Whilst experimenting with possible ideas for my final display i concluded with two options; either to frame up my images on a board using A5 images, or to create a small zine. I decided to make two boards to display my separate photoshoots to show the difference between artificial vs. natural lighting and want to display them in the grid format, but was unsure in what order so I experimented on photoshop possible outcomes for my final presentation.
PHOTOSHOOT #1
My design process for the first shoot was more difficult than the second considering I had more images to work with in a limited space. The default photoshop size didn’t fit all my images so i changed the format to 20×20 where I could arrange my images and be left with enough room. A black background definitely worked better with these images as it helped the tones in my darker images stand out and made them more visible.
PHOTOSHOOT #2
Although my initial idea for this shoot was to use 5 images, after experimenting with different grids and arrangements using the default photoshop size, I decided to settle on 4 images as I felt they looked more clean and easier to look at when displayed in a 2×2 grid, giving each image it’s own space to be viewed in. I also decided on a black background to contrast my photos and help the colours in them stand out more.
My book will not be story orientated rather it will be a selection of my images that compliment and contrast each other in their colours, focal point and background. For example i will try and compliment a close up image with a wider angle image. This will show the viewer the details of the image such as my models face and clothing as well as the surroundings in one page.
Motorcycles Cars People
My friends cars and motorcycles with the riders and drivers.
My friends from my driving and riding groups in their cars and on their motorcycles as well as working on their vehicles. Some photographs of the jersey hill climb and a 1920s Bentley close up for some high detail photographs.
How you want your book to look and feel?
I want my book to look clean and neat as it shows the respect the riders and drivers give to their vehicles. I want it to have bright colours on the coloured photos and deep contrasts on the black and white photos.
Paper
I want to have a glossy photopaper as it will be the best at showing the detail of the images.
Format, size and orientation
My book will be 33cm wide and 28cm tall when closed. This is a landscape orientation
Binding and cover
It will be hard back with no sleeve.
Title
??
Design and layout
Most pages in my book have full page spreads as it best shows my images and ensures the book is full without loads of blank space. There will be a double page spread so that all aspects of one of my best images can be seen. I will do a couple pages with two photos on it so they can compliment each other and some with a white boarder a couple of cm thick.
Editing and sequencing
I am grouping each photoshoot together as the images were taken to work together.
Images and text
My photobook will be only images. The only text will be the title, my name and the names of my models.
For my photobook, I initially started off by laying all the images out in a standard landscape format but decided to then change it to the small square layout. I wanted to have this be a small book of German occupant structures just to show complexity within such a small book.
For my photobook, I started off by selecting a range of images that I wanted to include within this book which I felt met the brief of what the theme was asking for. Once I edited the images, I selected the icon at the top which says “Book” and the images were automatically layed out into the formation of a photobook.
I started off by changing the format of the photobook to the standard landscape version and then arranged my images in a certain formation. I much preferred the composition of the landscape format to the portrait version as I would be able to layout my images in a better selection with full-scale double spreads and larger reflections of my singular images.
— Front cover —
For my front cover, I wanted to have a thin dust jacket over the top. I didn’t want it to cover the whole book as I would like for the book to be woven and I would like for that to be visible.
In photoshop, I coloured the entire image dark grey and then coloured in the centre a thin rectangle with the writing “Aftermath of World War II” and also my name below it in red. I wanted to just mark out what I wanted to achieve with the front cover. After I have the photobook, I will want to cut out the thin strip so that it doesn’t completely cover the book.
What I am hoping to achieve with my dust jacket
— Editing photographs —
Here I have an example of how I have gone about editing my images. I decided to apply a black and white filter to my images and I chose filter “PB08” as I like the overall aesthetic to gave my photos. I thought the cool tone greys, blacks and whites fit the mood that I was trying to portray with my imagery.
Edits I made towards my photograph
Filter I chose to use for my photograph
My own photograph with the edits applied
Old photograph of Jewish children being held in Auschwitz
My own photograph
I wanted my photography to me somewhat similar to how old photos, during the time Auschwitz was operating, were displayed and photographed as I wanted the same wounding impact from the old photographs. I tried to edit my images as close as possible to the real thing and wanted to achieve this for my final outcomes.
— Architecture —
Above I have a layout of how I want to sequence my photographs. I want to break up the layouts by containing some pages with double page spreads, two images or one on its own. I didn’t want to be incredibly repetitive with my layout so I tried to arrange the images to create a more interesting sequence.
Juxtaposition:
Above I have an example of a juxtaposed image. I wanted to break away from containing two images including buildings and monuments side-by-side, so I went ahead and included an image of the street light with a pair of shoes hung over the wire. I thought these photos worked nicely together as they are both different images so I thought they complimented each other quite nicely. The complex and messy graffiti next to the calm and simple photograph of the sky and shoes on a barbed wire, appealed to me so I put them together.
Double page spread:
Here I have an example of a double page spread. I wanted to apply this photograph as a double page one as I want to showcase a full scale presentation of what Auschwitz looked like from the outside and just show how overbearing and scary these buildings actually were. I wanted to enhance the size so that is why I decided it would be best to expand it across two pages.
Experimenting with borders:
Here is an example of about layout experiment where I chose a different border around the full image. I wanted to break away from the repetitive aspect of just scaling up the photo and leaving it like that, so I experimented with some of the other layouts in lightroom and chose a scratchy border to have around it.
— Sequencing —
Below I have a range of images of my photobook that showcase the sequence I have decided to put my photos into.
Berlin:
Above I have my variety of Berlin photographs which I decided to put all together at the very beginning. I wanted to start off with them being the starting point for my photobook as my topic is mainly on Germany and how they were able to occupy a wide range of countries and cities. I wanted to combine them all together rather than scatter them around with the other images as to prevent any confusion.
Krakow:
Above is my second sequence of images where I have combined all the photos I took within Auschwitz. I wanted once again to combine these images all together and not mix them up with the other images I have taken. Each sequence tells a different story and I wanted to achieve that by categorising the images I took in different locations, all in one section.
Jersey:
Above is my final layout in the sequence of my photobook. I wanted to capture the essence of Jersey’s German occupation history by including all the images I took of German bunkers together.
Overall, I really like the way I sequenced all my images and the order I decided to put them in. I believe they tell a story from within each segment and also altogether.
Michelle Sank is a British photographer who was born in Cape Town, South Africa. She is best known for her documentary-style photography that often focuses on social issues and marginalized communities.
Sank studied photography at the London College of Printing before beginning her career as a professional photographer in the late 1980s. Her work has been featured in numerous exhibitions and publications throughout the world, including The New York Times, The Guardian, and TIME Magazine.
One of Sank’s most famous projects is “In My Skin”, a series of portraits of teenagers in the UK who are coping with a variety of physical and emotional challenges. The project began in 2003 and continued for several years, resulting in a book of the same name that was published in 2007.
Her other projects have focused on a wide range of subjects, including immigrants in the UK, gay rights in Uganda, and the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.
Her photography is often characterized by its intimate and empathetic approach to her subjects, which allows her to capture the complexity of their lives and experiences. Her work is also notable for its use of natural light and simple compositions that highlight the humanity and dignity of her subjects.
In addition to her photography, Sank is also an educator and has taught at several institutions, including the University of Wales and the University of Falmouth in the UK.
Her work
image analysis
“My Self” is a photography project that explores the concept of identity through self-portraits. In this series, Michelle Sanks photographed individuals in a way that reveals their personalities and innermost selves. The portraits are raw, honest, and intimate, capturing the essence of the subject in a way that is both revealing and vulnerable.
Sanks’ use of black and white photography creates a timeless quality to the portraits, allowing the viewer to focus on the subject’s expressions and body language without any distraction from color. Through this series, Sanks challenges our preconceived notions of identity, showing that it is not just about how we look, but also about our experiences, emotions, and perceptions of ourselves.
Overall, “My Self” is a powerful and thought-provoking project that invites the viewer to reflect on their own identity and how we present ourselves to the world.
August Sander was a German photographer who is best known for his series of portraits capturing the people and social classes of Germany during the first half of the 20th century. His work is considered to be one of the most important contributions to the development of documentary photography.
Sander was born in Herdorf, Germany and spent much of his early life working in a mine, as his father was a mine carpenter, before discovering his passion for photography. He later moved to Cologne, where he opened his own photography studio in 1910.
Sander’s most famous work is his series of portraits titled “People of the 20th Century”, which he began in the early 1900s and continued to work on until his death. The series aimed to document the social structure of Germany during the early 20th century, and included photographs of people from all walks of life, from farmers and factory workers to artists and intellectuals.
Sander’s portraits were often shot in a straightforward, unadorned style, with his subjects typically photographed against plain backgrounds in natural light. He avoided new technologies by not using the newly invented Leica camera. Instead he remained dedicated to an old-fashioned large-format camera, glass negatives and long exposure times. This allowed him to capture smaller details of individual faces. His work was deeply influenced by the ideas of the German sociologist Max Weber, who believed that the study of social structure should be based on empirical observation.
Despite its importance, Sander’s work was often criticized by the Nazi regime, which saw his depictions of the working class and marginalized groups as a threat to their ideology. Many of his negatives were destroyed during World War II, and he was forced to abandon his work on “People of the 20th Century”.
Today, Sander’s work is recognized as a cornerstone of documentary photography, and his portraits continue to inspire generations of photographers around the world.
His work
image analysis
“Der Boxer Heinz Heese” is a portrait created in 1929. The image depicts Heinz Heese, a professional boxer, in a typical boxing stance. He is wearing boxing gloves and shorts, and his muscular build is emphasized by the strong light and shadow contrasts used in the photo.
Sander was known for his portraits of people from different social classes and professions, and “Der Boxer Heinz Heese” is part of his larger series “People of the 20th Century”, which aimed to document the diverse German society of the time.
The photograph has been described as a realistic and unidealized portrayal of a working-class boxer, reflecting Sander’s interest in capturing the essence of his subjects without any embellishments. It is considered a significant work of German modernist portraiture and a representation of the cultural and political context of the time.
After giving it some thought, I settled on the name Chroma for my photobook, it refers to the purity or intensity of a colour, which I feel works well for my final layout.
I uploaded my photobook onto Blurb to be printed, it can be previewed here.
Overall I am very happy with my final layout, however I would have liked to add more images as this version is very small. I had 77 potential images I wanted to use but only used 24 of them in the final version. If I were to do this project again I would want to take more images so I had more high quality material to use in the book. Despite this I feel that I was successful in this project in exploring colour and light in a unique and abstract way, and it is very different compared to my previous project which mostly used old archival images.
For my photobook i have taken inspiration from all of these photobooks. Firstly like the front cover of “CORTINA”. I think having just two thirds of the car showing looks really good as you can still see some background for context however it is still obvious to anyone who doesn’t know what a Cortina is that the car is the focus of the book. Second i really like the illustrated motorbike on the front of “Born to ride”. Due to its design it shows that the book has the theme of speed the whole way through. The book on the top right has a really good layout as it shows an image of the full car as well as the internal workings, I am going to use the idea in my photobook however i am going to switch the images so that the full car is on the left page and the smaller aspects are on the right. This will work better as it shows more of a sequence as the viewer can see the full car or bike then when the move to the next page it will show the photographs of the details.
As I will be including AI generated images in my photobook, I will continue to experiment with the software I consider to be the best/most appropriate for inclusion in this blogpost. I will be using DreamstudioAI to generate these images as Dall-E 2 did not allow me access likely due to the servers being full.
DreamstudioAI
1
Prompt: ‘Sublime image of a forest landscape at night, incorporate the Fibonnacci sprial in the composition, include a small stream of water, detailed, highly detailed’
Settings:
Image used:
Generated Images:
2
Prompt: ‘Forest setting with sublime lighting, serene atmosphere, golden spiral, detailed, highly detailed’
Settings:
Generated Images:
3
Prompt: ‘Fallen tree stump in sublime forest setting, serene forest landscape, dense vegetation, Fibonnacci golden rule spiral, golden mean, golden spiral, detailed, highly detailed’
Settings:
Image used:
Generated Images:
4
Prompt: ‘Forest setting with dense vegetation, sublime lighting and colours, clear stream of water passing under green log, fibonnacci sequence, detailed, highly detailed’
Below I have my contact sheets for my first and second photoshoot. For my first photoshoot I used the studio as I wanted to complete some of the portraits for my project, I found that a lot of them were successful and showed off the subject well. I used two different types of lighting in the studio shoot one being a warmer toned light and also the flash light which was connected to the transmitter on the camera. This allowed for the subject to be framed by the pure white background as well as being well lit which complimented their skin and helped to have stronger colours. For my second photoshoot I went to St Andrews park in first tower as I wanted a more colourful and natural background to my images. I first started with the subjects standing together and individually, I then moved on to a bench where I also took some photographs together and one of just the subject.
Sub-selection
I have narrowed down the images I might be including by using the flag tool, I did this by pressing either the ‘p’ of ‘x’ key which rejected or kept the image that I wanted. I will make a new selection of images after I have edited these. As you can see below there is both my first photoshoot and my second photoshoot in this sub-selection. I have also used the star tool, but this is to help me figure out which images I should spend more time on compared to others. The ratings range from 1 star which is the photographs which I liked but don’t think will be included in my final prints to 4/5 stars which as the photographs that i will be focused more on with the editing and the ones that are most likely to used in my final prints.
Editing: Photoshoot 1
As I was using the studio for my first photoshoot I wanted to focus more on portraits and the different angle of each subjects faces. I also did some full body images as I wanted to show how they like to dress and the different colours which are incorporated into the clothes. Below are two of my portraits which I have decided to edit in black and white as I felt that they conveyed more of a message and suited the lighting better. For my black and white images I switch the original photographs form colour and then adjust both the contrast and exposure to a darker setting and I prefer a image with more exaggerated shadows. As well a increasing the contrast and decreasing the exposure I also use the shadow setting to get the darker look.
Another example of my editing I have shown below of how I have kept my images in colour, for this photographs I felt that using colour would compliment the subject more. For these I have decreased the exposure and increased the contrast so that the colour form the subjects skin and hair become more saturated and standout more against the white background.
Editing: Photoshoot 2
Below I have two of the images from my second photoshoot which I have chosen to keep in colour as I wanted to be able to show my editing techniques with both colour and black and white. With these images I have decreased the exposure as I felt that they were slightly over exposed, I have also increased the contrast on both as I like a darker look to my photographs. For these images I have also experimented with using the temp tool in Lightroom. As these images were taken during an overcast day I increased the temp tool giving a more yellow effect and imitates ‘golden hour’ which I prefer to the original image which is quite cold and grey. For the right image I have also increased the tint tool into the pink colour as I wanted to add more colour into the face of the subject.
I have also edited some of the images form this photoshoot in black and white, all of my black and white images have been edited in a similar way as I wanted my photographs to look cohesive when they are put next to each other. I have decreased the exposure and increased the contrast which is the same as my colour images but with these black and white ones I tend to increase the shadows and white tool so that the image isn’t to dark and you can still make out the details.
Final Images: Photoshoot 1
I have used the colour system to help differentiate between the images I will be using (Green) and the images which have been edited but will not be chosen to be final photographs (Yellow).
Below are 5 of my favourite images from my first photoshoot, I have a few other final images for this shoot but I have chosen to analyse the photographs I think are the best.
The top 4 photographs are different types of portraits which I have taken in the studio, two of which I have edited to be black and white. The first image on the left I like how the subject isn’t looking towards the camera but you can still clearly see the emotion on her face, I also think that this is a contrast to other images which have been taken in a similar format throughout photography. When you see a portrait with the subject looking down and it being in black and white, it normally is a sad image but I enjoy how this is the opposite. The second photograph I have left in colour as I wanted the sole of the shoe to be the main focus, I also liked how the ‘gum’ colour contrasted with the white background. This image I find interesting as the foreground is in focus putting the shoe at the centre but it has the background where the subjects face is blurred. I like this as it gives viewers different things to focus on and pick at when they are looking at my images. I have tried to make sure that the emotion on the subjects face can still be clear made out as it tells a small story of what it was like during the photoshoot and what everyone was feeling.
For the two images to the left I also kept one in colour and changed the other to black and white as I wanted the monochromatic look as I thought it fit the image better. The third image is one of my favourites as it is not a classic portrait of the subject looking directly at the camera and posing, the stance is more natural and conveys a more relaxed feeling to the photograph. I like how people can see the different shades of grey from the subjects hair with it originally being blonde. I feel that using black and white was able to add more texture to the image and enhance the details compared to if I had left it in colour. The fourth photograph I decided to keep in colour as I wanted to exaggerate the design on the back of the subjects hoodie. I increased the contrast on the image so that the different shades of blue become more prominent and saturated against the cream jumper and white background. The image gives a different view to the subject, something that they cannot see but also a view that hundreds of people see everyday. I like to use the backshot as I believe it can add meaning to the story behind the image.
Finally, above is a photograph of all three subjects taken from a lowered angle with the middle subjects foot in the foreground out of focus and their faces towards the background in focus looking at the camera. I like this photograph as it shows how i have been experimenting with different compositions in my photoshoots. I have been enjoying using different angles and using a blurry foreground or background to my advantage to make my images more interesting and able to tell a short story.
Final Images: Photoshoot 2
I have used the colour tool to help myself choose my final images. I used the green colour to represent the photographs that I will defiantly be using as my final images, I have also used yellow to represent the images that I most likely wont be using in my final images.
Below I have 4 of my final images from my second photoshoot, I do not believe that this is my most successful photoshoot as the background contrasted with with the subject in the foreground. For the first three images I wanted to keep them in colour as I liked the warmer colour from the editing in lightroom. For the first image the subject is looking away from the camera with the sunlight on her back making it shadowed in the background on the grass. For the fourth image in this sequence I turned it black and white as I wanted to experiment with the outside portraits in different shades and colours. The second and fourth image are quite similar but I wanted to use them both as I liked the difference between the facial expressions and I enjoy how people will be able to see the development in the photoshoot.
