The Selfie.

I went back to Rookwood Cemetery on Tuesday in the hopes of continuing my series, but I didn't have much luck when it came to being inspired. I did, however, find something that I liked: 

This little...hut, shall we call it? Well, it sits on the edge of the cemetery, surrounded by older-looking graves and just a little way up from a gravel road. There's a tiny amount of graffiti inside, but what caught my attention was the way that the multiple windows allowed the light to enter the interior. I decided that I wanted to do a portrait shoot there. 

So today I went back and did just that. 

I used myself as a model, as I usually do. (I rarely schedule these things since I only shoot when I feel like it.) I took a black, straw-looking hat of my mother's that I found, thinking maybe I could go for a witchy look. I wanted something dark. And I got something completely different. 

I actually played around with the chosen photo quite a bit before finally deciding on the final image. Here was my first attempt: 

As I said, I wanted something dark - and I guess I'm going through a phase of making art instead of just photos. But ultimately, I decided I didn't like this as the final shot. I went for a black and white film look: 

And while I do like this (and the first one, somewhat), I kept going back to the colour version. It's very rare that I prefer a colour photo over a black and white, so I thought, why not? Let's go with the colour. 

I'm always looking to improve my colouring of photos, and I'm currently quite happy with this one. So here's the final shot that I decided to go with: 

There was a previous version that had less contrast, but I decided I liked this one better.

Printing To A T-Shirt.

For my assignment, in which I used my image for The Angel Of Vengeance, I did end up printing onto a t-shirt. 

It was fairly straightforward, and cheap. I've had transfer paper sitting in one of my draws for several years, but the same product can still be picked up from anywhere around $20, and I bought two black t-shirts from a local store (they were two for $5). They had to be black, because my transfer paper was for dark fabrics. 

After that, I just followed the instructions provided with the paper itself. Slip a sheet into the printer and print the image onto said paper. Allow it to dry for thirty minutes. 

Take the t-shirt and place it on a hard service (not an ironing board!) and then iron it to make sure it's flat. Allow it to cool. 

Peel off the backing paper of the transfer, and place the image where you want it on the shirt. After that, you cover it with baking paper and iron it on for about a minute. (You never iron it without the baking paper, as this will damage both the image and the iron!) 

And that was that. 

My attempts were not perfect, but they weren't bad, either. Overall, I was very happy with the end result.

The Angel Of Vengeance: Printing.

Now that I have my third assignment basically completed (I'm still bouncing some ideas around about the look - I'm a little iffy with the background at the moment) I've been thinking about how I want to print it. My initial thought was an A3 poster, as I created the file in A3 and a poster seemed like a practical idea. But I don't have access to a printer that can do such a thing, and I want to be a little more creative. 

So I have two ideas that I'm dwelling on. 

The first is to use the gel medium from my wood-printing assignment to print the image on canvas. I haven't yet tested the way that this would look, and as I'd be printing A4 it would take quite a bit of calculating to make sure everything lined up properly and looked the way it was supposed to. I should also mention that the canvas I bought for this idea ended up being much bigger than A3, and I haven't been able to locate A3-sized canvas just yet. 

The second is to print onto a shirt. This was one of my very first ideas, before I even had my image, and Charles brought it up again the other day as a suggestion. I agreed that it was a suitable idea. I've had transfer paper for dark coloured shirts lying around for years, so maybe it's time I use it. I bought some cheap black shirts on the weekend (two for $5!) so I'll be giving that a shot sometime soon.

PORTFOLIO: Final Shots.

I took a step back from the rest of the world this evening and simply went through my live music shots, looking for those final ten that could make up my portfolio. 

It was a difficult process, because I'm so picky about my own work and there are very few shots that I truly consider great. I decided to make it simple on myself and pick out a few that I personally liked for one reason or another. I didn't consider orientation; I didn't consider quality. Because when it comes to live music, sometimes quality isn't key - it's all about getting the shot. 

Originally I wanted my portfolio to consist of five live shots and five musician's portraits, but I cut the portrait section of it because I didn't have enough that I was happy with. So I was just looking at live shots tonight. 

I tried to keep the black and white vs. colour battle even. In the end, I ended up with twelve shots that I'm considering - six colour, six black and white. 

The Final Countdown

I like this shot for a number of reasons. Firstly, because I think the rim-light is beautiful. Second, because I love that green light. Third, I love the girl's expression. You can tell that she is completely into the music and her playing. 

On the flip side, I don't know if this shot would be appropriate - taken out of context, it's not all that easy to see that she is a musician. 

I prefer this shot in 2:3, but I decided my portfolio was going to be 8x10, so I needed to crop it. Much like with the first shot, I love this because of the colours and the pose of the musician - he is completely focused on his music. 

I do not like the microphone stand in the left of the frame, but removing it isn't exactly easy - and in some ways, it feels wrong. 

Honestly, there's not much that I don't like about this shot - and I've shown it to the class before and they all seemed to love it, too. It is fairly timeless. You can't tell what genre the drummer is playing (seriously, I dare you to try!) and I will never get over the ghosting of the stick. It is something that I always aim to achieve in drummer shots. 

I am concerned with the way that this will print at the moment, but this shot is in for sure. 

This was probably the worst show I ever photographed, and it was hard for me at the time to find shots that I liked. But looking back, here is one I am semi-happy with. I like the simple pose of the singer and the fact that the microphone isn't covering up his face. 

I do not like the low quality feel of the shot. It is very noisy. 

Originally I had this one in colour, but I felt like the colour wasn't really adding anything. It looked better, more appealing, in black and white. This is a shot that I have always been happy with. It doesn't matter that it doesn't have the greatest composition and it's not entirely sharp - what matters is that I timed it perfectly, and got a shot that no other photographer at this show managed to get. 

I am fairly certain that I want to use this shot. 

I like the posing in this shot. To me, it is a classic guitarist shot - foot up on the amp, looking out at the crowd, playing something magical. When I showed this one to the class, I got some positive feedback. But mostly they just wanted to know what the tattoo on his neck was. (It's an owl, by the way.) 

I'm concerned that this shot might come out a little dark, and that it's very soft. 

I like this shot because it is simple but expressive. For people who don't know the band, it's just a rock musician doing what rock musicians do - giving the middle finger to the world. For people who are fans of the band, this photo can relate to a song whose lyrical chant declares, "Middle fingers up if you don't give a fuck." 

I am concerned this shot might not be appropriate? (Why do I feel like I'm still in high school? If we can handle artistic nudes, surely we can handle such "vile" hand gestures.) 

I like this shot because of the stick ghosting. That's basically it. I don't like the low quality feel of the shot and the fact that it's so noisy. 

I will most likely cut this shot. 

This was a good show for me. It was my first time shooting a venue with fantastic lighting and therefore the first time that I got live shots that were actually sharp! And that is why I'm so thrilled with this image. That, and the fact that the singer is so obviously into the song. 

I don't like that the microphone is covering half of his face. 

This guy is in the same band as the guy in the previous shot, so - same show, same great lighting, same awesome results. I like this shot because it's simple and expressive. I also really love it in colour, even with the tiny flare in the corner, because everything is warm and complimentary. 

I am fairly certain I will be using this shot. 

Same show as the last two, different band. I love the expression on this guy's face and the lighting in the background is gorgeous. My only complaint is that it's maybe a little busy. 

I am trying to decide between this shot and the next one. 

I like this shot because of the lighting, because it's sharp, and because the colour somehow works. I don't really like the fact that there's a microphone and a harmonica covering his face, but I do like that it shows how multi-skilled he is. 

And there we have it. The shots that I am considering. I'm thinking I might do some small prints of each in the next few days and see how they look in paper and ink.

The Angel Of Vengeance: Coming Together.

I've been working on The Angel Of Vengeance book cover/poster/whatever it is, and I'm liking the way that things are going so far. I took what I have so far to class on Wednesday, to ask Ben whether or not it would be suitable as my assignment, and he said I was on the right track. So that's a good thing. 

In the spirit of being more open with my work, like last time, here's some insight into what I have so far. 

These are the images that I started out with: 

Yes, even the text was a photo! I also used two pictures of the sky (with clouds) as the background for my image, but they're on a different hard drive and therefore not accessible to me at the moment. But every photo is mine, was taken by me, etc. 

Put together, here is what I have complied so far: 

I'm not quite ready to call it done yet, though I don't know what more I might be adding to it.

Complex Subjects.

Today's practical lesson had us looking at ways to light "complex" subjects - that is, product shots that involved skin tones. 

I had Jessica modeling for me, wearing my Pandora bracelet. The first shot is simply lit from the left side by a softbox, with a reflector to the right. The second still has a softbox to the left, but there's also a softbox to the right and behind her. This softbox also half-lit the background, giving it a nice grey gradient.

And yes, that was the desired effect.

Printing Onto Wood.

As stated in an early entry, I decided that for my assignment I was going to print an image onto wood. 

Some problems that I expected to run into while doing this assignment were: 

• most people said that you couldn't use an Inkjet printer for this process, but not having access to a laser printer, I decided to attempt using my Inkjet;
• I expected to have trouble working out how much of the gel medium I was going to need to use; 
• I expected to have issues with rubbing off the paper, because I felt I would end up rubbing off the ink as well; 
• I decided to attempt this in colour, when I had only read tutorials for black and white - as such, I wasn't sure that the colours would come out, which would result in a very faded photograph or no image at all.

Let's start with the process. First, my equipment: a wooden box, white acrylic paint, Matisse Gel Medium, an Inkjet printer, a paintbrush, a roller, and my image. 

 

This was the photograph I chose to use for my assignment. It's a picture of my mother's dahlias, where I have edited the colours and sharpness to give it more of a pictorialist look. A soft focus and wider aperture were also used to achieve this.

These photographs showed my first attempt at this assignment, which didn't go quite according to plan, but is exactly the same as what I did the second time around bar one thing: the first time around, I painted the box in full before printing the photo to the lid. The second time, I only coated the top part of the box in paint. We will see why shortly. 

One everything was ready, I applied the gel medium to the top of the box in an even layer. The first time I did this, I used a medium sized paint brush and didn't take much notice of my speed. The second time, I used a larger paintbrush and did this quickly, so that the gel medium would all remain wet before the image was applied. 

Once applied, the image and the gel medium were left to dry overnight. Once it was done, I ran the paper under running warm water and began to peel away as much as I could. 

The first time I attempted this, this was where things started to go wrong. I didn't know that acrylic paint became slippery and began to come off once it was wet. As such, I ended up getting paint all over my hands and my image began to rub off in places that I didn't want it to. 

The second time, the rest of the box was paintless while only the side that held the image had been painted. I also used cold water this time, and achieved the effect I was after. 

Overall, I am very pleased with the way my assignment came out: 

This was finished by applying acid free Mat Spray to the image to protect it.

I quite enjoyed this, as it was both fun and rewarding. I can see myself doing this a lot in future, as such things make for great gifts. Overall, it didn't cost too much either. From the Riot! arts and crafts store that I got all of my materials from, I spent $10 on the box, $10 on a container of paint that still has most of its contents, and $15 on the gel medium while is also still mostly full. Paintbrushes were pre-owned and the roller was $2.