My Pinhole Photography

My pinhole images taken around campus.

This was the best outcome, the first image was after just inverting it and balancing the levels, the second is edited a bit further by changing the magenta levels and the contrast. I entered the second image into the 'Silverprint Competition' as I feel it is the stronger image.

Artist Research - Mark Tweedie

Artist Research


Mark Tweedie

Mark Tweedie is a Pin-hole photographer. He uses hand-made pinhole cameras as he feels something which has been physically handled by its maker will have a subtly different feel to one where soley mechanistic means of production have been employed. Here are some examples of his work:

What makes this different to the majority of his other images is the border, as the only other images which have borders are done in the film strip style. The image looks like it has been slightly fogged but it adds a quite mysterious effect to the overall finish. I don't really understand the reasoning behind the image but I do like the outcome.

This image is quite strange, he has used the platform as a focul point, pointing to the child that is straight in front of it.The child looks quite scary

I really like the style of this photographer

Artist Research - Idris Khan

Artist Research

Idris Khan

Idris Khan is a London based artist who uses layering and digital manipulation to make his images.  

Kahn photographs or scans from secondary source material, he then builds up the layers of scans digitally. This allows him to carefully control contrast, brightness and opacity. The use of multiple images which are very similar means he can build up the contrast in certain areas, either making them very dark or very light.

He usually uses images that are different but similar enough to be layered, for example, every page of the Qur'an or every Bernd and Hilla Becher spherical gasholder.

This image is of every page of the Qur'an layered on top of one another. I like this because it's a look into his culture but in a very subtle way. He has lined up every layer with extreme accuracy which makes it merge into a solid image

The repeated fold of the spine has shown up very black as it is repeated in a similar pattern on every page and when sorting the opacity, the image underneath shows through.

This is every image from the 'Bernd and Hiller Becher sperical gasholder' contact sheet, layered directly on top of one another. Bernd and Hiller Becher were known for photographing and documenting Germanys' dissapearing industrial architecture. Focusing on buildings with similar shapes and formations. This is the theme they were using when they photographed the gasholders.

The outcome is quite a soft edged sphere, you can see where the object has repetitions in formation because it appears darker than some other parts of the image.

I have researched this artist because his method is very similar to the method we used to create our images. We used our Flash-gun experiment photographs and layered up 2 or more images and made adjustments to the opacity levels to create a ghostly effect. These images were good for layering because of their black background and weird effects.

Digtial Media (P1-M5)

 Montage 5

To create my fifth montage, I used an image of hands crossed and duplicated the image 3 times over the top of the original layer. I positioned the layers just out of line with each other, so that one image of the hands was outlining the other. I then experimented with the dissolve effect on Photoshop, this made the outlining hands look pixelated and odd.

Digital Media (P1-M4)

 Montage 4

To create my fourth montage, I used the same effect as in montage 3 but using a different image, a ghostly image of a hand forming a heart symbol. This time I multiplied the image vertically down instead of horizontally across.

 I had the same problems as before with the sharp edges, also I found this image worse to merge because of the multiple colours in the image. It could be argued that this made the outcome more ghostly but it could be a softer change between layers.

Digital Media (P1-M3)

 Montage 3

To create my third montage, I used a red filtered portrait image. I duplicated the original image and placed them one on top of another 3 times over, each time moving the top layer over slightly and increasing its opacity.

It could have worked but because of the sharp edges, you could see where I had merged the photographs. I could have experimented with the eraser tool to eliminate the red light from the flash-gun and to make the edges softer but on the other hand it may have lost the sharp repetition effect.

Digital Media (P1-M2)

To create my second montage, I used 2 different images. I used the same images and the same style as montage 1, minus the portrait shot of someone in a white light.

 

I prefer Montage 1 in comparison because it draws the eye instead of looking un-finished.

Montage 2

Digital Media (P1-M1)

To create my first montage, I used 3 different images from the Flash lighting workshop. I used two images of someone looking at themselves which were both taken at different levels and then I used a third image of a front on portrait shot of someone in a white light.

 

I dragged one image onto the second image, and reduced the opacity of the top image.  It faded out both images because of the contrast of the black and red. I then added the third image and because of the white light effect, it made it look spooky and ghostly. To improve the collective image I used the eraser tool to try and eliminate as much extra light as possible.

Montage 1

 

Steps to create a digital montage:

1.       Open your first image in Photoshop.

2.       Either copy or open your second image.

3.       Drag your second/copied image onto the first image.

4.       And adjust the opacity. You can also manipulate the image using the eraser tool.

 

 



Starting Line

So, this blog is all about my A2 Photography course, it will be tracking my progress and all the different techniques we do. Enjoy

S x