What
Portraiture and action shots of a skateboarder relating to the work of J Grant Brittain
Why
This is to explore the idea of identity of individuals within a sub-culture.
How
Direct subject into different locations and capture him in his “natural habitat
Who
A local skateboarder
Where
Various skateparks and an urban multi-story carpark
When
During clear weather.
Keld Helmer-Petersen
– Keld Helmer-Petersen was a Danish photographer who gained international recognition in the 1940’s and 1950’s for his abstract colour photographs.
– His career lasted 70 years and he had strong interest in modern architecture, industrial areas and structures, which he would edit to be quite heavily contrasted, using strong black and white tones.
– He was very prolific and continuously experimented with different angles and perspectives.
– As you can see he takes harsh black and white tonal images and increase the contrast in Photoshop.
Process
– First i chose 4 images i liked and opened them in Photoshop.
– Then, go to Image>Adjustments>Threshold.
– Adjust the threshold level slider, to how you want it.
– Crop the images to whatever size you want or 1000px x 1000px. And you can also rotate it in needed.
– Then you save the finished image.
Original Photos – (Before)
Edited Photos – (After)
Evaluation
– I like the outcome, as they look simplistic but include every detail needed.
– The images are very geometric and include lots of parallel lines, which creates leading lines pointing to the sky.
– The top 2 images have curves, where as the bottom 2 are heavily consistent of straight lines.
– However, i don’t like how some of the black isn’t filled all the way, which creates a “patchy” look. As you can see in the bottom left photo, and the top right.
Original Photo
Evaluation
– I edited the image in Photoshop to create this effect. I like it as it makes you focus on the interesting parts, and subtracts the boring pieces.
– First, I made a plain black layer. Then I created 6 circles, and 6 of the same images and made the image a mask for the circle, and I did that 6 times. then positioned the circles where I want to see the image through the black layer.
Albert Renger-Patzsch
– Renger-Patzsch was born in Wurzburg, on June 22nd, 1897. He was German photographer who began making photos at the age of twelve.
– In 1928 Reger-Patzsch published The World Is Beautiful, a collection of 100 images, which had lots of detail, mostly patterns in nature and man made structures.
– He likes to take photos of highly detailed and complex flowers and other nature plants. Additionally, he prefers to take photos of unique architecture.
– His nature photography captures what the eye can’t see. He captures each fold in and every detail in each picture.
– Renger-Patzsch makes his images black and white, which gives the image a high contrast, and reveals the tones more.
– The black and white makes it so that you focus on the geometric patterns rather than the colours.
– Lots of Renger-Patzsch’s images use leading lines, framing, repetition and rhythm. Which gives off a more visually pleasing image.
Image Comparison
– Both these images were taken by Albert Renger-Patzsch.
My Photos
Architectural Photos
– Firstly, I took photos of buildings that have detailed symmetry and patterns from the windows.
– I made sure that the sky was in all of them and i commonly used the line of thirds technique to make them to create a unique appearance.
Nature Photos
– I used a macro lens to get a close up shot of the objects I photographed. It made it so you can see every detail on the focus.
– It created a shallow depth of field, as I used a low f/number. This makes us focus on a specific object as the background is blurred.
– I took lots of photos of leaves as there have many natural patterns. Also, I took a close up of a feather, which as a repeated pattern with smaller lines coming off the central line.
Overall I made all the photos black and white, as it is in the style of Albert Renger-Patschz. The black and white effect, created a high contrast and made all the patterns more visible.