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.

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.

The Angel Of Vengeance.

Have I mentioned previously that I might have an idea for the third part of my movements assignment, involving creating a poster/cover/something to do with a story that I am writing? Yes? Well, I am going to do it. 

I usually wouldn't post about this until after everything is said and done, because I hate to think of everything failing and me still having all this work up here as if things are going great, but I think it would be a good thing to put my planning here. It might motivate me to get things done, even if the first few attempts fail. So here it is - the first planning stages of my next assignment. 

I decided that I wanted to make a book cover/movie poster type thing for my current work in progress, The Angel Of Vengeance. I'm not going to bother finding perfect models for my characters - because let's face it, nobody's going to know the difference expect me! So this weekend I have my best friend coming over, and I'm probably going to end up using my two brothers as my two main male characters. (There is the potential of a third male character coming into play, and I have a co-worker in mind should this happen.) 

I have a general idea of how I want things to look, so I put my amazing drawing skills to practice and drew a mock-up: 

Gosh, what am I doing photography for?

Obviously, this isn't perfect. But it's an easy way of reminding myself how I plan for things to look. I also searched around on Google and found some images for inspiration, ideas, and for the way that I want things to look. It doesn't cover everything at the moment (because a lot of things are still just in my head, too) but I threw it all together and created a mini mood board: 

I want the image to be more dark than light, and I don't want the background to be distracting - which is why in the background inspiration images up there, we've got brick walls and smoke. 

Here's another thing I wouldn't usually do: give away spoilers, but in the spirit of noting down all of my idea-ing here... 

I want to try to create this image using only photos - as in, not artificially creating anything in Photoshop from scratch. It will be a challenge for me I think, but I'm up for it. Given the nature of the story, it's going to be interesting - so here are some ideas for how I intend to create the...crazier-looking things.

Zoe will potentially have lightning coming from her hands. Unsurprisingly, I've never managed to obtain a great image of lightning. I considered buying a plasma ball and taking shots of that, but then as I was walking to work on Tuesday morning another idea struck me. As I looked up into the trees, I was amazed at how much their branches looked like lightning strikes. And so I intend to use tree branches. 

Paris's hands were a little more difficult at first, but then the idea was obvious when it finally came to me - coloured smoke (or maybe just white, we'll see) and a sun flare or two. Again, we'll see how things go. 

Nathaniel has a force field surrounding him. When I first attempted a practice image on my brother, I followed a tutorial online that showed you how to make a force field. I didn't really like the look of it, but I figured it would do if I needed it. (I didn't save this image, so I sadly can't post it here!) But as I want to create this image now using only photos, I came up with a simple idea: shooting the rim of a glass. 

I also want to shoot a glass with a sparkler inside of it - both because it might create another interesting lightning shot, and because it might make for an interesting force field. 

If the third male character is included, he will be behind all of the others - looking back at the scene over his shoulder. 

This is obviously going to take quite a bit of work, and I don't have all the time in the world, but I have my hopes that it will work. If it does, then I'll tackle the issue of how I'm going to print it.

Tilt-Shift Effect In Photoshop.

Today we looked at how to achieve the tilt-shift effect using Photoshop - which is obviously a hell of a lot cheaper than doing it with a $1,200+ lens, and probably a little more professional than doing it in Instagram. 

It's also really simple to do - load your image into Photoshop, go up to Filters, go to Blur and select Tilt-Shift. Then just go nuts! 

I didn't have any suitable images to work on, so here's one I borrowed from Google:

Before (Upper) and After (Lower).

Assignmenting...Eventually.

The past few weeks have not been good to me. I've fallen off a ladder, contracted ringworm from a cat we rescued, and not completed anything productive that I had intended to. I have, at least, been thinking about my assignments - so that's a start, right? 

To Do

• catch up on blog; 
• bring workbook up to speed; 
• decide on physical or digital visual diary - complete that; 
• come up with ideas for photo-essay fill-flash assignment - shoot it; 
• complete part three of movements assignment; 
• finish portfolio - work out mounting. 

I've been thinking mostly about part three of the movements assignment, trying to work out what I want to do, how I want to do it, how I'm going to print it. For the most part, I get no ideas - except for one that I've had in the back of my mind, that I'm likely just going to go for. 

It's always been an idea I've had, but I've thought about it more and more since Ben asked me about it. I'm a writer - why have I never created any images to correspond to the stories that I'm working on? Maybe it's time I do that. The digital manipulation would come in because I write fantasy, but how would such an image correspond to a movement? I've already tackled modern surrealism. 

I've been thinking I'll just ignore the movement thing and go for gold. This is the last assignment - I want to create something I can be happy with. I might not be able to find the perfect model, but I can at least try to create a stunning image. 

Likewise, I'll hopefully be getting some more shots for my portfolio. I'm shooting Xavier Rudd at Big Top Luna Park, a venue that will at the very least have better lighting than the Hi-Fi. 

I'm hoping to get something productive done before heading back to TAFE next week.

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.

Linger: Some Final Thoughts.

Today I printed my assignment. Right from the start I knew that I just wanted to do a simple print for my first assignment, both because it would be easier and at this point in time it is just more cost effective for me. I would leave more interesting presentation thoughts for parts two and three of this assignment. 

I printed my black and white photo on some Ilford Galerie Smooth Lustre Duo instead of the usual glossy papers that I would use, because I might preferred the look of the smooth lustre. For presentation to the class, a bigger size might have been better, and I feel I've let myself down by not thinking of this beforehand. This is something to keep in mind for future assignments.

I have permission from both of my models to use my shot for portfolio work. As this was all that I needed it for, that was all that mattered to me.

What would I do better next time? 

Honestly? Everything. I didn't get the exact shot that I was hoping for, so next time I would do more than one photo shoot with the same model. I would do the first shoot, look at my shots and decide on what needed to be changed, then do the second shoot - and keep going until I got exactly what I was looking for. I would also remember to take my shot-list with me to the shoot, because I feel that this would have helped me greatly. 

In terms of the photograph itself, next time I would choose a better location, use a later time of the day, and use either fill-flash or a reflector to get some more light into my model's faces. I feel that this is where I lack in a lot of my portraits - I can just never get my outdoor lighting right, and my subjects always seem to lack the light and contrast that I'm always after. 

As already stated, in terms of printing I would print bigger than the A4 shot I have now, and perhaps print on canvas. Canvas is something that I haven't ever printed on, though I absolutely love the look of it.

Linger.

This morning I had the photo shoot with Gabby and her boyfriend - and despite thinking that I was as prepared as I could be, I still managed to forget my shot-list at home. Sadly this meant that I only made half the shots that I intended to, but I still managed to get one that I'm fairly happy with. 

Although on occasion I'm still tossing up between this and the previous shot of my best friend in the cemetery, this is currently my final shot: 

My original idea was to have a couple, one of whom was a ghost - young lovers who were separated before their time. The girl might have died in a car crash or some similar, tragic circumstance. I pictured her, transparent and hardly there at all, reaching out to comfort him from the grave; him staring into her eyes, knowing she was there - feeling her, even if he couldn't see her.

That was this shot: 

It didn't turn out quite how I pictured it, so I didn't end up liking it all that much in the end. If I were to shoot it again, I would definitely have them further away from the bush - to render it out of focus and have it less distracting, and maybe have them standing - shoot from the waist up. Definitely make it more intimate. I don't feel that the story really came across here, and that is important to me. 

So back to my final shot. It had the same story behind it, originally - the girl was dead and the boy was mourning her loss. In this one, he definitely didn't know that she was there, watching over him while he stared into the distance. But when I look at the shot now, I see a different story. I see a murderer being haunted by one of his victims - though he doesn't quite know it yet. It's the beginning of a horror story. 

To achieve the way that she looks like an apparition, I used a double exposure. 

As you can see, there is one shot with Gabby in it and one shot without. With my previous assignment attempt, I layered the photos together and simply lowered the opacity of the one with my friend until I got the result that I wanted. But with this one, I didn't like the way the shot looked when Gabby was completely faded.

So for this shot, I layered the two photos together and then used a layer mask to erase the parts of the top photo that I didn't want - a gradient was used to give Gabby's legs their faded look.

I prefer the photo this way because I like that at first glance, people might not notice the oddity. And in horror stories, that is quite often how things go - you don't realise that the ghost is a dead person right until the end, when it's already too late.

The Double Exposure.

Before I even knew what they were, double exposures were always an interest of mine. I loved the way that people could have two images overlapping and still have the form a beautiful, interesting photograph, and it was something that I had always wanted to try. But up until now, I never had - and that was why I wanted to use a double exposure for my first assignment. 

This photo is one that I loved at first sight, and I can still never get enough of it - because it shows both fantastic technique and a flare of creativity. I also love that although there is a lot happening in the image, it still manages to stay clean and composed.

Jeen Na on Flickr.

With the digital age, double exposures have become less common - both because in the days of film they were quite often happy accidents, and because with digital it is not as easy to achieve them. Whereas with film all you needed to do was roll the film back and take a second shot over the first one, with digital it requires going into Photoshop or other such programs and messing with opacity. Many people never bother to experiment with it.

Going with my theme of loving fantasy novels and wanting to get more into taking shots that look like they've come out of a fantasy world, I came up with a story behind a set of new shots that I want to get this weekend when I work with my friend and her boyfriend.

I want these shots to look both real and surreal at the same time, and I'm hoping that I can achieve that. 

Cubism.

Movements, once again. 

Cubism

Cubism was a movement that was started in the early twentieth century by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, both of whom were influenced by the post-impressionist Paul Cezanne, who rejected the traditional artists' ideas on perspective. Cubism is based around the idea of using shapes - cubes, cones, spheres, etc. - to show an image from many different perspectives, thus showing volume and the passage of time.

No doubt the most famous artist related to this movement is Picasso, as his paintings are known world-wide and are cited as the inspiration for many works of Cubism today.

Joshua Naylor

In photography, Cubism is often seen in the form of "Joiners" - a series of photographs that are taken and then joined together to create one image, such as this example by Joshua Naylor:

I like this example because although it is one image, it is made up of several different images all relating to the one theme - people in their private spaces. I find this more interesting than joiners that show just one image. It gives me more to look at, tells more of a story, and I just find it attractive.

Before researching Cubism, I really wasn't a fan of it. Whenever the movement came to mind, I only ever thought of the few Picasso pieces that I knew of, with distorted faces and body parts. But after learning of joiners, and of the extremely long exposures by Michael Wesely, I've found that I have a liking for some aspects of it. 

Modern Surrealism.

Wednesday had us continuing our research on surrealism to a degree, but we moved forward into modern surrealism. 

Modern Surrealism

I said that surrealism was one of my favourite movements, but I didn't know that modern surrealism existed! Modern surrealism is, I suppose, the movement that most of my favourite photographers fall into. It deals greatly with image manipulation, with making things look unreal, and I could never get enough of it.  

Like surrealism, when it comes to film this would be achieved with double exposures, putting things onto the negative, blending two negatives and making them one. It obviously got easier when the digital age came along, with the advent of programs like Photoshop and Illustrator.

I know, without a doubt, that my love of this movement stems from my love of reading and writing fantasy novels. The two go hand in hand. 

Jerry Uelsmann

Since I already know a fair few modern surrealists who use Photoshop as their main tool, I wanted to take a look at somebody who was doing this before the digital age came into being. Uelsmann is one such photographer.

Some of his images are so simple and yet so breathtaking. Then the more complex ones just blow my mind and make me wonder how he managed to do it.

PHOTOGRAPHER: Martin Stranka.

I stumbled across Martin's work on Facebook one day and instantly fell in love. Much the same as with Michelle Monique, I love the way that he can take something so simple and turn the image into something surreal and magical. I have yet to find anything of his that I don't like. I also thoroughly enjoy the way that he consistently uses the square format, because I do love me some square format!

So when it comes to the three assignments that I need to do this year, for one of them I definitely want to try doing something like these two photographers have done. To be able to create something so magical would be fantastic.

PHOTOGRAPHER: Michelle Monique.

Sucker Punch: Babydoll by =michellemonique on deviantART

Michelle Monique has been an inspiration ever since I discovered her work several years ago. I admire her creativity, her imagination, and her skill, patience and talent when it comes to manipulating images in Photoshop. As a fantasy writer, it would be fun to be able to translate the written word into an accompanying photograph. 

To create a piece of work like hers is an ultimate goal. Over the years I've had a couple of ideas, but I always threw them aside for one reason or another. This year, I will make an attempt. But it's not something to be rushed. I need to be patient, come up with a concept, plan it, and then make sure I have all the necessary equipment.

This could take a while.