These are the images that we took as a group last week. Even though looking at these images they look quite straight forward to take but we had quite a bit of trouble trying to get the right lighting, because there was a lot of natural light coming in from the window, whilst we had the lights on as well. We managed to work with it and take the images above. I think I enjoyed this project the most, focusing on light and dark and being able to be in the pictures instead of them being of an object or a section of someone else.
Chiaroscuro - In art it is the use of strong contrasts between light and Dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achieve a sense of volume in modelling three dimensional objects and figures. Similar effects in cinema and photography are also called Chiaroscuro. Chiaroscuro is an Italian term which means light-dark. i put up an example of an artist using clear chiaroscuro, the dark area's are very noticeable down the neck and centre of her chest also on her arms. The light parts are also very clear on most of her head and her body.
Edward Henry Weston - Was a 20th century American photographer. He has been called 'one of the most innovative influential American Photographer'. Over the course of his 40 year career Weston photographed an increasingly expansive set of subjects, including landscapes, Still life, nudes, portraits,genre scenes and whimsical parodies. In 1937 Weston was the first photographer to receive a guggenheim Fellowship, and over the next two years he produced nearly 1,400 negatives using 8 x 10 view camera. Some of his most famous photographs were taken of tree's and rocks. Weston was born in Chicago and moved to California to become a photographer. He knew that he wanted to be a photographer from an early age, and initially his work was typical of the soft focus pictorialism.
This image is a good example of Chiaroscuro, Weston has used lots of different lighting to get different light and dark tones on the rotten pepper.
Elliot Erwitt - Had one of the longest spanning photography careers, spanning over 50years. Erwitt is an advertising and documentary photographer known for his black and white shots of ironic and absurd situations within everyday settings. Also he has captured portraits of celebrity's such as Marilyn Monroe and a young Arnold Schwarzenegger, and of course his signature pictures of dogs.
This image is also another good example of Chiaroscuro because of the different tones off black and white on her face (Marilyn Monroe). It is very clear that there is a light shining on to her face, and because there is a very dark background almost black which creates good tones throughout the Image. It is clear that the light is coming in from the bottom right hand corner and is reflecting on to her face, her hair and her body. |
Fay Godwin - Was a british photographer known for her black and white landscapes of the british countryside and coast. At the start of her career she started of by taking portraites of dozens of well known writers, photographing almost every significant literary figure in 1970s and 1980s. Her love for walking eventually inspired her to pursue landscape photography, often photographing isolated and remote area's of the british landscape producing many many beautiful Pastoral scenes as well as contrasting urban landscapes. I really like these three images, because in all three images there is really good tone by natural light. For example in the 2nd image there is natural light only and there is only light on a few but also there is no light at all hitting the rocks and it is completely black which creates good tone. Also in the final image there is again only natural light, this image is a bit more interesting because the light is streaming into the image through the trees instead if directly hitting an object.
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I took these photo's whilst I was on holiday in hastings and whilst I was there we took a train to Brighton for the day. At first I didn't really know what to take images of, but as I looked around I see more and more things to take pictures of. I took them all in black and white to make the contrasts stand out more. My favourite photos are the first image and the second to last image, because of the different tones for example in the first image there a different shades of grey and white for the sea coming in. In the second to last image I liked how the background wasn't in focus but the water and stones were, also the stones create good contrasts as the stones are differently coloured, some were white some were a brown colour so by adding a black and white effect it created a really nice contrast between the stones. I also really liked the sixth image, I took this whilst standing on the pier, I could see contrasting straight away, the water nearest to me was darker but further and further towards the beach it got lighter as the sun was reflecting onto that part of the see which I found very appealing.
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These are some of my favourite Daido Moryama images, I find that he has used contrast really well in all if his images and to create contrast in his images he has used, light, shadow and double exposure in the image of the person. I also liked how he changed it up and didn't always keep focus on an object in some its blurred, but in some it is very focused on an object for example the picture of some ones eye, it is focused with no other distraction just a black background.
I think my favourite image is the one of the eye because of all the different shades of black and white. For example under the eye and in the crease of the eye and there is a lot of white under the eye and on the eye lid. Also in this image half of it is of a building it seems, which shows he has used double exposure. Also all of Daido Moryama's images have people in them and in nearly all of them they are in the centre of the image, apart from one where it is slightly to the right of the image and in all of them apart from two you can't see the people. |
These are some of the images I took last week, there is a small quantity because I was concentrating on the quality of all my images. I took quite a few more but I wasn't happy with how they turned out. I really like these 5 images as each photo is different for example the first and last images, in the first image it is of three girls, all different heights on three stone benches the contrast as far as I can see is in the sky, it starts of quite dark and the as it goes further back towards the buildings it gets lighter. There is also contrasting on the girls, there skirts and tights are jet black but there tops are a much lighter colour. In the last image of two girls laying down, the contrast in the image is the grass and the shadows created by the sun hitting the girls at an angle. In the fourth image I took this randomly but I wasn't going to upload it until I edited and actually quite liked the image, the way the sun is out and hitting the girl at an angle which creates a silhouette of the girls leg on the wall also I liked how in the centre of the image towards the ground is very light but the ground and some of the bricks are darker which really made me like this image. What attracted me to have the image taken was because there was very good lighting, it wasn't dark but it was so bright to the point where there was no contrasting.
Before I uploaded these images I started off by taking a series of images that I thought all related to contrast, in the end I only chose 20 images that I actually liked, the other images that I took I liked but they weren't the best images I could of taken. These were all taken on my samsung camera which I always leave in my bag just in case I see something worth taking a photo of. I was quite pleased with all these images I took around the school, every where I looked I could see something that related to contrast. For example I took a photo of some benches, some people may think that there is nothing interesting about benches however when I looked at the benches I could see contrasting straight away, under the benches there is a shadow but also some light coming in from the other side which I liked. My favourite image is the first image on the third row because I liked the height of where I took the image from because there is quite a wide depth of field. All of my images are in some way related, as there are lines in every image, on stairs, on the floor, on railings etc.
Experiment 1
These are a few photos which I took out of school this was when I was on my way back from bluewater. I took this because they were different to all my other photos, the fact they were on a motor way and there was a sunset which is what mainly inspired me to take these pictures. The only thing I changed was that I put them all in black and white to make the contrasting stand out more, but other then that the tree's and sky were already that dark when it took the images. I took all these photo's on my phone, normal camera with no effect until I uploaded them and changed them to black and white. I think that the best imaged is either the second image or seventh image because the contrast in the seventh image I really like, it is an obvious contrast between the sky road and tree's. Instead of taking images of a person like most people do I changed it by taking images of the sky and trees.
ISally Mann's work is very different to an artist I have perviously looked at (Daido Moryama). Daido Moryama didn't show the faces of people he took images of, it is normally a silhouette. However Sally Mann is the complete opposite, she takes images of peoples full faces which I think that can be more effective, it can show emotion which can help the artist express things in the image better.
I chose these three pictures in particular because they are all related in some way for example in every picture the people are looking into the camera, which I think makes the image feel quite intense. Also she has thought very carefully about the lighting in every image, especially in the last image, she has nearly all the light directly on the girl laying down and the girl standing over her is quite dark. |
Experiment 2
These images were inspired by Daido Moryamama, in nearly all of his images they are of silhouettes which I found quite interesting the only thing was that it was quite hard to take the images as I had to get the right angle the right light to make sure that it was just a silhouette and not there facial expression. However I do really like the idea of taking images of silhouettes as your eyes are immediately are drawn to the silhouette as it is the centre of the image. The only time I could refine these image is when the sun is out because when I was taking images I had to stand facing the sun and the person I was taking pictures of stand in front of the sun.
Experiment 3
I think that this experiment went ok however all of the images are fairly similar and quite plain and simple. EBI - To improve on these images I will go outside more as there are more interesting objects to take images of also I will change the angles and colouring of the images I take as in these images there isn't much of a contrast in any of the images apart from the third image as the dark floor and frame of the door contrasts against outside.
Final Piece |
I took these images whilst on holiday in Hastings and when I was on the train back from Brighton to Hastings. Some of these images I haven't changed into black and white because I feel that they still have quite a bit of contrast in them without having to change the effect, the contrast is mainly in the back ground as the blue going into and orange colour also I really liked how the burnt down pier was in one of the images slightly as it breaks up the image instead of it all being sky and sea. Also I quite like the texture of the sea at the bottom of the first image against the sky. Carrying on the theme of silhouettes in my third image I captured a few people standing by the railings. The one thing that I have mainly focused on I all of these images is the sky, the way it goes from one colour into another, light into dark. |
All these photos that I have chosen as my final piece link together, even though they are all apart of contrast, I took images of the sky which most people wouldn't usually relate to being apart of contrast. However each are different, I chose to take images of the sky as there is a very clear contrast in all of them even though the end three images are not in black and white. The contrast in each image are fairly clear, for example the end three people would normally think that these types of images should be in the contrast category however there is a contrast in the sky as it goes from one dark blue colour to a light orange colour.