Unit Evaluation

Throughout this unit I have researched different artists which contribute to landscape photography this can be seen throughout this blog and the personal study, some famous photographers such as Ansel Adams and some 'newer' photographers such as Alex Nail. This has allowed me to research and experiment with old and new experiments such as HDR, black and white photography and selective colour. As part of this unit I have explored another photography topic which can be linked to landscape photography, street photography. I felt this topic would be extremely useful to experiment with as this creates more interesting photographs and avoids constantly capturing rural areas, like most landscape photographers. This also allowed me compare the different results due to the contrasting differences in terms of location and the aspects that contribute to these two different genres.

This unit required a vast amount of research due to the popularity and the importance of this topic. This allowed me to research the development of photography and how this has impacted landscape photography as of present, such as experimental results e.g. double exposure and HDR. When researching I discovered that HDR was a massive part of landscape photography, which Ansel Adams became an iconic photographer for. Colour is also another important feature in landscape photography, the research evidences that 'older' artists use black and white photography whereas 'newer' artists tend to work with colour more. Therefore this shows how photography has developed over time and being an important aspect of the final photograph. As part of this unit I have experimented with colour, black and white photography, colour and selective colour. This allowed me to compare the differences, I found black and white photography extremely interesting due to the tones which can be created within this effect. However I found using colour and experimenting with the HDR effect the most interesting experiment within this unit and I feel this was the highlight of this unit.

Towards the end of this unit I decided to present a more interesting and creative piece, this was achieved by looking at artists such as David Hockney. I felt this final pieces work well as this shows the development I have made throughout this unit by experimenting with different techniques, such as colour, location and composition. I wanted the final pieces to be different compared to other artists therefore this resulted in the David Hockney technique rather than submitting a static photograph I used a more creative approach.

Final Piece Evidence

The screenshots shown within this post display how the final pieces have been created, evidencing the different stages.

To begin the process I used the grid option in Photoshop as this would allow me to cut up the different parts accurately. I decided each piece would be cut up 4x4 as this would be easier to put the pieces together due to a even number being used and preventing any complications. Therefore I opened two documents, one being the photograph and the other being a blank document. This would allow me to use the selection tool to select the individual pieces and then transfer them to the blank document.

I also used the grid option in the blank document so that I could arrange where the pieces could be placed within the document. The screenshot above shows that several pieces have been transferred to the blank document. This process would continue until all the pieces have been transferred and placed in an appropriate place within the document.

This shows the development of the final piece, displaying all the pieces have now been placed within the blank document. As well as this, it also evidences that the drop shadow effect has been used on half of the pieces within the document. This was a crucial feature as it would allow the pieces to further stand out from one another creating a 3d effect.

This screenshot shows that all the pieces now contain the drop shadow effect giving the photograph a more dynamic effect compared to the first outcome which showed a static photograph. 

This evidences that each layer within the document contain the drop shadow effect.

This screenshot shows that the photograph has progressed even further as the multiply option has also been used for each layer. The multiply feature allows each piece of the photograph to multiply over one another, which mixes the colours together. Thus making different shades due to these being combined.

Final Piece

For my final piece I decided to create a series of photographs using the David Hockney technique in order to present them in an more interesting and creative way. To decide on which photographs I would use, I decided to use 2 street photographs and 2 rural photographs as this would should the differences in contrast such as the colours and the elements which form part of the photograph. As well as this I decided to use the photographs which I thought were most successful within this unit.

This is the first piece which will contribute to the final piece. This piece is one of the street photographs, I used this as I felt this was extremely successful in terms of composition and colour. I thought this would work well with the David Hockney effect too due to overlapping the content of the photograph such as the buildings and the people within the foreground. Overall I think this photograph works well in this technique and to form part of the final piece, especially as this further enhances the colours within the photograph. 

This is the second street photograph used as part of the series for this final piece. This photograph is different from the first street photograph in terms of location and the elements this focuses more on the street and the buildings whereas the previous photograph uses more movement due to the people and the cars captured. I felt that this photographed was extremely successful in terms of composition and colour and this shows a range of different elements, providing a broad colour palette. I also felt that this highlighted the urban city well and would contrast the rural photographs extremely well. Overall I think this photograph works well in this technique and this is mainly due to the content of this photograph such as the buildings, roads, signs and the car in the foreground. 

This is the third piece created for the final piece, this photograph is a rural landscape, thus contrasting the previous two street photographs in terms of content and colour. I think that this photograph works well due to the composition and the colour scheme used and the lighting. I think this photograph works well in this technique as the photograph has been cut up easily, displaying an interesting and creative photograph compared to the original photograph. The overlapping areas also create more tones within the colour due them being combined together, thus highlighting different areas of the photograph. 

This is the final piece within the series of photographs used to present the final piece for this unit. I think this is the most successful photograph out of the series of photographs due to the different colours and the lighting which highlights different parts of the photograph, further enhancing the colour of the photograph. I think this technique works well with this photograph due to the composition of the photograph, thus the squares create tones within the photograph, highlighting different areas of the photograph, making this stand out even more, especially compared to the original photograph.

Final Piece Idea - David Hockney

Previously I had researched Szymon Roginski & Kasia Korzeniecka work and considered this a technique to use when presenting my final pieces. However when trialling this technique I realised that I wouldn't have enough time to use this technique as well as possibly printing the outcome. Therefore after ruling out this idea I came across David Hockney's work, after viewing his work I thought that this would be a good technique to combine with the work I had done. This technique is similar Szymon Roginski & Kasia Korzeniecka work due to the abstract aspect, however this technique doesn't require a huge amount of time, thus giving me enough time to use this for my final piece. Therefore this resulted in using this idea for my final piece in order to present my work. This would involve changing the photographs to have a similar abstract style, which would result in cutting the photographs in to different pieces and then overlapping the elements to recreate the original photograph. This allowed my final piece(s) to contain a more modern appearance as well as adding a creative aspect to them rather than just present several static photographs which have been taken. I also felt that this was relevant as the majority of artists I have researched throughout this course have just presented the final photograph and haven't considered changing the way in which it is presented. 

Szymon Roginski & Kasia Korzeniecka - Final Piece Idea

During this course I came across the artists Szymon Roginski & Kasia Korzeniecka, these have worked together in order to create the pieces which can be seen within this post. After viewing several different pieces of their work I thought that this would be a good technique to when presenting my final piece(s). This would involve cutting the photographs up and then applying a drop shadow to ensure that the pieces contain the 3 effect shown within this image. This also may involve drawing out cube and then transferring the cut up pieces of photograph to these individually.

This is another piece which I came across when researching the artists, Szymon Roginski & Kasia Korzeniecka. This photograph uses a slightly different approach as this displays the photograph on multiple hexagons, varying in size. Again, this would also be an interesting technique to try out, especially when presenting my final pieces as these could potentially be printed out, allowing me to arrange the hexagons in the correct order, This would be more interesting than printing an framing an image.

Polaroids

The photograph is a representational photograph as this capture different objects such as the bridge, road, trees and the buildings. The photographs quality isn't as good as a digital camera however there is a reasonable amount of detail within the photograph and the quality is reasonable as you can make out objects such as the leaves. Due to the quality of the image this gives an older feel which is mainly due to the lighting and the fact the objects aren't in focussed. The photograph does contain a wide colour palette due to the different objects located within the area but obviously the colour isn't as bright due to the exposure. 

The photograph shown above didn't appear as well as the previous photograph and this is because of the weather condition as when processing this image it began raining. This of course did have an affect on the overall outcome as the photograph was processing in the rain. The evidence of this can be seen by viewing the small white dots which appear mainly area the building area. It is also noticeable that the colour of the sky has a tint of pink which again this is due to the photograph developing in the rain which made the colour run. However despite the mistakes made within the photograph I don't think they massively impact the photograph as the colour within the road and buildings can still be seen. The colour for this photograph is darker than the previous photograph and again this is due to the weather conditions at the time of taking the photograph. 

The photograph shown above didn't develop as well as expected due to the weather conditions, as of this point the conditions were at its worse. Therefore more light was needed in order for the photograph to develop correctly but the lighting conditions didn't help in terms of capturing the photograph compared to using if a digital camera was used. The lighting for the photograph has had a massive impact in the overall photograph as the only part which doesn't appear dark is the middle of the road which allows different parts of the road to be highlighted, showing the current weather conditions e.g. the puddles. 

This photograph didn't turn out as well as expected due to the rain affecting the overall outcome thus making the photograph darker than expected. The rain has also affected the photograph in terms of the white dots appearing on the photograph. There are parts of the photograph where the rain didn't particularly impact the outcome for example the foreground of the wall. The photograph may benefit from being edited digitally such as using Photoshop to adjust to levels of exposure to get a better view of the area captured. The photograph uses a a limited colour palette however the lightening doesn't do the colours justice, the different colours may show up better if the levels are adjusted in Photoshop.

This photograph also didn't turn out as well as expected due to the current weather conditions which also impacts the overall lighting. The photograph didn't have enough light to allow it to develop correctly which explains the darkness of the photograph. The photograph has a lack of detail due to the amount of light included within the photograph. However due to the white which appears at the top of the photograph this allows the branches on the tree to stand out mainly due to the contrast which appears within the colours. The aim of this photograph was to capture the scenery in the current location although as explained this was unsuccessful. 

Again, this photograph hasn't developed as well as expected due to the weather conditions at the time and not enough light was exposed to develop the overall photograph. The photograph does shows where the rain has affected the photograph, this is evident due to the two white dots which appear near the top of the photograph. The photograph is extremely limited in terms of colour as this hasn't developed correctly due to the amount of light used to develop the photograph. However you can see that the photograph has focused on capturing the scenery in the location by capturing the trees.

Overall the experiment didn't have  a successful outcome as only two photographs developed correctly. Therefore when using a polaroid camera in the future the weather conditions will be considered as this has prevented the photographs from developing correctly. 

Double Exposure Own Photograph

The purpose of this experiment was to try and incorporate double exposure, similar to Markus Hartel's work, instead of using a window reflection I used Photoshop to create the double exposure. To do this I combined the layers and used the multiple tool so that they would overlap each other giving the double exposure effect. Overall I think that this technique works well as the original photographs are similar to one another, both containing several buildings which creates an interesting effect. This photograph uses a broad colour palette with a wide range of colours used, the most colours are found within the one photograph however when combined this creates a wider range of colours. The photograph contains a variety of different lines, mainly found within the buildings.