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Experimental Photography

Jonah Adshead

Strong structural features that create the intricate geometrical shapes of the photograph work well.

The repeated lines of the columns and of the girders in the roof make the photograph look more interesting.

This scene just as a photograph would be very passive and quite uninteresting, but the addition of the disrupted structural elements and the different angles of the many photographs give it quite a busy, interesting appearance.

Photographing the scene from this high vantage point allowed me to include a lot of the college in one photograph and you can see the depth of the college right to the other end.

Evaluate: ideas eg analysis, results; I feel as though I have realised my ideas well with this particular photomontage and that it works well. The strong structural lines throughout such as the metal girders and concrete pillars that do not quite line up as they should work well making the smaller images look mismatched as a montage- an effect I was trying to achieve. I tried to include my arm in the photograph, featuring parts of himself was something that Hockney, the artist who come up with this technique and a large influence of mine often did, but I don’t believe you can see it well enough. I would change this if to do it again and make the arm more of a feature of the image in some way.

Qualities:I think that overall my image is aesthetically pleasing and I am happy with the way it has turned out. The montage is made of a very large amount of photos and I believe this works well in this photograph and adds to the complex feel that al the different structural elements of the image give it. Without all the different mismatched alignments of the different photos this is a very busy scene and the addition of the montage effect works really well. The choice to add a black and white effect came from me not wanting to overcomplicate the image with a very severe or surreal effect but the black and white helped to contrast between the different elements of the photograph and make them stand out. I think the weakest aesthetic element of my work is the arm not being fully in. It is there, but I couldn’t work out a way of rearranging the photos in a way that made it one of the main elements. I think if I could’ve done this the image would have been much better.

When shooting the photographs for my photomontage I put the camera in full auto mode. This way the camera made slight variations in its settings from photo to photo and things such as the exposure would be different. I believe this made the images look better when put together as there would be slight mismatches in colour etc.When I put the images into Photoshop I used the automate feature and used the collage setting to get near the effect I wanted. I then resized and relocated some images to get the look I wanted.

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I think that I could of improved my work by taking a few different selection of photographs of the same scene to use for different photomontages. I could've taken photos from different angles or moved around more when shooting to introduce more interesting juxtapositions of angles and vantage points in my photomontage.

I believe this image fits the theme of the urban environment well and displays an area I explored in my mind map that being the inside of buildings. The image is also experimental as the technique of photomontage is what I have used and is one I have developed and experimented with as I have gone along.

In this photograph there is a nice balance of shapes. The repeated patio panels on the floor and the girders in the glass panel on the roof create very geometrical shapes but the arches are very fluid and organic.

The colours in the photograph, especially in the centre with the greenery, are very bright and eye catching.

Its not only the repetition of the shapes that are interesting in this photograph, the repetition of the arches and the benches also gives the photo a strange, surreal effect as they are different sizes or angles.

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Evaluate: ideas eg analysis, results; I think that I have produced a photograph that represents my initial idea for this piece well. I wanted to try a photomontage that was much simpler and included far less images than the one I took previously in college. This gives the finished photograph a more clean and refined look that I think works equally well. I like the way the arches in the photograph line up but because of the different angles and sizes of the images in a strange warped manner. I think this adds a surreal quality to the image that I really like.

Qualities:Overall I am pleased with the way this photograph looks. I think the surreal warped appearance I mentioned before is interesting and adds a quality to the image drawing the viewer in for a second glance. The photograph has quite nice warm tones of colour and I think this works well with the image and the setting of it, a park bench on a summers day has connotations of warmness and sun and so the colours compliment this.

Again I used full auto mode when taking the photographs as the small automatic changes the camera makes in settings from photo to photo make small variations between the different photos of the montage. In post-production I didn’t do much to the photographs other than put them together in the montage using the automate feature on Photoshop and then re-sizing, deleting or moving some of the photos where I saw appropriate until I was pleased with the appearance of the montage. I then changes the saturation of the photographs turning it up to give the photo a warm feel. I particularly like where the trees through the arch have gone very bright green and the warm pink colour some of the flagstones have gone.

The repetition of the different features such as the benches and the arches is good. The benches are different angles and sizes because of the amount I was zoomed in with that photo. This gives them a strange, surreal effect because they look obviously wrong, but at the same time you can tell they belong there in the photograph.The arches are also strange because the viewer knows they should all be uniformed and the same, but they are disrupted slightly and are on different angles because of the different photographs. This again gives the photograph an interesting, surreal effect that I am really pleased with.

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I think that by taking more than one set of photographs and having more than one set of images of one scene would have allowed me to compile multiple photomontages and choose the best one. I really like the one I have got but the clear space at the top right I wish I’d have had a photograph to fill with. If I had of I think the montage would have had more balance and been better.

Another element I'm not happy with is that the photos aren't really balanced in terms of saturation. The top left photograph is particularly noticeable so I wish I would've saturated this photograph more before merging the photos into one montage where I was unable to edit it on its own.

I think that the image I have taken does reflect the theme of “urban environment” as the park I have taken photos of is in the town. The benches and arches are architectural elements I have explored to photograph and I believe they work well to suggest and remind the viewer of the theme I have chosen.

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The central focus of this photo is my shadow and it is pretty much in the centre of the photo. The road then continues on on both sides quite symmetrically giving the photo a nice balanced feel that I like.

This landscape photomontage is full of quite organic shapes created by the gentle curve of the road and the bushes and trees.

I really like the contrast in this photo and how it has brought out all the different details in the photograph.

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Evaluate: ideas eg analysis, results; I think that I have represented my initial idea through this photograph well. With this photomontage I wanted to experiment with the different settings I could use and effects I could put on the image to try and gain a different, more surreal effect. I think the way I have played around with the threshold of the image has given it an interesting contrast with interesting shapes and lines created by different objects being highlighted more strongly. The harsh black and white colours are very interesting in this photograph and make the largely natural features in this photo seem quite structural and urban and so changing a scene from the countryside into one I believe fits the theme of “urban environment” well.

Qualities:I am quite pleased with how this image looks. I think the more heavy manipulation in Photoshop post production has worked well with this image and given it a surreal and more striking appearance. The threshold works very well with this image I think as it has made the lines very definite and so things like the shadows stand out very well. I think I was able to achieve such detail with the threshold effect because I shot the photo on a very bright day and there was a huge amount of natural light.

With this photomontage I wanted to experiment with different shapes for the final canvas. For example the first final piece I took in college fits quite a uniformed, rectangle shape so with this I wanted to elongate the photo and make it more of a panorama. I think this idea worked well and made the photo more interesting to look at.

I chose to again use full auto mode when taking these photographs because the camera automatically makes small changes to adapt to the scene from photo to photo and this makes for a more interesting effect when I compile these photos together in the final montage. In post production I put the photos together using Photoshop’s automate feature and then manually moved some photos, deleted some I didn’t feel needed to be there or changed the order of them so some sat above others. I then put the threshold effect on the image and played around with the setting there until I was satisfied with the outcome.

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As in the other photomontages I am pleased with the final image I got, but taking a few different shoots of the same scene, making a number of different montages and choosing the best one would have been good. Having different options is never a bad thing.

I also think if I would have taken the photographs from further down the road to the right the centre piece of my image would have been more interesting; there is a barn there and this could have been my photographs central focus rather than just the hedge and wall in front of me.

I think that my image does reflect the urban environment because although it does have a lot of nature in it there are many things that make you think of the city etc. such as the wall in front, the graffiti on the corrugated metal and I think the threshold effect itself has a very dark, dingy feel that reminds you of the city and the urban environment.

(Experiment title)

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The leading lines of the yellow parking lines. I like the way they are disrupted and aren’t solid, it isn't too noticeable, but gives the photomontage an interesting quality..

I have posed in this photo to include myself and try to add something to the photo as people are also a large part of the Urban Environment.

The colours are very bright and interesting especially on the flower. This catches the eye of the viewer.

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Evaluate: ideas eg analysis, results;I think that the image I have produced represents my initial idea well. In the previous photomontage I have included my shadow in the frame and with this photo I wanted to experiment with actually including myself in the photo. I think this works well and gives the photo an interesting stylistic appearance. There are many things within the photo that remind the viewer of the urban environment but these things are shown in a interesting way because the way the different photos knit together in the montage. For example the street sign that is cut in half by the photos and the way the house is staggered with small parts of it being repeated a number of times across the photo.

Qualities:I am pleased with the outcome of this photomontage and believe its appearance is very interesting and cool. I like the way the yellow street lines line up at first almost perfectly but then become more out of line further away as the photos do not line up as well. It gives the photograph a un-uniformed, erratic look that I like. I also like the fact that some of the photos are very blurred and I think this adds another depth of aesthetics to the photograph.The photographs with the flowers in I selected individually before merging the montage together and turned the saturation and vibrancy up on them slightly. This made the colours in the flowers stand out more and makes the photograph more exciting and colourful.This photomontage is quite an interesting shape and I like this too. It gives the photo that more fluid feel that I am aiming for and gives the viewer the feeling that this shape is the natural course my eyes took when looking at the scene rather than the one set in stone rectangle shape that most photographs are.

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I think that I could’ve done a few little things to improve this photograph. I think that you can tell a little bit that the saturation has been changed in the photographs with the flowers in more than the others and this disrupts the even flow I want between the photos. I wanted the colours in the flowers to be brighter but I maybe should've used the lasso tool to only select the flower rather than increasing the saturation of the whole photo making features such as the brick wall that I wanted to remain the same stand out. This is only a small correction but one I would make if taking this photo again.I really like the blurred effect I have achieved with some of the photos and it would’ve been nice to experiment more with this and either of taken more blurred photos or blurred the photos in post-production.

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The repetition of certain elements of the photograph such as my legs add a surreal effect to the photograph.

In this photo I myself and another model have posed to add another level of interest to the photograph.

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Evaluate: ideas eg analysis, results; This photograph contains a lot of architectural features that remind a viewer strongly of the urban environment, be it quite a refined and posh looking one. For this reason I believe I have achieved my chosen idea. People are a large part of the urban environment and so I wanted to experiment more with including them in my photographs. A few of the photomontages I had taken previously included a small part of me or my shadow but with this photo I thought I would try to include another person also. I think this worked well and gave my photograph another interesting quality with the warped, surreal appearance of my model achieved by using the photomontage technique.Qualities:I think the photograph is good and represents my chosen idea while still being aesthetically pleasing and interesting. I made a few changes to this photograph in post-production, changing the order and position of the photos more than I had done in previous photomontages I had created. This involved doing things like spreading out the photographs of mine and the models legs more so they repeated across the bottom of the montage, Photoshop's automate feature had stacked them on top of each other and I believe spread out they look more interesting and strange. I also used the “spot healer” tool to edit out a floating MacDonald's cup that I thought didn’t look good there as half of it just sort of floated in the montage, this I believe improved the photo by making it look cleaner and adding a clear area.I chose to give the photograph a blue colour as I think it gives the photograph an interesting, different look and gives it a strange cold feel. It was a close call between this and the black and white effects for the final image but I went with the blue as I hadn't used it before and though it looked good. Using blue tones on photographs, much like the brown colours in sepia, is very traditional as it was relatively easy back in the days of dark room developing to get the colour blue onto a photograph as a change from the usual black and white. This fact coupled with the old Victorian structures such as the lamps and statue give my photo quite an old and traditional feel I quite like.

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I am very pleased with the way this photo came out and there isn’t much I would do differently. If doing it again I may carry out a number of “takes” in order to make sure the set of photos I have used for this scene is the best.I also would like to see what it would look like if I had a model sat either side of me on the bench as this could give the photo a cool mirrored effect.

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The threshold effect has given this photomontage a very interesting contrast that makes all the different structural components stand out very well.

Again I have posed in this photograph to add another element to the photograph- including people in a scene makes a viewer ask questions about that person.

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Evaluate: ideas eg analysis, results;This photograph I believe fits my chosen idea very well. It is taken in a train station underpass and features architectural structures such as support poles and a staircase that connote the urban environment. The threshold effect I have decided to use adds to the already dingy and dark feel of the photo and this is something that also connotes the urban environment to many people. The threshold effect gives the photo a graphic, almost cartoony feel that is cool and much like the effect used in the film Sin City, a gritty inner city movie. All different things that link to the urban environment.Qualities:I really like the way the threshold effect has given the photomontage a gritty, dark appearance and takes out quite a lot of the detail in the photo making it only really consist of simple black and white shapes but ones that are still recognisable. You can still make out the strong structural features like the support poles and the stairs and I think this simplistic appearance is very good.With this photomontage I experimented a lot with some more obvious and surreal effects such as the invert and my final choice of threshold. I think the subject matter in this photograph could take this heavy manipulation as it is easily recognisable.I again experimented with including myself in the photograph and again I think it has added another cool quality to the photograph. It also adds to that feeling that the photomontage is a number of photos taken in the way you would see or look around a scene and so are taken from different angles and are each zoomed in slightly more or less. When I include myself in my montages this way it looks as if I am looking down at myself and the other photos are from different angles looking ahead or to the right, this adds an interesting organic flow to the montage that I think works really well.

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I am pleased with the outcome of this photo in general but there are a few things that could've been done to improve it. I could've messed around more with the different threshold levels or before this changing the brightness of different individual images then achieving a different threshold.