Experimental Photography

Hannah Mizen

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Multi-media collage 1: Original images.

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I first started to create the idea for my collage in my head, thinking of the compositions and where I could place images, then I looked at some artists work, referring back to earlier research I had done. This helped a lot with the placing of images and the colour pallets, to see what works and looks good and what doesn’t. With my idea set in my head, which was the illustration of how man destroys and controls nature through multi-media/collage. The previous evening I had done a shoot on just flowers, which was large so I have a varied collection throughout this project to use in all of my collages. The picture of the flower below is the original image of the cut out roses repeatedly put on the collage in different scales. The other two images were taken by me a while ago in the past. The man was taken last summer at a fair in a local village. The background image is an abstract picture of the sky that I had also taken a while ago. This image was quite heavily edited when I found it and I wasn’t able to find the original image of the edited version.

Multi-media collage 1

This series of images is a timeline of my development through the making of my collage, from my start idea, to my final piece. The first image was mainly me experimenting with the head of the man, what would replace it, because it had to be some kind of building or man mad structure, so I found a picture of a building I had taken a while back, cut it down to size and fitted it into a head shape. When I looked back into my research, I looked at Hannah Hoch, and saw she added mouths and eyes to make abstract faces. So I decided to add a mouth and a bit of a nose to the building. I then declared this a half way point, because I wasn’t 100% happy with it, but I still printed it out anyway so I could see if the drawing on of lines would look successful, which it was. Because I felt like something was missing from the collage I decided to experiment further with composition. I then changed the background, duplicating the pink part and making it into a slightly different tone of pink, then I changed where I placed the background. This positing looked a lot more effective. I then went on to trying to change the head of the man, I tried to reshape and reposition, but this picture just didn’t look right. So I scrapped those images and went for a completely different image. This new picture for the man’s head is part of a gate, this bit is the side, which is made of stone. I then edited it and cut it down to the right size so it would fit, without distortion. I cut it down, then I edited it to the right colour and texture so it would blend in with the man’s body and make it look like one photo, this editing was just turning the photo black and white, adding an orange filter then adding some noise on the photo to make it look more vintage and fitting.

First Final Image Annotation

This image is my first final piece from this experimental photography project. I feel this photo fits in well with my theme of nature. The subject matter of this photo is to do with the way man destroys nature, how man controls nature in a way it shouldn’t be. The Man with a piece of architecture on his head is there to signify the way humans build structures that destroy nature, and they way they don’t care. The controlling of nature is signified with the roses, the way they have been constrained by the man with the lines leading from the hand of the man to the roses, they can’t get away and the man can do whatever he wants to nature because nature can’t fight back. I feel like this message in the collage is fairly easy to dissect and figure out, but also the message is subjective to the viewer and they can also see what they want to see. I made this image on photoshop, by cutting out new and old images I had taken, editing them, and then constructing them. Then I printed it out and drew the lines on with biro, then I scanned It back in to get the final result.

The tools I used to cut out the images was the polygonal lasso on photoshop, I used this to cut out everything from their original image, then I moved them about to the right places

To add the lines to my image I used a biro pen, I preferred this rather than drawing the lines in digitally, because this took away from the feeling of the image.

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Evaluate: ideas eg analysis, results; How well do you feel you have realised your ideas and intentions and what results have you got? Ensure you talk critically (compare, contrast, assess) about your work. You should reference your influences and assess how your work compares.The idea for this collage I felt was a bit hit and miss, I wasn’t sure if I was actually going to be able to pull a photomontage off without having any pictures of buildings, or any texture pictures to add as backgrounds. Because I was sceptical about the lack of photos I had to work with, I decided to use some old images I had taken before this project, (which I edited). Because I wasn’t confident on how I would present people in my collage, so I referred back to Hannah Hoch and her work, looking at the collages she had made and seeing what compositions, colours and subject matters she had used to make her photomontages look aesthetically pleasing. So I made my collage, which I think you can see Hannah Hoch’s influence in it. I think my collage is very successful, I feel the message that it is portraying, is not too obvious, so viewers can have their own take on the piece, I think the message telling element with mine and Hannah Hoch’s is in contrast, I think that the message in mine is a lot clearer and obvious, where as Hannah Hoch’s messages are more abstract, especially in the picture here, as it is quite abstract, so there are no signs of what the collage means, but because it is more abstract, then viewers can translate it into anything they want to. The similarities in our work is to do with the aesthetics and the style of the photomontage, the fact that the collage has been made with photos is what makes the style look so similar. The way in which the photos are cut and placed within the collage also look very similar, which is good, and because I can compare Hannah Hoch’s and my work so closely, I know my work is successful. Qualities:Consider the aesthetic qualities of your work. How does it look? What do you like about it? What are the strongest and weakest elements from an aesthetic point of view?I think the final, overall look of my final image has an old, vintage look about it, I think the way I have edited the images makes it look older, and more grainy, making the photos look like not actual photos I have taken, but they actually look like found images. I really like this aesthetic and was something I wanted to achieve, even though I knew it might be hard because I had digitally taken the photos and edited them on a computer, but I managed to make the images look vintage and old without going overboard. I also think that this image is successful because of how it looks like it has been cut out and suck down by hand, because I printed the image from photoshop then scanned it back in, this gave it an almost 3D effect, like the images had been glued down. I think the strongest point of the whole image is the colour and composition, I really like the colour pallet of all the pastel colours, and the way they match up to each other with this kind of greyish tone that makes the colours look a bit washed out. The weakest element would probably be the drawn on lines, as they re not as neat as I could have made them, I also didn’t get to experiment with thread, and I think thread would have added to this photos hand-made feel.

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Consider the technical qualities of your work? How well done is it? What elements are strongest and which could need further work and development? Be sure to use technical terms in your work such as exposure, shutter speed, aperture and talk specifically about any post-production techniques you have used.

The technical quality of my work is quite well done, I feel that that my technique has improved and I was able to push my photoshop skills more to do more challenging things. I have gained more skills using the lasso tool and cutting out finer details of my photos, which improved the overall outcome of my final image. Also with editing I found that my skills had improved with being able to create a feel within my photos using the editing to change the colours of my photos, for example, when one of my photos was in colour and I needed it to look vintage, I first turned it black and white, changed the colour balance within the black and white, then I turned the contrast and brightness up subtly, then I added a warming filter over the black and white, then I finally added noise to the photo to give it a grainy, old effect. This technique worked really well, and I was able to repeat this again exactly so two photos were able to merge together. My camera skills have also improved, and I have been able to change the exposure so that all the photos of the flowers have come out very similar, so that I will need to do less editing on them, and it makes it a lot easier, and also the final image looks a lot better. I was also able to manipulate the camera’s focusing, so it was softer and there was less detail in the photo, to make it look more like a film camera. The shutter speed I able to make fast and so there would be no movement and blur when taking pictures of flowers that move in the wind.

How could you improve your work? Could you develop your work further with additional work? What would you try to achieve with this? Could you undertake further experiments? If so, what would they be?I could improve my work more, I could do this by adding more images, a different variation of flowers for example, although I like the colours. I think I could also improve my work taking more time cutting out images on photoshop, although my skills with using the lasso tool have improved, I could have still taken a bit more time and been a bit more accurate and patient with keeping the outline of some images a bit smoother and avoided the harsh lines, for example, on the mans right foot, the cutting out looks a little rushed and rough, in contrast to the left foot. I could also could develop this image even further and undertake further experiments than I already have done by adding in different materials, like paint, thread, flower pressings. I think I could have replaced the biro lines with thread and replaced the pictures of flowers with actual real flowers. Because I have not even experimented with these techniques, I don’t know if they would turn out successful or not.

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When talking about your work, consider formal elements such as lines, shapes and patterns as well as the colour and contrast and also tone of your image. Think about the composition of your work and where this could be developed.

In my image there are a lot of formal elements, and these lines and shapes are what make up the composition, which makes the composition, so this is dependant if the whole photo is successful or not. The background of my image shows 2 main lines which split the background into 3 different sections, these are all emerging from the same place, then spreading wider away from each other. Two of the sections have been broken up by rectangle shape, this left a platform for me to put the person, without the collage looking messy or just not looking right. To interrupt the other lines of the other side of the picture, (when I had already added the roses), I decided to add thin, black lines, this also filled up space in a delicate way, without it looking too much. The overall tone of my image is a washed out, vintage tone, nothing is saturated and vibrant, it is greyish and pastels. I think this kind of tone works so well with my style of photomontage, and it adds so much character to the photomontage, I think the colours are very successful and I will continue to work with these kind of tones and colours.

Finally you should consider if the images you have produced fulfil the brief you were set. Do they match the theme? Are they experimental? Explain your answers using specific examples.

I believe that I have completed the brief that was set. My developing photos and my final image all match a theme, even though it may not be obvious, I wanted to do a different take on ‘nature’ I am trying to avoid a generic way of going about it. The theme being to do with nature and how humans effect it, looking particularly at the theme of humans destroying nature, I feel this theme is portrayed in my final image and I plan to keep this same theme running throughout my other 2 final pieces and their development. The images I have taken for the photomontages at first don’t look like anything special and they look quite plain, but this is the way they need to be in order to be able to edit them as much as I want to or need to. Most of the experimental part is done in photoshop digitally, this is where I cut out photos and edited them to a large extent to make them almost unrecognisable to their original self, for example the photo at the bottom shows how different I have made the photos, how I have changed the colour, texture, form, and flipped the photo over so It is displayed on the opposite side.

Multimedia experiment 2: Original images.

Here are the original images I have taken for my photo montage, images that I took with the intention of cutting the subject matters out and placing them on a page with other cut out photos. These photos for this photomontage were flowers and buildings. All these photos were taken in a way that when they would be cut out they would be recognisable, so I couldn’t take any images that would be abstract or unidentifiable, e.g. being out of focus, macros shot, reflections, long exposure. The photos had to be in focus, the right exposure and taken from a clear vantage point.

Multimedia collage: development

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This series of pictures is a development timeline, showing my progress and how I have improved he final image to where it needs to be to be up to the standard to be able to present as a final image. For this idea I wanted to keep the theme surreal, just like the last photo, using cut out images that I had taken from my own camera, then edited them. The concept of this image was to show how nature can over-take humans and man made products. I had a clear idea of what the composition was going to look like in my head, so I put this on to a page, but I had to use found images from the internet because I had not taken the pictures I needed, but I still wanted to see if the composition of the photomontage worked. I did this first experiment on photoshop, cutting out the photos quickly and inaccurately, I did this because I needed to do it quickly to save time, and also it didn’t matter what it looked like because none of it would be used in my final piece. After I had been out and took all the photos of flowers and buildings I needed I started to construct my final piece. I first started by choosing a suitable picture of a building that I could cut out, I cut out the top of the building, then duplicated it, and put it on the other side. I then took the pictures that I had taken and put them on to photoshop to cut the flowers from their background. I cut out 4 different flowers, then duplicated them to increase the amount of flowers and also to make it look like a fuller bunch of flowers which improves the composition. After this I then constructed the background for the collage, so it would look complete. I then edited the separate flowers, buildings and the pieces of sky for the background to make them look older and more grainy, so the colours would match and blend together. I then printed the picture out so I could add more to it by hand, I drew lines from the buildings to the corner of the page, this is to signify but to also make the 2 pieces match up and the lines do this. The flowers were still missing something, so I decided to draw more shadows on them, this made them stand out more from the background and gave the more depth and 3D effect. I then scanned it in to the computer which gave it a more grainy, stuck together feel.

Final piece 2

This is my second final piece, which is a photomontage, where I have also added some drawings with biro, these are lines and shadows to the image, which then was scanned back into the computer. The concept of this idea was to portray how nature will always overrule and be stronger than man-made objects. The large flowers signify the nature, and they are scaled larger than the buildings to show that they are more powerful, the way in which the flowers have broken the building and are using it to their own advantage, this shows how nature can manipulate and is dominate over humans. I feel that this message that is being portrayed in this piece is easy to work out, although it may not be obvious what the plants are growing out of to start with, because of the surreal and abstract way the images have been placed and put in. But the actual way the images have been taken makes them clear and obvious, to what the subject matter of the photos are, because they are clear, and not blurry. I cut and constructed the photos by using photoshop. The tools I used were mainly the lasso tool, this help me cut out (using the zoom) images accurately. I also used the adjustments to edit the colours and contrast of the original photos, I found that the warming filter and the noise filter were the most effective and useful tools to edit with, next to the contrast and brightness exposure tools. The perspective of the photos, especially the buildings, has been taken from an angle, making the photo looking 3D, so there is some depth to the piece without the use of depth of field being involved. Another main part of this photo and what makes it work is the added drawings I have set on to the image. I decided to draw in and extenuate and outline parts of the flowers to give them more depth. I also drew lines coming from the buildings to match the first photo.

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Evaluate: ideas eg analysis, results; How well do you feel you have realised your ideas and intentions and what results have you got? Ensure you talk critically (compare, contrast, assess) about your work. You should reference your influences and assess how your work compares.

I feel that I have realised my intentions and ideas, that the message, even a simple idea, is put across and easy to dissect and understand by any viewer, even if they may have their own interpretation about the image. I think that the quality of my work is good and I am happy with the outcome and how the over-all composition feels and how the images work and move together together. My main influence for the look of this image is Linder Sterling, I researched and looked through her work to see which images she compilated together, so I could see which work and which images I should try and experiment with, I also looked at the colours, to see which colour pallet I should work with, with or without colour. From researching into Linder’s work I found that she did a lot of work with the subject matter of flowers and people., making them work together by making sure they are both black and white. The messages Linder gets across are a lot different to mine, and this is where our work contrasts. Subject matters as well, as Linder likes to use a lot of people, mainly women, with their heads covered with flowers or to replace different parts of their body, like the lips on their face. Where for this project my collages are to do with Nature vs Humans, although I could use humans, I wanted to focus on using buildings to replace the human form, to make my message more powerful and potent.

Consider the aesthetic qualities of your work. How does it look? What do you like about it? What are the strongest and weakest elements from an aesthetic point of view?

From an aesthetic point of view, I am really pleased with the way the look of this collage came out. With the way I developed my collage is I decided I would keep my background either black and white or sepia, then I wanted to keep my flowers with colour, but a lot less saturated than they were originally, with an warming filter to make them match, making sure the pallet of the collage is all matching, so nothing looks out of place, then by adding a noise filter this made the photos look aged and gave them a vintage feel. I think that the strongest elements of my collage are the subject matter and the colour pallet (editing). I think that the set out of the collage works really well and looks really effective, using up the right amount of space, not looking like the page is empty, but it doesn’t look too busy either, I think that the colour of the collage helps with this, the colours are unsaturated and dulled down, so the colours are not overwhelming. I think the weakest element of this final image is the background, I think that the places where the lines are on the background are too frequent and small, I could also get found images from old magazines, books or old photos, then scan them into the computer and put them on photoshop, although this would be very difficult if you didn’t have the correct sources. I could experiment with thread. Instead of drawing on lines and shading in with biro, I could use thread instead, I could go about this by gluing on the thread in the same places I drew on the lines, or I could also actually sew the thread into my final piece, using a sewing machine, or by hand with a thread and needle. When I think about improving my work, without using any new developments, I think I would definitely change the background up. I feel like the lines, although subtle, take something away and are not in the right places, I would make the lines longer with less layers and less abundance, I would space the lines out and make them take up more space.

The shading in the flowers I drew on with biro, this gives the flowers more depth and texture. The outlines make the flowers pop out from their background, so they don’t blend in too much

One of Linder’s pieces, showing her work, an example of how she used her style of collage, with flowers and women being stuck together, usually on the head or covering up the face.

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Consider the technical qualities of your work? How well done is it? What elements are strongest and which could need further work and development? Be sure to use technical terms in your work such as exposure, shutter speed, aperture and talk specifically about any post-production techniques you have used.

I feel that the technical qualities in my work have improved, especially since the first collage, and I expect will improve throughout the progression and development of this project, as I get more practice, I become better at this. The main aspects of my work I’m talking about are the ones I have gained in Photoshop , using the lasso tool to cut out the edge of my work, my skills have developed in the patience area, where I have learnt how to take time and go around all the edges of the tricky leaves and petals of the flowers. These minor details give the collage a professional edge, which were lacking in my fist photomontage. The other photographic side of my project there was a major improvement in the quality of my photos. Because on the first collage I hadn't actually taken any photos that were tailored to my project of nature vs man, I had to improvise with pictures from shoots I had done previously, and then work the pictures to make them relevant. Where as in this collage, I had been out and taken pictures especially for this project, so this time I could get accurate pictures that matched the ideas I had in my head, instead of the other way around. I first did a shoot to do with buildings and urban environments, I went to Manchester and mainly focused on buildings, which matched the idea in my head of using the building as a plant pot. For this shoot the lighting conditions were not ideal, but were still easy to work with, so the settings on my camera were not complicated. I used a medium aperture, because it was quite cloudy so I needed some light, but not so much that it was over exposed. The depth of field I also wanted that to have a medium range, because I wanted the buildings in the distance to be in focus, but not the surrounding areas. The next shoot was the nature shoot, I wanted to focus on taking pictures of flowers, because of the kind of ideas I had in my head. The day of the shoot was sunny and I was just in my garden, so setup and camera settings were simple, all I needed to do was put the camera on a tri-pod, and set the camera on macro so it would catch all of the details I wanted.

How could you improve your work? Could you develop your work further with additional work? What would you try to achieve with this? Could you undertake further experiments? If so, what would they be?To improve my work I think that there is one major problem that sticks out to me and may not be obvious to viewers at the start, but the more I look at this piece it becomes more obvious. This would be the background, The picture was not planned out as well and even thought the subject matter of it does have relevance, I didn’t take the picture especially for this project, so the picture isn’t tailored to the project and wasn’t as well thought out as it could have been. To improve this I would have given more thought to the background and done a relevant shoot or collected relevant materials and scanned them in to create a bespoke background, instead of piecing together a random photo of the sky (that I had taken). With additional work I could also could improve my collage to a certain degree, the pictures of the flowers could be cut out in Photoshop with more detail and patience. Further experiments could take place, different compositions where the pictures are, the placement of the page (landscape or portrait). I could add more variants of photos of flowers instead of repeating the same one, this was done because of the time deadline. Experimenting with my photos could be done to improve this, things like changing the style of the photos, making them black and white or at least making some of the photos black and white. I could have also experimented with collecting found images ones that were taken already like disposable film, or pictures in magazines or on postcards.

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When talking about your work, consider formal elements such as lines, shapes and patterns as well as the colour and contrast and also tone of your image. Think about the composition of your work and where this could be developed.

The formal elements in this collage are a lot more difficult to talk about in this collage, are there is not as many obvious lines. The first lines that you notice is the ones that are diagonally coming off of the building, these are lines I drew on myself, and I think they add a line of focus for your eyes to follow, instead of there not being much direction in the piece. Other lines and shapes include the background, which consists of squares and rectangles that are all different from each other. I think that if I had made the background pieces bigger, this would look more effective. I could develop different areas of this by maybe instead of editing the pictures to look old and grain, actually taking the pictures on film, then scanning them in to the computer, then cutting out the subject matter from the background and arranging the composition of the images on Photoshop, this means I wouldn’t have to edit my images to look like film because they already are. I could also make the squares of the background identical, each one creating a repeated pattern, giving the photo more order. The subject matter position could be developed by being slightly off centre, or tilted diagonally, this would make the subject matter more eyecatching and be more interesting, giving it more movement. Finally you should consider if the images you have produced fulfil the brief you were set. Do they match the theme? Are they experimental? Explain your answers using specific examples.

I think that my image has fulfilled the brief that was set. My image matches the theme of nature, from my own take on it, not a generic way but a completely different way in how you would usually think of nature, nature vs humans, so I have created a theme within a theme, and this has been consistent throughout my 2 final pieces so far. My piece is experimental, because I have created another photomontage, which comes under the experimental term of multimedia. To create this experimental technique, have taken all my own images, cut them out from their original context, and stuck them into a completely different context, giving the pictures different meanings to what they had originally, this was all done digitally on photoshop, editing contrast, exposure, brightness, adding warming and noise filters, and unsaturating colours on the flower, building and background. The way I have drawn and added my own drawings to the image is experimental, adding more the the photomontage, adding more depth, texture, feeling. I think that this piece comparing to the last piece is a lot more focused on buildings as man, and that it is more obvious in it signification and its statement, and even though it is an experimental piece, its developed from that area and is not as experimental as the collage before. I feel that the thing that could be most improved on is the background,

Here is an example of the background, and how the different lines are close together, I think that if I were to space these out or delete a couple or make them less abundant, then I think that the background would be a lot more effective.

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Experiment 3: Original Images

My original images that I used for this next photomontage. These images were taken especially for this project and were selected for this montage. I took the pictures with the intention on being able to cut them out and stick them in a different environment and the pictures would still be recognisable in this odd environment. So when taking the pictures I would have to make sure there were no intrusive shadows, nothing blocking the subject matter (even a little bit, it had to be completely clear), and also making sure the subject is lit correctly, so the exposure is the right amount, not too over exposed and not too under, otherwise if I cut out the image, the subject matter may be difficult to recognise or may not even be recognisable. Or this could also alter the feeling of the over-all out come of the collage, and it may not match the theme of the rest of the collages if the photos are not lit correctly.

Third Experiment

This is a timeline showing my development in the process of getting to my final photomontage. It shows where I started and how my idea improved as I kept on developing my idea. To create this photomontage I went through a process of selecting and choosing the right images to go together and create a collage that makes a statement about the environment and how it clashes with man kind. From selecting my main images, the building and the roses, I had to decide which part of the building I would use and its position and style. In my head I wanted the building to take up the whole background, and to go about this I wanted a repeated pattern to give the building a sense of repetition and dullness. I tried cutting out different parts of the buildings and pasting them together making an irregular and unbalanced building, but when I put the different sections together it didn’t work and didn’t look aesthetically pleasing or effective. So then I tried putting the windows together in a more orderly fashion, but this also looked odd and out of place, so I decided on just repeating one window to cover the whole background and make a building. Once I had created this I then concentrated on the position of the flowers and their size, I struggled with working out their placement and decided that the collage needed another image to make my message clearer and for the image to work. So I chose another image that was representative of nature and then worked from placing the hand to placing the flowers to make it look like that nature is taking over the building. To create this effect and feeling of over-flowing I manipulated layers of the background to cover the flowers, making the flowers look like they are filling the building. To make this collage match the others I did the colours and style in the same way as I had done previously. I made the colours on all the images not as vibrant, giving them a vintage, old style, paper feel. I did this because of my influences and how it is shown in my work, and because my influences are to do with artists that produced their work earlier on, then I wanted my work to match the same kind of feel and aesthetic as theirs. Finally I then printed out the collage when I was happy with it, I then drew around the main parts of the photo in black biro, to make them stand out and give them more texture.

This is the third one of my collages. The concept behind this is continuing from the last two collages, and is making a statement about the way man-made objects, like buildings can try and destroy nature, but the nature will always fight back and be successful. The layering of the background building is a very important aspect of the photomontage, and gives the picture some perspective, and also some feeling of depth and 3D. The layers of the background also give the flowers a feeling of overflowing and overwhelming force, bursting the building open in different places. The background, is a picture of a window I cut out from a building with the lasso tool on photoshop, I took a picture of, I then took this one window and duplicated it over 100 times to create a building like structure. The flowers I also created in nearly the same way, I cut them out from their original picture, I then duplicated the roses over and over to create a mass of them. The only real difference with the roses is that I scaled and positioned these in all different places, making them cluster together. With the hand this is a symbol of a higher power, a god of nature. The hand is using its power to overpower the building and man-made items. Another thing I feel is important to make the collage aesthetically pleasing is the way I made the finish on the picture, instead of leaving the picture after finishing it on photoshop, I printed it out, drew the outlines and textures on in black, then scanned it back into the computer, giving it this distinct colour and feeling. I feel the black outlines I drew on the photomontage really make the subject matters in the photo stand out, especially against the busy background. The hard lines of the background would cause the flowers to blend in to the background, but by adding the biro and texture to the roses, they pop out of the page and catch your eye. Through

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Evaluate: ideas eg analysis, results; How well do you feel you have realised your ideas and intentions and what results have you got? Ensure you talk critically (compare, contrast, assess) about your work. You should reference your influences and assess how your work compares.

I feel that I have realised my ideas and intentions well and too a good quality. The results I have got from my original statement of man vs nature (nature always wins). I feel that this picture is a bit more complicated in its message, and harder to explain, but simple once understood just it’s not easy to word. The picture in its self displays the message in a simple and uncomplicated way. My influence in this collage was Camille Martin. She creates collages that go with her poems, or will make poems into collages, or just make a collage which has a poem hidden inside of the message of the photomontage. Even though my idea and intention wasn’t to translate a poem or complicated message, it was to state a simple one, so in this I see similarities in our work, how the power of pictures can compliment and replace words. Another similarity I see in our work is the composition of the colleges, the use of colours and repeated patterns. In the picture displayed at the side you can see how in mine there is the window pattern being repeated horizontally, and in Camille’s picture there is also a pattern that is being repeated horizontally, and in both the pattern has been broken up by layers, layers also being another similarity, where you can see in the piece with the big cat and constellations, where the layers make the subjects look as if they are weaving and bending through the background. In contrast, my collages are not poetic symbols and they are not pieces of art to be displayed along side poems, they are pieces that repeat a simple statement in more than one way, were as Camille’s pieces are so in that perspective, they are different.

Qualities:Consider the aesthetic qualities of your work. How does it look? What do you like about it? What are the strongest and weakest elements from an aesthetic point of view?

From an aesthetical point of view, I feel that this piece is strong and it matches the other two pieces I have made, as they give off the same kind of feel, which is a hand made, vintage feel. I achieved this by keeping the colours unsaturated and washed out, but not too much, or this would seem like the colours would become dull and uninteresting. I used photoshop to edit the images, using mainly image>adjustments>vibrance/contrast/exposure. Here I would control the the colours, brightness and contrast, which are the most important things and to do it subtly. Another thing to edit the photos to make them look old is adding a filter which would be brown, to make the photo look like it has some age and wear to it, but this also has to be done sparingly. Another thing I have also done to one of the photos in the montage is put a slight grain on the hand holding the trunk, this was because I felt it was too clean and sharp, so I made it look more gritty and worn, but I only did this subtlety to make it look believable and not fake. I think that the weakest part of my photomontage is that maybe there could have been more differentiation in the flowers, whether that is the type of flowers or even having different plants.

Here is one of Camille’s pieces, where she has used it for a front cover of one of pieces of prose, called Looms. Here you can see the similar aspects between our work. Like the layering of pictures to make it look like its weaving (bottom picture). And the repeated patterns and colours (the top photos).

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Consider the technical qualities of your work? How well done is it? What elements are strongest and which could need further work and development? Be sure to use technical terms in your work such as exposure, shutter speed, aperture and talk specifically about any post-production techniques you have used.

In my work I do use mainly digital aspects, which is photoshop and all the computer software in-between. The quality of my digital editing has improved a lot from my first photo collage, as the cutting out wasn’t as sharp or accurate, where as now the quality has improved, so the cutting out of the photos include more detail, so this has improved greatly. An example of this detail would be the way the flower has been cut out, around the petals there has been loads of detail kept, this makes the flowers look more authentic and real, it also just enhances the quality of my work and makes it look more professional. Another layer of my work is the original photos, that I took before I even got them on the computer. The photo shoots were taken on two separate occasions because of the location, being opposites. The first photo-shoot I did was in the city and urban areas. I went to Manchester and took photos concentrating on getting a basic building, I didn’t want any fancy aperture settings, I just needed clear buildings so I could put them on my collages and it was clear what they were when I took them out of their environment. The aperture settings was set larger than usual because it was a dull day and there was not that much light, so when I took the picture, there was more light let in. The depth of field had to be large, because the subject matter was far away, so I had to get all of the building in focus so it was clear what the building was when it was cut out. With the flowers on the next shoot I had to adjust the camera settings a bit more. Because the subject matter was a lot closer up, this meant I had to make the aperture smaller so that I could capture the details of the flower, but make sure the aperture was large enough to fit all of the detail in, but the settings were still pretty simple, which I needed to make the flowers look clear. Finally you should consider if the images you have produced fulfil the brief you were set. Do they match the theme? Are they experimental? Explain your answers using specific examples. My work is not perfect and there are still things that I could improve and develop. To try and achieve an improvement I would go out and take some more pictures, giving me more scope for some different composition ideas and maybe bring some more subjects and concentrating on different aspects of for example, pollution. Then I would go out and collect images of different pollution, I could range my media, so instead of just taking images myself, I could also find images and cut them out of magazines. Going in the opposite direction, I could go for a completely different statement or subject matter, so moving on from nature and concentrating on portraits of things important to me for example, and this would fit into the family theme of the brief.

Here you can see the detail of quality where the edge has been cut precisely.

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When talking about your work, consider formal elements such as lines, shapes and patterns as well as the colour and contrast and also tone of your image. Think about the composition of your work and where this could be developed.In this piece of work there are many things that create the composition, such as lines, shapes and patterns. In this piece one of the most strong thing that grabs your attention straight away is the repeated pattern of the background. This repeated pattern consists of lots of square boxes being repeated over and over to cover the entire page. This then creates straight, short repetitive lines. Then there is also a contrast pattern which is the flowers, they are contrasting because they do not have straight and geometrical lines, but are round and bumpy. This contrast shows the difference between nature and man made objects, so man-made items are all in-line, made to be exact and boring, where as nature is random and everything is different, which makes it more interesting and less harmful. The tone of my image, I have purposely made all the colours off and look old and vintage, to match my research and the rest of my photomontages. The composition of this image I feel that I could maybe experiment with a different kind of pattern on the background, changing the picture, swapping the pictures around, so the flowers would be the background and the building would be where the flowers are now, this would result in the message or statement maybe changing, so by this I could develop different meanings depending on how the viewer perceives the collage.

Finally you should consider if the images you have produced fulfil the brief you were set. Do they match the theme? Are they experimental? Explain your answers using specific examples. I think that this photomontage has been successful in fulfilling the brief set. The theme of nature is obvious but still in keeping with my own mini theme, matching the other 2 collages, the style and feelings, which is kept by keeping the colours and pictures in the same vintage, old time style, the colours being washed, unsaturated and grainy. I think that this collage has been one of my most experimental ones out of the 3, because of the time and development I have gone through to get to this point, so my work just naturally evolved, and I became more aware of the effect of different techniques and how they effect the viewers perception. For example the repeated pattern of the background, you can see the different patterns I experimented with before getting to this final point and being happy with it. Another thing I feel I experimented with the use of layers, and making the photo look 3D and using this an advantage to improve my work and make it look like I had developed my skills from the first collage. The layering I experimented with, making it look as if the flowers were bursting out of the building and intertwining through different sections. If I had more time I would experiment with adding more layers and making the flowers come out of more places.

Here you can see where I first started developing and experimenting with what kind of pattern I was going to decide on as the background and which picture would work best for this background.