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Experimental Photography

Jonah Adshead

Movement capturing.I carried out these experiments to explore the different effects I could achieve playing with movement and settings such as shutter speed. I captured movement in a number of ways and believe some of the images that I shot were very effective.When taking some images I used with a very slow shutter speed I used a tripod to ensure I didn’t get camera shake. One thing I experimented with while the camera was on the tripod was spinning it around while the photograph was taking and the shutter was open. I think this gave a nice blurred movement effect especially on stationary objects such as parked cars. By playing around with how fast I spun the camera or how long the shutter speed was I could make the blur more or less severe so that there is either one image of the object blurred from one side to the other of the frame or it is blurred less and there is quite a focussed image of the object on each side of the frame.Using the tripod again and having a long shutter speed but this time keeping the camera stationary and fixed in position helped me capture movement of moving objects such as people walking. You can see their movement trails and where people may have stopped for a moment you can see a more clear image of them causing an interesting variation in the images. I think this gives the image a quite ghostly effect that works nicely and could be easily experimented further by setting up shots rather than just photographing passers by as I was. Introducing lights and more interesting movements such as dance could increase the appeal of the image with not much effort.Another interesting technique I experimented with was “barrel rolling” the zoom while the shutter was open and the image was taking. This allowed me to achieve an interesting warped in effect where the image zoomed into a centre point. Experimenting more with the speed in which I zoomed or whether I zoomed in then out in one exposure allowed me to explore the possibilities of this technique and produce some nice images.

Movement Capture Final.

I was very happy with the way this image came out. I captured it by setting up my tripod in front of the parked car and shooting with a long shutter speed. I started off zoomed out and once the shutter was open I steadily zoomed into the car causing the motion traces you can see on the photograph.When I first opened the shutter I waited a split second before zooming and this caused the further away image of car to form more solidly in the final photograph and I think this is an interesting effect. It also makes other parts of the car such as the number plate and headlights shoot away from the car and you can see how they are emerging towards you as you are looking at the photograph.I chose the red car carefully when deciding what to shoot as I thought the bright red colour would be visually striking and not look too faded and dull when being blurred by the motion. I made the right decision I believe and the photograph is visually striking and colourful.One thing I would do if taking this photograph again would be to make sure I got the car perfectly parallel to the bottom and tom sides of the frame. This photograph is slightly leant to the right and although I do not think it is too noticeable I think it would look better parallel.

Blur

When taking the blurred photographs I first set the camera into manual focus to allow myself to have full control over how blurry the images were. I found quite quickly that for an image to look good it must have quite a lot going on in it with clear lines or colours to separate different objects within the frame. This is why photographs of things like the structure of the ceiling at college, parked cars and the vending machine worked quite well.When experimenting I explored the results I would get by making images very blurred or just slightly blurred. Very blurred photographs made the objects within the image look like blobs, something that looked very interesting for some photographs but was too much for others. Similarly making the image only slightly blurred worked well sometimes, but other times looked as if the blur was unintentional or wasn’t enough to make the image interesting.

BlurFinal.

When taking the blur experiment photographs I searched college for familiar scenes that people would recognise but ones that were very colourful. This was one of the traits I had noticed in existing photographs I had seen using the blur technique One of these such things that I came across was a vending machine.Vending machines are full of many different items with coloured packaging and these colours make the items easily distinguishable when blurred. This is good as it means the image does not turn into a blob of one colour but different interesting blobs of bright colour that are attractive and exciting.

ReflectionsReflections I found quite hard to get good photographs for because as they are everywhere in every window, mirror, car bonnet etc. I found it difficult to find an interesting image I didn’t believe had been taken thousands of times already. I did take some images however and explored what made a reflection photograph interesting. Taking photographs of strange reflective surfaces such as the gum bins and elevator buttons made some good photos and if more time could’ve been spent I could’ve shot some very good ones. As with the blurred images I found it improved the images if there was bright colours or a lot going on in the refection or the reflective surface needs to be interesting.

In my research of existing reflection photographs the ones that I liked the most featured reflections that were crystal clear and looked as though they were a window looking into something else. I tried to replicate this in my experiments around college and this is my final photograph.In the photograph the reflection on the window is so clear it looks as though it is on the other side of the door. This is a strange concept when you realise it and is one that I think interests and excites the viewer.I think that the image could have been better with a larger window apart from the small slit ones in these doors but with the limited time and appropriate lighting this was the best that I manages to capture.If shooting reflections again I would go for the same kinds of photographs but on larger windows and possibly on more exciting surfaces such as cars or puddles.As with the blur images I think that easily recognisable and colourful subjects must be included in the reflection to ensure it is easily spotted. For this reason a car park worked well and the bright colours of the different cars are clear and exciting.

Photomontages

The experiments I did with the photomontages I found to be very enjoyable and I liked this technique. It is a very simple and easy method and is sometimes a bit hit and miss in the automated post production in Photoshop when it arranges the images. All I do is take a range of photographs splitting the scene I want up into sections and take photos in rows from left to right, then move down and go right to left and so on until I have photographed the whole scene.I experimented with moving around and taking photos that were more zoomed in or out than others and including parts of myself in the photos such as an arm or my feet. I think these things worked well and made the images look very good.Leaving the camera in full automatic mode when taking the photographs gave interesting effect I think as in the different photos the camera would change the settings causing some of the exposures to be different so that when put together in Photoshop some images are lighter or darker than others. This looks gives an interesting appearance to the photomontage.

For my photomontage experiments I had looked at many photographs online and a tutorial on how to take them. I experimented with zooming in and out between photos, tilting the camera slightly and even moving around a little to see what effects I would get. Many of the photographs I took straight away I was very happy with but I think this is my favourite from the experiment morning.In many of my photomontages I tried to include a part of myself in the photograph because I think this made it much more interesting and different. As you can see in this photograph my feet are at the bottom and I believe this opens up many more questions from the viewer when they see that.I also like the way that the corridor looks almost never-ending as the different angles and perspectives of the merged photos makes it look fractured and strange.