Texture and Pattern
Definitions
Texture - the feel, appearance, or consistency of a surface or a substance.
Pattern - a repeated decorative design.
Theory
Texture can be accentuated by different amounts of light. For example at midday the light is vertically overhead. This could mean that the texture would be very visible.
Pattern is the key to a good composition and when it is used correctly it can turn a very bland and dull image into something that is very dramatic and eye catching.
Artist Research - Patrice de Villiers
Patrice de Villiers is an English photographer who is based in London. She specialises in food and drink photography. She emphasises on food inspiring art.
Villiers takes photos of different types of food but she focuses heavily on the pattern and textures that have been created within that specific food. This photographer uses food to experiment with different compositions and is very creative in the way the objects are presented. The third image down is an image of a ------- with a sharp outer shell and it is smoothly textured inside. I really like this photo because I feel like it represents that thing or people may look dangerous but on the inside they are not. Also the fact that the two halves of the object are only just touching could represent that people are afraid to see what's inside a person just because of what they look like. I really like the composition of the photo because of the plain background. The fruit has a moist looking texture on the inside and a pale brown outer shell. The plain background draws your eyes straight tot the texture that has been created within the food itself. I think that this work has been achieved in a studio because there is a lot of lighting and the shadow look as though they have been created due to where the light source is. I would also like to try and use this in my own work. The second image is a photo that looks at pattern and texture. I believe it is of the upper side of a mushroom. This image focuses heavily on the intricate detail of the food. Villiers has specifically chosen to use a dark background. I believe this is because she looks at the colour of the object she is photographing and then decides which colour background would make the object stand out most and in this case a darker background really makes the texture of the mushroom pop out. The repeated lines could represent the everyday use of the food. For example people would regularly eat food in their day to day lives however because of the slightly curved lines within the mushroom this could represent irregular things that happen in everyday life.
Image bank
This image bank has a range of photos that represent pattern and texture. Each of the images that I have selected have elements that I would like to incorporate into my own photographs.
Contact Sheets
The intentions for my shoot were to create some different patterns and textures using fruit and vegetables. I wanted to be a little bit creative with the way I physically presented them because I believe that my artist does this. I believe that overall the shoot was successful however some of the images I took at home did not have enough lighting or a plain background. This made the composition slightly off. On the other hand I believe that the photos I took in the studio had good lighting and were set out in a way that draws your attention to the pattern and texture. Some of the images were slightly out of focus and this is because I moved the camera too close to the fruit however to overcome this I zoomed the camera out slightly and I plan to crop some of the background out in photo shop. I have annotated my contact sheet by ticking the images I feel initially look successful and I have crossed the images I feel were not as successful. I also made small labels on some of the photos as to why I crossed or ticked them.
My best images
In reference to my best images...
The image of the slice of kiwi was taken specifically to portray the formal element of texture. This photo was taken by placing the slice of kiwi on a light box. I also used a tripod to support the camera as I was taking the photos. This allowed me to get the best composition that I could. I wanted the fruit to be the centre of the photo. I also increased the shutter speed slightly so that there was a longer exposure time. By doing this the light box looks pure white instead of being a slightly off white colour.
The photo I took of the raspberries was very interesting because it closely looked at both texture and pattern. This photo required a lot of altering of setting in the studio and on the camera. I had to use extra external lights to get the image to be sharp and bright. At first the camera did not have a long enough exposure time and the top of the raspberries were very dark. This image was specifically inspired by my image bank where I gathered a very close up and detailed photo of raspberries. I really liked the texture that they create.
The photograph of the mushroom, in my opinion, stands out amongst my best images. This is because it is the only one that I selected that is a vegetable rather than a fruit. I really like this because I feel as though a completely different texture has been created. Rather than it being slightly moist like the fruit it makes your eye immediately focus on the thin intricate lines in the mushroom. This image was fairly difficult to take because the stalk of the mushroom did not look very aesthetically pleasing and it got in the way of the fine details. To overcome this I used photo shop to crop the image. This made sure that the focal point of the photo was the texture.
My final best image was a specific photo I took that I believe was quite creative. The composition of the photo is very interesting because the fruit is not just directly in the centre. The fruit is introduced into the photo from the right hand side. To make the image more creative was an idea that I got from my artist research. Also there is a mixture of different textures all in one image. This makes it very interesting to look at and it is not like the rest of the images I have selected therefore I believe that it stands out.
Images that require improvement
The images above are two of the images I felt needed improvement. The first image of the lemon and lime slices was very over exposed. The camera was set on a longer shutter speed than needed. To take the image the fruit was placed on a light box and used overhead lights in the studio. Due to this and the thickness of fruit the exposure did not need to be very big as there was a lot of excess lighting. The longer shutter speed there was too much light and the fruit was washed out. To overcome this I needed to use a shorter shutter speed. Once I realised this I continued using a shutter speed of 1/50 instead of 1/100.
For the second image that I feel needs improving, firstly I do not feel as though the composition of the photo was correct and, unlike the first image this was under exposed. There was not enough light captured by the camera meaning that the shutter speed was too short. The detail within the lime wasn't clear because the whole image was darker than I wanted it to be.
AO3:
AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.
The ideas for my photos mainly came from my artist research of Patrice de Villiers. I feel as though her images were slightly more experimental than mine. By this I mean that the way she places the objects in the photo were very creative. Although I did try to experiment slightly with how I placed the fruit and vegetables I found it difficult to make them stay in the same place unless they were flat on the light box which I photographed them on. If I were to reshoot these photos I would try and use other people to help me compose the fruit and vegetables in a more creative way. Some of my ideas also came from my image bank. Within this I looked at some images of fruit creating texture and pattern, I really liked this because the texture is very unique for each particular fruit. I took some of my images at home however most of them were taken in a studio within my college. This was very beneficial to me because I could use extra lights and the fruit and vegetables were placed on a light box which really made the texture of the fruit visible. Most of the images came out as expected however some of the images I took at home did not have the composition that I would have hoped for. I believe this was because I did not have a tripod to position my camera and keep it very still. This meant that I couldn't perfectly centre the fruit in the frame of the image. Once facing these struggles at home I decided to use the studio because I felt like I would produce better quality photos. For this reason I believe all of the images I took in the studio turned out better than the ones I photographed at home. Using a studio was an idea that I got from my photographer research because I believe that Villiers used a studio to place the light source where she wanted to and so that she could create the exact composition she was looking for.
AO2: AO2:Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.
I used a canon 400d to take all of my images. Before altering any of the camera settings I put the camera in manual mode and it was on a shutter speed of 1/100 and the f-number was f/5.6. Before taking any photos I changed the iso down from 1400 to 200. This was because there was a lot of lighting. When working in the studio I had to alter the camera setting depending on what I was photographing. For example, when photographing the kiwi I did not need to use any extra exterior lights however I wanted the background to look a crisp white colour. This meant that I had to have a longer shutter speed therefore I changed the shutter speed to 1/120. This allowed a slightly longer exposure time meaning that there was more light allowed into the photo. When I was photographing the raspberries they looked very dark when using these camera settings. To overcome this problem I used extra lights to brighten up the photo. Due to the extra lighting that I used I lowered the shutter speed to 1/50 as I didn't need as long of an exposure time. If I would have left it at 1/100 then the light would have flooded the image and it would be too bright. I also adjusted the aperture to an f-number of f/8. I used a light box the place the different types of food onto. I used this because the light shining upwards made the texture of the fruit very visible. I also used a tripod to adjust the camera positions. This was very helpful as in many situations I only needed to make slight adjustments. If I was holding the camera I may have not been able to achieve the correct composition. This is what I believe happened with the photos I took at home with no access to these extra resources.
To improve my images I used photo shop in a number of different ways. Each photo was slightly cropped. For the image of the mushroom below I cropped out the stalk because I didn't feel as though it was necessary however some of the other images were only cropped slightly just to remove some of the background. This was because I didn't want to take the photos too close to the object because then there would have been a chance it would have been out of focus. I also used the curves tool and the brightness and contrast tool to adjust the colours within the photo. These tools just slightly enhanced the colours. For the image below I also used the auto tone tool. This adjusts all of the tones within the photo and balances them out. Also when editing the photo of the kiwi I used the healing brush tool to get rid of some of the small black dots which were on the fruit. This made the image look a little more professional and neat.
AO4: AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements.
My artist research helped me to gain ideas on how to physically place objects within the composition of the image to make it more creative. This helped me to come up with some unique ideas of my own, for example I the image of the different fruit skins and the image I took of cut up banana piled up into a tower. Although some of these ideas did not come out the way I wanted them too I do believe that I tried to be experimental. Also due to the photos being taken in a professional studio I was able to use the correct amount of lighting to bring out the detail in each photo I took. In addition my artist research helped me to focus on how a plain background can make one object the main focal point of the image.
My final images
I believe that my final edited photos represent a very healthy lifestyle and they show the textures and patterns created within fruit and vegetables. I feel like this could be because I have used a number of saturated colours. I also feel as though they directly relate to m artist research because they are all images of some kind of food. Also they look at the different ways that fruit and vegetables can be arranged and organised.AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.
AO2:Explore
and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes,
reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.
AO3: Record
ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically
on work and progress.
AO4: Present a
personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where
appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements.
Abbie very good overall however there ae some structural problems to the blogger e.g. AO4: is the final blog content you have put AO1:, why? You have a B for this as there is a lot of written work and it is clear that you have tried to adapt you camera settings to get a successful outcome.. The images work and link to your artist. I think that there is a need for you to ADD to the work further examples using the macro technique.. and more examples this time ensure that you have the right composition and focus.
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