Portfolio Documentary

Documentary Portfolio

Composite Images

Composite Images 

Ways in which you can use photoshop to manipulate images: 

curves

brightness and contrast

air brushing tools - e.g. spot healing tool, patch tool 

crop tool 

burn and dodge tool 

saturation 

Artist Research - Hannah Hoch

Hannah Hoch was a female active in the Dada movement. This was extremely unique during this time. She was also promoting the idea of women working creatively more generally in society. 

Hannah Hoch craetes images from a number of different photos. The image directly above is a self portrait of Hannah. I think that this photo is very interesting because she has given herself a pair of scissors. I believe this could represent her cutting out things about herself that she doesn't like. I also think that because she has irregular sized features it could represent that she wants to stand out and be noticed. During the time that the Dada movement was happening women were seen as being less important in comparison to men. I believe that Hannah Hoch is trying to reinforce the idea that women should be seen as equal and should be noticed. I feel as though she has included a stamp in the corner to represent her having the freedom to go where ever she wants and be who she wants to be.  

 The Dada Movement

Dada was an art movement was formed during the First World War in Zurich. It was focusing on the negative reaction to the horrors of the war. The work produced by dada artists is usually nonsensical in nature. The focus was on artists not creating aesthetically pleasing objects but on generating questions about society, the artist and the purpose of the art.

Experimental editing 

I wanted to play around with photoshop and try to create something surreal by using two images. Firstly I used the image of the duck and then by using the quick selection and lasso tool I cut out. I refined the selection to ensure all of the duck was selected. I then inversed the image and copied the photo of the duck. I opened the image of the Thames and then clicked cmd+V which pasted the duck. I then clicked cmd+J which duplicated the layer. I did this twice so that I had three ducks altogether. Once doing this I moved the ducks to where I wanted them to be and clicked cmd+T. This allowed me to edit the size of the ducks and move them. I then added a mask to each layer, selected the make on the layer and selected the brush tool. I made sure that the colour was black and then I painted underneath the ducks which revealed the original image, creating the impression that the ducks are swimming. This made it look slightly more natural rather than having the ducks just sitting on top of the water. 

Contact Sheet 

The intentions for my shoot were to take close up photos of one model. This is the model that I want to use to cut out parts of their face. I then asked the other model to take some basic shoulder shots and I also gave him some props to use so that I could make the images different. By using objects within the images I feel as though this represents the photographer, Hannah Hoch, because she cuts and pastes different objects around the portrait within the artwork. 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.

Editing

When editing I used the photos below to cut different parts on the images, using the lasso tool, and paste onto another image. 

The final edits

Camera Settings and Composition

Camera Setting and Composition

Compositions

Why does the rule of thirds work?

The rule of thirds makes use of a natural tendency of the human eye to be more strongly drawn towards certain parts of an image.

This photo is an example of the use of negative space. 

This photo uses the rule of thirds. 

This photo uses a triangular composition. 

Camera Settings 

ISO: 

The letters ISO on digital camera settings refer to the sensitivity of the sensor to light.

Low ISO value = low light sensitivity and high image quality.

High ISO value = high light sensitivity, lower image quality.

An ISO value of 100 or 200 is suited to photographing in sunny conditions

An ISO value of 400 or 800 is suited to photographing in cloudy conditions or dusk/dawn

An ISO value of 1600 or higher is suited to low light conditions, e.g.darkened rooms, night photography.

Aperture:

The aperture adjusts the size of the opening through which light passes to the image sensor.

This photo has a narrow depth of field. (blurred background)

This photo has a wide depth of field. (all the photo is very clear)

A large f-number such as f/32, (which means a smaller aperture) will bring all foreground and background objects in focus, while a small f-number such as f/1.4 will isolate the foreground from the background by making the foreground objects sharp and the background blurry.

Shutter Speed

Measured in fractions of a second. Shutter speed means timing and duration of opening and closing of the shutter curtain at the back of the camera. A fast shutter speed will freezes action while slower speed creates blurring effect.