Instagram & Colour Solarisation

For some more digital experiments, I used some of the imagery that I had already taken of different buildings and other objects, to create this four pictures. 

This photo is apart of Trafalgar Square fountains, with the traffic in the background. I wanted to take a photo of this because it could capture all of the busy traffic of London. The lights of the buildings, cars and lamppost all add to the image. I wanted to make this experiment a bit different, so I followed the same steps in making a digital solarisation, but instead of changing the image into black and white. I kept the image its original colour and continued to follow the steps. This was the final outcome of the picture. I like the use of the pink/yellow/blue all in one photo because they really compliment each other. The yellow highlights the lights of the cars and buildings, the pink shows the mid-tones of the picture and final the blue indicates the shadows. I really love this experiment because of the amount of detail that you can still see even with the different colours.  

Another colour solarisation experiment I chose to do was this image of a big wheel in Hyde Park's Winter WonderLand. The original photograph was a little bit dark and you couldn't really see the people walking in front. So I thought I would try and to make the image look more interesting. I again followed the same steps as before to make the solarisation image. I wanted to make this as vibrant as possible so instead of only using two or three colours, I used a range of neon colours to create a better effect. I really like the colours because it looks a bit retro and rave like, because of the neon. I think this adds a lot more emphasis to the photograph and makes it look bait more eye-catching. 

The next experiment that I chose to do was making an Instagram effect. Even though my theme isn't Nature, I wanted to try and make this image of a tree more inspiring and eye-catching. Instagram effect is an app on the iPhone what many people use to get the best quality photos. Unfortunately I don't have an iPhone, so I decided to make an Instagram picture on Adobe Photoshop. The steps I followed on photoshop was to just to adjust the brightness and contrast, then making a layer of a light brown/cream to lay it over the original photo. After taking the opacity of the colour layer down, I played around with the settings of the amount of reds/blues/greens the image has. By adjusting that levels slightly on the colour balance, this was the final outcome. I do think that by adding the photoshopped instagram effect has made the picture of the simple tree more interesting and more detailed to look at.   

For the final experiment, I used the photoshop instagram effect on this photograph of the hotel Claridges in Mayfair, London. I followed the same instructions that I did for the Instagram tree image, but this time made this picture slightly lighter. In my opinion I really love this photograph and the effect because it really stands out in my eyes and works really well with the colour of the building and the christmas trees and decorations as well. I also love the fact that the whole image is of all the hotel and nothing else can really draw you away from it. Even though there are people walking past the building and the christmas decorations are very dominate, you still are drawn into the hotel more than anything else in this photograph.    

Digital Solarisation

For some digital experimentation for my personal project, I took some photographs around London of all the buildings with the Xmas lights on. I though this was a good opportunity to take them at night so you could see the architecture lit up in the dark. Below are the five best original photos that I took. 

Even though I took this pictures as experiments, I wanted to make them more outstanding to look at so I edited them on Photoshop and turned them into solarisation images. Firstly what I done was turned the picture into black and white and played around with the contrast. Then I added a curve to the image this meant that I was making the picture more grey and adding a lot more detail to the black and white areas of the photo. After that I added another curve to get more definition, then finally added a level. This meant that I was controlling the amount of black, white and grey scale into the different areas of the photograph. Here are my final outcomes.

The top two pictures are my favourite because of how in focus the camera was with the building and the big wheel. I really like the solarisation effect because it adds more definition to the photograph and makes it more eye-catching. I really love the use of Solarisation so I may use this technique for the personal project, because this technique has worked well for me in the past so hopefully it will help me get the best possible grade with the best pictures that I take. 

First Film Experiments

Here is the test strip of the fist roll of film that I shot. As you tell each individual photo needs to have a different timing and different aperture setting. What I took photos of were of different angles of a house e.g high angles, low angles. I also took photographs of an early morning when it was raining with lots of traffic. This made the lights on the cars  shine on the ground and reflect on the wet surfaces.  

These are 4 of the best photos off of the test strip that I took. Two were taken in the rain and the others were taken when it was just becoming dark.  I though it would be a good idea to take some photos in the rain because of the effect the wet surface would give the light bouncing onto the ground. I also think that the moving cars have added to the effect of the final image, because of the shutter speed i had the camera on. Hopefully this first roll of film will help me over come problems when it comes to processing my final film to get the best possible photographs. 

For some experiments on some on the photographs I decided yo make two of the best prints into solarisation prints.  Solarisation is a effect in photography in which the image recorded on a negative or on a photographic print is partially reversed in tone. Dark areas appear light or light areas appear dark. I choose these to images because I felt that they would work best. I prefer the top image because of the definition that has been brought out by solarising it. You can see the wet surface really well on this and also where it was raining so much you can see little droplets on the camera, which also adds something to the final image.

I really want to continue with making solarisation photographs for the mock exam because I feel that I could develop more of a higher mark by using the best photo and the right experiments. 

Ronya Galka​ ​Photog​raphy

Ronya Galka is another photographer that has also inspired me to take photographers of London. For example this first image I really like because of the weather condition that it is in. The fact that it has been snowing also added to the effect of the amount of the people around. This is because normally there would be lots of people walking up and down this road, so being about to capture the weather environment as well as the the Houses of Parliament as well is very effective. You can see there is a lot of detail and definition going on in this photo within the snow on the ground and the building as well. 

This next image is another favourite of mine because of the night sky and the location as well. Even though the main focus point is the old women on the bench, I also think its the lights of 'HoP' are a big feature too.  The reason why I think this is because of how dark the image actually is, but by having the lampposts on and the light reflecting in to the river from the building, making the picture come alive in someway or another.  


This final image is got a bit of everything in it from Nelson's Column leading down to Big Ben and the embankment. Even though the main attraction in this photo is the couple on the steps, I feel that but capturing the different architectural buildings and monuments really makes the image look and feel more special. There is a good use of depth of field and that everything is in focus even from a long distance. I really do like this picture because it combines architectural and documentary photography together.

Ben Thompson Photography

Ben Thompson is a photographer that has inspired me to take photographers of different architecture at night with their lights shining and all lit up. Here are three of my favourite images that he has taken around London of some of the iconic tourist attractions.  

The first image is of the O2 arena and the buildings up and down the river at twilight. He has captured all the lights lit up along the river and in the background as well to create a perfect scenery. Also the blueish/purple sky adds to the effect and makes the lights seem more bright and eye-catching. This is my favourite photo of Thompson's, but if I had any criticism it would be just to capture the Arena with out some of the many lights. 

Another photo that I really like by Ben is this one of the Houses of Parliament. The main reason why I love this photograph is the light reflecting onto the water. This is because of how something so simple can be so effective to look at. Another reason why I like this photo is because of the detail that the camera has captured of the building. The clouds in the sky are very dominate as well as you can just about see them fade away into the night sky.>

The final image that I really like is this one of the London Eye. One particular reason why I like this image is because of the slow shutter speed that has been used. If you look closely you can just about see the wheel slightly blurred, which means that Ben has captured the same image for a number of seconds or even longer to get the wheel seem like it has been moving. Also I like the different buildings lights in the background it added to the outcome of the picture and makes the 'Eye' more impressive.

Shooting Plan

Here is my shooting plan for my first roll of film. It shows lots of ranges of building/houses and also cars. hopefully I will be able to successfully take images like these sketches. 

7 Day Photo Challenge

day 1: a house

day 2: your shoes

day 3: from a high angle

day 4: from a low angle

day 5: something blue

day 6: time

day 7: people

Idea Mood Board

Here are some photographers that I like and have inspired me for my personal project. 

1. http://www.behance.net/gallery/Girlography/229841
2. http://benthompsonphotography.com/photo_3540343.html
3. http://www.ethnotraveler.com/2012/08/more-little-dramas-more-little-nuances/
4. http://www.horsthamann.com/
5. http://www.flickr.com/photos/wecand/4174747991/sizes/o/in/photostream/
6. http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2012/04/04/7-night-photography-tips-for-the-architectural-photographer/
7. http://www.lourdas.co.uk/exterior_architectural_photography_london.html
8. 
   

Idea sheets

Personal Project - 3 x Indepth Analysis

Here are my three in depth analysis of different photographic genres.

Personal Project - Mind Map

Personal Project Brief

Here is the Personal Project brief. The brief is basically explaining what we have to achieve using different techniques and materials. As my theme is Architecture I want to take a range of photographers.

Thinking Ahead....

Thinking ahead to the next project that is THE PERSONAL PROJECT. The project has to relate to the last project, so in my mind an the moment i may use the different techniques and experiments that I came across. I really liked the contrast of the Darkroom experiments and the digital experiments, so maybe that could be a possible area to delve into a little bit more.   

Changes to Final Outcome

For my final outcome, I made smaller version of the cutouts and placed them on a coloured background. As I placed them down on the coloured paper, and looked at it from a distance I it didn't really work well as I thought. So rearranged my final outcome and made some of the cutouts slightly bigger, getting a range of small and big popup designs. 

Evaluation of Final Outcome

Our project brief was to choose a particular area of photography that really interested us. I choose Architecture because I thought it would be a good opportunity to see different buildings, houses and statues around London and where I live. When I first heard of this project, my plan was to make my theme about Portraiture. However with different experiments that I created with portraits, I felt that it didn't really work well with he experiments, so i changed it to Architecture. The title of this particular project was called The Enhanced Image, this is meant by using different techniques or different experiments working well with the photographs we would going to take.

My creative journey through this project was starting off with a theme that i really wasn't happy with continuing with that theme, so i decided to change it to Architecture as i found that it was easy but more challenging to create more experiments with. When i finally changed my theme, i found that the experiment that i came across were a lot more exciting and more appealing. From start to finish of my ideas for my final project changed quite a bit from Portrait to Architecture, double exposures to 3D design. The research I did into the artist and photographers were very helpful because they gave me the opportunity to explore different techniques and making my outcome unique.

The artist and photographers that inspired me the most were Markus Kison and Leslie David. 

Markus Kison is a artist that i discovered in the AS to A2 project. He is an artist that takes photographs of people or buildings, then makes them into a pop-up design. This means that he cuts around the figure and pushes up the cut out image so it is standing. After that he takes photos of the 3D design in different angles to get a very professional outcome.  The other artist that I looked into was Leslie David. She is an artist and photographer that takes photos of buildings and people, then adds a splash of colour to the picture. When I say she adds colour to the image, i mean she puts paint onto the image and with an object rather than a paint brush she squishes the paint onto a part of the photo, giving the paint a detail and raised effect. My main focus was of course making pop-up photos with the Black and White prints then a small amount of detail went into making digital photos more effective with the paint. 

In my opinion, I think what i have done well is explored many different experiments digital and hand made techniques. I feel that the final outcome of my work was good. However I feel I could of put a little bit more effort into making the final design. This is because i felt like it was a last minute decision to add David's work into Kison's, as i felt i didn't do enough pop-up designs. I feel that my outcome that i did achieve was good, but if i had a clear idea in my head of the time i had i  would of worked a little bit harder to get the perfect result. 

What I know i can work on is the time issues, as i could of done with a little longer to get it they way i wanted it to me. I would of also made a lot more 3D pop-ups designs, and taken a lot more photographs of them. By having them at different angles and maybe making some digital pop-ups instead of just black and white images. 

In conclusion, i feel that i did my best to complete the Enhanced project. I loved doing all of different experiments some more than others. Working in the darkroom again with different techniques, and also a lot more digital experiments. All in all i have enjoyed this project because it has showed me that there are many way to enhance an image, some being so simple and some being very technical.   

Final Ideas...

Here above is a mind map of possible ideas for my final outcome. Underneath is a list of possible ideas that I may use to produce my final piece. I liked all of these ideas because they are very creative but one in particular appealed to me the most and hopefully the creativity of these will get me the best possible marks. 

Digital Double Exposures

For more experimental work using the effect of double exposure. I decided to make a digital double exposure, too see the comparison between darkroom and digital. 

I choose two images that i thought would work quite well together. Adjusting the opacity on one of the photographs and adding more contrast and more vibrance to the image so that you could definitely tell there were two photos in one picture. For the background picture, I ensured that I made the as contrasty as possible making all of the colours , become much more dominate and powerful. Whereas the second image i made the opacity slightly lower and make the contrast of the photo alittle sepia so it would define the difference between each layer. 

I do like this effect because it is very modern and unique but I do prefer double exposure in black and white more to digital because it you are actually make the double exposure yourself instead of letting the computer doing it.  

Creating a silhouette

After creating a sandwich print/double exposure, we then had to add a silhouette to the image. The silhouette i created was out of place paper and cut out a house, as it is related to architecture. I did like this experiment because it is very easy to complete. However, in my opinion i feel i could of made my silhouette a little more detailed and maybe choose a different sandwich print because you can really see alot of detail. All in all i feel i would like to do this experiment again because it it very imaginative and easy to complete. It also doesn't take up alot of your time once you have the correct times for the double exposed image. 

Sandwich printing

Sandwich printing is another word for double exposure in the darkroom. I basically choose two photos that i thought would work quite well together. I choose a stature and the crystal palace radio tower. I thought the outcome worked quite well, eventually. It was quite difficult to get the right times for the images because you would have to expose the piece of paper for much longer, than for just one print. 

I do like this effect, but in my opinion I feel that it is a great experiment but i would like to get the right balance of photos in the photograph. This is because my other experiment with sandwich printing didn't work out as well, this was because of the amount of detail that was in both of the images and how dark it was. However even though I do like the darkroom sandwich prints, i feel that digital double exposures are much more effective and easier to create, because you don't really need to had a correct timing or expose the negative on to photographic paper.  

Bleaching and Tie Dying prints..

For more experimental work, we were asked to bleach some photographs to get an unusual effect. I choose a black and white picture and a colour one as well. For the process of this, we had to wear rubber gloves at all times. Firstly began by added clear nail polish onto the picture in different areas of it. Then dipped the image into a bowl of bleach, then straight into water. Here are the outcomes of the bleaching process. In my opinion, if i could do it again i would be to than i had a lot more nail polish onto the black and white image because you cant really see image underneath it. However i do really like the colour image, as you can still see the picture with the bleach effect. 

Another technique was to add food dye to the black and white prints. To this photo i added green and a dark purple. I do like this effect because it was just using a paint brush to apply the colouring. In my opinion when you look at it, it sort of looks three dimensional with the blast of colour that it has on it. Even though it isn't a lot of colour, it is still very powerful and eye-catching.

Markus Kison

Markus Kison is a photographer and artist that works with making 3D pop-up pieces of work, that instantly look as if they were real life scenes. His work 'Untitled but dissected' is the piece that inspired me. This is because of how much something so little you can do to a photo can automatically make it better. 

For the first image of this three compilation work, is of a man walking past some buildings, with his shopping in toe. The reason why I like this image is because of the way that the man and the buildings have been cut out so precisely and neatly to get the perfect figure outline. Another reason why I find this image so unique is because of the angle that it has been placed at on the black card gives the silhouettes of the human figure and the buildings a shadow, making the picture more realistic and lifelike. 

The second imagery is a very unique piece as it is based around the two people. This still very special, in the way that it has been displayed and cut out. The figures have been very intricately cut out carefully. Also the way that the foreground is very much coming out from the background making you take notice of it a little bit more, because of how dominate the people are. The black backdrop has really helped bring the 3D image alive more, making it more appealing to look at, and sort of gives the folded three dimensional print a outline as such.

The final three dimensional picture is my least favourite but it still grabs my attention. The reason why I don't particularly like this image is because of the way that it has been cut out. The way that it has been cut out isn't really like the other two, because you can obviously see the cut out silhouette of the man on the background piece of card; it also doesn't help that the imagery is displayed on a wooden table and not on a black backdrop. 

The concept of the idea is very unique, taking a part of the photograph and cutting around it, away from the background to then fold it slightly so it is able to stand up, is really different from another photographer/artist that I have looked at in the past. From taking something so simple and making it yet so effective is just genius. Kison work has really inspired me to hopefully create a really good range of three dimensional photographs that have be displayed in a way that is very eye-catching and appealing to look at and take note on how its has been created.  

Mind Map

Here is a mind map of how to make an image more interesting and making enhancements by using different techniques. Also trying to get the best outcome as possible by doing some of the things in the mind map, that may increase your marks dramatically.

Dodging and Burning

 For some more experiments and help us gain a new skill, we   had to dodge and burn some photographs. Dodging means   lightening a small area in the picture where it once was dark.   Burning means darkening a small area in the picture where it   once was really light. 

<These are the photos I decided to dodge, making them lighter. The way I dodge these images was using a piece of black paper on a piece of wire. While the photo was being developed, I moved the black piece of paper over the particular area of interest to make it lighter.The original image is at the bottom, the reason why I chose this photograph was because I wanted to make the leaves of the bushes a little bit lighter giving them a little more definition. I made two adjustments to each photo one lighter than the other to get the gradually development through each of the three pictures. I really like the effect of lightening the image because of the detail of the photograph it can display.  


For the burning process I used this image of a road with houses on the other side. The reason why I wanted to use this photograph was because I felt that the original image was a little too light. So the way I made the image darker was to cover a part of the rest of the image that i didn't want to be darkened with a piece of card. This was the outcome, I do like this effect but you can't really see the houses in the background. So if i was able to repeat this process again i would would only burn a little part of the image instead of a huge chunk of it.>   

Colour Manipulation

Here are some of Colour Manipulation experiments that I have created using the same photograph but added a different effect to it; BLACK & WHITE, SEPIA, BLUE and RED. I really like all of these effects as you can distinctly still see the detail in the photos even with the colour manipulation added to it. In my opinion I really like all of these but I do love the sepia effect. This is because of the antique effect that it gives the image, and shows a lot more detail in this than another. However i would like to use these different effect again on different pictures and see what the outcome is. 

Darkroom Solarisation

Solarisation is basically developing a photo until you can see a part of the image then exposing the image to light for a few seconds then putting in back into the developer to see the final outcome. 
Here are two photographs that have be solarised at different timings to get a more detailed effect on the page: 

The first image that i decided to solarise was the side of a church that i took a photograph of. I though this would be a great starting point as it has a lot of detail and could really display a good oppotunity to see the solarisation come through properly. As you can see  the top photo is much more detailed then the image below. This is because of the amount of time I gave the image was a lot shorter giving the second picture a less solarised effect, but i still think the first attempt of these prints were quite good.

For the next solarised experiment I did, i choose another image of the church but from a different angle. I decided to make 4 solarised images of the original photo. I made sure for each different photo i made the timing for each one making the time increase by a second or two. I really like this experiment because of the different effect that it gives to the photo of the church. Also the amount of detail that is displayed is very powerful in the way that different pictures show different amounts of features of the church in many areas of the photo.  

Digital Solarisation

Solarisation is photography term in which the image recorded on a negative or on a photographic print is partially reversed in the way it looks. Dark areas appear light or light areas appear dark.

Firstly to create this image we had to upload an image to photoshop that I thought would work quite well with this effect. I chose this image of the Orbit in the Olympic/Paralympic park. 

Once it was uploaded into photoshop I made the picture black and white, so it would work perfectly with the solarisation effect. Then I added curves into the photo to get a more realistic effect of the solarised outcome.

Then I added a lot more curves into the black and white photograph, this was the final out come. I really like the digital effect that is shown, because it looks sort of authentic and different to any other images I've seen using the Solarisation effects. Also when you look at the photograph is looks more eye-catching as a solarised image than a normal photo in my opinion. >>

After making the final outcome of the solarised image, I played around with the different effect and came across a effect that added 3 different colours to the image. I used the solarised image to added the colours because i thought it would work better with a edited picture. The two outcomes are below.   

Leslie David Inspired Work

Leslie David is one artist/photographer that incorporates paint and photos together to get a unique image. Here are two examples of her work using portraiture and landscape. 

Here are my experimentations of her work.