Week 5

Last week we continued to edit our pictures that we had taken the previous week. I knew that my pictures all needed higher contrast, especially on the black and white ones. I started to edit the contrast, i set them to roughly around 45 contrast, which wasn't too much so that it was unclear but not too little that there was no difference. After i had done this, i saw a few of my pictures that i though needed more colour and a warmer tone. I added a 'warm photo filter' on these pictures which gave them a orange tinge, i think this worked really well because it gave the picture a different feel and it looked hot and stuffy which is the kind of feel i wanted for the specific picture. The picture was of some sprouting plants in a brick wall. I wanted that hot and humid feel because it reflected the idea of plants taking the wall over. I also upped the saturation which made the image even more humid looking. On other pictures i added a blurred border so that the centre of focus was on the most important thing. I think this worked really well and gave the picture an abstract feel, it also framed the picture and made it look much more complete and less plain. On some pictures i added 'Diffuse Glow' which made anywhere which was white glow, i think this worked really well because it made the picture seem abstract and surreal. I added this effect on a picture of inside the cycle bridge, this really worked well because there is a lot of white light coming through the windows at the side of the cycle bridge and i think that adding this effect made these features come alive and become the focus of attention for the eye. I didn't want to make it too diffused and i set the diffuse amount to approximately 30. This was the perfect amount because the structure of the bridge was not obscured in any way, but there was enough glow to notice it. The feel i got from the edited picture was perfect, it wasnt too over-edited - it was subtle. After i had edited my pictures i decided to think about how i would display the final photos. I knew i was doing lack of control for my final piece, i thought that i could perhaps put my photos inside a box with a broken lock. Or maybe i could get a box and fill it with moss to show that the box had lost control to nature - the moss. Or perhaps have the pictures 'sprouting' out of a man made object as if the pictures were plants themselves. But i am not quite sure of which idea ill go for.

week 7

Last week i made my final edits to my photos and also made my sculpture piece to display it on. I had brought in some foam board and some card to make the display piece with. I hadn't planned it all out exactly but i did know roughly what i was going to do. I knew i was going to raise certain parts of the pictures up so they were on different levels and layer photos on top of each other, but i had not planned out how i would do this. I spent about 10-15 minutes looking at exampled of this sort of thing. After this i set to work cutting my previously printed images into perfectly equal rectangles. I found it hard to do this because when i used the plastic ruler with the scalpel, it started to shave the ruler so it was really hard to keep the cut on a straight line. After i had done cut all of my pictures out i then started to do some portfolio work. I continued to work on my research report, i think that its coming along really well and i think it's filled with good information not just filler. I then returned to my display method. I next glued the photos onto the foam board and raised certain bits to emphasize certain areas of the picture.The final thing looked really good and proffessional and i think it look unique.

week 6

Last week we continued to edit our images, but i also continued work on my research report. I think that my research report is becoming a really good report because its clear and straight to the point. I didnt want it to be rambling; i would want to be straight to the point and concise with my facts and information. I found this quite hard to do because it was actually quite hard to find a decent information page on the internet. I did find a Wikipedia page, but it only had a small section on fine art photography, but i did manage to find some good information about the history of fine art photography. I also wrote some of my specific fine art photograph analysis. I searched fine art photography in google images and i selected the pictures which meant the most to me. This way i could write about what emotions they gave me, which after all is what Fine art is about. After doing all of this, i then continued to edit my pictures. I continued to use the same sort of effects on my pictures as i did last week. In alot of my pictures i played a round with perspective when i took them so i though when i edited them i should add to this. I did this by putting a blurred edge on the photos, this made the focus in the centre where i wanted it to be. I did this effect to the picture above. I personally think it worked really well because its subtle and you don't really notice it but without it the picture would be a lot worse. I think next week i need to add a photo filter to make it a little bit more interesting or perhaps a different effect.

week 4

Last week we went out and took more pictures. We were told to narrow down on our subjects for Control. I had chosen 3, establishment, rebellion and lack of control. For lack of control i decided to do nature taking control over man made things such as ivy, weeds growing through walls and rust. I thought of locations and one of the first i thought of was the back streets for mill road. I got there and i knew i had picked the perfect location. I tried taking pictures of things that you wouldn't straight away associate with control, such as rust. Rust can be associated with control because it means that nature has control over the man made metal. I took this picture of the rusty chain because i thought that it symbolises that what once was a strong chain is now weak because of nature. When i took the picture i wanted to take it not just plain straight on picture of the full chain - i wanted a close up section of the chain. I think that the picture i took looks really good. For my rebellion picture i wanted graffiti, I knew there was some on mill road so i decided to go there. For my pictures, i took extreme close ups so that the graffiti seemed a little bit abstract. I think this worked really well and i think it was a new technique i hadn't used before. Finally  for my establishment i thought that i would take a picture of the cycle bridge. i wanted to show off the internal structure of the bridge. I think this worked really well and the picture looks very powerful and controlling. Next week i will edit these and hopefully crop them a little bit more and change the contrast etc.

Week 3

Last week we started to take some more pictures and edit our previous and the pictures we took last week pictures. We added much more complex effects. I thought about doing more than just changing the contrast and brightness, i also played around with using different layers of pictures. I tried to cut and paste certain sections of different pictures to create a sort of collage. This looked a little bit messy and i think i may attempt to put less in the collage next lesson or perhaps for the real thing. I also tried adding distortion effects such as a lens flare which looked really good it think it also added a new dimension to the image. I think i did well at using new techniques when editing not just using plain and boring adjustments. When i took pictures last week i thought back to my previous pictures and thought about how i could improve them, i thought that i needed a more varied selection of shots. In my previous shots the angles of my shots were pretty much all the same, also the distances i had taken them from were the same. So i thought that this time i should try and use more unique techniques such as low angle, close ups and perhaps longshots or panoramas. I took lots of interesting shots like this and tried to take equal amouts of different angles. After i had taken these photos, i started to edit them. I continued to edit in a more experimental way, as i had in the previous lessons. Here are some of the unedited images.

week 2

last week we continued to edit our photos and i managed to do a lot more of my research report. I thought that i managed to do some really good edits on some of my more abstract images. I think that some of my edits look less gimmicky and more professional now i have played around with photoshop a little bit more. I thought i should try more unusual effects like i started to at the end of last lesson. One picture i edited i added a filter effect which gave it a redish glow which made it seem much more sinister. I think this type of editing is a lot more efective and interesting than just plain colour correction, or contrast and brightness. I think that next lesson i shall start to use more complex techniques instead of just the basics...

Week 1

last weeks lesson we were given our brief, and we started to think about ideas for it. Our brief was to create a piece of art which incorporated sculpture, but photography was the main medium. The subject had to be about control. At first i thought that this would be an easy subject because it was so broad. But as i began to brainstorm i started to realize how hard it is to find the right balance of subtlety in the pictures. I found it hard to think of more abstract ideas of things to do with control, such as less physical things like teachers (controlling the classroom). But when i actually started taking photos i found it was easier when you started to think what you could do in the real thing. I thought that i should try and take pictures of things that other people woudn't think of so that it was more original. One idea I thought of was to take a picture of a rusty fence showing that the rust has control over the once strong metal. as well as these subtle ideas i also shot some more obvious ones such as a picture of josh enclosed by the school walls and gate. After we had done this we started to edit them, i wanted to make them interesting edits not just changing the contrast and brightness. So i added an effect whichh made the edges blurry which made it dream like, like a nightmare. This gave the effect of control being a bad thing in that particular image. I thought that the day went reasonably well because i had managed to think of some new ideas for when i come to do my real pictures.