Category Archives: Unit 1 Abstract
Filters
Conceal / Reveal
THE PROCESS:
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.
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.
Albert Renger Patzch – The New Objectivity
Albert’s work primarily focused on the idea of making ordinary items into extraordinary pieces of photography. The majority of his notable work is in black and white giving a sense of drama to his pieces. Albert also published the well known book “The World is Beautiful” which documented his work focusing on subjects such as industrial subjects, mass produced items and natural forms. His work often features a small aperture allowing for the majority of the image to be in focus, creating a objective look to his photo’s.
This particular photo utilizes an organic subject as the photo includes rows of trees. The photo features a small aperture however due to the fog in the photo it gives the appearance of depth of field. It features strong contrasting tones between the thick white fog and the almost black trees.
Response:
Personal Favorite Images:
Final Choice: 
Keld Helmer-Petersen
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.
SAUL LEITER- BOKHA PROJECT
Saul Leiter
Saul Leiter was born December 3rd 1923 and was known as a color and black and white photographer from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Leiter was given his first camera at the age of twelve by his mother. However, Leither then went into art and was lucky enough to meet Eugene Smith who then encouraged Leither to become a photographer. He started taking color photographs in 1948 and began associating with other contemporary photographers
Leiter was then a fashion photographer from 1950- 1970 and photographed for Vogue, Elle and Nova.
His images explore color harmonies and exploit unusual framing devices which helps to create an abstract feel of everyday streets.
Leiter’s photographers ranged in focus. He tended to experiment a lot with depth of fields which made his images very interesting as every image is different. I think that Leiters use of colour with the different depth of fields helps us to identify the surroundings more as some of the depth of fields used completely blur the picture which can sometimes make it hard to identify what the picture actually it. After analysing his images i have also noticed that he liked to take his images through windows which is shown by the mist on the windows, the rain or the reflection.
Analysis
This is my personal favourite image from a selection of Lieter’s pictures as the use of taking the image through a window implies the weather of the picture without the picture explicitly showing you what the weather was like at that time, ie the dripping condensation and the writing showing that were Lieter is it is warm and where the primary subject ( the man) is it is cold, as well as the writing shows it is a window. The yellow colouring helps us to capture everyday life as the colouring is shown in the distance which could imply that it is a vehicle. The depth of field is focused on the mans top half in this picture and everything around that top half is blurred which makes the image very abstract as everything else in the picture is implied
Planning my photo shoot
For this photo shoot i have decided to take images of different colored lights in the town central. I think this will be a cool idea as using the Bokha effect will make the different coloured lights look really effective. This shoot will also take place at night to enhance the contrast between the bright lights and dark night.
Contact sheets
Best outcomes
The image i thought was my best out of this first shoot was this picture as i thought the range of colours in the picture is really interesting and it would turn out very well when edited.
Editing my pictures from this shoot..
When originally taking this image it was taken at night with no flash as i wanted to capture the range of colours. This helps the image successful as it made the colours even brighter in contrast to the dark sky. While planning my editing stage i planned to use Photoshop to change the brightness, colour balance, contrast, viberance and the saturation which would help me achieve my end goal.
When taking my images i used Canon EOS 1300 D and took all my images in Manual focus which helped me to create the Bokha effect. When taking the image i also used a high shutter speed ( 1/250), using the fast shutter speed under exposed the image due to the black in the image. However, this helped me to achieve my goal of having the color and the darkness of the picture contrast as there was not much light let into the image. I also used an ISO of 6400 which again helped the contrast between light and dark.
The visual aspects of the image are shown through the colors in the image which is emphasised by the tone of the overall light. There is not much texture in this image due to it being a 2D photograph. However there is a small pattern through the image with the way in which the blurred colors are shown. This pattern arrangement makes the image pleasing to the eye due to the selection of different colors which are very compact and help to contrast each other. There is no obvious rule of three in this image, however the right hand side is a little more focused than the rest of the image which could be identified as the rule of three.
End image..
I think this is my most successful picture out of my second shoot due to the image being blurred but the image still being viable, as well as me liking the range of colours.
Editing my picture from this shoot..
When originally taking this image it was taken at night with no flash as i wanted to capture the range of colours. This helps the image successful as it made the colours brighter in contrast to the dark sky.
When taking my images i used Canon EOS 1300 D and took all my images in Manual focus which helped me to create the Bokeh affect. When taking the image i also used a high shutter speed ( 1/250), using the fast shutter speed under exposed the image and emphasized the darker elements in the photo. However, this helped me to achieve my goal of having the colour and the darkness of the picture contrast which was going to be hard due to the amount of colour and lighting the subject of the image has but the shutter speed ensures that there was not much light let into the image and allowed the darkness of the night to still be shown. I also used an ISO of 6400 because the higher the ISO the more light is noticeable in the image.
The visual aspects of the image are shown through the colours in the image which is emphasized by the tone of the overall light. There is not much texture in this image due to it being a 2D photograph, as well as there not being much tone to the image due to the range of colours and the blur effect. I decided not to crop the image as i liked how the image overall looked and only wanted to focus on making the colours of the image more saturated as this was my main focus.
End image..
I think my most successful picture from this shoot is this image as it includes a lot of technical aspects and is very eye catching.
Editing the picture..
When originally taking this image it was taken at night with no flash as i wanted to capture the golden colour from the street. This helps the image successful as it made the colour brighter in contrast to the dark sky.
When taking my images i used Canon EOS 1300 D and took all my images in Manual focus which helped me to create the Bokeh affect. When taking the image i also used a high shutter speed ( 1/250), using the fast shutter speed under exposed the image and emphasized the darker elements in the photo. However, this helped me to achieve my goal of having the colour and the darkness of the picture contrast . I also used an ISO of 6400 because the higher the ISO the more light is noticeable in the image.
This image is very visually simplistic compared to my others and unlike the others doesn’t include high saturated colours. I think the simplistic of the edited white light adds small amounts of detailing to colours around the light as they help to contrast each other and makes the image stand out due to all the darkness around it. I think the rule of three in this image also helps to make the image more attractive and it engages the audience.
Best outcome
Photoshop Tecnique continuation with previouly eddited photos
Keld Helmer-Petersen: Response
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.
Uta Barth
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 successful technical elements. 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.
The visual 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 technical elements 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 visual elements 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 Board
My response to her work
2nd photo shoot
Editing my images
My final 3 outcomes
This image contains many technical elements. 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 visual aspects 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 technical elements. 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 technical skills 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 visual composition 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.
Keld Helmer-Petersen
Keld Helmer-Petersen
Keld Helmer-Petersen was a Danish photographer who achieved widespread international recognition in the 1940s and 1950s for his abstract colour photographs.
Helmer-Petersen was born and grew up in the Østerbro quarter of Copenhagen. He started taking photographs in 1938. At an early stage, he became aware of the trends in international photography; in the 1940s he subscribed to the US Camera Annual and in this period became familiar with German inter-war photography, which had developed at the Bauhaus and in the Neue Sachlichkeit (The New Objectivity) movement.
The international prospect and an interest in contemporary art and architecture contributed to the fact that at the age of 23, Helmer-Petersen, as one of the first Danish photographers, began to work with an abstract formal language. Inspired by the Bauhaus and Albert Renger-Patzsch, he published in 1948, the bilingual book 122 Farvefotografier/122 Colour Photographs. This was an audacious debut by an auto didactic photographer who wanted to assert the position of photography as an independent art form. Today, the book is considered to be a pioneering work in the area of colour photography.
Examples of his work
My Images (Unedited)
Process Of Editing
Firstly, I went on image, adjustments then threshold.
I then decided to play around with the sliders to achieve the photo below.
Then I decided to play around with brightness and contrast to improve the look of the photo.
My Images (Edited)
Here are my final four photos edited with the threshold effect. I really like how these images turned out because I think they are quite similar to Keld Helmer-Petersen’s style of photography. I really like this style of editing because it gives it a very unique and abstract feel to the photo.
Week 4 Work/homework
