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.

Ideas for first roll of Film

This was my idea spider diagram for my first roll of film to shoot. I thought about the different locations, shot types and lighting. The place i went to were around where i live, crystal palace park, croydon and beckenham. 

Formative Feedback & Target Setting

My target for this year is going to be to write more in-depth analysis about different artist and photographers to try and get the highest possible grade.  I feel I am able to achieve this target by choosing different artist and photographers to talk about and all about there work and how it inspires me to experiment with my work. 

Darkroom experiments

VIGNETTE

Here are some experiments that I worked with in darkroom using Vignette effect, highlighting areas of interest, and pressing printing.  

The Vignette effect is easy to accomplish as all you needed was to fold a black piece if paper in half and cut an oval shape in the folded crease. Once you had done that you the place the paper over your image or hover the paper above it in the darkroom to create the effect perfectly. I choose an negative image that I thought would work quite well as the house was the centre of attention.

HIGHLIGHTING AREAS

The next experiment I did in the darkroom was highlighting. This meant making a double exposure. By using a coin on a part of a particular to make it lighter than the rest of the image. You firstly get the correct exposure and time fro you print then reduce the time by half. Expose the image for half the time, after place a coin on your chosen area of interest, then expose the print for the remaining time. Place it in the develop until the photo is developed. The images I picked where to houses with Mini Coopers outside of them. I thought the cars and the lamppost would be a good area of interest to use. 

I really liked this effect so i decided to choose a different image and a ring to highlight the area. The image i choose was a stature of Joseph Paxton who built the Crystal Palace glass building. I added a moustache ring to the face. I feel it gave a little humour to the final outcome. 

PRESS PRINTING

Finally these images I used the effect of press printing. This meant that  I processed the photograph as normal by instead putting the whole piece of paper into the developer i paced an patterned objected in the liquid and pressed in on to the photo. I used a paint brush to dribble onto the photograph to create a different effect as well. Of course i waited until i was happy with the amount of image available to see and continued with the normal process. 

ENHANCED IMAGE - DIGITAL MANIPULATION

For some more experimentation work, we were asked to follow four tutorials on how to enhance photographs using different manipulation techniques. These effects were called Vignette, Instagram Nashville, The Ultimate Lomo and finally the HDR effect on Adobe Photoshop.

Firstly we have the Vignette effect, this constrains the image so that the edges around the main part of the picture is slightly black, giving all the attention to the centre part of the photo. I feel that the picture that I have used works really well with the Vignette effect. The reason why I decided to choose this photo of the Olympic/Paralympic flame for this digital manipulation was because of how powerful the photograph was on its own, but by just adding a tiny bit extra it make the image become more eye-catching, and worth having a second glade at it.  

This was the second 

photograph that I digitally manipulated was using the Instagram Nashville effect. Everyone has seen Instagram photos either on Facebook or Twitter and they all seem to like the effect that it does to the picture. Out of all the photos that I have taken of architecture I feel as if this photo of the Orbit in the Olympic Park, was the best one that would work well with the Nashville technique. The technique was very understandable, because the set of instructions were easy to follow about how to create the final outcome. I love how the red of the building is really bright and dominates the picture. This stands out quite a lot and it is very eye-catching. Also I really love the Nashville effect because even though everyone is using this way of changing the photo only recently, you can still can get a vintage style look photo. 

Next, I then had to recreate the Ultimate Lomo effect which I found the most difficult to master. I found that even with the different photos that I choose to work with this effect, I still didn't like how the final outcome came out. The photo that I finally choose was of the BasketBall arena in the Olympic/Paralympic park, with lots people walking past it. As for the first experiment i used the Vignette effect to create some of the black edges around the original picture, then on photoshop I played around with the different settings such as brightness/contrast, levels and curves to get an unusual result. It does look very effective when you look at it because of how white the building is and how detailed the people walking by are in contrast to the arena as well. 

The final experiment using digital manipulation was HDR effect, I also like this effect because it is very detailed and very clever in the way that it brought the different tones of the original photograph. In Photoshop I made a duplicate copy of the original image and depicted the mid-tones, hight-lights and shadows in the picture. I also adjusted the contrast and saturation in the image to get a better image. I really wanted to experiment with using the shadows and highlights so that it would bring the best out of the picture. Near the end of the HDR manipulation effect, I wanted to add a little bit of colour into it, by doing this it meant that I was making the picture a hint of one particular colour. I choose to go for a little bit of orange. My decision for this was because, when took this photo it was a hot summers day in the Olympic/Paralympic park, with lots of being walking around seeing this one lifetime oppatunity. Also in the background you can see the Velodrome. 

3 in-depth analysis.

Mood Board

1. Nina Chakrabati
2. Florian Imgrund
3. Dan Mountford
4. Suzy Allman
5. Chantal Rens
6. Leslie David
7. Pierre Cordier
8. Carlos Lopez
9. Bjork Vesperting Album
10. Julie Cockburn
11. James Gallagher
12. Michelle Thompson

The Enhanced Image Project - Architecture

This project brief is called 'The Enhanced Image Project'. The project is about following a chosen theme throughout the unit of coursework. This is by enhancing images with different experimentations and methods. The theme I have chosen is Architecture. This is following on the lines of the AS to A2 project and the summer homework. 

Portrait to Architecture

To start my AS to A2 project I decided I was going to based my project around Portraiture, however I found that a little bit difficult to develop further, so I changed my idea half way through to go on to Architecture. I feel I may achieve more in this theme than portraiture. 

SUMMER WORK

SUMMER WORK

1. Photo Collage
2. William Hatch Crosby
3. Amy Friend
4. Greg Sand
5. Rebecca Crew
6. Stacey Page
7. Stephen J Shanabrook

Stephen J Shanabrook

The final the artist that was very inspiring and yet very unusual was Stephen J Shanabrook, who squashes, folds and flattens photograph to get a distorted image. I chose two portrait images to distort. With the first photograph i rolled it around a glue stick to get a curved outcome, then ripped the edges to get another effect. For the second image i screwed up the images and put it under something quite heavy, so that once it was opened up again it would have lots of different fold marks, which gave the portrait a creative effect. I would like to make a few more images in this sort of way because it is easy to do and very effective. 

Stacey Page

Stacey Page is another artist that experiments with photos and embellishing them with embroidery thread, making images becoming more textured and more dominant when you look at it. For my inspire piece I used an portrait image of myself and added coloured thread to the facial features and a boarded. I found the process of threading through paper quite easy but got tiring after a while. I like the effect that it gives to the final image, as it different to to anything that I've seen before. 

Rebecca Chew

Another artist that we were inspired by was Rebecca Crew, she makes 3D photos. We were asked to look on youtube to find a tutorial on how to make origarmi. I chose to make a fish and a butterfly. Making origarmi was very difficult to make as it was a bit hard to fold. I would like to make this again but the out come were pretty decent, as i the images i used were from the Olympic Park. Also both sides of the origarmi had different parts of the image. 

Greg Sand

Another artist we were inspired by was Greg Sand who is most famous for creating weaving photographs. He uses two different contrasting images weaving them together to make a patchwork pattern.  

With the two photos i picked a black and white portrait images and a landscape image of the 'HollyWood' sign. 

I like this effect but it was quite tiring after a while making sure you had to make that each strip was the same length and width, making sure you interlinked each strip together.

Amy Friend

Amy Friend is another artist that uses pin dots through a photo that you then hold the photo image up to the light so a different shade of light will shine through each individual dot. 
This is the image I chose, this is because of the different effect of the outline of the dots that the bodies created. I really like the effect the different sizes dots create, as it is unusual. 

William Hatch Crosby

William Hatch Crosby work is another artist we were asked to be inspired by. He uses an image and different coloured paint to create a pattern on the face. Here is my adaptation to his work. >>

I used a black and white image of myself and added large red dots to my hair and added smaller green dots to the facial features. I think by adding the green dots to the facial features it seems more striking and look more noticeable. Also the red dots in the hair   makes the whole image look colourful.

Photo Collage

For the first part of our summer work we were asked to create a collage using different materials and photos inspired by Quentin Jones and Michelle Thompson. The work consist of different images all put together layered on one another to create an unusual effect. 

I took parts of each artist images and created my own. 

This is my final out come of the photo collage. I firstly painted on the background which was the blue and green. Then added a mixture of red, orange and yellow to make the sun. I thought it would be a good idea to swirl the three colours together to make a unique shape for the sun.
Next i looked in a magazine to find a few pictures that could be quite useful to together. I found 4 pictures that could work quite well together, they were a orange car, a little girl and two adults. The reason why i thought they could work well together because it may look like a family outing. I added black water colour paint on top as i thought it could add a different effect, that looks like the 'family' are drifting apart.

I like the use of making collages because you can be very creative and imaginative, as if you make a mistake it doesnt really matter.  

CHECKLIST

AS - A2 Project

1. Contextual Studies 
2. Out of Focus Exhibition
3. Digital Photos

 Experimentation Work 

1. Typography Image
2. Markus Kisson
3. Lin Osbourne
4. Jan Von Holleben
5. Norm Magunusson
6. Geraldine Georges
7. Jamie Beck
8. Abigail Reynolds

Abigail Reynolds

Abigail Reynolds is an artist that experiments with cutting up and folding photos using old images with new ones, also with colours that complement with each other.

I chose these two images of Marilyn Monroe. One as a normal natural photo and the other image as pop up style image by famous artist Andy Warhol. I wanted to make both of this photos work well together by having a simple image contrasting with a very bright and bold image. You can tell that they are the same person because of her distinguishing looks that are recognised across the world because of her bleach blonde hair and her red lips.




Here is my final outcome of Reynolds work. I used pink sugar paper to link with the pink in the pop image of Monroe. You can mainly see the pop-art image the most but as you look close enough you can see  the more natural image of her underneath showing through. 

All in all this experiment was quite simple to complete but still is effective when you look at it.   

Jamie Beck - Animated GIF

As apart of more experimentation work for our AS to A2 project, we had to make an animation of something really complicated or something really simple. Jamie Beck was out inpiration. He is a well know photographer and creates excellent animation images. Here are some of his work... 

As apart of more experimentation work for our AS to A2 project, we had to make an animation of something really complicated or something really simple. 

The first idea I had was just to make a text animation. The word I choose to make a GIF out of was the word HELLO and then an added smiling face.  I found this animation quite easy to making this GIF. The reason was because it I just had to create a text box and make a new layer every time that I wanted to make a new letter. I choose to make the letters go in a diagonal direction. Also when I creating the text, I made the letters slight bigger than the one before, so it looked like the word was increasing. This animation I was quite happy with because it is very simple. 

For the next GIF I was planning to make, I decided to shoot some photos of my Dad drinking a cup of tea. I tried to make the photos seem like they were in one fluid motion, where I was actually taking the photos by stoping, then starting again. The reason why I decided to take photos of this particular image was because I wanted to make something so simple but it still looks very effective.

Making the animation was quite tricking trying to operate the photos to work with the photoshop application. After a while of trying to figure out how to work it out, I uploaded the eight photographs into the programme and adjusted the brightness and contrast to each of the image. 

Once I had all the images in order of what they should be, I then added a time frame in which that particular photo would play for. After playing around with the time frames, I finally decided that each frame would be 0.1 second. This gave you the chance to see the photo move from one to the other. Once I was happy with the timing and that the photos were in the right order. I saved the file as a GIF, this meant that when it was uploaded to the web it could then play automatically for ages upon end. 

I like the animated GIF idea because it is your own imagination, thinking about where to place photos and how you would display them. At first I found it quite tricky to complete, but after having a few trail and errors in the process, it did become easier to complete. And I think that the jerking movements of the photos all together give the animated image another dimension that is quite 'handmade'  and unique. 

Geraldine Georges

As apart of more experimentation work we were supposed to look at Geraldine Georges images and work and re-create it in some way or another. Here is some of her work. I like her work because it is quite imaginative and shows a lot of emotion through the paint and photos she uses. 

 After looking at her work we then had to make a hand made version. We were put in groups and then had to decide where to place things, which paints to use and paper. This is the final outcome. We used a Big Ben cut out, with black and pink ink. Also we used black paint and a black circle. I like this handmade style of work because you can put your own stamp on it and even if you made a mistake you could easily recover and make it into something else.

Once we had created a hand made Georges inspired piece we then had to make our own one on photoshop. I used an image of London Bridge because I thought it would be quite interesting to see what could be created using a building. Here is the out come.

I like how in the photoshop image, you can define each brush that has been used and is slightly different. I also like the colours that i used because it contrast with Georges original images because they don't really have a lot of colour too them. All in all I like both techniques but I do prefer the hand made work, because it can be more inspirational as you can keep adding different things such as paint to it.