taking images using certain WB settings, its important to have the correct shutter speed. If its too slow, your images turn out too overexposed. This happened while i was experimenting with my images, as you are able to see from my contact sheet.
Here is a video which further explains White Balance:
Manual focus is a camera setting where you have to focus on things you’re trying to photograph manually. This means that objects will not be automatically focused every time you point your camera at it, like they are with auto focus. Although this may be inconvenient at some times, it a good setting to use if you are trying to capture still things where can can afford to spend some extra time trying to focus on it correctly. This setting allows you to be able to focus on different things in your location. As you can see from my contact sheets I firstly photographed fruit. With the manual focus, I was able to individually focus on different pieces of fruit by adjusting the lens. I was even able to focus on the background of my images, Meaning that the objects in front were completely out of focus. With this setting you are able to manipulate your audience’s focus when they look at an image.
As you can see, this contact sheet contains different variations of the same image. I didn’t move my camera but for each one i adjusted the manual focus so that it focused on different parts of the scene.
Albert Renger-Patzsch was a German photographer who was born on the 22nd of June 1897, and died on 27th of September 1966. He was well know for being involved in the “Neue Sachlichkeit” movement. This movement- literally named ” new objectivity”- consisted of artists taking images of more realistic things compared to Abstract and expressionism, which was common during these times.
The Claude Cahun and Clare Rae exhibition was very inspiring and interesting to visit. There were two rooms that made up this exhibition, one containing each photographers work. I think that was a very good way of displaying the images as it meant that each photographers work was separated and couldn’t be confused. By displaying the images in separate rooms, it also allows visitors to clearly see in influence of Cahun in Rae’s work.
images by Claude Cahun
Cahun took many self portraits that are considered very advanced for her time. Her images show her challenging gender stereotypes by sometimes presenting herself as a “typical” male, or by wearing so much makeup that it was difficult to tell which gender she was. She also explored her body and sexuality in many of her self portraits by posing herself in different manors. I thought that her work was very inspiring because it must have taken a lot of bravery and confidence to be able to take those types of images during very conservative times, when people weren’t accepting of things that weren’t considered “normal”.
I also really liked Rae’s work in the exhibit. I could clearly see elements of Cahun’s work included in Rae’s images. For example, the use of black and white filters on all her images to make them look old and vintage like the self portraits Claude took. Rae also took self portraits in which she used her body to interact with Jersey’s local environment. I loved how Rae’s work shows some similarities from Cahun’s, but instead she uses more modern day, sterile environments like offices and archives. I think this is really successful as the change of environments reflects the change of times from each era the artist worked during.
Claude Cahun’s images
This is one of my favorite images seen in the exhibit. It was taken in 1916, and in this image we an see a self portrait of Cahun herself leaning against a granite background, while staring into the camera with a monotone facial expression.
I really like the concept of this image a lot. This is because in the image she has her head shaved, which was very unusual for women during this era. I think this image is very powerful because it shows Cahun attempting to break gender stereotypes. This shows how far ahead of her time Cahun actually was.
The technical elements of this image are also very interesting. I like the lighting in it a lot as it means that everything in the image is clear view, and it is also in focus.
This is another on of Claude’s images. similar to the last one, it shows herself exploring her body and her identity. This image shows Cahun posed naked, with her arms also posed in a particular way while also wearing a mask.
A reason I really like this image is because again, like the last photo, it is really ahead of its time and not typical of the time it was taken in. I also really like all the tones and shading in the Picture, caused by the natural lighting.
Clare Rae’s work
This is a an image of Rae’s that stood out to me. I like this image because you can clearly see where she has been influenced by Cahun, in the filter and in the way she poses herself in the image also. But I also like the way she has made this image fit into 21st century life. The way she has modernized the image while still taken inspiration from a past photographer makes the image very appealing to a modern day audience. The way she has done this is by posing her body of a busy office table. I also like the way the background is purposefully messy as I think this could represent how busy and complicated modern day life can be.
This image taken by Rae is slightly more simple. I contains no extremely posed body language compared to the previous image, as instead of being lent over a table she is comfortable sitting on a window frame with her legs together, and her had supporting her body behind her. This image is very interesting to due to many aspects. The lighting of this image is very interesting and complements the vibe of the photo. I like the way the light is only coming in from behind her as it means the part of her body facing the camera is slightly darker and less visible. I think this helps add a sense of mystery to the photo. I also like how the lack of light in the image means that the photograph contains a lot of darker tones, which highly contrast the light tones coming from where we do see the light by the window.
Martin creed was born in 1968 in Wakefield, England. He went to The Slade School of Art in London for 4 years in the late 80s. He has done a lot of work, and many exhibitions all over the world. Along with being an artist, Creed is also a musician and has a band.
He mostly photographs simple, everyday items in very effective manors so that all his images look aesthetically pleasing. The specific pictures of his that I will be focusing on are the images of paper he has previously taken.
Creed currently lives, and works in London.
