I think one of my favorite photographers who has done work on double exposure would be Christoffer Relander. He was best known for his series called “We Are Nature”. He layers the original portrait photo and layers a blurred nature image on top which is known as double exposure.
Emotional aspects-
I really like these photos they feel very tranquil and calming because all the colours are quite dull and muted but the way it’s blended makes it work
Visual aspects-
I think this image really works I like the fact it is in colour and you have the rich greens showing through unlike some of his other images.
I also really like how you can still see the model’s face very clearly underneath the nature/trees and the trees are almost being used as her hair i think that looks really successful.
technical aspects-
if you use the rule of thirds you can tell they have all the darker parts of the image where the hair would be in the collum on the right and the middle collum seems to be the most bright and colourful. The side on the left is probably the dullest it doesn’t have much it other than the model’s face.
conceptual aspects-
I get the impression from his work that Relander is trying to show us the beauty the calming effect of nature I would love to recreate his work I think it’s so interesting and beautiful and would be a great one to recreate.
contextual aspects-
This style of work is from his “We Are Nature” collection. Christoffer Relander is a Finnish photographer who liked the idea of pairing up each subject/model with different geographical/natural elements.
Double exposure is when you have two images layered on top of each other and you’ll change the blending options of the opacity of the images. Double exposure tends to create this dream like effect sometimes making the image look scary and give off a strange vibe but sometimes the photos can look very happy and sometimes nostalgic.
This style I believe comes from when Bernd and Hilla Becher who took photos of buildings then layered them together to create this creepy almost fantasy looking image.
I think the idea behind doing those kinds of photos is to create that kind of surreal effect for the image. Often photographers use double exposure to be able to add lots of deep and almost hidden meaning within their photos.
Butterfly lighting is where there is a small shadow usually under the model’s nose. It was first used by Marlene Dietrich who at the time was a German silent film actress in the 1920s and 30s and her director von Sternberg started to use the technique as it seemed to extenuate her strong features. The main reason butterfly lighting is used is because it makes for a very flattering portrait your features tend to stand out more and the lighting tends to be softer.
Here is an example of how to actually set up your lighting to create a butterfly effect
You want your light source to be quite light up and centered above the model’s face
you will need to be below the light source and slightly higher than central to the model face so maybe forehead level level
and then having a reflector underneath the model will help
Chiaroscuro lighting is said to be the contrast between light and dark so any type of lighting skill could be classed as chiaroscuro. It’s inspired by films usually Hollywood crime with German expressionists. However, I will be focusing on split lighting where you light up half of the model’s face and have a shadow on the other half. This tends to add an intense feeling to the photo.
Here is an example of the setup that would been needed to achieve split lighting
have the camera directly infront of your model
have the light source at a 90° angle to your model
then depeding on how harsh you want yout lighting/split effect to be more the light closer or further away
This is what spilt lighting can be
This is more Chiaroscuro lighting which the Hollywood films feel to them
The image on the left is the unedited version and the right is the edited picture there isn’t any apparent change between the two however I did darken the shadows slightly to add a bit more contrast to the image. I think overall this picture turned out really good the split in the model’s face is very defined and sharp which is what I wanted.
This technique worked really well for me I think I managed to have a pretty successful image with sharp lines through the shadow down the model’s face the darker image at the bottom I really liked because I also feel they had more of the Hollywood film feel to them like Chiaroscuro lighting was originally inspired by.
I think the images below could have been better if the show was more dramatic and darker although they are still visible they don’t seem to have the same intense feel to them as some of the others do which I think is to do with the shadows being so light.
The editing for these photos really didn’t take much is was mainly changing the contrast slightly just so the difference between the light and dark was that little bit more dramatic and then some of the images I cropped so they were a lot closer to the models face as they seemed to look more effective that way.
Identity politics is a type of politics that is based in a certain identity. Things like nationality, race, religion, gender, social background, sexual orientation, social class and so much more.
Identity politics can be quiet damaging to the younger half of society as it puts pressure on those individuals to express something they do not need to express just because they want to ‘fit in’.
There are some positive effects of Identity politics which are things like, society can feel more free to express themselves as there is a more excepting community and they can also feel free to identify themselves as who they want to be, wherever they are and not be judges for it. However there is some bad effect in identity politics. As said above, it pressures young individuals to express things that they don’t even properly know themselves which causes them to feel isolated because they can’t express themselves or don’t know how to or even don’t need to express themselves.
A culture war is a cultural conflict between different types of social groups that illustrate their struggles, beliefs and their want for dominance towards individuals.
Cultural wars can significantly effect society as a whole because it can influence a wrong set of individuals and therefore cause chaos. Cultural wars can cause distrust within a society which encourages people to cluster in their cultural groups.
There is some positive effects of cultural wars because it enables a set of individuals to express the same views and feel heard and appreciated. People who cluster in these cultural groups can relate to each other and set order to things that need to be said and done. However a negative effect to cultural wars is that there is constant conflict and things can get quite serious, even deadly.
An example of identity politics and culture wars are,
Global:
The Black Lives Matter movement:
Black Lives Matter or more known as BLM is a activist political and social movement that urges to highlight racism, racial inequality towards black people, discrimination, and it promotes anti-racism. The primary concerns in this movement are incidents of police brutality and racially motivated violence against black people.
It’s something that is know globally and still continues to power through, calling out anyone who’s against the whole purpose of the movement and especially making sure that those who purposefully commit such acts towards black people are to be called out.
This example is an example of political identity and culture wars globally.
Local perspective:
Something that happened locally recently was the discussion to wether same-sex marriages would be legalised. After 2 years of development and discussion, jersey is closer to legalising same-sex marriage.
The new law will encourage people to stop discrimination against same-sex as same-sex marriage will equally have the rights as an heterosexual married couple. The fact that it took 2 years for it to be nearly approved may imply that there was some type of conflict toward the whole development.
This is an example of identity politics and culture wars locally.
I will take photos of my subjects facing towards the camera either straight or slightly tilted, and then go into photoshop and use the select tool to select either a triangle shape or square shape on the subjects face and move it to another part of their face like their hair or forehead and the two shapes should swap. For example, if I moved a part of the cheek to the hair then that part of hair would be where the cheek is.
For this photo I used, soft lighting with the body tilted slightly off centre frame, but his head facing directly towards the camera with eyes focus into the lens with only a subtle smile but no other emotions and no other gestures.
For this photo I used a model but I pasted the same picture 3 times and with the middle photo, I made it black and white and just cropped it to the eyes then copped the final photo just from the eyes and below to create this photo montage triple eye image.
are an illusion created by layering images (or portions of images) over the top of each other. . Artist have used these techniques to explore Surrealist Ideas and evoke dream-like imagery, or imagery that explores time / time lapse.
The plan mf:
subject looks off into distance, with same background he turns head, looking directly into camera with a facial expression.
Here are photos of a very handsome model with a tash of editing:
Diamond Cameo Diamond Cameo is when four small oval portraits were placed in background in the shape of a diamond with each portrait being of the same person photographed in a different position.
Henry Mullins moved to Jersey in July 1848, setting up a studio known as the Royal Saloon, at 7 Royal Square. Here he would photograph Jersey political elite (The Bailiff, Lt Governor, Jurats, Deputies etc), mercantile families (Robin, Janvrin, Hemery, Nicolle ect.) military officers and professional classes (advocates, bankers, clergy, doctors etc).
My take on Diamond Cameo:
Started by taking a few photos of each other with different face angles to recreate the diamond cameo look.
I really liked these 4 pictures of myself looking in different directions, so I used them in photoshop by copy and pasting them in, moving each photo to the correct position, creating oval shapes to go behind the photos with bevels and shadows on. Old, tea-stained paper for the overall background to give it an old look and then with the dodge tool, I lightened up parts on my neck/face.
In addition to the diamond cameo I wanted to try some different presentation techniques.
Double Exposure
I experimented with 2 different uses of double exposure. The first I added false colour and arranged each layer in a different spot to create an arrangement. The second I layered 4 different angles over the top of each other to distort the portrait. I reduced the opacity of these layers so that they wouldn’t be too harsh. I prefer the second one because I think that the distortion looks more interesting than the first arrangement.
Vignette
Using photoshop I added a light vignette to the corners of the portraits. The lighter backgrounds worked best only needing one layer to be visible. The dark one needed many layers which made the clothes looks overly exposed. I don’t really like how these turned out and were one of the weaker experiments this project.
Cut outs
Using these two portraits I used the triangle shape tool to select two areas of the portrait and cut out those sections. The black background is too dark and didn’t give much to choose from in terms of areas to select. With the lighter background it stands out more from the background.
Virtual Gallery
I arranged the four portraits I was using on one wall using the perspective tool. I added one multiple exposure image and the two diamond cameo images. The diamond cameo images look out of place on the wall and I think I should have made them smaller and together on one wall.
Evaluation
I compiled all the best images into my virtual gallery. I think the photoshoots inspired by Henry Mullins were the best since I had a clear plan and vision. I wanted to create some diamond cameo arrangements and at least one vignette portrait so set out to photograph similar angles. Since I wasn’t planning on creating the multiple exposure or cut outs, I hadn’t photographed with those ideas in mind so especially for the cut out images they just looked a bit odd.
