Final evaluation

Final evaluation 

I     I have been influenced ver much by the work of others in my research. Mostly of course by John Stezaker and Hannah Hoch, which is why I have focused on them for the exam. I like how simple yet bold Stezaker's work is. My favourite examples of his work are the portraits that have include halts of two different people making the two one. This is partly why so many of my final images in the exam are similar, also because it's a good way of adding the skeleton. I also like how Hoch's work challenges what a good photo, even person, is. As well as these photographers I had a strong influences from artist Maria Abramovic who's shoot encouraged me to do the theme of skeletons. An idea I original through would be good to explore after using the skeleton in a shoot for component 1 and how funny/odd it would be in the real word and among real people. Before finding Abramovic I was going to look in to the work of Rich McCor who I have mentioned before in either or both the photographers research and research log. McCor uses paper cut out and holds them over a building giving it a new meaning. E.g. having the London eye as a wheel on a bike. In the end I went for the the skeleton idea but didn't forget about using cutouts completely after experimenting with Shamekh who uses backgrounds as ideas for dresses. Shamekh isn't a photographer but a fashion designer and Maria Abramovic is an artist but it's always good to get inspiration from more then one kind of source.

In this project, expertly towards the end, I have been using composite image making which I first learnt at the end of component 1. I have found this technique to be very useful in Component 2 and in the exam. As well as that technique I have also learnt how to use the magnetic lasso tool for when the quick selection tool doesn't work. I have also learnt to take images for multiple angles not just the one that your originally thinking of as your original idea isn't always the best nor dose it always turn out the way you intended.

I think my responses to the first shoot on bases mostly on John Stezaker went very well and better than my previous attempt. This is because I had more photos of different people and a better picture of a skeleton, last time it was just a skull. However the attempt of combining John Stezaker and Shamekh Al-Bluwi wasn't as successful as I'd hoped, I have learnt from this not to mix to ver different photographers. The second shoot  inspired by Hannah Hoch was fine and did have some great images. My favourite images being when I mixed chunks of people faces instead of just a noise and/or mouth. Althought I don't think it's as good as the first shoot this is because I don't think my attempt at incorporating Hoch's work into my own work has always worked. If I were to improve I would add some objects as well as hands. I could also use cut-outs from a newspaper as I have just released adding a political angle would be very fiting to this work as Hoch's work could be political too.  

Final images

Final images

Word record 1

·        Contact sheets   
     
     
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
      Best images 
      
      
      This image of a skeleton is perfect for my use which is to put half of it over a person. The lighting is correct as the fact you can't see the neck makes it more intimidating. The background for this image looks better then the previous, in the experimentally shoots I just had a skull which when paired with a person didn't look right. The whole skeleton makes the point clearer.
  
      
      The skeleton would look good over this as it has an even mix of both sky and branches. It will also look fine allow without the skeleton. I will try both ideas.
    
      
      This image looks mysterious as it is in the middle of the park looking up at the trees.

      
I     I like this image as the rest are mostly filled up with trees. I may use this as a landscape to put over the faces of people.
    
      
      This image has the correct lighting were most of the face can be seen clearly but not quite.  I'll be both putting a landscape over the subjects face, mixing half of it with a skeleton and probably mixing half of them with any over subject.

      
      This image is based on the work of Shamekh Al-Bluwi only I have made it link to my theme as instead of having people wearing clothes that are cut out. I have drawn a skeleton and cut it out. This is the scene print. This will be put over both portraits and landscapes to see which one it's best suited for.

      Images that require improvement
      
      
      The image above from my first shoot with people is far to blurry for what I'm going for. I guess it would make images with the half skeleton scarier as it looks persisted, however I want all portraits to be normal portraits.

 
      This was from my first try for my landscape shoots. It was a boring cloudy day which wasn't   the weather I was hopping for but I did a shoot anyway. This is because it wasn't raining which would of made the images worse. It was also better to have a shoot outside even if it's not the desired weather compared to no landscapes photos at all. It was fine in the end as the next day the sky was lovely and blue so I did any over shoot.
   
      
      I don't like this image as it has a house in it. I don't want any man made objects in my landscapes as it distracts from the nature.

 
      The lighting in this image isn't correct as the snot light from the right hand side is too bright. This means the subjects face isn't clear.
j     

·     AO1: Develop ideas through sustained investigations informed by research and other sources.

      I was mainly inspirited by the work of John Stezaker, however I have also decided to incorporate Shamekh Al-Bluwi which may or may not work as I haven't put the two together before only separately. For the exam I intend to expand on my previous work on John Stezaker. I shall incorporate Al-Bluwi's work by putting a skeleton template over the landscapes whci is then put on top of the portraits.

John Stezaker
     
     
     

     
      Shamekh Al-Bluwi 
      

      

      A02:  Camera settings
      The settings for all pictures of the skeleton that I have used and for the subject on the white background are F-stop: 11, shutter speed: 0.4 and ISO:100. The original try at the landscapes photos F-stop: 11, shutter speed: 1/8 and ISO: 100. The second successful landscape photos F-stop: 10, shutter speed: 1/400 and ISO: 200. Finally the settings for the portraits with the black background are F-stop: 11, shutter speed: 1/125 and ISO: 100.

  Photoshop 

  Half skeleton and half person
       
       First I cut the the skeleton in half using crop.
      
      Then I moved the skeleton on top of the over image and moved it into place.
      
      After it was moved into place I cropped the image to remove the top of the background image.


 Half of different people
      
      First I turned the image into black and white.

      
      Then I cropped the second person and put them on top. Then I adjusted the image to make sure it fit, after placing the second image on top I cropped the two together as their was a gap on the right as the second image is portrait and the original is landscape, so I cropped both sides.

Landscape over the face
     The image is first turned in to black and white.
    
      
      Then I dragged the image of the landscape on top, which I then adjusted. As I have to much of the upper body in the image I'll crop the image. Over wise the landscape is a bit too small meaning it's not as noticeable.
      
      Inspired by both John Stezaker and Shamekh Al-Bluwi       
      Frist I cropped the screen shot.
   
      
      I then used the quick selection tool to select the white background. After that I pressed Command and C to copy the image onto the over image of a landscape.

      
      Then I pressed Command and V to paste the image. Then Command and T to adjust the image, which I moved over the leafs.

      
      Next I turned my third image ,a portrait, into black and white.

       
       I dragged the image with the landscape and skeleton onto the portrait. Then I made the image smaller and moved it into place. Finally I cropped the two sides of the image.

     Final images 

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

A03:



      I believe that this shoot has gone better then the my first try at John Stezaker's work. Last time I only had one person which is a problem as his work often has two people. I also think that using the skeleton instead of just the skull is also more effective as now it really is half of the person unlike a floating skull like last time. I don't think my attempt at adding Shamekh Al-Bluwi's work worked, especially the portrait with the skeleton templet and no landscape in-between.I have found out that this technique only works with objects or settings not over people. Althroght I am rather warming to the one with Al-Bluwi's work on top of a portrait at first I didn't like it but know I think it may work.