Connecting Essay - Colour

This is a photograph by Jim Turner which heavily features the formal element of colour.

This image makes use of lots of saturated shades of yellow.

This is one of my straight images for colour. Like the image by Jim Turner pictured above, there has been use of lots of saturated colours. However, my image has a range of colours, including different shades of saturated colours and some muted colours, whereas the Jim Turner image only uses yellow, green and blue.

Like the Jim Turner image, my image makes use of the rule of thirds composition rule. As you see, both have placed the subject along the vertical line to the right, with the subject and the background meeting at the top right point.

They also both use a narrow depth of field. Jim Turner's image keeps the flower closest to the lens in focus, the two behind it semi in focus, and the rest of the flowers in the background behind them are out of focus. In my image, the bicycle tyres are all in focus except for the one closest to the camera, and everything behind the tyres in the background is out of focus. 

The image by Jim Turner uses a large amount of very light tones to create a very tonally rich image, however it lacks when it comes to a wide tonal range. My image uses some very light tones, however, it also uses some darker tones, particularly on the floor and in the background, therefore my image has a wider tonal range than the one by Jim Turner. 

They also both make use of textures. My image contains some very smooth, slick textures, which are shown on the bicycle tyres and in some of the bicycle frames in the background. It also makes use of some rough, bumpy textures on the floor, therefore, there is a contrast in textures in my image. Jim Turner's image also uses a contrast in tones. It uses some smooth textures, which are shown in the petals of the flowers and it also shows some very bumpy textures in the centre of the flower.

Composite images - evaluation

This is a test run and a plan for what I am going to do for my project on The Fourth Plinth.

I first edited the controller, cutting it out and then selecting certain areas, then changing the colours balance of these areas specifically. I intended to get a pop art effect, which i feel succeeded.

I couldn't find any large images of the fourth plinth that were taken both when it was empty and at an angle I could make work with using the photos I had taken. In the end i settled with this small image as it was at an angle I could use.

Next, I moved the cut out image of the controller onto the image. Since it was taken at a different perspective to the picture of the fourth plinth, I used the perspective change tool to make it appear closer to the right perspective.

To improve, I could add some drop shadows to it to make it look more real, find a bigger image of the plinth, and spend more time adjusting the perspective of the controller so appears to be at the right perspective to be on the plinth.

Artist Research - Cedric Delsaux

Cedric Delsaux is a French Photographer born in 1974. His work combines reality with fiction to create  surreal works of art. He is most commonly know for his composite images which depict characters and vehicles from the film series Star Wars.

This image has made use of the Tusken Raider Species from the film series. The backdrop has been chosen well as they are from the sand planet Tatooine, and in the ground it has been placed on in the picture is a sandy coloured mud pit, which looks similar to their home planet, therefore there has been an element of research for what backdrop to use to put this character on. However, there is also some contrast created between the character and the background past what it is standing one; an urban environment can be seen, as well as some industrial buildings, which is not usually something seen near the Tusken Raider species.

The image of the Star Destroyer which has been added in fits well with the image. The image of the star destroyer suggests modern advancement and technological power, and it is placed near a developed 

city, which also has connotations of modern advancement and technological power. I feel that this choice of background made the Star Destroyer look very in place in the image. He has blended the ship into the mist, so it appears to be behind the mist, giving the impression that it is really there.

This image has incorporated an X-wing Star fighter into a a city. This particular area of the city appears to be quite wealthy judging by the buildings shown. It may possibly be a banking district. The X-wing creates a contrast between the office buildings shown in the image, as an office job is generally seen as mundane and uneventful, and the sight of this ship creates excitement, as it is a ship featured in many space battle scenes.

Photo Documentary - Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French street photographer who specialised in Photo Documentary. He is considered one of the founding fathers of street photography. He has taken many photos that capture famine, war and conflict.
He based his photos on what he calls "the decisive moment" which is the moment pictured in the photo that defines what is happening at that time and what effect it has on the people involved.

This was taken in Shanghai, 1948, which was when China had changed government to a communist rule. Since the value of money had plummeted, the government had decided to give out forty grams of gold per person, which resulted in huge crowd of thousands gathering outside the bank building. During the claustrophobic struggle, ten people died of suffocation. 

This was taken in Spain, 1933. The cause of the destruction was never revealed, though it was originally assumed this photo was taken during during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). The fact this
image depicts destruction that appears to be the result of war, only a few years before war broke out, creates a sense of foreshadowing and gives this image a much more ominous mood. However, there is some contrast in moods between the children, who appear to be playing like normal, and the deprived backdrop.

I am unsure where and when this photo was taken, though it was likely in an urban environment. This shows contrast between the building it was taken in and the fact there are lots of pigeons on the stairs and railings. It presents the idea of nature taking over urban environments, in which nature has mostly been eliminated by humans' buildings.

Landscape - Image Bank

This landscape is very well composed; the cloud fits nicely in the frame and stops at about the halfway mark. It also shows the horizon as a neat line across the image, which fits nicely into the bottom third of the image. The image has made good use of the rule of thirds composition rule, as the tree has been placed on the line of the grid so that your eyes are drawn to it.

This Landscape contains leading lines in the form of a road that leads you to the horizon. Unlike the previous image, the horizon is not a neat line and the image is not very neatly composed. This image contain some muted shades of green, unlike the previous image which contained all very saturated colours.

This is a Landscape by Ansel Adams. It was taken on a film camera using sepia film, therefore it contains all muted colours and contains mainly light tones. This has been taken from an eye level perspective, therefore it shows us the size of the mountains and what it's like to be at the place it was taken.

This image is by Rut Blees Luxemburg. Although this is a landscape, it is very different in shooting style to the others. It has been shot from a worms eye view and is at a slightly canted angle. It has also been taken using a long exposure, therefore, there is some motion blur from the cars that were on the road.

This landscape has been taken from an eye level perspective, therefore we don not get to see the scene from a high angle, or from a low angle so we can see the sky and the horizon. The rule of thirds could be applied to this picture, as the middle of the bridge fits roughly into the middle of the left vertical line of the grid, so your attention is drawn to the bridge.

Landscape - Rut Blees Luxemburg Research

Rut Blees Luxemburg is is a German photographer who is based in London. In addition to taking street photography, she is a tutor at the Royal College of Art. Her technique is to take pictures of Urban Environments at night. Her photos have lots of different tones, mainly a large contrast between the dark tones of the night and the bright tones of street lights and neon lights which are all around London. Many of her her photographs make use of puddles as a medium for showing light in contrast to the shadows around the streets. Here are some examples of her work.

This image uses lots of muted colours, other than the part in the puddle, which shows a saturated blue. There is some tonal contrast, with some dark tones on the pavement due to the time of the day, and some light tones shown on the bright tube station sign in the puddle. This image has a very simple composition, with only a small puddle with a reflection being featured on a plain London floor. The image creates a sense of negative space, in which the floor surrounding the puddle becomes negative. This does not use a very wide angle lens to capture lots in the frame like most landscapes, however, and it doesn't display any rural or urban scenery.

This photo is similar to the one previously featured, with negative space created by the puddle being in the middle of the pavement. However, this one contains a larger range in tones. Inside the reflection itself there are lots of very dark tones, with the only light tones being produced being in the tube station sign, similar to the image previously shown. There are also some very dark tones shown on the pavement behind the puddle. This image has been composed differently to the previous one, having been taken at a canted angle, creating a more interesting composition than in the previous image. There are more saturated colours in this image, as there is a larger area of a sign shown in this image, however, there are still lots of muted colours in the pavement. This has not been composed like most landscapes, as it doesn't show scenery and the horizon, but is aimed at the floor and doesn't use a very wide angle lens to capture lots in the frame.

This one has been taken from a bird's eye view, so we get a view from above of a reflection in a puddle. This one contains some lines, unlike the previous images, and two of the lines in the paving slab act as leading lines that draw your attention to the puddle, where the reflection is. There is a very large tonal range in this, with some bright and warm tones inside the reflection, and a contrast between dark tones where the pavement has been wet and light tones where it hasn't. The pavement is, again, made up of very dull and muted colours, however, there is a very saturated shade of orange in the reflection in the puddle. Because of the lines in the tiles, a square can be seen, which the puddle is neatly framed into.

Landscape - Ansel Adams research

Ansel Adams is an American Landscape photographer born in 1902 in San Francisco. He was a fan of nature, as he lived near the Yosemite National Park and was inspired by it. Many of his Landscapes were taken there.
He was a very technical photographer, as he used the zoning system and pre visualisation.
The zoning system is a system that Ansel Adams formulated that helped to calculate the correct camera settings for optimal exposure.
He also pre-visualised his images, meaning he pictured how he wanted them to be, so that he could select his camera settings and composition based upon that.
With Willard Van Dyke and Edward Weston, Adams formed the Group F/64, which consisted of seven San Francisco based photographers. They all shared photo characteristics of carefully framed photographs and sharp focus. Here are some examples of Ansel's work.

This image was taken at Yosemite national Park in San Fran Cisco. This work is very typical for Adams, as it uses a Landscape orientation and captures a very wide angle. This image incorporates the golden triangle composition rule, as it features a prominent foreground, mid ground and background. This was likely achieved on purpose through the use of Pre visualisation, which is something Ansel Adams pioneered. This image also has a very wide depth of field, as only the background is slightly out focus and the rest of the image is sharply in focus. It was therefore shot using a high F stop value such as F22, which he likely chose carefully using the Zoning system for calculating camera settings that he pioneered.

I do not know for sure where this image was taken, though it was likely taken in Yosemite national park, as large amount of Ansel Adams' work was taken there. This image features several formal elements. Firstly, this image has a very wide tonal range; there are some very light tones displayed on the grass and on parts of the road, as well as some very dark tones shown on the stone structure and on the hills in the background. It also makes use of leading lines, which take the form of the path, which leads you the stone structure featured in the background of the image. Like most of Adams' work, the image was taken using landscape orientation and captures a very wide angle shot.                              

This is an image that is very different in some ways to the other two. It has much less to see in it; it is simply the horizon taken from a moody, flooded field.

Landscape - Definition

Landscape photography is photography taken in landscape orientation, usually depicting vast areas of the planet, whether they are natural or urban. The are usually taken using a wide angle lens, therefore they show a large amount of the horizon.

Composite/Manipulated Images - Definitions

Composite images are images that are made by combining several distinct photographs.

Manipulated images are images that have been changed in an editing program to create a desired image.

Photo Documentary - Work Diary

For my Photo Documentary project, I used "my life" as a theme when taking photos. I decided I was going to take photos over the christmas holidays, with no schedule, but just when I felt it would be a good time. They were taken on my phone, therefore I was using auto shooting mode, which I feel may have limited me a bit.

Here is my favourite image from my Photo Documentary project.

I like this because of the very large contrast in tones. The only light tones are the headlights and rear lights of the cars, and they take up very little of the image. The dark tones create a sense of negative space, with the lights being the only things visible in the image. I feel that the mood created in this picture is very dark, scary and creates a sense of ambiguousness; the meaning of the photo and what you view it as is open to discussion. I feel that the editing of this photo helped add to the mood. I took the image in colour, and it was already very dark, with very little light tones. I opened it in photoshop and converted it to black and white, using the maximum white setting, so that the headlights of the cars would light up the road slightly, rather than just glowing in the background. I then changed the curves, levels and brightness of the photo, so that the black became so dark it was negative space, and the headlights were light enough to create a very strong contrast to this.

This is my least favourite image from my Photo Documentary project.

I feel like this is a good photo on its own, as it is well composed, well lit and is framed quite well, but I feel it doesn't hold nearly as much meaning, mood or ambiguousness as most of the other images from my project. I feel like if I had taken a photo of the carousel with some people on it, it would have fit more into my project and carried more meaning. I also feel that if I had taken it from different angle, possible a worm's eye view or an extreme close-up it could have been much more dramatic, and could have possibly had a narrow depth of field, which would have focussed the person viewing the image onto the horse. For editing, I only used the burn tool briefly and did nothing else to it. Maybe converting this to black and white or changing levels, curves and colour balance would have made the image more effective.

If I were to do a photo documentary project again, I would try and plan it out a little bit more before taking photos, and narrow down my theme so I know exactly what to focus on. I would also want to take my photos on my camera, so that I can control the Shutter speed, Aperture and ISO settings.

Photo Documentary - Straight Images

F2.2, 1/17

F2.4

F2.2, 1/50

F2.2, 1/17

F2.2, 1/33

Photo Documentary - Image Bank

I like this photo because it shows lots of contrast in different ideas. There are two very young children, who act as a symbol of innocence, which is contrasted by the barbed wire which they are behind, which is a symbol of violence and oppression. The children's distressed expressions show that they have lost some of the innocence of childhood due to the situation they are in.

This also shows childhood, however, this child living in much better situations, means their childhood innocence is maintained. They are seen falling over, and trying to regain their balance, which is a sign they are able to live a normal childhood and worry about small things like this rather than big things like war or famine.

The image above shows people from a different walk of life altogether; the people in the picture are adult labourers. From the picture you can deduce they are working class, as they are working as labourers. Each person sitting on the beam has a different facial expression, all of which reflect how they feel about sitting there to eat lunch and working there.

This pictures somebody from a similar job to what is shown on the previous image. This man has a very blank expression on his face, and is focussed on the rivet he is tightening, which shows he is concentrating on the job at hand. Therefore, this shows a man from a similar job as in the previous image, but at a time of day when he is very busy, rather than relaxing at his lunch break.

The photo shown above is far less candid than the others; the photographer has stopped and asked the girl if he could take her photo and told her to look into the camera when he did. I feel like the girl used in the photo can help you get a better understanding of where she is from and where this was taken based on her face and the clothes she is wearing.

Photo documentary - Definition

Photo Documentary is a type of photography that documents life, usually taken at import events that will go down in history e.g. photos of people during a war. Photo Documentary generally is pictures of people, although it can be pictures of animals, or places that have been affected by people.
Some of the most famous Photo Documentary photographers include Henri Cartier Bresson, Bill Brandt and Berenice Abbot.

My Life Photo Documentary - contact sheet