7/2/24 First lesson

Visual narrative is an important part of storytelling. Emotion can be conveyed from just a picture. Stories can be created depending on the use of colours, camera angle and positioning of actors as well as the use of lighting. A lot goes in to a picture and it’s important for me to understand how I can fully bring out emotion from just an image.

In the first lesson the class were asked what experience we has with production. Whether we had knowledge of using some of the equipment or any portfolios. I have some experience in working with lighting, sound and cameras. Before West London I worked on a 2 year College course in Tv, Film and Media production. I enjoyed my time on the course in College. Working with the equipment is a lot of fun.

We were briefed with the courses set projects over this semester. We were also shown other pieces of work that were made just to give the class and idea of what to expect and the standards. I’m intrigued with the assignments I will have to make in the future.

For the second half of the lesson we used some of the equipment. The class was taught some of the equipment we will be using for the majority of the semester. We were first taught how to use the background paper and how to roll it back up. After being shown how to use the equipment and setting up safety precautions, such as the mats and tapes for the cables we spent the rest of the lesson taking pictures of ourselves. Understanding the effects of lighting and camera movement changes. I really enjoyed this lesson, I learnt a lot in what to expect and also using the equipment. I’ve never used the lights in the Uni course room before so it was a cool learning experience.

Week 2 13/2/24

• Shutter speed
• aperture
• ISO

Shutter speed

Shutter speed is the time for the camera’s shutters to open when taking pictures for the light to hit the sensors. Faster shutters speeds will make pictures crisper and less blurry. Commonly a lot of sports photos have fast shutter speeds because of the fast paced action.

Aperture

Aperture is the size of the hole in the lens that allows an amount of light to travel in to the camera.

The wider the lens is the closer the shot is. The closer the aperture is the further the shot is.

ISO – International Organization for Standardization

ISO is the brightness of a photo. How dark or light you want a photo to look like. The bigger the ISO number the lighter the pictures.

 

Below is a triangle that represents the three exposures for a camera. When taking a photo two of the measurements have to correlate for a good quality photo.

I enjoyed the second lesson of visual narrative. I’ve used cameras quite a bit in the past but I’ve never payed attention to the measurements. The camera usually change it automatically the more you zoom in and change the focus lens. We were asked to upload some images of f changing the measurements on our own cameras for this week. However I’m waiting on a usb SD card reader for me to do this.

Week 2’s lesson was a little hard to follow for me. I struggled at the start to understand the shutter speed and aperture but I got it in the end eventually.

Week 3 20/02/2024

This weeks lesson we Rented out the cameras from the college using a website. We logged in with our student ID’s and simply booked the cameras in 5 minutes. This was a great way to experience the rental website especially since I will likely have to take camera out of the Uni for assignments.  AS a class we took the cameras out and walked to a near by park from the WLU, taking pictures of different angles. I messed around with the aperture and ISO to take some cool picture where the brightness and background would change.

Here is some examples of me messing with the aperture and ISO. For the top image I think I made the aperture lower, resulting in the background to become more blurry.

 

I really enjoyed this lesson as it taught me how to rent the cameras and first hand experience in camera settings. I learnt what the effects were of changing the shutter speed, aperture and ISO. Seeing the change for myself was necessary for me to understand cameras better. I’m happy with the pictures that I got from this lesson. I think they show the results of changing the aperture and ISO really well.

 

Week 4 body shots and different camera angles

Wee k 4 we learnt about famous early photographers who would try to create narratives from a single picture. Artists who would go on to have there work shown in galleries across the world were shown to us. Some of there work was powerful and represented a time in history. Other artists would create stories with multiple pictures instead of just a singular pictures.

medium shot

close up – eye level

Over the shoulder

 

Low angle

High angle – Long shot

(Forgot to note down the ISO, aperture and Shutter speed for the pictures from the camera)

For the rest of the lesson we rented some cameras out and went to the park near the university to take some pictures of different camera angles. Despite there being no sun or blue sky there was no wind or rain. The day was still bright so the aperture wasn’t increased by a lot. I took some good photos with my friend Hugo. I took pictures of him for some of the photos.

Robert Doisneau

his work:

Le Baiser de l’Hôtel de Ville (The Kiss by the Hôtel de Ville)

This picture is one of the most icon pictures in the 20th century according to the BBC One of history’s most romantic photographs was staged – BBC Culture

The photo is said to represent love in Paris. The city is known to be one that represents compassion. Francine Deroudille explains that at the time Americans were intrigued with the Paris life. Describing their life to be more free than anywhere in America, people people kissing in public compared to New York where the act was never seen. The photo was taken in 1950 Spring in the streets of Paris.

When I look at this photo I like the way how the subjects are centred around everything. A story can be easily seen here. A couple kissing, maybe to say goodbye to one another since everyone around them looks to be going to work. Everyone is trying to get places in smart clothing. I like the low aperture effect in the background. The blurriness only highlights the couple’s kiss. nobody in the picture looks to be bothered in anyway. Everyone is fine with it and going about their own business. The kiss is a normal and passionate act in this shot. I can see why this photo represents Paris and the romance behind the city.

 

Atelier Robert Doisneau | Robert Doisneau’s photo archives. – Auvergne region (robert-doisneau.com)

Robert Doisneau’s Auvergne region portfolio interested me a lot. He shows some labour and working class jobs in France 1950’s. The pictures show me the hard work French people would go through. A lot of the work in this collage is farming jobs in the country side.

Every photo seems to have a subject cantered in the middle. A lot of Robert’s photos capture emotion through people in France. The photos capture a moment or activity in France. Something I noticed was that there was only one photo where there was one person in the picture. All the rest had two or more in the shot. Almost symbolising the togetherness and hard working people in France. My favourite picture is the one where the older women are knitting. They’re both sat outside together working despite being quite old. They’re not relaxing or shopping. The two are spending there day working on the streets.

 

Ideas for a story

I was thinking on following something like a feather or a balloon. They’re light and are carried by the wind in unexpected directions. I’d like to show one of these things being carried about in the wind in multiple locations. I think life is pretty unexpected, could be a nice metaphor to go with the story. I think it would be cool to see the different pictures I can take in different places. I could create a story where someone lets go of the balloon in their back garden and then the balloon travels around through forests and streets. Eventually making its way back to the back garden where the person let go.

 

Week 5 (5/3/24 – 11/3/24) Composition

I shared my idea I had for the first project. Creating a narrative in 10 – 15 photos. I shared my idea to the class for my story to be about a balloon that is pushed by the wind in various different places. I wanted it to reflect life as a whole. That things happen. The balloon is pushed by the wind and its out of the balloon’s control.

The class seemed to like the idea and gave me some cool idea for a story, maybe the balloon could get stuck in a tree, showing struggle. That idea got me thinking even further. How would the balloon be presented. I want to draw a face on the balloon for my narrative. Each face will have different expressions through my narrative. I think this will be a nice way to tell the story of this balloon having a personality to it, instead of having a plain balloon.

 

Composition

It’s important when taking pictures to consider the positioning and layout of a photo. Composition is all the elements in a picture. These lines on the photo above show the thought of the composition. The photo splits up into fifths. It’s an even layout splitting the subject (women and the bridge) with the land in front. The photo is easy for the eye to look at. Everything is placed in a symmetrical way, it’s all even.

All elements in a scene make up the composition

this includes the Background, middle ground and background. The middle ground is between the closest elements the viewer as well as the Background. In this case the foreground is the women and the bridge. The middle ground is the water and the background is the land. The picture is divided to show the different elements coming together to make the image.

 

The lines for planning composition can become more complex. As you can see above shows an example of the compositions becoming a more detailed planned out photo. Everything in the photo is divided for structure just like the previous photo I looked at.

The photo is split so the left side of the sea is showing with some of the cliffs. This is a picture inside of the picture. This small part divided up could be its own photo but the rest of the image just adds way more depth with it. The whole image could be split up in so many ways which you can see. Each part sectioned looks great on its own, they could’ve been taken individually but together the piece looks fantastic.

Scouting shots

Over the weekend I went out with my camera trying to get some ideas on how I want to capture each shot. What do I want to happen in each shot? Where do I want to capture my project? I started walking around for ideas. I found some locations where there was a lot of wildlife nearby. A newt reserve that is often quiet.

I didn’t have balloons at the time but I didn’t want to waste time or delay experimentation with the project.

The area is very peaceful. Looking back at these photos they look a bit creepy. I like this location a lot because of how quiet the Newt reserve is. This would be the place where my balloon gets stuck on a tree and shows fear. My aim is to show different emotions from the balloon on its journey.

These pictures are taken in a completely different area but I think it serves its purpose in showing that the balloon makes it out of the forest.

I tried to change the angle of my shots. I thought they were to basic so I tried adding a low angle for when my balloon is being pushed through the various locations.

I’m still a bit confused about the story and and locations. This day I went out was a time to experiment with camera angles and location ideas. One thing I’m certain of at the moment is that I want there to be struggle in my story. If I want some resemblance to life in my narrative I want struggle to be a theme. I think challenges that are out of your hands will be a message. The wind is pushing the balloon in all sorts of situations that it doesn’t want to be in. The Newt reserve is a place that I’m confident that I will use.

Another idea that I’m certain about is the last two shots. I want the balloon to be on the bench and the final shot will show the balloon going up in the sky. A close up on the bench and a distant one at the end.

 

Week 6

For week 6 we used the dark room in the bottom floor of the Uni. We used an old camera and tried different exposures on some film and were taught how to use the dark room taking out the different image on to paper. In the dark room we weren’t allowed to take out phones or anything that would interfere with the dark as it would ruin the pictures. There were 4 different tubs of water with chemicals in and we had too place our pictures in each of them for a certain amount of time.

After being taught how to use the room we each created a picture with our hands and laminated them. The class put together a story using only the pictures we made with our hands.

I really enjoyed this lesson. I like the style of old cameras and I’ve never used or seen any of the equipment before in the Uni. A lot of thought and creativity was used this lesson. We looked at how we could use these type of pictures and style of photography in to our work. We were shown the process of how to use the dark room and bring out the photos we made.

I would say that this was my favourite lesson so far. Everyone was engaged to the lesson and involved with the work. We started making random photos with the chemicals in the water and brainstormed to come up with a story. I learnt so much, I’ve never been in these rooms before so it was a nice change. Everything is all digital now so these type of room are uncommon compared to a few decades ago. I’m glad I can say that I know how to use the darkroom.

Week 7

Week 7 was a recap lesson where we showed the progress with our work. Also learning the 7 essential lighting set ups. Something I learnt which was useful was what things I needed to pay more attention on my blog. I’m missing a lot of useful research including artist research and symmetry in pictures. All of this is to help me have more of an idea of what to do in my first project. Creating a 10 picture story. I’ve already put together some nice elements for how my story will be told and what it will be about. However I haven’t thought out how I will take pictures of my balloon. I want a balloon to capture a persons life which is a pretty big conception. Doing research on other artists will help me bring this in to my project. I’m hoping to find inspiration in other artists work.

As I was saying this lesson was a recap. We’ve done this before in the first lesson. However this time we were the one’s in control of the lesson. Bringing out all the equipment and remembering the measurements between the shutter speed, aperture and ISO. They had to be the same so we measured the light and brought in other pieces of equipment to experiment with the photos. We only spent one lesson using this equipment so it was needed for us to be shown again how to use everything and then let us experiment. I found week 7 to be incredibly important. We are now going on our Easter break for a week so this time will be spent trying to put more time in to photography, catching up with my friends and hopefully putting together a visual narrative that people can recognise and maybe feel something.

As you can see the pictures above are some of the pictures we got from experimenting in the class. I like the use of colour filters in the back/rear light. Gave a cool mood to the pictures, especially in Romar’s.

This was a nice test to see what kind of work we could make as a class in the lesson. Being taught how to use the room multiple times now, the class had creative freedom to produce whatever they wanted.

The 7 essential lighting set ups

 

Split lighting

This style gives off a very serious tone. Half the face is light and the other half is black giving a complete contrast on the subject.

Split lighting is created just by placing the light source 90 degrees to the subject from the camera. You can image the lines going from the camera to the subject as well as the lines going from the light to the subject. Creating a 90 degree angle.

Loop Lighting

Loop lighting is again a very simple lighting technique just like Split lighting. A very popular lighting set up where the source of light is set about a 45 degree angle from the subject. The light is placed at around eye level to the subject.

 

Loop lighting pictures look a lot more interesting to split lighting in my opinion. There’s a bit more going on in the picture. The subject can be seen more. Expressions and details on the face are more noticeable. There’s still serious tone but I prefer the look of the Loop lighting.

 

Rembrandt lighting

The name comes from a famous Dutch painter. The set is designed to have the Loop lighting set up and a reflector placed opposite to the light source which is at about a 30 degree angle.

As you can see there’s a triangle that is formed on the subjects right cheek (left cheek from the photograph). This is the result of the Rembrandt set up.

 

Butterfly lighting

The funny name is due to the shape it makes under the subjects nose. The light forms a butterfly look under the nose resulting in the name of this set up. Subtle shadows are also made under the cheek bones and chin.

For this effect a strobe is placed slightly above and behind the camera.

 

Broad lighting

This is any style that focuses on one side of the subject. So for example split, loop, Rembrandt all focus on the subject at an angle. However the light is angled more towards the camera. The subject must angle themselves to the camera so the light catches the lighter side.

As you can see, one side of the subjects face is showing itself to the camera. The lighter side of the subjects face goes towards the camera.

 

Short lighting

Opposite to broad lighting where the darker side points towards the camera. Not much else to say.

As you can see the darker side of the subject face is currently being shown to the camera for this effect. I think I will use this for the portrait assignment. I think it could be a cool effect.

 

Back lighting/Rim lighting

This is where the subject is facing the camera and a light is placed behind them. Resulting in the light creating outlines of the subject.

As you can see her body has light showing, outlining her body. Very cool technique.

for this simply place a light directly behind the subject.

 

Artist research

Richard Avedon 1923 – 2004

Richard Avedon is a famous American photographer who worked in fashion for Harper’s Bazaar and vogue, capturing movement in his pictures.

Majority of his work was portraits. I really like the style of his work, they’re very arty and obscure. His mother made clothes and his father owned a clothing shop so the artists was inspired by fashion. This is obvious through his chosen career path and photos.

His work almost feel ahead of its time coming from the 60s and 70s. His work is very out going. I like the look of everything being in motion with the black and white exposure. This first picture with the glasses especially looks ahead of its time. I think the chosen clothes of the women is very arty and futuristic. The lighting of the picture is done very well, looks like a butterfly lighting setup was used. I think this picture is very nice to look at. Nothing feels hard to look at, just a nice overall portrait.

From Richard’s photos that I’ve seen I think this second photo represents him well. His style is about movement, capturing something in the moment with a high shutter speed. Using the subject hair as a moving feature in the picture is very creative. I think it works very well. I don’t really know what else to say. I just like his work, its not a story because the work is for fashion. Not that fashion can’t have a story but the look of it is simple but at the same time just nice to look at.

This final picture again I think captures Avedon’s work very well. Use of including movement in a still image while showing some very arty expressive poses. I think this image tells more of a story compared to the second picture I looked at. The women is not amused while the man is acting quite childish. I don’t know if this was done on purpose but the man’s pose when he’s jumping looks to be have done exactly like how it happened if that makes sense. His pose is quite sharp. I don’t know if this was done to divide the picture a certain way but I think it looks quite interesting.

As of writing this I’m still looking for inspiration for my story. The identity of my story, the feeling/look. I definitely want to do an inspired Richard Avedon picture in my 10 shot story. Whether I do this in the Uni using a portrait look for my balloon or I try to implement the movement look in to one of my other shots. I just really like the look of his style. Using a high shutter speed and maybe some edited colouring with the pictures to make it black and white I think it would be cool to stylize my work after Richard Avedon.

 

Frans Lanting

Franz is a Dutch photographer who specialises in taking photographs of animals. Considered to be one of the greatest photographers in the natural world. Born 1951 in the Netherlands he later moved in the United states to pursue his love in photography.

I thought it would be nice to research some photographers of different genres. I think having completely different perspectives is great especially for my research on my story that I want to make.

I’ve already wrote what I think about this picture on this site however the text I added wasn’t saved so I’d like to note that I’m writing my thoughts from the second time. I chose this picture to review specifically because of the way the artist used the water. This picture encouraged me to go out and try to use a puddle or river in my own project. I want to include a shot that uses a reflection on my subject which will be about a balloon.

Week 8 storyboards

Storyboards are a graphic representation for a story. They plan the look and motion for shots. Storyboards are almost like a comic. They’re images inside of boxes explaining the story for a scene.

Planning this way using story boards are great for visual referencing. You can plan how you want the work to look. Preparing like this gives you something to think about when choosing locations and equipment. Because there are shots in mind for the sequence you can try and scout out places that not only fit the narrative but the planned out shots as well.

The image above is an example of a storyboard for a show called Rick and Morty. Every shot is clear and numbered out in an easy to follow comic.

Different types of camera movement:

• pan
• tilt
• Push in
• Push out
• Tracking shot

Pan – Pan is when the camera moves horizontally to the left or right. To portray this in a storyboard simply just use arrows pointing to the the left or right. This can be done on set using a tripod or gimble. These stabilize camera movements.

Tilt – Exactly like pans but they go vertical instead. So they go up and down.  This is a great way for filmmakers to show power. If someone’s looking down on another character it could show that they are maybe more important or stronger than the lower character, same for the other way around.

Push in – Exactly how it sounds. This is when the camera moves towards the subject. This is a great way for showing what characters are thinking. Showing the character’s emotions.

Pull out – Opposite to push in the camera smoothly zooms out revealing the subjects surroundings.

Tracking shot follows a moving subject in a scene. It moves with the subject showing the surroundings of a scene. An example of this shot is below. From the 2009 Avatar.

Avatar The Seeds of the Sacred Tree 2009 Full HD (youtube.com)

Week 8 My story of “Balloony”

Old idea

I changed the concept for my story 2 days before shooting over the Easter break. My previous idea which was about a boy letting go of a balloon and returning back to him going through multiple locations. I wanted there to be a hidden message about how life is unpredictable and how the wind just like life can push you in random ways.

New idea

I randomly had an idea in the day which still included a balloon but I think added more character to the story. I hope to keep the same message. I thought this change would create a clearer story. A balloon family that has their son taken away from them by the wind. He is pushed through different environments and places. The balloon is scared but keeps moving forward with the wind.

I thought this new idea would be a great way of adding more character. I had the idea of adding faces to the balloons. I always had this idea for the project but I like this idea better. One thing I will say is that the balloons were painful to work with. They kept flying about everywhere from the wind. Especially when I was using fast shutter speeds for the balloon in the air. It would fly everywhere. I tried very hard to not be touching or hold the balloons in any of the shots. I have about 100 shots taken on my camera and I chose about 16 to put on my website as you can see. The expressions was a nice ouch, added so much more character to the story which I’m proud of.

Choice of colours

For Balloony (the main subject) I thought a bit about what colour I wanted him to be. I chose blue because I knew I wanted the character to be pushed in places where he would be scared. The character is forced on an adventure where he would be afraid but have no choice in going along in these random directions. Blue is a colour which represents fear and cold. I thought it was only natural Balloony would be blue.

The two shots above were my starting shots. May I mention that all of the pictures taken with the three balloons were the most painful to capture. They kept flying off and moving so it became incredibly frustrating.

I didn’t have a plan for the starting shots. I had everything pictured for my later shots which all came out well. However the staring three shots were made just for as an intro. I wanted to get to the locations where I would work in different environments. I experimented a bit but the work wasn’t too eye capturing. I tried to create more character by changing Balloony’s face to show that something wasn’t quite right.

Third shot was my first experience in using fast shutter speeds for my balloon. Again very annoying. I had to time the shots perfectly. Especially since all of the work was done just by me. I didn’t have any other help.

I chose not to have a high shutter speed for the third picture. I did this to show motion. I was inspired to do this by Richard Avedon. However this isn’t an easy job since balloons don’t have limbs. I lowered the shutter speed to show blur. I knew this way it would show motion in my picture.

I like this shot. A low angle with a fast shutter speed to show the wind taking Balloony away. This shot was very hard to get. I think I got very lucky with this picture. On the day for the starting shots the wind was very bad.

The low angle was a picture that I wanted for this specific picture. I wanted to show the elevation of the balloon, that he was flying and not in control. That he was being taken away. Again, incredibly painful to get. 

5th picture was an experimental shot. I played around with the exposure to get this look. I must admit it isn’t in uniform with the other shots. What I mean by that is that the colours are all off and sharper. I wanted to capture a darker tone in my shot for the 5th shot. Make the moment feel more alone and depressing. Bring out the darker blue in Balloony. This shot was meant to make it look like the character is at his lowest and kind of processing the situation of him being taken away.

I used a high angle to make it seem that the character was at a low and powerless. This was the point in the story that I wanted the character to be at his lowest. He has just landed in a forest after being taken away by the wind.

6th picture was inspired from the elephant picture by Frans Lanting. I wanted to get a shot of the balloon looking at h8imself in the reflection. I know the photos aren’t exactly similar in any way. But the idea of this shot was spawned from that artist’s work.

7th picture was me trying to split a picture in to 3 sections. We were taught about this in class. How pictures can be structured and split in to halves, quarters or even more sections. I tried to use that theory here with the tree on the right, the bush in the middle and the lake on the left. I don’t know if I did it right or if it’s clear to anyone else. I tried to make it split in to 3 sections similar to a lot of countries flags such as the French flag.

Just like all of the other shots of Balloony moving, fast shutter speeds were used. Just like all of the other fast shutter speed shots they were painful to capture. I don’t think I’ve explained why I capture these kind of shots where it almost looks like the balloon is walking. I purposely made the balloon look like it’s walking by floating in the air at head level height so that it kind of resembles an actual person wondering about.

This shot may seem familiar from my location scouting. I revisited the same shot and improved upon it since the original came out quite dark. Before I had captured this moment in auto mode on my camera.

This location was different to the newt reserve where the pictures I captured before this were taken. I thought it was a great location to show the balloon going forward and leaving the forest.

It was at this point where I started getting used to these fast shutter speed shots. Again I wanted a head hight balloon shot to make it seem like the character was a person. This was to make it seems like the person was being taken on a journey that was out of his control. At this point in the story he’s moving forward and escaping the forest.

Above is my favourite shot. I played around with the ISO to get this heavenly look. The sky looks very unique. You’d think this photo would’ve been edited in post production but it’s all natural from the camera. I go on runs round here so I discovered it one time after randomly going past it. I instantly knew this would be a perfect location for my shoot. I had this idea shortly after doing some location scouting for my project. I just have to add this picture in the story.

Research artists

Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman is a famous photographer, known for her self portraits. Her work looked at identity of people and society. I want to look at her work because I think it might inspire me for the shots facing the balloon that I want to take.

Her early work caught my attention the most. When she was 23 she produced some film stills of herself in various locations. Dressing up in old clothes as well as making the photo look like it belonged in the 20th century. I like the look of these pictures, they show a lot of character which is something I’m still looking for myself with the character of Balloony I made.

Specifically this picture drew me to looking at Cindy Sherman’s work. I really like the low angle and the expression on her face. It tells a story. For example, a women in the bug city who is struggling in the 20th century. The clothing, hair and makeup gives us the time it was taken. The tall buildings show a densely populated area, most likely a city. The expression is the opposite of excitement, almost like dread to me. This was everything I felt when seeing this picture for the first time. This was a staged picture, not taken in the time it looks. The artist was able to create character and emotion with one picture. This is everything I hope to do in my own work.

Week 9

For week 9 the class looked through each other’s sketchbooks. I was happy with the work I did for my 10 picture story. I’m glad I got it done the way I wanted visioned it. I feel like I’ve learnt so much in such a short amount of time with cameras. The only part I feel like I could get better in is setting up the equipment in the studio class room.

There’s only two pictures that I’m not amazed with. Those are the first and second picture. I think they’re ok but the main purpose of them being in the story was so that I could start shooting the other picture that I had envisioned when in class. The wind was a massive issue with those images so capturing them on the day was a feat in itself.

For the rest of the lesson we set up the equipment and started taking photos of ourselves. This was so we could update our profile pictures on the sketchbook.

This day was a great way to become familiar with the equipment again. I was not too familiar with setting up at the time. However after today of writing I’ve learnt so much with checking the exposures of the light and how to adjust the camera. I understand how to set up from the computer to the camera.

This lesson was needed for me to become familiar with the class equipment. When I got back I took the time to also become familiar with Lightroom. This is great for my portrait assignment. I need be able to book and use the photography room independently. This lesson was very engaging and Daniel made sure to get everybody to do something.

10 image story:

“Balloony”

 

Week 10

For week 10’s lesson we used the session to try out some portrait pictures as well as talk to our teacher about our current work and ideas. I got to show my work and got some nice feedback about my balloon story. One was to try and include the picture I did of the mum and dad balloon. Also to increase the brightness for the second image on my story. Lastly to rotate the last image on the story.

 

Using Lightroom I started to change the exposure of the original image. The first image was quite dark so Doing this in post production was absolutely necessary. I hope I didn’t increase the brightness too much.

I’ve posted what the differences were next to each other. I think it’s good for me to see the differences.

Before:

After:

For the other image I had to rotate it. This was so the image was more symmetrical and even, looked better to the eye. I used Adobe Photoshop for this simple fix, rotating the image 3 degrees anti clock wise and cropping the rest of the picture that was hanging out.

The change that my teacher encouraged me to do was one that definitely looks more natural and better.

 

 

Idea for my portrait and stop motion

For the stop motion I’m planning on using Lego or some other thing to use. I want to create maybe an action sequence like a fight. For this we will be able to use our own phones at home, this task doesn’t require me to use a camera from the College.

The portrait on the other hand is required to be done in the University. I’ve booked out the room for Thursday in 2 weeks. I will be bringing some props for my assignment. We have to do 10 – 15 images. My idea is to show the different times of the year with the lighting and clothing. I will be wearing coats and then move on to more light weight clothes with sun screen as the months move forward in my shoot. I will be helping Hugo my classmate for this project.

 

Playing around the photography room. We spent some of the lesson trying to get an idea of what kind of portraits we could make before making our final one’s.

We tried making some shots with the mannequins behind the background. Used the red filters over the lights to create a warm feeling to go with the scene of the mannequins kissing.

My classmate Angel had the idea of using the mannequins in class to try and get an idea of what he wanted to do for the portrait assignment. I ended up helping him set up and change the light filters so he could try and experiment for an idea. This is a nice photo I took on the day of a picture that resembles a couple.

To be honest I think his idea of using the mannequins was cool. I didn’t want to copy him or take his idea for the portrait assignment so I started brain storming after the lesson for things I could do for my own portrait assignment.

 

Me booking the photography room for Thursday:

 

Booking the room took a while as its about the second time I’ve used the University’s website to book something out. As you can see below I show a timetable of next week’s schedule, which is all booked up.

Week 10

In week 20 as a class we started experimenting in the studio of portraits for our project. We also had one to one catch up session with our teacher to see if we missed any work or if we could do better in certain areas of our blog.

I like these images we took on the day but more specifically the image above this text. Something about lowering the shutter speed and creating this effect is cool to me. I think I might look back at this photo for my portrait work that I will be doing soon. Try and replicate the idea of having someone move to make the photo look like there’s two of the subject if that makes sense.

Brainstorming for portrait idea

I think there’s room room for narrative with this effect, maybe some physiological interpretation in my work. When looking at the image above I can’t help but feel like its giving off a feeling. Maybe like an inner thought. I don’t know what gives me that idea but I just get that feeling when looking at the photo.

We started messing with the light filters as well as the camera shutter speed for some of the photos.

For feedback I was told to try and edit the photos of my visual narrative project and increase the brightness for some of the images. As well as to rotate one of the pictures so that the sky would look more strait as I shot the picture at an angle originally.

I rotated the image and cropped out the corners that were sticking out in photoshop. Finally I zoomed in to match the ration of the other pictures.

Before:

After:

I think this constructive criticism was needed and I’m very happy that I followed out the feedback. The picture to me is a lot better to look at. There’s a thought out composition is this version, more symmetrical. Rather than just blindly taking a photo for the sake of it. This picture had a high exposure, hence why the sky is so bright. This was not a mistake on the day. I think the effect gives off a heaven feeling which is what I wanted for the final picture.

Before:

After:

The thumb in the bottom left of the picture was another change that I had to crop out, an that is Small but noticeable.

Week 11

For week 11 we looked in to stop motion. Investigating the use of stop motion and the potential of it to be used in a video. Above is a video that I put together using the footage we made in class the other day.

I’d like to note that putting these pictures together in the video above was very long. I had to export about 150 images or so because they weren’t compatible with Adobe premiere Pro. Then I had to adjust the frames the pictures would show up for. I am very happy that I did this however because I’m very proud of what I made in class. I shot the images in the video and guided my class mates what to do with the mannequins.

Stop motion is a popular way of filming a story. It’s a simple concept of taking lots of pictures of something that is moving inch by inch every frame. It creates the illusion that something is moving. I put a picture from one of my favourite stop motion films called Coraline. I think this movie is creepy but at the same visually time spectacular.

The most famous stop motion would have to be Wallace and Gromit for me. I remember watching the old tapes of the original Wallace and gromit episodes. My favourite episode was the one where the penguin tried to steal jewellery.

I think this might have to be one of the more iconic stop motions that come to mind. I can’t even fathom how long this sequence would have taken to make. Especially after doing some stop motion in class and in the studio in my own time.

Week 12

Week 12 was used for a very productive session with my classmate Hugo. I booked the studio room on Thursday the 2nd of May. This room was quite hard to book so we had to use the time well.

We tried to do both the stop motion and the portrait assessments in the time that we booked the room. My plan for the portrait was to try and show the different seasons in the year, such as Autumn, Spring, Winter, Summer. I wanted to show this with different clothes for each season as well as change the lighting.

However, during the studio session I began to become more experimental with the work, especially with the shutter speed. You can see in the image above that the work began to become more psychological. I saw this as an opportunity to create a bit of a story rather than symbolising a year. These shutter speed photos we took almost made it seem like someone was not okay. I saw these pictures like a person was hiding themselves.

My idea changed to create more of a narrative. My story to me that I ended up making is about a person who acts like everything is fine and then they bottle up their issues inside. A slow progression of someone keeping to themselves.

As you can see this was the set up. The other side of the room had another light to the left of the subject with a colour filter over it to show the emotion of the character. There was also a white sided reflector. This was so the subject would have one half of their face be shadowed. I liked the look and feel this gave to my piece.

Stop motion

This was the stop animation I made in the studio, using my own time. I was inspired by the Pixar animation of Luxo Jr.

Pixar Shorts Collection Luxo Jr 1986 YouTube

Although this is an animation and not a stop motion I still thought it would great for inspiration. I knew I wouldn’t be able to make the stop motion as long as this but I though it would be a cool concept using the lights in the studio.

The final video took a while to put together in the post production since I had to change the format of every picture individually. I also had to adjust each picture so that it would be half a second long. Despite this I had fun making the story in the studio, very calming and creative.

The idea for my stop motion was too have the kid light messing around and running away from the parent light. The adult then eventually tells the little one off. The premise is easy to understand. I can’t make it too in depth because the stop animation could become confusing. I thought the inspiration from Pixar was a good idea looking back.

Portrait

The first two pictures are supposed to represent a normal person who doesn’t act or look like he’s going through anything. I think this is a common behaviour for people to hide their emotions. These two pictures represent that the boy looks perfectly fine.

Pictures 3,4 and 5 show that the boy is getting worse and keeping his problems to himself. Things are starting to get more chaotic internally for the boy causing stress and anger. The character is still keeping his emotions locked up and bottling up the anxiety and stress. The colour change is supposed to show his problems igniting. Rapidly getting worse, as if the character is setting himself on fire from keeping everything to himself.

The final 3 images are showing how his emotions are getting worse from keeping his problems locked up. He’s now almost in a void. Completely alone, shut off from everyone else. Thee ribbons of light are supposed to represent his emotions cracking. Becoming more visible to Ohers and harder to manage for the boy.

Story/meaning:

For the original idea there was supposed to be pictures of me going through the different seasons of the year in different clothes and moods. However, during the session where I started taking photos in the studio room things started to become very experimental.

I started coming up with new ideas for my portrait because I wasn’t too invested in my original idea of going through the different seasons of the year. The story for my portraits is about a boy who traps himself. Who bottles up his emotions and tries to hide himself from everyone.

I tried to show this by using low shutter speeds and have the boy act normal while there’s another version of him screaming. I wanted to do this to show that the real him is hurt. I chose to have the background dark so that the character is almost in a void. The light going round was a nice touch that my friend Hugo was using for his portraits. I thought I could use the light and have the strings progressively get more messy and chaotic through the pictures. I did this so the boy’s anger would get worse the more it progressed.