My Final pieces for Unit 2:
Intro:
For my Unit 2, I picked 'Openings'. I was originally deciding between 'Street Photography' and 'Edges" but I picked 'Openings" because I believed there was more ideas available in this theme compared to the other themes. Another reason why I picked Openings is because not many people picked it, which meant I could focus more on my own idea rather than other peoples ideas. I have really enjoyed the theme of 'Openings' especially seeing it was an 11th hour decsion to pick it. I have also found it a really interesting journey as well, with my experimenting on Photoshop. The best bit of this Unit is my ideas for my Final Pieces.
AO1:
For 'Openings' I had two ideas.
My main idea for Openings was reflections in a mirror. This idea involved using either a DSLR or an iPod and a mirror. I focused on getting reflections of the sky against the grass. The purpose of this was to create a new dimension. "a opening". I decided to follow this idea after I researched some of Lee Friedlanders photos. This was my main focus of Unit 2 because it is an idea that is rarely explored, possibly not explored at all. I can only find a few images that involve the reflections, which are taken by Lee Friedlander. However his photos that involve the reflection of a mirror is possibly just coincidence. because most of the mirrors are composed in the corner of the image rather than the center of it.
The second idea I had for Openings was through car windows. I considered emulating the work of Ralph Gibson who took photos from the passenger seat of a car that is sometimes in motion and sometimes still. His photos are in black and white which makes the image look like an opening because you can't see any colours and it looks like a hole has been cut in a black sheet of paper. I didn't follow this idea much because I wasn't completely interested in the idea that much because I believed that it wasn't creative or interesting any more because we can now take colour images which doesn't make it look like an Opening. I continued this idea by adding photos into the opening via Photoshop. The main reason why is that there wasn't really and interesting Openings through a car window so I decided to add a photo in the window, like clouds or a street etc. This defiantly made the idea of looking through car windows more creative and interesting in my opinion.
My main idea for Openings was reflections in a mirror. This idea involved using either a DSLR or an iPod and a mirror. I focused on getting reflections of the sky against the grass. The purpose of this was to create a new dimension. "a opening". I decided to follow this idea after I researched some of Lee Friedlanders photos. This was my main focus of Unit 2 because it is an idea that is rarely explored, possibly not explored at all. I can only find a few images that involve the reflections, which are taken by Lee Friedlander. However his photos that involve the reflection of a mirror is possibly just coincidence. because most of the mirrors are composed in the corner of the image rather than the center of it.
The second idea I had for Openings was through car windows. I considered emulating the work of Ralph Gibson who took photos from the passenger seat of a car that is sometimes in motion and sometimes still. His photos are in black and white which makes the image look like an opening because you can't see any colours and it looks like a hole has been cut in a black sheet of paper. I didn't follow this idea much because I wasn't completely interested in the idea that much because I believed that it wasn't creative or interesting any more because we can now take colour images which doesn't make it look like an Opening. I continued this idea by adding photos into the opening via Photoshop. The main reason why is that there wasn't really and interesting Openings through a car window so I decided to add a photo in the window, like clouds or a street etc. This defiantly made the idea of looking through car windows more creative and interesting in my opinion.
AO2:
My main experiment I have done is using different camera angles with mirrors. I have had to do this because if I simply stood right in front of the mirror with camera I would be caught in the mirror and then that would destroy the idea of it being an Opening. One experiment I was going to consider doing was using Pinhole Cameras with some darkroom experiments, however the way to make a Pin Hole camera look like an Opening can only be done by accident because when I was doing Camera Obscura some of the images came out with a massive circle around it which would be an Openings. However that only happened by accident. So I decided not to follow this idea.
AO3:
One way that I have documented my work is through the use of my website. I was mainly using it to document my research of Lee Freidlander and Ralph Gibson. Also I used Pinterest to show photos that Friedlander and Gibson took. I used multiple websites to documents the photo I have taken, for example I used Weebly, Pinterest, Tumblr and Popplet. I have been trying to keep my Tumblr Blog and my Pinterest Board up to date. I decided to abandon my Popplet because there was a continuing problem with Popplet. However my Tumblr blog I have been keeping up to date with photos I have taken. Pinterest is going well. But I could still add some more photos on the board, especially with photos I have taken because my Pinterest board is focusing mainly on research, but thee are some images I have taken.
One way that I have shown the viewer, my learning is through the layout I have employed for the website.
One way that I have shown the viewer, my learning is through the layout I have employed for the website.
AO4:
For starters, I decided to make only one final piece which involved Photoshop. For equipment I used a DSLR. The idea of my final piece was to take a photo of an Opening in the Grass [manhole] and then edit another image into the manhole in Photoshop. The first thing I did to the image is separate it into four corners. All 4 corners had a different effect which I applied in Photoshop. Top left I used Warmer colours. The top right is Black and White, the bottom right is Sepia and the bottom left is an increase in the contrast. This led to a problem because it became to bright to see the centre of the image when all 4 came together because the contrast was to high. After this, I printed all 4 of the images in A3 and then stuck them together on a piece on cardboard. After all of this the cardboard was cut down to a square and it was finished.
After being fairly disappointed with my first Final Piece, I decided to make a second final piece. The concept came from the first Final Piece, with a few improvements. The picture, as with the last one it is cut into 4 corners to make it bigger. The second final piece only had one effect, Black and White. The main reason for this is that the first one was made confusing and destroyed the illusion of an Opening because of the effects. the second reason why I chose Black and White is because it makes the illusion of an Opening better.
The main idea between both the final pieces was to enlarge the photos too make an illusion of an Opening. If I had mounted the photo in A4 the illusion wouldn't be as good, especially in the second Final Piece because the second Final Piece of the way the mirror is place it looks better enlarged. The enlargement makes the mirror look like a new dimension to someone who has looked at the image for the first time.
After being fairly disappointed with my first Final Piece, I decided to make a second final piece. The concept came from the first Final Piece, with a few improvements. The picture, as with the last one it is cut into 4 corners to make it bigger. The second final piece only had one effect, Black and White. The main reason for this is that the first one was made confusing and destroyed the illusion of an Opening because of the effects. the second reason why I chose Black and White is because it makes the illusion of an Opening better.
The main idea between both the final pieces was to enlarge the photos too make an illusion of an Opening. If I had mounted the photo in A4 the illusion wouldn't be as good, especially in the second Final Piece because the second Final Piece of the way the mirror is place it looks better enlarged. The enlargement makes the mirror look like a new dimension to someone who has looked at the image for the first time.
Conclusion:
Overall I'm very happy with my progress in Unit 2 but I believe it could be better. One reason why is that I only got to make one final piece. My was on course to make a second final piece however there was a problem with making the images in Photoshop. I'm disappointed in myself when it came to this problem because I knew what I had to do on Photoshop but I just couldn't apply it to the photos I was trying to make. A second problem that I experienced was the amount of research I did. I believe that I could of done more research because in the end I was unable to find any books in a library , however I could find a few useful links.
One thing that went well is the amount of images I took. I took at minimum 15 images per set and I took 5 or 6 sets and made around 10 images in Photoshop.
Overall I'm happy with my final piece but I believe that there could be some improvements. to my final piece. The main problem with my final piece is that the effects took away the impression of an Opening. So in the second Final Piece I decided to have just one effect. I picked Black and White and picking this effect, payed off in the Final Piece. I preferred the second final piece because of the illusion of an Opening.
One thing that went well is the amount of images I took. I took at minimum 15 images per set and I took 5 or 6 sets and made around 10 images in Photoshop.
Overall I'm happy with my final piece but I believe that there could be some improvements. to my final piece. The main problem with my final piece is that the effects took away the impression of an Opening. So in the second Final Piece I decided to have just one effect. I picked Black and White and picking this effect, payed off in the Final Piece. I preferred the second final piece because of the illusion of an Opening.