I have finished my Zine, which I designed in indesign.
This is the front cover, which I made in Photoshop, by using text on a path the follow the same curve as the cars roof, so that the text was parallel to the car, as it look asteycilly pleasing. I used the same blue as the car against the black background to create contrast so the text is easy to read. And I used some blending options to draw attention to the text by making small adjustments to the bevel, stroke, and the inner shadow.
Im starting the zine off with these two images of old cars. I made my favourite image larger by making it full bleed. This works as the cover image is the same as the image on the right, however it is zoomed in more. I have set the theme with the cars which allows me to shift the focus to the newer cars and mechanics and their work place.
I used an image of a slightly newer car to create a small juxtaposition to the older cars before. Then I used a set of three images of mechanics and people working in garages, so that I can include and introduce a sense of human emotion and charisma into the zine. By having these images on this double page spread allows me to have a double page spread next on both the topics of new cars and mechanics.
I used a double page spread to end the juxtaposition of time with in the images of cars. It is also a double page spread as it includes both the topics of cars and mechanics. I made sure that the number plate wasn’t in the middle of the double page as that’s where the gutter would be and it would have been cut off.
I used these images of street art to shift the focus from cars to more of a general view of the streets and lanes, to personal items. I used the colour orange to link the images on the previous page, as orange is the main colour of the sports car and also the graffiti in the right image.
I used all the colourful colours from the previous page to link to the vibrant colours of the different shoes on the window sill, which is an example of multiple items that being to a person or people. Then the full bleed image of a single object in a staged setup, that shows that there is a lot going on in one photo.
The group of 4 images represent the busy, crowded, chaotic town centre. I used a nicely framed image of a restaurant sign to link the candid image of the man outside a coffee shop. Then since I used a person in the last image, I chose that as the link to the street performer and the man carrying the bags over his shoulder. Then to create a contrast, on the right page I included more negative space. I did this by using a smaller image of a ladies face framed through the fences, with a larger image of an elderly mans face, which gives a more personal feel.
I wanted to include some black and white images so I thought that now is the right place as the pervious page has concluded the images where the subject includes people, however I used a image of people to continue the flow. I made the image on the left have white borders to emphasis the mans white shirts, which also gives the man in the black t-shirt contrast as they are at different levels, and it brings out his face as he is against a dark background. It also allows me to make the image with the pigeons full bleed as it is a visually strong image and shows motion.
I wanted the back cover to end with a simple abstract image. I chose this image as it continues the black and white trend and is complex and interesting as the light from the skylight shows the details on the banister. It could show the journey of Jersey and the history of Jersey since it was taken in the Jersey Museum.
Overall, I am happy with the outcome which I have come up with, as there is a clear path of progression throughout the zine, which is not normally my usual work style, as I prefer to come up with 1 unique image or images that aren’t related. I have also created some very visually strong image and I am proud that I was able to include them and link them to other images that aren’t necessarily as strong.
All of these examples look factor in, how they want the design to look and feel. The format, size, orientation, narrative, and visual concept. The all have good rhythm and sequencing, with text as well as images, including a title and captions.
We made the zine in Adobe InDesign, following these instructions to set up the document:
Following these instructions, I made a concept of the layout based off the paper copies I made with my printed out images.
changed
changed
final arrangement
I decided to move and rearrange some images to create space for some more full page image. I like the combination of the 4 all together, as the share a similar link. The top 2 are shops, and the bottom 2 are people working.
I arranged the zine to smoothly change the subject focus from old cars, to new cars, to mechanics, to personal belongings, to street photography of work places, then to half/full body images of people, to close ups of people, then into the final black and white images.
THE FRONT COVER
I decided to use Photoshop to create the front cover as it was easier than trying to do it on the zoomed in image of the car.
First, I used the pen tool to mask a path for the text to go on. I made sure that the path was parallel to the edge of the car, then used a old styled font to keep the old theme consistent.
Overall, I believe that this is the best layout as there is a smooth, consistent flow between images, which tell a story without using any words. I have experimented by changing a few pages and rearranging the layout to come up with the final design.
STORY: What is your migrant community story, for the St. Helier shoot? Describe in:
– 3 words, A migrant community. – A sentence, St Helier Jersey’s migrant community featuring workers and cars. – A paragraph, This shoot represents the working people of St Helier, and their belongings, such as cars and houses. It also displays key features of the town itself.
NARRATIVE: How will you tell your story?
These are some common examples that people use to tell a story:
– Images > new photographic responses, photo-shoots – Archives > images from SJ photo-archive, family album, mobile – Texts > letters, documents, poems, text messages
However, I will only use images I’ve taken. This is because I feel that they tell their own story, as I’ve arranged them into a sequence which allows there to be a flow which guides the viewer through the images and tells a story.
AUDIENCE: Who is it for?
My zine will be aimed at anyone who lives in Jersey, but most specifically, St Helier. Plus, It also helps if they are 14+ as they would understand the images in more depth and detail, making it more impactful for them.
However, most image makers tend to overlook the experience of the viewer. Considering who their audience is and how they may engage with your photo-zine is important factor when they are designing/ making it.
SEQUENCING THE CONTENT – 20 images
I decided not the include any images from the archive as I have taken images which juxtapose each other. Such as, the old blue Morris Minor and the red GTI Golf. This helps tell a story and emphasise differences or similarities between the cars. I will also include other methods such as “zooming out” to create similar effects.
THEME OR STORY
The front cover will be made from a zoomed in image from one of the car photos, as it is one of the main themes.
The start of the zine will contain images related to mechanics and cars. Some of images of the cars will juxtapose each other. New vs Old. The 2 images of the old car images will be full paged on the first 2 pages, as they are major establishing shots.
Near the start of the zine there will be a double page spread images of a new, modern car, which symbolise the new technology and the way forward.
There will be a 2 page spread of just street art, both the images will be full page, and both include vibrant colours, which adds a lot of colour into the project.
For the shots of the people, I will start off with 4 multiple shots one one page, of 2 street photos, then 2 full body shots, then transition into head shots and images of peoples faces.
At the end I plan for there to be images of the actual town, such as the pigeon shot, and the scaffolding and the staircase in the Jersey Museum.
I have arranged it so some images juxtapose each other and zoom into each other, creating a smooth transition between images. Most of my best images will be full page as you see a lot of detail when its bigger.
Francis Foot was born in 1885, he is from Jersey, he was the son of Francois Foot (1847-1918) and Louisa Hunt (1843-1934). His father Francois was a china and Glass dealer in Dumaresq Street, at a time when the area was one of the more affluent in St Helier.
Foot started his working life as a gas fitter. However, he soon became fascinated by photography and the early phonographs and gramophone records and realised that he could earn a living from them.
So the family took on a second shop in Pitt Street, where Francis worked as a photographer, while his father and mother sold gramophones, records and other wares in Dumaresq Street. After his father’s death, Francis concentrated his photography business in Pitt Street.
Mood Board
I found the images from Google and Jerripedia. As you can see Foot is focused on event photography and portrait and photographing people.
Analyse – Margaret with Dora and George
This photo was taken by Francis Foot at 13:25, its called Margaret with Dora and George and it was taken in 1920. Foot has taken an image of what looks to be a mum with her two children. Foot used the background of a forest to contrast the white clothing of the children. To make them stand out, perhaps this shows how important the children are to the mother. The simple pattern of the clothes, juxtaposes the texture of the leaves and the trees, which reflects on how simple life used to be in the 20th century. Other than that, it is a basic family portrait.
How do archives function as repositories of knowledge?
An archive is a collection of historical documents/records which provide information about a place, institution, or group of people. An example of an achieve is Jersey Archives, starting from 1993 Jersey Archive has collected over 300,000 archival records and, it is the island’s national repository for holding archival material from public institutions as well as private businesses and individuals. The Jersey Archive can offer guidance, information and documents that relate to all aspects of the Island’s History. Although, the most common reason for using an archive is to settle legal claims, clarify family history, they are also extremely helpful for historians, filmmakers and authors, as it gives them a sense of the way’s things were.
Archives collect primary source materials such as student newspapers, yearbooks, directories, documents related to groups and organizations, photos, and art pieces. Archives are mostly organised into fonds. A fonds is the entire body of records of an organisation, family, or individual that have been created and accumulated as the result of an organic process. Each fond is kept separately from other fonds to prevent the records from becoming disorganized and mixed up with other information, which would mean that they become inaccurate.
Société Jersiaise, is a photographic archive with a collection of 100,000 images dating from the mid-1840s to the present day. It was founded in 1873, for the study of Jersey archaeology, history, natural history, the ancient language and the conservation of the environment. There are approximately 35,000 historical images in the photographic archive are searchable online. Société Jersiaise also have an extensive library with access to may publications and records relating to the island’s history, identity and geography.
William Collie was born in Skene, Aberdeenshire, Scotland in October 1810. He stared his creative career as a professional portrait painter. Later he moved south, to St. Helier, Jersey in 1841, where he had a portrait business. He became one of the earliest photographers working in the Channel Islands, operating from Belmont House, St Helier. In the late 1840’s he made a series of genre calotype; which is an early photographic process in which negatives were made using paper coated with silver iodide, portraits depicting ‘French and Jersey Market Women’ which were well received by the photography critic of the Art Union (1 June 1847) who compared them to the work of David Octavius Hill, who was a Scottish painter, photographer and arts activist. These studies were later exhibited at the London Great Exhibition of 1851.
The Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive lists 157 photographs by William Collie. Although none of them are available to view online, due to copyright. However, you can still see them on some websites. The vast majority of the 157 images listed on the Société Jersiaise website are portraits, but there are four pictures of Jersey scenes which, if the information in their records is accurate, they are of, the church of Scotland (Not Jersey), Mont Orgueil Castle, houses on Queens Road, a granite, thatched cottage. One of his most famous portraits listed on the Societe Jersiaise website is of Elie Jean Filleul, who died aged 102 in 1851. From these images we can gather information about the history of St Helier, by using old images of streets and buildings. Also, we can identity the fashion and lifestyle in the 19th century.
William created his images using a photographic process called calotype, also called talbotype. Calotype comes from the ancient Greek word “beautiful” and “impression”. It is an early photographic process introduced in 1841 by William Henry Fox Talbot, using paper coated with silver iodide, once its dried it is floated on a solution of silver nitrate in a dark room, which forms a photosensitive silver chloride compound on one side of the paper. This is then dried and ready to be exposed to light. When exposed to light the silver chloride darkens, creating a negative image. Which is made to make multiple positive prints simply by playing the negative onto a sensitised piece of paper and exposed to light.
Elie Jean Filleul
Collie’s image contains a good, high contrast as the highlights are bright and the shadows are dark. This is a good aspect to have in portrait photography as it defines facial features. Collie’s image is very clear and sharp even though it was taken in the 19th century. It contains highly detailed textures and patterns; this is due to the fact that it was processed in a dark room using multiple chemicals. This is why the edge is overexposed and has the fading look. Collie’s has positioned the subject in the centre of the frame to draw attention to them, which is an important aspect in portrait photography. By including props, like walking sticks, bowls in the background and a child, it creates a scene and a story which relates to the person being photography. We can tell by the image that the subject is of age due to a beard and the walking stick. This juxtaposes with the child on their lap.
In conclusion, archives are a good repository of knowledge and historic information, they are a good way to reflect on the past, as the contain historic photos and documents which can be compared to the present day. This shows a comparison of what life was like and how it has changed. The photos from the archives can help develop my project, as it displays different cultures and communities, which I can juxtapose to the current day and show how much they have changed. I can also use the archives to get photos to compare past and present buildings, this creates a comparison which shows a positive outcome.
We went on a walk around the Merchant Quarters, and took photos on our walk.
Route 1: Merchant quarter around St Helier Parish Church > Royal Sq, Library Pl, Bond St, Broad St, Mulcaster St, Hill St, Snow Hill, La Motte St, Colomberie > follow onto Ann St, Hillgrove St (French Lanes), Wesley St, Ingouville Pl, Belmont Pl/ St towards Minden Pl, Rue de Funchal walk towards Val Plaisant towards St Thomas Church.
Editing in Lightroom Classic
I imported all my photos from the walk into Lightroom Classic, then used the P and X method to filter out the good/bad images.
Example
This is an example of my editing process using the 2 images of the old cars.
BEFORE AND AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER
For this edit, I wanted to show how simple life was in the old days without technology and other distractions. I started by removing the detail in the background where the door was. I then removed the modern lights on the wall with the spot healing brush, as they conflicted with the old car, as it is the main focus. I used the adjustment brush, to create a mask on the background then brought the shadows, and blacks down to make it completely black, to create a simply composition, made from the white wall, black background and the car.
BEFORE AND AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER
I used the same process as the other car image, so they would match in a collection. Then I used Photoshop to edit the chain out of the photo, as it was distracting.
Editing a monochrome image
I made this photo into black and white to add more mood and make it more serious. The composition of the subjects is good as they are at different heights. It would of been better if they swapped places, so it wasn’t black on black, and white on white.
Final Image Selection
Meaning of the colours: – Green = Good – Yellow = Medium – Red = Bad
All the green colour coded images are the final images, and will be displayed below.
Final Images
Analyse
Overall, I like how my images turned out. Most of the images were colourful, and used different techniques.
The street art image was taken using my phone as a reflection, so that way I didn’t have to include all the people walking on the pavement. Instead, it created a unique reflection.
The restaurant and the portrait of the lady, were both using the framing technique. It helped removed unnecessary features and it leads the eye to the subject.
I really like the images of the cars. I was able to accomplish the simplified style I was going for by darkening the shadows, and removing modern light. the teal/light blue car really stands out against the white walls, and dark floor and background.
Dana Lixenberg (born 1964)s a Dutch photographer and filmmaker. She lives and works in New York and Amsterdam. Lixenberg pursues long-term projects on individuals and communities on the margins of society.
Her most recent project is called “Imperial Courts”, and was made between 1993-2015. It is a project about Imperial Courts, a social housing project in Watts, Los Angeles. The project contains work made over a period of 22 years and consists of a book, exhibition and web documentary.
“Austere and involved perspective” was her style as quoted by Muse Magazine, by one of her most great supporters.
Mood Board
This images were constructed from Dana Lixenberg’s website in the Portrait section.
Firstly, Lixenberg has positioned her subject in a way which creates a moody composition. The subject, isn’t making eye contact , which signifies anger and wanting to be alone, to not talk to anyone. The subject is also slightly leaning forwards to create an engaging pose, and he has his body and shoulders slightly away from the camera for a more natural feel.
This image was shot in natural daylight, so the subject is well lit. It is most likely a overcast day, as the whites in the image aren’t overexposed, and there are shadows on the subject face, which helps to create depth and define facial features.
Lixenberg used a low aperture e.g. f/1.8 and focused on his eyes, to completely blur the background which helps keep the focus on the subjects face. It also slightly blurred the subjects jacket as well, which created a distinction between his chin and the jacket has they are of similar colour. The background is a good choice, as is completely white, which draws attention to the subject.
Lixenberg, probably used a 50mm lens as the subject fills up most the frame. She was close to the subject to get a sharper image. The reason why I think she shot with a 50mm lens, is because anything over 50mm it can make the subjects facial features seem flattened, and anything under 50mm creates lens distortion.
Overall, I like the aesthetic which Lixenberg was going for. I think it is a great image, and an interesting subject. The detail in his hair and beard help create a unique composition to demonstrate mood. The black and white effect makes us pause and look closely. Removing colour from a picture helps the viewer to focus on a subject’s emotional state.
Links
Imperial Courts introduction video made by Dana Lixenberg:
A great supporter of Dana Lixenberg’s “austere and involved perspective”, he was the first in the United States to publish a portfolio of her Imperial Courts series
I will plan a shoot in her style in a separate blog post. Where I get up close headshots of people using a low aperture, and a 50mm lens. I will ask people in town with interesting facial features.
The exhibition is based on the fact that, “Every Jersey resident has a story of how they come to be living in the Island, whether their family came here 500 years ago or five years ago. ‘People Make Jersey’ explores some of these stories and the ways in which immigration has shaped and influenced the Island we know today.”
The oldest items in the exhibition belonged to Jersey’s first permanent settlers, who arrived around 7,000 years ago. The created basic stone tools and lived in a sheltered place where they could plant their crops and raise their families.
Picture of tools, Jadeite polished stone axe and ring. These would have been brought into Jersey from mainland France around 6,000 years ago.
It then follows the waves of immigrants who have arrived in Jersey over the centuries. Some of the people were religious, which introduced different cultures and beliefs into the island.
There was an glass display island in the exhibition which displayed lots of passport type cards. These were the Aliens registration cards, which show lots of French people living in Jersey in 1920.
There were also some residents from much further afield. Jersey in 1920 was a surprisingly international community. E.g. Belgium, Toulouse, and Czech Slovakia.
There was a wall which featured the current generation holding there ancestors registration cards, this was a good way to visualise the different cultures in Jersey and its history.
Near to the registration cards, there was a map on the wall, which mostly focused on France. It showed where some of the popular surnames originated from. In the old days the surname just meant where you were from, e.g. John Coutanche, who was from Coutances, France. These are all the names and places displayed on the map :
UK – LANGLOIS from England – LE GALLAIS from Wales – HAMPTONNE from Southampton
FRANCE – DE CARTERET from Carteret – DE LA HAYE from La Haye de Puits – DE GRUCHY from Gruchy – COUTANCHE from Coutances – LE BRETON from Brittany – NORMAN from Normandy – PERCHARD from the Perche region – LE POIDEVIN from Poitou – D’AUVERGNE from Auvergne region.
There was a wall that had items which people brought to Jersey when they first came. Each person had one item that had a significant value/memory to them. Some of the weird/interesting items was a, Potato grater, which was brought to Jersey from Poland by Karolina Klonowska, as it was very old and belonged to here grandmother, she brought it to Jersey so she could cook her favourite Polish dishes. There were other items such as dolls, passports and, musical instruments such as a flute.
Around the exhibition there were old images of Jersey maps, notes and news papers. I thought they were interesting as so much has changed over the years, for example the Waterfront wasn’t even there in the map, as it was build recently. These are the Old vs New comparisons using images from the exhibition and new versions from today.
OLD NEWSPAPER VS NEW NEWSPAPER
OLD MAP VS NEW MAP
OLD FRENCH MONEY
PHOTO SHOOTS
After the exhibition, we visited the Victorian part of the museum, and went on 2 walks round town. The first walk we were looking at the different types of bricks and stones in the buildings. There was this one building which have blue bricks that reflected in the sunlight (the building with the French flag). The second walk we went round town. This is a image of a map where we went. We took photos as we walked around town of the buildings and anything we saw, mainly focusing on:
MIGRANT COMMUNITIES IN ST HELIER – a sense of place – character of community – people, portraiture
EDITING IN LIGHTROOM CLASSIC
I imported all my images into Lightroom from the museum trip on the 7th June.
This is the selected flagged images, that use the p (pick) and x (reject). The white flag is placed on the good images, where as a black flag on the rejected images. I used this to filter all my images, which was around 300 to get it down to 10-30 good images.
I did basic adjustments to the images, increasing clarity, decreasing dehaze, increasing contrast etc. Including gradient and radial filters.
I took some of the images into Photoshop (using edit in –> Adobe Photoshop, option in Lightroom) and removed distracting elements such as ropes and security cameras.
I tried a black and white, (monochrome) look to see if it would add more drama and create a moody atmosphere.
Then I used Lightroom compare view to compare the edited black and white image with the edited colour image.
Portrait – I like how the black and white brings out the details, and adds more age to the image. This works well due to the subject being of age. Although, I prefer the colour version as it shows more personality, which is crucial in portrait photography. The detail in his eyes and mouth is more defined in the coloured image, the colours also create depth, which is hidden in the black and white version.
Detailed Image – There is lots of detail so, the black and white image separates the whites and the blacks making them more defined creating depth. It gives a cleaner look the the image, but this is not the aesthetic I wanted as it is a messy, dirty building site. Which is why I like the coloured image more, as I shows sections of dull colour between the metal poles.
Fast Shutter Speed Image – This image shows motion in the faster flying birds, whist still freezing time as the birds fly. I like this image better in black and white, as there is more contrast and detail, compared to the coloured version. It also helps bring out the shadows in the birds more.
CHOOSING MY FINAL IMAGES
Lightroom made it easier to see all my images, as they were all in one place. Lightroom has different view features, such as, full screen, compare view, and survey view.
I used the survey view to display my good images, them I ordered them best to work using the star system inside Lightroom.
The purple colour tagged image was the best/my favourite, so I marked it 5 stars. This becomes useful when I have to make a zine, so I can just filter by 4+ stars, so I get my best images.
I colour coded my images based on its topic. Ill will try to keep it consistent throughout to year, so it is easier to find images.
The colours are: – Yellow – Indoors – Green – Outdoors – Red – Portrait (environmental) / People – Purple – Black and white photography
These are the final images in Lightroom, I then exported them into my PHOTO-SHOOTS folder in a sub-folder called June 7th Edits.
FINAL IMAGES
The larger images are my favourite ones, as there have a really nice compositions and colour.
Overall, there was a good variety of images, consisting of portraits and street photography. My favourite type is street photography, just walking around and using temporary objects to create foreground elements, since I use angles, reflections, and shapes to create my images, E.g. the car reflection in the orange street art image.
Since I’ve finished my main piece, this is the secondary topic I’m focusing on.
LINKS TO ANTHROPOCENE
There are 2 ways to think how the galaxy and space relates to anthropocene :
The first way to think about it is that air pollution (as well as light pollution) is low in Jersey, so we are able to see the stars at night, compared to somewhere like China, where the sky is filled with smog clouds. So humans are polluting the air, which stared in 1760-1840 when the industry revolution happened, and has just kept increasing.
The second way is more dramatic and extreme, but in space the magnetic field surrounds Earth, which acts as a shield around the planet. The magnetic field is generated by electric currents due to the motion of convection currents of a mixture of molten iron and nickel in the Earth’s outer core, these convection currents are caused by heat escaping from the core, a natural process called a geodynamo. If we disrupt the process by causing global warming, and increasing global temperatures, then the magnetic field will break and crack, causing the Earth to be in danger to solar storms caused by the Sun.
First I selected my favourite images from both La Braye and Faulkner Fisheries photo shoots.
The top 2 are from the La Braye photo shoot, where as the bottom 2 are from the Faulkner Fisheries photo shoot.
Faulkner Fisheries image : ISO 200, f/3.5, 21 second shutter speed
Galaxy with lights : ISO 1600, f/3.5, 30 second shutter speed
Galaxy La Rocco Tower : ISO 6400, f/3.5, 25 second shutter speed
I took these into Photoshop, the top 2 I edited normally using the camera-raw filter, where as the bottom 2 I merged together, as 1 photo the building was light up and had a better sky, and the second photo had better foreground lights.
These were the edits I did for the Faulkner Fisheries, these are the screenshots in the camera raw filter. the top 2 were extremely similar adjustments.
The clarity/noise/texture really brought out the patterns in the constellations.
FINAL IMAGES
After editing the images in Photoshop, this is how they turned out :
Overall, all the images display star constellations, the first 2 were taken at the same time in the same place, where as the Faulkner Fisheries on was taken at around 10PM about a week later. Which is why they have different constellations. Although, I do like the constellations which you can see in the first images I took.
The foreground with the long exposure of the lights creates a contrast in colour with the dark night sky in the background. The tower in the middle image is a silhouette among the stars, which is a different approach but I still like it.
All 3 use the rule of thirds, as that technique helps focus on sky, or part of the image that fills up 2/3rds of the image.
Overall, my favourite part of all the images, is that you can actually see the constellations, and their patterns.
CRITIQUE
These images are not perfect, they can be so much better if I have better equipment. A crystal clear wide angle lens would produce a better image. A star tracking mount would work as well, and make it more clear.
DISPLAY
In Photoshop I edited my images into an empty art gallery, then added bevel and emboss and, drop shadow.
IN THE STYLE OF DILLON SAW
Saw uses image manipulation in his work, and oftenly space and galaxies are reoccurring themes. So I decided to make a piece in his style and inspired by him.
This is the work which inspired me to create my own. As you can see he makes the Moon a big part in his images.
PROCESS
I chose 3 images to use, then brought them into Photoshop and made a final piece on this topic.
These are the 3 raw images which I’m going to edit. I took a screenshot each time I did a substantial change.
First, I stared off by layering the 2 images over each other, then I removed the sky from the White House image. After I colour matched them using a colour balance adjustment layer, and increasing the purples and blues. Afterwards, I added in the Moon after removing its background. Continually, I used a layer mask to remove a part from the Moon to make it a crescent, as I felt that the pointed edges would contrast the other shapes in the images. Then I added glow behind the Moon. The finally added a camera raw filter using the setting below.
FINAL IMAGE
Overall, It turned out well. It has a nice flow to it, and all the colours match. It was very simple, but clean, which is why it has worked quite great.
I tried to keep it dark despite the foreground image being taken in the daytime, which actually kind of helped as it looks like the Moon has lit up the sky alongside the building.
The composition is decent, to an extent where the Moon isn’t dominating the sky, and the White House isn’t too big. It creates a contrast with the straight lines on the building compared to the moons curved edges and pointed lines. The Moons pointed, sharp edges could be a “threat in the sky” to puncture the Earths magnetic shield, and put everyone at risk.
The clear star constellations represent the clean air which allows us to see the stars shining at night, and can be shown as a warning to people if air pollution isn’t controlled, we’ll lose this incredible natural view.
CRITIQUE
If I could change on thing it would be the Moon. I would make it smaller, as it would make it more realistic, as in real life the moon isn’t that big when viewed from Earth.
EDITED VS RAW
The right image is my final image from Photoshop, compared to the left which is the raw images in the same layout as the final piece, with no adjustment layers or effects.
DISPLAY
I used an empty gallery and edited my image into it. I warped it to the angled wall, then added bevel/emboss and, shadow drop. This really helped me present my work. It being against plain walls has brought out the small details.
MY IMAGE VS SAW’S
Both are based along the same subject and concept. I like how Saw has used a mix of colours in his background, compared to my image which is a bit dull. Although, my image includes stars which helps identify its night time.
Saw’s use of the tree is really impactful in regards to nature and purity. Although, I feel that it is unbalance, and is only including nature. This is where my work thrives in displaying a balance of man-made buildings and natural planets and stars. This draws ties to humans, which is the main problem to all of the climate change going on around the world right now, that relates back to the idea of anthropocene.
Overall, I like my image more, despite being less colourful, as I feel that it relates to the topic more, and the goal that I set at the beginning, which was to create a piece which involved the White House with the moon above it, that symbolises anthropocene through space.
My aim is to create a piece in Photoshop in the style of Dillon Saw (the first artist/photographer I studied) an altered landscape/image manipulation, but with Sebnem Coskun’s (2nd photographer) content, which is the plastic pollution in the ocean and ocean pollution.
I envision a boat with buoys on, in the center of the ocean that has lots of rubbish and bottles floating around in the sea. You would be able to see under water and above the water.
THE PROCESS
Image selection
Making the image (showing the development)
Presenting the image
IMAGE SELECTION
Firstly, I decided to chose images that I plan to use from the Bouley Bay photo shoot and the St Brelades photo shoot. These photos would be the ones that I used to make the final image in Photoshop.
These are the photos I chose to use from the St Brelades photo shoot. The water is for the main top of the water, the seaweed I plan to have floating underwater. And the rock would be underwater on the sea floor, or maybe poke above the surface (if there is enough space).
These are the photos I plan to use from the Bouley Bay photo shoot. The headland/coast will be the background. The rocks would be underwater and the seabed. All the fishing nets, rubbish and fishing equipment will be floating in the sea. The red boat will be in the center.
The underwater picture. I checked with Mr Cole, if I was allowed to use it. It is a picture I took in an aquarium then in photo shopped everything out and only kept the underwater perspective. I will change the saturation and hue later.
Before
After
Screen grab from Photoshop
MAKING THE IMAGE
Firstly, I made a new document in a good portrait dimension, I chose portrait as I would like the viewer to concentrate on the main focus, the rubbish and pollution. Then I added the underwater image, and positioned it to fill up a bit more then half of the screen.
I changed the hue and saturation to match the next image. I also added some shadow to the top of the image to make it a little darker, On top of the brightness and contrast adjustment layer, where I made it darker and increased the contrast.
After, I added the photo of the sea from the St Brelades photo shoot, however, the sunset colours didn’t really match the whole ascetic, so instead I used the image from the Bouley Bay photo shoot, which was better. I positioned it above the underwater picture, then I made only the vertical part of the image “squished” to match the perspective I was going for.
At that point, I added a layer mask of get rid of the sky and background, using the black gradient tool. After, I changed the brightness and contrast, and hue and saturation, to match the two images together. I made the top of the sea brighter as the sun would be lighting it up. Then a added a small amount of motion blur at a 0-2 degree angle, to make it a bit smoother.
Next, I deiced to add a background, which was from the Bouley Bay photo shoot, and was the image of the headland/coastline. I put that layer to the back so everything was on top of it. I aligned it so that the water I edited was on top of the water in the background photo, which kept the perspective.
Additionally, later I will edit out the dirt on my camera; as you can see in the sky, using the spot healing brush. Then I increased the saturation of the background, to make it stand out more.
There was something off, it felt like the transition from above to below the water was to sharp. So I made a waterline from a zoomed in image of the sea I took, then used the eraser tool to make a “wave” effect. Then dragged it on to my main image, and put it on top of where the change is.
When I put it on my main image it was very blue, so I applied extremely similar adjustment layers to the water line, then added shadows and highlights to blend it into my image. I also used the eraser at 50% hardness and 15% flow, to fade the top of the water into the waterline. Furthermore, To create a sense of depth and distance, I added Gaussian blur to the waterline, to make it look like it was closer.
Following, I made some small adjustments, moved the underwater part up so that you couldn’t see the top of the water. This helped match the perspective. Afterwards, I made the edges of the underwater section darker, this made it more realistic, and created a sense of darkness, which can represent evilness. This is where ill be putting the rubbish, so it makes sense that it has a negative atmosphere, as it is a world wide problem.
Then, I added the boat in, first I had to remove the background. Which I used the eraser and magic wand tool. I temporarily made the background black to see if i missed any parts.
After I made the windows a separate part from the boat so I could change their opacity and add a reflection of the sky.
When I removed the background the trailer was covering the boat, so I used the clone stamp tool to manually fix the haul of the boat.
I added the boat into scene, I put the boat and windows on the top layers, and the duplicated only the boat and put it above the underwater picture, to get the blue underwater effect, I changed the blend mode to soft light, then after I erased the bottom of the boat (top layer) to let you see the layer underneath, to give the effect of it floating in the water.
I added adjustment layers to match the boats colour with the scenery. Additionally, I added shadows to the bottom of the boat, and highlights to the top.
After, I added a reflection on to the water of the boat, this would make it more realistic.
I added the reflection to the top water layer and waterline, I set the opacity to 15% on each so that it wasn’t a solid.
I used Filter > Liquefy to make the reflection more realistic.
I distorted the reflection using a brush with 38% pressure and 50 size, and dragging the cursor over the reflection.
I use a photo of the rocks at low tide from the Bouley Bay photo shoot, to create a seabed in the bootom of the image.
I used a layer mask and a black gradient, to fade the rocks into the water above it. Then applied some adjustments to decrease saturation and increase contrast.
I decided to add buoys to the boat, to add details, I added shadows and highlights to the buoy, then after I added a reflection in the water from the buoy.
Then used the same technique when I distorted the boats reflection, to the buoy and will keep the reflections consistent, to match the astatic.
The second buoy before and after photos, I used a different buoy, but the same techniques to add shadows and highlights.
Finally, I finished the last buoy. Then moved on to the rubbish in the water.
I started to add the rubbish into the water. I started remove all the backgrounds of the images from the rubbish photo shoot, I did this in Photoshop. First, I opened the image in Photoshop, then used Select > Subject, then duplicated the selected selection (the object), then deleted the original image.
One by one, I added each into my final image, after I used all of them I duplicated them, and merged selected layers, the flipped them horizontally to fill the other side.
After, they were arranged, I added a hue & saturation layer, to decease saturation, to give it the old, dull, washed out look.
I then needed to add the fishing equipment to the seabed, which was left behind by fishermen.
I removed the background of the net, then dragged it into the scene. I positioned it behind the rock, then used a layer mask to remove the parts that were over the rock,so it looked like it was behind the rocks. Then I added hue and saturation to decrease saturation, and the brightness and contrast to make it darker as I took the photo in daylight which is a dramatic difference to at the bottom of the sea, where there is no light.
I did the same with a tire in the center underwater.
I didn’t like this as it felt to organised. So instead, I deleted it and made and anchor coming off the boat. I used the rope from the Bouley Bay photo shot, when boat was hanging in the air. And the old anchor from the same shoot.
This was all the edits I planed, so finally, I added a Camera-Raw Filter to fine tune some of the settings and adjustments. I changed almost all the settings, these were the adjustments I made:
FINAL IMAGE– ANALYSE / EVALUTION
This is my final piece, it represents plastic pollution, which was inspired by Sebnem Coskun, using the style of Dillon Saw, and his altered landscapes/image manipulation. Overall, this is exactly what I said I was going to do from the start.
Overall, I think it turned out well! I like how it worked, and demonstrates how, we cannot see the whole plastic problem from the surface, and how we have to look at it from a different angle to see how bad it is.
This being the main piece, which I made in Photoshop. It demonstrates my editing and Photoshop skills, whilst still showing my actual photography and camera skills, as I had to envision the angles and light at which I was taking the photo. This shows how I stuck to my original idea.
I have considered how weight factors in. The bigger items such as crab nets sank, and the light plastic items floated, although some were being held underwater as there was no room the reach the surface, due to the amount of plastic in the sea.
The composition is a strength, and is good as most of the image is taken up by the underwater part, which is the main part of the image. And it holds the message that I want to get across, which is, “ocean pollution is a huge world wide problem.” I chose to do it portrait as, if I did it in landscape there would be empty space.
There is a heavy contrast in colour between the two “worlds”. The underwater section is more green, which signifies freshness and materialism, which juxtaposes the waste in the water, that varies in material, due to the type of rubbish. The sky is a nice, colorful, and vibrant blue, which is the main type of contrast in this image, other than clean vs dirty.
CRITIQUE
There are 2 things I don’t like about the image I made. Firstly, how blue the underwater part is, I would of liked it to be more green, but this is not a big deal. And secondly, I don’t like how the plastic didn’t really overlap. When I tried to overlap them some pieces got lost and turned invisible. Also, I would of moved them up to the surface more, although, I wanted to show that the boat was floating, without covering the bottom of the boat with plastic.
DISPLAY
I got an image of an empty gallery on Google, the brought it into Photoshop and put my image onto the wall. I resized it and added bevel and emboss and a drop shadow at 90 degrees. This added a 3D depth to it, therefore it looked more realistic.
On the left is my final image, on the right is that same image without and adjustment layers, shadows, and highlights. This shows how much editing I’ve done, and all the 300-400 layers there that made this piece look much better.
MY IMAGE VS COSKUN
My image is on the right, Coskuns photo is on the left.
Starting off with a Venn diagram, to visualise the similarities and differences.
As you can see both take on the same concept, which is plastic pollution and the view from underwater.
Coskun’s work being and actual photo, and mine being a digital art piece which implements photography. They shares some similarities, Coskun’s has more depth, this is because she took it deeper underwater, where as mine in the perspective from between the surface and underwater.
Overall, Coskun’s image has more of an impact, just because it is an actual photograph, so when people look at it they realise that, this is actually happening and is a real thing. On the other hand, my piece is fictional, despite being modelled and based of real references. But people know its not reality. Its more of a concept of reality, using conceptual realism. However, both imply the same message about ocean plastic pollution, and how it is a real thing.
