My Unit 1 Evaluation
During the course of Unit 1 I have been looking at a wide range of photographers. I have researched Anna Atkins, Eadward Muybridge, F.Percy Smith, Anton Kawasaki, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Harry Callahan, Alfred Stieglitz and Bill Brandt.
One photographer I looked at during the Abstraction unit was Alfred Stiegletz. He was my inspiration for exploring photos of clouds. I came across Stieglitz’ work whilst looking on Pinterest. I was drawn to a particular photo because the exposure created an interesting amount of textures that were amplified because of the absence of colour. I wanted to emulate this technique with the use of modern technology. My attempts at taking pictures of the clouds came out very successful especially when I put the photos through photoshop and mirrored them. The use of photoshop and a DSLR camera is the way I emulated Alfreds work in a modern way. I really admire the work of Alfred because he was someone who liked to pioneer with techniques that other people had not tried before. A second photographer I looked at during the Abstraction unit was Harry Callahan. Callahan created multiple exposures on the streets of America. I was made aware of his work through my teacher Pintrest board. I was interested in attempting this multiple exposure technique using passers by as subjects, however I was unable to try this technique because I could not find a suitable subject. Furthermore, many of the practical factors that go into creating this technique, such as placing a camera in one spot for an extended period of time, were unworkable. One thing I have understood about photography from Harry Callahan is that it is something that is not always done very quickly and requires both patience and skill. I also learnt from Harry Callahan that with a multiple exposure “location, location, location” is the most important consideration because if you go to a quiet place you will end up with a boring image.
A third photographer I was really interested in was F.Percy Smith who I researched during my Moving images project. I was mainly fascinated by the time lapses and stop motions made by Percy Smith like “The Acrobatic Fly” and “The Birth of a Flower” which is considered as the birth of time lapse photography. I was made aware of Percy by watching a documentary called ‘Edwardian Insects On Film’ which was on whilst I was doing my work for Moving Images. Percy Smith inspired me to make a stop motion/slideshow in my Multiple Images project called “Super Guinea Pig”. The subject of the stop motion was a figure of an animal, an idea similar to some of Percy Smiths stop motions about insects. I feel this went well because I believe I achieved a stop motion similar to the standard of Percy both in movement and overall feel.
During the Abstraction unit, I explored the theme of clouds where I was trying to find abstract patterns in the sky. I started to attempt this whilst on my way home from school one day where I took 25 photos of patterns in the sky on my phone. There was one problem, when these photos were taken there wasn’t really a pattern in the clouds. I decided to edit the images I had captured in photoshop to get some patterns in the image. By mirroring the images I created a symmetrical image. By doing this I managed to achieve what I wanted. When I had a second go at taking pictures of clouds, this time at school, I used DSLR rather than a phone and lucky there was some good patterns in the clouds, so this time I managed to get photos of some good patterns in the clouds without the use of the use of photoshop. A second theme I explored was lines to form a syymetrical pattern. The lines are mainly of vents because they usually have a perfect straight line which is what I was looking. The photos that I got focusing on lines helped with with my final piece because I needed a pattern for my final piece. I got the photos using a DSLR because then I would have a flash to use which also creates a light effect which makes the photos look better.
During Unit 1, I have experimented with a range of media, processes and techniques. For example I have been using apps like Hipstamatic and Hueless on the school’s iPads during the mobile photography and Abstraction units. I’ve also been using Photoshop a lot more in Abstraction compared to other areas of Unit 1. I’m happy with some of my outcomes in Photoshop especially when I was mixing a chemigram and a normal image because it can help to create some very mysterious effects. I’ve recently been using a tripod a lot along with a DSLR because some of the photos I have been using in Abstraction require precision. During the photography course I have used a dark room in order to make a Pinhole Camera and Photograms. In general the photograms came out well especially when I made one for Abstraction where I had accidently over exposed it which turned out to be a good thing because it turned it into what looked like a sketch rather than a chemigram, which was a happy accident. I believe that I have got better at using photoshop during the Abstraction course because at the start I didn’t even understand anything on photoshop, where as now I’m able to achieve the basics on photoshop. This helped me in making my final piece for Abstraction because I had to mirror the image in photoshop, along with putting the pattern over the images.
In moving images I used apps on an iPad like Hueless, Hipstamatic, Minatures, Andigraf, Mopho and Muybridgizer. MoPho was an app that I used the most, at the start went bad because in setting I forgot to allow the GIF’s to go to the camera roll the iPad. This meant that none of the GIF’s I did saved the iPad which was annoying because I could not get any of them onto my computer. So the next time I didn’t make the same mistake and as a result I made some really good GIF’s from different angles, some were close ups, whereas some were long shots. The longshots ones didn’t work because it was too hard to see the different frames. Miniatures was an app which I used at home and at school to make time lapses and stop motions. The first time lapse I did with my friend went really well, it lasted for 20 seconds and took around 15 minutes to take. There was only a small bit of movement in the time lapse.
For the Mobile Photography unit my final outcome was a series of images from a trip to London which focused on people who didn’t know they were being photographed. The majority of my pictures were taken with the Hueless app because I liked making images in black and white. I like concentrating on tonal contrasts and find colour a bit distracting.
For multiple images I decided to base my final piece on the forms of trees. The trees near the basketball courts in school vary in size and shape and I thought they would make an interesting contrast. I decided to place the trees with the leaves at the top of the image where the baby trees I place at the bottom and upside down depending on how you hold the image. Overall I am happy with this final piece because you get a contrast between the two sets of trees. For Abstraction my final piece is based on 3 images that I mirrored in Photoshop and placed a black pattern going down the picture. My original plan was to line the images up, however I thought that the image would look more like a multiple images project. So I decided to work out how many sections there were of each photo because all three of them have the same pattern. There were 23 sections, so I put 1-23 in a random number generator and the number that came was where I cut the image. So it was cut up into sections and I rearranged all three of the images in a pattern. I’m pleased with this outcome especially with how the sizes of the sections are different with makes the photo more abstract. The main reason with I like this final piece is because it is hard to tell what the photos is of. I decided to do this for my final piece because I thought that a photo like is was unique because most photos that have this idea are in focus, where my final piece is out of focus because of how big the photo is when it is printed.
All three of my final pieces reflect that I’m a photographer who likes to experiment with different resources and materials because for Mobile Photography I took photos with my phone, an iPod and an iPad. In multiple images I took my photos using a DSLR and finally in Abstraction I used a DSLR and photoshop to make the images. To make the final piece I used a trimmer to trim and cut the images.
One photographer I looked at during the Abstraction unit was Alfred Stiegletz. He was my inspiration for exploring photos of clouds. I came across Stieglitz’ work whilst looking on Pinterest. I was drawn to a particular photo because the exposure created an interesting amount of textures that were amplified because of the absence of colour. I wanted to emulate this technique with the use of modern technology. My attempts at taking pictures of the clouds came out very successful especially when I put the photos through photoshop and mirrored them. The use of photoshop and a DSLR camera is the way I emulated Alfreds work in a modern way. I really admire the work of Alfred because he was someone who liked to pioneer with techniques that other people had not tried before. A second photographer I looked at during the Abstraction unit was Harry Callahan. Callahan created multiple exposures on the streets of America. I was made aware of his work through my teacher Pintrest board. I was interested in attempting this multiple exposure technique using passers by as subjects, however I was unable to try this technique because I could not find a suitable subject. Furthermore, many of the practical factors that go into creating this technique, such as placing a camera in one spot for an extended period of time, were unworkable. One thing I have understood about photography from Harry Callahan is that it is something that is not always done very quickly and requires both patience and skill. I also learnt from Harry Callahan that with a multiple exposure “location, location, location” is the most important consideration because if you go to a quiet place you will end up with a boring image.
A third photographer I was really interested in was F.Percy Smith who I researched during my Moving images project. I was mainly fascinated by the time lapses and stop motions made by Percy Smith like “The Acrobatic Fly” and “The Birth of a Flower” which is considered as the birth of time lapse photography. I was made aware of Percy by watching a documentary called ‘Edwardian Insects On Film’ which was on whilst I was doing my work for Moving Images. Percy Smith inspired me to make a stop motion/slideshow in my Multiple Images project called “Super Guinea Pig”. The subject of the stop motion was a figure of an animal, an idea similar to some of Percy Smiths stop motions about insects. I feel this went well because I believe I achieved a stop motion similar to the standard of Percy both in movement and overall feel.
During the Abstraction unit, I explored the theme of clouds where I was trying to find abstract patterns in the sky. I started to attempt this whilst on my way home from school one day where I took 25 photos of patterns in the sky on my phone. There was one problem, when these photos were taken there wasn’t really a pattern in the clouds. I decided to edit the images I had captured in photoshop to get some patterns in the image. By mirroring the images I created a symmetrical image. By doing this I managed to achieve what I wanted. When I had a second go at taking pictures of clouds, this time at school, I used DSLR rather than a phone and lucky there was some good patterns in the clouds, so this time I managed to get photos of some good patterns in the clouds without the use of the use of photoshop. A second theme I explored was lines to form a syymetrical pattern. The lines are mainly of vents because they usually have a perfect straight line which is what I was looking. The photos that I got focusing on lines helped with with my final piece because I needed a pattern for my final piece. I got the photos using a DSLR because then I would have a flash to use which also creates a light effect which makes the photos look better.
During Unit 1, I have experimented with a range of media, processes and techniques. For example I have been using apps like Hipstamatic and Hueless on the school’s iPads during the mobile photography and Abstraction units. I’ve also been using Photoshop a lot more in Abstraction compared to other areas of Unit 1. I’m happy with some of my outcomes in Photoshop especially when I was mixing a chemigram and a normal image because it can help to create some very mysterious effects. I’ve recently been using a tripod a lot along with a DSLR because some of the photos I have been using in Abstraction require precision. During the photography course I have used a dark room in order to make a Pinhole Camera and Photograms. In general the photograms came out well especially when I made one for Abstraction where I had accidently over exposed it which turned out to be a good thing because it turned it into what looked like a sketch rather than a chemigram, which was a happy accident. I believe that I have got better at using photoshop during the Abstraction course because at the start I didn’t even understand anything on photoshop, where as now I’m able to achieve the basics on photoshop. This helped me in making my final piece for Abstraction because I had to mirror the image in photoshop, along with putting the pattern over the images.
In moving images I used apps on an iPad like Hueless, Hipstamatic, Minatures, Andigraf, Mopho and Muybridgizer. MoPho was an app that I used the most, at the start went bad because in setting I forgot to allow the GIF’s to go to the camera roll the iPad. This meant that none of the GIF’s I did saved the iPad which was annoying because I could not get any of them onto my computer. So the next time I didn’t make the same mistake and as a result I made some really good GIF’s from different angles, some were close ups, whereas some were long shots. The longshots ones didn’t work because it was too hard to see the different frames. Miniatures was an app which I used at home and at school to make time lapses and stop motions. The first time lapse I did with my friend went really well, it lasted for 20 seconds and took around 15 minutes to take. There was only a small bit of movement in the time lapse.
For the Mobile Photography unit my final outcome was a series of images from a trip to London which focused on people who didn’t know they were being photographed. The majority of my pictures were taken with the Hueless app because I liked making images in black and white. I like concentrating on tonal contrasts and find colour a bit distracting.
For multiple images I decided to base my final piece on the forms of trees. The trees near the basketball courts in school vary in size and shape and I thought they would make an interesting contrast. I decided to place the trees with the leaves at the top of the image where the baby trees I place at the bottom and upside down depending on how you hold the image. Overall I am happy with this final piece because you get a contrast between the two sets of trees. For Abstraction my final piece is based on 3 images that I mirrored in Photoshop and placed a black pattern going down the picture. My original plan was to line the images up, however I thought that the image would look more like a multiple images project. So I decided to work out how many sections there were of each photo because all three of them have the same pattern. There were 23 sections, so I put 1-23 in a random number generator and the number that came was where I cut the image. So it was cut up into sections and I rearranged all three of the images in a pattern. I’m pleased with this outcome especially with how the sizes of the sections are different with makes the photo more abstract. The main reason with I like this final piece is because it is hard to tell what the photos is of. I decided to do this for my final piece because I thought that a photo like is was unique because most photos that have this idea are in focus, where my final piece is out of focus because of how big the photo is when it is printed.
All three of my final pieces reflect that I’m a photographer who likes to experiment with different resources and materials because for Mobile Photography I took photos with my phone, an iPod and an iPad. In multiple images I took my photos using a DSLR and finally in Abstraction I used a DSLR and photoshop to make the images. To make the final piece I used a trimmer to trim and cut the images.