LBM Project 4 (Collaboration)- 'White T-Shirt' Week 2

Week 2

Day 4-

Painted t-shirts, made final changes to plans.

Photo shoot-

Today was a very tiring day-  we shot in locations all across London and spent the whole day on our feet.

We managed to keep on schedule; getting to Green Park when it was still light.

It was interesting working with makeup/stylist, it made the shoot a bit easier for myself which allowed me to concentrate on taking the photos. It was nice having some creative advice from others while on the photo shoot; it made me notice some spots/angles I hadn't considered- such as the brick lane photo sitting on the railings.

Day 5-

Selecting final images, editing.

Discussing about graphics and presentation.

One of our group members decided to work from home- clearly not a good idea in future as it was hard to relay our ideas we were discussing to her- much better to discuss in person- that way you can easily show them things.

Day 6-

After chatting to Christine about Graphics the previous night we decided on the final graphics for the images- a small 'Perceive' logo in the corner of each image. The images would be accompanied by an extra print with the logo taken from the t-shirt and a representation of our tube route surrounding it.

The crit was very useful, we got a lot of compliments (yay) and a lot of good constructive criticism- particularly regarding the readability of the Perceive logo in the corner of the images and design of the logo being not so obvious.

We were all very pleased with our outcome despite the few flaws and agreed that the week had been very helpful.

During this project it was harder to keep up with sketchbook work as most of the time we would discuss many ideas in a small space of time. In future I should probably keep my sketchbook and pen ready when we are discussing things.

LBM Project 4 (Collaboration)- 'White T-Shirt' Week 1

Day 1-

Today we had an intro to the white t-shirt project. We got in to groups with people from graphics, fashion and LBM- this would mean that we could use each other’s specialisms to contribute to the project.

We visited Dover Street Market later in the day- it was a multi-level shop/gallery in which they presented clothing, shoes and accessories. It was a really amazing place, the design of the shop was phenomenal- each level took you on an adventure through various fashion styles. I noticed that the environment was perhaps more important than the clothes themselves. I reckon they could sell anything as long as they put the same effort into the display- most of the clothes weren’t particularly fancy but were priced very high.

We discussed ideas we got from the market over lunch afterwards- the main thing we all took from the gallery was that the look of the same simple garment can be transformed depending on the environment it is placed in. We agreed to have a simple graphic on the t shirt similar to Comme des Garcons to give a solid brand identity and consistency between the images while retaining the whole simple white t-shirt feel.

Day 2-

Today we had a lighting workshop

As I have used studio lighting quite a bit before I spent the session helping the others out and working out complications with flash triggers.

We had a more in depth discussion about how we were going to shoot the photos and what graphics we would be using. We went through many ideas- having graphics on the t-shirt, no graphics, how will it be worn, location or studio etc etc

We played around in illustrator and on paper to test out different shapes/colours for the logo
We settled on a simple design in black.

Looking at editorials in Vogue
Decided to do images as if they were in a magazine- mixture of single and double page spreads.

I found it challenging as everyone had very different opinions and it was sometimes quite hard to come to a decision.

After the uni day I went to scout out various possible locations for our shoot: Canary Wharf, Green Park and ‘Winter Wonderland’ at Hyde Park. I took a lot of test shots so when it came to the actual shoot I would know what I particularly wanted.

Day 3-

Liverpool st + brick lane

Went to ‘Protein’ and had discussions with two photographers (friends of Othello’s)- it was really interesting as they did similar stuff to what I like. They talked a lot about what it was like to work in a group situation in the real world and about the importance of teamwork. I got a few of my questions answered.

I found brick lane really interesting- perhaps not the location I would choose to shoot in for a personal project but it was still very interesting.

Grace modelled for me so we could get to know the area and have some shots to go by on our final shoot.

Deciding on how to print t-shirts. We discovered that Ravensbourne does not do t-shirt printing and we would have to order special transfer paper to achieve the closest effect. Paint seemed like the right option, it would be easier to apply in small amounts and would give a nice textural quality to the graphics- similar to comme de garcons.

LBM Project 3- 'Transcription' Week 2

Day 1-

Today we had talks on colour and composition.

I find colour really interesting and a powerful media to use to convey emotion- or just grab people's attention! I often spend ages in photoshop tweaking colours in my image so that they are just right.

I learnt some new rules from the composition talk that will come in very handy- previously I was relying mainly on rule of thirds.

Day 2-

Character talks- developing ideas

Photoshoot-

I encountered various problems while doing the photoshoot this week…

The first problem was the fact that the person I had arranged to model for me was ill on Wednesday, the day I had planned the photoshoot on, this meant that I had to find someone else to model for me. I was able to find Mae who was available from 2:30pm on Thursday.

The location I finally settled on was an amazing find- the trees canopying the area were a lovely rich shade of yellow-orange and the ground was covered with a carpet of leaves. There was a small path winding through the trees which was perfect to frame a centralised subject.

I’m sure I will be visiting this location again for another shoot.

Halfway through the photoshoot the sun all of a sudden disappeared and we were plunged in to darkness within a matter of minutes. This was really not helpful at all as I wanted all the shots to remain consistent with each other. I had to slightly modify the shots to deal with this problem- when Mae picked up the prism the surroundings were plunged in to darkness.

When I got the tripod and camera set up properly I had a peek through at the scene and Mae was walking on a log at the edge of the frame- I thought it was quite a cool shot, so I took it.

Day 3-

Today we had our final crits

The main points that I took from the crit this week was
-Think about giving my series of photos a name

-The importance of printing, it has a big impact on how professional you look. A screen doesn't do the images justice

LBM Project 3- 'Transcription' Week 1

Week 1

Day 1-

Today was a one day project to present a ‘Radical Idea’ at the end of the day.

It was quite hectic having only a day to come up with a concept and produce an outcome- it forced us to come up with ideas in a short space of time.

We spent some time in the library browsing through books to come up with our concept and then used a combination of drawings and crude photographs to explain it to the class.

As we were also just mixed with the media production course it also challenged us by making us work with people we only just met- a good experience to prepare for real life situations where that would happen.

Day 2-

Today we had a jam-packed day of gallery visits- some were really great and others were not so.

I loved the photographers’ gallery- the ‘Bibi’ exhibition by Jacques Lartigue had some very well composed photos- I took lots of notes on my favourite images for inspiration later. The gallery about motherhood upstairs was also interesting- the images really work as a cohesive set- each image would contribute to the whole idea.

I also enjoyed the Philip Lorca DiCorcia gallery- these were very well crafted images which paid attention to all the minute detail and delicacy of lighting.

After visiting the galleries we went to see the film ‘The Selfish Giant’. I thought was a very well made film although it was a tad too depressing for my liking! I found the ending of the film very interesting- even though it was very sad I felt that the main character had really developed as a person and discovered something new/learnt a valuable lesson.

Day 3-

Today we had our initial crits. We were with Chris- when it came to my turn I showed him some photos that I was interested in, both from the galleries and from artists I admire personally. He noticed a unning theme through the photos I liked- ‘Fairytale’. I thought this was a great idea with many possible ways of approaching. I then spent the rest of the day researching fairytales and noting down artists I was interested in who approached the same theme.

LBM Project 2- 'Who am I?' Week 2

Day 1-

Today we learnt about file management and some basic editing techniques for film, we also tested out the Final Cut/Premiere workflow.

I noted a few key points from the talk on file management: the first was the importance of backing up all your work every couple weeks; the second point was to use an external hard drive as it is easier to use the same files with different computers and also will make space available on your on-board hard drive for program files; the third point was to make sure when editing video to set your scratch disk location to a folder in your external hard drive so that all the files stay in the same place; we should also test our workflow before any major projects come around; we should add files to capture scratch before importing or use Compressor/Adobe Media Encoder instead of import.

As we were testing out our video editing workflow I clearly had to have some video files to work with so over our break time I decided to be creepy and film everyone doing random things. In the end I used some clips of Matt eating a sausage roll and created this ‘epic’ film in which the camera would gradually crop into his face so you could see him tearing the sausage roll violently from his mouth- I may have gotten slightly carried away with the slow-mo bit at the end!

Day 2-

Today was about experimentation, research, planning and talking to the tutors about our ideas.

I talked to Chris about my ideas so far and he suggested a few photographers to look at- all of which meticulously plan each of their images and stage seemingly real events. He encouraged me to get going and experiment with techniques relating to this so I experimented with compositing multiple images of me walking around the space we were in using a tripod and a remote trigger. It seemed to work well so I decided this was the way I was going to shoot my questions response photo.

I spent the rest of the day looking at the artists and sketching mock-up scenes of what I wanted to shoot.

Photoshoots-

Only had 2 hours booked in to church- in that time I had to set up all the sound equipment, take all the photos and then pack it away- it was very hectic! I started off at the back with a wide shot- then realised a more compressed, longer focal length was needed to obtain the look I wanted. I had to rearrange the sound desk and the speakers to fit correctly in shot.

The second photoshoot was simpler; I used a single light directly behind me and a reflector low down in front of me. It took a while to get the light to catch on the cufflink, I had to move the reflector many times, but I finally made it.

Day 3-

Group reviews of final pieces – each got given feedback. I received a positive response with some good constructive criticism on my images- particularly relating to the out of focus head at the bottom of my composite image at the church and whether it was needed or not.

Research in the library

Later in the day we had an After Effects introduction session – I created an ‘epic’ animation to go with my previous ‘epic’ film. I hadn’t actually used After Effects before; it was very useful to know more about this powerful tool that was available for me to use.

LBM Project 2- 'Who am I?' Week 1

Day 1-

Today was a very odd day- the dreaded ‘UK Storm’ had hit and practically all the trains at my station had been cancelled. I managed to finally get myself into uni at 1:45pm after waiting at the station for an hour and a half!

I’m going to be quite honest with today- I already am very confident with using the exposure triangle, aperture, shutter speed and ISO so I didn’t really learn anything from the talk at the beginning. It felt slightly strange trying to take notes on things that I find obvious.

We were then split up into groups to mess around with lighting for portraiture. We were encouraged to play with different settings on the camera to achieve different looks to the image.

I actually spent most of the time in front of the camera as the others weren’t too keen to model – it’s a rare position for me to be in!

Day 2-

We started off with a photography talk where there were many good examples

Induction to camera/sound equipment and clr

We spent the rest of the day thinking about ideas for the questions and object we were going to use for the ‘Who am I?’ project. I found this quite difficult

Day 3-

In the morning we were shown some examples of animations by various artists- I found it quite interesting despite it not being the area I am interested in. The animations we were shown differed quite a bit from the tv standard digital animation, they showed how much you can achieve within animation if you think outside of the box.

We then had our initial crits for the ‘Who am I?’ project in which I got some useful feedback. The importance of going out and getting things done as soon as possible was stressed for the projects. I perhaps could have done a bit more in this first week of the project but I will certainly take this advice for the next projects.

Reflecting on the exploratory stage

The exploratory stage has been really interesting; never before have I tried out so many different processes and disciplines in art in such a short span of time. It was also really great to be able to relax and engage a bit more without the worry of everything going towards a project which my future depends on- my Pre-U project last year stressed me out a lot.

 The week that really surprised me was fashion- I was slightly dreading the week after having finished both the weeks I was interested in (Graphics and Lens Based Media) but to my surprise I found it quite fun! I think it may have taught me more things to apply in my photography than even the Lens Based Media week, I now should hopefully feel more confident when deciding how I want my model to look in a portrait shoot. I also got some compliments out of the tutors for my work in the week, which was great to hear.

Through the six weeks I think I learnt to be a bit more ‘free’ with my art and learnt to just experiment, not worrying if things go wrong. This should enable me to ‘think outside of the box’ a bit more to create better original ideas.

I feel like it was definitely the right decision to do a foundation course instead of jumping straight to degree as I was initially going to take Graphics, whereas now I have decided that Photography is a more appropriate path for me to take. The rest of the year should be very beneficial too as I can try my hand at the moving image- something which I have not myself tried out before but already have an appreciation of. I’m also keen to try and learn more about storytelling and how to apply that in my photography- I reckon that could take my photos from being just pretty pictures to having meaning and purpose.

Life Drawing

Software Skills

Today we carried out a project to create a poster for a future exhibition/film/book etc that we would have in 10 years’ time. We had to use the three main Adobe design applications- Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign

I have to confess the day wasn’t the most exciting day ever as I am already very experienced using Adobe software- I use it every day. Most people were newbies to the software and thus the class was aimed at teaching very basic skills.

I did actually get a chance to go up the front to teach the class something though. It was about using the colour range tool as a means of removing backgrounds from photos while keeping hair edge detail intact, it was a more efficient way than the way which was initially taught. I also went around and helped out a few people around the class.

We used Photoshop to composite a photo of ourselves into a found background image of our choice- I made sure to colour grade the photo of myself to match the background and give the poster some synergy.

Our posters now needed a logo, so we headed over to illustrator to try out a few different designs. I experimented using my name or just my initials and playing around with font and shape.

The final design I settled on was where I placed the S inside of the G to create a new shape.

The final task in InDesign was to bring the logo and image together with 200 words we were to write about our future work. I am terrible at writing things so I settled with the design quite quickly but sat for quite a while facing an empty word document. It wasn’t until I got home before I finished off the writing.

I had a quite nice to talk with the tutor, Anna, during the day about cool ways of doing things that I’d found in Photoshop. I recommended she check out Phlearn, a really great YouTube channel with more advanced photography and Photoshop tutorials.

Academic Writing- Exhibition Review

Today we visited the Tate Modern with the aim of writing a review for one of the rooms in the gallery.

For the reviews we had to consider how the room was laid out, why specific artists and pieces of work were put together, what was conveyed by the room and many other things.

To be honest most of the gallery was uninspiring, most of the photography was quite bland, the sculptures were weird as usual and nothing really grabbed my attention.

This carried on until I came across the rooms by Dan Flavin.  As a photographer who enjoys the physicality of light I was excited to find an installation using light as the medium. It reminded me of the ‘Light Show’ exhibition I went to at the Hayward Gallery which explored the qualities and possibilities of using light in installation- definitely my favourite gallery I’ve been to. I loved how the light interacted with the people walking through the rooms- they cast shadows on the walls and caused the room to subtly change colour due to the different amount of each colour mixing together. The light fixtures were softly reflected in the white walls and floor creating a very calm, ambient atmosphere. Unfortunately these rooms were not on the list of rooms we could review, so I had to settle for something else.

I ended up picking the room ‘Facing History: Leon Golub and Sarkissian’- you can read my review below.

Facing History: Leon Golub and Hrair Sarkissian

Facing History, a part of the Transformed Visions collection at the Tate Modern, aims to ‘confront the violence and atrocities of contemporary war and civil society’. The painting Vietnam III by Leon Golub and the series of photographs Execution Squares by Hrair Sarkissian face each other on opposite walls.

As you walk in to room the contrast between the artwork on the two facing walls is apparent. On the first side you see there is a very visual, intense portrayal of violence and war from Vietnam III. This is illustrated by both the content of the image- men are wielding rifles, people are running around with shocked expressions- and also the rough, tossed texture of the marks that are used to create the image.

The wide format of the painting with the subjects pushed to each edge of the frame produces a very strong composition with conflict between the gun-wielding soldiers on the left and the fear-stricken innocents on the right.

The other side of the room is a very different story- there are no panicked people running around, no fights, gun shots or in fact any visible violence at all. Empty streets are the only things that populate the second wall, Execution Squares. The absolute silence and emptiness is quite eerie and makes the viewer wonder about what might have happened before these photos were taken. The imagery of violence and war in Vietnam III on the opposite wall suggests that the streets in Execution Squares may have had a violent past despite the lack of any visual evidence. In actual fact ‘the images were taken in three different cities in places where public executions had taken place’.

‘Sarkissian’s first personal experience of an execution was as a child when he passed one of these squares on his journey to school and saw three bodies hanging in the street.’

The ability of the photographs to provoke a response is thanks to how the perspective, format and focal length are used to mimic what the viewer would see through their own eyes if they were there.

The two pieces really work well together and play off each other to create an impact on the viewer by contrasting graphic violence and deathly silence, two very powerful means of communicating the same issue. Sarkissian’s work could almost be seen as the aftermath of Golub’s painting, or possibly the calm before the storm.

This is a room well worth checking out.

Fashion Research

Electric Feathers

·         Background compliments outfits

·         Same consistent colours, patterns, materials

·         Very draped look- casual but yet elegant

·         Texture of background contrasts with smooth quality of material

·         Causal, relaxed but confident pose

·         Slight multi-cultural feel

Jasmin Shokrain

·         Again consistent colour, material

·         Location of blue/white/pink is shifted around on each outfit

·         Orange hair compliments the deep blue material

·         Very straight-up poses- what you see is what you get- simplicity

Ulyana Sergeenko

·         Less casual- more elegant

·         All quite curvy- pinched in at the waist

·         High waistline emphasizes length of legs

·         Formal grey spectrum used- smart

·         Each outfit has some sort of subtle pattern

Fashion Day 3

Today our task was to create a final garment which would be worn and photographed at the end of the day.

I decided to refine the skirt design I made on day 1 as I think it worked very well. I loved the shape and volume of the garment- it was almost like a wedding dress. I could imagine it being worn in an environmental portrait in the middle of a field or other open expanse- the feathery, layered quality of the skirt would blend in with the surrounding grass.

As this had to be wearable I started off by making two bands to hold the garment up on the mannequin, one for the waist and one for the chest. I used the same process as the first day to create the pieces for the skirt- I then attached each piece to the waist band using staples. I made sure to make a good number of pieces to give the skirt enough volume to create the look I was going for. Next I cut small pieces of paper out to cover up where I had attached each of the skirt pieces to neaten it up a bit.

I then decided to get rid of the chest band, I had initially thought of making it into more of a dress but then felt that the skirt would work well without any extra bits- keeping it simple.

My model was Qandeel who was very cooperative despite the skirt being much too girly for her liking! Whilst taking photos of my garment I also took photos of Qandeel’s dress on Evangeline as she couldn’t take the photos herself. Evangeline was also wearing her crown.

I was quite pleased with how the photos turned out even though Qandeel was perhaps not the type of person I had intended the skirt to be worn by- Evangeline would have actually been more like what I was looking for but obviously she was modelling Qandeel’s garment already. I reckon if I did something similar in future I would make sure to spend more time thinking about the model I would pick (and asking in good time before everyone is taken).

My favourite photos were when Qandeel and Evangeline were sitting in the circular windows- I love the super-soft backlight you get from the large light sources. It was especially interesting when facing away from the windows and light would fall on each side of the face but would leave the centre in darkness- this helped define the curvature of the face better and helped separate the subject from the background.

 

I have to say I quite enjoyed the Fashion week even though I don’t have any particular interest in following the pathway myself. There were many concepts and processes we went through that I felt I could apply within my photography and other work. It also gave me a bit of an insight into the fashion industry which will be useful as being a photographer I will inevitably be working with people from the fashion industry during photoshoots in future.

Fashion Day 2

Our tasks today were focused on the design aspect of fashion- we would be working on smaller scale 2D images to experiment without the limitations of what is easily accomplished in 3D. We carried out various tasks which would involve using and taking inspiration from the magazine cutouts we brought along.

After we had made an assortment of designs we used the photocopier to enlarge them- we then cut out shapes of different outfits from them. This created some new interesting textures which could inspire new garments.

I think it’s quite a cool way to work- you can create new textures, patterns and designs by playing with the scale of things, rearranging and cutting them up.

Fashion Day 1

To start off the fashion week we were given a task to create a few small samples of different ‘forms’ (not thinking about anything wearable in particular at the moment) which we would develop later to from part of a garment. These samples were to be inspired by what we had done in the previous week. I referenced some of the photographs I had taken for the processes or forms I would use.

Next we had to create multiple enlargements of a single sample using the same idea or process. I chose the sample that was inspired by the structure I created in 3DD to support the water bottle. The process of enlarging created new forms as paper on a larger scale became more flexible and loose. This made my forms look more draped rather than rigid and structural. I felt this change might suggest that the forms could be used to make some sort of skirt or dress.

After everyone had finished creating their forms we grouped up and got mannequins ready to start assembling an outfit. Our group had already come up with some good ideas of how to use our forms to create a garment. We were all ready to start but to our surprise we were all told to drop our things and move to another mannequin- we were then given the task of using other people’s forms to create a garment, not our own! This was quite a cool activity as it made us think on our feet a bit and work with forms that we may have not been able to come up with.

It ended up that I preferred the outfit made with our original parts, when we finally got around to using them, but we were definitely able to create some interesting garments using other people’s forms too.

LBM Research

Elizabeth Gadd

·         Mysterious, what’s behind that fog?

·         Feel like you are following her

·         There’s some sort of track but where does it lead?

·         Monotone grading- cold

·         Subtle green/red contrast

·         Small burst of red/warmth amongst cold, bland background

·         Empty expanse, going nowhere?

·         Been on a long walk?

·         Alone, quiet

·         Greeny brown tones make image look dull, cold, miserable

·         Cold- you can see breath

·         Backlight picks out figure and tree branches

Evan Walsh

·         Just discovered a magical place

·         Monotone green/blues- cool, chilled out

·         Rocks melt away in the water

·         Vibrant, contrasty image with plenty of crushed blacks- angry, stressed, upset?

·         Smoke may represent what he’s feeling

·         Surrounded, alone

·         What are you feeling?

·         Fun, friends, happiness, joy

·         You can smell the evening air

·         Light from car- not artificial

·         Mysterious

·         Unnatural blue glow

·         Silhouetted- who are these people?

·         Curves of neck/head play with each other- creates strong line of light

Heinz Maier

·         Look like mushrooms or trees

·         Could make an environment out of these

·         Magical moments happen for a split second but then are lost forever

·         There is another world within our world

·         Looks impossible

·         Smooth colour transitions

·         Interesting reflections

Noukka Signe

·         Double exposure photograph creates cool reflection/flare effect

·         Sun so bright that it engulfs some of the image

·         What is she thinking about?

·         Strong backlight clearly defines legs

·         Casts long shadows which lead to the camera

·         Colourful, fun

·         Curvature of pavement enhances ‘bouncy’ feel

·         Long shadow sells the jump

·         Dead-centre shoes, nice composition

·         Legs lead out of the frame making the jump look really high

·         Who are you?

·         Cool tone- perhaps sad?

·         ‘Eyes are the windows to the soul’ – maybe you can work out something about this girl?

·         Playing with lip- nervous?

·         Flare obscures face- slight mystery

·         Winter morning- edges of frame are cool- winter hat

·         Softly silhouetted- nice strong shapes

Peter Jamus

·         Leading lines draw you to bottom of image where figure is

·         Top of trees fade away into sky- make them seem taller

·         Cool atmosphere

·         Low angle makes person look tiny

·         Dynamic pose compliments dynamic water

·         Water interacts with body in interesting ways

·         Monotone saturated blue

·         In focus water droplets stand out amongst background bokeh

·         Strong pose

·         Sculpted by hard light

·         Stands out amongst pure black background

·         Strong diagonal direction

·         Yellow and blue contrast- pastely colours

·         Yellow reflections off water surround the blue girl

·         Strong centred composition

·         What is she doing there?

·         Movie-like aspect ratio

·         Complimentary colours- Blue/Orange

·         Extreme saturation to show warmth of fire in ice cold environment

·         Mountains blend with the water in the background

·         Where is she going? Adventure?

·         Flame can be easily picked out amongst low-key image