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.
My photobook will showcase a range of images to commemorate the aftermath of the German lead war of WWII. I thought it would be a good idea to present images regarding this topic as Jersey means a lot to me due to being born on the island and Jersey is related heavily to war topics. I thought it would be a good choice to display mainly the theme of ‘complex’ due to how big of a story there is behind the images I decided to photograph.
Narrative: What is your story?
3 words:
World War Two
A sentence:
My story is about the aftermath of Countries and cities way after the choices that Germans decided to undergo during WWII.
A paragraph:
My photobook is going to mainly consist around the area of the World War and how Jersey, Krakow and Germany was involved in aspects of the war and them all being German occupant locations.
Design
I would like for my photobook to consist of mainly the colours black and white as I prefer the more dramatic approach to the theme I have chosen. I would like my book to be a hardback book as for it to be quite a solid book and I would like for it to consist of having a woven material for the cover of my book. I would like for my photobook to contain a variety of both black and white pages with my images included in and I would like to also contain a variety of black and white text. The size for my book will be quite small so preferably an A5 type of size and it will also have a simple layout for the cover as to not overcomplicate the entire book itself.
Moodboard of design ideas for my photobook
Michael Schmidt – Berlin nach 45 photobook
Michael Schmidt
Michael Schmidt
Michael Schmidt
Michael Schmidt
Woven photobook with a dust jacket (Similar concept to what I would like but the dust jacket in this image is too wide)
Example of how I would like the front and back cover to look colour and material wise
I have chosen to research a photobook by Michael Schmidt named “Berlin Nach 45”. Michael Schmidt’s photographs have always focused on his hometown of Berlin especially in book format-a fundamental element of his work. One of his most important bodies of work about Berlin, Berlin Nach 1945, has never before been published as a whole. It is particularly significant at this time, given the extreme urban, social, artistic, and general developmental changes Berlin has undergone within recent years. This series documents a place which, as recently as 1980, was still very much marred by World War II, and provides an impressive visual record of a city in a state of flux.
Images from the photobook
Who is the photographer?
The photographer is Michael Schmidt and he perceives and reacts to the world, offering through “fragmentation, condensation, abstraction” a “sense of space distorted in depth”, in which “existence is hollowed out to its extremes” that “take his subjects out of their historical anchorage” to offer a “harsh and completely unique view of the fragility of human existence” – “a subjective, deeply felt work of the life and suffering of people in the shadow of Berlin.”
Thomas Weski and Laura Bielau stated that “This is the strength of Michael Schmidt’s work. An ability to transcend the present – its present – and to fragment it in order to better represent it. Creations with shallow backgrounds, which play with nuances and break free from simple black and white to offer a shade of grey, evoking the rainy sky of Berlin. A true love letter, tortured, raw, deep and complex, to the city where it was born, grew and disappeared.”
Deconstructing the narrative, concept and design
The book feels quite heavy as it is a hardback book and also has a nice textured front and back cover which is woven. It has quite a rough texture to it and contains a simple front cover that is blue coloured, with the title displaying Schmidt’s name and “Berlin nach 45”. The book is also contained within a cardboard case which is cream coloured and quite solid as well with staples punched into the side of it. The title translates to “Berlin after 1945”, meaning these are photographs that are displayed from the later on stages of the city after the events of WWII. The entire concept of the photobook itself is about how the war has impacted society and the landscape of the city itself, capturing both urban and rural landscape photography to capture what everything really looks like after the tragic events of the war.
Example of a page within the photobook
Berlin nach 45: a work of 55 pictures taken with a Linhoff camers, 13 x 18 centimeter negatives enlarged to 16 x 22 prints on paper 24 x 30cm in size.
Originally, the series was supposed to be called ‘Berlin im Wiederaufban nach 1945 (Berlin During Reconstruction after 1945), but Schmidt quickly realised that such a title would trigger the wrong conclusion: “reconstruction” would imply activity and change. But in these pictures, which appear here for the first time in book form, do not depict any people. They convey a threatening sense of silence, in which the sounds of battle still echo. The pictures in Berlin nach 45 were taken entirely in the section of Kreuzberg in Berlin.
I decided to experiment with one of my photographs that I took when I was visiting Auschwitz. What I wanted to achieve was something similar to that of Katrin Koenning. In order for me to achieve this, I opened up photoshop and opened the image that I wanted to edit, afterwards I outlined the couple in the centre of the image with the pen in white and added a soft white barrier around the outline.
Process of colouring the figures in white
I then went ahead and used both the smudge and blur tool to soften the white glow that surrounds the people so that it didn’t look too harsh. I also decided to lower the opacity of the glow as it seemed to be quite harsh the first time I did it.
Blur and smudge tool that I used
— Final outcome —
My photograph
Above I have a side-by-side comparison of my edited photograph right next to an example of Katrin Koenning’s photography. I was very happy with how this image turned out as I believe it is very similar to that or Koeninng’s.
Katrin Koenning
However, I won’t be using it in my final outcomes or my photobook as I don’t think it fits in with the other photographs. All my images are just of real moments and real buildings in different countries, whilst this photograph is the only edited photograph I would have to present which I don’t feel fits in with what I have already produced. I am still very satisfied with how this image turned out as it holds the same aesthetic as Koeninng’s but it doesn’t meet the brief of what I have made. Something I would change is the colour of the glow as it is pure white and doesn’t seem to fit in as well with the overall colour scheme of the image. The image contains a lot of blacks and greys but hardly showcasing any shockingly bright whites which compliment the cutout section, that is why I have decided to use the original version of the image for my photobook rather than the edited version.
I have chosen to compare these two images as I believe that they both have similarities in the two. They both contain photos from within Berlin so they first have a similarity within the fact they’re both based in the same city. Both images contain urban photography and are both based around a bridge or tram area, having other buildings in the background of them. They both display portions of the road and contain lamp posts, definitely capturing the city-like scapes of Berlin. Another similarity that both images contain is that they’re both in black and white, draining all the colour from within the photograph. I feel that draining the colour makes the more dull and moody as it is representing the aftermath of the World War.
A difference I can spot between the two images however is that Schmidt’s is more focused on the road going straight down it whilst mine is aimed more at the tram bridge and all the complex looking structures that are displayed.
Here is a full-scale presentation of the image I have chosen to compare with that of Michael Schmidt’s. I really like how this image turned out as I feel it is very similar to that of Schmidt’s who I used as a real inspiration for my pieces. Schmidt’s work has been a huge inspiration for me as I feel he is able to present the essence of what Berlin is really like through it momentous structures that have been rebuilt and modified after the tragic events during the war, showing that the city is able to move past these problems and change for the better.
For my third photoshoot, I planned to take a variety of photographs that contained bunkers and war related aspects of Jersey. I thought it would be a clever idea to showcase the monuments and buildings that were created by the Germans when Jersey was a German occupant island as it links straight into my other photoshoot themes of WWII and Germany being the main vocal point behind all photoshoots.
Contact sheets:
Colour coded and star rated:
When organising my flagged images, I went down the route of colour coding the images into the categories of green, yellow and red. Green meaning that I like these images and would like to use them as my best images to edit, yellow being that these images are a possible to be used as a final image and finally red being that I’m not going to end up using them. Carrying out this process made it easier for me to figure out which images I would like to continue developing for my final images. I thought the images that I decided to chose as my best, were able to display a good sense of photographers I have done in depth analyses of such as Michael Schmidt as they represent areas involving the war and still showcase a good model of what the photographer produces.
Green:
Yellow:
Red:
Successful photos
Here I have a range of images that I deem to be my most successful photographs as I believed that they were able to represent both my area of study and the topic chosen for the exam itself.
Evaluation of my most successful photographs:
1
2
The photos above I really liked the look of for my project. Photograph 1 was chosen as I really enjoyed the perspective I presented as it is within a gun turret. Instead of just taking photos of bunkers from the outside, I decided to capture the inside of what it actually looked like when the German occupants were occupying them and using them during the war. Photograph 2 was also chosen as I feel it captures the true structure of what the exterior looked like for a proper German bunker, the patterns and detail that was added to it showcases that they have aged quite a bit throughout the years.
Unsuccessful photos
Unsuccessful photo evaluation:
12
I have chosen these two images as examples of my least successful photographs as I don’t feel they really represent the extent of what the bunkers are like in Jersey. Image 1 showcases the ropes that are wrapped over a stone structure which was very widely used when making bunkers during the war. Although this image represents what German occupants would use during the war, it still doesn’t really represent much of the bigger picture behind what was built by Germans. Image 2 is also similar in this sense as it’s a close up of a bunker so it doesn’t show the full scale of what they’ve made.
Best images before editing:
Best images after editing:
Final outcomes, Analysis and Critique
With my images, I was very happy with how they turned out as I believe they were able to fit the brief of what I was going for. I wanted to feature bunkers and aspects of the aftermath of war within Jersey as it is the place I grew up in. I have a bunker within my garden so this section really means a lot to me personally.
Here above I have one of the images I have taken. I really like this image and the range that I ended up taking for my project, however something I would have done differently is explore more bunkers around Jersey and take more photographs, especially the one in my garden. Although the one in my garden is quite boring and I didn’t photograph it, I still thought it was a missed opportunity as to the main link between why this is important to me.
For this photoshoot, I would like to capture areas of Krakow that obviously showcase monuments and buildings that were created by German occupants. An example of an area that I am going to photograph is mainly Auschwitz as it was a German run concentration camp which was incredibly devastating for many people during and after this time. I would also like to capture some aspects of Krakow’s urban landscape to capture what the city looks like after the math of war.
Contact sheets:
Here I have a selection of photos that I took from my photoshoot and I went down the route of flagging and rejected which ones I liked and disliked. In order to do this, I pressed P to pick which images I wanted to use for my final piece and then pressed X to reject the ones I didn’t want to include in my final layout.
Successful photographs:
Here I have a selection of my my flagged images that I am going to be going through to pick out which images I would like to include in my final outcomes.
Unsuccessful photographs:
Here I have a range of images that I took throughout my photoshoot which I will not be including in my final outcomes. I didn’t think they fit the brief of what I was going for so I claimed these to be unsuccessful and won’t be using them in the end.
Colour coded and star rated:
After carrying out my selection process, I started colour coding my flagged images into the categories of green, yellow and red. I wanted to then star rate my images by having 5 star rated images as being definite ones to use, 4 stars as ones I will also use, 3 stars as ones to possibly use, and 2 and below are images I won’t be using for my final layout.
Green:
Here I have a selection of images that I have star rated and colour coded to green which I am going to use as my definite photos for my final outcomes. I particularly liked how these turned out as I believe they are able to showcase what I am going for with the given theme of ‘complex’ and also my choice of study.
Yellow:
These are my selected images that I am unsure of using but might still consider including in my final outcome. I wanted to only chose a few of them from this selection as to not have too many final images.
Red:
Finally I have my red color coded images that I will not be using, I feel that these images don’t fit within the theme I am going for or that these are good enough images to include in my final outcomes.
Best images before editing:
— Editing —
Below I have some examples of photographs that I have edited, showcasing both the before and after side by side so that I could really show the changes I have made.
Before
After
Before
After
My intentions with these images was to make them appear more dramatic than they are in reality. The first image was taken whilst at Auschwitz which in reality is incredibly devastating but I wanted to make the image more ominous and eerie by stripping the image of all its colour.
Before
After
Here I have another example of a photograph I took at Auschwitz. I once again wanted to make it black and white as to make it appear way more devastating and to also make it somewhat similar to the old photographs taken back when the concentration camp was being operated by the Germans.
Photos after editing:
Final outcomes, Analysis and Critique
I have selected this as my first image as I wanted to start off by presenting a very impactful image. The barbed wire and the buildings that were used to kill off several Jews during the German occupation creates a truly saddening display. I wanted to allow for this image to make it clear that these events should never occur again as they are one of the most upsetting events to have occurred within history. I think the use of making the image black and white once again takes out all the life from within the image and also creates a very similar image to that of the old time ones.
I have placed these images together as I believe they all compliment each-other nicely and are all from within the location of Auschwitz, all showing different perspectives of the location and showing a range of areas that was present from within the facility.
