ED2 photo assignment 2 evaluation

Evaluation

I started off with my research and developing my ideas for the book cover, I found lots of really good inspiration for my idea such as shadows, segregated scenes and invisible men. This gave me the idea to take a photo of just a shadow, I thought this would be a good idea because then the person is there but you get the feel of him feeling invisible rather than being invisible.

During the shoot: the shoot went very well because it didn’t take a lot of time to set up, I used two lights, one harsh and the other with a honeycomb front to create a softer feel, this made a double effect on the shadow giving the effect of invisibility that I wanted to create. My model did very well as he was able to manipulate the double shadow as well as his own, I took 4 photos on film using a medium format camera, this had to be set and focused accordingly to the way the model moved as I moved the lights also to have a different shadow each time for a range of images.

Fixing the negatives: for this I had to load the 120 film onto the spirals and in to the canisters to develop the negatives. For this I had to mix 600ml of water and 600ml of developer and develop this for 15 minutes, turning and tapping the canister every 30 seconds. After tipping away the developer mix I then filled the canister with stop bath chemicals for 1 minute, emptied and filled with 1300ml of fix for 5 minutes, after this I washed them out by letting water continuously run through for 15 the dried the negatives.

Printing: to print my photo I did contact strips of my negatives  with 5, 10, and 15 seconds of light exposure to find the best outcome, I made a print of 15 seconds and a print of 13 seconds so i had a choice of which one works the best. When loading the negs into the enlarger I had to lower the negs towards the paper to make it fit the frame, loaded the paper, shiny side up and exposed the paper to light to print the picture onto it. after this i developed the photos for 1-2 minutes, washed for 30 seconds and fixed for around 5 minute before rinsing the chemicals of and drying the photos. after this i scanned the photos into Photoshop and made my book covers, the 1st one i simply flipped the image round and placed it in a good position where the writing would not be cut of or the image would not take away the effect of the writing, by turning down the opacity on the writing i overcame this problem...

The second book cover i decided to use the contact sheet i made to create the effect of old passport photos of a man who looks like he doesn't exist, because i printing on different film to what would have been used in the 1950s i used Photoshop to create a frame which says 'Kodak' on the side to make it more realistic to the time period, i really liked this effect because it is more complex than just a plain photo in the background and it gives an edge to the cover...

Overall if i had the chance to do this project again i would have a different approach of planning many different ways and techniques to create photos and have a lot more time to actually create the covers because i felt there wasn't enough time to make as many covers as i had wanted.

ED2 photo assingment 2, mock up covers.

 This first image i used because it gave me the impression of lonelyness and feeling singled out, which is what the book is about (segregation). I like this technique because its a simple idea but had a great effect.

 

 

this is my most favourtie cover of the 3 mock ups i have created, I enjoy this because it is suttle, it doesnt show segregation full on but it has the idea and feel of being seperated; the people in the photo being confined and keeping them selves to them selves. this is the style and effect i want to create with my book cover.

 

this cover i think has a comic factor but deffinitly brings across being invisible, i also really like this because its creative and different from the normal type of image.

 

ED2 photo assignment 1, illustrive research.

I  have chosen to research the covers from the true blood series by Charlaine Harris but paticulalry the first novel ' Dead until Dark' because I like this type of photography and the feel of less is more. I paticulalry like the fact you don't have to see what the book is about or read a short synopsis on the book to know that the book has something to do with vampires because of the image portrayed on the front (fangs, blood dripping from mouth, pale complexion) the very small writing which says 'thou shall not crave thy neighbour' really sums up the book in one sentence and helps bring across the image.

The photographer of the true blood series is John Johnson (III). most of the cover images he has produced for the series are very similar to the one above they show that less is more and bring across a very good effect. 

John Johnson has also been the still photogrpaher for many covers of films, such as horrible bosses, letter to Juliet, Friday the 13th big mommas house 2 and big mommas: like father like son.


Another book cover I really like the style of is the book 'My sisters keep' I have looked at both the original(before the movie came out)and the cover with the film stars on. both are similar but bring across a different message.

This is the original cover and I prefer this one because it gives a vibe that you don't really know what to expect, the text  'the only way to save your daughter is to sacrifice her sister' says to me that the book does involve a child being sacrificed just for her sister, which is what the book is about. The way the child is lighting a candle and holding her knees shows she's alone which she is.

This cover shows Cameron Diaz who plays the mother, but I think this is a bad point to the original cover because the book isn't actually about the mother mainly the two daughters. also I think it is misleading because the mother and her daughter are smiling and laughing together when in the book they do not get along at all, similar to the first cover this one shows the same quote and still brings that message that you cant judge the storyline.

Michael Tackett did the still photography for the films which led to being the book cover, he is also known for other filmography of films such as the Cinderella story, piranha 3DD and Little Britain USA.

James Walker is a professional qualified photographer and does a lot of different styles, he has done book covers, architectual photography  aerial photography,travel,food, studio, portraits and weddings. he has done a bunch of books, but a few I recognize  are two by Danielle Steel 44 Charles street and answered prayers and one book by Martina Cole 'La Proie' I believe he has a very good way in showing a story within the one still image, as I havnt personally read these books I cannot say if they covers represent what the book is about but they all bring across different messages such as..

these both have similar designs and from the covers do not really say anything about the book unlike 'My sisters keeper' by Jodi Picoult the original cover gives a sense of a child being alone and trying keep what she has got by holding her knees to her chest (which is the plot of the book.

Where as I think Martinas book portrays many different things in that she could be the murderer by the gun she is holding, or she is unstable and people are trying to get the gun from her.

negative image inverted.

This is the same image I chose to evaluate, but I put it in Photoshop and inverted the negative to see what the outcome would be. I like this because it shows more of the features and appears more like what the image would be like if it was produced on film rather than photographic paper.

Evaluation ED2 photo assignment 1

When I used the 5x4 large format camera, it was quite difficult at first to get used to but after I had figured out how to get it right, it went pretty well. The best photo taken from this camera is the one below.

 

what went well ?

As i didnt have a lot of time to use normal film and develop those in that afternoon, I tried using photographic paper in the slides and exposed those to light instead. I think the photo above went really well because you can deffinately see what the photo is supposed to be of.

developing this photo went really well too because I only had to put it in the developer for 1-2 minutes, the wash for 30 seconds and the fix for around 5 minutes, this cut down and saved a lot of time to try out all the different ways of creating self portraiture.

Taking the photo I used a cable release to make it much easier,I had to hold this down and make lots of flashes using the studio lights to get the picture to come out properly, in the end i worked it out that I needed to have around 10 flashes to get the right amount of exposure to the paper, any less than that and all of my other photos come out dark and you couldnt see anything. 

 

what didnt go well ?

 

When I first started loading up the slides I thought it went very well but after loading this into the camera and had taken my first picture, putting the slide back into the holder had caused the paper to come out and therfore exposing the whole thing to light.

 

Studio lighting took a lot of practice to get the right amount of exsposure, my first attempy I only did one flash; my print come out as a black peice of paper. But after many attempts and different amounts of flash the picture finally came out a decent quality for what it is. 

 

overall i find this camera brilliant to use because not only is the quality of the film pictures amazing but it also gives you experiance of cameras that were once very popular. 

Large format camera ED2 photo assignment 1

The large format cameras are very good if you are interested in ladnscape photogrpahy because they are big and bulky and take exactly pictures of things that are permanantly sttill. for example it is hard to get a picture of a moving animal if you so wish to.

How to focus and set the trigger to take a photo is done on the fron lens. The back of the camera is a glass panel that you look through once the shutter is open to get focused, to focus properly you have to have a sheet over you. the picture will be protrayed back to front and upside down so you have to judge what direction the model will need to move without disturbing the picture focus too much.

 

Loading this large format camera you have a holder which can contain two sheets of film, for this you have to take out the slides and load your film then replace the slides back in to prevent light exposure, once you have clicked the hodler into place you take out the forward facing slide and snap your picture, then returning the slide into its holder, black facing outwards so you know that peice of film has been shot. and continue this on the other side. once youve snapped your shots you are ready to develop.

 

 

Above are the difference between the film sizes of medium and large format cameras. 6x6 being the medium format camera, then the difference of the 4x5 camera, the picture quality is much better. below is an example.

 Example 1..


Nikon D100 6mp digital SLR

Tachihara 4x5 field camera

 

Tachihara 4x5 feild camera

                                                                          Nikon D100 6mp digital SLR

 



 

The quality differnce between this traditional camera and a digital is amazing.

 

 





Medium format - Twin-lens reflex research. ED2 photo assignment 1

The Twin-Lens reflex camera has one photographic lens (one that takes the pictures) and the other is used as a viewfinder which is usually viewed from above at waist level.

Twin-lens reflex.

The viewfinder consists of a 45 degree mirror, this is the reason for the wor reflex in the namem a matte focusing screen at the top of the camera, and a pop-up hood surrounded. The two objectives are connected so that the focus shown on the screen will be exactly the same as on the film.

These double lensed cameras were first developed around 1970, this was because people came to realize that having a second lens alongside the origional taking lens would mean focusing without having to swap the ground glass screen for the plate. 

The typical TLR is medium format, this is using a 120 roll film with square 6x6 cm images. There were smaller TLr models, this using 127 roll film with square 4x4 cm images, most famously known as the 'baby' Rollieflex.

120 roll film.

 

Stanley Kubrick 1928 - 1999 ED2 photo assingment 1

Stanley Kubrick was most famous for being a photographer and a director. He produced films such as The Shining, Full Metal Jacket and Spartacus.

I have chosen to research Stanley Kubrick as i find his work of self portraiture very interested and I really like his techniques.

Self Portrait on a boat, Palisades Amusement Park (New Jersey), 26 June 1946.

This was taken on set of his film the shining. I particularly like this photo because it brings across 'less is more' and this is the specific type of self portraiture I am interested in doing for myself.

This photo taken in 1946.

Self portrait with showgirl Rosemary Williams 1948.

 

After being given a camera for his thirteenth birthday, Kubrick took to photogrpahy with a great passion and interest. Kubrick soon then began to take photos all around New York, when he became seventeen he sent a photo of himself to LOOK magazine, they then started to notice him as a photographer and was then eventually taken on as an apprentice. This launched the start of his career.

 

In 1950 Stanley Kubrick moved to film, he began by shooting a documentary and was then noticed for his directorial skills. Two of his films brought him to the attention of Hollywood, these are Killer Kiss (1955) and The Killing (1956. in 1957 he directed Kirk Douglas in Paths of Glory. Kubrick's career then continued to climb and he created approximately 16 films in his time of being a director, these included some cult hit movies such as; A Clockwork Orange and The shining.

 

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picture grams.. light exposure ED2 photo assingment 1

I took this photo using a large format camera, but instead of loading it up with film i used photographic paper and just exposed the paper to light and then developed the photo to get this.

These three photos are picture grams, these were created by placing objects on a piece of photographic paper that meant something to me and again exposed these to light, the headphones were exposed for 5 seconds and the coca cola bottle was exposed for 3 because when i exposed the bottle for 5 seconds it came out too dark and did not have the detail i was looking for.