Project evaluation.

  At the begging of the project I had only used photoshop for adding slight changes to colour and changing images to black and white etc, so to widen my knowledge of this vast program was something that I was looking forward to. It must be said though I had my doubts as to whether I would enjoy this project. The reason I hadn't previously used photoshop for this kind of editing was because, quite frankly I wasn't interested and didn't find it like “real” photography.

After putting these preconceived ideas behind me, I found myself starting to enjoy sticking random bits of images together to create something completely random. I found the first few “edits” I did, were forced into my perception of what editing on photoshop would be like. But after I had started to do more research into deeper corners of the genre, I found my ideas starting to form, and the work started to flow instead of the previous forceful nature of my work.

The idea of using a blog to convey our work as a sketchbook, I thought was unconventional and quite restricting, after finishing the project I still have the same reservations. I understand the importance of having a wide aspect of learning in the course, but I don’t see how using a medium that you can do less on, is better. For example at the begging of a project, most students will cover or decorate there sketchbook, and there really is anything they can do, some people put tape on their books and write on the tape, others cover all the pages in pained card and write on that. There is no room for creativity when using a blog for a sketchbook, because to do something like that, you would have to first do it on a physical bit of paper and scan it in. The only options you are given are what the background is the font and the where the bars of the blog will be, so not much. I feel like I have suffered in this sense, not of the quality of the final images but of the quality of the so called “online workbook”. The idea for a blog is not to use it as a sketchbook but as a medium to portray your best work and the writing that accompanies it. I think a mix of using blogs and physical sketchbooks would be a much better option as you can show all your work on the sketchbook and upload your finals onto the blog.

Although I don’t like the blogs, I did enjoy the project, the main reason being the vast knowledge I have gathered on how to use photoshop for editing purposes, I feel like learning photoshop techniques is vital and will stem into most of our other digital projects. For example the diorama project only had one application (itself) but the skills we have learnt on photoshop will be with us, for many years.  

Final 3 (Print)

I choose this image to print because of high level of detail captured by the reverse lens, this in turn (using a reverse lens) has given the image a very shallow depth of field, this makes it a very striking image, which is another reason why i choose to use this picture to print. Of course the main reason why the image is a so striking is the zoom blur I have edited on, this creates a strange perception for the viewer, it transforms the 2d, flat invertebrate, into a grappling warped alien that is unrecognisable, this is what draws in attention because you look at it and see something you vaguely recognise but in a different form. Because of this transformation, the picture is in fact rather scary to someone who has a certain phobia of spiders. This is where the third element of the image comes into play, the 3d illusion that I have portrayed, of course everyone knows that spiders legs don't drastically grow out of its body, but its the initial few seconds where you are lead to believe that it is a real spider, are the reasons why i choose the image.

Final 2

For my finals i wanted to keep them all different so for this i used a acrylic transfer and uploaded it onto photoshop. I like how the image has a certain vintage quality to it, it is almost a stereotype of  the American people, and how the world perceives it, or at least how they did when this image was taken. The image was taken in black and white but i added colours with the acrylic transfer. But then on photoshop i changed it back to the black and white, the reason for this was again the vintage feel i was aiming for. Even though the colours were very interesting and has quite a lot of depth i feel like this was the better image for communicating ideas. 

I think next time i should be more ambitious, even though the American flag is effective and looks good, it is a simple operation on photoshop to put the flag on, the only trouble i found was resizing the image so they where similar sizes.

I think the image has great lines, the lines of the buildings seem to go on forever, this is possibly communicating the feelings of the people who live in it, like it goes on forever. These lines are contrasted by the lines on the American flag, which travel in the opposite direction, they lead on to the faint stars of the flag

Final 1

I choose this image as the first finial because of how effect  the simplicity of the image is. It is only composed of two layers. The first layer being the background. this is just a picture of some trees. I changed the  colour to a purple tint, this gives a sense of infinity, the woods seem to go on forever.

Because Pete is a highly criticised celebrity, i feel like this shows his freedom and his personality, clearly he doesn't want the media jounraslists always around him, invading his life and privacy, this is like his escape, what he wants the landscape around him to be like. The second layer is the picture of Pete i traced. I could of used a photograph of him for this, but i feel the hand drawn picture shows his personality and feelings better, for example the sorrow he shows in the drawing is something that i don't think is found in photographs of him,  The photographs have to much detail in them which hides all the feelings he has. The simple drawing doesn't that amount of detail, so the emotion can flood though.

I finished of the image with a few leaf brushes i just wanted to add a bit of depth and change, but i don't feel this is quite has effective as the other features of the image. I don't think i have given the image much depth, if anything just make the image more cluttered, but i do think the little brush on the white part of the image is effective in filling some of the white space.

Nashi Jenkins, Alice in wonderland

This image has inspired me to produce my macro image for my finial. Before i think i was focused on less photographic images, working on using more brushes etc. So this gave me the idea to take a picture myself and edit that. Because i didn't like the theme of mushrooms and grass i thought using a spider would be a good idea.

How to make a reverse lens.

Because i used a reverse lens for my "creeping" finial image, i thought it might be a good idea to show how i put together the lens.

You can get a small lens adaptor which will connect to two lens together but because i was using lens's of different sizes this wouldn't work. I used small lens's because if you used a large lens there would be so much glass that it would block out the light. So i used a Canon ef-s 18-55mm kit lens attached onto the camera, and a 50mm f.1.7 prime lens. The massive aperture results in a very shallow depth of field.

To attach the two lens's you will need to use tape to connect them. You must make sure that no light seeps thought the gap other wise the image will be overexposed. I used strong duct tape, using sellotape will result in light seeping though and your lens might fall of as it isn't very strong.

You will need to play around with the zoom to get the desired focal length. But it is advisable to keep the aperture on the widest setting for your lens. The reason for this is that a smaller aperture will cause strong vignetting which could ruin your image.