Final Ideas Mindmap.

Experimentation.

Below I thought that scanning on the fairy images and uploading them to photoshop, using the magnetic lesso tool to cut out the figures, copying them to a word document and resizing them (shrinking) to fit onto the dream photographs would be a good way of putting them onto the print. I printed each figure out on acetate on the A4 acetate in the position of how they would be on the specific photograph, when exposing my dream photographs under the enlarger at the appropriate time and lighting I had found from out from before, laying the acetate on to of the paper whilst I did this so that the fairy would be printed on top.

Test strip above, light 16, 6 or 7 seconds worked best.

6 seconds, best exposure time, full contrast, I tried out these 2 fairies balancing on the branches, the composition looked good and I was happy with it to be included in my final piece seen as I knew I would have quite a few of these photographs in there.

7 seconds was slightly too dark, made the print not look contrasted enough and too grey.

I wanted try double exposures as something different, looking through the negatives I would be using, I thought that perhaps the texturised look of the tree would work well on my friends face. Not sure of timings at all but judging from other peoples exposures 15 was an average. I did a test strip with each part being exposed by adding 3 seconds on. I put the light on the lowest at 16 so that the contrast was hopefully brought out well which it was. Above the result showed that between 18 and 21 could work well.

Above is exposure of 19 seconds which was perfect.

Above my first attempt was trying 21 which when the whole photograph is exposed this much, it was too much, the lighter part of the neck worked well but this was too exposed for the face so I tried 19.

Using different trees in portrait, I put them over a portrait of my friend, realising after wards that the negative was the wrong way around, either way the composition worked well and the timings were 21 seconds, slightly longer than the first because of the lighter parts that need to be brought out. Quote on top too.

I thought that this composition would be good because of the focusing and she could be sitting in the leaves, it shows the scale of the fairy and it also quite surreal scale wise. Timing of 6 seconds under light 16, acetate on top.

I wanted to include quotes on my photographs, inspired by the appearance of the fairy character from Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Nights Dream' I quoted parts which referred to something magical and to do with fairies because this would work well with my theme. Using acetate and placing them in the right way I printed them and over-layed my photographs with it when using the enlarger.  Below are the quote in the right positions on the acetate for the chosen photographs.

I Also tried adding the fairies to my photographs just using photoshop but they looked too dark when the opacity was lowered but too fake when made brighter with the contrast and opacity.


Here I dragged in each image on top of the original in a new layer, used the magnetic lesso tool cut out the fairy parts I wanted to use, resized them and placed them, using the opacity I made them quite transparent and also used the colour balance of the darker tones to add a bold but not too over taking effect on them. I put the fairies in to see what it looked like and I quite like the result, I also inverted the colour son the fairy on the bottom left.

Similar style here but with different images, I preferred this attempt because it looked more natural, the fairies didn't look too harsh. My friend unaware in the corner adds to the idea of her dreaming or not knowing what is there.

For this one, I wanted to overlay 2 images similar to what I did in the darkroom, but with photoshop I could add colour, I dragged in the fairy image and using magnetic lesso cut out just her shape, putting the photograph of my friend on top I changed the opacity until it looked clear enough to see both images, and then playing around with the different blenders I chose lighten and got a contrasted effect like below, then I chose to adjust the colour balance and found that purple on the high tones and low tones worked really well and the leaves coming through gave me this effect below which I really liked.

Reversals below to see what they turned out like - 

Fairy Photographs/Cottingley Fairies.

Thinking of aspects of fantasy and dreams, fairytales seems appropriate to look at, my idea of photographing my friend looking at a 'fairy' which I could edit into the print would be a good idea. The idea was inspired from photographs I had seen from 'Cottingley Fairies', these were a series of 5 photographs taken Elsie Wright who was 16 and Frances Griffiths who was 10, cousins who lived in Cottingley, Bradford in 1917 the first 2 photographs were taken and more in 1918 and 1920. The story was that the girls would play by the stream in their back garden and were claiming to have seen fairies, Elsie's father had his own dark room for his camera which she borrowed to develop the photographs, he dismissed the fairies as cardboard cut outs. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle a writer of literature used them to illustrate fairies. Their rooms were searched and photographs explored but the public seemed convinced that they were real rather than faked, it wasn't until various publication and attention had been given that in 1983, the cousins admitted in an article published in the magazine The Unexplained that the photographs had been faked, although both maintained that they really had seen fairies. Elsie had copied illustrations of fairies from a popular children's book of the time, Princess Mary's Gift Book, published in 1914. They said they had then cut out the cardboard figures and supported them with hat pins, disposing of their props in the beck once the photograph had been taken. But the cousins disagreed about the fifth and final photograph, Elsie maintained it was a fake, just like all the others, but Frances insisted that it was genuine. In an interview given in the early 1980s Frances said It was a wet Saturday afternoon and we were just mooching about with our cameras and Elsie had nothing prepared. I saw these fairies building up in the grasses and just aimed the camera and took a photograph. Both of the girls claim to have taken the 5th photograph. below are the photo graphs in order that they were taken.

I could perhaps edit more than one fairy into my prints.

Woods shown here, links well to my setting for the photographs of my friend, the method (darkroom) of developement would also work well because it gives it a more older effect than a digital print, more like something from fairytale times.

I had seen this photograph before and it was what inspired me to look at the topic more.

My favourite, her clothing also looks like something a fairytale princess would wear too.

Shows just the fairies.

I wanted to produce something very similar, for the actual fairies that would go on my photographs I decided to stage a shoot with a friend dressed up as one, I kept the back ground very simple because it won't be part of the final so props in the back ground didn't matter, shutter speed was kept very fast at 1000 and flash was used, flash was also on unless stated. Below are the SLR prints.

Above is my text strip, I tried this with the contrast on full because this always adds to the effect of the prints making them more bold and dramatic, I put the light on 11 which is quite dull, 8 usually not enough contrast because its brighter so less exposure time not giving enough contrast, 16 too big of a jump so in seconds (because the majority of my prints accurate timings were around 2-4 seconds, I exposed each part by a second (lightest end) and added one on as it gets darker, 3 seconds looked perfect so for these negatives I kept to the same timings and lighting and it worked fine.

Lower angle, direct look for her being caught with valuables as fairies are thought to hoard or micheviously steal.

Composition for the silouhette to be used. Later tried a more relaxed natural looking stance for improvement.

A favourite, could look great when put into the other photographs.

Turned away, shy or hiding.

Same as above but no flash used, slightly less contrast but velvet of the corset shows up more.

Leant over pose, could be good to put onto the ground, cat would add a surreal effect because of its size, and witches have been known to have pets so more creature elements can be bought in.

Flying stance, gaze could be direct at my friend.

Inspired from the fairies in the grass, this pose would be good for sitting her their.

Gazing out of the window, nature is seen, would be good for a double exposure, flash also looks like a halo when refelected on her hair.

I took this photograph of the tree outside because I thought it would be a good idea to put a few of the fairy poses onto it.

A favourite, would be good for double exposure of negatives, closer shot showing more detail in face.

With cat again, slightly off accurate composition but with other shots I have improvement is shown.

A favourite, first attempt not exposed enough, too bright, shape of wings not visibile enough, below is my second attempt and test strip to test what exposure time would work better.

Pose looks as if she could be blancing, a photograph with a branch could be used.

Window glance at angle wher eher face is visible.

Portrait shot, could be overlayed with another negative.

A least favourite, pose looks too forced and not a good view of what would look good on another print.

Looking back at something, could use this with the photograph of just the fairies or as a double exposure.

Portrait, taken as if she is looking into distance, would have worked better as portrait lay out rather than landscape.

High angle shows small scale of her, would need a high angle photograph for here to be put into like this though.

Been spotted.

Apart from the missing foot this would have been perfect for her flying.

Looking rather sad, could be put onto the grass.

Finally, is turned away, not wanting to be seen.