Week Eight

Finished Assignment 1

1. Image saved as Full Size TIFF, Adobe RGB (use building image)

2. Image saved as JPEG for web, sRGB profile, 500pixels wide, 50kb in size (use building image)

3 & 4. Image saved as a layered TIFF, guy on one layer, background, with layer mask.

5. Image of girl, B&W, blown to white, Square crop, eyes on a 1/3 line, spot out sensor dust.

6. Moth image, Crop to square, 4 x images, black background

7. Change colour of spidermen to green.

8. Clone out other cars.

9. Square and border, size for print, colour profile AdobeRGB.

10. A4 print on A3 paper, colour profile AdobeRGB.

Image 8

Image 9

Image 10

Assignment 1

So far - Still more to goo, need to edit the legs, they look a little clumsy, bring it all together - spider still looks ut of place, lighting and sky.

RESEARCH

- Watched:

- The Wolf Man (2010)

- The Wolfman (1941)



-Directed by George Waggner the Orignal Movie seems alot more light hearted because of the time in which it was made.

- IMDB - describes the plot as "A practical man returns to his homeland, is attacked by a creature of folklore, and infected with a horrific disease his disciplined mind tells him can not possibly exist."

- Both films are relivialy similar in plot and true to each other

- The orginal was the first film to introduce the characters in the film since The Black Cat (1934)

- love the way the blacks in the first film are quite grey and in the remake they are very dark black scenes.

-Along with frankenstein and dracula the wolf man is one of the most famous horror characters of all time

- Other werewold films that acompany the Wolf Man are they Howiling and American Werewolf in London

- Werewolves are alson know as lycanthrope - the film Underworld uses this term in which the werewolves are called lycans who battle against the vamps!

-mythical or foaklore creature who shapeshifts by being bitten by another wolf or a curse.

- transformation coinsides with the months cycle of the full moon

- most popularly noted by Gervase of Tilbury and earlier amongs greek writings of Petronius

- posseses super strength and senses, vunlerable to silver bullets

-European monster

- Herodotus in 'Histories' - was written that a tribe were all transformed in to wolves once every year for a couple of days

- Greek geographer Pausanius - story of the lycan- transformation into wolf because killed a child.

- Apollodorus + Ovid - give human flesh to Zeus and transforms into lycan as punishment for his murder

- still featured today in modern literature - Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban.

I dont want my work to look like either one movie or the other; I like they greys and the old sytle to the original, but the remake CGI look so real at the same time. I think the figuirne will give an orginal movie feel to the images because the wolf is a fake and obviously not reall but at the same time I'd like my images to be dark with high shadows and have a sence of reality. However my first image I'd like to be aimed more towards the original movie in terms of the text and layout- I want that old style horror text and for it to be quite simple not to complex so it doesnt take away from the feel of how the old horror posters used to be. The following images I hope for them to look more like newer images but I plan to keep them all in black and white - to get a larger tonal range and the ability to creat more shadows - in turn keeping with the the orginial movie which is black and white unlike the remake.

Week Six

This week was on Assignment 1

   

Part 5 = Image of girl, B&W, blown to white, Square crop, eyes on a 1/3 line, spot out sensor dust.

            

Part 6 = Moth image, Crop to square, 4 x images, black background                                     
  

          

Part 7 = Change colour of spidermen to green

Assignment 2

Image 1

I want to use a house across the road that I look at everyday. I like it because it has a subtle gothic feel with black and white furnishings and floral iron gates and door frames. I'd like to use a giant collectible figurine of a spider and edit it on to the top of the house.

Image 2

I like the idea of traditional family portraits and keeping with the theme of fear and creatures I'd like to edit it a figurine of Predator either as part of the family or walking past in the background as if the photographer happened to catch it in the serene family moment.

Assignment 3

The concept of a narrative kind of scared me because I was afraid I wouldnt be able to come up with an interesting enough story. While looking at the figurines for my other assignment I saw a large Wolf Man figurine, and I thought why i cant use some one Elise's story. Since I love reading and watching movies, and find classic monster stories really interesting, I'm really looking forward to creating it into a photographic series.

Image 1

ARTIST WHO WORK WITH SPIDERS:

After looking into artists who work with spiders i found there is a lot of ways in which you can document something - some can be very artistic where there is a lot of focus on the pose of the insect/spider , the eyes and legs. Other photographs are scientific documentations of a species showing the whole body of an insect. Another type is somewhere in the middle - images that can be used for licenced representation  eg magazines for nature, or gardening. They are a stock pile of images for companies to use that are informative yet visually interesting.

Photographers such as M Plonsky, Alex Wild, Frank Philips, Dennis Crawford, Steve Gsuchmeisser.

  

A lot of which use Marco and SEM - Scanning Electron Microscope to magnify the specimen by a million in order to get a detailed image.

Dennis Crawford - has his own company titled "Graphic Science" - specialist in insect Photography. he sees it as a insect image library that companies can come to and use.

Because spiders are feared and scary this is defiantly something I'd like to convey - however with experimentation I need to decide if its best to have the spider in a background as if it were a cheerful image (blue skies sunny day) which would be unexpected or to change the lighting and have clouds and a dark and eerie atmosphere.

I also worry that because the subject isn't actually real - it might take away from the image - but on the other hand it also could add to the image - so long as it looks like its meant to be there. the crispness of the digital picture might contrast against the figurines plastic appearance.

The spider figurine i plan to use is based on the spider from Lord of the Rings - Shelob. The spider in this movie is greatly fear and id liek to recreate that in my image.

An artist who's work I really loved is Adrian Markis who has a series called Invasion which consists of city scape's and giant animals taking over the city. Really photoshoped pieces, and you cant take your eyes of them - i felt it related to the task we have at the moment - making something unbelievably real.

Image 2

Using a traditional family portrait of my family, Id like to put a Predator in the background. Having the portrait outside the house allows for the predator to sneak past. What spurred my inspiration for this piece, was the movie signs, how the aliens move without your knowledge, how they sneak around and you wouldn't even know - which is what i found most scary about that movie.

Assignment 3 - The Wolf Man

After researching on the Internet  Isaw some of the original posters for the movie and found that i really liked them. The first image of the five i hope to create a grainy posterized poster for the wolf man - something that doesnt look modern- today everything is so clean and crisp making something look like its from the 40s will be an exciting task.

However I have a few key ideas for frames - to convey that the man is turning - show an eye bulging red, irises dilated. eerie feeling. i found that even in movies such as harry potter this is a typical shot of how they convey the change from one form to another.

I'd like to take some shots of the full moon which is next on April 18th. and use the brightness to create a silhouette of the wolf man - either on his own of attacking a female. Which Ive noticed- the wolf man is always sort of carrying a beautiful woman and he attacks her. this i think would be a key frame in the series.

I think next I should watch the movies and read some books about the story to get a correct background knowledge and then see what i come up with next.

Week Five

Scanning!
-drum scanner- top of the line scanner
-flat bed scanner
-lights and lenses on the base and top
- if not touching the glass out of focus
- film uses a different lens, focuses on a different point
- size up to a3 or a3 but are worth a lot
- when scanning film emulsion side down, shiny side up
- plastic film holder
- epson scan - unisa
-professional mode
-most have adjustibility
-negatives are not reflective
- doc type= film and film holder
-blk and white neg / colour
- wait for scanner lights to be correct temp
-preview
- crop how much needed
- adjustments - histogram, pull black and white markers
- picture faulty - light let in = tell it where the light is to correct the light without losing image (face)
-thumb nail unclicked - loses edge
-film has a cast - in colour
- Resolution - only to its optical limit
- optical limit is 240
-eg 9600 dpi divided by 240 = 40 inch print/ 100 m /1meter
- keep at original size in order to stop computer from filing in pixels
-clean negatives to avoid dust spots
- fog -dodge and burn in shad, high, mid tones
- 255 pure white in R,G, B
-match hardness with hardness of edge - photoshop
- hair - drop opacity
 - layer mask doesn't delete, lets you hide  - paint brush white more black erase
- larger the file the bigger the radius should be - no more that 2

Week Four

This week was an introduction to Photoshop and Cameras.

Camera notes:
- Nikon D 90 middle range DSLR
-other newer cameras have better water proofing megapixels and more buttons
- zoom lenses, more glass, not as good as a prime lens
- zoom lens eg 18-200mm huge range, yet Prime lenses produce a better image
- zoom lenses can go 2-3 stops bellow lens length before shaking
-constant and single focus, constant always focus eg sports children moving things
- CHECK, Iso, white balance,quality, and metering
- auto white balance is good, unless different lighting - raw change white balance
-metering - Spot metering 5% of image used for checking exposure of small areas
- centre metering -  portraits used when colours or light in the background is distracting
- full/matrix metering - picks best exposure
-firmware - software inside the computer
- Websites to see - digital discoun photography, photographic wholesalers
- SRGB = Screen colours
- Adobe RGB :) people can adjust for you - who are trained ect
- CMYK files are crap! and will print crap.

Photoshop- things I learnt that I didnt already know
- Ruler tool - adjust horizons, helps with layouts
-colour value numbers
-can use RGB as black and white better tones
-adjust levels to widen tones - black & white
-unsharp mask (darkroom) 2 layes one blur on sharp
- smart sharp - eg sky doesnt need to sharpen
- use blur to soften skin

Assignment 1

Image 1- Save as 500pxl jpeg for web 50kb
Image 2 - Tiff, full res Adobe RGB

Image 1 above.

(Image 2 is the same - to big to upload)



** will start looking at artists who use narritive ect for Assignment 1 and 2

Week Three

Week 3 was a public holiday so these are just some notes on cameras from the previous lecture that we would have discussed in week .

Aperture
-names given to the opening lens that controls the amount of light that enters the camera.
- the size is measured in f stops.

Fstops
- are fractions of whole numbers
- therefore the larger the number eg f22 = 1/22nd, the smaller the amount of light let in : f 2.8 would let a lot of light in.
- fstops are halved and doubled in size as the get larger/ smaller
- 1.8, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22

Shutter Speed
- amount of light let through the shutter based on how long its left open for
- exposes image/sensor
-measured in fractions of a second
- B (as long as you hold the shutter down), 1. 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/5, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, all the way up to 1/8000th
- shutter speed affects the way objects are viewed
-long shutter speeds are used for movement eg water fall, creates a blur that shows movement
- short shutter speeds freeze the image and show no move ment eg sports


ISO/ASA and Film
- International/ American Standard Association
- sensitivity to light rating for film/ sensor
- lower iso = more light necessary to expose the film
- higher iso = less light necessary to expose the film
- iso - known as the film speed
- higher the film speed ( films that need less light) the more grainy the images are
- grain really only affects film, digital cameras can capture a picture with a high film speed and have little noise
- 25/50, extreme light, fine grain, studio,flash (slow speed film)
- 100/200, high light, fine grain, sunny outside
- 400/800, mod light, overcast cloudy, mod grain, (mod film speed)
- 1600, 3200, 6400,  low light/ no light, very grainy, sport (needs high shutter speed therefore, frozen image), inside, night.
- Film with CN means that it is a colour film and cant be used at UniSA's dark room and in their chemistry
- Film has to stay at one single ISO however digital cameras can change - varying light conditions
- match light conditions to film

Exposure
- total light that falls on a film/ sensor
- balance between, ISO, aperture, and shutter speed
- can have same exposure with different combinations eg, f2.8 at 50th = to f22 at 4th
- 6 stops between each change - change fstops then must change the shutter speed to create an accurate exposure

Depth of Field
- alters the visual effect of the image - focus
- distance between the closest object in focus and the farthest
- blur in background - short depth of field
- all in focus - long depth of field
- half in focus - mod depth of field
-Aperture controls depth of field - large aperture shorter depth of field - f2.8
- smaller aperture  larger depth of field - f22
- depth of field can be moved eg darts image

Lens and Focal Length
- 13-35mm, Wide Angle, Distorts eg (  )  bows image, Used for: Landscape, Ariel, Architecture
- 50-55mm, Normal, what the eye sees, Used for: General
- 90- 300mm, Telephoto, Distorts eg ) (  compresses, Used for: Portrait (70-135mm), sport,geographic, fashion

Camera Shake
- emphasized by longer focal length lenses
- hand holding dont let your shutter speed drop below your lens length
- tripod, shutter cable, brace against something

** when using flash use at 1/60th of a second or slower

Cameras
- Small Format 35mm, Medium Format 6x6, Large Format 8x10 in (tilts and shifts)
- Modes, P -  Auto, Program Mode, Tv/Sv - Shutter Priority, Av - Aperture Priority, M - Manual, PH- Fastest Shutter Speed.  Priority- you control.


Here are some of my photos I've taken with an SLR this week:

Week Two

This week was A LOT of talking, but in saying that i did learn a lot. Taking Intro to Photography at the same time I find helps, I can bounce things I learn in one subject off the other.

DIGITAL CAPTURE

Colour and Light
- light changes over time of day, and therefore we need to  be mindful of the effect it has on our images
- it changes the shades of colour and what might seem like correct colour balance might in face be incorrect
-lights give off different colours -  Tungsten (light globe)  is yellow,  Flash is normally a neutral daylight,  fluros  can vary from green to red * dependent.
- can use colour filters to adjust light differences
-Digitali's colour can be changed with  White Balance, telling the camera what colour the light is
- preset white balances eg. sunny, cloudy
-K value/ Kelvin Degrees is a measure of light colour

-When shooting raw, adjust the white balance after taking the picture, hold up a grey card in the same light conditions ( always 18% grey)
- can use this to represent accurate colour
- Areas of photography where  perfect colour is needed, product photography, fine art reproduction
- some images look great without perfect colour, moody images or late photography era.

File Types
- RAW  eg NEF, CR2, DNG
- equivalent of a negative, contains raw data such as time date, fstop aperture exposure, lens.
- needs to be converted to jpeg or tiff
- raw converter - Photoshop and Light room "Camera Raw" plugin
-TIFF
- big files, known as bitmap images
- lossless format data info for each pixel
- saved over and over and never loses quality
-used when maximum detail is needed.
- good to keep original image
-keeps lay info
JPEG
-lossy format, cant be saved over and over - pixels clam together ( compression) to save space
- data info discarded,  looks like blocks of pixels in colour groups
 (TIFF for printing and originals, JPEG, small web designs screen use)

Resolution
- amount of info that makes up and image
- based on image size and ppi (pixels per inch or dots per inch dpi)
-images can be the same size and still have diferent ppi
- for screen, all that matters is the pixel size ppi is irrelevant in web use
- for printing image size and resolution will determine how big and the quality of the printed image
- *My printer is Up to 9600 x 2400-optimized dpi (when printing from a computer on selected HP photo papers and 1200-input dpi) average printer will print at 100-180 ppi.

- get into a habit of work flow, saving work, backing work up, correctly naming files ect. - i like to think im pretty organised like that already :)

Storage
 - Cds and Dvds - on the way out, fragile
- USB - good, sturdy, up to 8 gig memory, small easily lost
- *Hard drive - heaps of storage,  cant be moved while on. I have a 2tb hardrive, that i back my work onto.
- cloud - Internet storage, costs money, unlimited storage, has equal pros and cons to me.

Week One

"Most of all it captures life, the bits we miss and we do miss alot. You have an opportunity every time you click the shutter to capture something" - Steve Wilson

Some words that I thought very inspirational from my teacher for Digital Photography.

Week One was just in Introduction to the course, going through the Course Information, Assessments and so on. We looked at Artists that are inspirations and these were some of my notes:

David Hill:

- commercial stuff done in colour

- personal stuff done in black and white

- while his commercial stuff has a grunge and heavy look to it his personal work is quite pale and soft

-although some are not necessarily collections his work tells a story and it quite narrative like.

Jill Greenberg:

- have seen her stuff before, heavily photoshoped

- controversy about her crying children images, child cruelty ect - however only took a lolly away from them

-works in collections eg. children and monkeys

Chase Jarvis:

- heavily saturated, dark

- made it big and is well renowned

-commercial photographer

- alot of his work is very artistic rather than standard photography that is mainstream and expected by the public
- breaks rules eg thirds and focus but he does it in a way that works and is visually interesting

Stills Gallery:
- Shows whats current in AUSTRALIAN photography
- mixed with film, digital and photoshop art

CCB - Centre Contemporary Photography:
- holds seminars and exhibitions
- based in Sydney
- photography gallery
- good for research
- student competitions

Worth 1000:
- Creative Competitions for people
- Effects - photoshop
- competitions to age people through photoshop
- set up by categories and themes

We were taken to the 770 Section of the library - the Photography section to look at books, Steve encouraged us too look at artist for half and hour each week.
* Not enough people look at other pictures and ask them selves what do I like about this picture - the more you do the better you will be*