Portraits - SLR Camera

With the idea of dramatic lighting in mind, to achieve portraits with bright lighting and contrasting dark shadows, the classroom in which I was working was darkened by turning of the lights and closing the blinds on the windows. I used an ordinary lamp as my light source and angled it in various directions so that I could achieve a range of different shadows and highlights.

This is my test strip of my contact sheet of my Portrait photographs.

This is my contact sheet of my Portraits I have taken.

For the following portrait photographs, I did not use a lamp as a light source. Instead, I opened the blinds covering one of the windows and used the natural light coming in through the window for the rest of my portraits.

This is my test strip for one of my portrait photographs. I used this to see what timing would best suit my photograph.

Still Life - Digital Photography

With 'Light' as our project title, I arranged a selection of objects in various positions. White card was used as a base and background for the photographs so that full focus was given to the objects. Ink was flicked across the objects in order to add dark speckles to the objects. This worked well when the ink dried on the light bulbs as it helped add to the effect of the light when it travelled through the glass.

Still Life - SLR Camera

 Using my SLR Camera, I have taken still life photographs relating to light. White card was used as the background and base for the objects so no other objects that could cause distraction where caught in the photographs. Throughout the process of taking the photographs, the light source was being moved around so that shadows were created from various directions and so the light was bouncing off of the more 'shinny' objects, alongside this, the objects were being moved around in order to have a more diverse range of photographs.

Once the film had been processed and developed in the dark room, I scanned the photographs onto a computer so that they could be up loaded to my blog.

This is my test strip of my contact sheet.

Every time a roll of film is used, before enlarging the images  individually or making a contact sheet, a test strip of the contact sheet must be made in order to know the correct settings on the enlarger.

This is my contact sheet for the still life photographs.

Below are my photographs of the still life photo-set taken on my SLR Camera.

Picasso Analysis

Pablo Picasso Analysis

Three Picassos, One Vision'

'Pablo Picasso is most well known for his cubism paintings where sections of a real thing, most usually portraits of people are placed in various areas, making the painting a surreal concept of jumbled up body parts and or facial features. Later on in Picasso’s life, he was shown some photographs of light patterns formed by a skater’s leaps – obtained by affixing tiny lights on the points of the skates. Picasso leaped straight into this technique with a flashlight. One of his first light drawings he created was ‘Pablo Picasso’s Flashlight Centaur. I am analysing Picasso’s ‘Three Picassos, One Vision’.

Looking at the photograph, you can see where Pablo Picasso used a 1/10,000-second strobe light to create a golden lined image in mid air. This image would have been captured using a slow shutter speed on a camera in order to retain all of the light’s movement. Unlike a lot of modern light paintings, Picasso created this photograph in a semi-dark room opposed to a full blacked out room. Working out what a light painting photograph was meant to be can sometimes very hard as the photographer, or artist in this case has to work extremely fast in order to achieve the desired effect; and of course, they themselves cannot make a precise image. At the top of the light painting, it seems to be in the shape of a face as there is definitely an eye to the left of the oval shaped head. Just below this an outline of a nose can be seen. Towards the lower part of the light painting, there is a definite curved line where just above is a curved line leading back to the body suggesting that this person Picasso was drawing is kneeling on a carpet or mat perhaps. In the background of this photograph, Picasso can be seen multiple times. The most prominent one is where he is standing upright with a neutral face expression. To the right, Picasso can be seen leaning to his left, wide eyed and in the middle of creating the light drawing. The last captured image of Picasso in this photograph is between the first two mentioned, crouching close to the floor, frown on his face with his right arm outstretched towards the bottom of where some of the lines are. Further into the background of the photograph, it looks like there is an unfinished canvas on an easel along with various pieces of furniture.

I was not able to find a specific meaning of this light painting. However, the title of the photograph – ‘Three Picassos, One Vision’ suggests that even though he has been captured in the photograph at various points of the process, the focal point is meant to be the light drawing itself. The fact that the title of the photograph mentions how many times Picasso himself has been captured in the image could also imply that even though only he was creating the light drawing, a lot of thought went into it; possibly the equivalent of the thoughts of three people. This can be shown as his image has been captured at three different points. One standing upright with a neutral face expression could represent the disposition of a calm mind taking the approach. Picasso leaning to his left with wide eyes and an outstretched arm could suggest an excited person’s approach to the task at hand. Finally, the Picasso caught crouching with a frown upon his brow could represent someone who takes his time in creating work and thinks a lot both before and during. Another meaning that could be taken from looking at the photograph is that even though he was at three different, prominent positions during the creation of the light drawing, he was looking at and knowing what he wanted to create constantly, therefore him having ‘one vision’. This could also suggest that in life, three very different people with different backgrounds and or whereabouts that can have the same one vision of wanting to do something or aspire to.

I really like this image as Picasso combined the light drawing with three translucent images of him that were captured during him creating the light drawing, as a lot of modern light painting photograph are created in a very dark room or in complete darkness. Due to this, it gives observers of the photograph more to look at and more to think about with the various pieces of furniture in the background of the image.

Crystel Lebas Analysis

Crystel Lebas Analysis

http://www.chrystellebas.com/betweendogandwolf/LAYOUTallpages.pdf

Crystel Lebas was born in France and now currently resides and works in London.  In 1997 she graduated from the Royal College of Art. On an international level, Crystel Lebas has exhibited her photographs extensively including several private collections and public collections such as the Bibliothèque Nationale – Paris and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Her first book, ‘Time in Space’ received a British Book Design and Production Award in 2004. Crystel Lebas’s second book ‘Between Dog and Wolf’ was published in 2006. The photograph I am looking at came from the ‘Between Dog and Wolf’ book.

I wasn’t able to find the title of this photograph; only what book it was from. It seems that the photograph was taken in the early morning, as the lighting is quite low and not yet light. Due to the light being quite low, a slow shutter speed would have been used so that image was captured clearly. Towards the background of the image, in amongst the trees, it appears that there is a mist emerging which could suggest that the time of year when this photograph was taken could be late autumn or early spring time. There is a slight curvature at the bottom of photograph, which could indicate that Crystel Lebas was taking the photograph in a slight dip or at the bottom of a slight hill as the ground dips in the middle and rises on both sides. By looking in the centre of the image, it does seem that this image was taken at the bottom of a slight hill as the angle of the ground rises more towards the back of the image. The ground is mostly covered in small ferns and towards the right of the photograph, it looks like a type of grass is also occupying the soil.  Additionally, on the right of the photograph, there is a grouping of rocks and what looks like a small clearing in front of them.

Along with the title, I could not find the meaning of this photograph. Basing it on the title of the book that this image was published in; ‘Between Dog and Wolf’, this photograph could have a more evolutionary meaning of the transaction from the wolf to the dog. The wolf living in forests such like the one that has been taken in this photograph, evolving into a wide range of species, one being canines like the dog which were then domesticated and taken out of the wild. This photograph could therefore have the literal meaning of the evolution of the dog from the wolf. Following on from this, this photograph could show the emptiness within forests. The forest itself being alive through the trees and the ferns, but lacking actual animals bigger than centipedes and beetles due to the human race expanding over time, over hunting of the animals such as the boar and domestication of the dog. Perhaps this photograph was taken to show the beauty that this world still holds and that it is delicate as our over developing world pushes on the boundaries of building more cities and cutting down more wood. The colours on this photograph are very clear, greens and browns towards the lower part of the image, and more blue colours to the top of the image, almost as if they were pushing down on the other colours. This could suggest a power battle between the wolf, being represented by the greens, and the canines being represented by the blues. The wolf being pushed out of their natural habitat as the human race expanded and domesticated canines so that they thrived.

I really like this photograph. The time in which it was taken adds a feeling of a magical sense with the ‘greens’ towards the bottom of the image being the ferns and a more ‘bluey’ haze being the morning light filtering through the trees, dominating the top half of the photograph. I also like that Crystel Lebas chose this particular area to take the photograph, as the rocks to the right add a sort of heaviness to the image that wouldn’t be achieved if the image consisted of all trees. Also, the ground rises towards the back of the image indicating a slope of this particular terrain towards the mist and the blue haze of the light, which creates a more mysterious look and feel.