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Experimental Photography

Abby Downing

Multiple Exposure

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Dark coloured photograph

Close up

2 different textures in the image because of the multiple exposure. 1 is bumpy and one is prickly

Naturalistic/candid photograph

The darkest areas of the photograph are the dogs eyes and gums.

The lightest areas of the photograph are the background.

High aperture was used to photograph this picture as you can see from the out of focus background

The tones in the image range from white to dark blue

Photograph taken at eye level

Contains 3 exposures. One of a dog in a field, one of trees that has been rotated and another of long grass. All of them have been turned into one image on Photoshop which gives of lots of textures.

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Evaluate: ideas eg analysis, results; How well do you feel you have realised your ideas and intentions and what results have you got?By looking at artists and their photographs themselves helped me decide what I wanted to experiment. The main experiment that stood out to me was ‘multiple exposure’ because I had never seen it before and was very different. The artist’s Sara K Byrneby and Jerry Uelsmann inspired me to do this sort of experiment and use both nature and humans combined to create 2 or more exposures in one photograph. The first experiment I initially did was

I took various photographs of a dog and took 1 really close up one of which I used as my main image, then I took a picture of some tree’s and put them in Photoshop and screened the tree’s. this made it so that the dog and tree’s were blended together to create a surreal photograph, after this I used the same photograph of a dog but with a different exposure of long grass to see how that looked. I thought they both looked nice but thought I would blend all 3 exposures together to create the final images and tweaked the colours and levels. This reminded me of some work I had previously seen by Byrneby. Such as her photograph of the girl with tree’s inside her. I wanted my work to have some qualities and aspects of the kind of work she produced. I think they’re similar because they both show the main features of both human and animal with nature inside them. My work is not as enhanced as hers as you can see the trees very clearly within her whereas on mine they are not as prominent. For all of my experiments within multiple exposure I have done in Photoshop. Qualities:What I like about my work is that you can clearly see all exposures, I like that you can see that it is a dog with nature In and around her. I think that it looks not as professional as I’d like it, maybe if I spent more time on it, it would have looked a lot better, however I do like how I’ve learnt how to do this through experimenting and reading upon how to do it. The strengths of the work I think are the colours, it makes it look different and this one isn’t just black and white, the photographs themselves are really good quality, so when it came to experimenting with them through different techniques the outcomes never looked really bad because of the high quality photographs. To get the blurry faded background, when I took the photograph I changed the aperture setting so that her face was much more prominent and noticeable then the background, I did this because I knew at this point that when I was going to edit the photographs the background was not important or essential. I also increased the shutter speed as well, because the dog was moving around it was hard to capture her really still so I made sure the shutter speed was fairly fast to avoid camera shake and out of focus photographs. When it came to post production I don’t think I did the best I could, because the exposure is quite bright overall on my final image I didn’t think this looked great, as you can see on the black and white photograph I produced the contrast is higher and there is a range of dark and light tones whereas on this image it is particularly light.

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How could you improve your work? Could you develop your work further with additional work? What would you try to achieve with this? Could you undertake further experiments? If so, what would they be?I could improve the work I carried out by changing around the levels and exposure more and concentrate on this when I have combined the exposures, I do not think that I did enough of this. I developed my first image of the dog into a few other images until I was happy with the final outcome, this took time and was very time consuming to find the right photographs to combine together. I could undertake further experiments by making both exposures black and white to create a cut out effect I have seen a lot within Sara's work. This looked really difficult and didn’t work with any of the photographs I took so I would have to experiment with this a different time. Because I was using more then one exposure in one photograph it created lines and shapes within the photograph which made it look interesting and surreal. The contrast of my photograph was fairy low but their were elements that were a lot lighter then the others, due to where the photograph was taken against the sun. The colours of the photograph are cold and not bright, more dark. The colours were from the photographs added of the tree’s and grass, which include blues and greens. The photograph could be developed further by maybe adding a texture of another exposure to the photograph to make it more interesting. I think more colour added would make it better also, and the contrast higher. The work I have produced fulfils the brief because it involves a theme, which is nature and fulfils this in different ways. You can tell that these photographs contain nature because I have used a main subject(s) and added nature to the photograph, or more nature. They are all experimental because I have used techniques that I had learnt from other experimental photographs(photographers) which is multiple exposure, which is a technique that can’t be done without Photoshop or the setting on the camera. It is not ‘natural’ and cannot be captured within one shot. The photograph of the women and the dog next to each other I produced looks rather natural rather then experimental but it is in fact a combination of 2 exposures. The first photograph I took of the women and the dog was combined with a photograph of a river on Photoshop and the levels and curves were changed around, which created the final image. I like this photograph because it looks natural but the women looks like she is fading away, it could have a story behind the image. On my next attempt at multiple exposure I would go back to the photograph of the women and try and create a multiple exposure of her and a forest or mountain setting, I have seen a lot of current photographs like this and I think the portrait and landscape look really good together, after some research of creating the best multiple exposure I think this could work really well.

Harris Shutter

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3 exposures of the same background were placed into one image so that the colours of the subject moving change colours. Some of them didn’t show up as much of the others but that was due to the quality of that photograph and the colour.

Colourful photograph

Large depth of field

The lightest part of the photograph is the sky

Their is texture in the photograph, the grass looks rough

Landscape photograph

Mid/long shot of the dog

Taken at a slight high angle

The contrast of the photograph is quite low

Posed photograph- made the dog run across the field

The main focus of the photograph is the dog running across to suggest movement

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Evaluate: ideas eg analysis, results; I think that I have done well within this technique, because it is really hard to understand and be able to accomplish, especially in Photoshop. The only thing that went wrong in my photograph is the pictures were not all taken with the same background, so the background showed movement which I didn’t want. I only wanted to show the movement of the dog. If I had kept it in the same position it would have been a perfect picture to capture of the Harris shutter effect. The images on the right inspired me to try out the Harris Shutter Effect. I thought they looked really interesting, I had never heard nor seen this effect before and I think it works really well to show movement in a photograph and the colour just makes it look professional and amazing. The differences between this work and my own is that there background is the correct original colours, whereas mine are a bit of and show movement when it is meant to be still, however this could improve with further practise. It would be nice to try this effect with different moving objects. There wasn’t a specific photographer I had found that influenced me to do this technique, it was just the photographs people had created with this effect that I saw that influenced me.

Qualities:I think the look of my work is good considering that the technique itself is hard to do. I think that it worked really well with the images I had for the technique and looks professional. I like that the dog is running in a line across the camera and you can see that it is the same dog repeated 3 times to show movement. I dislike that the background is slightly of because the camera was millimetres of

the same position of each shot. i like the technique itself and would love to practise with it in further projects. Further development would be to rearrange the photographs all together to make sure they are at exactly the same position then create the effect and carry out other post production such as alter the levels and curves. This would make it so the photograph itself looks better. To capture each individual photograph I put the camera on ‘TV’ which is shutter priority and made it so that shutter was quick. This helped me capture the dog in a still position and made it so the dog was not blurry and in a ‘freeze’ position. I also put the camera on burst mode so whilst I held the shutter button down it took a picture one after the other with about a second or two in between. This helped me keep it nearly in the same position because it captured the dog in a different position across the camera 3 times. I carried out this experiment 3 times with the dog running in different positions, so I had a lot to work with when it came to doing post production. I also experimented it firstly with my cousin to see if it worked.

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How could you improve your work? Could you develop your work further with additional work? What would you try to achieve with this? Could you undertake further experiments? If so, what would they be? I could improve my work by making sure that the tripod was completely still whilst doing this experiment, it is essential because if it is moved slightly then the effect will not work as the Harris shutter will take effect on the foreground as well as the background. By doing this I could set a timer on the camera so that I am not even touching the camera when it is taking the shot, which ensures that the camera will not move. I could develop my work further by using different things as a Harris shutter. Maybe with the dog being the foreground that is still with a moving background behind it. To achieve this I would have to have a moving background such as water or tree’s in the wind and then take a few shots of it moving. This would be harder to complete as the dog would move and it wouldn’t be a simple thing to capture. My next attempt at Harris shutter could be a more simple combination of movement such as someone walking, I would also like to try a horse running also because it think this would look more interesting and work really well with the effect. More research into how to produce Harris shutters and the best techniques of actually taking the photographs could be very helpful, as the first time the image had slight movement and didn’t work out so well.

When talking about your work, consider formal elements such as lines, shapes and patterns as well as the colour and contrast and also tone of your image. Think about the composition of your work and where this could be developed. The photograph creates a direction because the dog is running from left to right which you can clearly see. The colours go from yellow to purple to green which contrast each other which makes the photograph bright. I like Harris shutter photographs with a plain background so that the main element (the dog) is seen more clearly. This would be a thing I could think about if I were to develop my wok further.

Finally you should consider if the images you have produced fulfil the brief you were set. Do they match the theme? Are they experimental? Explain your answers using specific examples. the images I produced fulfil the brief because they match the theme of Harris shutter because I have carried the effect out on the image which was from research the main way to carry out the theme and has been done this way by other photographers.

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(multiple Exposure)

The first thing I did was open my man image and enhance the exposure to make sure the background is bleached out. I did the same thing with the other photograph and pasted it onto the first image. I then used screen to make them combine. It works by the photograph merging into the darkest tones. I then changed the images to black and white because I did not like the colours.

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Use this slide to annotate your final image

Monochrome black and white photography

mid shot to show most of upper body and enough to see facial expression

Combination of 2 exposures to create the overall photograph

Organic shape: Treeline rotated landscape

Tones ranging from light to dark throughout the photograph

Photograph is meant to come across as passive, in the sense that she is lonely in a forest. Naturalistic photographic, the

photograph is not obviously posed and is supposed to look natural. Photograph taken at eye

level

The photographs were taken separately and merged together on Photoshop by using ‘screen’ I also changed the saturation and made the photograph black and white because I thought I worked better and also looked better with the harsh tones

The clearest part of the photograph I think is the face, because this hasn’t really blended much with the other image

The light used in this photograph is artificial light from the studio, which also makes it high key lighting

The lightest part of the photograph is the sky and the darkest part is the trees

The lines fro, the trees create a bit of a direction to the model because of the shape of the trees

The texture of the photograph looks hard and prickly because of the trees incorporated

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Evaluate: ideas eg analysis, results;

The results I got are better then what I expected, this is because it is hard to create a multiple exposure; you need the right photographs for It to work. These 2 photographs were the ones that worked the best with each other, especially in black and white. Christoffer Relander inspired me to do this kind of work because I thought his work was the best from all the multiple exposure photographers I have researched, all of his photographs just fit together really nicely. The ideas I created from his work were black and white photography of humans with a bleached out background and combining the photographs with nature. The photographs can tell a story and it’s really interesting to see the facial expressions on the people. My work is like his with the way our photographs ‘cut away’ each other, for example the cut away on my model is the tree’s. The photograph on the right Is one of Relanders of a women who's been cut away by nature.

Qualities:Consider the aesthetic qualities of your work. How does it look? What do you like about it? What are the strongest and weakest elements from an aesthetic point of view?I think the work I produced is different and I enjoyed doing it. I’d never seen this type of photography before until I got introduced to it this year and I really am interested by it. I like the way that If the photograph is rotated it looks like a treeline photograph until you realise that it is in fact a women combined with tree’s, it’s really interesting to look at. Along with the other multiple exposure photographs I created. The strongest points of my work I think are the fact I enhanced the black and white to make it so the tree blended how I wanted it to. The weakest points are in the face, because not much of the tree you can see in the face, which I would of liked.

I enhanced the exposure in post production to make sure the background was completely bleached out. The shutter speed was 1/125 this was enough to get the light in that I wanted and to make sure there was no blur or camera shake. The ISO speed ratings was 400 which is standard because I do not like to alter this because it can make the photograph to dark or bright. The aperture was 4.375, for this photograph I did not need to change the aperture settings round much because I had a plain white background. The post production I carried out on this photograph included editing the first image of my model to enhance the exposure slightly, then I added the treeline and flipped it vertically. I then enhanced the exposure on this photograph as well. ‘screened’ the photograph and moved it around until I was happy. I made the photograph overall black and white because I thought it worked and looked better. But saved both copies.

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How could you improve your work? Could you develop your work further with additional work? What would you try to achieve with this? Could you undertake further experiments? If so, what would they be?I could improve my work by experimenting with taking a double exposure within the camera settings themselves to test how reliable and good this technique is, a lot of the photographers I looked at used this method but also post production as well.

I could develop my work further by adding in more than two exposures to make it really interesting, this will also give the photograph different colours and textures. Another way is by taking photographs of animals and nature to combine these, to see if it worked as well as a human. This would be interesting to see if it worked as good. I would have to undertake taking more photographs to be able to do this and also research if using different techniques.

When talking about your work, consider formal elements such as lines, shapes and patterns as well as the colour and contrast and also tone of your image. Think about the composition of your work and where this could be developed. There are a lot of different shapes and lines in my work because of the photos combined. The top that the model was wearing created a different pattern because when I ‘screened’ the image it creates a sort of fading affect and the contrast between the white and black on the top worked well with the effect I was trying to make.Finally you should consider if the images you have produced fulfil the brief you were set. Do they match the theme? Are they experimental? Explain your answers using specific examples. My work matches my theme because it revolves around nature. They are also experimental because they do not follow usual photographic rules and they use experimental techniques such as multiple exposure.

Multiple Exposure

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These were my third attempts off multiple exposure and I think they work a lot better then my first attempts. This is because I carried out some research of how to make them properly in Photoshop rather then learning how to do them with an actual camera, I found it more difficult with the camera because you had to take 2 exposures at the exact place you were and not been able to find a different landscape you liked. I really like the image of the women with the landscape of a lake and tree’s I think it works well together. More techniques I learnt were how to get rid of the background more smoothly then the first time. I did this by using refine edge on Photoshop after cutting of the background with the polygon lasso tool, this allows you to go round the image and draw on the bits you want to appear back onto the image with a more smooth tone, such as the hair, it is hard to cut round hair perfectly so it worked well for this.

I wanted to produce another image that contained the whole image and no cutting out showing a white background, most multiple exposure I have seen are like this and there are few that contains the whole of both images that are wanting to be exposed together. I tried it out with a photograph of a cat and a photograph of some flowers in a field, I also thought this worked well because the flowers go over the cat and it looks interesting and unique, the pictures and colours fit perfectly together.

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To make Harris shutter improved I wanted to try a more simple photograph of someone walking and a horse running, I tried both out and they worked better then the first set of attempts because the tripod was kept more still, I also used a timer on the camera of a few seconds to make sure I didn’t touch the shutter and move the camera at all when I was taking the photograph, I also used a burst shot as well so it took a lot for me, this is why the subject is very close together and all the colours look combined, the effect looks good although I liked it on the first set of Harris shutter attempts when the subject was further apart, by making this better again I would use the same technique of someone walking around although take the pictures of the subject further apart.

The horse image didn’t work as well because it was very far away when I zoomed in the photograph looked blurred and the different coloured horse’s don’t stand out that much. By improving this I could try and get closer to the horse to take more photographs, this could be tricky as the horse was scared of the tripod, trying the effect on a different subject could be the next attempt.

The photograph of someone walking their dog in the field also works good although this image does not focus massively on the Harris shutter effect of which we are wanting the images for.

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I have produced another set of Harris Shutter pictures using someone walking again and them standing still in different positions. Harris shutter does work and look a lot better when the subject is moving it is just harder to capture, I have realised that it is easier to capture the movement with burst shots however the subject stays close together, although this effect still looks good, after 3 tries with the women walking and standing still the last as worked out a lot better and looks a lot more sharp and clear then the rest, the colours also work a lot better in this photograph.

I also decided to try and combine 3 photographs of a sunset and the sky moving which worked out interesting and worked well, although you can’t see the green as much as the other colours.

For further experimentation I would try a lot of movement happening rather then just 1 subject moving around, good places to do this would be a busy shopping outlet or middle of a town or festival. This would create interesting and surreal colours and effects.