3D Composite

 

Composition: I tried making a graphic/type poster expressing the beauty of the ampersand using 3D techniques.

Method: I played with the 3D shapes in photoshop to create a semi transparent landscape in the background and then made an ampersand and placed a doodle into the graphic.

 

Motivations: Meet tomorrows deadline. If its not due tomorrow, it's not homework, right?

 

Context: Graphic composure in a newly discovered niche in photoshop. This is 100% an experiment for myself.

 

Interpretations: I am eager to hear from others.

Evaluation: The technique for the background is good but the foreground needs more development and could use work. All to together I think this is mediocre work.

 

Extension: The next time I use 3D in photoshop I will need a much better laid out idea going into it or else I will find myself spending a lot of pointless hours trying to make something that haven't got a clue what it should look like.

2D or 3D composite?

 

Composition: For this image I combined an image of a Squash room and layered a mash of text over top of it. I wanted the flow of text to fill the emptiness of the squash court. The freedom of the squash court gave me that feeling of "fear of emptiness" but still I think it isn't fear but rather a sense of potential.

Method: I shot the squash room with a 10mm lens. Then I sketched random words and thoughts/symbols onto a blank page and scanned them in. I deleted the negative space and reversed the color of some of the type. I put the type down in various areas and blurred some to give it a sense of depth.

 

Motivations: I'm still influenced by the paper I wrote in History of Graphic design on visual poetry and decided to sketch some of my own visual types.

 

Context: I wanted to play with the idea of 'fear of emptiness' and show how a space could be filled with something overly stimulating.

 

Interpretations: This could be interpreted literally or as abstract. I am open for either.

Evaluation: For once I enjoyed making this image and liked the idea. I think it does have room to improve because it is too busy right now.

 

Extension: I will be trying more of this in the future...

2D Composite

 

Composition: For this project I placed celebrity/iconic people over various friends pictures from parties I have hosted.

Method: Photoshop... various tools in photoshop to mesh the faces on top of each individual.

 

Motivations: I saw a blog where someone else I had done this and I really liked it and wanted to try it for myself.

 

Context: "The ultimate party" Just trying to make it look like I have awesome guest at my parties. Ha.. its not true.

 

Interpretations: If someone could come up with some insightful deep meaning to these images I would be very impressed. Simply put I wanted to make it look like I had some BA parties.

Evaluation: My technique isn't very good and needs a lot of improvement but these 4 images are the most believable.

 

Extension:I like this concept and will make more when I am better skilled with photoshop.

Prompts 9-11

9. I can't think of many sculptures that I know off the top of my head but one that stands out to me is the structure the stands in the Snyder Phillips courtyard. This stands out to me because I worked at the cafeteria over the summer and nobody that i worked with understood what it was (and neither did I). We agreed that it was an abstract piece but most people wanted it taken down because it was in the way of the outside hangout area. I honestly don't know how i would 3D model it photoshop. I think I would layer it on top or behind various other abstract structures and modern buildings with various colored light trails that weave in and out of the layers. Definitely wouldn't want to shape it into a hat...

10. Impossible scenario? This is probably one of the best questions to ask an artist. Think outside the limits of reality. I immediately think of the movie Inception and the fight scene that takes place between Joseph Gordon-Levitt and the 'projections'. But thinking originally I picture flowers that float in midair and then explode like a firework when pollinated. I really hope no one is reading this... Alright round 2: i picture lightning exploding from the ground in the shape of trees that grow from birth to death in matter seconds like electricity growing into the sky. (Now I have Tron imprinted in my head).

11. Fish scales instead of shingles, street lights hanging from tree branches, combinations of musical instruments like a turntable guitar.

Projections

Composition: I wanted to see how typography, graphic design and photography could all be blended together. I wanted the movement of each photo inside these images to bounce the eye continuously as though it is scanning for something it cannot find.

Method: I projected a number of typographic posters onto a person (Carly) and photographed how they interacted with the projections. I stitched the images together in photoshop to create pictographic representation of typography images.

 

Motivations: Over the past week I have been struggling to to write a paper on visual poetry and how it impacted graphic design. I thought the typographic images would make for an interesting projection.

 

Context: Although photography is all I have been trying to focus on for this class it seems as though graphic design qualities are slowly emerging throughout my work. They seem to go hand in hand and I wanted to explore this thought.

 

Interpretations: I'm eager to hear what you have to say.

Evaluation: Projection photography is something that is very open and I believe that all experiments in this field are successful.

 

Extension: This was a fun series to shoot and I think I'll do more in the future. (Near future that is).

Prompt 5-8

#5. Think of various cultural, religions, political, personal, scientific associations and symbols of “light” and “darkness”. Discuss some that come to mind. http://www.umich.edu/~umfandsf/symbolismproject/symbolism.html/

 

Good v. Bad, Night v. Day. Light has always had a positive attribute associated with it while dark has had the opposite, negative. People can see in light but not in darkness so light gives a sense of comfort. Darkness puts people in an on guard feeling, heightened senses. As photographers we understand this need to control light as well as confront darkness to get there.

#6 Think of some experiences that you have had in which you felt a sense of “lightness”. Describe one or some of these experiences.

 

Other then turning on the lights in the darkroom? Ha Waking up at noon on the weekends. Last memory would be the darkness in  my room as I lay down to sleep then wake up to blinding  rays of sunlight. 

#7. Think of some experiences that you have had in which you felt a sense of “darkness”. Describe one or some of these experiences.

 

Take #6 and reverse it.

#8 From the reading on light and shadow, pick an artist/photographer whose work inspires you. Describe why you like her/his work.

 

Adam Fuss was the photographer who made the photogram of the rabbit. What I liked the best was how the acids from the intestines of the rabbit burned colors into photo. 

Prompts 1-4

1. Think of various ways in which your “view” or visual perception of the world is altered, distorted, manipulated, reframed, blurred, disrupted, obstructed, etc

One way our view is distorted that i live with is when you were colored sunglasses and then take them off and everything looks tinted. Snowboard goggles are prime for this.. Also if you stare at a light too long the image that burns in your retina lingers for a little bit. I suppose that is a way in which our visual perception is altered.

2. What objects “change” the way you “see” things in the world?

Like I said above sunglasses and lenses that cover your eyes change the way you see the world. The news, television, internet, etc change the way you see things. I suppose it is more of an understanding viewpoint instead of a direct observation.

3. What experiences change the way you “see” things in the world?

Ever since I was little I used to be so excited for when my family got a xmas tree. Not because of xmas day but because I loved to stare at the tree. So full of colors, neat little ornaments hanging off of it. But most of all I loved to blur my vision and view the boca effect. I thought I was the only one in the world that could do that. Then when I found out i could hang xmas lights all year round, my life changed again..

4. What is the relationship between the way you visually “see” the world and the way you “experience” the world?

Experiences are defined by the senses. Sight helps decode what is being experienced but also is not necessary for an experience to be understood. I'd also argue that seeing is more of a 2 dimensional phenomena while experience adds the 3 dimensional effect.

HDR

Composition: To begin framing these images I wanted to expose what looked most hectic and what could show the little details that are apart of the messier side of our households. (Mind staying away from the bathroom because that could of been too relieving).

Method: I shoot at a focal length of 10mm to try and capture as much in the frame as possible. The more that fit in the frame led to more detail in the HDR process. I shot between 5 to 9 exposures for each image then messed with the settings manually in photoshop rather then using the pre-settings.

 

Motivations: The HDR shots that I have seen all show a lot of detail in a busy scene and I wanted to mimic that and decided to shoot around my messy house. Also I didn't want to venture to wickedly cold outdoors.

 

Context:I want these images to give an overwhelming sense and a kind of subtle grime.

 

Interpretations:It could be interpreted in a number of ways and I am eager to hear.

Evaluation: These images have their good and bad qualities and could use a good critiquing.

Extension: HDR has its positive qualities and is definitly easier to do then I had once originally thought. This is something I will probably use in the future to definitly help properly expose an image. 

Digital Pinhole

Text Pinhole

Regular Pinhole

Shape Pinhole

Composition: I wanted to play around with what would happen if one was to make multiple pinholes and different shaped pinholes as well.

Concept/Idea: I kind of wanted to see if I could produce shots that were more graphic oriented (kind of like the scans) and less like photos. I was really interested in what text could like look through the technique of a pinhole.

Method: I used an Xacto knife to cut out shapes and letters in black paper which i later taped over the body of my camera. I shot most of my photos at night with one or more small lights such as string lights.

Motivations: Curiosity is what mostly encouraged me to try different pinhole procedures.

Context: I don't want there to be much context other than abstraction but mostly these were more of an experiment for me.

Interpretations: I'll leave that up to the viewer.

Evaluation: Hopefully positive

Extension: I don't think i want to continue with pinhole shots. I'm glad we tried it but it's not something I see myself pursuing.

Scannography

Composition: For this project I played around with random objects I have lying round my room. How could I create interesting designs with objects that have little to no relation to each other. 

Concept/Idea: I've been following a blog that emphasizes objects being arranged neatly and I thought I would try that approach in three of these images. The picture of the shirt was more of an experiment to see what would happen if I tried to capture motion with a scanner.

Method: To create these images I would try hard to place the items on the scanner without moving them and using the preview to help modify which areas of the image needed to be tweaked. I used a pencil to try and outline the image of the fox and to help move individual bottle caps to the places they needed to be.

Motivations: I wanted to make minimal but developed pieces that could come off as more of a graphic design then a photograph. 

Context: I find that these images could be made for a poster or for an ad depending on the item being advertised. They are more of a way to push and item and to promote certain labels.

Interpretations: Interpretations are to be literal and simple. Subjective interpretations are welcome as well.

Evaluation: A+ 

Extension: I think I would like to create more still lives that are neatly arranged. The scanner makes a good tool to do this because items are easily moved but at the same time objects need to stay relatively small.

Reading Evaluation

Gestalt theory suggests that people perceive the elements within a frame as grouped objects instead of individual.

Tom Grill and Mark Scanlon suggest that a “weak frame” consists of two disjointed elements. For instance a person standing in front of a tree would be considered weak because the tree would appear to be growing out of the persons head. They played with the objects in a photo to make a photo seem solid or broken in composition.

John Baldessari played with acceptable compositions noting where objects were placed especially playing with what was in the foreground and what was in the background.

Garry Winogrand explored the aspect of tilting the camera and not using the horizontal edge as the point of reference. Tilting can create better viewpoints and interesting compositions.