Film Noir

I've found a theme where I can look at movement in a really different perspective.

I really liked the thought of horror and conveying movement through that as I had searched pictures on Instagram of movement. The pictures were capturing a girl in mid air falling onto a bed, the movement of a girls face/hair all in black and white very dynamic. By having the theme horror is too open and could easily get off track. So I found Noir and loved the thought of capturing movement through smoke, shadows. It really will challenge my ways and photograph techniques as lighting is KEY in these pictures.

I will start off with capturing smoke from a kettle or a cigarette, looking at light through windows, shadows, building up my experimentation for my final piece.

Film Noir

Comparission of artists

Henri Cartier Bresson looks at the decisive moment. He captures all types of emotion and documentation within people, joy, sadness, laughter etc. His images have a sort of comedy feel to them but I feel he looks at natural day to day life movement which is really interesting to look at because it conveys so many meanings. The black and white effect also makes the photo seem very basic, not much editing, it reinforces his theme of "the moment"

Whereas Alexey Titarenko has a completely different feel with his images. They come across as lost, sadness, confusion, deprived and this is because of the use of his shutter speed within movement. It makes the people look like ghosts as he uses a longer shutter and the colouring of the photo is extremely dull as his photos are black and white but browns also. The photos I believe were taken with film so they have a grainy blurry effect to them where as Bresson photos are sharp and clear, they tell a story. These images I don't know what story they tell, maybe the loneliness of a person, the loss of a place.

Teabag transfer

 

The transfer of this is to cut the tea bag, throw away the tea and print out a photo and cut it so it fits the tea bag. Put wax over the top of the picture through the tea bag. Put the tea bag between a newspaper and iron over it, the wax will melt the image into the tea bag.

 

If using enough wax and heat it will work really well. Preferably the photos work when brighter as more sharp and clear. Personally it's not for me as they are quite small and you can't see into much detail especially with my type of photography it wouldn't show it to the best of my advantage.

More emulsions

Some of these images worked better than others. This time I looked at using bigger images and brighter images. It did work particularly on the first image and second as they are brighter than the others. I really like how it came out but at the same time I tried to get rid of most of the emulsion so it came out really clear but I ended up taking off some of the paper which made it unsuccesful.

But I realised I did prefer using this transfer again when using bigger images and brighter images as they do come out more successfully.

Crackle glaze

 

I really enjoyed this trasnfer, I got some great textures. I did wonder if I had put too much of one colour on but I just let it dry and see  how well it worked. I used some different textures such as second and third image to see if it would come out any different in my images. The blue paint came out lovely it was really sharp and eye catching which I knew when layering into Photoshop with my photos would work really well. The texture of it would also be a bonus as it creates a bumpy effect which I love.

 

Some of my crackle glazes I didn't blend in very well such as my last image (brown and yellow) but I think I preffered it as it came out more effective because I know when I edit my photos it will create a really contrasting effect.

 

These are my images and edits I have done using crackle glaze:

 

 

I'm really happy with how this went, I was quite optimistic but I love how brilliant it came out! Some images work better than other such as choice of colour, choice of picture, style, layout etc. But I believe my favourite images are the blue ones with the different  texture. I am really glad I did this as the texture and colour really came from. It makes a great effect espeically with my last image, it makes the photo seem even more mysterious and anonymous. The colour and texture really compliments the black background and person as it makes it seem even more scary.

 

I also really like the image of the sky, I could probably make this even better by just using the crackle glaze on the sky and not over the whole picture as it does make some parts of the image quite dark e.g. houses, trees. It makes the sky look really effective and I didn't change the opacity that much as I wanted it too be quite strong so you could see a different but not see what it is. The texture makes lovely ripple effects like clouds or rain and gives the weather a different style, as it looks more like a piece of art with the paint than a photograph.

Crackle glaze

Designed to produce consistent cracking of emulsion paint. This acrylic medium creates dramatic two colour aged effects. The crackle glaze is applied over an emulsion base coat which will be the colour of the cracks. An emulsion top coat in the chosen colour is then applied over the glaze. The top coat cracks to reveal the base coat.

When it's dried it then is scanned into the computer and is now able to be used as a background layer in Photoshop. You can use these transfers to put on top of another image (a layer) then change the opacitiy so it makes a background. E.g can be used a background for a sky, a house, a studio background, a person etc.

Some images I found on the internet of what it can be like:

Mark Hancox

 

 

 

 

These are my best images of my Hancox shoot looking at birds and Bristol. I was really pleased with how well the shoot went as the weather was brilliant because it had a mixture of sun but also clouds and greys etc. As I was inspired by Hancox I looked at different exposures for example my 5th image is a bit under exposed and dark. I was really pleased with how well the images went with the sky as I had the exposure and ISO on the right setting to create a mood for my images.

Particularly my third image I really liked how well I got this shot with the movement of the bird, the exposure of the sky and the angle I took it at to get the building in. It makes the image seem really compelling with the mixture of all the elements. My first image I really like as well as I got the motion flying towards me really well, the photo seems really energetic and I captured the clouds which makes the photograph seem really powerful. The only problem I have with this photo is the exposure of the house and trees, it is a bit darker around there and could be more brighter. This would be done by taking multiple images of the same location with different exposures and using Photoshop to edit them. My second image I used my tripod to capture this image and i'm glad I did as it worked well, I was waiting for a while to move but the shutter speed captured it at the right time of it just flying off and I really like how it is a white seagull which contrasts against the background being quite dark.

My other images were more experimentation into shutter speed and experimenation.

Mixed Media Ideas

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI_KtBccdds

 

Bristol Harbour

I am currently planning on what to do for my next couple of shoots with experimenting, so I decided to instead of looking at people, try animals such as birds.

 

This week I will be going to Bristol Harbous/Docks as there are always so many birds around there I could capture them flying off or in the air. I would experiment with the different types of shutter speed such as either a 80th of a second and capture them in focus really sharp of try out maybe two seconds and capture them as their flying.

 

*not my own images*

Henri Cartier Bresson 1

I was talking to my teacher about movement with people but I wanted something more creative with great composition.  I came across Henri Bresson the artist which looked at black and white photography but used creative ideas such as high angle or low angle. I had never experimented much with angles when looking at movement so I wanted to make sure I portrayed this through this shoot.

With this shoot I looked at different angles and I used it to the best of my advantage as I was using stairs which created a really good dynamic effect of people going up the stairs and downstairs. The movement of these people looked like ghosts especially some of the people looked like floating heads. I had to lean my camera on the stairs banister as I didn't have a tripod with me and I wanted to get as close to the people as I could so it felt more applicable and easier to use the banister.

Some of these images I kept in colour and some I edited to black and white. I really liked the colour ones as I got the different types of people who were wearing different colours and makes it look like a colour pallette of different paints.

Alexey Titarenko 2

As I really liked the style of Alexey Titarenko, this is one of my first shoots I did with movement. I looked at using someone being still then connecting it to a moving object, i.e. a car and a person. It was experimentation with movement and the effect it could have. I had to use a tripod to do this or lean it on a object so the photo was sharp and didn't capture any bluriness. I controlled my shutter on my camera to do this and I also looked at aperture. Some of my photos which are in my contact sheet in my sketh book are really over exposed which shows I looked at getting the right white balance.

With this shoot I used Photoshop to layer on the different images, change the opacity and to experiment with different types of movement and create a composition. This shoot was more experimental based to see where I wanted to take this exam and how I can develop further.

Studio

I wanted to experiment with studio lighting and movement as I always focus on natural lighting such as day light, street lamps etc as I usually like that effect.

So again this was experimentation, I think it was okay. It seemed a bit dark, I think this may be because of the light from the studio clashing with the natural lighting from the window.

I did like the dark effect it had on the person to make them look mysterious and anonymous.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson is a french photographer who loves the modern look of photo journalism. His photos were always focussing on street photography and life reportage. Very natural photos which i think people can relate too. Cartier-Bresson matured artistically in this stormy cultural and political environment. He was aware of the concepts and theories mentioned, but could not find a way of expressing this imaginatively in his paintings.is a

I really like this photo by Bresson, it's such a different styled photo as there is so much compoisition going on. The way he's looking down the stairs creates a lonely, old effect. The shutter would of been around 1 second, a very quick shutter. I love the black and white effect with the different contrasts of black and white as it seems quite dynamic.

I am going to improve my shoots by using this artist as inspiration such as taking a photo during school looking down the stair case, as I really like the speed of movement and using stairs will make it look busy with the different types of feet and people moving.


His images I feel tell a story as there very documentry like such as with this picture the lines which are shadows could be a sense of prisionment or being trapped - poverty. The culture of the people in this photo, eating bread it looks like quite a poor area. The photo would of been taken on a tripod to capture the shadows and would have been taken possibly 3/4pm (afternoon). I like the way this photo has been taken as it's very natural but it has hidden meanings.

Experiments into movement

 

 

I didn't know what type of movement I was interested in when beginning the exam. I looked at many photos on Instagram and the internet for help and inspiration. This shoot was purely a experiment into movement and the different types of shutter, colour - what I could develop from. It could develop into Titarenkos style of ghostly features, people etc. But I think this style is more fine art from the type of mood it comes across. My first and second images are more fine art and ghostly as the disappearance of a head or foot which I really liked.

 

Improving from this I wouldn't have to go into the fine art, pretty based area I can see from these images I like the movement of body features which are ghostly type.

Alexey Titarenko Modern...

 

This was a shoot I done with using the inspiration from Alexey Titarenko. As before I looked at black and white and old buildings which were desserted and left lonely, I went the complete opposite end of doing a shoot in Cabot Circus Bristol where it is modern buildings and shops and also loads of people. It wasn't exactly a planned perfect shoot but it was some good experimentation to go the complete opposite end and try out different shutter speeds. I really liked the lighting used from the shop windows and the peoplem, how fast their movement is.

I think my angle is a really good one too as it was high up to catch people. The same sort of style as Mark Tull.

 

 

 

This was a play around with photoshop layering a clock over the image. I think it has good intentions as the clock shows passing of time and the movement from the people show this as it is such a busy picture.

Alexey Titarenko 1

Over exposed sunlight 

Over exposed sunlight 

Over exposed sunlight

Under exposed

Photoshop edit of the over exposed image

 

Dodge and burn...

 

 

The shoot went okay, I think it could improve with going back when it's a different day as the weather really affects the mood of these pictures. It was a extremely bright/bleak day that the sky was very boring. I can create the sky by using Photoshop and layering but again it would have to be on a day where the sky was interesting.

 

Positives I can take out of this shoot was even though the sky was boring and miserable it added the effect I was inspired by as it made it seem dark and dull. It also has quite a good effect on the people/movement.

 

My ISO was on 100 as it was a bright day as when i went to 800 it went dark and not very clear. My shutter speed ranges from a 60th of a second, 2 seconds, 4 seconds. I found the longer I left the shutter the people eventually became invisible so around one second was great. If I wanted people still I would of used a 60th/80th of a second.