I used the Adobe Photoshop app 2024 to use the Neural Filters option to experiment with the different filter that are available.
This was my photo before I made any changes to it using the filters. I chose to use this photo as it is a simple photo which includes some land and some sky therefore it is able to show how the filters take effect.
To access the filters you must select ‘filter’ and then ‘Neural Filters’. I chose to use the Landscape Mixer filter as my photo is a landscape. To activate the filter you must turn it on using the switch that is to the side of it. I then adjusted the strength to make sure the photo didn’t look too unrealistic.
This was my first photo using the filters and I like the way that it has turned the sky into a more purple colour and it has made the clouds look more intense. However it has changed the ‘Lifeguard’ into another thing which is unable to be read.
Next I chose a different filter and this time I wanted to experiment with how it would look if I increased the ‘night’ option which caused the photo to look like it has been taken during the night time.
In this photo the sand has been changed into a grass which looks realistic and the clouds have been turned darker to give the illusion that it has been taken at night time.
I experimented with AI generative fill using the Photoshop app. I used my photos of deadpan photography to do this.
First edit:
I wanted to adjust my image to make it appear that it is in the future, for example adding factories and rising the water to show climate change. This links to the next theme of Anthropocene which is how humans have negatively impacted the world.
When using the generative fill tool it provides you with 3+ options to choose from every time you use it. I used the phrase ‘add factories’ when prompting my AI. It provided me with 3 options this time, and I chose to use the second option as it looked realistic as it didn’t add too much and also didn’t add too little.
Final outcome:
I then prompted the AI tool to add rising rides to the lower half of the image to show how Jersey will look at some point in the future due to the rising tides and global warming. I also prompted it to add more cars to show how the population size is also increasing. I think this is a very successful image as the AI has created realistic adjustments and it has even included the reflections of the buildings and cars from the real photo as well as the AI factory.
Second edit:
Next I used this almost empty image which I took down in Saint Ouens.
In this photo I went for the same theme of adding factories and rising water, I find this one to be not as realistic as the first one was as I feel I may have added too much and it looks fake.
Anthropocene is the way in which humans have had an impact on earth. It can be shown through photography by taking photos of things such as wastage, pollution, litter, and other negative things which have come about due to human activity. Animals are suffering the effects of the increasing population size as the need for more food increases the amount of animals being killed also increases, Economists estimate that by the year 2050, global meat production must increase by 73 percent to meet the expected 43 percent boost to the world’s population. Due to this animals are kept in unfair, inhumane conditions and bred for the one purpose being human consumption which is completely unfair.
Anthropocene in Jersey
As we enter a new era, the Anthropocene, the two largest threats that face humanity are the climate crisis and biodiversity collapse. In recent decades, human populations have risen, placing increased pressure on natural resources. This has caused a considerable rise in Greenhouse Gas emissions such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxides from expanding agriculture and burning of fossil fuels. Approximately 77% of land and 87% of oceans have been directly modified by human impacts and therefore, sustainable growth often appears impossible. Due to an increasing human population and rising consumer demands contributing to the climate crisis, not to mention the large amounts of fossil fuels we emit each day causing humans to be the biggest cause of climate change and we must now make a change to stop climate change. Although a relatively new science, blue carbon (carbon stored by the ocean) has become increasingly appealing as a marine-based solution. However, macroalgae, things like seaweed, are yet to be included in such assessments. This is a huge disadvantage to European coastal areas and islands, such as Jersey, as their marine habitats are often macroalgae-dominated. Jersey, in the Channel Islands, may utilise its sizeable intertidal zone to restore current macroalgal habitats, facilitate new growth or establish seaweed aquaculture. Approximately 1730 tonnes of organic carbon are currently stored in brown macroalgae biomass in Jersey’s intertidal zone. Additionally, sheltered areas of coastline contained significantly higher densities of carbon and habitats varied significantly in their carbon stock. Another major sign of Anthropocene in Jersey is the large amount of scaffolding works which are constantly taking place all over the island. These scaffolding events demonstrate the largely increasing population and how we are almost running out of space and constantly in need of new houses or flats. This clearly demonstrates how people have an effect on earth as we are always destroying the land in order to make more space for humans in order to keep up with our forever increasing population size.
Analysis:
This photo was taken by Alexander Grir and it strongly demonstrates how bad climate change has gotten. This photo of polar bear feeding from a garbage dump was taken by the Russian village of Belushya Guba during 2018, 6 years ago meaning this could be much worse now. Soon after this during 2019 a state of emergency was declared due to dozens of polar bears entering the villagers home as well as other public buildings. The polar bears were forced to compete for food on land due to the melting arctic ice leading to the destruction of their natural habitat. This shows the theme of Anthropocene as it demonstrates how humans have had a negative impact on earth by ruining animals habitat’s as a result of climate change and the emission of fossil fuels.
There are many different definitions of ‘Deadpan photography’, however the most common one is that a deadpan photography lacks all emotion. Deadpan photography is simply just an emotionless subject within a photo. There is no joy or sorrow, although some view deadpan as an emotion itself. Famous photographers who use this aesthetic seem to be completely detached from the subject that they are photographing. Most commonly, the subject is in the centre of the image, and the photographer is looking at the subject from a straight-on perspective. Deadpan portraits show people in their natural state, typically not showing any sort of emotion. The deadpan photograph simply shows how life is in an honest state as models do not pose, and they are not dressed up for the occasion. The colour of deadpan photographs is commonly de-saturated.
Lewis Baltz
Lewis Baltz (1945-2014) was an American photographer, visual artist and educator. He was an important figure within the ‘New Topographics’ movement during the late 1970s.
This movement signalled the new approach to landscape photography and demonstrated the influence of conceptualism and minimalism on photography in the 1970s. In this movement a group of photographers including Lewis Baltz documented built and natural landscapes in America and often captured the tension between the natural scenery and the mundane structures of post-war America. Baltz is best known for his monochrome photography of suburban landscapes and industrial parks which brought attention to his commentary of void within the ‘American Dream’. His work focused on searching for beauty within desolation and destruction. Baltz’s images describe the architecture of human landscapes such as offices, factories, and parking lots.
Analysis
In this photo there is an old car which is off-centre which creates an interesting composition which is also enhanced through the way the dark and white wall are contrasted also off centre. The high contrast makes the image appear sharp and the many harsh lines make it look sharp as well as they all tend to be against a lighter background. The image has no emotion as it is taken straight onwards and there is no colour within the photo creating a deadpan effect. The fact the car is old implies that the photo as well is old. I like Waltz’s photography as it all looks neat due to the high contrast of black and white, I also like how there are many harsh shapes and lines in his photographs.
Planning a response
To respond to Lewis Waltz I will take my photos outside of school in the Saint Ouens area. I will use my phone for these photos and I will focus on different buildings such as the splash. I will take these photos during the day to achieve natural lighting and clearer photos. I will then make my photos similar to Waltz’s photographs by editing them to black and white similar to his.
My photoshoot
I took around 70 photographs during my deadpan photography shoot in saint Ouens. I took photographs of the splash building, the white hut, the lifeguard hut and more. I also took a photo of the road straight onwards to explore leading lines in photography.
Best photos:
I have selected the following best photos and I will edit some of them in the style of Lewis Waltz by making them black and white and highly contrasted.
Editing:
Edit 1:
Before making the picture completely black and white I made a few changes to create a better coloured version.
To start I decreased the exposure slightly to make the photo darker and increased the contrast to 100 so that each detail would stand out. I also increased the dehaze slightly so that it would be darker in areas.
Black and white edits:
The edits here are the ones which I have used for all of my black and white photography. There is no saturation and high contrast.
I then removed all colour from the photo by decreased the saturation to -100, I kept all other edits the same. By doing this the clouds appear to be much darker and angry giving an effect of the sublime. The building looks emotionless and almost old due to the rust running down the front of it. Due to taking this photo from a straight-on view and the lack of emotion a deadpan effect is created. I like the way the tables are all upside down as it creates an unusual effect and a sense of unknown. I think this is a successful photo as it is similar to the photographers work due to the harsh contrast of light and dark and the angle at which the photo has been taken at.
Best edit:
In this photo there is a lifeguards shack and if is slightly off centred which makes the photo unique. This is my best photo as the clouds look best in this photo as well as the other components such as the architecture. The clouds in this photo almost look as if the weather is storming due to the extreme dark areas which contrast to the light areas making the sky look enraged.
I chose to place my larger photo in the centre as it fit nicely with the architecture of the gallery. I then placed the smaller ones on each side of it and took a photo at both viewpoints in order to capture the different perspectives. To improve this wall area I will add another photo to the wall on the right as there is quite a lot of empty space.
To create these photos I went to various areas within St Ouen and took photos of things such as pathways and man-made building which are amongst the natural landscapes.
Contact sheet:
During my photoshoot I took over 100 photographs of different exposures (over, under, neutral) so that I am next able to combine them using the HDR option in Adobe Lightroom classic to create photos similar to Angel Adams.
I edited these images using the same method which I used during my previous blogpost where I used the HDR option in Lightroom to merge three images together to create a more intense contrasted version.
Final photos:
Analysing:
This first photo was taken in Saint Ouens area on quite a rainy day which added a darkness to the clouds. This is a successful image as it has very bright areas as well as very dark which was my aim in order to create a similar effect to Ansel Adams. I like how the foreground of the photo consists of many fine details for example the tree branches and the windows, whereas the upper half of the image consists of a simple yet effective empty space with only the darkness of the clouds. I find this allows the photo to be nice to look at as there is not too much going on bringing the viewers attention to each area. The intense dark clouds create a feeling of the sublime as it makes the clouds and weather appear extremely powerful and makes you almost intimidated by it as it has a large amount of control.
Other photos:
Experimentation
I decided to also edit one of my photos in colour so I am able to compare the black and white version with the coloured one to see which style I prefer. The coloured version has a completely different feeling to it in comparison to the black and white. It doesn’t produce the feeling of the sublime as it doesn’t make you feel intimidated in the way the black and white photo does with the dark and intense clouds and weather. Instead this one produces a happy tone as the weather appears to be sunny and all the colours within the photo are bright and saturated. I find the coloured one interesting as through increasing the saturation colours which weren’t there before start to appear creating almost a new image.
Virtual gallery
I created a virtual gallery using the website ‘Artsteps’. I added a simple black frame with a white border to each of the photos and made two photos the same size and I made the main photo larger.
To create photos similar to Ansel Adams I am merging three different exposures (over exposed, under exposed, normal exposure) using the HDR tool in Adobe light-room classic.
1: To start I selected the three of the same photos with different exposures to use.
2: Next I selected the photo merge tool and the HDR option.
3: I then needed to select which amount of Deghost (none, low, medium, high) looked best for this photo.
4: I selected the high amount as it made it the most detailed in comparison to the low and medium
Adjusting the photo:
To turn the photo into a black and white image I turned the saturation level to 0. I also adjusted the other settings such as dehaze and texture as I found it made the photo darker in areas.
Final result:
I turned this photo black and white in order to make it similar to Ansel Adam’s photographs. I like how it has turned out as it has a dramatic look to it which is created by the intense dark clouds that are in the upper portion of the image and the contrast of the light and dark details in the lower portion of the image.
“I know of no sculpture, painting, or music that exceeds the compelling spiritual command of the soaring shape of granite cliff and dome, of patina of light on rock and forest, and of the thunder and whispering of the falling, flowing waters.”Ansel Adams.
Ansel Adams was an inspirational American photographer, based in California. He is best known for his black and white photos of the American West, which are carefully composed and precise. Adams has produced some of the most iconic photos within the medium which are his photos of Yosemite National Park. Adams was born during 1902 in San Francisco, the photographer trained to be a concert pianist before later switching to photography during 1930. Along with Edward Western and Imogen Cunningham, Adams formed Group f/64 with the aim to elevate photography as a form of high art rather than just the form of documentation that it was seen as back then. Adams was a committed environmentalist and travelled throughout the country to capture the beauty of natural sites. Adams died during 1984 in California and today his photography work is held in many collections throughout museums such as The Museum Of Modern Art which is in New York as well as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Despite Ansel Adams starting photography many years ago during 1930 his photography work is seen as modern in comparison to other work made at the time. This is due to his smart use of light and shadow and his extreme attention to detail. Due to Adams strong contrast of black and white in his photos they fit in well with the theme of romanticism and the sublime. This is because the photos produce an overwhelming feeling of power in the sense that the photo is beautiful however it also holds a power over you that you cannot control. His photography is a perfect example of the sublime in nature as his photos hold an unexplainable level of beauty and greatness. Ansel Adams not only photographed black and white images but he also photographed coloured images which also fit in with the theme of romanticism and the sublime.
Despite being most known for his eye-catching black and white landscape photography Ansel Adams has also created coloured landscape photography which also fits in with the theme of romanticism due to the strong and bright colours of them. He began taking coloured photography after the Kodachrome film was invented during the mid 1930s. He made almost 3500 photos in colour, some of which were first published in the 1993 edition of ‘ANSEL ADAMS IN COLOUR’.
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park is one of the most important parks in the US as it is the third one to be designated by an act of congress in 1890. This park is also important as it is home to many rare and endangered species such as the Asian black bear. Ansel Adams’ collection of photos based on Yosemite National Park is one of his most iconic and well known collections. Adams’ seen more than just the rocks, trees, and rivers, he saw art. Yosemite National Park was of great importance to Adams as it was the root source of his inspiration in his photography.
The zone system
The zone system in photography is a scale representing different brightness levels, 0 being pure black, 5 being grey, and 10 being pure white. Ansel Adams tended to label his different zones using Roman numerals rather than Arabic numerals.
Blow is an example of Adams’ photography with the different zones being labelled on it and as you can see it has a wide range of different brightness levels which makes the photo extremely contrasted.
To create his range of dark and bright tones within his photography Ansel Adams used multiple exposures of the same image and used dodging and burning to exploit as much of a dynamic range as possible. This is similar to Gustave’s method and required multiple exposures to blend in a dark room. This method is used to create what is known as today HDR Photography.
Planning a response:
To respond to Ansel Adams I will take photos with 3 different exposures so I am able to blend them together using Adobe Light-Room classic once they have been taken. I will take these photos of landscapes such as beaches, sand dunes, trees and fields.
I have chosen to use storm Ciarán to respond to the sublime as it is an example of how powerful nature can be. Storm Ciaran took place in Jersey during early November 2023, it damaged many properties and took down hundreds of trees. Another extreme weather event which was similar to Storm Ciaran in the way in which it affected jersey was the Great Storm of 1987.
My Photoshoot
To create these photos I went to St Ouens and took photos of damaged areas which were affected by this extreme weather event. I also visited St Peters Valley as there were many affected trees within this area.
Contact Sheet
I took three versions of the same photo using three different exposures so I am now able to combine them to make HDR images inspired by the photographer Ansel Adams.
Best photos
I have chosen to ignore the exposure whilst selecting my best photos, as I am going to be combining the three different exposure levels together. I have focused more on the composition of the photo and how clear it is.
Editing and creating HDR images
This photo consists of a tree in Saint Ouens that had been damaged due to storm Ciaran. By editing this photo using the HDR method it has enhanced the colours and details of the photo to make it more sharp and contrasted. I like how the tree branch is in focus whilst the background is more blurred as it guides the viewers attention onto the tree rather than the background.
I then moved onto changing the previous photo into black and white in the style of Ansel Adams. I prefer the coloured version as it looks more contrasted and the colour adds something to the photo whereas the black and white photo sort of looks more flat.
The sublime originated from the Latin word sublīmis, it means the quality of greatness, whether its physical, moral, intellectual, metaphysical, aesthetic, spiritual, or artistic. In terms of photography the sublime is a western aesthetic concept of ‘the exalted’ of ‘beauty that is grand and dangerous’. It refers to the wild, unbounded grandeur of nature.
Above is a mood board all around the meaning of the Sublime within art, below is one about the Sublime in photography terms.
Photographs which display a sense of sublime are ones which show beauty but also terror, for example a storm. The sublime can also make you feel at the mercy of something for example when looking out to the ocean it is beautiful yet it makes you realise how insignificant you are in comparison to it.
Edmund Burke and the sublime
Edmund Burke was an Anglo-Irish Statesman and philosopher who spent majority of his career in Great Britain. Burke was born in Dublin however he relocated in Great Britain and served as a member of parliament from 1766 to 1794 in the House Of Commons with the Whig Party. Previous to becoming an MP Burke released a book named ‘A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful’ in 1757 where he discussed his views on the meaning of the Sublime. In this book Edmund Burke noted there were certain experiences which supply a kind of thrill or shudder perverse pleasure, mixing fear and delight.
Storm Ciarán
Storm Ciarán, known as storm Emir in Germany, was a European windstorm which hugely affected areas of Europe from late October to early November 2023. Ciarán impacted north-western Europe and killed over 20 people. It also hugely affected Jersey and has been seen as the worst storm since ‘the great storm of 1987’. The storm was a terrifying and tragic experience for many people living in Jersey and many implications followed the storm such as schools being closed and trees being down all over the island. It has been estimated over 400 trees were lost during this storm. Experts have said one of the things which was likely to cause Storm Ciarán is climate change. This is believed due to the heavy rainfall we received which is caused by temperatures warming, there is also some evidence stating that storms such as Ciarán will continue to become windier. Storm Ciarán is just one of the many examples of how nature can be beautiful however it can also be deadly, this is an example of the sublime.
Romanticism, also known as the romantic movement or romantic era, is an artistic and intellectual movement that began in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. For most of the Western world it was at its peak during 1800-1850. Romanticism was a reaction to the industrial revolution (1760-1840). It was shown strongly through visual arts, music and literature, it also had a major impact on historiography as well as education. Romanticism was identified by its emphasis on emotion and individualism, as well as glorification of the past and nature. It places emphasis on emotions such as fear, horror or the feeling we get when experiencing the sublimity (great beauty) of nature.
Romanticism can be shown in landscape photography by extreme weather or beautiful landscapes for example a sunset.
Main characteristics of romanticism:
Emotion and passion
The critique of progress
The return to the past
An awe of nature
The idealisation of women
The purity of childhood
The search for subjective truth
The celebration of the individual
The Sorrows Of Young Werther
The Sorrows Of Young Werther is a 1744 novel where a young man named Werther, a fictional character depicted by the German Poet named Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, is shown to be in despair after a broken heart due to an unrequited attachment, he later goes on to end his life. This was one of the main novels in the Sturm und Drang period in German literature. This novel then went on to be one of the influences of the romanticism movement due to the perfect example of one of the main characteristics of romanticism, emotion and passion. The novel also is an example of the sublime which is the idea of terror yet beauty.
