Digital Media

Photoshop is used for multiple forms of media, including magazine covers, CD's, newspapers and various other types of advertisement. By using Photoshop it enhances the photograph in itself and makes the photographs much more appealing, it also does things which cannot be achieved in a photograph alone as it is sometimes surreal which can improve peoples opinion of a certain product and increase their want to buy it. Magazines use Photoshop to improve the quality of their photographs and also make them completely different to similar magazines. These are two very similar magazines but they have completely different covers, the VOGUE has been highly edited whereas cosmopolitan is much more natural and plain.

                                       

Photography Research

Matt Wisniewski



Matt Wisniewski creates digital collages by mixing fashion/portraiture with nature. He uses a portrait photograph and overlays them with natural photographs. Most of them photographs are not taken by him, he uses photoshop because he believes it is more forgiving and easier for him to undo any mistakes he might make.                                                        

Liverpool Trip

The Tate

György Kepes photographs are created without a camera and he uses arrangements of organic and inorganic materials.They usually result in incongruent, abstract juxtapositions of the natural and scientific worlds. He creates his images in a darkroom by picking objects and exposing them on light sensitive paper. This type of work can be linked to the project we are currently doing as it is using old and new techniques. 







Open Eye Gallery                       

Metamorphosis of Japan after the war. This photograph is of a Japanese man completing management training, taken in 1961. The exhibition shows Japan after the war, showing the dramatic change before and after and resulting in Japan heading towards great economic power.





Walker Art Gallery

Only in England is a series of photographs by Martin Parr and Tony Ray Jones, taken around England and on many different beaches in places like Blackpool. The collection includes over 100 photographs which show a different side of England.

Experimental Shoots

These are some of my experimental photographs and I took these in color as I have taken black and white photographs and also turned my black and white photographs into negatives just to see the differences and how they all look. I think these photographs are quite interesting and abstract, especially the ones taken in the reflection on the window because you can see the trees and buildings outside and the reflection seems a bit odd to be there and slightly abstract.

These are the photographs that I took in black and white to experiment with and then turned them into negatives. Personally I don't really like this effect, I think the one with the graffiti looks best as it's quite odd looking but it works well as the photograph itself is quite strange so adding the negative adds to the mysterious look.

I don't like the other two photographs that have been turned negative because it just looks odd and unnecessary.

Project Plan

For this project, I have decided to make a diptych, the inspiration for my final piece was a series of work that Jennifer Loeber did. A diptych consists of two photographs next to each other that can be interpreted in their own way, usually they will be linked in some way to tell a story. Jennifer Loeber made a series of photographs called 'Left Behind' after her mother died and found old photographs of her mother and decided as a way to deal with her grief and mourning, she would make something to celebrate her mother's life rather than mourn it and so that's how Left Behind was made. She used the old photographs and then took photographs of objects that related to the chosen old photograph. I think this is a really good idea and I think it could work well as a final idea, which is why I have chosen it for my final piece. I am going to be using a photograph of my grandma and granddad who have both passed away and the item linked to this photograph is my grandma's locket which she always wore and the locket also has a photograph of my granddad inside.

I have had a few other ideas, such as a double exposure or using an old photograph and projecting it onto me how I look now, as that can be seen as old and new but I really liked the idea of a diptych as it can be more personal to me and I think they can work really well. I was looking at Matt Wisniewski's work as my idea for a double exposure because I liked his work and it could show old and new as he uses portraits and
 then uses another photo of nature, such as the ocean, trees, clouds. Wisniewski creates digital collages  and blends fashion and nature together, he does this to try and create surreal images.

 These are some examples of the sort of thing I would have tried to recreate as I think they show old and new quite nicely as it's a portrait of someone that is obviously quite modern and then of natural elements which are old.

Installation

Installation art is 3D designed to transform the perception of space. Installations can be permanent or temporary and can be constructed in museums and galleries or public and private spaces.

I really like these images and I think they're very creative and there's loads of different things you could make.

Photoshop Techniques

Crumpled Paper
For this effect you need a white background, a second layer and a photo of some crumpled paper. You need to change the photo to sepia and then you need to change the blending mode and the opacity.

Cyanotype
To create a cyanotype effect you need to open your photo in photoshop then select image > adjustments > hue saturation > cyanotype.

Photo in Text
Open the photo you want to put into your text, duplicate the layer and then add a blank layer between the two you have already got, fill this layer with white. Select layer 1 then you add your text after pressing the text button, once that's done, you need to drag the text below layer 1, then you need to create a clipping mask.

Black and white film grain

Black and White

Black and White
I went around the college grounds looking for things to photograph to represent old and new. I took a photograph of some trees to show old but included the lights and took a photograph of the graffiti on the old buildings. I like the first photograph on the second row down and I think it shows old a new, with the trees and people. Some of the images are a bit under exposed or over so I had to mess about with my camera settings but I got a few good photographs and I think they show the idea of old and new quite well.

Evaluation

This photograph was taken in New York and shows the Statue of Liberty. I didn't plan on taking this specific photograph but when I looked back at the photographs I took I was really happy with the outcome, however I could have improved the composition, rather than cropping out the bottom half of the stand. I think the exposure is correct, the photograph is neither too dark nor too bright and I like how the sky looks as the background. The photograph is at a slight jaunty angle but I think it works well, I also like the composition because all your attention is focused on the Statue itself.