What you want to explore?

For my personal study , I want to focus on portrait photography, as in year 12 it was my favourite part of photography. I really enjoyed having a set up and how professional the images looked with the lighting. I think portraits are a very strong way of presenting ideas as you can interpret them in any way and when it comes to editing them you can basically transform them in any way. I think by doing portraits it will present the theme of identity perfectly. For my personal study, I want to focus on capturing different emotions and feelings through portrait photography and look into how mental health can be presented and shown through photography. I think it plays a massive part in the theme of identity, as it’s a personal aspect to everyone, and everyone goes through different emotions.

Why it matters to you?

It matters to me as I think mental health is a really important and key factor through my teenage years. I want to try present it through taking portrait photographs.

How you wish to develop your project?

By taking portrait images, and editing them afterwards to show different emotions.
When and where you intend to begin your study?

I will use the studio to take all my images as it’s a professional set up and get it started as soon as I have free time in school and get a model to photograph for this project.

My chosen theme is identity, as I think mental health can identify an individual massively as it’s a very personal matter. The final outcome I want to have and achieve by the end of this project is a photobook. The artists I am going to take inspiration from are Gabriel Isak and Edward Honaker. They both focus on photographing mental health through different ways. Gabriel includes loads of blue tones in his images, and takes them out in an open environment as well as mainly capturing the silhouette of the individual instead of a clear face shot. Whereas Edward focuses more on his editing and blurs the faces out using different techniques which shows he focuses more on editing his images rather than taking them in a certain way. I think by using both of them it will give me a nice overview of both sides to this project

Mind-map of the theme of Identity , to help with my personal study;

MOOD BOARD-

By doing a small research task on The Island Identity, this has allowed me to understand what makes Jersey unique and the important factors that make up Jersey for what it is, it’s identity. This has allowed me to think about my personal study and how I wan to do it on something that’s important to me and identifies me as an individual.

From your Personal Investigation based on IDENTITY & COMMUNITY write an overview of what you learned so far (both as Yr 12 and Yr 13 student) and how you intend to develop your Personal Study.

Previously in year 12 , we have studied many different themes, such as ; Anthropocene , portraits , abstract and landscapes as well as still life photos. This allowed us to explore all areas of photography which is helpful when it comes to year 13 as we now know our strong points and what area of photography we enjoy doing the most and are the most skilled at. We have also had a lot of experience with using the studio lights and camera settings in year 12 which all comes to hand now. Personally my favourite part of year 12 was when we did portraits as I loved using the stuido and a plain white backdrop as I view portraits as a very powerful way of presenting photography as you can do so many different things with it and edit them in all sort of different ways. I like when you have a whole camera set up ready to use in the studio instead of just going out in the natural enviornment and taking photos of what you can find. I liked having everythiing set up and pre-planned which made my photoshoots in year 12 a lot better.

I studied a variety of different artists in Year 12 which really helps when creating your own projects as you get inspirated by an artist who photographs similar ideas to what you want to achieve at the end of your shoot. This lets you come up with some more ideas and make sure you have a basic outline of what you want to do and photograph but in your own interpretation. For my personal study I will research artists that photograph similar concepts to what I want to do when I plan my study.

Some examples of my previous year 12 work was when we did head shots and I really enjoyed exploring the idea of double and multi exposure. I really enjoy the editing part as using Photoshop in year 12 has allowed me to learn so many useful skills and tools for editing my images. For my personal study I want to use photo shop when editing my images as I used it throughout year 12 a lot and think it makes my final images very strong and the best quality. An example;

Currently we are looking at the theme of Identity & Community, which we have started to develop ideas on through looking at Jersey’s history and identity. This helps in creating a basic idea of the theme , as we live in Jersey it’s important to understand our history and what factors make Jersey and what attracts people to it. Therefore in this personal project , I want to study the theme of identity through using portraits and studio photos as I think they will link very well together and it was my favourite part of year 12. We also went around Jersey , the town side and photographed different landscapes / sites around Jersey which showed how there’s so many different communities in Jersey, such as French/Portuguese quarters and old houses from the war. An example of my work;

The ISLAND IDENTITY project has produced a website and a report that has identified distinctive qualities of island life in Jersey. You may wish to explore one of those key themes more in-depth as a concept for your project. They are:

Constitution & Citizenship
Communities
International
Economy
Education & Sport
Heritage, Culture & the Arts
Environment

a video to sum up the Island identity project https://vimeo.com/546020507

link to the website; https://islandidentity.je/

The topic/ area we have chose to research into is Heritage, Culture, and the Arts.

link to sources- https://islandidentity.je/report/heritage-culture-and-the-arts

Heritage- It is the extraordinary range of landscape, monuments, experiences and stories that characterise Jersey, and it also encompasses our contemporary interactions with this inheritance and the meanings we ascribe to it. Heritage gives the Island its distinctive look and feel, attracts tourists, and can inspire both intercultural dialogue and a shared sense of place and belonging.

Jersey is unusually rich in tangible heritage assets, some of which (such as the prehistoric site at La Cotte and Le Câtillon Bronze Age hoard) are of international significance.

Fourteen thousand Islanders – one seventh of the population – are members of Jersey Heritage. However, the sector has suffered from chronic underfunding, a lack of dedicated Ministerial input, and the lack of a coherent Heritage Strategy for the Island, all of which the Board suggest be rectified as soon as possible

Culture and the Arts– Jersey has a rich tradition of artistic endeavour, and an enviable intangible cultural heritage.  From music to filmmaking, from painting to poetry, scores of Jersey citizens are now making careers and reputations at international level. Jersey have some excellent organisations (such as ArtHouse Jersey) and events (such as the Festival of Words and the ‘Weekender’) are helping to put the Island on the global cultural map.

Another important innovation would be the establishment of a Cultural Festival, possibly coinciding with a new National Jersey Day. The Board singled out the Battle of Flowers as an exemplum of the enormous power of cultural activity to express identity and provide an important social ritual. Its real value should be recognised by Government not as a tourist attraction as something which unites our communities in a creative, artistic endeavour.

What makes Jersey special is the unique diversity on the island that we have and all the different cultures and heritages that can be represented through the different arts in Jersey. It matters to me as it’s important to know about every individuals background and where they come from , as it is a small Island and having a range of different cultures is always fascinating to learn about and know that Jersey is accepting of all backgrounds. Jersey has some remarkable landscapes and architecture that it is known for such as all of our castles, this represents Jersey through a historical viewpoint and allows anyone to learn about Jerseys culture through these.

Jersey means being in a small community as an Island that will keep expanding in the future and more backgrounds and cultures will be a part of Jersey. For a small island the diversity we have it quite large and in the future it will be represented in more forms of art and shows, as Jersey is known for that.

In order to solidify a cohesive and positive Island identity I think we should all be very welcoming to all backgrounds and accepting of one another even if we come from different places as we all live on the same small Island. If we want to create a positive identity we need to make sure everyone feels comfortable and there isn’t any discrimination. As well as that we should all celebrate and express the different cultures through certain events or forms of art, that Jersey already takes part in.

There will always be some barriers to a positive and inclusive Island. Such as when it comes to different cultures, some people may have certain issues or may not be as accepting as others. This can lead to problems as it would be holding back the progress of Jersey being an accepting community. Other barriers could be that certain people aren’t willing to learn about Jersey’s heritage and only come here for a job for example and see Jersey as a business place only when there is so much more to it that they haven’t been educated on , which limits the amount of people that know about Jersey’s unique heritage.

link to all of Jersey’s culture spots – https://www.jersey.com/culture-here

MAKING OF OUR POSTER

we decided to make a moodboard of al the different cultures/ aspects of Jersey, that makes it unique and give us some inspiration for our poster.

We then got started on our poster and printed out images as well as including the research we did .

video plan;

1. set up our studio with bright lighting and make sure they’re in the correct position to avoid shadows on the white backdrop
2. have all of our outfits ready and planned
3. set up our camera on a tripod so that it’s not moving and in the same place
4. record all-decade walks in different outfits.
5. take additional photos to then turn into a GIF and digital image
6. export the videos and photos
7. start editing process.

After all the editing, that was shown in my previous blog post, this is the final video outcome we have made;

link to our video – https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/744704d6-9530-45ed-90ef-886d0c5627f8

Title; Fashion Through The Decades

The idea behind our NFT project was to show the different fashion changes throughout different decades- we included the ’60s, ’70s , ’80s and ’90s. We wanted to show how fashion has a huge impact on the internet , especially how so many people buy outfits and fashion related items online as it’s a huge part of our everyday life. We wanted to show the way clothes evolve through centuries and we achieved this by creating a short 30 second clip of our model walking in a straight line while her outfits change throughout different decades. We effectively combined all of our clips together and crated what we planned to do. We made sure our project relates to the NFT as the images we took show outfits that people could easily buy online as now fashion and clothes can be digitally bought through NFTs. We wanted to do our own interpretation of this and create a small short clip to present the outfits digitally.

For this NFT project, we started by researching what exactly an NFT is (non-fungible token) and then continued our research by looking at examples of NFT’s and really trying to understand what they are. We then discussed as a group what the question, ‘What will the future of Jersey look like as a community in the Metaverse?’ means and how we will go about creating a 30-second animated video to link to the question. We started by creating mind maps of what a community is and what it means to be a community. We then created mind maps and mood boards on our chosen theme; which we decided to create a film based on fashion. After we made the mood boards we created a statement of intent to decide exactly what we were going to do and how we were going to do it. Within the group, we decided on multiple different ideas which varied from using a projector to project different sorts of patterns onto a model wearing plain and simple clothing to the model wearing clothes that replicate fashion trends over the years. Additionally, we also spoke about how we may be able to use Photoshop or similar software to edit peoples original clothing, which may show that the digital world of fashion can be easily manipulated. Our last idea was to print out original photos which we have taken of our models and either collage or embroider over them to create different designs. We decided that we were going to have our model wearing clothes that best replicate fashion trends over the years. We then did a contextual study on NFT artists that link to our theme of fashion and researched NFT artist Toby Evans who focuses on digital fashion. After that, we did a contextual study on the Bayeux Tapestry as it also links to the embroidery project we are also doing with Yulia, where we each made an individual embroidered piece that links to Jersey. After discussing more as a group how we were going to create the film we created a storyboard. We decided we’re going to start off with a wide shot and then zoom in to a person wearing a 70’s inspired outfit (flares and a crop top), after that there would be an outfit change. Next, there will be another outfit change into an 80’s inspired outfit (mom jeans and a bomber jacket), then there will be a change into a 90’s inspired outfit (black dress). The clips will be shot with the model facing the camera and the clips will cut between outfits as the model walks forward towards the camera. The model will then change into a 2000’s inspired outfit (tracksuit) followed by an outfit inspired by current fashion (baggy jeans and a top). After deciding exactly how we were going to film it we brought in different pieces of clothing that we had at home to try to recreate old fashion trends. Making the outfits look as though they were from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s was one of the biggest challenges we faced as we only had our own clothes to use. We decided on which clothes best fit each year and then booked out a space in the studio so we could start filming. We started by preparing the studio for filming by setting up all the lights and getting our model in the first outfit. We decided to film on our phones so that the videos would be portrait. We had our model walk towards the camera in the first outfit as we recorded her and then repeated this in all the other outfits. We then chose our favourite clips and started by importing all the videos onto Adobe premier. We then cut each clip at specific times to make it look as though she was walking towards the camera while her outfits changed. We then decided which music to use as a group and uploaded it to the video. After the video was filmed we made a digital image from the video. We decided to edit the images we took on the day of filming in photoshop to make them more interesting. To edit the images I duplicated the image and then used the FX tool on the duplicated layer to turn off the green and blue channels on the layer. I then moved the bottom layer slightly to the left to create a 3D effect. As well as the edited photoshop image we also created a Gif. We used all of our images and copied one image after another to make it look like stop motion and create an illusion that the image is moving. We copied each image over another and created a new animation layer in order to play them one after another and create a frame. This turned out well as it achieved our aim of showing the different changes in fashion through decades by creating a gif and making it look like its one big moving image. Once all of the layers were there we included all the images we wanted to use and created a timeline to create the final gif. We also did an embroidery workshop that links to the question about the community in Jersey. For the workshop, we took all of the individual pieces of embroidery we have done as a group and placed them together on a big piece of fabric. We sat around the table as a group and decided whether or not we liked the positioning of the individual pieces on the larger piece of fabric.  As there weren’t enough individual pieces to fill up the fabric we had to overlap some and leave some spaces in the fabric. Once we decided that we liked the placement we all chose thread colours that we like and started stitching the pieces onto the fabric.

our final video; https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/744704d6-9530-45ed-90ef-886d0c5627f8

our final image;

this is the set up we made in order to film our video. We used two bright lights and placed them further away in order to not have any shadows behind the model when she walks.

we then told our model to walk from one point to another across the white backdrop and we placed two small points on the floor in order to make sure she walks across in the same line every video and that she is always in the centre and positioned the same.

we made her change outfits for the different decades and got her to walk across in a straight line so we have all the decades when it comes to editing the final video.

we also decided to take a few photos of the model in the different outfits in order to have a balance of videos , as our main final animation and a few images to be able to make them animated or play them one after another to make it look like they’re in stop motion..

we recorded 5 videos , in a portrait format in order to capture the models whole figure and get the whole walk.

we did five videos in order to record five different outfits throughout the chosen decades.

we then uploaded all of our videos and our gif that we edited from all of our images in adobe premiere pro in order to be able to cut down clips and edit them to make our 30 second clip.

we included all of the original videos and played them one after eachother to show the outfits slowly and progessively changing into different decades, we then included our quick and cut up 3 second video that we ended to show the difference in outfits really quickly as this was our main goal. By adding this is made the overall video more interesting as the beginning showed the outfits in detail and you had time to analyse them however by adding and making this cut up version you could see how different they all are when they all change as the model walks in a straight line. Then to finish the final 30 second video , we included the GIF that we created with all the images we took and wanted to include to finish off the video to show the model presenting the different decade outfits.

EDITING THE FINAL VIDEO;

We imported all the videos we took to start creating our video, we had five original walking videos, one edited video of it cutting through different clips rapidly and one GIF.

We then selected the order we wanted them in and we started with the edited video first to have a solid start, and the included all the original clips so that they play one after another, and at the end included the final edited video again and finished with the GIF.

We drag and dropped all the clips in the timeline and made sure they didnt overlap eachother.

We repeated some of the clips are few times in order to reach the time limit and give the viewers are better insight into the outfits.

We placed them all in the correct order and selected the final layout and now had to add sound.

We had to include music that was copyright free , so we took a sound that fit in the best and edited it with our video.

we used all of our images that we took to create a digital image by making them turn into a GIF. this is because copying one image after another makes it look like stop motion and creates an illusion that the image is moving

I copied each image over each other and created a new animation layer in order to play them one after another and create a frame. This turned out very well as it still achieved our aim of showing the different changes in fashion through decades by creating a gif and making it look like its one big moving image.

once all my layers were there and I included all the images we wanted to use, I created a timeline to create the final gif , that I have included below;

this allowed us to create a digital image that we will then use at the end of our animation as a way to finish it.

DIGITAL IMAGE EXPERIMENT

For this experiment, we decided to edit some of the photographs from our NFT shoot in photoshop to make them more interesting and engaging for the viewer. To edit these image, we duplicated the image we wanted to use and then used the FX tool on the duplicated layer to erase the both the blue and green channels on the layer. We then shifted the original layer slightly to the left in order to create the blurring effect.

EDITED OUTCOMES

Evaluation- We made sure we included all of our photos that show all 5 outfits as that was our key focus of this project. This was an interpretation of a digital image, as now in the NFT online market buying outfits or any fashion related item is becoming very popular. We made sure the model was centred in the middle to make her and the outfit the main focus as well as making sure the backdrop is white and there is nothing distracting in the background. We left the images in colour so that the viewer can still see the outfit clearly but we edited over them to create our digital image as NFTs are designed to look very futuristic and modern as its showing the fashion in the future. We then combined them all together to show all of them together and let the viewer compare how peoples style has evolve throughout the decades.

when we did the workshop with Julia, we had a go at doing our own stitching, we did this in order to create a GIF as the final outcome. I did this by taking a photo of my piece every time I added a new stich. This is because taking multiple photos will make it look like the image is moving when the images are played quickly one after the other.

using photoshop to create my GIF;

I uploaded all my 17 images and copied them over each layer.

when I finished uploading them all I selected ‘window’ and then dropped down to ‘timeline’ in order to start creating my GIF.

I then created frames from all the images and the selected them all and made them play 0.2 seconds after another.

final gif;

using many photos is very useful for making animations as the more images the more the image is ‘moving’ and makes it look more lively.