Reflection - Image bank

 This image shows a horizontal reflection. It is a reflection of two cyclists, and also reflects the background of the sky and the clouds.

 This is a horizontal reflection too. The background doesn't reflect this tie; only the foreground with the woman laying down is reflected.

 In this image, the window and the reflected object are not touching. It is reflected horizontally, however the reflection is not man made like the others.

This is a slightly different reflection. Though it's reflected horizontally, the reflection is in the middle of the photo, and doesn't take up the bottom half of the image.

This is a very different reflection , as it is not across a straight line, and it is reflected vertically rather than horizontally

Shape - Work Diary

For shape, I did two photoshoots: one in the studio, one candid. For my candid shoot I mainly took images of shapes I found around the town, most of which where litter and other objects that had been thrown on the floor. Then, for my studio shoot, I got ones of my badges, which has a star shape on the front, and put a spotlight on it, then took images of it from different angles.

This is my favourite photo from my candid shoot. It shows a sign, which is a sort of rectangular shape with slightly rounded edges. I think the rounded edges add more interest to the rectangular shape and the fact I took the image at a diagonal angle gives the photo a dramatic quality, almost as if it rapidly zooming into the sign.

This is my least favourite photo from my candid shoot. I felt like it was better at showing pattern than shape. Although there was shape there, I prefer shape pictures to be a single shape on a mostly plain background, so that your attention is drawn to that shape. I think this image just doesn't draw your eye to the shape enough.

This is my favourite photo from my studio shoot. It shows both a circle and a star shape within a circle. It also casts an oval shaped shadow. I liked the object used, as i felt it was an object you would notice, and I also like the way it is lit so that the front of the badge is bright and clear, and a large shadow is cast.

This is my least favourite photo from my studio shoot. Although it does show shape, specifically a circle with a circle inside of it, I feel that the object used was very uninspiring, partly because it doesn't show any of the other formal elements in an interesting way. Also, the image contains a little bit of the background in the top right while it should have only shown the table, which I find to be an imperfection.

Overall, I think my candid photoshoot went very well because I focussed most of the pictures on a single shape, with a narrow depth of field, so that the background is defocussed, meaning attention is drawn to the shape. However, if I were to do this photoshoot again, I would probably try and get more regular shapes in my images, as the majority of mine were very irregular and complex.

Overall, I think my studio shoot went fairly well. I liked the badge as I felt it created an interesting shape that was not too irregular but not too regular. I also liked how to the light was positioned as it helped make sure the front of the badge, where the star shape was, had light on it. However, if I were to  do this photoshoot in, I would bring in more than one object, and make sure some of them are a bit larger so that I can put several objects together in one photo.

Colour Manipulation

For this picture, I selected everything around the petals of the flower so it would not be effected when i converted the image to black and white. When I converted in the layer options tab, I moved some of the colours sliders down. I moved the greens slider down very low so that the background would appear very desaturated. Once I had converted to black and white, I then selected the flower petals, so that I could manipulate the colours of it. I used the colour balance option under the layer options and changed the sliders so there were high levels of magenta, red and yellow in the flower, meaning the flower looked very saturated.

For this image, I did something very similar. I selected everything around the bin with the quick selection tool, then converted to black and white in layer options. This time, I took the red, blue, green and yellows down to desaturate the background. However, I decided I wanted the bin to stay the same colour, so I didn't saturate the bin more than it already was.

Reflection - Straight Images

Reflection - Contact Sheet

Definition - Reflection

A reflection is a mirror of an image. The mirrored image is identical, only it has been flipped around, so it is the exact opposite of the other image. This creates one perfectly symmetrical image.

Here is an example of a reflection to better explain what reflection is. As you can see, there is a cat standing on a mirror, which is a reflective device. Inside the mirror, you can see the exact same image of the cat as you can see with the actual kitten, however it has been inverted, creating a perfectly symmetrical image. You can also get reflections where you cannot see the original image symmetrical image as it is not touching it.

Here is an example of this. As you can see, there are not two instances of the image like in the photograph above, but only the reflected one, which is an inverted version of the original image. 

Vivian Maier Research

Vivian Maier is a street photographer who mainly takes photos of people's faces in the public.

Here are a few examples of her works. As you can see, her photographs are taken in public, often candid. She observes the things that are going on and takes photos of people she finds interesting. 

In My opinion, these pictures should definitely be considered art. They possess a very artistic value to me, as they show people reacting to each other and to the things around them. I feel that these types of image help capture a moment, which in the eyes of the people who are experiencing it and the people watching it happen, would not be significant or memorable, become memorable and very interesting. I think this is partly because the photographer or other people viewing the image get more time to reflect on the meaning of what is happening, and may be able to imagine background stories for why it is happening.

Shape - Straight Images (studio)

 I used the rule of thirds to capture this image of my badge. The badge is a circle and inside the badge is a star shape.

 I used the rule of thirds here too, however, i zoomed closer so that you can see the star shape closer up.

For this photo, I changed the angle at which i took the picture, meaning the circular badge looks more like an oval. In this image, you can also see the circular pin cover at the back of the badge.

 I took this from a birds' eye view perspective, meaning you can see the edges of the pin covers. You can also see edge of the trigger mechanism for undoing the badge, which creates a circle.

I also decided to get another object to take pictures of. This was another object which has circles in it. At each end, there is a circle and another circle inside. From this angle, the circle almost becomes an oval.

Shape - Contact Sheet (studio)

Shape - Image Bank

This image presents a circular shape at the top, and there is a circular pattern that gets larger as you approach the foreground.

This image shows several circles. The one that is noticed first is the one in foreground, and there are lots more shown in the mid ground and background.

The photograph above shows petals hanging from a branch. They present a heart shape, with a rounded, almost oval shape attached to the bottom of them. They are irregular shapes.

This is an image created by people's fingers. It creates the shape of a star, which is an irregular shape.

  This photo makes use of negative space to create an irregular shape. The shape has lots of corners.

Shape - Straight Images

This image shows a regular shape - it's a square, but it has rounded edges, meaning it varies from most squares. The round edges give it more of an interesting shape than a regular square.

 This image shows a very irregular shape; it has lots of curves and edges. The shape is incredibly complex.

 This image has a clear shape in it; on the front of the can is a circle and the hole in the top of the can is circular.

This image presents an irregular shape, which is the stone. The shape is almost an oval, but has lots of irregular curves and angles.

There are lots of regular shapes, mainly squares and rectangles. The switch box is rectangular and the switches on it are squares with slightly rounded edges.

Colour - Work Diary

For my colour Photoshoot, I wanted to focus on mainly bright colours, as I felt that images with bright, saturated colours in them would draw attention more than those with muted colours. I think that the photoshoot went well, as i managed to capture lots of saturated colours in my images, and because of where i shot, which was at Harlow town, there were also lots of muted colours in the background, which created a good contrast to the saturated colours in the foreground.

Above is my favourite photo from the session. I really like the colours presented on the bike wheels and how saturated they are. I think that it contrast very well to the rest of the picture, which mainly consists of muted colours, especially the pale yellows and blues on the buildings in the background.

This is probably my least favourite image on my contact sheet. Overall, just don't think there was an interesting range of colours or contrast in colours. Although there are some muted colours in the burned part of the sign, I feel a more saturated backing colour would have improved the effect of this.

If i were to retake this photoshoot, I would probably try to take some photos which contain analagous colours, which is a colour type I didn't really address in this photoshoot.

Shape - Definition

Shape is defined as a formation of lines that join. They are two dimensional, unlike a form, which is a three dimensional shape. There are two types of shape. Firstly, there are Geometrical shapes, such as a square or a triangle, which have a set number of sides and set angles, each of which has a specific name. Also, there are irregular shapes, which can have any number of sides, and the angles are not pre-determined. These shapes do not have specific names. Below is a picture of some regular shapes, followed by a picture of some irregular shapes.

Line - Work Diary

For my image shooting for Line, I focussed on leading lines and diagonal lines as i found these the most interesting types of line. For the Photoshoot, we went to the park, as we knew there were lots of climbing frames there that would have lots of lines as part of their structure.
I think that some of our photographs went well, as a lot used leading lines. There were also lots of good demonstrations of vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines.

Above is my favourite image of the shoot. I like this image because it shows leading lines, which direct you to the grass. However, the bench also presents a rough wooden texture with lots of different shades of grey on it and shades of green from moss that had been on the bench. It also represents several leading lines rather than a a pair, as there are several wooden planks making up the bench.

The image above is probably my least favourite of the photoshoot. I didn't like it because I don't feel it showed lines strongly enough; there are lines there but they are not very prominent, partly because of the angle the photo was taken at. I feel that if i took it from the right instead of the left, I would have captured the lines between each plank of wood, meaning the image would have had more prominent lines in it. 

If I were to do this photoshoot again, I would try to avoid taking photos of things that don't show prominent lines, such as the one above, and try to focus on strong lines. Here are some examples of what I would like to create.

Shape - contact sheet

Bill Brandt - Research

This is a photograph by Bill Brandt. Bill Brandt took photos of shape, commonly of the female form, as seen in the photograph. These sort of images can cause controversy, as some would consider them sexual objectification, however, some would consider them art. Personally, I thin that there is no right or wrong answer to this; it is entirely up to the viewer of the art. Personally, I do not find this image to be sexual objectification as it is simply a picture of a woman's legs, and I don't  see objectification implied. I think that it is partly due to my, in my opinion, that this image was not intended to be sexually natured; I feel that the use of female form was not a choice made so that the image was sexually appealing, but because of how it presents shape. Personally I feel that this image creates a sense of discomfort, partly due to the lighting and tones presented.

Form - Straight Images