In this post I am going to be presenting all my editing and manipulating that I managed to achieve during my Anthropocene mock exam. Most of my edits have been done on Adobe Lightroom however a small selection of them have been edited on Adobe Photoshop. I am going to further present these images through a virtual gallery which will be found further down the blog post.

Lightroom Edits:

Photoshop Edits:

Virtual Gallery link: https://www.artsteps.com/view/628e295e3959903d57540f90?currentUser

Images after mounted:

Evaluation and Critique:

Overall, I am happy with how this whole mock exam went and my final edits. My edits I created are party inspired by artists I studied which I tried to replicate in forms of lighting, angles and photo looks. All of my images fit in well with the idea of Anthropocene because they all involve some sort of story explain the effect of humans on earth. My main aim was to create unique and attractive images with a lot of analysis and research. For preparation I travelled to locations such as, La Collette, the quarry, Gorey, and other industrial areas. I managed to collect around 250 photos overall in preparation for this exam. To improve in my next mock, I am going to make sure I get more photos from different angles, times of day and lighting. I feel as if I had enough photos to successfully follow the mock criteria. Also, I am going to make sure I am fully prepared next time by completing all my artist research before entering the exam. I feel as if I did very good with my edits, research and analysis.

Design decision 1: I chose the first page to create a juxtaposition between the quarry and the barbed fence separating the world.

Annotate design :2 I experimented with making the right page a full bleed to represent the quarry being larger impact than the fence on the environment. I chose this option over the pervious for my final zine.

Annotate design 3: I chose these two black and white images to oppose each other in the zine.

Annotate design 4: I made the right image smaller because the image its self is so close up I thin filled the background using the rectangle tool to give more contrast to the image as it is lighter than the left image. these two white and black images oppose each other by a black photo on a white background opposing a lighter lighter image on a darker background.

Annotate design 5: for these pages I decided to juxtapose a bright image and a dark image. the vibrant greens in the left image on a white background. to make the images even more separate from each other the right image I changed to be a full bleed.

Annotate design 6 I experimented with a double page spread for this image but I then decided I liked the juxtaposition next to the image.

Annotate design 7: I first put these two images together but I didn’t like how they looked together.

Annotate design 8: I then changed the pictures and i liked these two because they both match colour and cylindrical objects.

Annotate design 9: but then I changed the right image to a full bleed and I settled on this.

Annotate design 10: I experimented with another double page spread, I then decided against it because the subject of the photo would be lost in the fold of the zine.

Annotate design 11: the I put that image next to this image i like the link between the shine of the different materials.

Annotate design 12: I then made the left image a full bleed to give more distinction between the images.

Annotate design 13: I decided to make another black background to fill the space between two colourful images to give more contrast to the page. I used the same smaller size image as the last black background.

Annotate design 14: to use a double page spread of using a land scape image of farm land as the front an back page of my zine

My final Zine

This is how I will lay out my final zine. I Chose to have a alternating full bleed on either side of each page to give a coherent design to the whole design. it when through many iterations to come to this final layout.

I printed my zine folded it stapled it then trimmed the edges to create the final product.

Final Outcomes

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The idea behind my final images was to portray nature through the use of vibrant colours and derelict man-made structures. The contrast of colours creates this effect which makes the natural parts of the photo stand out as beautiful, while making the man-made parts of the photo feel very dull. This is to portray nature as very pleasant, unique and full of life, and to portray the man-made structures as very boring, repetitive and almost trying to shadow over nature. This portrayal through the images I believe relates to Anthropocene very well.

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Galleries

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Artsteps Virtual Gallery:

https://www.artsteps.com/curate/628e26f11ca4f84865318175/5

Evaluation and Critique

Evaluation

Overall, I am very happy with my final edits. The edits created which are inspired by the artists I studied greatly compare to them in everything from looks, lighting and the colours seen in the images. They also fit into the theme of Anthropocene very well in my opinion. My other edits, where I created photo-montage type images, I am also very happy with. My aim with them was to create unique and cool images which is exactly how I believe they turned out. These edits also fit into the theme of Anthropocene very well also. To improve my artist inspired work, I would have during different times of the day, such as early morning or at night-time. Doing this would have given my a wider range of images to edit. To improve my other edits, I would have taken more photographs of tall buildings, building sites and natural landscapes in order to be able to create more montages with buildings and landscapes like the two above.

Although I aimed to take 3 photoshoots with at least 100 photos in each, I managed to get 2 photoshoots. Even though I only did 2 photoshoots I was able to get 222 photos in shoot 1 and 321 photos in shoot 2 which was well above the amount of photos I aimed to take. With a total of 543 photos I believe I have more than enough photos for me to create the most effective final images for the Anthropocene project. I believe the quality of the photos I have taken overall are quite good and I managed to photograph the locations I planned on photographing, a couple of photos I have taken have not come out as I would have liked as some have been blurry, too bright or too dark. Using the different filtering techniques on Lightroom I am happy with the final selection of images I will be using for editing and manipulation with Lightroom and Photoshop in order to come up with the best possible final outcomes I am able to produce.

Critique

I could have improved on my work by using more of the photos that I had edited in Lightroom, I chose not to use some of them as I was not sure how I would implement them into my work. If I was able to use them in my work I could have improved upon my final edits. I could have also done a third photoshoot to have more photos to work with to produce better or more final outcomes. If I also took photos during the night time I could have produced images which fit better with one of my researched artists, Troy Paiva. I was also not able to produce any photos inspired by another photographer I studied, Edward Butnysky, but a third photoshoot would have most likely enabled me to produce photos based off of his work. Overall I believe I did very well with the Anthropocene topic much higher than my expectations although there was room for improvement.

Richard Mosse

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The image on the left, depicts a part of a derelict abandoned man made structure surrounded by nature. The picture on the right depicts old forgotten remains of a human, also surrounded by nature. Both pictures consist of forgotten dead things left by humans which have been surrounded by nature, or taken over by nature, portraying Anthropocene. The foliage of both images are a similar pinkish colour, which could be depicting the beauty of nature which contrasts well with the ugliness of the man-made parts of the photo. The differences in the photo are minimal, the one and possibly only difference is that one photo contains the remains of a human while the other contains remains of something humans have built. I prefer the image on the left as it seems to have a lot more going on, and there is more of a contrast between the natural side of the image and the man-made side of the image.

Troy Paiva

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The image on the left, depicts a wooden beam which has been whitened surrounded by colourful plants and nature, this image is depicting how nature is full of colour and life while man made objects seem to be very dull and boring. The image on the right, depicts what seems to be an abandoned building in a rural area containing lots of bright colours, which could be depicting that even though the building is abandoned it still contains lots of life. Both images contain a lot of bright similar colours mostly the green colours. The image on the left depicts man made objects to be very dull and boring while the image on the right seems to be depicting man made objects to be very full of life and unique, the two images seem to be contrasting with each other in that way. I prefer the image on the right, as it contains a lot more colours and is a lot more interesting to look at than the image on the left.

https://www.artsteps.com/view/628e22eb338f8c3fc34d723f/?currentUser

below is a link to my virtual gallery show casing all my final images

beauty with a time limit

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Evaluation

these images are a response to Charlotta María Hauksdóttir’ and george marazakis. In my opinion, this section of my product went well. the idea behind these images are to show the serenity and awe of nature, and that in the next years to come, these places are likely to be destroyed and turned into a building site. I wanted to emphasise the pure beauty of these palaces to make people react with shock. I chose to take these images in a place that almost everyone in jersey has visited at least once. When people go to Plemont beach they are usually going for leisure, to have a swim or sunbathe on the beach. A lot of the time people dont actually take in the scenery. After exploring this place in depth, and trying to look at it through a different perspective. i learnt to appreciate this landscape a lot more than I did before, and through these images I wanted other people to feel the same. My plan for this shoot was to respond the chosen artist using the same technique she did, by overlapping images and creating almost an optical illusion. After experimenting and researching another artist, I chose to keep some of these images without the overlapping effect .The first 2 images relate to Charlotta María Hauksdóttir’ due to the fact that I have distorted the natural images of serenity and nature. The bottom 3 images relate more to george marazakis, because they are normal landscapes which provide the viewer with a sense of awe and terror.

destruction

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evaluation

This section of my project I have named ‘destruction’, this is in contrast with the first section of my project. This section all went to plan however in future I would like to take some more landscape rotated photos as the majority of them are portrait. A variety of landscape and portrait would mean that they fit into a collection better. i like the contrast of coloured images and images in black and white. I chose to put some of these images in black and white because i wanted to express how sad and lonely this place is after being abandoned. This is also a place a lot of people have previously visited in jersey since it was open, and i am aware that it was a place that a lot of people loved. when i went on this photoshoot I bumped into an elderly man who was just stood staring at the pub part of the hotel in shock. he said to me ‘isn’t it such a shame what we do to the best places’. This quote inspired me a lot to take a look inside. I wanted to show how dilapidated and empty it was left. after being sat there rotting for 5-6 years people are still sad about its downfall. This wasn’t my original idea when I was given the assignment, but after doing some research on Andrew Moore i was drawn to this side of Anthropocene, the stuff that not everyone gets to see. These photos relate to Anthropocene because nature is overtaking this run down building, but so is mankind. there are things thrown everywhere, rust and mould, weeds growing all over the building and broken glass everywhere. Through these images i wanted to allow people to feel sad and slightly empty, just like i did when i entered the building.

Montages

Here I have demonstrated some montage work that I have created from the images above, a combination of monochromatic and colour work. I have also added descriptions and critiques for my work. All of these have been made in Photoshop using a type of cut and paste method to create new photographs from already existing ones.

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I had the idea to create a more interesting piece by combining two half of an image, edited in different way together to add contrast and attempt to make it more aesthetic. I decided to divide this image in this way as I think the incinerator looks better in colour and the contrast and textures in the metal pipes come through more when they have been edited in a monochromatic way.

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Here I have created a montage using two versions of the same images to create a juxtaposition, I used the ‘adjustments’ tool in Photoshop in order to create the pink image in the centre, as this changes the saturation within the image. Additionally, I chose blue and pink as blue is a cool toned colour and pink is a very warm toned colour. I think this image turned out aesthetic as the centre image has hints of green and blue in one section and this helps link the whole piece together, making it more cohesive.

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Here I have mostly images from my first photoshoot in order to create these montages, I think that placing the colour images in the centre was a good decision as it creates an aesthetic focal point for the pieces. Furthermore, the photographs in the background of these get a bit lost but I think the overlapped images help combat this issue, deciding what size to make the central images was the most important part.

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I have reused the first montage above to create this piece, meaning that only half of the image could be edited. The red and turquoise colours contrast well together, however this experiment didn’t turn out as well as expected as there’s not enough contrast or link each half of the photograph. However. I do think the colours bring out structures within the incinerator, such as the metal and glass.

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I have created these two montages, they would link well together as the first original image was taken from outside of the incinerator and the second was taken inside at the top floor, where there are massive glass windows, which enabled me to use the best natural light to take the image. I have layered half of the images over the other half. For the first image I changed the contrast but only for the overlapping image, whereas for the second I cropped the left half of the image, placed it over the centre of the right half of the image and then used the ‘adjustments’ setting to make all of the metalwork blue, with contrasts with the warmth of the yellow.

Multi-exposures

Below I have demonstrated some of my multi exposure ideas, using my photographs and photoshop I have overlapping certain parts of the image and then used the adjustment setting and the opacity to merge the image together, sometimes using colour to eventuate the images. The purpose of these multi exposures is to show how much progress humans have made when it comes to industrialising the island.

I think that creating a multi exposure using one very busy image with another that only has one focal point always makes for good multi exposures. For example above I have used one image with water tanks and another of the overlooking view of Jersey from the top of Fort Regent. I think despite being monochromatic this image turned out to be eye-catching as there is a lot of depth throughout this multi exposure. The top layer of the image has a lot of simple aspects and this contradicts well with the busy background.

This piece was created combining two halves of the same photograph, I think the red and blue colours compliment each other well. This piece could be hard to view as the structures and all of the lines do get muddy, but this could be seen as an abstract way to create a multiple exposure, as the colour adds more elements to the image, and therefore adds to the depth of the image.

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Above I have created a gallery containing an unedited multi exposure and then below the ones edited with colour. I really think the colour helps link to the project of Anthropocene, as the trees and grass often turn out to be contrasting colours, such as the red and blue in the third edit above. This helps us further visualise the difference between manmade and natural structures. I made the multi exposure so that the image of the incinerator was in the background, as I feel like this has been the focus of a lot of my work so far.

Colour Edits

Below I have included some visual examples of my experimenting with the colour settings in Photoshop, sometimes only altering half or one section of the photographs, and other times attempting to illustrate how much of our environment has been shaped by people and how much is natural.

Coloured editing work best with my images which contain metal structures/ objects as the reflective material enhances the colours and makes the pinks and blues lighter. One of the only downfalls of this image is the fact that the original image was not of good quality, the clarity and exposure had to be edited before making this multi exposure, however I still think it turned out successfully as the final piece came out bold and clear. Additionally, the composition of the original photograph made this process easier as there is lots of little details that ended up being nicely edited with the colours.

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To create this piece I have selected the area of the photograph which contains the incinerator in Photoshop, using the polygonal lasso tool. After I changed the colours in this part of the image to make them brighter. This has made the image more aesthetic because it looks like a cartoon part of the photo. It could also be viewed that it appears as though this part of the photograph has been hit more by the sun or taken at a different time of day. This created contrast within the image as the altered part looks fake and the rest of the natural surroundings look real.

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This piece is very similar to the original photograph, as I haven’t done any other editing such as cropping and overlaying images. To edit this I have only changed the saturation of the image to a pink tone, and through this some green tones have appeared underneath the metal on the left side of the image. In my opinion this piece turned out successfully as I have used it to create a montage as well, the colours really eventuate the textures of the metals and I like how it looks like its surrounded by a glowing light, something unnatural to match with the pipes in the image itself.

Sequencing

Below I have included some ideas for sequencing, if one of these were to be my final piece, I would print them out at size A5 and then create a window frame with a black border, these ideas are just digital layouts of how I would do this. I have showed a range of formats for this grid so that I can show my thought process visually. For now I have just created a gallery to demonstrate the layouts, as I have tried to do so in Photoshop but the quality of the images decreased.

1st Attempt

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I have created this layout for my first sequence considering the lighting in each of the images, I think that I have a good contrast between images with lighter and darker exposures. This was in an attempt to make the lighter images stand out and for the silhouette in the darker images to be the focus of them. I think this turned out successful but may be interpreted as random and created without an intention behind it. Furthermore, because the lighting pf the images isn’t the same it means it doesn’t as well to my Bernd and Hilla Becher artist reference.

2nd Attempt

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This sequence was created with the intention of grouping images with similar objects/ structures next to each other, creating subsections within the sequence, I think this links well back to original purpose of sequencing (grouping together images of the same objects) and the lighter photographs have been placed in the central row of the arrangement in order to bring attention to this part of the sequence. This piece is probably the weakest out my experimentations as I think that the randomness of my other work is more aesthetic.

3rd Attempt

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My third attempt at creating a sequence came out as one of my favourites, despite the randomness of this piece, I think that placing my stronger images in the centre of the arrangement or at the top creates a aesthetic focal point for the sequence. In addition, having images with less exposure around the outside and then lighter in the top centre means that your focus is drawn to all of the piece. Alternatively, some of my images look to dark in this piece and I could be viewed as having too much contrast.

Within editing my images I wanted to present derelict buildings and abandonment through Sternfeld’s use of colour. A lot of the rooms in the derelict hotel I was photographing were yellow, leading to an interesting colour scheme throughout some images.

EXPERIMENTATION

First I experimented by changing the images to black and white.

I realised quickly that changing the images to black and white means I lose Sternfeld’s influence and the images quickly became boring so I decided to keep them in colour and concentrate on the yellow motif occurring throughout the images.

To maintain the yellow in the images I changed the temperature of the images to between +2 and +12, with this same rule going for the saturation and vibrancy of the images, this was so the images could be consistent in their colour scheme as some rooms were brighter than others.

I edited all the other images similarly, making sure to erase areas of over/underexposure depending on the lightning of the room by changing the exposure and contrast. I also levelled the images to ensure that the horizonal lines were straight.

#2 SUB-SELECTION OF IMAGES AND EDITING

After editing all my images I did another sub-selection- finding inspiration from Sophie Calle’s ‘The Hotel, Room 47’, more specifically, the way Calle displayed her work- presented in a grid titled the room number of the hotel room she was photographing.

The obvious similarity is that Calle and I are photographing a hotel however Calle’s work is displayed alongside extensive descriptions of what the room was like and the ownings of the room inhabitants and presented as a catalogue of documentary-style images in grid format- which I would like to do in photoshop as I really like the irony of displaying images of a derelict area as if it was brand new.

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP EDITING

First, I printed and cut out the images I wanted to use in a set and arranged them by hand until I liked the arrangement- next I tried to recreate this arrangement on photoshop.

First I opened a plain A4 page on Adobe Photoshop and opened all my other images on separate tabs.

Then I dragged each image onto the plain white page and resized and arranged them until they fit the page how I wanted it to be like.

The images ended up on the page like this however I was unsure of this layout so I continued with some layout experimentation.

I really like the inclusion of negative space in my experiments as it reminds me of blueprints of building plans- an interesting contrast between ruin and new buildings.

I also became interested in juxtaposing images of the hotel abandoned with images when it was still in business, as seen in the image above where a picture of the same penthouse room in the 2000s is distanced from pictures of the room in its current state by negative space- the black and white of the old image also being an interesting comparison as black and white is often linked to age- with old buildings often having been demolished quickly to make way for new buildings however in this case the black and white photo is showcasing the hotel when it was in a much better state compared to the yellow centred images- ironically, yellow being the colour that represents vitality and youth.

I ended up liking the last experiment (#4- seen above) the most as the arrangement reminded me of Sophie Calle’s work while the use of colour to Joel Sternfeld’s work and the depth of the images to Jeff Wall’s ‘The Destroyed Room’- especially in the bottom middle image. The negative space adds some abstraction to the piece which I find interesting as well.