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AO4 Present Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Identity: Final Ideas

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From the photo-shoots I completed for my identity project into how the environment of a child influences the development of their identity, I have decided on the following final images from each shoot:

In order to take physical inspiration from Murtha, I decided to edit some of my images so that they are black and white in color, which mimics the color scheme of Murtha’s work.

Final Ideas:

The above layout is made out of 6 images I have taken as part of my project. These images are heavily influenced by the documentary photographer Tish Murtha, and I have taken inspiration from her concepts and documentary style, while also using black and white coloring to emphasize the shapes and perspectives in the images.

In addition to this layout, I will be using the following as a second final piece:

And after the following image is printed, it will be physically sewn into to add to the layer of editing on the photograph:

 

 

AO4 Present Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Portrait images for final pieces

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Final piece images 

These are the portrait images that i am going to be using for my Photoshop final pieces . I have chosen these because they are simple and easy to blend well with other photos , they are crisp and in focus they have a sharp clean feel to them. The expressions are meant to represent what i want to convey with in the the images e.g confusion, sadness or misunderstanding.  I have chosen this background because it mirrors the geometrical buildings and wood that i am going to be blending the images with gives the images a background structural components adding depth to the images all so intrigue . The cool muted blue tones of the images complement the yellow of the wood sculpture i made for them to be combined with. Each image has a different  focal point depending on where the model is in relation to the border of the image. I have experimented with different image alignments where the model is not the in the direct middle of the photos but off center to the left or right. Theses images were successful and means that the wooden sculpture will fit into the original images well because it is also off center.

AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Identity FINAL PIECES + analysis

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This is the first image, in my somewhat series, of 5 final pieces. I chose to use this image as Katie is looking directly at the camera, however her facial expressions are not happy. I’ve chosen the phrase ‘I was only 8’ as my story started when I was 8 years old, and what I experienced shaped my identity into the person that I am today, 9 years later.

I took inspiration from Krugers editing but the ‘secrets’ told in Rosenfields ‘What I Be’ project. I personally feel this looked, visibly very effective because although the text automatically catches attention, the black and white image is also so strong and consequently very eye-catching.

In my second image I touched on how bullying/verbal/emotional abuse caused a loss of identity, and some of the questions that we ask ourselves when we do experience this.

who am i? 

what am i doing?

I broke some of the words up into separate boxes for separate letters, Kruger did this in one of her images and I thought it was interesting, I think it brings a lot of emphasis to individual ‘significant’ words.

In this image I’ve put the text ‘INVISIBLE WOUNDS’ across Katie’s eyes, I’ve done this because if something is invisible, you cannot see it, around Katie I’ve stated some of the serious effects that can be caused by these issues alongside the loss of a persons sense of self.

This final image is personally my favourite as even though it’s extremely personal to me, it does raise awareness on the issues that children and teens can involuntarily be forced to face, and all of these ‘invisible wounds’ are heavily stigmatised, causing young people to stay silent.

For this final edit I have chosen to use a photo of Katie at ‘the Bridge’. The Bridge is somewhere where children & families can access support, I thought this was appropriate for this image as in my text, I have listed places that young people can approach for help and support.

I thought that this was important to have incorporated somewhere in my finals because, not only do these issues usually require help, my story involved all of these people – another personal touch to my ‘identity’.

My final, final piece represented recovery and moving on.

In this edit I’d used the history tool to bring Katie back to colour, I did this because colour is often associated with happiness, where as black and white images are usually seen as depressing and sad.

I’ve written about what recovery can bring a person, for example; happiness, confidence and self-belief or self-worth. I’ve also written ‘tackling the stigma’ larger than the rest at the bottom of the image, this is because I feel that through my images I have tackled stigma.

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas

Identity & Place Editing (MOCK EXAM)

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first edit:

First I started by increasing the brightness of the original image to +20 and the contrast to +25. I thought this may give me more control over the darker and lighter areas when I came to adjust the threshold.

I then used the threshold option to turn the image into a heavily contrasted black and white photograph – inspired by Kruger.

A lot of parts of this image were black, and so I attempted to use the exposure settings to try and change this. I changed the gamma correction to 9.99, which was the lowest.

I then played a bit with the curves to see if I could lighten anything to bring out some detail, this was totally trial and error.

I finished by adding text, and the red border.

another edit:

I began editing this piece by using threshold, I tried to use the amount where you were still able to see detail on the wall and the trees behind Katie.

As this image was a lot happier, I did want some colour, and so I then used the ‘history tool’ which enables you to ‘colour’ things in to rewind them to their unedited, original state.

AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Identity: Photo-shoot 1 Final Selections

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Below is a gallery of the final images i selected fro  the contact sheets of my first photo-shoot:

In order to take inspiration from Murtha’s style of photography as well as her concept, I edited each image so that they followed her black and white coloring, and made a range of other edits in order to alter and enhance each image, the following images are the results:

The above gallery displays the images after the editing process. Some involved more editing than simply changing the color of the image.

The above image involved editing 3 different images together, in order to give the appearance that the cardigans in the background are floating on their own. This was done as a representation of loss, as both cardigans appear to belong to the generation before (grandparents). This editing was done in Photoshop using the following process:

I used the quick selection tool in photo-shop to select the cardigan separately from the background, and pasted this selection into the other image, therefore merging the 2 images. The same process was used for the second sweater.

Editing was also used to create different effects on my photographs, such as the following:

In order to create the final image from the above photograph, I used photo-shop and lowered the opacity of the eraser tool, and using different layers, created 3 versions of the subject, each one slightly more erased than the last:

The final image (below) takes inspiration from Murtha’s work through the color scheme and documentary style photography, while also keeping with the theme of the identity project (showing the development and change of a child as they grow and, literally, move forward)

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Final Portrait Photoshoot 1 + Image editing Ideas

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Action Plan

For my final photo shoot, I decided to feature myself as the main subject of the photographs and took photos in my garden and on my local beach where I have grown up playing football and socializing.  I Then met up with a friend in town and used him as a subject afterwards. We simply walked around the backstreet areas to capture images. I mainly focused on using available light sources such as shop fronts and Street lights however, in some scenarios I used my camera flash

In order for the first half of this shoot to take place, I had to take the photos from a distance. I therefore downloaded the Nikon Snap bridge app, Which allowed me to set timers and take photos directly from my phone via Bluetooth connection. I also used a tripod in order to hold the camera at a suitable height and to get a very stable, focused image. For the second half of the shoot, I simply held my camera and shot from different angles. I preferred this approach more as even though I captured more blurred images, I had more of a free range of movement with the camera and I was able to capture angles that a tripod simply wouldn’t allow me to

Below is a contact sheet from the shoot. overall, The night I chose to shoot on was a very stormy night, So a lot of my images contain a lot of noise and blurring. I have however, looked over all of the images to see if I can make anything out of the negative images due to the nature of my chosen area,  Fortunately I have been able to identify a few which can have some potential further down the line due to their composition obscuring the subjects identity

Contact Sheet

This is the contact sheet of my narrowed down images.

With the help of this contact sheet, I have been able to select images that I feel stand out for numerous reasons. Below are some of these images and my thoughts on them.

Image 1

I like this image due to the clarity of the subjects face. The solid purple background helps the neutral colors of skin tone and the subjects jacket stand out, Essentially drawing all of our focus onto the subjects profile and facial features. The image does need some cropping at the edges in order to ensure our entire focus is on the subject and not the garage door at the sides and top left of the image.

Image 2

I also particularly like this image. The photo was taken using a tripod and as a result of the environment, The tripod was on a slope explaining the angle of the image. This can easily be corrected using free transform in Photoshop. I like the composition of the images color due to my outfit consisting of neutral colors, similar to that of the breakwater I am propped up against, as well as the bright white color of my shoes standing out among these darker, neutral colors.

Image 3

This is also another personal favorite out of all my Images. I decided to utilize the lighting from a red LED shop window display. I asked my subject to step into the light and the result was an effect similar to chiaroscuro, with half of the subjects face being illuminated and the other half being left out of the light and in the shadows.

Editing Techniques

For my project, i have decided to focus on the idea of obscuring identity.I have decided that I will achieve this process through multiple editing techniques, exploring ideas of digital editing methods like pixelating, Blurring as well as physical methods such as taping and tearing. Here are a few demonstrations of my chosen methods demonstrated below.

Pixelating

This method is essentially using a filter from the filter gallery.  Firstly,  I have cropped the image down to remove the unwanted garage doors on the sides of the Image. I have then drawn around the subjects face  with the lasso tool, as this is the feature I wish to select for pixelization and Created a new layer out of it with the CTRL+J Function. I have decided to leave a bit of space around the face in order for the outermost pixels to fade into the background rather than towards the edge of the face, as this will also contort the face shape of the subject more if I do this and, arguably , The subjects face shape is quite a noticeable feature.

In the filter bar at the top of the screen, I have gone down to the pixelate function and selected mosaic, as this is a style of pixelation that truly represents the style I wish to Achieve

I have then set the Pixel square size to 70. This is not a set size and will vary from image to image dependent upon the composition of the element I wish to pixelate

Here is the final outcome of this process in the editing stage. As you can see, the majority of facial features are distorted but from analyzing this image, I have decided that In future I may enlarge the pixels in order to further obscure the identity of the subject and break up facial features further.

Blurring

I have decided to also incorporate features of blurring within this project. I will be focusing my work around 2 different types of blurring- Motion and box blurring, Motion blurring is a type of blurring that can occur naturally within an image by either moving the camera when taking a photo, Or photographing something moving with a low shutter speed. For my project, I simply just like the motion blur aesthetic so I will apply it through the motion blur filter interface.

I have repeated the first few steps from pixelation in the sense of isolating the area I wish to blur (The subjects face). I have then selected motion blur from the filter drop down and set the angle at 21 degrees, Meaning the blur is going across the subjects face horizontally and slightly vertically. The blur distance has been set at 169 pixels, As I find it matches the aesthetic I am trying to capture.

Here is my final outcome for the motion blurring. In other images, i may choose to blur the subjects whole body to give off a sense of movement which could portray ideas of a hatred of the subjects own identity or an element of being camera shy

Box blurring is a process that follows roughly the same procedure as all of the above editing techniques, However for this feature, I have decided I want to keep the subjects facial shape the same and instead, blur only the face in order to create a feeling of a lost identity rather than the need to conceal it.

I have selected the subjects face with the lasso tool and from that, created a new layer. I have then applied the box blur filter with a radius of 56 pixels.

I like the effect that is given off by this process, However I feel that the eyes and eyebrows are still very noticeable, So I have therefore decided that desaturating both the layer and the background can help to Hide this. By removing the color of the subjects face, He is now barely recognisable.

Here is the final edit for this process

Straight away you are drawn into the obscured features of the participants face, Features are recognizable such as the nose,mouth and eyes, yet they are obscured to the point where it is practically impossible to identify the subject behind the edit

AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Component 2 ESA, Unit 2 Portrait

Identity and Place – Practical

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Contact Sheet:

Final images:

Edited in: Photoshop + Lightroom

For this image I wanted to show a confusion and inevitable lack of identity, I did this by using multiple exposures in Photoshop and then using a large eraser (2500 px or so) with around a 20-35% brush hardness. Along with this, I used different opacity levels for many of the different layers, to make the image seem almost dream-like or as if it was happening inside the head of the subject, with the intention of the face furthest to the left to have different personalities or emotions. I wanted the image to have a different look than most other portraits in plain white/yellow light, and the pink hue added by the neon sign only adds to the image as it helps it look slightly unnatural/artificial.  There were a total of 9 different images used to add depth into the many faces, along with most of them using layer masks and using gradients to eliminate the edges, and then if an image was moved up or down, I used the eraser to eliminate any hard lines from either the top or bottom of the image.

Edited in: Photoshop

While I originally played around with the idea of digitally erasing parts of a subject like the mouth and eyes, however I found that this didn’t work in the way that I wanted it to, so I decided to use the lasso tool instead. For this image I used the Polygonal Lasso tool in Photoshop to select areas of the subjects face, then copied these areas and pasted them back into the image as a new layer, I did this several times on many different areas of the face as you can see above. I wanted to make the subject seem like a broken mirror, hence all of the layers are triangular and, for the most part, facing inwards like a smashed mirror. I did this to show the feeling of not knowing who you really are, similar to the first image, but this one is more about all of the ways we represent ourselves depending on who we are around, and how at a certain point you lose yourself when trying to put on these different faces for other people. To me, this image represents being lost and not really knowing who you, because you are trying to act differently around different people in your life, where as the first image represents a more internal struggle, and lack of identity because of focusing on too many things inside your own head.

Unsuccessful Images

Edited in: Photoshop

I also experimented with the idea of using mirrors but personally don’t really like how it turned out. I think that this idea could have worked better if I had found a larger, more open space, so you could see the depth of the image. I also think a different mirror would have enhanced the image as from this angle the mirror used doesn’t have and large edges; meaning it doesn’t look as much like a mirror compared to Laura Williams’ work, on which this image is based.

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Uncategorized, Unit 2 Portrait

Sculpture For my final exam images

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Sculpture to help with the image blending

For my final images I have created a sculpture that should inventory help make my I  mages have more depth and interest.  This sculpture is made from broken wood bringing in this running theme of industrialization and how everything is getting refurbished and we just have all this left over building materials.  My intentions for this sculpture that it was meant to reflect a head and  have the shape so that it will blend effortlessly into my images.  This wooden shape will also show the confusion of industrialization tho humans and how in effects key feature of there life such as there identity's and place of origin. The sculpture was made using off cuts of wood glues together with a hot glue gun. The sculpture is about the relative size of a head so should create a realist blend. I am thinking of blending a combination of these images to together with one image of a face  to show how mentally changeling change can be to a persons identity of there residence ( where they live). I also really like the idea of combining different kinds of media e.g sculptural and pictures I feel like it creates depth and a more interesting story to the photo because you can look at the image and see the whole work process behind it. Also adding a different rages of media lets be be more creative and it then can show through my final images.   

The artists work that I took inspiration for this work from was  Henry Moors work is all made from wood and created human forms through his work.
As a young artist, Moore was attracted to the principles of ‘direct carving’ and ‘truth to material’ which had inspired the great pioneers of modern sculpture, who in turn had been influenced by the work of masters from ancient civilizations on view in ethnographic displays across Europe. In his early career Moore adopted these principles uncompromisingly, creating quite experimental and innovative work in materials ranging from indigenous stones to exotic woods, a choice which declared his distance from the use of white marble typical of a tradition he was keen to reject.

After the Second World War Moore softened his position, to reflect his new belief that it was the idea, rather than the technique, that really mattered in art. Yet, while for many years modelling in plaster or clay and casting in bronze was his preferred method to make new work, he never completely relinquished carving. Having acquired a house near the famous Carrara quarries in Tuscany, from the early 1960s Moore took to work in marble and adopted more universal and timeless subjects, positioning himself within the great tradition of European humanism epitomized by one of his favorite artists, Michelangelo.

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AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

BARBARA KRUGER RESPONSE (experiment) FINALS

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‘I was only 8’

For my first edit I used a photo that was already quite dark, this was because I took this photograph as soon as I turned the camera on, the sun was only hitting one side of Katie’s face and therefore my camera was obviously on the incorrect settings, because the image came out extremely dark and shadowed, which I then tried to adjust while editing late on using the brightness and highlights settings.

‘forced to grow up’

I personally think that this photo looks a lot better as it wasn’t so close up and so I had more room to place bigger text surrounding Katie, I also took this image whilst sunlight was surrounding her, and so therefore, even before editing, the image was brighter and lighter.

‘you can’t have a rainbow,without rain’

As this image was a lot more positive, I chose to keep and enhance the colours, and use a brighter red background, I don’t think that this image looked as effective as it could have, this is because the coulors, although bright, don’t particularly go with each other nicely.

‘robbed of innocence’

I think that this image was the most like Krugers out of all of my experiments, this is because Kruger uses extremely heavy editing and there is a lot of black contrast, I have edited this image using the ‘threshold’ tool on Photoshop and this is something that I’ll probably take into the editing of my final images.