Femininity:

Femininity is having qualities or characteristics that are traditionally associated to women or boys. E.g powerful, nurturing and strong

Masculinity:

Masculinity is having qualities or characteristics that are traditionally associated to men or boys. E.g strength, toughness and virility.

How can place, belonging or environment influence identity.

Identity within an individual or community can be hugely effected by the environment they are surround. For an example, if an individual is surrounded by a white supremacist group they will have tendencies to think like them, to think that the white race is superior and should dominate.

Identify can also be effected by they way an individual is brought up. If an individual is brought up surrounded by homophobia, they will probably follow their traits and therefore think that homophobia is okay. However, because of the individual being brought up in an homophobic environment, the individual might feel like they can’t express themselves and have a loss of identity because of their upbringing and fear of rejection.

However, an individual who is brought up with an open minded and non-prejudice parents/family/ group, may find it quite easy to express their gender identity or social identity. This is because they grew up with people who let them have free will and didn’t show any type of judgmental opinions about groups of people or a community.

An individual who grows up with same-sex parents will grow up learning that same-sex marriage/couples is very normal and okay. They will see it as a norm and in fact will see it as something that should be normalised unlike an individual who might’ve grew up in a very straight household that had homophobic and stereotypical tendencies which would imply that they would see same-sex couples as something that is wrong.

Furthermore, there are much more serious cases where environment massively effects identity. North Koreas leader, Kim Jong-un massively effects the identity of his citizens. Jong-un made rules that drastically changes the identity of the North Korean citizens. An example of this, is a law where there is only government-approved haircuts. This strips his citizens identifies as they are not allowed to experiment with their hair and express and find themselves through their hair. Doing something with your hair can be a form of expression or change in identity so Jong-un stripping this choice from his citizens, strips their identity. Another law that hugely effects Jong-un’s citizens identity is the fact that they have prison camps. These prison camps are used for people who have allegedly committed political crimes. This men’s that no one in North Korea has freedom of speech and has no say when it comes to commenting about Jung-un’s rules. This form of punishment effects someone’s identity because they are not able to express their thought or opinion due to a heavily controlled system.

Mind map of femininity:

Mind map of masculinity:

Mood board:

Femininity:

Masculinity:

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.

References:

https://blacklivesmatter.com/about/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Lives_Matter#:~:text=Black%20Lives%20Matter%20(BLM)%20is,motivated%20violence%20against%20black%20people.

https://www.loc.gov/item/lcwaN0016241/

Jersey closer to approving rights for same-sex parents

Experiment 1:

Editing process:

• I opened Adobe Photoshop.
• On the top left, I pressed file and open and then selected one of the pictures that I wanted to use. I left the picture as it was and then pressed file and open and chose my second picture.
• With the second picture, on the left side I selected the object selection tool and pressed on the photo, precisely the subjects face. It selected the subjects face and then I pressed on it again so that it showed a pink outline.
• After, I right clicked on my mouse and pressed layer via copy. it created a copy of the subjects face whilst still keeping the picture the same.
• I pressed the move tool on the left side of the screen on photoshop.
• I grabbed the copy of the subjects cut out face and dragged it to the top of the screen where it showed the first tab I opened which was the one where it had my first picture. The cut out was transferred to my first picture and I placed the cut out on the desired place.
• I repeated the cut out process with one more of my pictures and dragged it to my first picture and placed it where I thought looked best.
• As I placed my cut outs on the first picture, it created two layers, one layer for each cut out so overall I had three layers.
• In each layer minus the first later, I put the opacity to 43% which is on the right bottom side of the screen to create a ghost like texture to the two cut outs.
• I then I pressed on the background which is on the right bottom of the screen and pressed flatten image so that I could add some adjustments to the image.
• On the right bottom side of the screen I pressed adjustments and pressed once on the blue mood adjustment.
• Then I saved the image to a folder and that’s how I created this image.

Evaluation and Critique: I really liked the result of this image because I like how the editing gave the bland picture and ethereal and euphoria sense to it. I think that it is a creative example of a headshot example. Out of the three experiments, this image is my favourite one. However, I could’ve given the picture some texture to create more diversity within the picture. I could’ve experienced with more of the editing tools in photoshop. Overall I’m really satisfied with the picture.

Experiment 2:

Editing process:

• I opened Adobe Photoshop.
• On the top left, I pressed file and open and then selected one of the pictures that I wanted to use. I left the picture as it was and then pressed file and open and chose my second picture.
• With the second picture, on the left side I selected the object selection tool and pressed on the photo, precisely the subjects face. It selected the subjects face and then I pressed on it again so that it showed a pink outline.
• After, I right clicked on my mouse and pressed layer via copy. it created a copy of the subjects face whilst still keeping the picture the same.
• I pressed the move tool on the left side of the screen on photoshop.
• I grabbed the copy of the subjects cut out face and dragged it to the top of the screen where it showed the first tab I opened which was the one where it had my first picture. The cut out was transferred to my first picture and I placed the cut out on the desired place.
• I repeated the cut out process with one more of my pictures and dragged it to my first picture and placed it where I thought looked best.
• As I placed my cut outs on the first picture, it created two layers, one layer for each cut out so overall I had three layers.
• In each layer minus the first later, I put the opacity to 43% which is on the right bottom side of the screen to create a ghost like texture to the two cut outs.
• I then I pressed on the background which is on the right bottom of the screen and pressed flatten image so that I could add some adjustments to the image.
• On the right bottom side of the screen I pressed adjustments and pressed once on the moody blue.
• Then I pressed the smudge tool on the left side of the screen and pressed the smudge tool again because it show two options, blur tool or smudge tool.
• On the top left corner of the screen, I pressed on the icon that showed the side of the smudge tool and what type of smudge tool you are using and I selected ‘wet media brushes’ and kept the size to 50px and then from the wet media brushes file, I selected ‘kyle’s paintbox’
• I smudged each pair of eyes that the image had.
• I saved the picture onto a file and that was how I edited this picture.

Evaluation and Critique: I quite liked the finish product of this image. I like the colour and the overall effect it has. This picture shows a sense of loss of identity or not wanting be aware of what’s surrounding them. However I think the editing in this picture I simple. I wish that it was a more divergent image that had more unique editing. I could’ve experienced with the different tools in photoshop.

Experiment 3:

Editing process:

• I opened Adobe Photoshop.
• On the top left, I pressed file and open and then selected one of the pictures that I wanted to use. I left the picture as it was and then pressed file and open and chose the same picture.
• With the same picture, on a different tab, on the left side I selected the object selection tool and pressed on the photo, precisely the subjects face. It selected the subjects face and then I pressed on it again so that it showed a pink outline.
• After, I right clicked on my mouse and pressed layer via copy. it created a copy of the subjects face whilst still keeping the picture the same.
• I pressed the move tool on the left side of the screen on photoshop.
• I grabbed the copy of the subjects cut out face and dragged it to the top of the screen where it showed the first tab I opened which was the one where it the first picture. The cut out was transferred to my first picture and I placed the cut out on the desired place.
• After dragging the first set of the cut out face, I did the same thing three more times, using the same picture as my first picture, just the face cut out, dragging the three set of cut outs to my first picture and placed it where I thought looked best.
• As I placed my cut outs on the first picture, it created 4 layers, one layer for each cut out so overall I had 5 layers, including the first picture.
• In each layer minus the first later, I put the opacity to 43% which is on the right bottom side of the screen to create a ghost like texture to the 4 cut outs.
• I then I pressed on the background which is on the right bottom of the screen and pressed flatten image so that I could add some adjustments to the image.
• On the right bottom side of the screen I pressed adjustments and pressed once on the neutral adjustment.
• Then I saved the image to a folder and that’s how I created this image.

Evaluation and critique: I really like this picture, I like how I was able to create this motion like sense to the picture, making it look like I was able to capture the subjects movement in layers. I think that this picture is quite unique and detailed. However I could’ve experienced with texture or different colours instead of the usual black and white.

After creating a Diamond Cameo with different sides of my subject face, I decided that I wanted to edit them so they looked more rustic.

This is my Diamond Cameo without any type of editing (only blending was done as seen in my previous blog. I applied all these blending effect to all my experiment of Diamond Cameo) :

Evaluation and critique:

Although I quite liked the way the diamond cameo looked without editing except for blending, I didn’t like that fact that it looked really bland therefore I decided I wanted to experiment and see which one I liked most and showed that rustic tone to it.

Experiment 1:

Editing process: After using all those blending tools stated above, I flattened image so that I could edit the image I pressed on adjustments and selected the filter called warm. That was all I did to this experiment of Diamond Cameo.

Evaluation and critique: I quite like this picture. I like the way the adjustment adds this rustic tone to the picture and how it gives the picture shadow however I don’t like how dark the picture is. In some parts of the picture, it is so dark that it strips away the subjects face and removes those beautiful details the subject has. I also don’t like how orange the picture is, it makes the subjects face look a little saturated.

Experiment 2:

Editing process: For this Diamond cameo, I added an adjustment called soft sepia after blending my cut outs and flattening my image. That is all I did for this diamond cameo

Evaluation and critique: I really like this picture. I think that this picture is the picture that shows the most rustic tone. I really like the colour of it and how it doesn’t strip the details from the subjects face because it adds heavy shadows to parts of the picture like the experiment above. I really like how the adjustment brought the picture to life and really shows ‘oldies’ look to it. However this picture could have a more orange background like the original diamond cameos so that the diamond cameo would look more realistic.

Experiment 3:

Editing process: For this diamond cameo I decided to add a different type of filter called diffuse glow after blending the cut outs and flattening the image. I added the diffuse glow by pressing filter on the top bar and then I pressed filter gallery and pressed the distort folder and selected diffuse glow and then I added a adjustment called warm. This was all I did for this diamond cameo.

Evaluation and critique: I think this diamond cameo looks alright. The filter adds a really nice, rustic look to the diamond cameo, however, I think that the diamond cameo is overly exposed and gives the subjects too much highlight in parts where the subjects face was more exposed to light. Because of this, it strips that rustic look the picture should have.

Experiment 4:

Editing process: For this picture I decided that I wanted to add texture and an adjustment so I pressed filter on the top bar and then I pressed filter gallery and pressed the texturiser, after flattening and blending my image. After applying texture I felt like the diamond cameo needed something more so I added an adjustment called sepia. This was all I did for this diamond Cameo.

Evaluation and critique: I really like the end product of this diamond cameo. I like the colour of the diamond cameo even though its not entirely that original diamond cameo colour. I also like how the texture added a more rustic tone to the picture. However it doesn’t really look as rustic as I wanted it to look because it doesn’t have that orange undertone that old pictures used to have. The picture is quite bland.

Overall Evaluation:

Overall, I really liked how my diamond cameos turned out. My favourite cameo was experiment 2 as I think that it is the most accurate out of all the experiments. I think that the format of my diamond cameos are pretty precise and I strongly believe that you can see that they are diamond cameos.

A strength that I had with my diamond cameos is how I was able to show creativity. I experimented with lots of textures and colours so that I could be sure to which cameo looked the most ‘correct’. I think that experiment 2 was the one that looked the most accurate and had that old look that Henry Mullins photos had. However that cameo could have some improvements like having a scrunched up effect to it or maybe some burned parts to it so that it looked more old. I could also show more of a yellow tone to it just like Henry’s photos looked like. I could’ve experimented with the colours and layered different colours to create a more aged look to it.

Finally I think that I’m quite satisfied with my diamond cameos. I think that they look exactly what they are meant to look like but I do think that I could’ve focused more in the editing and making sure that my experiments looked more like Henry Mullins photos. Instead of focusing on making them black and white I could’ve focused on trying to correct that yellow tone that Henry Mullins photos had.

Step to step guide on how I made a Diamond Cameo.

Step 1: First I uploaded my preferred picture from my headshots photography folder into an A4 paper in photoshop.

Step 2: Next I selected the elliptical marque tool and created an oval shape on the subject face, making sure I include most of the face. Then I selected the move tool and moved the oval shape which created a cut out of the face of the subject.

Step 3: Shortly after cropping the oval shape of the subjects face, I moved the tab at the top where the picture is and then created a new plain A4 tab. I grabbed the cut out and placed it on the plain A4 paper.

Step 4: I repeated this three more times to create a that Diamond cameo. Then pressing on each cut out I wanted to blend in the pictures, so I right clicked on my mouse and selected blending options and selected all the blending options below. However adding blending is completely an option.

Henry Mullins is one of the most prolific photographers represented in the Société Jersiase photo-archive. He has produced over 9,000 portraits of islanders in jersey channel island from 1852 to 1873 at a time when the population was around 55,000. The records of his work comes from his albums, in which he placed his clients in a social hierarchy which basically means he categorized them depending on their class. The arrangement of Mullins’ portraits of ‘who’s who’ in 19th century Jersey are highly politicised.

Henry Mullins started working at 230 Regent Street in London in the 1840s and then shortly moved to Jersey in July 1848, where he set up a studio known as the Royal Saloon, at 7 Royal Square. In his studio he would photograph Jersey political elite (The Bailiff, Lt Governor, Jurats, Deputies etc), mercantile families (Robin, Janvrin, Hemery, Nicolle and more) military officers and professional classes (advocates, bankers, clergy, doctors etc).

Mood board:

Diamond Cameo: The Patent Diamond Cameo photograph was registered by F.R. Window of London in 1864. It is basically four small oval portraits ,usually 1″ x ³/₄“, were placed on a carte de visite in the shape of a diamond. Each portrait of the subject are headshot photographed in a different position.

What is Loop lighting?

Loop lighting is a lighting that creates circular shadow on the subject’s face right just under which should look like a loop hence the name. Photographers can achieve this by placing the key light at an 45 degree angle to one side of the subject and then raising the key light just above the subjects eye line. 

Mood board:

Set up for Loop lighting

Own experiment of Loop lighting:

Experiment 1:

Editing process: for this picture, I desaturated the picture to -100 so that the picture would go black and white. I did this to create diversity and because I also liked how the picture looked in black and white.

Before (left) and After (right):

Experiment 2:

Editing process: For this picture I didn’t change it. I left the picture as it was because i thought that it looked great with colour and I also think that editing it would destroy that loop lighting that is evident in the picture.

Experiment 3:

Editing process: For this picture I desaturated the picture to -100 so that the picture would be black and white as I though that it would enhance that loop lighting that was slightly missing when the picture was in colour.

Before (left) and After (right):

Presentation of outcomes

Evaluation and critique:

Butterfly lighting is a portrait lighting order where the key light is placed above and centred directly to the subject’s face. Evidently it creates a shadow under the subject’s nose that creates a butterfly like shape. In other cases, butterfly lighting can also be known as ‘Paramount lighting,’ which is named for classic Hollywood glamour photography.

The set up for butterfly lighting.

Own experiments of butterfly lighting

Experiment 1:

Editing process:

For this photo I wanted to make the picture less bright and exposed, so i decreased exposure (-0.70) to make it less lit, increased contrast (+54) to sharpen the image, i decreased, highlights (-26) to make lighter parts of image darker, shadows (-40) to recover lost details, whites (-51) to strip the whites in the pictures and blacks (-67) to make image darker.

This is all I did to the image to enhance that butterfly lighting that was not as evident as it is now. I made this overly exposed picture a representation of butterfly lighting.

Before (left) and After (right)

Experiment 2:

Editing process: For this picture I decided to keep it just as it is. I didn’t want to change it as I thought that it represented that butterfly shape. I think that the picture looks great and doesn’t need any type of editing.

Experiment 3:

Editing process: For this picture, I decided that if I desaturated it to -100 it would help highlight the shadow under the subjects nose that butterfly lighting is know for. I also wanted to desaturate it to make it black and white to create more diversity in my work as I think that it is important to have diversity like coloured and desaturated photos because it shows you can be creative.

Before (left) and After (right)

Experiment 4:

Editing process: For this picture I decided to keep it just as it is. I didn’t want to change or alter anything within the picture as I thought that it represented that butterfly shape where it shows a well lit face with a shadow below nose that creates that butterfly shape. I think that the picture looks good and does not need any type of editing to it.

Presentation of outcomes

Evaluation and Critique:

Overall I think that my pictures look great. I was able to show that butterfly lighting where under the subject nose a butterfly like shadow is created through the use of a key light and a reflector.

I think that I created a diverse set of picture where it includes, black and white picture, different type of emotions and experimenting with the editing in light room.

When it comes to that bright and illuminated face, I think that I did really well with showing that illuminated face because as seen in my final outcomes, the subjects face is very illuminated and its evident that, that butterfly like shadow is created under the subjects nose.

However something that I could have improved was showing that butterfly lighting. I feel that in some of my pictures that butterfly like shadows isn’t as evident as I would like it to be. As seen on experiment 4, the butterfly shadow is barely there. I could improve this by moving the reflector around and taking pictures and seeing which position the reflector is set at, produces the best butterfly lighting.

Lastly another improvement my photos could’ve had was a darker background. When I was researching about butterfly lighting, lots of the pictures I saw the background was black and not white. I believe that it is easier to show that butterfly shadow using a black background instead of white. So next time I will try taking pictures with a darker background and I can do that by using a black back drop or lowering the ISO in the camera to around 100-125