Statement of Intent:
My chosen theme for my photography exam is ‘Texture’. I have chosen this to explore the different types, such as tactile ( smooth, rough ) and visual textures, and to expand my skills throughout the photography course. This is one of my favourite topics to discover because it has a variety of other pathways that opens up, advancing my vast photography skills. and to implement them into my work. To produce a successful, creative and unique final piece, I intend to carry out a variety of research on my chosen theme. I will research a variety of photographers and imitate them in my photo shoots, such as Lucy Shires and her desire to take pictures of man-made objects. Andy Small is another photographer, my work will be based on Eliot Porter with his work with natural objects. I will use apps such as Pinterest and Dribbble to use for inspiration and how each texture photographer differs from another and select a style I like and replicate that in the best way possible.
This will advance my knowledge and help me produce a great project so I can be a positive influence to the peers in my class and younger, inspiring students to be like me.
I intend to take a variety of photoshoots to explore my chosen theme. I will adjust each shoot whether I’m outside or inside to progress my work and be influenced by the photographer. Depending on the photographer, will vary my work.
I will need to research artists and photographers such as Tiffany Egbert who frames her work from a certain angle of birds' eye view and uses a wide aperture with a longer focal length than normal making the background out of focus but her main subject clear and stand out to the viewers. She also edits the subject of the photo to pop out more to the viewer's eye by increasing the contrast and adjusting the curves of the image to darken the background. This makes her pictures bold and stands out from the ordinary, which I aim to achieve. Edward Weston is another photographer as he is regarded as one of the masters of 20th-century photography, what makes him so special and considered one of the best in his style which he uses an 8x10 large format camera resulting in the images becoming sharper, having a better tonality and being grain-free. He made his photos look richly detailed in black and white 'Landscape Like' photographs. Annabelle Breakey is one who caught my attention as her work is completely different from the other photographers I've researched. Her work is like an editorial still life and food photography. She focuses on close up with food and put similar colors of food together to create a word and a message; This has given me the idea of trying to imitate her as its unique and makes my work an impressive piece. Lastly, Roe Ethridge draws inspiration from both his commercial and artistic work. Ethridge blurs the lines between the two, creating generic and intimate pictures, frequently crossing the edge between humor and cynicism. These photographers will extend my knowledge and base my influence on them. Most of my work will be based upon the influence of Roe Ethridge as his camera work is also fascinating and complex which would help take my photography skills to another level.
Throughout this course, I aim to capture a mixed range of shoots for this project. Due to Covid, I won't be able to go to any of the destinations I planned to go to capture more of a wide variety of textures but nevertheless, I will remain in my school hence most of my shoots being based in the school. I will use nature to explore the textures in plants and trees etc. I will use a variety of techniques including with the camera and photoshop images. With the camera, I will use the manual setting and also adjust the ISO, aperture, and shutter speed to capture the best and high-quality pictures as I'll be able to take control of the picture and take it with the clarity and resolution I want. While using an aperture, I will be using a small aperture for broader and wider photos. There will also be compositional rules included within my work such as the rule of thirds so my work doesn't look like it's copied from the other images, triangle format, birds-eye view to give the viewers a variety of angles of the subject, symmetry, and leading lines to attract the viewer in. I will also use Photoshop to edit my pictures with tools like saturation, magic wand, quick selection, and raw selection mode to adjust the background to make it a bright or monochrome picture, therefore, manipulating my photographs making them appealing and attracting my viewer's attention. My phone can be used if a camera isn't possible to manipulate the pictures using apps like Adobe Photoshop Express and Touch Retouch as they are high-quality apps and the same as using Photoshop.
While conducting this project, many new skills will be introduced to me as I am new to this, YouTube tutorial videos will be used at the start so I can get comfortable with Photoshop and produce a high-end final piece gallery. This will help me improve and become independent through the course. This is to make me comfy with the tools that are less likely to be used for beginners such as the Rectangular Marquee tool, Magnetic Lasso tool, and Lasso tool so the examiner can know I have developed a lot from the start and see my progress as a young, inspiring photographer.
As for my last set of images. I hope to produce a gallery of high-quality raw images and my own edits being mixed with my own spark. They will all link to my theme of 'Texture' and being the finest pictures produced. This will blow the examiner's mind as they would be fully surprised as I would've demonstrated magnificent progress. I aim to present to the photographers I researched and will hopefully be able to recreate their photographs to receive a very high grade for my work.
This will advance my knowledge and help me produce a great project so I can be a positive influence to the peers in my class and younger, inspiring students to be like me.
I intend to take a variety of photoshoots to explore my chosen theme. I will adjust each shoot whether I’m outside or inside to progress my work and be influenced by the photographer. Depending on the photographer, will vary my work.
I will need to research artists and photographers such as Tiffany Egbert who frames her work from a certain angle of birds' eye view and uses a wide aperture with a longer focal length than normal making the background out of focus but her main subject clear and stand out to the viewers. She also edits the subject of the photo to pop out more to the viewer's eye by increasing the contrast and adjusting the curves of the image to darken the background. This makes her pictures bold and stands out from the ordinary, which I aim to achieve. Edward Weston is another photographer as he is regarded as one of the masters of 20th-century photography, what makes him so special and considered one of the best in his style which he uses an 8x10 large format camera resulting in the images becoming sharper, having a better tonality and being grain-free. He made his photos look richly detailed in black and white 'Landscape Like' photographs. Annabelle Breakey is one who caught my attention as her work is completely different from the other photographers I've researched. Her work is like an editorial still life and food photography. She focuses on close up with food and put similar colors of food together to create a word and a message; This has given me the idea of trying to imitate her as its unique and makes my work an impressive piece. Lastly, Roe Ethridge draws inspiration from both his commercial and artistic work. Ethridge blurs the lines between the two, creating generic and intimate pictures, frequently crossing the edge between humor and cynicism. These photographers will extend my knowledge and base my influence on them. Most of my work will be based upon the influence of Roe Ethridge as his camera work is also fascinating and complex which would help take my photography skills to another level.
Throughout this course, I aim to capture a mixed range of shoots for this project. Due to Covid, I won't be able to go to any of the destinations I planned to go to capture more of a wide variety of textures but nevertheless, I will remain in my school hence most of my shoots being based in the school. I will use nature to explore the textures in plants and trees etc. I will use a variety of techniques including with the camera and photoshop images. With the camera, I will use the manual setting and also adjust the ISO, aperture, and shutter speed to capture the best and high-quality pictures as I'll be able to take control of the picture and take it with the clarity and resolution I want. While using an aperture, I will be using a small aperture for broader and wider photos. There will also be compositional rules included within my work such as the rule of thirds so my work doesn't look like it's copied from the other images, triangle format, birds-eye view to give the viewers a variety of angles of the subject, symmetry, and leading lines to attract the viewer in. I will also use Photoshop to edit my pictures with tools like saturation, magic wand, quick selection, and raw selection mode to adjust the background to make it a bright or monochrome picture, therefore, manipulating my photographs making them appealing and attracting my viewer's attention. My phone can be used if a camera isn't possible to manipulate the pictures using apps like Adobe Photoshop Express and Touch Retouch as they are high-quality apps and the same as using Photoshop.
While conducting this project, many new skills will be introduced to me as I am new to this, YouTube tutorial videos will be used at the start so I can get comfortable with Photoshop and produce a high-end final piece gallery. This will help me improve and become independent through the course. This is to make me comfy with the tools that are less likely to be used for beginners such as the Rectangular Marquee tool, Magnetic Lasso tool, and Lasso tool so the examiner can know I have developed a lot from the start and see my progress as a young, inspiring photographer.
As for my last set of images. I hope to produce a gallery of high-quality raw images and my own edits being mixed with my own spark. They will all link to my theme of 'Texture' and being the finest pictures produced. This will blow the examiner's mind as they would be fully surprised as I would've demonstrated magnificent progress. I aim to present to the photographers I researched and will hopefully be able to recreate their photographs to receive a very high grade for my work.
Texture Mindmap:
Analysis 1:
Roe Ethridge
Ethridge has used the rule of even because there are two apples, but because of the use of two apples, it makes it look unnatural. Ethridge has used symmetry in the placement of the table to make the photo seem much more balanced out and in proportion. The depth of field is a medium with an ISO of 100. When looking at the photograph
My eyes are drawn to the apple and the wasp right away, and this was accomplished by using two contrasting colours: the sharp, Rufus, and a blend of the fruit's maroon colour. As well as being the central focal point of the picture The red and background bushes look to be becoming more lifelike. When the opposing hues of the colour wheel are used together, this look is created. Because it captures extremely short and precise movements of the wasp, he would have used a fast shutter speed. He also used studio lights in his work to make the apples stand out even more and could've possibly used a tripod to make the apple a central focus point. I know this as there is a reflection of light on the apple. Whereas, if it was natural lighting we would know because the whole apple would be bright instead of a little bit of it. In the background, you can see the leaves and branches to make it more realistic. The rule of even has been used. The even amount balances the picture from the 2 apples and the 4 small pieces of apple. Roe Ethridge uses the foreground to focus on the wasps and apples but the background is out of focus and has a shallow depth of field. The work really inspires me because of the use colour. To me this display's a good meaning behind the picture which has made me look at photography in more depth. Just by placing certain objects in certain areas could disrupt the true meaning behind your image and opens the floor up to other peoples answers and broaden theirs and your knowledge s you can learn variety of ways your work is interpreted.
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Ethridge has snapped a photo of two apples, one not entirely cut up and the other one hardly behind it. I would state it is a realistic image as there are wasps eating the cut up apple. The tones used are white, for the table, yellow for the wasps, red for the apples and mixed green and brown for the grass and greenery in the background. Red and green are known to be complimentary colours, and this has purposely been done to make each other stand out. Roe Ethridge has used a small depth of field, or a low aperture to capture what's on the table focusing in the center. The title is in French, and it is called 'C'est Pas Du Luxe'. It translate 'To have too much, so much that it is wasted'. The photographer uses this photo to demonstrate how our world is being consumed these days. I would say Ethridge refers to the abundance of the food we have. How many people in todays society in nowadays generation and yet we don't finish what we start and take advantage of out luxury and not enough for underprivilege people to fill their hunger and even survive. The meaning of this anti-capitalist, which can be deprived form this image and possibly show the photographers personal opinion and their point of view.
This piece of photography was taken around 1985 by Roe Ethridge. Ethridge is a craftsmanship and business picture taker. He takes pictures of nature and he makes them mean something. As I would see it, I accept that this image was taken to show individuals don't need a lot of stuff as others may need it. Food waste is a big problem in this generation and doesn't get recognised enough so he takes photographs to show its importance.
Edward Weston was an American photographer who was best known for his close-ups, landscapes, and natural forms of photography. Weston was born in 1886 when growing up he discovered a passion for photography. This passion grew to become a dream to do in the future. He took photography as a course in college. After college, he became very serious about his photography. He opened his studio to help boost and make his photography get seen. His work became very popular and he won countless awards. I picked this shell because I thought it was incredible and a very interesting piece of photography. This photo is called ‘Shell’ it was made in 1927 in Weston's studio. This photo is of two shells that look like one shell. This photo is still life as it is an object. This work is called ‘Shells’. This photo is a realistic piece of work. The theme of this photograph is shells. He used to take photographs of shells because in 1927 he had a meeting with the Californian painter Henrietta Shore who used to paint shells and was inspired so he started to take photographs of shells. Edward Weston used contrasting tones with the black and white filter. This work looks interesting and poos out to the viewers eyes. I could use less exposure within the image to make the photo more detailed. I could also do a black and white photo shoot like what Edward Weston did. This is going to inspire me as I will base a whole photoshoot upon him and create some unique edits to complete. |
Moodboards:
Annabelle Breakey
Imogen Cunningham
Andy Small
Plan 1:
Eliot Porter and Daniel Mirlea
Plan 2:
Lucy Shires
Plan 3:
Shoot 1:
Best Image:
This is my bets image because I first attached a magnified macro-lens 100mm f/2.8 which really magnified into the details clearly as this screw is very small. The symmetrical lines across the screw are all in focus with reflection marks adding a touch of colour. I am very impressed with this image. |
Worst Image:
This is my worst image because the picture is not really angled professionally and looks like an accidental image. There is a leading line going across the top right of the image but its not really captured as I used a slow shutter speed and the exposure is too low resulting in the image being dark and gloomy. |
Cars:
Best Image:
This is my best image because the grill has a nice, symmetrical pattern and it's all captured beautifully and in focus. I used an f/11 so all the lines are in the hexagon are captured. The strong leading lines on the bonnet attract your eyes to the sweet spot of the grill face. The white colour contrasts nicely with the nardo grey and black grill emphasis's the pattern creating a clear and giving a feel of edginess atmosphere.
This is my best image because the grill has a nice, symmetrical pattern and it's all captured beautifully and in focus. I used an f/11 so all the lines are in the hexagon are captured. The strong leading lines on the bonnet attract your eyes to the sweet spot of the grill face. The white colour contrasts nicely with the nardo grey and black grill emphasis's the pattern creating a clear and giving a feel of edginess atmosphere.
Worst Image This is my worst image because it's not in the central point of the image or focus lines, the camera is not help uprightly so it's of scale, the shutter speed is a bit too slow therefore having the grill details not in clear focus lastly the lighting is not sporadic throughout the image and the left side is much more darkened than the right. |
Pomegranates:
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Best Image:This is my best picture because the front part is focused and the back slowly goes out of focus. The light is to give some backlight effect and has worked nicely while not degrading the contrast of the image. It has a short depth of field and the background being a dark colour contrasts well resulting in a clean image.
Worst Image:This is my worst because the picture is out of focus and it looks messy overall. The light exposure is too much and ruins the features of the pomegranates. There is too much of a dark space and the pomegranate are not truly in focus.
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Apples:
Best Image:I think this is my best photograph because of the formation of the apples are in and the light is balanced perfectly to give enough shine and shadow to make the picture look professional. I placed it in the left corner of the image to try and create a leading line going from the bottom right corner to the top left corner and use the rule of thirds having the apples placed on the left side of the frame.
Worst Image:This is my worst picture because it doesn't really look appealing and there's too much shadow, this is because I accidentally stood over the apple as I was taking a bird's eye view, I had not realised I blocked the light out and you can see the outline of my head. Next time I will make sure I position myself correctly.
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Pepper:
Grape Fruit:
Best Image:
This is my best picture because you can see the details I made matched the ISO correctly, therefore, letting sunlight gently emit a glow onto the subject making the colors bright and the juice from the fruit captured clearly. The way I have placed the grapefruit has allowed the details to be shown clearly using the composition of a close-up and allowing a quarter of the grapefruit in the shot resulting in the rule of thirds also being used.
Worst Image:
This is my worst picture because the drips are visible and take the impact from the fascinating fruit. The first one is slightly placed at an angle you are unable to see the juiciness of the grapefruit. Next time, I will place myself in a better position to get better pictures. The shutter speed should be slightly higher as it's not captured clearly and the exposure is too bright making it look unappealing.
Shells
Outside Shoot:
Best Image: This is my best picture, because the red and the green contrast cleanly together, the composition of the flower is in the center, and the background blurs slowly while the subject remains in focus without clashing together. It was shot from a bird's eye view angle which emphasises the plant. |
Worst Image: This is my worst picture because the white balance is too high and looks unusually gloomy. There's not much going on in the picture. My f/stop is set on the wrong setting as I wanted to capture the tree and blur the background slightly. My ISO and shutter should both be higher so it could be captured in HD. |
In this area I'm going to add the best pictures that I've took throughout this course of photography.
Black and white photos:
Edits On Photoshop:
Edit 2:
Edit 3:
Edit 4:
Edit 5:
These images are manipulated in Photoshop using the black and white effect giving a monochrome tone to the image. I was inspired by Edward Weston as he does these type of effects. I enjoyed this and it has helped me build my confidence and progress with Photoshop itself; you can see the developments I went through with the screen-shots I have provided for you.
Edit 6:
Edit 7:
Edit 8:
Edit 9:
These photos were in the style of Andy Small, I used the magic cut to crop out of the actual object and fill in the background. I really like these edits because I put complementary colours in the background so they don't clash and make the picture have uneven lightning.
Complex Patterns:
These patterns have a unique look which makes their picture more attractive as its got meaning behind it whether its heritage or just a pattern. The symmetrical shapes show equality and unity. I hope to lay these patterns over my photographs to give my images a deeper meaning.
Edit 1:
Edit 2:
Edit 3:
Edit 4:
Edit 5:
These images are complex patterns, I created to develop my knowledge and improve my photoshop skills. These designs are called kaleidoscopes and involve cropping a shape and rotating it to cover the whole page creating an illusion to trick my viewers.
Edit 6:
This edit was inspired on the work Annabelle Breakey and the effects she does on fruits and other objects. I then selected one image of apples I have from my fruit shoot and sliced up with the cutting tool and used it as an overlay for the red splash then finally change the background colour to have a nice blend of green to yellow on the colour scheme. This has turned out to look quite nice but the red splash could been cut cleaner
Edit 7:
Edit 8:
Edit 9:
This is one of my complex edits which took a lot of time and effort as I picked out one of my fruit images and cropped it out with the selection pen tool and filled the background with a mix of blue to a pink tone. I then found a splash of red pomegranate and strawberry juice then cropped it out and portrayed it at the front to make it look like a ad campaign and finally added the logo of 'Ocean Spray'. This was all inspired in the way Annabelle Breaky and I tend to complete more in her ways.
Final Gallery:
These are a mix of my best raw and manipulated images through Photoshop, I have took through the course of this project. I am very proud and fascinated by how interesting and unique doing texture of things could be. I have developed a new ambition to a new side of photography I didn't discover before. I hope you do intake these photographs to the levels and skill they should receive as I delivered such hard work, dedication and passion through these professional images.
Evaluation:
For my chosen theme 'Texture', I produced a variety of photographs from man-made to natural textures. I think that throughout the whole project, I have created such a masterclass and passion through the images taken to me, and was really fun to do. I did complex edits which required a lot of patience and me to be precise with the instructions. You can see in the snippets the progress I went through and the dedication it took. There was a lot of editing that took place making it a challenge for me but I brushed through it and taking shoots was easy. From the start to now I have obtained many new techniques to make it professionally such as the camera settings, how to frame an image, and editing them cleanly. As you can see from the final results, using Photoshop allowed me to continue to hone and express my talent. I enjoy exploring other texture photographers to use as inspiration for my work throughout the project, and I am inspired by using Pinterest and Dribbble, and the internet. I also enjoyed shooting outdoors, finding the image I wanted to shoot, and converting it to the desired and inspired outcome. Also, I enjoyed using Photoshop. I had to follow a good lesson, so I got the results I wanted. It was also fun to create the results in Photoshop. By following the tutorials, I understood and demonstrated what I was doing via the snippets, which made it easier and more the feeling of accomplishment. This has helped me to confidently use complex and more unique tools without the use of tutorials anymore. I researched Lucy Shires, Andy Small, Daniel Miller, and Imogen Cunningham to be the inspirations for me in this theme and implemented them into my work. The skills I gained through this project were framing my images with key photography rules within the image such as rules of thirds, leading lines, adjusting the exposure just like Roe Ethridge does, and enticing a mix of my own talent and creativity to make my work and ideas unique to me. This wasn't my favorite topic to learn as there were not as many shoots as I wanted but I displayed the best nevertheless.