Category Archives: Unit 1 Abstract

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Mirror Image / Kaleidoscope Techniques : Symmetry and Repetition

For this task I decided to try the kaleidoscope effect on Photoshop

This is how I did it in steps:

  1. Open a new image
  2. Open a new canvas, set the width and length to 8 (inches) and set the ppi to 300
  3. Press Ctrl R on your keyboard then take the ruler from the top and put it in the center
  4. Drag your image onto the new canvas and then size it till it fits on of the halves off your canvas
  5. Next, duplicate the layer, then drag it to the bottom half of the canvas
  6. Rotate the image 90 degrees
  7. Edit your photo to your liking
  8. Save as JPEG

I really like how this turned out and I would like to use this technique in upcoming projects.

 

 

Final Images For Abstract

These are my final three images that I have chosen for printing.

Close Up of a Rose

This is my A3 image- I picked this image as I liked the contrast between the different shapes and lines. I also like that the background is a light colour and the rose in the center is a dark blue.


Close up of a Plant

This is my A4 Image – I picked this image for the A4 as I thought it was a good example of an abstract photo due to the lines and different shapes formed in the image. Also because half the image is in focus whereas the other isn’t.


Eiffel Tower

This is my A5 image- I picked this image as I liked the contrast between the light colours of the Eiffel tower and the dark colours of the background.


 

Final Images

A3 image – I piked this image as my final images, as it is showing my Photoshop skills and also the contrasts between the light and dark colors along with the different shapes made by the clouds make it different and interesting to look at. By putting together two similar yet highly different images created an abstract image for me

A4 image – this image shows my camera skills in the sense of being able to use manual focus, to only focus on one small tiny part of the photo. Also I like the way this photo came out.

A5 image – again this images is showing my ability to focus on one primary subject in the photo. I like this photo because of the sharpness of the branch, and the highly blurred background created by using manual focus.

Uta Barth

Uta Barth is a contemporary photographer, who lived and worked in California. Her photographs weren’t about seeing  the sharpness and clear images within her photos. She made all the images and shapes within her photo merge together. As photography was mainly about pure visual and seeing what was in the photo, but Uta Barth changed this and her photographs were a sense of art and the viewers ultimately depend on the visual to understand the photo. Her work makes people view her art more than once to understand and appreciate the image.

At first glance this image seems to been taken in a bad way and very simple. But this image conspires with the human eye, to figure out what we are looking at. This photo was taken in a simplistic way, but almost amazes me that an image can look so interesting out of focus. The natural lighting in the images gives the walls a yellowy town to it, the colors in the images are very earth orientated, shades of browns and yellows. When looking at this image, it calls the attention of you to really figure out what the subject of this images would’ve been, its surrounding and the meaning of it. 

In all of Barth’s work there is little human interaction in them, this is because she says it removed the focus away from the entire photo, as people would play more attention to the clothes they are wearing and using people automatically gives them an identity due to the way they are looked and used in an image, which can overall change the whole subject of the image. The blur theory throughout her images it to make all the objects equal and universal, which meant viewers could pre-judge what they were seeing in front of them. Using a blur makes the viewer question what they are seeing. The story behind her images, it telling people that the world that surrounds us isn’t just a background and scenery, it is equal to us and is as important as us.

When planning for this shoot I had to take into consideration, lighting, camera settings, location and the concept and context of the photos I was going to take. I took into thought about showing the pureness of our surrounds, so I began to focus on focusing on natural shades and tones, such as white and green. The white would represent the pureness and righteous of the world and the green would show the nature of the world.  The two colors would work well together, as the white would make the green standout, as it would give a pop of color in the pictures.  Then also having my images out of focus it would merge together the two colors, making them equal to each other. These are a few photos I came out with from this shoot;

The difficulties I had in this shoot were trying to get the camera settings on the right format. I used a manual setting, with a wide lens, I has a low ISO of 100 or 200 and a slower shutter speed of 1/4 or 1/8, this is so I could let more light into the photo, which made the white become brighter in the images. I adjusted my lens to get the images to be out of focus so the color and shapes could merge together and become equal to each other, this is so that there wasn’t just one center subject of the photo, the whole photo was the main attraction as you had to figure out yourself the meaning, the point and what was actually in the photo.

The second part of my shoot, I focused on using the outside and natural light along side with the natural settings. For this part for the shoot I kept the same ISO but changed the shutter speed to 1/32, this is so you could see what was in photo more clearly, so you could get more of an outline, because if the shutter speed was too slow the photos would of come out white. I photographed the things closer to the camera in focus with the rest of the background and surroundings out of focus. This gave the photo a primary focus, but yet it was showing the shapes and colors of our surroundings. I decided to put in focus something simple, which people don’t see as equal to us. These are my photos from the second part of the shoot;

The struggles I had in this part was focusing on one main subject, and not getting everything in or out of focus. Also having to find a simple main subject for the images was a challenge, but looking at some of Barth’s worth gave me inspiration in what to use and focus on.

Overall, this shoot was a chance for me to learn about a new photographer but also learn different ways to photograph images and that all images don’t have to be in focus and that they can have any meaning you make them have.

ABSTRACT – FINAL IMAGES

I will select my best photo outcomes to print onto A3, A4, A5. I will search through the entire abstract project and select the ones that look visually interesting and show my  photographic skills. Researching many photographers has helped me to capture abstract images in a variety of different ways in order to replicate their style.

A5

These images are responding to  Albert Renger Patzsch photography work. I captured 100 or more images in black and white to replicate his style. I took the pictures using the Hipstamatic app on my iphone with the lens Florence and the film BlackKeys XF. The lens captured images clearly and the film made them black and white instantly. After taking 100 images I made a selection of 12  to make a 4X3 grid. I selected images with either lots of shadow or highlight so when they are placed next to each other, all the images on the grid contrast and stand out.

A4

These 2 images are responding to Jon Setter’s photography work which mostly focuses on urban space. To replicate his style I payed attention to colour and texture to create man made spaces into geometrically satisfying compositions. Photographing a different perspective helped me get the results I wanted to create abstract images. I took around 100 images and selected 2 from the contact sheet. Then on photoshop I edited the two images by increasing the saturation and contrast to correspond to his vibrant style. This created bold and sharp images to emphasise the formal elements. When capturing the images on my camera I made sure to increase the aperture so my depth of field would be greater and my images would have a sharper background. I selected these two images as they both greatly contrast each other through their different colours and textures.

A3

This image was inspired by Uta Barth. She is interested in light, drawing attention to the viewer’s perception and separating the image from the thing depicted. Although her images are blurred, they appear abstract. Uta Barth has made visual perception the subject of her work. She carefully renders blurred backgrounds, cropped frames and the natural qualities of light to capture incidental moments. I decided to use the blurred sunset image inspired by Uta Barth because of the soft blend of unfocused colours surrounded by the sharp, vibrant sun. I chose this image to be printed A3 since most of Uta Barth’s photography work was printed out on a large scale to create a huge impact on the viewer.

Unit 1 – Abstract Final Images

Unit 1 – Abstract Final Images

Approaching the end of the Abstract Unit, we are choosing our final images to sent off and printed professionally so that we can mount and display them ourselves. To choose my images I went through my most successful photos and selected the best. After this I edited them if they needed to be edited and also dividing/putting the images together. I also changed the image sizes and resolution so that my images would look the best they could. High Resolution JPEG files (4000 pixels on height).

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

A3

For my A3 print I wanted to do use an abstract photo of an orchid which I took as part of the aperture task. I edited the image in Photoshop to make it black and white and also zoomed in. I decided that just the image on its own was not enough so I divided it into 3  equal vertical sections.

This is my A3 Final Image.

A4

For the A4 image I wanted to use a photo from my summer task because I thought they were good. I used a zoomed in picture of a spill of coins with water droplets over them. I cropped the image and zoomed in a little bit more. I thought the image on its own was enough so I decided not to split it into sections or add more than one image.

This is my final A4 image.

A5

My A5 print is of a picture from the colour and texture homework. I wanted to include some colour in my final images so i used this one because the colours are very vibrant.  Also I think the contrast between the ripped cardboard and the smooth paint is interesting as they juxtapose each other.

This is my final A5 Image.