Monday 2 July 2012

Geraldine Georges Styled Work.

Belgian illustrator/graphic designer, young and contemporary, we can tell this from her modern way of working - the advanced photo shop skills used and very graphical approach, using lie a lot to present shapes such as flowers and natural objects, bold black shapes presenting femininity, she worked for own personal reasons but has also designed graphics such as text for various advertisements. For example here we can see dripping effects, animals are involved from the horn which could represent behavoir, rounded more floral shapes are used decoratively. On her website the works are often seen in sets of 2 compositions or 3. The decor takes over most of the females appearance. Colour is kept black and white except for skin tone. I have looked at her work previously so I enjoyed re-creating it using my own pictures and own style.
below is my hand drawn attempt, I used ink splatters out of my own choice rather than specifically drawing fine detail, I included birds flying for the natural effect, the black over her face was more graphical, taking inspiration from her piece which involves this morphing into birds. I also included floral designs of calla lilies with a finer lined pen. I quite liked the idea of doing this but will spend more time on it next time because it was successful as an experimentation rather than a final piece/approach.
The next step was to follow a photoshop tutorial on how to create work like hers.
1. Drag the chosen photograph into photoshop, also open a new blank A4 document.
2. Use the drag tool to drag the photograph from its document into the blank one.
3. Holding shift, resize the photograph to fairly small, around the size Georges would do, place the image, rotate slightly if desired.
4. Using the lasso tool, click holding and draw around the face on the image and any other part you want to be in the composition. Holding ctrl and clicking the mouse and cclick select inverse and back space to delete the background, then click cmd then deselect.
5. Using the eraser tool, erase parts of the images where you would like to put decoration, also try the magic want tool to select areas of the image of similar colour to delete.
6. Using the shape tool draw a circle (works better than harsh squares) or ellipse over any part of your image, when the circle is the top layer, drag the images layer on top of it so that it overlaps. Fill the ellipse black.
7. Create a new layer, click on the brushes icon, experimenting with the brushes to see what suits the picture best, can edit the size and scattering, make sure it is black. Can use various types of brushes depending on what you like best, drawn lines/swirls ect in Georges style until you are happy.
8. Click the colour box, try out colours with the brushes if you want, create a new layer if you're happy with what you've got and don't want to ruin it.
9. Using a smaller brush create smaller areas of detail in Georges style.

Abigail Reynolds.

Photographer who produced various photographs and cut out into them, they were relief styled and often related to each other so that the photograph we can see though has some significance, like below -
1. Choosing my 2 images I stuck the top image on sugar paper for the strength when cutting. 

2. Use a ruler to draw a grid over the top image. To save time measuring, draw along both sides of the ruler  (so the lines are 1 ruler width apart) then slide it across and draw the next line.

3. Using a knife I cut along 2 adjoining sides of each square but not the corners, then fold back each flap to reveal the sugar paper underneath.

Animated Gifs/Jamie Beck.

Animated gifs consist of moving images, they can look like the picture is actually moving but created form stop motion.
Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg invented 'cinemagraphs' an image which allows part of the image to still be moving, that part of the image is taken in stop motion whilst the rest of it is still, for example this fashion photography one of supermodel Coco Rocha who Jamie Beck often photographed. High amount of technology shows that it is modern, also the fashion and high quality lighting conditions, contrasted with the older looking objects in the narrative. beck uses film cameras occasionally, old type-writers and vintage objects, we can see his older influence in this composition. 
Below is my own attempt, using the resources we had, chose to burn paper and capture it with continuous photographs.
1. To create this I dragged all 9 photographs at once into photoshop.
2. All of them should be in a separate layer once you've clicked file-script-load files into stack.
3. A box will pop up with a sequence of photos you want to add, clicking windows then animation.
4. Click on the small icon underneath the first photograph that will pop up 'duplicate this layer'.
5. On the second photograph (second layer) click the eye icon to hide it, then click the duplicate this layer and hid the next layer but clicking on the eye. Continue doing this until all of your images are lined up at the bottom.
6. Shift then click all of the boxes at the bottom so they are selected.
7. Click on the time selector near the duplicate this layer box, you can change how long you want each photograph to stay up for, I chose 0.1 seconds but you can change it to what is suitable.
8. Click on the repetition selector near the time selector icon and select forever so that it plays continuously. By clicking play you can preview your animation.
9. To save, file then save for web and devices, dither to 100% and colours at 256, as a gif.
It worked well but could have been less shaky when the pictures were taken.

Pop up book.

Norm Magnusson 'Decorating Nature'.

Founder of the art movement 'Funism', began his career by producing paintings of animals involving social commentaries, leading him onto an interest in political art. He created a series 'Decorating Nature' which involved photography in the art, he painted nature to transform it into something arty, for example -
We can see the leave has been painted to be something unnatural and stand out from the other leaves, it reminds me of seasons, it has a summery natural look from the tones of green, but an autumn turn from the oranges and red used, the slight hint of sea green/blue could represent rain. I get the idea he has tried to symbolise the life of a leaf, on the floor it is the end of it and Magnusson could have chosen these colours to show its experiences with the weather. Presents it as something with feelings, like a human even though no people ar einvolved in the photograph, it is a very still picture but the lifted leaf looks like if could move or fly away, gives a sense of freedom matching the freedom of nature and the idea of being anywhere, much more rural, isolates city life and human actions.
Here are some of my own examples -
Here I took inspiration from his pine cone painting seen below my own photograph -

Typography.

Editing images I have taken on photoshop so that they have typing over them (typography).
1. Drag an image into photohop, also have appropriate text ready to put into it.
2. Go to select at the top, colour range, the drop down to shadows, click selection and then ok, command c to copy and command v to paste it into a new layer. Do the same again but for the midtones.
3. Holding down shift select both of the new layers, command e to join them together. Turn off the eye to hide the background layer.
4. File, new, make it 20x20cm, resolution 300, using the text tool, click down and draw a square shape to fill up the whole document.Command c to copy your text document and command v to paste into the text square, as a font I chose edwardian script, size 30.
5. Click edit, define brush preset, close the text document and on your photo document select the brush tool, make a new layer. Select the brush you've made and size it to 300, opacity 100% and black colour.
6. Fill up the photograph with the text by clicking on it. Change the size of the text brush to experiment and create a better effect.
7. Click the third icon along the bottom near the layers to create a layer mask, hide that layer and click back onto layer 1. Command a to deselect and command c to copy, show the text layer again, click the layer mask, hold alt and click to bring the layer mask up, command v to paste the selection in.
8. Command d to deselect and then command i to invert the image, hide this, click on the actual image to see the started effect.
9. Create a new layer and drag it underneath the text layer, fill it white to see whats going on clearer.
10. Go to layer blending options, open the gradient box, click screen for the blending mode, then choose a gradient, I have chosen this orange, yellow and purple one.
11. Make the colour box black, choose a soft brush around 30pt in size, change the opacity to 30, paint over the image to get rid of some excess white so the image shows up more, add mor etext if you feel it is too white still.
Below you can see the layers created and used.
Below is when the image started to come along.
Here is my final -

Lin Osborn Inspired Work.

Graduating in fine art in 2001, Osborn uses a series of small and detailed photographs to produce her work. In 'Rainbow' (below), Osborn uses single colour formations, placing together images of household objects. The importance of branding on plastic carrier bags is highlighted, introducing an aspect of commercial and social history.
1. Drag chosen photos into photoshop all at once when selected on my desktop.


2. Create custom document 209x209mm, drag tab to side so its easier.


3. Holding shift and using crop tool you crop your first photo, part of it as a square exactly how I wanted it to look, any size.


4. Using the selection tool, drag each cropped image into the untitled document. The images were too big so using command and then minus to make it tiny and use the bottom right corner of the document so you can see the whole image, then hold down command then T to select the image, holding shift to resize it, do this to all of the pictures so that they are roughly the same size and all fit on the blank document.


5. Then hold command then shift to open a grid on your document.


6. Line up the images to equal size using the grid and its snapping to identify it being equal, spacing between I kept to a minimum so that the focus was directly on the pictures. They were in separate layers so I had to remember to click on each different layer for each photograph.


7. Holding down shift to select all my layers, I used the selection tool to draw a square around my lined up photographs that was equal in space around them all.


8. Click the image tab at the top, then crop. 


9. Click the view tab at the top, show, and then untick grid.


10. File, save as a jpeg to minimise the size.


I then I decided to change the colours of them (filters), going down in each row to create a colour blend on my photographs.
My result below before I added the hues -
I think it worked well to present all of my photographs together, it reminded me of a contact sheet, I wouldn't want to present my photographs like this I'd prefer them to be single and enlarged to see the fine detail.
Above, clicking on the layers one by one but not selecting, I clicked image, adjustments, photo filter and put quite a strong filter of 80% on each image, the colours went slowly from yellow, to green, to blue and then red. I preferred this one to my first attempt because it looks more interesting rather than just the plain photographs.

Jan Von Holleben Inspired Work.

Above is our group photography, created by making our own scenes on the floor and photographing them from a birdseye view. Given random bags of stuff we created a night time scene with a black sky and covers to create a dream scene, it wan't only the proccess that was the same as Jan Von Holleben's scenes, also his had a sense of adventure in them, something unreal almost like a fantasy so us creating a dream worked well with this.
Born in 1977, bought up in Germany, lived his youth in an alternative community, he was influenced by his parents - a cinematographer and child therapist, his talent and interest for photography inspired him to create scenes based on memories from his childhood by subject matter and what was included in the scenes he set up in terms of them being childish and playful looking, using nature and any objects he could find to lay on the floor to represent different scenes from things which in reality they are not.

 Above - 'Dreams of Flying' both photographs are similar in subject matter, they both present children as they are and use the ground and nature, gives a similarity between Disney story Tarzan, wild free scene, colour shows the mood of it and causes childlike emoiton to the viewer and process would need to have the models and object ready, it show Holleben as someone that maybe misses his childhood and has only good memories of it.

Fashion Photography Photographs/Photographers.

 Jason Christopher - London based fashion photographer, his photographs include female models, shows his own interest in fashion and this links with the social history because of the clothing the woman wears narrates well with the scene, something casual presented in a better way than what you expect it to be. For advertising the clothes, as a whole outfit and show what they can be ued for and the conditions they cope in. You can tell it is modern from the fashion and use of lighting which he has captured clearly due to technological advances, it links with modern day fashion and that is why it is neccessary to the media.


Composition isn't in line but it shows the scene behind which adds to the rural areas where horse-riding takes place, also adds strength to the clothes and their value, represents the idea of being active and on the go because it isn't too perfect, we also see the whole outfit. The photograph being small in a catolougue wouldn't work as well as it taking up the whole page because we wouldn't be able to see this scene. Colour is an important element because it shows richness in the scene and presents it positively because its bright and relates to happiness, shape is important in the model, the clothes are presented on somebody slim and attractive so that they can be seen in their best look which they are most likely to be sold. Space is very realistic, no illusion, fits with everyday life. Process must have included photoshop for vivid colour editing and airbrushing for the smoothness of the photograph, also the light beam strands.


No title shows that its not necessary because of the purpose of the photograph, it is not being exhibited or famously known. It fits in casual fashion theme, interpretations are left open, the photograph aims to sell, the narrative scene only adds to the way it captures somebodies eye and the casual look, his website includes the photograph along with all his other fashion shoots which shows that it is not something to stand out alone but just another photograph appearing in a magasine of fashion, doing something different with the scene so it stands out, it shows his experience in doing this becaue of the way it is lumbered with the other shots. It could fit into landscape too, if we ignored the fashion side and instead looked at the nature and amazing lightbeam he has captured which is rare and often photographers specialise in this if it is their subject matter. The woman looks happy, a natural pose which works well with the status for the clothing, presents satisfied customers.


My first visual reaction is that the light beam is amazing and almost distracting, I like the techniques used to capture it, I like the casual fashion look too because it was different to a lot of unrealistic looking mor esuper-natural fashion shoots I have seen, the value doesn't seem too great because of the simplicity and its purpose - how it will be used. Emotionally it is relaxing calming because of her expression and the weather/lighting conditions.
Also based in London, this shot has a very contrasted colour mix, links with history because of the scene, modernised by her extremely precise make-up and outfit that puts across a more revealed look which women tend to dress like now rather than then. Socially it is clothes that anyone can buy but they are presented more valuable because she is in a high class place where most fashion magasine buyers wouldn't live, it brings up the status. The arts shown are art noveau architecture style which again sets the scene as less modernised, shows the clothes would be worn for activity in the house or somewhere quite smart.


Composition is adventurous, low angle gives power to her, the legs revealed show the way women can be portrayed as less innocent and good, the path in the background shows space or a sense of being led away, no illusion is there, space is realsitic, event hough out of focus we can see what it is it just keeps our attention on the model and clothes. Colour is important, the sharp line of the floor works well with her harsh expression, the shapes are bold and over bearing representing the viewer being taken over, colours are contrasted to help this, red dress because red can represent love as well as danger, she could wear this for a lover or show women as powerful and not to be messed with. Scale should be quite large because the image is very dominating and needs to be noticed so too small would cover up the contrasting eye-catching look. Front-lighting has been used in the process to remove unwanted shadows and create an even skin tone to present the model as more attractive, the typical photoshop editing techniques would have been used for the air brushing to keep even and bold colours.


No title is common in this style of photography becaue when seen on a billboard or magasine this is not relevent. The theme is classy clothing, interpretations can be that it is aimed for higher statused people but the pose she pulls shows the strength of valuable clothes because it is more common and less lady-like. Her expression takes over and sets a strong mood and big 'encharge' statement on it which creates value in the clothes and scene they are set in.


When I first look at it I am captured by the floor pattern colours richness along with the dress, the hat and heels suggest something more sultry rather than an actual outfit, the emotion is quite romantic because of the colour and look she gives off with her face and pose, the fact she in't bothered about being revealed, it works well to advertise the product because it gives it value and an expensive look, it doesn't remind me of anything but seems quite low towards women openly looking like this in public rather than just alone, it evokes a sense of touch, coldness from the floor and large rooms in the house, but power from her lack of clothing changing her feelings of overpowering.
Born 1982, British fashion, portrait and celebrity photographer living in London, her age is similar to women that would most likely buy the clothes that are often shown for advertisement in her shoots, doing photoshoots in her spare time to build up her portfolio of imaginative images, it links with the current social and fashion culture because it shows the contemporary and new 'in' clothing, I think her own interests influenced how she portrayed this shoot, her degree in graphic design and fashion photography brings out her more arty and creative side. By the American taxi and modernised make-up and dress we can tell roughly what date it was taken - very recently (2009). It looks like the outfit has been inspired by Lady Gaga, it looks high in profile and could be linked with current music fashion.


The 2 photographs work well together as one composition, they clearly show off the dress back and front, also a more close up shows a casual pose making it work better for more occasion, and shows off the accessories too. The scale could really fit in a magasine as something small or large, the dress is quite bold with big shapes so it is seen very clearly, also the scene in the background is easy to recognise even when small. Formal elements - pattern on the dress for a bold statement, very daring, colour represents something like a bumblebee, dangerous in numbers, could say something about women, it also matches the taxi which connects her to the city life, the idea of shopping in New York would be a dream come true for some women. The process includes photoshopping for a smoother texture and more attractive look, something unrealistic. Lines are harsh, it works with the contrasted colours, emotionally is strong and overpowering, this clothing makes a statement that it is different and women in it will stand out and dominate.


No title, again not necessary to promote clothing, more appropriate for promoting a documentary shoot where advertisement isn't important. The theme is high class city life clothing for women, it could fit into documentary photography if it was part of something that could tell a story in the city, but the content works well as fashion, it puts the women in the position of normal women who would be wearing it - out and shopping casually, Litchfield has chosen to do this because it is a relevent narrative for the clothing, it is quite avant-garde and represents the daring side through putting the model in a normal situation, shows the idea that looks are important and the idea of the background being out of focus and the man on the right isn't clearly contrasts him to her crazy clothing and his normal style, also gives off a sense that men would be attracted to women dressed like this and adds to factors of why women should buy this item. Her pose is very confident and keeps eye-contact showing self-esteem and why she would be promoting it and not somebody timid.


The first thing that popped into my head was that it reminded me of Lady Gaga or a bumblebee, something that would be a contemporary idea for fashion because of it difference from typical clothing, the value looks high because of the quality, the technology in the process shows that it must be something important not just any garment, the composition and idea of her travelling to NY to do this tells us it was important. Emotionally it is quite fun, it reminds women of going out for fun and looking stylish whilst doing this, I like it because of the crazy look that is put into somewhere so normal, I don't tihnk differently about it now I know where and what it is for my opinion doesn't change about it because it still advertises the fashion well.
Julia Kennedy, fashion photographer based in London, clients include conpanies such as ELLE UK, Tush, The Independant. Graduating with an English and media studies degree in 2001. This shows her interest in contemporary culture which helps with the fashion industry because they want to present whats new first. It looks quite vintage at first, the flower patterns and natural background don't show relation to anything too new, although marble gravestones are slightly more modern than stone ones, the dress could be quite new or old, we only know from the recent dates that it is very new.

Process was DSLR and then photoshop, the background is out of focus but we can still see what it is it just keeps our eyes on the model because she wears the clothing and is what Kennedy wants us to be drawn to first, composition works well because she takes up the majority of space and also allows us to see a scene, we see the clothing very well, it is presented casually because it can be kept in good condition even in the way she is posing, shows good condition/material. Kennedy could have chosen to make use of this scene because the flowery gown goes with nature, but why not somewhere summery? Perhaps because this gives off a subject of death and shows her as powerful above it all, the size should be quite large, I can imagine it taking up a whole page in a catologue, with labels to the clothing because of its strong presence. Even though the contrast isn't too high, it works like this because it gives it a more relaxed and quiet feeling, no harst lines use, just shape being important in the model and the clothing where she poses, texture is smooth matching the relaxation, skin tone is kept even from natural lighting source and lack of shadow, the pink tones in the dress could represent flowers which aren't in the green nature behind. There is a slight sense of illusion because of the background being out of focus, creates distance, she looks bigger and overbearing.

No title, theme is floral clothing (fashion/femininity), shows landscape but tells us it isnt important because of lack of focus, the content narrates an idea of natural looking clothing with the scene behind, contrasts with what would usually be worn to a cemetery, makes it look suitable for anything, the photograph gives of power and seems as if the woman's mind is elsewhere - thinking of something else or looking to the sky because of her glance. I think the story could come from a fairytale, she looks like an admired female character yet doesn't look impressed with it, symbolises women's thoughts of desire and wanting something else. Interpretation is open to individuals because the photograph is onely there to promote fashion, a deeper story being explained is irrelevent to fashion magasine buyers but can be seen if you look closer into the subject matter chosen.

When I first see it it reminds me of something magical, a fairy, I've seen similar settings and styled picture from anime, it has been set up to show value to the clothes, the idea of it being in a cemetery I don't really understand because the clothes don't look appropriate for this, I like it though because her pose almost looks like flying and it gives off a supernatural element, also because of the amount of nature used, as if modern day doesn;t exist and these clothes could take you away, sensory it creates a cold feeling but strength because of the little amount of clothes she is wearing. Because of the normal setting the photograph doesn't come across as too valuable, the scene is quite relaxed and silent.
Hugo O'Malley, based in London, fashion and beauty photographer, interested in creating avant-garde genres within his works, he loves combining them with cinematic effects he also likes simplicity, which can be seen in this photograph, you can tell the date it was made because of the effects that have been edited into it, their is more of a beauty side to it, it would work well to promote make-up brands seen as its type is quite portraiture and clearly shows the face rather than the clothing. There is quite an ancient look on the wall, it links to olden times but modernises it with a contemporary look, possible one of O'Malley's genres he has attempted to create. Work has been exhibited around London.

Colour is rich but not too contrasted, her face is kept quite natural, her hair blends well with it and gives a naturist look, the colours around create a mellow smoky mood and are quite still bold although they are blended together so their is no harsh shape or line, it sits in the back ground with the model as our main focus. The process must have been quite complex on photoshop and relied on this more than a typical photoshoot, the meaning of it could be to fit with the magic, it has a hippy style in the colour and her wearing just a bra relates to relying on nature. The scale should be quite big and fill a page, make-up requires more looking and zooming than a full garment would.

There is no title on the work, a magasine advert wouldn't include one or a billboard so this is understandable and supports the purpose, I don't see it fitting into another catagory of photograph although it could work quite well as a movie poster which again presents his own personal interests being shown in his work, as well as helping a business, you get a sense of movement in the smoke along with a sweet smell quite incense like, touch from the smooth texture, it gives the make-up a look that is special and classy rather than something that can just be worn anywhere although it is aimed towards women, this would help them feel more high class and be more persuaded to buy the products because of how they are attractively presented. It is like decoration, subtle sitting in the background contrasted from her smooth texture to a bumpy old fashioned wall. Sense of illusion from her moving out of it, space is confusing because we wonder whats behind the wall.

It reminds me of photographer Michelle Moniques work, the smoky effect is like an explosion, something unnatural, like a myth or fairytale, something from a film involving creatures or darkness. The mood is quite energetic because of the various colour, the emotion doesn't create happy or sad feelings, it is powerful and sits there with confidence. I like it because of the evolving effect there is from her coming out of the wall, it doesn't look real, it all looks made up crossed with reality from the woman being there. Film lighting would be quite complicated in say an action or sci-fi scene that involved magic, O'Malley has shown that here, it is clearly edited but it doesn't look too fake in terms of her appearance so I like it, it is different