Assignment 4 - Real or fake?

For this assignment I had to further explore the techniques covered in this section of the course and the ethical issues some of these techniques present. 

Throughout this part of the course I was presented with situations I had previously avoided.  As a raw shooter I am aware of the need to optimise images. However, I personally don’t see exposure adjustments or spot fixes for sensor dust or unwanted objects in your image as manipulation.  I think on the contrary that they are necessary enhancements.  Enhancements are something that I view as producing images that do not deviate too far from reality.    

I tend to see manipulation as the point where images cease to look real.  In many pictures we see in magazines, images are created using composites which to me is an obvious manipulation of a set of images.  It is clear that the final image is not the result of a single picture taken with a camera. It is the result of another form of creative design where your final image is made post production. 

I had the option of creating a book or magazine cover for this assignment.  I chose to recreate the front cover of Irvine Welsh’s book Ecstacy. 

I adopted a fun and minimalistic approach to the image.  I wanted the focus to be on ‘ecstasy’ with few distractions or busy elements in the final image.  I also wanted the image to be very bright with colour playing an important role.  In a sense I wanted the image to have a slight psychedelic feeling to it.  In relation to the book and its content I wanted to try and create some of the fun associated with the characters and their drug taking lifestyles.   

The image

I used two images to create the cover.  For the first image I shot a pink pill - a Neurofen tablet.  I felt that pink added a fun colour to the theme I was attempting to create for the book cover.  I then added the words ‘ecstasy’ to the pill to give the impression that the word was actually printed on the tablet.  I formatted the text to make it wrap around the pill’s curved shape. 

The pill also being round would be representative of the world - the drug taking world in the book. 

The second image I used was of a blue cloudy sky.  I had to use the clone stamp tool to remove the trees in the lower part of the image and I adjusted the exposure to make the sky very contrasty. 

In Photoshop I created a zoom burst for this image by selecting a radial blur filter.  This gave the image a sense of movement with motion trails emanating from the centre. 

I then cut the pill out of the first image and pasted it into the blurred sky so the movement now trails from the pill.  The movement draws the viewer into the focus point – the pink pill and in turn the title of the book. 

The blue sky provides the image with a universe for the ‘drug globe’. 

Outcome

I think I achieved what I set out to, that is, to create a ‘fake’ image. However I felt that the creative process was one that was very different to how I normally view an assignment or shoot.  I found that more doors were open to me and I could be less conservative in my work or approach. 

My workflow was altered greatly in this assignment.  Instead of working to get the best possible image from your camera in relation to composition, the camera and pictures served as elements which would make up your final image.  This final image and the majority of work to complete it was constructed in Photoshop. 

 In relation to ethics, I have already touched on how I feel about image manipulation, but for this assignment I had to manipulate my image.  I wanted to do this in a way that would not interfere with my ethics. 

There is nothing natural or real about the production or effects of drugs so from an ethical standpoint this image lives up to the themes running through the book.  

Tutor feedback

Overall the feedback I received on this assignment was positive.  However, my tutor suggested that I need to take this image further perhaps by pushing the manipulation of the tablet to strengthen the allegory of it representing the world or by improving the typography superimposed on the pill.  

He noted that the adjustments I made to the sky have worked well.  However the text at the bottom is harder to read so maybe I should try to change the type font or the colour of the text.  I think I like the font so I would opt for changing the colour to white and perhaps making it bolder or bigger or both.  

Moving forward, I feel that I need to give this image some more thought and see how I can further improve it.  

Looking at the work of Jerry Uelsman...

Browsing the internet the other day I came across the work of Jerry Uelsman.  I think I may have seen some of his images before but didn't know who created them.

I think his images are very surreal.  They are also interesting in relation to this course and to 'ethics' when you consider they were not manipulated digitally.  I suppose most people believe the digital age gave birth to image manipulation.  However, this is not necessarily the case.

Looking at Graham Clarke's The Photograph which is a history of photography dedicating a chapter to each genre, image manipulation began in the early 1900s possibly with Alvin Langdon Coburn's vortograph.

I am still not sure where I stand on the entire manipulation thing but I can say that I am less resistant to the idea of manipulating images.  I can actually see the benefits now and also the fact that manipulation and the use of Photoshop doesn't mean you are cheating in any way.  It is just another part of the creative process in the piece of art you are making.

Back to Uelsman, I really like the dreamy feel to his work and I can see how his influence could work on 'Project Time'.

I also like the way the manipulation is subtle.  It almost looks like it has been painted/sketched.

http://www.uelsmann.net/

Researching assignment 4

Assignment 4 is all about using all the tools available to you to create a 'fake' or manipulated photograph.

As most of the work of photographers that I like does not use a lot of manipulation I decided to buy some Photoshop magazines for inspiration and I suppose guidance.

Some months ago I attended a seminar by Scott Kelby who is big into Photoshop.  The CD that was part of the seminar notes is a good resource for basic retouching especially for portraits.  There is also a section on compositing.

At the seminar he had a special guest - Glyn Dewis - who is a photographer, retoucher and Photoshop trainer.  He shoots a lot of promotional and commercial material and when I saw a section by him in Practical Photoshop I decided to buy that as a starter.

His 'How to create a portrait with punch' was interesting and although I liked the final image I was keen on attempting it myself.  Although the instructions were clear enough my portrait didn't look as punchy as his.  Perhaps my model just lacked that certain 'punchability' or else I just missed something along the way.  I abandoned the idea either way.

I liked some of the images that readers have sent into the magazine and I also found some of their ideas more inspiring than the real articles and 'how to' sections.

The challenge in the previous issue was a poetry inspired challenge.  The results in the issue I had were really good.  I liked the introduction of text to the image.  I felt that this was particularly relevant to my assignment.

I think I need to continue to buy Photoshop magazines to keep an eye for these types of images and to keep my options open as to how they would work in my own photography.

Thoughts on my personal project

I have been giving some thought to my personal project over the last few days and put together a short brief and some preliminary ideas.

The assignment

To create a series of 10-12 images from a theme of my choice applying what I have learned from this course. 

My personal brief

To date my assignments have been based on real objects/subjects – things that we can see.  I have set myself the challenge of working on a theme that cannot be shown directly but can be illustrated through the use of symbols and creative illustrative techniques.  I feel this will give me a good opportunity to utilise what I have learnt on the course giving me a greater creative freedom to explore a particular theme.

I have chosen the theme ‘time’ for this project.   I want to produce a series of images that capture and illustrate the essence of time, its effects, passage and cyclical nature.  Time is ever flowing but we are often unaware and oblivious to this.  The times when we become aware of the passage of time is when we haven’t seen someone for a long time and we see how they have aged or changed.  I also would like to explore how we tend to represent time and try to contain it – hours, days, months, seasons and years. 

I would like to look at what time means to me personally and show this in my images. 

Research

As part of my research and a basic starting point I have made a list of all items/symbols we would associate with time. 

General

• ·         Clocks – hands on clock, digital clock
• ·         Hourglass
• ·         Calendars, diaries and schedules
• ·         Decay
• ·         Graveyards
• ·         Newspapers
• ·         Passing of time, history

     Contrasts

• ·         Old and new
• ·         Young and old
• ·         Day and night

Camera specific

• ·         Shutter speed – extrusive time, frozen time,  still time, long exposures
• ·         Photographs are static how do you capture the flow of time?
• ·         Opaque and transparent – while some pictures draw you in others prevent you from moving into the frame
• ·         Colour V monochrome

Shoot specific

• ·         Street photography – capturing fleeting moments
• ·         Still life/studio work
• ·         Landscapes
• ·         Day and night
• ·         Times of day, year
• ·         Weather
• ·         Planned and unplanned shoots

As part of my research I plan to carry out a number of recces for planned shoots, identify possible still life compositions and undertake some random street shots where appropriate.  

Presentation

I believe presentation will contribute to this piece of work.  I have seen from the exhibitions I have been to the effect of colour and black and white prints together with the size of prints.  I would like to see how I might incorporate this into my work. 

I would also like to consider the use of dyptychs. 

Ethics

In relation to ethics, I believe that working with the time theme will present a few ethical dilemmas with regard to representation and will therefore help me identify where my own ethical boundaries lie.  It will not be a case of shooting a subject but looking at a concept and visually portraying it in a variety of ways. 

Exercise: Alteration

For this exercise I had to take an image and remove a subject from the picture.

I chose this image of a gravestone.

I think the image would look a lot better without the distracting gravestone in the background.

Before

After

I used the clone stamp tool to remove the distracting headstone in the background.  I think although this alters the picture it enhances it.  

Experimenting with HDR

I have never really played around with HDR in my images preferring to go for a more natural looking.  However, I thought I would give it a try to see what my image from the previous exercise would like in HDR.

This first image was converted to HDR using the Photorealistic preset.  I don't think it looks too realistic myself, the blues in the sky are somewhat unnatural.

Using the More saturated setting in the Presets this looks very unrealistic.  

I'm not quite sure where I stand with the surreal effects of an HDR image. Perhaps it works better for some images that others. Perhaps it's something I should experiment with some more.  

Exercise: Addition

For this exercise I had to look at taking a landscape picture and changing the appearance of the sky.

From a shooting perspective I used a tripod to take a series of images at different exposures with a view to producing two images - one with the sky exposed correctly and the other exposed for the land.

For the land exposure I used the average meter reading from the camera.  For the sky I under-exposed by a stop.

Exposed as per the average meter reading

One stop under-exposed

Photograph adjusted in PS using the eraser tool.  

Another way of changing the sky is to use the Magic Wand tool to select the sky using the lasso tool where necessary to include or deselect elements accordingly.  Once the selection has been made you can the save it and delete the sky from the upper image.  This will leave you with a similar image to the one above.  However, you have more control over the image selection using the Magic Wand tool.  It is also a quicker way of achieving the result.

Image adjusted using the magic wand tool.

Adding a new sky to the image

There is also the option to add a different sky to the image above.  This too is intervention but unlike above it it not at legitimate.  You are taking two images one with a better sky and adding that to your landscape.  Above you are taking two images of the exact same scene which capture the full range of brightness in the image.  This seems more like a natural process.  

With sky replaced

I'm not so sure that this works.  Perhaps I would need a sky with more white in it or even a brighter sky.  Maybe because I know the sky does not belong to the image I know that it is not right.  The reflection of the clouds is not mirrored in the water correctly.  

I don't think that replacing the sky is something that I would ever really want to do with my photographs.  I feel that it is a step too far.