Don Don DON!

Original

Edited

Tools used:
- opacity bar
- Refine Edge
- Eraser Tool
- Gaussian Blur
- Duplicate layer ( ctrl + J)
- Group layers ( ctrl + G)
- Merge layer
- Paint bucket (G)
- Free transform
- Free transform (warp)

Birds and bricks - Spot/Patch healing

Bird healing

Original

After

Brick Healing

Original

After

Tools Used:

- Patch Healing (J)
- Spot Healing (J)
- Undo (ctrl + Z)

Dramatic Broken Glass - Photoshop

Original

After

Tools Used:

- Free Form (ctr + T)
- Eraser (E)
- Blending Option (Screen)
- Gaussian blur (Filter section)
- Duplicate Layer (ctr + J)

Photoshop Quick Tools

Original

Photoshopped

Quick Tools:

- Free Transform (ctrl + T)

- Polygon lasso (L)

- Lasso (L)

- Quick Mask (Q)

- Eraser (E)

- Brush (B)

- Opacity Bar

- Refine Edge (Alt + Ctrl + R)

- Pen Tool (P)

- Feather (Shift + F6)

- Cut (Ctrl + X)

- Duplicate Selection (Ctrl + J)

Portraiture - Level 3 Photography

Portraiture

In your posts you will need to discuss the journey that Portraiture has taken over its history. For example the movement from Rich and Powerful people having expensive portraits made for them to the works of Portraiture photographers depicting the inner conflicts and catching their subjects in moments when they are least prepared.

Arnold Schwarzeneger, candidate for Governor of California, New York, June 23 2003

Richard Avedon has many weird and wonderful portraits of celebrities. However he seems to  wonder into the weird and abnormal side of photography, to portray a different meaning to the picture and the character in the photo. Portraiture is used for many things, including the very famous bank note, or a celebrity family to the galleries where they are criticized for their moral values and in depth meaning from the photograph.

Techniques

Lighting: Lighting is one of the most important techniques used when doing any form of photography, but mostly in portraiture it is used to show a deep meaning to the character and bring out hidden expressions, for example the Arnold Photograph shows heavy lighting from the right side however on the left side it starts to darken, this could mean he has a darker and secretive side to him which is hidden behind a fake reality of which we see him as.

Studio Set-up: This can be very important when taking a  portraiture as if you are trying to portray sadness or show the character to be hiding something they may use a soft box to bring out shadows on the facial expressions.

Catching the model unaware is an overused technique for many photographers. This is a very clever way to catch a photograph that has meaning without actually meaning to. The model when aware will try to show a specific side to them, a fake side which they feel they would be accepted within society however when caught unaware it brings out their true expression and portrays the real them and not a fake persona.

The paper canvas can be a difficult choice when it comes to printing the final image, using a landscape orientation when capturing more than one person in a portrait can come helpful as it gives you a wider range, however using a portrait orientation gives the sense of loneliness in a way. Photographers go to that much detail that even the page layout can have an inner meaning to it.

Fashion Photography - Week 6

Week 6: Fashion Photography - 3rd Post Questions

·         When is an image a Portrait? When is it a fashion photograph? Are the two the same?

The differences between a portrait and a fashion photograph can be quite easy to identify, the use of a model, lighting setup and a specific settings, of which both forms of photography use however they are far from being similar.

It is a portrait when you are purposefully aiming to bring expression out of the model. Concentrating on the person and not the objects it is wearing. A portrait can be a painting, drawing, photograph, or engraving of a person, especially when only taking a shot from the shoulders and above. This is mainly used to bring out an emotion or portray a certain persona of a figure.

Fashion photography focuses on current trends and creates a lifestyle through clothing. They are trying to sell a product to you, and convince you into buying it. Portraiture doesn't specifically sell anything through the photography but only makes you think about the true meaning of the photo. Fashion photography is a marketing technique. If fashion photography was to be defined: “Fashion photography is a genre of photography devoted to displaying clothing and other fashion items.” Over time, fashion photography has developed its own aesthetic in which the clothes and fashions are enhanced by the use of exotic locations and accessories.

·         To what degree should an image be manipulated to go into a fashion magazine?

Magazines come very close to being illegal when it comes to photo manipulation, the reason is because they change the way the person looks so much and that it misleads the audience, for example in some spot cream adverts they actually Photoshop the models face as the cream may not work 100% which is very misleading if they say it gets rid of 100% of the spots on your face. This is why they are very careful when manipulating their advert photographs, because it can cause a lot of controversy and anger from the public if found out to be lying and making up that their product actually works. The degree of what the photo should be manipulated is to the extent of changing the shape of the model however not tampering with the product.

This also causes a false sense of appearance, and makes teenagers especially think they HAVE to look like this to be “perfect” or “beautiful” however if it was to be analysed, the truth is that it can look very fake and gives a role model body that can be impossible to achieve.

Photojournalism - War Photography

• Describe the different circumstances that these photographers experienced as Photojournalists in WW2 

Robert Capa and Tony Viccaro had quite a hard job as photojournalists back in world war 2 because of the danger of being shot or injured during mid battle. They risked their lives for photography and in one of the photos Tony almost died when approached by a tank "it was photography instead of life", and risked his life just for a photograph, which in time became one of the most iconic photo image of world war 2.

Photojournalism became and way of life for Tony and Robert, although Robert was given more expensive equipment to get the images, Tony had to work with what he got given and even produced the film through soldiers helmets.

Robert Capa and Tony Viccaro had quite the opposite job roles, as Capa worked for 'Life' magazine and Viccaro was actually a soldier at the time. The fact that they both worked in very different jobs this changed the picture style, and what was going on in the picture, as Viccaro was a soldier he could get close up shots of what was actually happening in the war, they were a lot more graphical and more decisive as the event is actually unfolding around him, however Capa would mainly get shots of the aftermath of the battle, this changed the way the war was portrayed, as Capa was taking photos which told a different story compared to what Viccaro was capturing...

The editor of Life magazine described Capa as a "good journalist" not photographer, because he felt that Capa did well to take photographs to portray a story that may or may not be reliable however it told a story for the audience of the magazine and was only used to back up the article surrounding the picture. Capa did well to create a story within the photo where the audience could imagine their own story and have there own opinion of the event.

• Examples of Robert Capa/Tony Viccaro's photography work.

Vietnam
Nguyen Ngoc Loan, South Vietnam's national police chief, executed a prisoner who was said to be a Viet Cong captain. AP photographer Eddie Adams won a Pulitzer Prize for this picture. This image is so powerful, and is what we would call a decisive moment at its finest, the fact that if the image was taken 2 seconds before or after it would not have the same impact as it did. The use of this image was to shock, as american's had no idea these type of events were going on, and that they were blindly supporting it. This image was used to shock and bring reality to what was going on in the world and the disaster that was unfolding.

Henri Cartier Bresson - The Decisive Moment

"The art or practice of communicating news by photographs" This is the definition for Photojournalism, it means to take pictures of specific events when it is in the decisive moment to give a story behind it and describe what is going on in the photograph.


Henri Cartier Bresson was very well known as he was one of the first photographers to take decisive moment shots to be used in journalism, his decisive moment shots (In the moment shot) were so incredible he'd been given the title of "The godfather of photojournalism".

The use of 'in the moment' shots was significant to journalism and very useful as it could tell many stories through a single photo, which opened peoples eyes to many possibilities of which the event could all be about.
Leica AG was developed in Germany 1925 it was a 35mm lens giving the chance to have high quality zoomed pictures. Leica has had a profound influence on our view of the world we live in and Bresson used this to his advantage when taking decisive moments.

Henri Bresson used the decisive moment technique, this technique is largely used now a days however not when he was alive. The use of this technique was to bring an image alive, to show the perspective of a still image and form many visual ideas of what the photo could mean. This was also used for people who were not as literate as others as they can look at the picture and discover hundreds of possibilities of what the photo could signify.

I find this a brilliant technique to use and I am fascinated with the stories and visual ideas that can come from a single image, although this is a brilliant way to get an image it can be very time consuming as waiting for that 'decisive moment' could come at any moment, having the knowledge and concentration when taking the picture is key to getting a 'perfect' photograph.

My Camera - Canon 60D

The camera i use is the "Canon 60D" with a standard lens. The type of photography i enjoy taking is landscape shots and abstract portraits such as setting long shutter speeds and messing about wiht movements and lights to create an abstract image around the model.