9th March 2013
No pictures were required for this exercise; instead,I was asked to consider a list of concepts and make notes on how symbols could be used to illustrate them.
Growth
Seedlings breaking through in spring
Baby / Child – e.g baby food being fed to a happy, healthy child, baby being given a bottle by parents
Buildings under construction – e.g building site, new builds such as the Shard,
Baby, child, teenager, adult (evolution)
Several skyscrapers in the frame (aerial view)
Excess
Sweets – grabbing hands into sweets, shoving sweets into the mouth,
Fridge full of food with door not shutting
Table heaving under the weight of food with a few guests present
Several empty glasses on a table in front of a few drinkers
Throwing money in the air
Crime
Broken window – evidence of action
Vandalised street furniture
Chain being cut with bolt cutters
Someone outside their house upset (broken window in photograph)
Silence
Silhouette of person sitting down staring out to sea, across the fields
Person with their finger on the lips e.g in front of a group of children,
Empty church with few idols, person / people in prayer
Poverty
Begging bowls on the street with or without people,
Big Issue sellers standing outside shops in city centre
People sleeping rough in doorways or on a park bench
Collection of own brand food, food parcels
Showing posts with label 6. Part 5:Illustration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 6. Part 5:Illustration. Show all posts
Saturday, 9 March 2013
Rain
9th March 2013
For this exercise I was asked to produce a single, strong, attractive photograph for a magazine cover. The weather had been reasonably dry – rain occurring during the night or whilst I was at work. This narrowed my choice of subjects because it needed to be something I could add rain to. I had hoped to develop my photo with a red brolly completed recently in the exercise cloud and rain which needed rain. I considered children splashing in puddles, wet and muddy action shot of a mountain bike rider around trails full of puddles, lit building at night with the reflections on the pavement, and a lone person through an archway with a brolly.
Instead, I approached the exercise from a different viewpoint. Rain could be added to props such as wellies and brollies. My teenage daughter has a pair of gothic style wellies, and her friends like the prints which are in black, white and red. I decided to go with a magazine cover for wet weather footwear and accessories to appeal to teenagers, inspired by last year’s wet weather.
I placed a small brolly in a boot and looking at shapes. I took several pictures from different angles and decided the boots looked better if they were slightly apart because there was some apparent movement. I encountered a couple of problems such as exposure (solved with partial metering) and the background being different colours of brick. The red brolly reflected onto the reddish bricks so there was not much contrast. Focusing was difficult because either the brolly or the boot was in focus.
1/20 F5.6 ISO 400 88mm evaluative metering
I came back to it a couple of days later, with a different, larger brolly. By putting the stem through the two boots, I created stronger diagonal lines and more space for writing. I originally looked at creating a grunge style by mixing the colours and black and white together. I considered moving the brolly to a different background but did not want flowers or grass, so decided to keep the urban background.
I converted the picture in photoshop to black and white (antique portrait) and erased the black and white to reveal the red underneath.
Final version
1/45 F4 ISO400 focal length 32mm partial metering
As a magazine cover
I chose spring colours to lift the magazine and make it eye-catching if it was sitting on a shelf in a shop and titles of magazine articles to add interest. I repositioned them and changed the colours several times.
I was pleased with the final effect and thought it was worth turning it into a magazine cover to see the finished effect and whether it would work. In hindsight more “rain” would be better. I tried to avoid pooling of water droplets to keep the photo as real as possible. I later discovered the brolly was a quick drying brolly!
For this exercise I was asked to produce a single, strong, attractive photograph for a magazine cover. The weather had been reasonably dry – rain occurring during the night or whilst I was at work. This narrowed my choice of subjects because it needed to be something I could add rain to. I had hoped to develop my photo with a red brolly completed recently in the exercise cloud and rain which needed rain. I considered children splashing in puddles, wet and muddy action shot of a mountain bike rider around trails full of puddles, lit building at night with the reflections on the pavement, and a lone person through an archway with a brolly.
Instead, I approached the exercise from a different viewpoint. Rain could be added to props such as wellies and brollies. My teenage daughter has a pair of gothic style wellies, and her friends like the prints which are in black, white and red. I decided to go with a magazine cover for wet weather footwear and accessories to appeal to teenagers, inspired by last year’s wet weather.
I placed a small brolly in a boot and looking at shapes. I took several pictures from different angles and decided the boots looked better if they were slightly apart because there was some apparent movement. I encountered a couple of problems such as exposure (solved with partial metering) and the background being different colours of brick. The red brolly reflected onto the reddish bricks so there was not much contrast. Focusing was difficult because either the brolly or the boot was in focus.
1/20 F5.6 ISO 400 88mm evaluative metering
I came back to it a couple of days later, with a different, larger brolly. By putting the stem through the two boots, I created stronger diagonal lines and more space for writing. I originally looked at creating a grunge style by mixing the colours and black and white together. I considered moving the brolly to a different background but did not want flowers or grass, so decided to keep the urban background.
I converted the picture in photoshop to black and white (antique portrait) and erased the black and white to reveal the red underneath.
Final version
1/45 F4 ISO400 focal length 32mm partial metering
As a magazine cover
I chose spring colours to lift the magazine and make it eye-catching if it was sitting on a shelf in a shop and titles of magazine articles to add interest. I repositioned them and changed the colours several times.
I was pleased with the final effect and thought it was worth turning it into a magazine cover to see the finished effect and whether it would work. In hindsight more “rain” would be better. I tried to avoid pooling of water droplets to keep the photo as real as possible. I later discovered the brolly was a quick drying brolly!
Tuesday, 5 March 2013
Evidence of action
3rd March 2013
Evidence of concepts that are regularly depicted in advertising and publicity that cannot be shown directly are insurance, funeral care, retirement, holidays, wealth, health (preconceptions), fragrance (smells), food (taste). Adverts I recall immediately are Churchill with the British Bulldog (protection, loyalty) and Hastings with the knight and St. Georges flag.
For this exercise of depicting evidence of action, I came up with a list such as working on a bike, falling off a bike, unpacking the car, a jar tipped over, a wheely bin blown over. I decided to look at mending a bike. Having completed the exercise, I thought of another idea which I thought would work, so I took that too.
My first picture shows evidence of action through the broken back wheel of a bicycle. I set this picture up in the garage with the bike on a bike stand against the shelves of tools and bike maintenance kit, and asked my husband to oil his hands to look like he was about to mend it. To light the picture I used natural light from the open garage door instead of the fluorescent strip light, hence the high ISO and shallow depth of field. I think the noise from the high ISO adds to the atmosphere.
F4 1/30 ISO1600 65mm
Another idea I had was a punctured ball (broken during play). Here I illustrated it with my son in his football kit, using the football shirt and goalie gloves to link with the ball as a juxtaposition. I asked him to outstretch his hands to show the gesture of “look it’s broken, can you fix it please?”. I used a wide aperture to blur out the football kit so that the ball became the focal point. I experimented with the position of the ball and I think the viewer follows the upward markings on the ball to the football shirt in the background. I deliberately left the colours looking dark and dirty.
1/2000 F2.8 ISO100 70mm
Evidence of concepts that are regularly depicted in advertising and publicity that cannot be shown directly are insurance, funeral care, retirement, holidays, wealth, health (preconceptions), fragrance (smells), food (taste). Adverts I recall immediately are Churchill with the British Bulldog (protection, loyalty) and Hastings with the knight and St. Georges flag.
For this exercise of depicting evidence of action, I came up with a list such as working on a bike, falling off a bike, unpacking the car, a jar tipped over, a wheely bin blown over. I decided to look at mending a bike. Having completed the exercise, I thought of another idea which I thought would work, so I took that too.
My first picture shows evidence of action through the broken back wheel of a bicycle. I set this picture up in the garage with the bike on a bike stand against the shelves of tools and bike maintenance kit, and asked my husband to oil his hands to look like he was about to mend it. To light the picture I used natural light from the open garage door instead of the fluorescent strip light, hence the high ISO and shallow depth of field. I think the noise from the high ISO adds to the atmosphere.
F4 1/30 ISO1600 65mm
Another idea I had was a punctured ball (broken during play). Here I illustrated it with my son in his football kit, using the football shirt and goalie gloves to link with the ball as a juxtaposition. I asked him to outstretch his hands to show the gesture of “look it’s broken, can you fix it please?”. I used a wide aperture to blur out the football kit so that the ball became the focal point. I experimented with the position of the ball and I think the viewer follows the upward markings on the ball to the football shirt in the background. I deliberately left the colours looking dark and dirty.
1/2000 F2.8 ISO100 70mm
Monday, 4 March 2013
Juxtaposition
4th March 2013
I noticed a large advertisement poster in the village advertising a fast food product. Whilst reading around the subject of juxtaposition and thinking about how to illustrate it, I considered using a group of teenagers at one end of the advert as a real life juxtaposition. A suggestion had been made by the fast food company that the product being advertised was thick. I had a couple of ideas – one to add a chair and a school student with a table of books and one with a group of hoodies. I planned an evening for taking the picture, and on double checking that day it had been changed. Unable to find the same advert locally, I decided to abandon this idea for the time being and move on.
I thought about taking mountain biking which is one of my hobbies and using juxtaposition to illustrate navigation (map, sat nav, signpost and a rider, or rider, kit and wooden obstacles). Another consideration was my bike on the bike rack taken with a wide angle lens. I some time looking at a collection of mountain bike magazines and and on line mountain bike articles looking at how other photographers and advertisers showed juxtaposition. I discovered that certain adverts used juxtaposition in processing such as an advert for energy bars and tablets in relationship with a rider and a trail.( P114 Nov 2011 What Mountain Bike?) A blurred rider cycling through a subway was juxtaposed with a picture of a light with words which linked the two related subjects. (P89, What Mountain Bike?December 2011) A couple of tyre manufacturers used tyres as an object in relationship to a workshop and mechanic or rider and trail. (Page 2 and 3, November 2011, What Mountain Bike?, P34 February 2012, What Mountain Bike?) Sat navs were also illustrated by juxtaposing them with a map or trail riders and words. With some of the adverts I studied, if the words were removed, the pictures lost meaning.
The only two photos I found illustrating juxtaposition was of a bike with its front wheel missing (being repaired) and the person mending the wheel was visible through the large frame of the bike. I thought the picture was too small in the magazine to take in the whole scene.( P12 What Mountain Bike?)The other was of a trail post (with event tape on it) dominating the foreground with a rider on a trail in the background. (P21 Mountain Biking Skills)
I decided to illustrate a book using called “White Peak Mountain Biking The Pure Trails” written by Jon Barton. It is pocket sized book with a square photo of a rider on the front and a title separate from the picture. I use it if I am planning a ride further away from home with more challenging terrain than Sherwood Forest. As well as guidance notes, the book contains routes and suggests using an Ordnance Survey map as a back up as most route books do. As a start for what to include in my photo, I made a list of what would be essential to take on a ride.
I planned to use a map and thought a helmet, gloves or water bottle would work well. I originally laid the map flat on the floor and grouped objects onto it. The map served as a link for the items. However, this looked a little flat. After taking a few pictures, I abandoned this idea and experimented with repositionioning the map. One advert had a map which had been unfolded slightly and still kept its diagonal lines. I liked this idea because it added strong lines to the picture. I thought about taking this idea and setting the shot up outside using the ground to link the items. On positioning the map though, the wind started to blow the map around so I had to bring the outside in.
One consideration was whether to work in portrait or landscape. With a wide angle lens, it was easier to work in landscape because I had more room to spread the objects out. On reviewing my picture, I decided to use portrait and crop into square because it would fit the book better. A wide angle telephoto lens was better at compressing the objects together. I settled on a 24-105mm lens after trialling a 10-20mm lens.
I had thought natural light would work outside because the book was about being outside. After experimenting with natural light, I tried tungsten light and diffused tungsten light. Tungsten was not powerful enough and left a reflection on the helmet. An off camera flash lifted the lighting, made the subjects brighter and allowed the colours on the map to be visible. I experimented with bouncing the flash off the ceiling, and decided it was better if I used a piece of white card positioned opposite the flash and bounced the flash off the card.
I started using a black helmet, green bottle, blue buff, green buff, black gloves, blue gloves and realised early on that the choice of colours was important to link the picture. Thinking back to the colour project, I could see that the blue gloves and orange flint was working better than the red helmet and orange flint because the colours were complementary.
The picture I created tells the reader that it is a book about cycling, because I used a cycling helmet, riding gloves and map which are all related to riding and linked them together using an element of the outdoors. By using universal equipment rather than specialised equipment such as body armour and a full face helmet, the picture is aimed at a wide group of riders. The map is folded in such a way that it tells the viewer that there is more to ride than the little bit they can see.
References:
P114 What Mountain Bike?November 2011, Future Publishing, Bath, UK
P89, What Mountain Bike?December 2011, Future Publishing, Bath, UK
Page 2 and 3,What Mountain Bike?November 2011, Future Publishing, Bath, UK
P34, What Mountain Bike? February 2012, Future Publishing, Bath, UK
P12, What Mountain Bike?December 2011, Future Publishing, Bath, UK
P21, Photographer Joby Sessions, Mountain Biking Skills, SP2 03 2011, Future Publishing, Bath, UK
I noticed a large advertisement poster in the village advertising a fast food product. Whilst reading around the subject of juxtaposition and thinking about how to illustrate it, I considered using a group of teenagers at one end of the advert as a real life juxtaposition. A suggestion had been made by the fast food company that the product being advertised was thick. I had a couple of ideas – one to add a chair and a school student with a table of books and one with a group of hoodies. I planned an evening for taking the picture, and on double checking that day it had been changed. Unable to find the same advert locally, I decided to abandon this idea for the time being and move on.
I thought about taking mountain biking which is one of my hobbies and using juxtaposition to illustrate navigation (map, sat nav, signpost and a rider, or rider, kit and wooden obstacles). Another consideration was my bike on the bike rack taken with a wide angle lens. I some time looking at a collection of mountain bike magazines and and on line mountain bike articles looking at how other photographers and advertisers showed juxtaposition. I discovered that certain adverts used juxtaposition in processing such as an advert for energy bars and tablets in relationship with a rider and a trail.( P114 Nov 2011 What Mountain Bike?) A blurred rider cycling through a subway was juxtaposed with a picture of a light with words which linked the two related subjects. (P89, What Mountain Bike?December 2011) A couple of tyre manufacturers used tyres as an object in relationship to a workshop and mechanic or rider and trail. (Page 2 and 3, November 2011, What Mountain Bike?, P34 February 2012, What Mountain Bike?) Sat navs were also illustrated by juxtaposing them with a map or trail riders and words. With some of the adverts I studied, if the words were removed, the pictures lost meaning.
The only two photos I found illustrating juxtaposition was of a bike with its front wheel missing (being repaired) and the person mending the wheel was visible through the large frame of the bike. I thought the picture was too small in the magazine to take in the whole scene.( P12 What Mountain Bike?)The other was of a trail post (with event tape on it) dominating the foreground with a rider on a trail in the background. (P21 Mountain Biking Skills)
I decided to illustrate a book using called “White Peak Mountain Biking The Pure Trails” written by Jon Barton. It is pocket sized book with a square photo of a rider on the front and a title separate from the picture. I use it if I am planning a ride further away from home with more challenging terrain than Sherwood Forest. As well as guidance notes, the book contains routes and suggests using an Ordnance Survey map as a back up as most route books do. As a start for what to include in my photo, I made a list of what would be essential to take on a ride.
I planned to use a map and thought a helmet, gloves or water bottle would work well. I originally laid the map flat on the floor and grouped objects onto it. The map served as a link for the items. However, this looked a little flat. After taking a few pictures, I abandoned this idea and experimented with repositionioning the map. One advert had a map which had been unfolded slightly and still kept its diagonal lines. I liked this idea because it added strong lines to the picture. I thought about taking this idea and setting the shot up outside using the ground to link the items. On positioning the map though, the wind started to blow the map around so I had to bring the outside in.
One consideration was whether to work in portrait or landscape. With a wide angle lens, it was easier to work in landscape because I had more room to spread the objects out. On reviewing my picture, I decided to use portrait and crop into square because it would fit the book better. A wide angle telephoto lens was better at compressing the objects together. I settled on a 24-105mm lens after trialling a 10-20mm lens.
I had thought natural light would work outside because the book was about being outside. After experimenting with natural light, I tried tungsten light and diffused tungsten light. Tungsten was not powerful enough and left a reflection on the helmet. An off camera flash lifted the lighting, made the subjects brighter and allowed the colours on the map to be visible. I experimented with bouncing the flash off the ceiling, and decided it was better if I used a piece of white card positioned opposite the flash and bounced the flash off the card.
Landscape orientation using natural light (detail of map lost, colours more subdued)
I started using a black helmet, green bottle, blue buff, green buff, black gloves, blue gloves and realised early on that the choice of colours was important to link the picture. Thinking back to the colour project, I could see that the blue gloves and orange flint was working better than the red helmet and orange flint because the colours were complementary.
F22 3secs ISO100 28mm flash white balance
The picture I created tells the reader that it is a book about cycling, because I used a cycling helmet, riding gloves and map which are all related to riding and linked them together using an element of the outdoors. By using universal equipment rather than specialised equipment such as body armour and a full face helmet, the picture is aimed at a wide group of riders. The map is folded in such a way that it tells the viewer that there is more to ride than the little bit they can see.
References:
P114 What Mountain Bike?November 2011, Future Publishing, Bath, UK
P89, What Mountain Bike?December 2011, Future Publishing, Bath, UK
Page 2 and 3,What Mountain Bike?November 2011, Future Publishing, Bath, UK
P34, What Mountain Bike? February 2012, Future Publishing, Bath, UK
P12, What Mountain Bike?December 2011, Future Publishing, Bath, UK
P21, Photographer Joby Sessions, Mountain Biking Skills, SP2 03 2011, Future Publishing, Bath, UK
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