I started the first unit off with 'Abstraction' project and I experimented a lot with photoshop in this project. I have made 4 of these 2 of them have are red and 2 are blue and they will be mounted on a piece they have printed out all four. The photo's are good but I could make them look more abstract by taking more abstract photo's to work with. I have made the photo's using the exact same method but I think it would be better If I made them all different for more of a variety in the piece but I used the same due to I had not much time to do it. The photo's could be more accurate like the shapes could be more centred into the screen and made with exact measurements other than freehand and just placing it where it looks best other than accurate measurements in the photo. Otherwise i'm positive it will look good once complete and all mounted in a order that will make the red contrast with the blue. I researched many artists in this project such as Ernst Haas, Saul Leiter and Hannah Höch which all gave me inspiration and a lot of insight in this project as I was not very sure where to start, and I eventually found out what I was going to do and the skills I was going to need to do so through a photoshop inspiration post on Pinterest.
I then moved onto the project of 'Edges' which I wasn't really sure at first as Edges was a theme that I hadn't investigated before nor have I thought about doing so. While researching Edges Photograph I have discovered artists such as Barbara Kasten who has a very unique style by mixing everyday things such as stairs and walkways and adds shapes and makes everything look colourful and bright with a dark background. I explored edges by using photoshop to get photo's of people and use them on top of photos of objects that pay attention to their natural edges and the shadows. My threshold concept that I mostly payed attention to was the new genre of using photoshop and new technology to achieve a good photo because I mostly used editing and the computer to achieve my final piece. To develop my work I used a standard camera to take two images (per photo) then used photoshop to get the images together and then changed the Opacity to make the other image stand through the other one.
I then moved onto the subject 'Journey's' which was a quick project I done over summer. I researched an artist called Nick Waplington in this project. These photos were taken during the summer when I went on a trip to Sal in Cape Verde which is a small island off the Northwest coast of Africa. Here I went out to see many of the locals and their way of life and how different they're lives are compared to mine. I went to the main fishing docks, the beach and some shanty towns in the middle of the desert as there was some very deprived areas. I went to many other tourist sights such as natural pools that I got a few photo's of for my project. Some of the photo's were taken when the locals brought in all the fish they caught on the day. The photo's are all taken through the day making the lighting very bright in the majority of the photo's generally all my photo's are in focus and have a main subject with not much going on in the background.
My final project for this Unit was 'Natural World' was with photograms as I found this to be my most successful experiment where I experimented with many different types of photography such as photograms, cyanotypes, digital and different focuses. I used A3 pieces of photographic paper to create 2 different photograms using the enlarger in the dark room. The photograms consist of other photograms re-grammed in the shape of circles using the circle cutter tool and objects I found which are related to the natural world such as plants, leaves and sticks. I made a total of 8 photograms and I chose the 2 most effective ones that are also used with the same type of photographic paper which was AGFA Signum matte and glossy photographic paper. These were used as my final outcome.
The outcome that I made in response to 'Natural World' has been mounted on a large mount board with the original paper. When I done the photogram I exposed the imagine with the enlarger for 2 seconds as I found out this was the best after testing many times. I also used a sheet of acetate to put on top of it to make sure the objects stayed in the correct place I came across a problem where the acetate had many scratches and finger prints which came up on the paper after I had developed it. I had to use a different piece of cleaner acetate in order to fix this problem and start over again. I got inspiration from Stephen Gill in a way because he experiments layering in his photography and I did the same when I did a photograms and then photogrammed it again on top of another piece of photographic paper in the same way he puts photo's and natural objects on top of his other photo's in most of his work he is also a artist I researched. I also got inspiration from Anna Atkins although she only does cyanotypes and not photograms they are still very similar in looks as she does cyanotypes of leaves, moss and other plants she finds in the same way that I done in my outcome.
To conclude, I have learnt a lot in this component and have experimented with many different techniques such as photoshop, cyanotypes, photograms and making an images colour seem more bright and vibrant by saturating and de-saturating the colours which all of these helped me develop the skills needed to have a range of different responses and to make all of my work different and unique. I have done a lot of trial and error in this component to persist until I get an piece of work exactly how I want it no matter how long it takes. The process of evaluating my work also helped me find faults and ways to improve my work in further experimentations. Component 1 has also improved my independence as a photographer as I just make do with the resources I have and do what I want to do and not instructions that I get from teachers.
I then moved onto the project of 'Edges' which I wasn't really sure at first as Edges was a theme that I hadn't investigated before nor have I thought about doing so. While researching Edges Photograph I have discovered artists such as Barbara Kasten who has a very unique style by mixing everyday things such as stairs and walkways and adds shapes and makes everything look colourful and bright with a dark background. I explored edges by using photoshop to get photo's of people and use them on top of photos of objects that pay attention to their natural edges and the shadows. My threshold concept that I mostly payed attention to was the new genre of using photoshop and new technology to achieve a good photo because I mostly used editing and the computer to achieve my final piece. To develop my work I used a standard camera to take two images (per photo) then used photoshop to get the images together and then changed the Opacity to make the other image stand through the other one.
I then moved onto the subject 'Journey's' which was a quick project I done over summer. I researched an artist called Nick Waplington in this project. These photos were taken during the summer when I went on a trip to Sal in Cape Verde which is a small island off the Northwest coast of Africa. Here I went out to see many of the locals and their way of life and how different they're lives are compared to mine. I went to the main fishing docks, the beach and some shanty towns in the middle of the desert as there was some very deprived areas. I went to many other tourist sights such as natural pools that I got a few photo's of for my project. Some of the photo's were taken when the locals brought in all the fish they caught on the day. The photo's are all taken through the day making the lighting very bright in the majority of the photo's generally all my photo's are in focus and have a main subject with not much going on in the background.
My final project for this Unit was 'Natural World' was with photograms as I found this to be my most successful experiment where I experimented with many different types of photography such as photograms, cyanotypes, digital and different focuses. I used A3 pieces of photographic paper to create 2 different photograms using the enlarger in the dark room. The photograms consist of other photograms re-grammed in the shape of circles using the circle cutter tool and objects I found which are related to the natural world such as plants, leaves and sticks. I made a total of 8 photograms and I chose the 2 most effective ones that are also used with the same type of photographic paper which was AGFA Signum matte and glossy photographic paper. These were used as my final outcome.
The outcome that I made in response to 'Natural World' has been mounted on a large mount board with the original paper. When I done the photogram I exposed the imagine with the enlarger for 2 seconds as I found out this was the best after testing many times. I also used a sheet of acetate to put on top of it to make sure the objects stayed in the correct place I came across a problem where the acetate had many scratches and finger prints which came up on the paper after I had developed it. I had to use a different piece of cleaner acetate in order to fix this problem and start over again. I got inspiration from Stephen Gill in a way because he experiments layering in his photography and I did the same when I did a photograms and then photogrammed it again on top of another piece of photographic paper in the same way he puts photo's and natural objects on top of his other photo's in most of his work he is also a artist I researched. I also got inspiration from Anna Atkins although she only does cyanotypes and not photograms they are still very similar in looks as she does cyanotypes of leaves, moss and other plants she finds in the same way that I done in my outcome.
To conclude, I have learnt a lot in this component and have experimented with many different techniques such as photoshop, cyanotypes, photograms and making an images colour seem more bright and vibrant by saturating and de-saturating the colours which all of these helped me develop the skills needed to have a range of different responses and to make all of my work different and unique. I have done a lot of trial and error in this component to persist until I get an piece of work exactly how I want it no matter how long it takes. The process of evaluating my work also helped me find faults and ways to improve my work in further experimentations. Component 1 has also improved my independence as a photographer as I just make do with the resources I have and do what I want to do and not instructions that I get from teachers.