For this paper photoshoot, I tried multiple techniques to add dimension and dark contrasts by using a torch, a bright light, and multiple different coloured lights like blue and red. This all helped to link my work to my artist research as their photos also have that contrast to make the light brighter.

Artist Research

Francis Brugiére

Francis was an American photographer, born in 1879, and died on the 8th of may 1945. He was born in San Francisco, and became a photographer along side also being a painter and a musician. Later in life, Brugiére moved to London to start a new film. His work can be summarised as a plain piece of paper folded and cut to create a unique pattern of interesting shapes and forms. With the use of light, his work is seen to have a contrast of both light and dark pieces featured. The colour is edited to be a monochrome tone, to make the main focus on the contrast and to take away any of the other distractions. The use of line is highlighted in his images as the paper creates various lines heading in all sorts of directions, which creates a detailed effect. Lastly, Francis uses a zoomed in camera technique to capture the curves of the paper without including the background of the images. By not including this, it helps present the work as a sole focus on the paper design and no other distractions.

Photoshoot plan

In order to do this, I will use a dim-lit room where I will be able to take images using a bright torch to show the contrast of light. I will also need to cut up some paper to create the same effect Brugiére does as his paper is full of various shapes and patterns to create a unique look. I will also make sure to have a backdrop so nothing in the background will be seen when taking these images.

Contact Sheet

My Best Photos

For my best photos, I uploaded my images onto Lightroom and colour coded the ones I thought were the best (green), the ones that were okay (yellow) and the ones I wouldn’t use (red). As you can see, there ended up being a wide variety of images with different colour codes. This makes it easier to figure out which ones I like, and which ones I don’t so I can edit the good ones on photoshop.

Reflection on the photoshoots:

Overall, I think these photoshoots were a great way to experiment and discover which lightings were the best, and which images accurately matched the artist research’s work. Although, I took multiple photoshoots as some of the images turned out blurry the first time since the camera movement was shaky, making the image also look shaky. The use of the different coloured lighting made the vibe of the image completely different, as the bright white light made the images look neat, whereas the red lighting made the images look dark.

Editing

I demonstrated 3 different ways to edit these images, as there are various ways to upgrade your images to enable them to look the best they can be. My first edit is black and white, my second edit is different ways of cropping, and my third way is slicing the image.

Edit 1 – Black and white

The first technique I decided to try was making all the images monochrome, to match the artist research. Like the artist, I ensured the white areas were bright when I adjusted the levels of the image, and I made sure the dark areas were pitch black. I like this editing style as it showcases the contrast very well, and it creates a neat overall look to the three images.

Edit 2 – Cropping

For my second edit, I decided to make a collection of different ways of cropping my images to present the most interesting section of them. I like this edit as it presents different forms of the images I took, to capture the different textures of the paper. The element of leading lines is strongly shown in these images as they guide your eyes from one side of the image to the other side.

Edit 3 – Slice

My last edit is slicing the image. I like these two examples of this technique, as they add a distraction to the image and they make the focal point based around the slices. Additionally, it adds an element of negative space as the focus is on the black lines, making the other sides of the image more toned down and muted.

Final Images

My final image is the first edit I created, as I feel as though it aligned with Brugiére’s work the best. On top of this, I also chose it as I feel like simple is better, as it doesn’t look crowded and chaotic.

Art Gallery

I uploaded my images into the art gallery where I was able to include these three images in a neat order. I like these three images as they represent contrast between light and dark very well, as you can the areas where the light was shining and where it was not. I also like the texture it shows as they have unique shapes in each image, but they still overall give the same vibe of contrast and texture.

Evaluation

Overall, I think I implemented Brugiére’s work into my own quite well, as typically his work is made from cut up pieces of paper – like mine. His work is more intricate, whereas mine isn’t as much as his is more cut up and set. However, the difference between mine and his work is that my work is more cool toned unlike his where his has more warm tones so to. improve my work, I would edit the colours to be more warm toned.

ISO is used to determine how much light is let into your camera, and is useful when trying to make your images look neat. A high ISO is typically used for low lighting, as it can make your image look more clean, but can also make your image look noisy if you aren’t on the correct ISO needed for the image. Whereas, a low ISO is usually used for a light lit image, so it doesn’t look noisy. An image can end up looking noisy if you are using a high ISO when it’s not needed (like if your image doesn’t have low lighting).

In the image above, you can see that the high ISO makes the image look grainy and noisy, which isn’t ideal when you want a clean look for your image. To prevent this, you need to ensure the lighting is good and that you are using the right ISO.

My Contact Sheet

These are the images I took to show the contrast in lighting and the ISO difference by increasing and decreasing the ISO number.

I put the two images above to present a change in ISO and the lighting, so you can see each stage of the process.

I also decided to include this image above as I feel as though it represents the noisy ISO that we are usually trying to avoid in our images. As you can see, the lighting isn’t the best in this image, and the ISO number is on the lower side making the image not look the best it can.

I began by transferring my shutter speed images into Lightroom, as you can see below, where I pressed ‘import’ at the very bottom and picked which images to upload into Lightroom.

After moving my images, I learnt how to flag the photos I wanted to keep, and leave the others blank that I decided I wasn’t going to use. I also discovered how to rate my images by using stars (1 being the worst and 5 being g the best) to show which ones I liked the most.

Here’s an overall view of both the flags and ratings:

Then I discovered how to colour code my images to make them more noticble and easier to detect when I edit my images in photoshop so I know which ones to edit.

I started off with an image then right clicked it as you can see below, then I clicked on ‘code rating’ so I have the option to colour them ‘red’ ‘yellow’ or ‘green’, they also have blue and purple as an option, but I decided to stick to these three as it is easier to organise.

Once I did a few, I decided to show what it looks like and as you can see below, it is easier to see which ones are good and which aren’t.

I also wanted to experiment and see what I could do, so here’s a before and after of this image where I cropped it, and adjusted the ‘temp’ and ‘tint’ to brighten and exaggerate my image to make the slow shutter speed more noticable.

You can find the ‘temp’ and ‘tint’ by looking on the far right ride of the screen when you are on the image, and you should see this image below:

Auto Focus and Manual Focus (AF and MF)

Auto focus is for general use, so you can use it for a large variety of things as it is the basic use for a camera. It automatically focuses the image. Whereas, manual focus is for specific photos you want to take, like close ups and detailed images, so it enables you to control the focus of the image.

Auto focus is typically used to track a subject when it’s moving around the frame, as it’s easier to get a clear image since auto focus will capture the subject without making it blurry.

The Focal Length

Focal length is the optical distance (usually measured in mm) from the centre of its lens and its focus. This helps to determine how much you can see from the camera.

For example, in this image below, you can recognise that the picture taken on the far left has been from up close, whereas the image on the far right is using a high focal length and a shallow depth of field as the background’s blurry. By using the focal length, the man’s face is now more symmetrical, as it’s taken from afar but zoomed in to make him look more proportionally accurate.

Depth of Field and Aperture

depth of field is the range of distance in an image that is sharp and in focus. A shallow depth of field means that only a small area is in focus, whereas a deep depth of field means a large portion of the image is in focus.

Aperture controls the amount of light let into the camera by adjusting the lens. The higher the f/stop number, for example, f/22, the smaller the lens hole will mean there will be a small aperture. This enables the entire image to be in focus, with all the details being clearly visible. Whereas, with a lower f/stop number, like f/2.8, only the subject will be visible with the rest being more blurry. You can look at other examples on this chart below:

My examples from the Canon Camera Simulator:

Shutter Speed: 1/3

Aperture: 22

ISO Setting: 400

At this aperture, you can notice that everything is in focus, as the higher the aperture, the clearer the image will be. This is useful when you take photos where you want everything to be in focus, like if you were to take a photo of landscapes as all the minuscule details are captured.

Shutter Speed: 1/60

Aperture: 8

ISO Setting: 1600

As you can see, in this image the plane is still in focus, however around the edges the objects are slightly blurred. This is because the aperture number is in the middle between out of focus and clear.

Shutter Speed: 1/180

Aperture: 2.8

ISO Setting: 400

In this image, it is recognised that only the subject (the plane) is in focus whilst everything else is blurred and out of focus. This is due to the low aperture number, but this is good for taking images where you only want one subject to be the main focus.

Artist Research

Ralph Eugene Meatyard

Ralph was born in 1925 and passed in 1976, but in his lifetime Meatyard pursued his passion for photography in various ways, like his most famous work ‘Zen Twigs’ and his no focus work. His ‘Zen Twigs’ are photos of zoomed in twigs (using large aperture and a small depth of field) to make the twigs the main subject and the rest blurred. His no focus images are made by putting the camera on manual focus and changing the lens to create a foggy effect.

Ralph specialised in changing the cameras focus and depth of field, as well as motion blur and a range of exposure to invent an interesting look, as your mind tries to assemble what some of the images actually are, like in the ones above where you can partially figure out what it is.

Contact Sheet

Best Photos: Edited

Shutter speed is the time taken for the shutter of the camera to close. There are such things as fast shutter speed – which is needed for fast moving objects like sports, or quick animals, or slow shutter speed – which is used to create a blurred or delayed effect, like a cars tail lights when it drives.

A slow shutter speed can increase the amount of light let in through the lens, whereas a fast shutter speed has a shorter amount of time to let light through the lens, meaning images can sometimes become ore dim-lit. A slow shutter speed’s exposure time is usually around 1/4, and an example of a fast shutter speeds exposure time is 1/500.

In-between these two, is a medium shutter speed like 1/30 seconds. A medium shutter speed is the in-between amount from a fast shutter and a slow shutter speed. To understand this concept, look at the image below:

Artist Research

Francesca Woodman

Francesca Stern Woodman was a talented photographer who was born in America (April 3rd, 1858 – January 19th, 1981). She is well-known for her long exposure images, which consist of herself and other female models making extravagant movements to achieve a continuous and blurred effect. Woodman’s work was in monochrome colours, to enhance and highlight the range of movement seen in her work. Her images were actually part of her portfolio, as she unfortunately passed at only 22 years old. Her work is loved by many still to this day, decades later.

Here are some examples of her work:

In my images, I implemented Francesca’s shutter speed photos into mine by spinning around to create a similar effect. But, I also had to be weary and ensure my images weren’t having exposure for too long, as that can cause the image to dim so the work isn’t visible.

As you can see, her images were in black and white, so I made sure my images also had the same effect by editing them in photoshop.

My Contact Sheet: Studio Images

My Contact Sheet: Outside

Best Photos : Lightroom

edited images

Camera Obscura

The Camera Obscura is a scientific photograph, where the image is reflected directly from the sun’s rays to diagonally flip the image upside down. To achieve this, you must be in a dim lit room with a black cover that you can poke a hole through. By doing this, the reflection will convert the image from the outside. However, this process makes it difficult to determine the origins of photography, since it’s a natural image which is shown below.

Nicephore Niepce

Niepce cleverly found a way for the camera obscura to be transformed from a projection to a photograph that he could physically hold. However, his work had a flaw as they would fade during daylight and would eventually turn fully black. The process of having this fixed image was a long one, as it took him 8 hours to produce this one. His images were also in monochrome colours, and weren’t as clear as the images made today, but at this time, this image was revolutionary.

Henry Fox Tabolt

Tabolt discovered what he called, “Photogenic Drawing”, where he realised if you use a a thin sheet of paper covered in salt and lightly coated with silver nitrate, and left if out in the sun with pieces covering certain parts to block the light out, and put it under a piece of glass, that you could make you’re own ‘Photogenic Drawing’.

Later on, he began to create ‘mouse traps’, which were essentially small wooden boxes, with a little lens and at the back, Tabolt stuck a piece of paper to it that is chemically sensitive to the light.

Louis Daguerre

Louis is known for his famous product ‘The Daguerreotype’, which was a heavy camera that makes one copy on a silvered copper plate. The images that this camera produced were detailed and accurate in black and white, making them iconic as it was the first successful type of image, like a polaroid. However, the Daguerreotype was produced around the same time as the ‘mousetraps’, but since Tabolt’s work could produce more than one copy, his work became more liked and used more often.

Richard Maddox

Maddox designed ‘dry plates’ which was a piece of glass covered with silver bromide, but his camera meant that you didn’t have to develop the images right after taking the photo. His work was revolutionary for his time, as his camera became the first camera that could be held with one hand, whereas the others had to be placed. However, the images still had to be developed in a dark room, similarly to some of the other camera designs.

George Eastman

Kodak (Brownie)

Digital Photography

Digital photography is a much simpler version of photography, compared to the Camera Obscura where they had to