BLACKREDUCING OPACITY TO REVEAL IMAGEBRUSH TOOL>INCREASING HARDNESSCHANGING SIZE OF CIRCLESFINAL OUTCOME
Analysis
The process to create my final image was relatively simple to complete and is now something I can use more often in my work. I reduced the opacity in a way which the ‘concealed’ area of the photo became visible, but ensuring the ‘revealed’ was more prominent and vibrant to extenuate the colour of the pipes. If I was to do this exercise again I would have used a photo with more colour in order to create more contrast between the dark ‘concealed’ areas and the bright ‘revealed’ areas. I ‘revealed’ the area with the sharpest focus and most depth, for instance the bottom left hand corner had detailed rusting and was displayed well in the natural lighting. The texture of the picture varied between rust and cooper residue, which adds a sense disorganization which fits well with my ‘revealed’ circles because they displayed the areas where most is going on, not the tidier areas of negative space in the background. The pipes are all in 3D form, this adds more depth to the photo with shadowing as displayed in the bottom ‘revealed’ circles.
A curve, in image editing, is a remapping of image tonality, as a way to emphasise colours or tone in an picture. Changing the black point, grey point or white point of an image can dramatically affect the colours shown in an image. Below I have included some examples of where I have changed these points in different areas of the image to create different colour schemes in each image. I used an image of fire as it had many tones running through it that I thought may give good results.
As shown in these images, changing the black point, grey point or white point of an image can massively change the appearance of an image. The original colours of the fire (white, yellow and orange) were changed as I changed the tone points of each image.
I was less subtle with the editing process of these images, resulting in them looking highly unrealistic and obviously manipulated, however in doing so I produced some dramatic very images.
Ralph Eugene Meatyard lived in Lexington, Kentucky, where he made his living as an optician while creating an impressive and enigmatic body of photographs. Meatyard’s work spanned many genres and experimented with new means of expression, from dreamlike portraits—often set in abandoned places—to multiple exposures, motion-blur, and other methods of photographic abstraction. He also collaborated with his friend Wendell Berry on the book The Unforeseen Wilderness , for which Meatyard contributed photographs of Kentucky’s Red River Gorge.
My photos :
My edited work:
I took some of the photos which I thought could be used in inspiration of Eugene, and put a black and white filter on them. I then used the blur option until I got my desired look.
A curve, in image editing, is a remapping of image tonality, as a way to emphasise colours or tone in a picture.
Applying a curve to all channels of an image typically change the brightness. Light parts of an image can become lighter while dark parts of an image become darker, increasing the contrast in a composition.
Below I have shown examples of images in their original form as well as with two examples of the same image with different levels of contrast.
As displayed in these images, the higher the contrast the more dramatic the image. I took these frames of light reflecting on water at night to create natural contrast before the editing process to show how slight changes to the tonality of an image can drastically change how an image appears.
I could have further increased the curve of these images or perhaps even decreased it to give the images less contrast, however I felt it was most effective for these specific images to increase the curve sensibly to create realistic images rather than obviously edited ones.
In order to create this final piece I followed the instructions provided to me in order to achieve this conceal/reveal image which is composed of a photo which has a panel layer added to it. Then using the brush tool, i was able to achieve varying sizes of revealing circles that show the original photo. The final outcome is very unique and brings up multiple questions for the viewer of the image.
using the layer panel tool, i added a black, solid color in front of the original image.i decreased the opacity so that i would be able to see the original image and place the holes in the desired places.by increasing the opacity back up to 100%, the final image is produced.
ANALYSIS:
This is the final image which I produced from the conceal/reveal task. As the title suggests, much of the image is concealed with a black panel layer. It puts many ideas into the head of the viewer. What is hidden behind the black? Why did they choose to only show certain parts of the image? The revealed parts of the image all allude to different things. I chose to reveal the circular structure, central in the image because i felt that this would create a sense of pattern and unity within the image. It is the area of the image which draws the most attention. I kept the circles in a linear pattern as this creates flow and movement within the image. I did not want to decrease the opacity of the black panel as I wanted to retain that question in the viewers mind of, what is behind the concealed parts?
Coming through the glass is a very soft and diffused light which varies in intensity in different parts of the image, the bottom left hand corner being more strong and the top right more soft. The composition in this image is very simple and is purely made up of strong, symmetrical, repeating lines that come towards a singular point central in the image. There is a lot of geometrical patters that play together to create a very harmonious photo. The co lour range of this image is fairly simple, being mostly composed of soft grays, blacks and subtle blues. The photo has a warm hue to it as can be seen in the lighter areas of the image. The photo lacks any sort of foreground, mid ground or background therefore it is quite flat and 2D.
In order to take this image, I zoomed in, decreasing the field of view and increasing the focal length as it was quite far up and could not be seen clearly from a stationary position. I kept the ISO fairly low, at 400, as it was a bright day and i wanted to avoid overexposing the image. I used auto focus whilst taking this image as it is very flat and did not require much attention to get it in focus. I used a fairly low shutter speed due to the strong light coming through the glass, which prevented the image from becoming overexposed.
this image above contains three of my photographs that i edited with photoshop by adjusting the threshold of each of them.
This photograph is about a pink rose bush with a rose in the middle which is sharply focused and the background is mostly the green part of the bush alongside with the clear blue sky background, it was taken using the AV settings on the camera so that it focuses on the rose and the background is unfocused.
After using the threshold adjustment i put the threshold on almost midway to the left so that only the focused part which is the flower is white and the background is black.
this photograph above was taken indoors using a phones camera and the natural light from the window was used to create the shadows around the paper, the paper was made into a zigzag shape by hand to create that shadow effect.
the photo was already edited by phone quick photo editing, then it was downloaded on the computer and was edited with photoshop in which the threshold was adjusted to create an effect in which the shadows where black and the paper is white.
Keld Helmer-Petersen was a danish photographer who achieved a wide spread recognition in the 1940-1950’s, he was known for his color abstract photography. But in this project I focused on his black and white contrasting images. In his black and white photos there is a lot of empty space in the photos and he focuses on lines, texture and pattern. Petersen ended up opening up his own studios.
In this image Peterson has sued the natural light as the image has been take outside, but he has edited this image by changing the threshold and making the images more distinct with more empty spaces, shown by the block of either black or white in the image. The range of tone is limited in this image this is because of the way Peterson has edited his image and made it bold and simple. He also has a range of focus and depth in this image, the things at the front of the image are more focused and bold, but as you look further back into the image things become less clearer and less bold. Visually this image looks like a cold image because of the bold black areas taking over the photo, and the lines in all directions give it a chilling feeling.
I then decided to responded to Keld Helmer-Petersen’s work, I did this by using images I had previously taken and then editing them in Photoshop. When editing the images i mainly focuses on changing the threshold of the images, to either increase the amount of white or black in the image, and making the represent the work Petersen did.
I firstly started with the original image in Photoshop and took these steps in order to change the threshold.
I did these step for each of my 4 images, I then copied them all over onto one page and created a gallery of these 4 final images. These are my 4 final images.
Each of these images were originally taken in natural light. All images have a range of depth and focus. The image in the top left hand corner is mainly focused on the black blocked line across the upper part of the photo and them the majority of the image is in white, where as the bottom right hand image has many more white blocks in the images and there is no real focus in the image, but there is depth, the text is at the front of the photo and then the vague lines behind the text really show off the depth of the image.
After observing and analyzing the work of Keld Helmer-Petersen, I took 4 images that I think best suit the style of his work, and used Photoshop to mimic the silhouette-effect that he produces in his work, in order to respond to his work successfully.
The following images are the images that I decided were most like the work of Helmer-Petersen:
In order to give my images the silhouette effect, I used the Threshold option on Photoshop. The following images explain the process I used to achieve the image above:
Step 1) First, I opened the image that I wanted to use for the project. I decided on photographs that had clear boarders and contrasting colours, that way when i edit the image with Threshold, the boarders will remain more obvious.
Step 2) Next, in order to edit the image, I chose the image option on the top toolbar, and then selected Adjustments, and then Threshold. Clicking this option immediately opens the threshold level adjuster.
Step 3) After clicking threshold, the option to adjust the threshold is made available. By sliding the arrow left and right, the image changes from containing more black, to containing more white. I adjusted the image so that the outlines of the subjects were clear, but there wasn’t too much black in the image.
The image above is an example of how an image looks after the threshold has been adjusted in Photoshop. This editing tool is very useful when editing images to look like the work of Keld Helmer-Petersen, as it allows for the image to show as simply black and white, and emphasizes the shape and detail of the image due to it’s simplicity.
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.
