Final Evaluation

The theme for this project was named 'The light Project'. Our brief explained that though out this project we would be looking at different ways you can use light in photography whether that's light painting or just dramatic lighting, also this project would enable us to use digital cameras as wells film SLR's if we preferred. To come up with ideas for this project I produced a mind map and took inspiration from other photographers

For my final outcome I produce a range of different darkroom prints of a model I had token using dramatic lighting. 

My range included solarisation, reversals and a reversal of a solarisation as well as original un-tempered with prints. I produced 4 large A4 prints of my final outcome and on the side did a little photography book of all my little A6 prints.

As a whole I found the whole experience temperamental I had a lot of problems with producing my final piece and in actual fact although I did a lot of experimentation with portraits and dramatic lighting, my actual intention wasn't to do this for my final piece instead I was planning on doing some light panting with a film SLR camera some would be in color whilst others black and white as I find the contrasty black and white more interesting than the coloured version.

As time progressed I started to experiment with this initial idea and produced some small black and white light painting experiments with a model, in the style of Patrick Rochon but they weren't successful enough to use as my final piece. I then tried to do the same idea but with coloured film these were completely unsuccessful as only one out of 30 was able to use and the one which came out wasn't at all usable so with a week until the exam I began thinking of other ways I could produce a final outcome and I began looking through my sketchbook.

 This is when I saw how successful and professional my dramatic lighting prints were and I started to look back at my analysis of David bailey and began to really get inspired by his use of dramatic lighting and his role play with he's models that links into this, so I started to experiment with some more dramatic lighting portraits and started experimenting in the darkroom with different techniques which is where I produced some solarisation’s and reversal prints.

I really liked the way David Bailey choose his lighting carefully depending on the pose and model he chose for example the image of Jean Shrimpton is really flattering he conveys style and sleekness with just using black and white film or an effect The way he has captured the light bouncing of her hair and got that jawline shadow is amazing he really motivated me that there is more to do with a SLR camera and if done well it will look really good.

To improve my final outcome I think I could of done some prints in where I put two pictures in the negative carrier this would have been successful because I could of then played with the opacity of the overlapping image on photo shop and it would of linked into Roni Horn's Clown piece from the contextual studies unit as well as been dramatic lighting so linked into David Bailey.

To conclude I found the project stressful at times but however I am happy with the choices I made regarding my final piece and I'm happy with my overall outcome. In the future I would like to pick up a technique in which makes light painting on a SLR film camera do-able.

Edited photoshop portraits

These are some edited prints i did on photoshop, In the first i used the blur tool to link into the work of Roni Horn with the clown image. 

The second print was a attempt of light painting on photoshop i outlined it the make it look like a white laser pen has outlined the model. 

The third was a opposite of the first instead of blurring out her face I've blurred out the background.

The Forth piece is a solarisation i followed a solarisation tutorial on how to do this and applied it to this image.









And the Fifth piece is a david bailey inspired piece I've tried to create movement with this piece but adding multiple layers on photoshop.

Ipad Experimentation

This was a medium shot of our model to do this we had to first turn the lights on and position the camera properly.Then pick up the iPad a swirl it side to side behind the model.

This picture closely resembles Patrick Rochons work except the model isn't visible but the spirals of colour behind them look like a rainbow of colour, this was done exactly the same way as the 1st picture but the swirls are easier to notice.

This image was done by waving the iPad in front of the model as well as behind.











In this image you can slightly see the picture that was on the iPad this was due to a group member moving the iPad slowly.Also we held the iPad underneath this models chin this is why you can see them lit up more than the others.

These images Were all done in the dark using a iPad picture as shown below. We used 3 people for this task 1 person held the camera 1 person swirled the iPad around and 1 person was our model.The first 3 prints are my favourite because the model in the centre is like a silhouette and the swirls around them highlight this it really links into the work of patrick Rochon.

This is the image we used to create these swirls

Solarisation of Portrait images on photoshop

The contrast of black to white is really dominate in this piece the solarisation darkens the area in which the light was shone from producing this plastic metal model.

This is the original to the solarisation as you can see the light is hitting from below which is what the solarisation darkens.







In this piece the model posing really does look slightly metal like she's been painted with silver paint.

These are my solarisation pictures done using adobe photo shop. To do this i followed a tutorial, it was done by creating circles and changing the colour of the original to black and white. Personally i prefer the first set of prints to the second set as the first one looks quite creepy like she's holding a torch over her chin in the darkness of the night, its a really good effect.

Light painting editing and Portrait Editing

I did Both these edits using photoshop aswell as playing around with the NEF settings. On this picture below i got rid of the hump at the side of the model with the clone stamp tool and then added more light in the background using the same tool.

Before

For the picture below i played around with the NEF settings and increased the clarity, I then made a new layer and outlined the model using the pen tool and made this outline of them completely black then changed the opacity of it to create a shadow for them.

After

                                                             
                                                                 

Before

I took both of these photos using a digital SLR camera in the first picture we used an iPad to create the light shown and in the second one we used a flexible table lamp to position the light where we desired in this particular shot i positioned the light so it was shining onto the left side of the model.

After

Mindmap on light

Light Painting on Photoshop

These are some of my best portraits scanned in and edited on photo shop using the ''Adobe Photo shop light painting tutorial'' I used the colour green for the first print because i thought it would be really contrasty with the black. Overall i prefer the second image because it gives it a mystical look which is really effective.

Patrick Rochon Analysis

Patrick began light painting in 1992 he then joined up with friends to form a multimedia group and built costumes of light and went on to perform in on a big screen. Patrick uses a digital camera and normally does these in dark rooms.

Link to the Picture


Patrick uses light painting to his advantage and in my option every photograph of his tells the audience a little story.
The model in this print has a slightly evil smirk on her face almost like she's planning something.In her hands she hold a while musky item it could be foam of some sort or maybe as it resembles it could be a dove.
For this image i would say he has used a blue light and shone it on the upper angle of the model making the audience focus on her face.

He uses a range of light sources to produce this effect with his models, This particular photograph was taken using 24 cameras on a 360 ring in a completely dark room.The detail he has paid attention to in this print is amazing. the contrasting blues and purples work really well together its almost like a bucket of lilac paint has been chucked all over these models.The peaceful look in the main models face conveys feelings of relaxation or peacefulness which again links into the colours used as the colour blue connotates calmness and as a cold colour it could also connotate lack of warmth.The arm reaching out of her could suggest movement in the picture as well it could signify the place in which her arm was at first.

Andre Kertez and Edward Weston Peppar Comparasion

The first artwork is made by Edward Weston Pepper it is called Pepper.Weston was born in Chicago and moved to California when he was 21. He knew he wanted to be a photographer from an early age, and initially his work was typical of the soft focus pictorial ism which was a effect that made the image look slightly blurred it was used mainly in the 19th and 20th century. Hhowever he soon abandoned that style and went on to be one of the foremost champions of highly detailed photographic images. Unfortunately in 1947 he was diagnosed with the Parkinson's disease and died shortly in 1958 during that time he stopped photography and focused on the printing on his early prints which measured over 1,000. 

The second Artwork is produced by Andre Kertez however he was a Hungarian born photographer His first encounters with magazine photography inspired him to learn photography. He was well known for his photographic composition and photo essay- which is a series of images that tell a story. Andre travelled a lot  which made his career split into 4 periods called the Hungarian period, the French period, the American period and, toward the end of his life, the International period. 

Edward Weston's theme seems to be quite natural and organic objects. this object pictured is actually a pepper but it is difficult to see because of the way it is positioned, first looking at the image i thought it was a swan because of the smoothness and neck alike stem, similarly it resembles a human with the position being the back. I think side lighting has been used in this piece as only sections of the right side have speckles of light reflected on them and below this whole object there is a small shadow caused by this direction of lighting.

This differs from Andres work as the theme is completely different as I've mentioned Edward focuses on the natural and organic objects Andres has pictured a fork which is classed as a everyday object and this image is a lot more contrasty compared to Edwards,This photograph has a lot more rough texture compared to Edwards smoothness you can really see the detail in the fork which connotates about the rough texture.

Both artworks have a close up shot of the objects within there frames this is a good effect because it lets us analyse the composition of the objects as well as the texture.

In Edwards piece the pepper is placed in the centre of the frame and because if its size it takes up the whole of the frame in comparison to Andre piece the fork is placed on top of the bowl in the frame this however has a good effect on the overall shadow.

In Edwards piece because side lighting was used the piece remains one tone, Andres piece however is a lot more contrasty with different shades of grey,white and blacks this makes it more interesting to look at and to analyse.

Because of the irregular shape of the pepper in Edwards photography i would say that maybe he found this odd looking paper in the bag and his imagination started flowing and he decided to photograph it using simple lighting and a bland background, Andre's photograph however i believe was more planned because of his very neat shadowing and how every object is perfect with no faults on it for example the bowl or plate has no cracks or chips.

Since Andre's photograph is by far more contrasty i would say in the darkroom he set his filters to a high number  to really get the detail shown and on the other hand i would say Edward turned of his filters maybe to link into his 'natural' theme.

Both photographs capture a slightly calm and relaxed sort of mood because of the simple use of lighting and objects also because of the colour being black and white which normally connotates the feeling of gloomy or a dull feeling it doesn't strike me as something that's going to lighten my mood. I think both photographers artwork are in a way complete opposites despite the similarity in the moods. Edward's photography i think was trying to show the naturalism of the objects he chose he did this throughout the processing of the photograph as i believe he didn't use any filters to boost contrast in his piece.

 Andre however seemed to embrace the technology in his photography and really use all of it to his advantage by experimenting with light in a position which creates a shadow and producing a really contrasting photography in result.

David Bailey Analysis

David Bailey was born on 2nd January 1938. He began his career working as an assistant at the john French Studio he then went on to photograph for john Cole's studio five then later on he as contracted to be a photographer for well selling magazine vogue.

This is a portrait photography of American actor/film director Jack Nicholson. Jack Nicholson was famous for his line in the movie 'the shining' which was 'Heres Johnny' in this photograph his facial expressions look like he was reacting this phrase. 

The shining was a horror movie written by Stephen king about a family that  heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father (Jack Nicholson) into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future. So this photo could be trying to portray the character he played in this movie. 

The fact that one side of his face is lighten could suggest this is the good in him and the darker side is intact the darker side of him after he changes into this violent person with his facial expressions looking close to a scream swell he could potential be screaming out as this transformation happens.

This is taken in a portrait way making the figure centred, this close up gives us a facial point as-well as we can see the whole face and facial expressions.The way the background is all white gives us a more focus on the model but to do this and still have a dark and light side of the model there must have been in a white studio with a variety of lights shining on the face of Jack.

The way Jack Nicholson's facial expressions are i would say this was planned, However this photography was potentially taken in the 60's where no digital cameras were made so it was taken using a film camera which means David bailey had to make sure he got plenty of snaps of Jack Nicholson and everything was exactly right especially the lighting.

The mood of this piece creates fear in the person analysing it because of the expression on the models face as-well as the way the lighting is positioned. I think the artist David Bailey was trying to show the personality of the character Jack Nicholson played though still image using only facial expressions and lighting.

Light mood board

1, 2- David Bailey
3, 4 - Patrick Rochon
5, 6 - Mario Testino
7, 8 - Janne Parviainen

Linking to the work of others

Picasso - Light painting 'centaur'

Picasso was a Spanish man born in 1881-1973, In this picture he sort of resembles a cave man because of the surrounding and the way he is standing implies this. This could also be implied from that he has drawn a bull like character i would say to do this he put his SLR camera on a very very slow shutter speed and with a laser pen or a led light he drew this character using the continuous line technique as well the room would also have to have been quite dark linking into this cave idea.

David Baliey - The Rolling Stones

David Bailey was a Englishman born in 1938, He is described to mostly take pictures of celebrities bench why this is a picture of 'the rolling stones'. This picture was taken in a studio and he has particularly shone a light on their faces as this is the lightest medium he has also put a lot of focus on the faces of the singers this is a good effect.

Andre Kertesz - The Fork 1928

Andre Kertesz was a Hungarian artist born in the years 1894-1985, This picture of a fork says so much more than its appearance a fork is a everyday item something we use everyday. The tone as well are excellent in this picture there is also a strong contrast between the light and darker tones.

Edgar Martins - from the 'Diminishing Present' project (2003/2005)

Edgar Martins is a Portuguese photographer but he works in Britain he was born in 1977, This is a quite natural photograph as all the light present is in fact natural light and also light from the street light this gives the photo a more realistic look to it.

Light project introduction brief

My understanding of this brief is that we will be exploring light in different ways and seeing what it does to a particular photo we will be combining this with still life,portrait, night time photography and painting and after experimenting we will need to have a final piece mounted and evaluated.