Evaluation

My final piece is inspired by Jason Travis and Rankin, and their separate projects - Travis' 'Persona' series and Rankin 'Destroy'.
Travis' ideas, which I used the most, was to ask people to empty their handbags and pockets to 'see what they deem important enough to carry with them everyday.' The way he had set out such a simple idea really showed me that anything can be beautiful is photographed properly. I also liked the way the portraits of the people above, show their own individuality, by having different backgrounds in each one, and each person is either smiling or stern.

I realised that I couldn't simply copy Travis' Persona Series, so I needed something that would make it different. I liked Rankin's work and wanted to incorporate it somehow. His 'Destroy' series features people, albeit celebrities, 'destroying' their image, but have it still be recognisable. I thought this was an interesting concept because it shows how that person views themselves.

For my final exam piece, I photographed my family and friends, (and dog), and asked them to empty their bags for my photo. I tried to feature different backgrounds and tried to set out their belongings similar to the way Travis did. I needed to create mock-ups to see if the photos look good together so I edited the photo images together on Photoshop to merge as one and I started to edit the colours. Something that I really noticed in his work is the bright colours, even the darker and less appealing colours shine.
I practised some Rankin-inspired techniques on the image of my mum, and found that paint and added images make the photo more interesting as it gives it an extra edge.

In the exam, I edited the images from scratch. I made them darker and with added kitsch-like colour schemes. I then printed them out and started to paint, add images, collage and cut out the photos. After changing 7 images, I mounted my images onto 2 pieces of large white card.

I am quite happy with my final piece, but if I could change anything, I would have printed the images out onto card rather than white paper, because it would have been less flimsy. I also would have added extra Rankin-inspired techniques other than just paint and collage, as some of them are not as inventive as I had hoped.

Evaluation

For my Light Painting images, we set the shutter speed on the camera to slow. We then shone different torches and laser pens onto the subject. After this effect worked, we thought it would be interesting to add physical movement to our photos. We started to walk and slide to the other side of the room. The camera was able to show our journey, with our movements being shown behind us. 

Photoshop Experiments

This photo is of a tree in black and white, layered over the top of my view of the sky from a plane.  This looks good as it looks like there is a sunset behind the tree. I did this by opening both images in Photoshop in separate windows then dragging one on top of the other. 

This was originally in colour, but I decided to desaturate (make black and white) to create a more ghostly feel. I also darkened the background and lightened the main image.

I added white lines to the sun beams to make them stand out more and make a brighter tone. I achieved this by using the brush tool with a large brush and drew the lines on 'Screen' mode. After doing this, I added a photo of me looking like a ghostly spirit, by dragging in, which completely changes the whole tone of the picture, and makes it more scary.

I layered a tree on top of the image of the sky, which contrasts because the tree is dark and spiky, whereas the sky is light and wispy. I don't think this photo is the most effective because of the different contrasts, and it doesn't really resemble a real scene, which I think the others do. To achieve this, I simply dragged the tree over the top of the sky, then changed the settings from 'Screen' to 'Overlay'.

The original photo of just the added white lines to the sunbeams. With these lines, I think the sun itself looks brighter and the beams appear longer. I think this photo could have been better if it was in colour, because it makes the photo seem more upbeat, whereas in black and white, it looks solumn and sad. I created this by drawing white lines with the brush tool on 'Screen' mode.

I like this image of a tree layered over a picture of the mountains in South Africa. I changed the colours to make them appear darker to resemble a sunset. The tree branches could look like lightening, which means the photo could have two different moods; a dark storm or a pretty sunset. The clouds could also be used to interpret either of these scenes. This picture was made by dragging the tree on top of the mountain scene from separate windows and making it really dark on 'Vivid light' mode. 

I really like this image of a scene in Cape Town. The foreground includes a Wheel, palm trees and cars. The background is a photo of the mountains, which makes it seem that they are lingering behind. The photo of the scene was taken in black and white, and the mountains in colour. I think this adds effect because the palm trees are dark and you can only see there outline, and the wheel is illuminated by the sun in the mountains photo. I made this picture by simply dragging the wheel photo on top of the mountain image. Before doing this, I darkened the palm trees and the cars using 'Desaturate', then lightened it from complete black and white. I then changed the settings from 'Screen' to 'Overlay'.

I edited these images using Adobe Photoshop. They are mostly photos layered on top of each other to create an effect of different background scenery.

The photographs of the mountains and the wheel were taken in South Africa, with background images of my view of the sky from an aeroplane and a tree in my garden. I think these work effectively because they show more depth with the background than without, and makes the pictures more interesting to look at. 

The image of the sun beams streaming through the window was taken in my hall way. I added more white tones to the sun beams to create a brighter tone. 

I also edited a picture of me and put it in the same photo to create the idea that there was a ghost and the added blurred lines make this effective.