Final Major Project - Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis - "a change of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one, a complete change in appearance, character,circumstances, etc."- http://www.dictionary.com/browse/metamorphosis
The brief for this project is to create one or a series of images that relate to the theme of Metamorphosis. To create these, I will need to research techniques, photographers, exhibitions, videos, and any other research that will help to influence and inspire me to create my final images. I will also test out different techniques to see what I feel will be appropriate for the theme and for my final images. I will need to take aesthetic awareness, scenery, technique, camera settings, and links to the theme into consideration when I am planning my images. I am aiming to take around 6 different test shoots that will be testing out all of the above qualities which will then influence what I create in my final project.
Since hearing about the brief for this project, I have been fascinated by the idea of creating something with light that you couldn't see with the human eye. I like the idea of light painting because it feels slightly supernatural to me and i feel that the change between a regular, everyday setting and then the otherworldly feel of the light would fit into the theme of metamorphosis well. I like the idea of using portraits with the light painting as I feel it has a slightly spiritual vibe to the pictures, almost as if the person has changed their form. I also like the idea of manipulating an image so that it becomes something very different as well. The manipulation is a form of change which would fit the theme of metamorphosis.
I have decided to shoot three landscapes and three portraits all using light in different ways to represent the change. Simply, the light fits the theme of metamorphosis because it will be something that you would not see to the human eye, so I have changed and altered the setting using the light. However if you look more deeply into the images I feel like the light is a form of beacon to a different world or state. I would like to use light as an abstract representation of a spiritual being on earth, which is a change from what there previously was.
MoodBoard:
Project Proposal Document
Attached is the project proposal document
This is a selection of pictures that I have taken from Google Images that I find inspiration from.
MindMap:
This is a selection of words that I associate with the theme of metamorphosis. I created this word cloud on https://www.wordclouds.com/ .
Hannu Huhtamo:
Hannu Huhtamo is a long exposure photographer who shoots using a long shutter speed and different light sources. He likes to shoot in "unusual and forgotten" places and city outskirts, which give his images a surreal and supernatural feel to the art.
I like the calming and relaxing feel in the image above. I like the setting that it is by the beach, the calm water makes it feel isolated but also comforting. I like how there are small light trails to the main light sculpture which draws the users eye towards that focal point. They have also used a cool colour scheme which adds to the calm feel in this image. He describes his work as "Representing hope and order in a world of chaos". I can feel this within his work with the surreal vibes that are in his photo. I feel that his photography definitely shows his need for peace in the world and I think that links with the theme of metamorphosis because they are like a beacon of hope in the middle of disorder, which makes it feel like a spiritual or holy object that provides relief.
In most of his images, he has used the settings to quide the viewers eyes towards the main light scupture. This is effective as it ensures that it is the centre of attention.
I like this style as one of the images for my landscapes a lot. However the shapes that he has drawn are quite hard and i worry that I would not be able to create something similar to that. I also do not know what equipment I would need for that. I like his settings and how calm the images feel.
Quotes from - http://www.hannuhuhtamo.com/light-art-photography/
This is a video I found on youtube of Hannu Huhtamo drawing with light. he uses equipment that I have not seen before. One of them looks like a rope that lights up on and off, I think that you might be able to create a similar effect with fairy lights as they are just a string of light. The dots that he makes with the ball could be recreated with a phone light and then the matte lights you could put something over the light course to make it less harsh. These look like they took a lot of practise to make the shapes so i think that I will make some designs in a sketchbook but have a back up plan incase I can not create the shapes in as much detail as this.
Test Shoot 1:
This is my first test shoot. I shot using things around my house. I shot with a 20" shutter speed with a large aperture to make up for the large shutter speed. I used my flashlight on my phone to do the light painting. I rested my camera on my bed because I did not have a tripod. I shot these images at 8:30pm at night. There was some light coming inn from my window, but some of the light felt like it was bleeding too much around and I couldn't get a smooth streak of light.
Overall, although I did not have any images worthy of being a final piece, I had already expected this and I feel like this test was successful as a base to find out what I can do to start shooting some pictures that relate more to my theme.
This is one of the images from my first shoot that I took. I have edited it to see if i can get rid of any of the bleeding around the light and make the light sculpture more noticeable. By lowering the highlights, I lost some of the excess light around the moving
this was another shoot that I did in my house to test my current equipment. I shot these in my living room, I shot at 8:30 again and this time I used a shorter shutter speed as I was not the one doing the light painting. I used a green laser pointer to create these pieces, I got it from my dads friend.
Second Shoot:
The first two images were unsuccessful because I had a faster shutter speed than I needed and the aperture was too high so the image came out overexposed. I then lowered the shutter speed to 15" and this gave me the right exposure for the rest of the images.
My three favourite pictures
This is my favourite of the three images that I have picked out. I created this using a filter found on the laser and then turning it in a circle for a few seconds. I like this because it looks like a portal or something that could reach another life form.
I like this image because it shows how much detail I can achieve using the laser pointer. I also like how the light is glowing which makes it feel quite supernatural.
I like this image because i like the light sculpture in this piece. I like how smooth and clean it is in this picture. There isn't much light bleed in this either which makes it feel like something that was already there.
Mandalas
Mandalas are spiritual and ritualistic symbol in buddhism and hinduism, they represent the universe. Although this isnt a piece of photographer research, I have chosen to look at it because they are a deeply spiritual symbol and the infinite designs are similar to what I want to create with the light. I think that my light scuptures will be able to represent the same universal feel that you can create when you look into a mandala. In my spare time, I ike to draw mandalas as they serve as a type of meditation to me.
The Mandala Book - Lori Bailey Cunningham
This book is about mandalas, but not the typical ones above, it is about how there are mandelic qualities in everything around us. The book speaks about how mandalas have been used in healing and the different ways that our whole lives are a mandala.
I like how this book has looked at life as a whole, and now just a conventional mandala. I like how the last passage to the left explains how everything is related to everything else, and that everything we do is part of a mandala filled with our life and experiences.
I want my final pieces to have the same "transformative quality" that the mandalas have in this book. I want my images to keep the theme of metamorphosis, but show them in different and abstract ways. I think that is important for my images because I want my viewers to really feel my images and think about how they show change in different ways. I want my final piece to be something that the eye can be lost in, I think that would give my work the mandalic qualities that I want in my work, where they 'Radiate' from my initial theme of metamorphosis. It will be important to keep the theme and this mindset together when I am creating my final images because I do not want to stray from the theme so far that the connection between my images and the metamorphosis has been lost. I hope that I can create some final images that feel the same peace and calmness that I feel when i look at mandalas.
Richard Steinberger
Richard Steinberger is a light orb photographer. I have chosen to research his work because I like the slightly eerie feel to these images. I like that he has used some quite natural places to shoot. I think that he has done this because it makes the images feel isolated and alone. This works for his images because if the images were set in an urban or busy environment then i think that he would not be able to create the same calming feel to his images that he currently has now. My favourite piece is the image to the right of the rocks and the waterfall. I like this picture because the long exposure has given the water a smooth feel to it which adds to the calm feel in all of his images. I also like how his light orbs feel like the only light source in the images. I want to be able to convey this same feeling of isolation and serenity in my images like these ones because thats where I feel that I will be able to show metamorphosis fully.
Second Shoot:
I shot these images on Saturday 21st April. At 845pm I went to Mote Park, I had my camera, a tripod, a green laser pointer and a torch. It was hard to shoot in this park because there were a lot of young people around and we did not want to be interrupted and they kept distracting us. I only ended up taking 3 pictures there because we couldn't concentrate properly. I got my dad to colour in the tree using his laser pointer, I set the camera to 25" with a high aperture to allow as much light in as possible, this gave us a slight silhouette look on the trees because the camera was picking up the last of the sunset on the camera. at 10:00pm that night I tried shooting using my fairy lights to create light orbs. I saw how to create the look on a youtube video below.
Overall, I think the shoot was successful. I learnt how to create light orbs and they were a lot easier than I had expected. I need to practise these more because they are a bit wonky and it was hard to make them into a full circle. I think that I need to look into some areas that I can shoot in so that I can start thinking about the locations I want to shoot in because I dont think that my house/ back garden look very pleasing to the eye.
Testing Editing Techniques:
Above is an image that I took on my shoot, it is unedited. To the right is the edited version. I have chosen this image to edit because I think that it has the best light painting in it. i like the shape of the orb and it is the most central as well. I shot in Jpeg so it was a bit harder for me to edit this. I used the curves to lighten the midtones and the blacks, this made the image easier to see and you could now see the background in more detail. I added a cooling filter to the image which brought out the colours in the orb and also got rid of the slight warm tones in the background.
Initial Ideas Feedback
Overall, I recieved some good feedback. Overall, everyone thinks that I have explained my idea well. This is good because it means that I can show what I want to achieve effectively.
Everyone also thought that my link between light and metamorphosis was strong. This gave me reassurance that my project is quite strong.
The next question gave me a lot of different answers. A few people told me to add some more specific research, I agree with this because it would have justified my plan more and shown people a deeper insight of what I want to achieve with the project. I was also told to have a better title and speak more clearly.
My main weaknesses were that I had never worked with the equipment before so it is a bit risky and it might not come out has planned. However I have got a few test shots now and I am confident that the images will be okay. Another weakness was expenses however I have done the research and I am buying the minimum that I need and then I am going to create my own equipment to lessen my costs. I had a budget of £50 which I am going to stick to.
Library Research
I went to the library today to do some research into my project. I went on Wednesday the 25th April and I stayed for about 2 hours. Initially I had come to find some portrait and landscape photographers, however I found some tips that I think will be useful when shooting for my project.
The Digital Photography Handbook - By Doug Harman
This was one of the books that I looked at. It had a lot of different photography techniques in it, most of which were not relevant to my project. This taught be to make sure that I have cropped the images correctly when I am shooting and to make sure I don't "amputate" any parts of the picture. I think that capturing just the face and shoulders will help to emphasise the light as I will ahve a smaller area that I need to paint. It will also mean that the model will be able to take up more of the setting and there will be less negative space in the picture.
50 Photo Projects - Lee Frost
This book was about how to create a lot of different types of photography. I took a few passages that were useful that I could apply to my project.
The top one was about the symbolism of colour. I think that this is very important considering I am going to portray a spiritual sign and the colours will be very important as to show the different moods in the images.
The bottom passage is about the equipment to use when shooting a landscape. It says using a wide angle lense will
The Landscape Photography Bible - Tony Worobiec
I found this book to try and get some more inspiration for shooting in the woods, however after reading this book i have decided that shooting at the coast might be better. I read in this book that having a coast scene when shooting at night will look better because the light will refract against the water. I also think that the coast will look very relaxing, and the long exposure against the water will create the misty effect in the water which looks really calm.
The page to the left speaks about the direction of light, I had not considered this before but I think side lighting will look nice because then it will pick up the detail in the areas that I am shooting.
The page to the right speaks about how when shooting at night having water nearby that can reflect the light is crucial to making sure that there is an equal amount of light in the sky and on land. I have decided to shoot by a coast to see if this makes my images feel more successful as the ones in the forest were coming out very dark and there was too much contrast between my light painting and the background. I also hope that the light painting will reflect into the water which will create some smooth colours in the sea.
This page taught me how to use bulb mode. I knew it was on my camera but I had no idea what it was. I think this will be very useful to my project because it will allow me to shoot for longer than 30", when I thought that that was the limit for how long I can shoot. This will help me to create longer and more detailed pieces of light sculptures.
Overall, I was really inspired by the photography that I found in this book and I would like to use the same settings that he has in my pictures because I think that they feel very calming and that is the same mood thatI want for my final images. I like how he shoots at dusk/dawn which means that the sky is a lot of different colours, I have to shoot a little later than that so that I can still have my long exposure times but I would like to also be able to capture the pink and blue hues that can be seen during sunrise/sunset.
Gunnar Heilmann
I have chosen to look at this photographer because I like how he has used fibre optics to add something special to a portrait. I would like to create something similar to this as I like how the stringy fibre optic effect completely changes the feel of the portraits. I think this portrays the theme of metamorphosis because the light changes the persons appearance, and keeping with my spiritual theme, it feels to me like the people are becoming something else, or they are becoming something supernatural. I think that colour plays a large part in this because the different colours will have different moods and then meanings to the images.
My favourite image is the one to the left. I like this image because you an really clearly see the wisps that the fibre optics create. I think that he used fibre optics on the whole face to make it feel really abstract, however only parts are covered in the stringy effect, I think he has done it to keep some of the facial structure which is vital to make it still look like a portrait. He used a eye level shot in all of his images because the emphasis is on the light and the angle he has used keeps it very simple. He uses a lot of contrasting colours with his light which I think adds an eerie feel to these images because the colours are quite abstract.
This is a youtube video that he made talking through his process for these images. After watching this video I thought that this style seems a lot easier than I had expected. I will buy a fibre optics brush because I think that I can create a strong link with this photography and my theme of metamorphosis because I feel like i can create a lot of spiritual based images with this style.
I will need a camera and a tripod for this. I will also buy some fibre optics and I will use a slow shutter speed to capture the light moving. i will shoot with a black backdrop in the studio to eliminate any light bleed in the image to make it look professional.
Colour Theory
I have decided to look at colour theory because I believe that it will make quite a crucial part to my project. I would like to use colour in my light paintings to represent different moods and tones in the images that I will create. Colour theory has been a crucial part to every project that I have completed up until now because a lot of my art is quite surreal so the colours give it a subtle hint to what the viewer should be feeling emotionally whilst they are viewing my work.
Colour theory is how artists and photographers can utilise colours to create different effects in their work. There are different types of colour theories which show how colour can be used in new ways.
In my landscapes, I would like to use contrasting colours in my shoots to make the vibrance of the colours stand out against the setting that I am shooting in. I think that will highlight the abstract change of another being in my images because it will be very obvious that it is different to what you would expect to see.
Shooting in black and white would also be quite interesting because it would be the complete opposite to what i mentioned before. It would then have a very subtle change in the images because the colour in my images would help to signify the change however if it was monochromatic then it would look like it is part of the setting and it would be a more subtle change in the images.
Colour Harmonies - https://color.adobe.com/explore/?filter=most-popular&time=month
This is a website where you can create and upload different colour schemes that can help you or other people out. This is quite helpful at seeing what sort of colours work together and it can also help you to find some colour schemes that you did not think would work as well as they do.
Portrait Test Shoot
Colour Symbolism
Every colour has some form of symbolism. This is very important to my project because I will be using different colours to create subtle moods and changes in tone so that the viewers feel certain things when they look at each of my images. I think that in my portraits, the colours will be important to showing what the model is feeling, or what they are trying to signify.
I shot these on the 23rd April and on the 29th April. I shot these at night and I taped covers over my windows so that no light came into my images. I had never tried fibre optics before so I was experimenting with different styles and seeing what looked good and what didn't.
The first contact sheet I shot in my bedroom. My model was leaning up against a wall and in some images you can see the wall because the ambient light from the fibres have bounced off the wall, originally I did not like this however since doing another shoot with no ambient lighting I think that it makes the images look a bit softer and it can help to put the model in a setting so you can see their head and shape a little bit more. I had a bit of a problem in my econd shoot here because there was no clarity in the lights and they were blurry. I am not sure what caused this but I am going to shoot again today (30th) in the studio and I am going to try different settings to see if that helps it.
My favourite images from this shoot
This was the first image that I edited. I used the tint to add more colour to the reds because I felt that it made the image have more statement to the piece. I like this image because only one half of her face is covered in the light, the wisps and the colours make it feel futuristic because it feels like an electric current to me. I would like to have filled in the models face a bit more so that you could see her profile just a slight bit more which would make it easier to see. I lowered the whites because there was a slight overexposure I wanted to get rid of.
I like this image because of the stringy effect that is running through her hair and that you can see more of her face than in the image above. When I edited this, I enhanced the greens so that there is all three colours in the image. I also upped the contrast so that the light was more intense, I also lowered the whites so that there was less overexposure in the light. I enhanced the blacks to get rid of the background. I used vibrance to make the colours a lot stronger.
In this image I used a different technique than the other two. in the first two images I put the fibre optics at the top of the face then followed her hair down, but here I went from her chin and pulled it up. I wasn't expecting it to look as good as it did because I thought that it would be obvious that its going against her profile. However I like the solemn feel that the blues and purple shades have given this image and I like how it has really defined her face and you can see her full face properly.
Turner Contemporary
I visited this light exhibition because this artist is using light to represent a dutch war against the UK and the Netherlands. I like this because they have used light in a similiar way that I am in the way that it is an abstract representation of something.
Location Scouting
On Saturday 29th April I came to Botany Bay just next to margate to have a look for some potential places to shoot. My dad had told me about these cliffs that you can get into. We went exploring over there and we found the set of cliffs which were right next to the sea. This was a great location as the cliffs had some shallow caves which would make great areas for light orbs and sculptures. You could also get very close to the sea by these cliffs which would look nice at night because the sea will fracture the light.
Shooting here however will have a lot of risks. It isn't very accessible as there is a lot of sand and it is quite a while away from any paths which will be hard for me because I am disabled. We will also be in a cave by the sea so we will have to be wary that the sea does not come in while we are shooting because we will get stranded. It is very unlikely but we will also have to make sure that we do not encounter any cliff collapse because we will be underneath a cliff and there is not easy way to get out of the location. I will need to research the high and low tide times and when dusk and dawn are so that I can find out when the prime time for me to shoot is.
I am also planning on booking a hotel when I come here so that I can shoot late at night and early in the morning incase there is any difference in the sky and the mood of the images. I will come here with my dad who can help me carry equipment and he will also help me create the light paintings.
Portrait Shoot in the Studio
Overall, I think this shoot went quite well. At first we had some problems because my models were not used to the fibre optics and they kept flinching, after that the white colours were not creating the effect that I wanted so we had to change to the coloured torch and then after that they started to come out well. I did not have much time to shoot as Rebecca needed time to shoot as well so I did not get as many images that I wanted.
I shot these during the first period on Tuesday. i did not have as much time as I would have liked because I had to help out with other peoples shoots. I will need to factor this in when I am using the studio because I wanted a wider range of pictures than what I have now.
This is my contact sheet. At first I was shooting using just the white light and it was not coming up against the models face much. Once we started using the coloured lights they started to come out okay. We then used Rebeccas phone light to give a soft light to Emmas face. This then gave emma a slight profile and you could then see her facial features a lot clearer. I also shot on JPEG which means that I will not be able to edit them as well as if they were on RAW.
This was the first image I have edited. I have chosen this one because I liked the white wisps that are around her hair. I edited this by adding more brightness using brightness and contrast and then i used curves to make this more extreme. I also cropped the final image as I thought that there was too much
negative space.
Editing Images
I edited this image in the same way. I liked this one a lot because the light is partially covering her face but you can still see the rest of her face quite well. I think that this shows metamorphosis because you can see the change between the models face and the light quite well.
Collecting Primary Research
I created this on forms. I used questions that I felt would help me to create my pictures. i focused my questions around spirituality because that is an important factor in my project as that is what I am showing using light. The first questions I asked were about age and gender, this gives me an idea on who my target audience is. My target audience is mainly young people and teenagers. I think that my project would suit them as the modern generations typically believe in spirits and non human beings more than the older generation.
Question number 5 gave me some split answers. Most people had heard of it but some hadn't, which I think will make my images quite unique and it will make the images more abstract as the technical aspect of the images will be left unknown. the majority of people are slightly spiritual, this is what I had expected as everyone has different beliefs and no two people are the same. Question number 6 was slightly elaborating on the previous one, where I was asking specifically if they believed in other life forms. This gave a more definite answer where nearly everyone excluding one believed in some other life forms. This should mean that they will find my project interesting.
Question 7 and 8 are above. In question 7 I asked people what they believed in. A lot of people believe in ghosts. The majority of people also like portraits more than landscapes, I had anticipated that as well because people generally create more interesting subjects than a landscape. I am hoping however to get a mix of portraits and landscapes into my work as I think that I can create some different effects using different types of light.
Overall, i think that this questionnaire was informative because I didn't think that this many people where as spiritual as they actually are. I think this will help my project because it is reassuring to know that a lot of people are quite spiritual.
Peer Feedback from Joe
I showed Joe my project and the picture to the left is the feedback that I got in return.
I have used my questionnaire above to find out who I am targeting my project at. My target audience will be young people between 16 - 30. However my questionnaire isn't completely reliable as I did not get any answers from people outside this age range.
I have looked at a few youtube videos that showed how the artists created certain techniques, I have then adapted that information to suit my project and in turn that has created new images that I can use in my project.
I have decided to shoot in beautiful naturalistic settings because I want that to compliment the calm and natural feel of the light sculptures, I think that shooting in a more urban and dirty place would look equally as good as it would create an eerie feel as the two forces would juxtapose however for my project I think that having a peaceful vibe is important to showing metamorphosis. I think that I need to evaluate and reflect a bit more. I have gethered feedback above, alongside my presentation feedback and I am going to conduct an instagram questionnaire as well soon as that will give me a wider set of results.
Leonid Litvac
Leonid is a portrait photographer. I am looking at this work because I think that I would like to have some different poses when I am taking my portraits. I think that that would be important because I am going to have three final portraits and if they are all plain headshots with the light then I think that they will look too similar, so by having some different angles and poses I will be able to achieve some different moods and styles.
I like how strong and dynamic these portraits are. I feel like it is important to recreate this strong technique because the light will also create a strong and dominant feel to the images so I do not want the model to be candid or distracted as I feel that this will not add to the moody atmosphere that will be in my images.
Interim Presentation Feedback
I presented my first few test shots and research on tuesday 8th May. I think this went successful as most people were very interested in my idea and they enjoined my work.
My first question asked how my presentation skills could be improved. Some people said that I needed to speak up a bit more, which I understand as I was very anxious. other people also said that I was very informative, which I was quite happy with. My main improvement for my shoots was adding more colour, I am going to aim to do this a little but I would like to keep my images as natural as possible, but I will try some different colours. Another feedback said about light pollution but I have thought about this and I am going to use it tactically so that it lights up some areas in my landscapes. My main overall weakness was that it is quite complex and I only have limited shooting times due to the tides and times, however I am taking this into account and I will have a plan when I am shooting so that I do not waste time.
My SMART Targets:
My main target for myself is making sure that I have a variety of different types of paintings, this is so that when I am editing I will be able to see the different styles and effects that my images will have.
Feedback from Lee
I asked Lee to look at my entire project so far. My main concern with my project was that I did not have enough planning in my project.
The first bullet point was about analysing the requirements of the brief. He told me that I needed to write more about what the brief is asking about me and what targets I am going to set myself for this project. I have now written two more paragraphs at the very top of my page about what the brief means to me and what I am aiming to create, alongside my initial inspiration for this project.
The second point was about using a range of research in my project, he said that I am currently working with sustained research, and if I carry on like I am now then I should have a merit or a distinction.
The third point was about using my research to change and interpret my project. I have already got a lot of research however I am now going to summarise it a bit more and conduct some primary researchh on my Instagram Business account which is about mandalas, which will link to my project theme as they are both spiritual creations.
The fourth point is about test shoots and applying my knowledge and skills into the project. Lee reckons I have got high marks in this area because I have tested a lot of different technical aspects.
The last point is about evaluating and reflecting my work against my targets and the brief for the project, this was the area I was most concerned about in my work. He said that I should start to plan and reflect every day that I plan to do some work, as well as adding more detail to my current plans. I will continue carrying this out on my blog under my weekly planner.
Primary Research - Instagram Survey
I decided to do an instagram survey to get a better idea at who my target audience will be for my final images. I own an art account on instagram where I post my mandala drawings, which are quite similar in relation to my current project. I will also use my insights from that account because it is a business account so you can see who has been looking at your work and the demographic of people that follow you.
Instagram Story Polls
These are some screenshots from my instagram insights. On my instagram, I post my drawings so i would expect that the demographic of people that are interested in my spiritual drawings would also be interested in a similar style of photography.
The majority of the insights is about the content you post and how many likes it has got, however these pages say about your target audience. My target audience is young people, mainly women. This was quite what I expected as thats also quite a general demographic for instagram users in general,
This is my instagram polls that I conducted on my instagram page. I asked some similar questions to my previous questionnaire however I was hoping to get some wider results as I have a wider set of followers according to my instagram insights.
My first and second question asked for the age and gender, this allowed me to get a sense of my taget audience and what sort of demographic of people are interested in my work. The majority of my followers are under 21 and female. I was expecting to have more of a split between the two choices but `i guess it is understandable considering a lot of my friends follow me who are teenagers and instagrams general demographic is young people anyway.
My third question had a more split answer. The majority said yes however it was nearly 50/50. In my personal experience, I believe that being spiritual has been given a bad reputation which is why I think so many people answered no, even though 81% of voters then said that they believe in other lifeforms.
My fifth question was asking if the voters liked surreal photography, and the majority voted yes. This made sense to me as there is I think that there is an increasing demand for surreal photography as well as film, as more people want to witness things outside of the norm.
Question 6 was directly related to my project. More people than I had expected knew what light painting was, but then again a lot of my friends follow this account who have also seen my website so that does contribute to the numbers. This was interesting to see which would mean when exhibit my work people will be moderatedy aware of my processes and how i created my work.
Question 7 asked if people prefer portraits or landscapes. I thought that more people would have chosen portraits, as anything with a person in has been deemed more interesting than one without. I think that the split is good as I am creating both portraits and landscapes so it will please the entire audience and not just half.
Night Photography and Light Painting - Lance Keimi
I bought this book on amazon before my shoot by the coast to see if there would be any helpful tips that I could use when I am shooting,
These two images were made in 1918, and 1889. I was shocked to read this because I thought that light painting would be a more modern thing after the DSLR cameras were made, however it was much before that. these two images were made by strapping small lights to someone and then watching them move. They used light painting for scientific experiments then to help study locomotion. This was very interesting to me as that is quite surprisingly similar to my current project with the style of the light.
These pages spoke about what to wear when I am shooting. I am going to wear black clothes that cover as much of my skin as possible because my landscapes are revolved around creating artificial light paintings so there will need to be someone in the camera so that there can be drawings. I will be bringing my dad with me so i will made so that he has dark clothes as well and he has a black balaclava so that will stop his face showing up from the ambient lighting. This will minimise my need to photoshop my images because I want to keep them as natural as possible to really emphasise the technique that I have used in my images, As we are shooting we will also need to keep warm so I will pack a lot of layers especially as we will be right at the sea so it will feel colder.
This is a table about how to focus the camera when shooting at night. I have bought a head torch because we have to walk a long way away from civilisation so it will be useful to see what I am doing with the camera and where I am walking but it will also be useful to light up my dad to focus the camera as he is doing the light sculptures. If he was not there it would be much harder to shoot because I would not have anyone to focus on as well as having to run around pressing the shutter button and then drawing within the timeframe and it will be safer with someone else there.
This is hanna huhtamos work which I have looked at before in my work. I was inspired at how he finds peace when creating his work, just like I do. He concentrates on symmetry and balance between the images and when looking at his work you can feel the sense of stillness and quiet in his images which i think was very important to him.
I was really inspired by this image as well. This is quite similar to my mandalas above and how the photographer has moved the camera instead of the lights is quite interesting as well. I would like to create something with this much detail with my LED light bar because you can get sucked into looking at the image and I believe that is very important in my images to look further than the aesthetic quality of the image and really look at what it has been made up of.
Shooting my Final Images - First Shoot
I am going to go to Botany Bay on Friday the 11th May. I am going to aim to shoot alongside the coast and try out some different landscapes. I have booked a hotel there which is about 5 minutes away from the location that I want to shoot in so that I will be able to cut down my travel times and maximize the time that I can shoot for. I am aiming to leave maid stone around 5pm so that I will be alongside the coast at 6. I will also be staying overnight at this hotel so I will be able to shoot again in the morning, around 4-5am. I am hoping that the sunrise and sunset will give me some different moods to my images and hopefully I can create some different tones in my final products.
Weather - Botany Bay
This is the weather for friday and saturday. Overall I think that the weather is quite good. It is not due to rain on either days which is important as I do not want to damage my equipment. I am hoping that there will still be some nice colours in the sunset and sunrises even though it is scheduled to be cloudy on both times. It is due to rain on saturday however I am only shooting in that morning so hopefully it should not be a problem for me.
These are the tide times. These are incredibly important because I am going to be shooting by the sea and in some caves so i will need to be weary of my surroundings so that I do not get caught in a cave whilst I am shooting. I also want too maximise the use of water in my images because I think that the fractals that the light will create when it hits the water will make my images feel very calm.
Tide Times
Equipment That I Will Bring
To the right are two transparant acetate tubes. One of them is fully clear and the other one has been sanded down. When used in the pictures The transparent one creates a translucent light in the images, where as the sand papered ones created a more misty and filled effect.
Transparant
Translucent
To the left is a blue and red acetate tube. This is the same as the one above but it is coloured instead of plain. When you shine a light through it it creates a white wispy effect with some hints of blue and red. When you use some different colours such as green then one of the colours blots out the other and it creates a smaller more translucent light. I think that this would be good to use when I am shooting by the coast like hot spots in my image. I hope that the wispy light that is created when you shine a white light through it.
This is a piece of acetate placed into a cone and then sandpapered so that it becomes translucent. To the left is one of the pictures that I created when I shone a white light through it. If you look closely it has created lots of little circles that are slightly see through like they are ghostly. I like this effect for the light orbs because it really brings out the detail in the orbs and makes them quite different ot just regular circles.
These are a pair of fairylights that I bought from a shop. I saw on a youtube video above on my website that if you spin them around then you can create a nice orb, however I preferred this style where My dad spun it around sideways instead of to make an orb.
The piece to the left is made out of a ping pong ball. It is like the cone but it will not create the same jaggedy edge so it will make smoother lines. This torch is also a universal adaptor so all of the above equipment can fit on top of this, the rubber band also hold all of the tubes in place. The torch can also change colours so I will be able to make different effects and moods with the different colours.
These are some quick sketches of some designs that I want in my images. I want to make full use of the water and have my light sculptures reflecting in the water. I would also like to use the cliffs in my images to hide the light paintings or to use to reflect some of my lights onto.
Sketches
This is a wooden bar with a strip of led lights stuck to it. It runs off the portrable charger that is tuck to it. there is another wooden bar that is connected to it and you can spin it around and the LEDs change colour with a remote control.
These images were made with my led stick. I had the camera on 6" with F11 and an ISO of 200. I shot these on Thursday the 10th May at 9pm. I got my dad to spin the stick around in different ways and we used different lights to make different styles. I really like this and it was a lot easier to do than the other techniques that I have tried, and I think that shooting using this by the sea will create some very nice fractures in the water and hopefully some very intricate designs.
Friday Night Shoot
My dad picked me up from college at 4:15pm. we then went home and packed everything that was above alongside the tripod and camera and we headed to Botany Bay at 5:15. We arrived in Botany Bay at 6:30. We had booked to stay in The Botany Bay Hotel which was about 1 minute away from the location so we did not need to travel much between each shoot. We then left the hotel at 8pm to begin shooting. It was too light at this point which is why a lot of the images have come out quite bleached at first because even just a few seconds of light was exposing the images and we weren't getting the piercing light effect that I was looking for. We were shooting in the exact same place that I took the images in my location scouting. There was a few shallow caves and areas where the cliffs had broken off that we were shooting in. The light left around 8:30pm which is when the images began to be successful as there was no ambient lighting to bleach out my images. We shot until 10:30pm when there was no ambient light. We stopped here because we were planning to shoot again the next morning and we wanted to get some sleep. We had a backup plan for this night to go over to Kings Gate bay where my dad had seen that they had a large arch in the cliff which we thought would create some nice framed shots incase there was too many people at Botany Bay or iff the tide had come in too quick. We did not end up going over there because there was no one at the beach and the tide did not come in as much as we were expecting.
These are my contact sheets. Overall, I think the shoot was very successful. Once the light went down and my light paintings were the main source of light the images were the sculptures that I have made. when I shot in the caves the light from my sculptures reflected off the walls and when I was using abstract colours like green and blue it made the cliffs seem really abstract and abnormal. I focused mainly on light orbs but my original plan was to try everything but one orb came out well and then I got carried away doing different ones which means there are less pictures available for my final piece as they are all quite similar.
Picking out Images from my First Shoot
These are my favourite images from my shoot on friday night. The first two image were made with the ping pong ball set to white light, then using the blue and red tubes with a white light to add some wisps of light onto the image. I like these images because I like how wispy and broken up the light is.
The second, third and seventh image were created with the ping pong ball using different lights and then running around afterwards tp create the trail. I like this trail because it illuminates more of the image, and it makes the viewers eye follow the trail to the main part of the image.
The fourth and fifth imgaes were created using steel wool and a battery. My dad put some steel wool into a whisk attached to some rope and then lit it with a battery, he then swung it over his head and I shot the image. The sparks from the wool went everywhere and this is how I created this firey sparky effect.
All of the images have been shot on bulb mode. At first I was shooting on 30" with a low aperture and ISO 200, however once we tried out bulb mode we realised that we did not have to worry about time limits any longer and we could really take our time with the sculptures.
Editing my Images
The image on the left is the unedited version and the image on the right is after. I used raw editing to enhance the contrast and the exposure. I added more contrast so that there was more difference between the light and the dark. I also added more vibrance and clarity so that the light stood out more against the cliff. I then used split toning in the raw processing to enhance the green hues , this then made the ambient light on the cliff from the orb stronger which I liked as it made it seem more eerie. My dad was in the picture as well from where he was swinging the lights. At first I used the spot healing tool however it was sampling from the orb so it didn't look like the cliff, I then tried to healing tool and it was hard to sample the right part so that it looked natural. I then used the clone tool to edit out his legs at the bottom of the sphere, I also used it to connect the trail at the bottom because it was broken. This made the trail flow smoothly into the orb.
This was another edit that I created. I chose this one from the selection of images that I liked, however I do not think this image was very successful. I like the orb and wisps, however I think that there was too much ambient lighting in the image and it lost the moody and eerie feel that were present in other images. I lowered the exposure and added more contrast to try and balance this out however it did not create this effect. I added clarity to bring out the orb, but I think that the white light is a little bit too plain and I think the abstract colours in the green blue and red orbs really made the light painting stick out from the cliffs and landscape. I then used the crop tool to align the image because it was not straight. After doing this I think that I prefer the slanty image because it gives the impression that you are looking up at the cliff whereas the edited version feels more on eye level with the orb. Overall, I do not think that this image was very successful.
This was another picture thatI have edited. I like this one because the fire is all contained in the cave and the circle looks like a portal and I think that it makes you want to look through the image to see what is behind it. I edited it in the same way I have with the rest of my images in RAW processing. I then used the crop tool to align the floor to make it straight. I then used the clone tool to then get rid of my dad who was in the middle of the circle. I don't think that this was successful because the right side of the image is out of focus slightly and this does not have the professionalism that I am looking for in my images.
This is another image that I edited. I also created this one with steel wool. I did the same editing techniques as before, where I added more clarity to make it clearer and more contrast to let the torch stand out, however I am looking back on both images now and I think that I prefer the original image because it looks more natural. I am going to edit this one again but this time I will not have so much dramatic editing because I would like to keep it as natural as possible. I feel that the colours are clearly edited and I don't like that effect in this image.
This was my second edit of this image. This time, I did not move the sliders as much so the image was more natural. I prefer this edit because the first one sort of went a rusty yellow colour around the wisps of fire and that looked quite abstract and I want my images to appear as natural as possible as that highlights the metamorphosis as it is a natural change from the landscape to the sculptures.
This was another image that I have edited. I edited this one slightly differently. I did the usual changing the exposure, contrast and clarity to make the image stand out more, and then I used the hues to change the colour of the light orbs. The original colourr was green so I used the green slider to make the colour aqua, and then used the aqua colour to enhance that on the cliffs and in the light bleed. I changed the colour from green because I do not want to submit two mages that are very similar and I think that even the slight colour change in the orb has made a change in tone from the piercing green hues from before. I then used the crop tool to straighten the image and then i moved the image so that it was re aligned with the rule of thirds. This made the image more aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
Saturday Shoot
We then shot again on Saturday morning because the sun rises on the east and we were shooting on the east coast so we were hoping to see some nice sun colours as the sun rose, however there was too much light before the sun actually started to rise. We set our alarms for 3:30am however we had set them on weekdays and it was a Saturday so the alarms didn't go off and we slept through, we ended up waking up at 3:45am. we left the hotel at 4:00am but we didn't have enough time to get to the location and set up because the sun had already produced enough ambient light that the images were becoming bleached out. We decided that if we were to shoot again we will either just shoot in the morning or at night because once it got to pitch black we were getting some really moody shots. We stopped shooting at 10:30pm on the friday because we thought that the Saturday morning shoot would be more successful and we wanted to make sure that we got a few hours of sleep before we shot again. Looking back, I think that we should have shot for an hour or two more at night and then left the morning shots because there was too much colour however it was useful to find this out for next time.
This was my shoot from saturday morning. Most of these images will be unusable because there was too much light by the time we had set up properly. I thought that sunrise on the tide times meant that was when the first light would appear but it meant the first sign of the sun and there was a lot of light coming up to the actual sun rise. This meant that the light paintings were coming up transluscent and they were not as contrasting as the shots from last night. However, whilst it was dark we focused more on the led bar and moving whilst using that, these created some interesting shots when my dad ran towards the camera as it created perspective as if something is coming out of the camera into the landscape. I will edit some of these to see if they could be final images.
Choosing my Favourite Images
These are my favourite images from this shoot. I have chosen these because I liked the composition as well as the light in these images. I have also added a landscape in there because that was the style and location that I wanted for my final images however when I tried to light paint the light was not strong and it was lost in the background. From this, I learnt that I need to make sure that I am shooting either really late at night (10 - 11pm) or early in the morning (2-3am) so that the light is piercing. I do not think that I can have a strong sunset as well as the effect that I want with the lights because the long exposure times over exposes the colours.
Editing Images
This is the first image that I have edited. The edited image is to the right. I have added some contrast, but lowered the highlight and whites a lot because the light was quite overexposed and by lowering this I managed to keep the colours of the lights and lost the light bleed from too much exposure. I then added a slight warming filter so that the cliffs were not as blue, and it also added some depth to the sky as the colour was not as deep.
This was the other image. The edited one is on the right. I edited this in a similar way as the image above. I like the edited version more here as well because I think that the colours are stronger in the light paintings and the warm filter has bought out the original colours that were in the cliffs.
Portrait Shoot
This was a portrait shoot. I shot these on Thursday 17th May from 7:30pm to 8:30pm. This was not a success. My main problem was that there was no clarity in my images. After every shot, I zoomed in on the light and it seemed blurry and a little bit washed out and I was not sure what was causing this. I had my camera on a tripod and my duvet taped over the window to eliminate any ambient lighting. I shot at first with a 13 second exposure with f16 and an ISO of 100.
Now looking back on some of my previous shoots I think that I may need to change the ISO so that it is higher. My last successful images from my previous shoot were on ISO 800 and there was more clarity than in these images.
These were my favourite images from the shoot. I thought that these images were a lot more successful than I originally thought. In the preview screen on the camera they did not look clear and as detailed as they have now come out as. I like how pastel some of these colours are coming out and in the first 5 images you can quite clearly make out the profile of the model as well as the lights. The sixth and seventh images are my least favourite because they are quite dark and there is no striking colours or clarity to the images. I like how they are on one half of the body only but the rest of the profile is lost.
f6.5 12"
Editing images
This is one of my favourite images from this shoot. I like how smooth the models skin looks, and her expression looks like she is being absorbed by the light. I like how the colour has been picked up in her hair as well. I edited this to get rid of some wisps around the edge to make it cleaner, and added some contrast to the image to enhance the light.
This was another one of my favourite images. I like how the light has captured her profile, and then the blue and green wisps on the left side trailing off really captures metamorphosis because you can see what was the person and then the light trailing off feels like she is melting or she is losing her identity. I edited this to enhance the colour again and add some more exposure so her profile was clearer.
I liked how the light is only on half of her face, because it is a more obvious representation of metamorphosis, where half of her is "normal" and the other half is abstract light, however I used a torch to light her profile and I feel like I have lost the natural aspect as the light has bleached out her skin tones, I lowered the exposure to lose how bleached it was, however I don't think it worked.
This is my least favourite image out of everyone that I edited. I like the smooth transitions between the colours, however the models pose there makes her cheeks large and her profile has been lost on the right side where there is no light. I added some exposure in Photoshop to start bringing in her profile but it wasnt enough to make the image bright enough.
Troubleshooting my blur problem
Shooting my last portraits (above) I had a problem with a lack of clarity in my images. The light was not coming out clear and this was making the colours washed out and the portraits were not impressive. During the shoot, I was testing some different settings, such as the aperture and shutter speed, because that was most likely the problem. During the shoot, I had shot at 13" with F16 and an ISO 100. Looking back on my previous shoots, I had shot with a high ISO (800), I think that was too high because I don't want a lot of grain in the images, which I think would be quite obvious due to my dark lighting in the images.
After trying out a variety of shutter speeds and apertures, I decided to ask lee to get his opinion on what I should do about this. I felt it was important to have a lot of clarity in my images because that will make the images pop and I think that the lines and wisps that the fibre optics make will grasp the project theme as they are so abstract and the clarity will be important to define the profile of the model.
This was what I messaged Lee with. I explained my situation and then I said what settings that I used and what happened with the images. His response is below.
After hearing his response, I will use a weight to hold down my tripod which will hopefully eliminate any shake problems. I will also further my experimentation with apertures and shutter speed to see if that will help.
Final Potrait Shoot
I shot these on Friday 18th May. I booked out an empty space from 6 - 10pm in Boughton Monchelsea. It had a 4 metre empty space with a white vinyl floor and walls. This was useful because we could do some larger portraits and make better use of the space as I had been shooting previously in my parents bedroom. I tried out some different styles instead of just the fibre optics because I didn't want my final images to become repetitive. I thought that these images were really successful, I liked how in the larger portraits, the colour has relected off the floor creating a smooth colour which fills in the negative space.
Overall, I think that this shoot was really successful. I shot using F16 and bulb mode and this made the images clear and there was strong colours in all of the lights which I wanted. I used bulb mode so that we could shoot for as long or as short as we wanted, I learnt how to use it during my landscape shoots when we needed to shoot for longer than 30 seconds.
Choosing Images to Edit
these are my favourite images from the portrait shoot. Overall the whole shoot was very successful. I did not have any blur or clarity problems. in this shoot, i lowered my aperture from 20 down to 16, and I shot on bulb mode but the shutter seed ranged from 8 to 40 seconds in the images. I shot some different style portraits using the light rod because I am worried that if i submit 3 fibre optic portraits for my final piece then it will look too similar compared to my landscapes which are all quite drastically different. I quite like this new light rod portrait style because the lights have reflected off the floor and they have made a pool of light which sets the scene and makes the image feel calm.
THE LIGHT ROD IMAGES HAVE A LACK OF IDENTITY
This is the first image that I have edited. I liked this one because the pull from the fibre optics has highlighted her face, especially around her eyes and lips which I think helps form the identity of the person which emphasises metamorphosis because the light is changing the persons identity or personality. I originally liked this image because of the profile, however I think that you cannot see her hair which makes the image quite isolated and you lose the rest of her face. I edited this by adding more exposure so that you could see more than just her face, however now you can see the background and it loses the crisp professionalism that I want in my images.
This is the second image that I have edited. I changed the colours on this to see if it would create a different mood. I think that the expression on her face in this one is inappropriate because it does not feel smooth and calming and where I have edited it you can see the background again which I don't like as you lose the abstraction in the image.
I like this image because the light flows off her face. I like how there are two different colours on her face quite clearly. There is a lot of ambient light from the fibre optics on this one which has lit up the models profile quite well. It has also started to light up her hair which is making her seem a bit more like a human. I shot this one with a lower f stop which allowed in more light which I think creates that glow around her lips which feels like the light is really on the model.
I like how subtle the light is in this image. I used a different model position because I was worried that submitting three images with the same position would get repetitive and it would not show the variety that I want in my images. I like how the light falls from her hair line down her hair and the blue ambient light has hit her face and lit up her profile using the shadows and highlights from the light. I like how the cool blues and greens have made a solemn feel to this image.
This is a different style of portrait. i wanted to use the light rod in some of my images because i like the level of detail and clarity that can be created with this tool. I like how the colours from the rod have reflected off the floor and how the colours combined with the models position has created a calm and peaceful mood to the image. I edited this to enhance the light rods clarity and enhance the colours in the background.
I like this one because I used fiber optics on the models face as well as the light rod in the background. This means that the model is no longer a silhouette and you can see her face. I did this because I was worried that submitting three fiber optic portraits would get repetitive but i feel that this image has lost the theme of metamorphosis because the light rods dont have a connection to metamorphosis in my eyes. When i was taking this, i was more concerned about getting a lot of variety that I began to forget about the theme of metamorphosis, so this is a nice use of light painting, however it doesn't feel like a strong link to metamorphosis.
This is my longest exposure in my portraits. I did multiple sweeps over the models face in this one and i think it was very effective. I used the tips of the fiber optics to create the colours on her face, and then pulled it over her hair a few times and as i went over the next few times there are wisps around the models face which feel like a thought cloud or a spiritual being coming out of her head. I edited this to enhance the colours on her face and turn down the whites in the image. I really like the peaceful colours in this image and how they feel smooth.
In this image, I likee how there is a slight hint of colour around her cheeks, but the majority of it is the white wisps and dots. I like how clean this is and the lack of colour really highlights the different effects that the fibre optics can make. I like how the fibre optics have been brushed over her eye and eyebrow in a way that makes it look like they are distorted or melting, which I think shows how she is changing into something else or losing her identity. I edited this so that you can now see the other side of her face just slightly so that it brings in the sense that she is a person .
I like how clear her profile is in this image, however the rest of her is completely lost on the darkness. This makes the light feel very isolated and it is lost in the amount of negative space that there is in the image.
Choosing my Final Images - Portraits
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Ive narrowed down all of my images down to these 7. Originally, I was going to submit two fibre optic portraits and then one of the light rod images, however since gaining some feedback from lee, I have decided to only submit 3 fibre optic portraits. I think that there is less link to metamorphosis in the light rod images, and they look too different to be classed as the same project as the fibre optics. I thought that having three images that look similar would be a bad thing however the similarity would show that it is all my work. I like the first image a lot because the models face is isolated in the darkness, and the light trails off which looks like she is breaking apart. I like the mystical effect in image number 5, and how the light is off the models face and the colours give it a soft and magical effect. I like the subtlety in the fourth image and how the models face can be seen but there is also the light which represents change. I also like image number 3 because the area around her eye and eyebrow looks like it is melting like it is a forceful morph and she is becoming something else.
Choosing my Final Images - Landscapes
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had surgery slowed me down, disability made it hard to shoot for long times
These are my favourite landscape images from the shoot.
My Final Images
Tate Modern - Shape of Light Exhibition
Even though I have finished my final pieces, I went to the Tate Modern in London to see their new shape Of light exhibition that they were holding. I was expecting it to be a light painting or sculpture exhibition but it was about 100 years of light photography where artists and photographers were using light to create images in different ways. I was quite inspired by the work on display there as they were using light in ways that I hadn't even thought of.
I liked these first four images to the left because the photographer had a very abstract meaning to why he took them and that felt like it had a link to my work because there a multiple links to my theme of metamorphosis it depends on how far you look into the images. I also like how he hasnt titled each individual piece so it is left to the viewer to decide how the photographer felt in each image and what he was trying to depict.
Photograms
These photograms have inspired me the most. I had never heard of them before. They are images made without a camera. I also like how these every day objects have been given a new, blunt perspective as you cannot see what they are and it has been dummed down to just shapes. I loved how abstract these images were,
Chemigrams
These are very similar to the photograms above. I like how this time they have used different chemical reactions which makes os some nice textures in the highlights and shadows of the image. I like how similar each one is in terms of technique, but with completely different outcomes each time. I was very inspired by the camera less images and how photographers have utilised film in this way. it is a very abstract form of light photography.
I like how they've used the light in an experiment again. All of the above are quite abstract ways to create photos / use light and I think it is quite interesting how many different ways light can be utilised in different ways and I would like to further my knowledge in my own time / in my next years work.
I like how this artist has explained how photograms "deny the observer the familiarity" and I think that contributes to why I find them so interesting because it allows us as the viewers to think about what could have been used to create the different shapes and textures in each image.
I like how smooth the colours blend from white to back in this image. The crisp black middle of each of these images makes it very easy to get sucked into the middle of these images. My favourite is the middle image. My favourite part is how you the brightest whites are around the circle which emphasis the centre and they spin out as you begin to look around the sides of the image.
This last piece was very interesting. the artist used the photogram technique to capture radiation from uranium. This was very interesting to me as we cannot see radiation however the artist managed to capture it.
Final Evaluation
The project theme was metamorphosis. Since hearing about the brief, I have wanted to create a series of images that use light to depict change in all of my images. I have used light to show metamorphosis in a few ways. In my landscapes, I have used light to create a visual change in the scenery.I also believe that the light in my landscapes could be portrayed as a metaphorical beacon between different worlds or realms. I like how there are a few different links between my work and the project theme because i want the viewers to think for themselves about what they see.
I began my research by creating mood boards with some ideas for the project. These mood boards gave me a lot of motivation and creativity as I saw a lot of different types of light painting and it gave me a lot of early ideas about what I wanted to create. Here I decided that I wanted to create more than one final image so that I could really push myself to try different styles of light painting. I had practised light painting in the past in 2015 for my GCSE project, however my skills were limited as we were not taught the technical aspect of the long shutter speeds, any aesthetic awareness or how to use a camera. I created the three images below on an old iPad using an app i downloaded for free in a cupboard.
I began looking at artists that would hopefully give me some ideas on how to start taking pictures like this. The first artist I looked at was Hannu Huhtamo. I loved how calm his images felt to me and that began my idea to have a spiritual connection in my images because that was something that I could feel in his. Huhtamo stated that he uses his work as a type of meditation and he finds creating his work very calming. I then looked at portrait photographer Gunnar Heilmann and i was so inspired at how he uses light to transform someones face into the light. I decided that I wanted to create 3 portraits and 3 landscapes using light in different ways. These were the main two photographers who really inspired me because in the landscapes I could feel the peace and solitude that Huhtamo was aiming for in his images, and in the portraits I liked how the colours, type of light and the models face created a type of identity in the image and you could feel what the photographer wanted you to feel in them.
researching different photographers and taking lots of test shoots really helped me to develop my images. during the first few weeks of the project I did a lot of shoots where I tested the equipment that would be used for light painting. this helped me to see what different effects and from there I began to think about how I could use these different techniques to create my final pieces.
My first big development was when I shot in Mote park and it was too busy to shoot there. I then went to the library and came across some long exposure coastal photography and I loved how surreal it felt with the isolation and the soft silky effects of the water. I then decided I wanted to try shooting at the sea because I wanted the same quiet effects that the book showed me. Then when I began testing my new fibre optics for my portrait shoot I came up with lots of different experimentation techniques as I was shooting because I would try one thing out, see the results and then tweak it slightly or move the lights in a new way and it helped me to create a lot of different light styles in my portraits as new ideas would come in my head after every image.
My favourite part of the project was shooting the images. I was quite lucky that I did not have any major issues when shooting and the majority of my images were coming out great after every shoot, or with some changes that I could make without too much disruption. Each shoot gave me a lot of creativity to then shoot again because I could see what techniques were producing what types of images and it was very exciting seeing what I was creating. I also really enjoyed using different equipment that I have never used before because I enjoyed messing around with them in front of the camera and seeing what I was producing.
I learnt a lot of new techniques. I knew how to shoot on long exposures before but I learnt how to use bulb mode so that I could shoot for longer than 30 seconds. this was very useful as it allowed me to have more time to create light work and it helped me to create one of my final images. I also learnt how aperture and ISO are important in my images. I knew what they were before but I had not paid attention to them until my portrait images were coming out blurry. I learnt that I needed a low aperture so that the aperture would be open more and more light would come in. I also knew that high ISO would add more grain to the image, but i learnt in this project that it also sacrifices image quality so I turned it down to get a crisper light.
I would like to shoot with minute long exposures in the future. I would like to do this so that I can see what new styles of light painting that I can try especially with my landscapes so that I can try multiple light sources. I think it would be interesting to get new materials as well and seeing how I can manipulate light in different ways.
I think that the technical aspect of the project was the most successful and the most interesting. I had fun trying out a lot of different settings and combining it with the different equipment was quite fun to see what I could create. In my own time I would like to further my light painting studies to expand my portfolio and try out a lot of new ideas as there is more that I would like to try out.
I had a few problems throughout this shoot. My first one was choosing a new area to shoot after I could not shoot in the woods. Luckily, my dad was around throughout the duration of this project and he gave me a lift down to the beach and he also helped me draw the light in my images. Having my dad to draw also allowed us to work more calmly because in my first few test shoots, I had to set the camera off and then run to the area and do the drawing and I did not have enough time to prepare as the camera would still be shooting. Another problem I had was a lack of clarity in my images. I later found out that this was caused by a too high f stop so to stop this I lowered my aperture which then opened the aperture up and let in more light which allowed the fibre optic light to be a lot clearer. This slowed down how many shoots I could do because I needed to ask help from my peers to see what the problem was as I had tinkered with the settings a little but I couldnt figure out what was the problem. This problem only lasted a few days however because I got some guidance on lee and managed to sort the problem out in enough time to still get my final images completed. I had a few unexpected complications as well. A slight problem I had during my final beach shoot was that the tripod slid in the sand in some images. This lead to the images coming out blurry. Next time, I will need to bring something to hold the tripod down or add weights to it. The majority of my images were okay though it was just one or two that had blurring around the cliffs where you could see it had moved. I had to have surgery during this project which slowed down how much work I could do because I felt ill for a while after wards. I also had a change in my medication which really damaged my projects development because I had originally wanted to shoot under maidstone bridge and get some landscapes with the archways and the water but the medication meant I slept a lot outside of college and I was not well enough to do any more shoots. I love my final images but I think the bridge shoot would have really made my landscapes more diverse as it would create a change in scenery from the cave. It would have created a break from the urban life in the background to the surreal isolation of the light. However these were two factors I had no control over and I am glad that they happened nearer the end of the project and the effects could have been a lot worse.
If i could redo this project, I think that I would like to shoot in more locations. I only really shot in one major location for my final piece and the pictures are nice but I think that a change in location would really keep the images diverse and different locations will make different moods and tones in the image as well. I would also like to try some new light equipment because once I got one good image I just kept redoing the same style over and over again and I did not really try as many things as I had originally planned so I think that next time I will need to make sure that I do not get carried away with one style and I make sure to keep moving on.
These are my final three portraits.
the first image is my favourite. I have chosen this one because I like how the wisps are all around the body and not just on the face. To me, it feels like she is emitting something, and the pale blues and pinks give an innocent feel to the image, like the person is harmless.
I have chosen the second image because I like how subtle the light is. It is very different to the previous image, where the light falls down her shoulders and lights up her face.I like this because it feels solemn and I like how drastic the change of light is between the first and second image.
I hsve chosen the third image because I like the eay the light has morphed her eye and eyebrow and made them melt into each other. This image feels much more agressive than the previous two, where the sharp whites stand out and the wisps are sharper than the first image. I like how only part of the face is visible, which feels like she is forming into something else.
These are my final landscape images.
I have chosen the first one because I like how the light reflects off the cliff and how you can see the whole cliff. The light makes the orb feel in the area and the top of the cliff gives location. I also like how the trail does not go over the orb so it makes the viewer follow the trail to the orb.
I chose the second image because I like the lines that the light rod makes. I chose this one because I like how it spins towards the camera, it gives the image but it is keeping in line with the rule of thirds so it is aesthitically pleasing.
I like the third image because it looks like a portal to another dimension. I think the warm tones in this image makes it seem inviting and the circle in the middle makes me want to step through it.
I do not think that my final images are free of fault. As stated above, I would have liked to have more change in scenery, however I could not manage that in the time frame. I would have liked to have a sharper steel wool picture as well as I think the camera fell slightly in that one, but the other steel wool image that I took did not show the top of the cliff and it lost its location completely because you did not know where it was. I think my second portrait could have had a slight bit more light on the face just to really emphasise that it is a person under the light. I do not like the over exposed white strip in the first image either, I think that it takes the viewers eye away from the rest of the image and straight there because it is a lot brighter than everything else.
The weakest part of my project was my weekly blog. since the beginning of the project, I was having problems with documenting my work. I was unsure on how to write it out and i was not reflecting enough on my next steps. I sought advice from lee and he helped me to show my reflection in more detail and how the work that I have done has influenced the work that i will do in the next weeks. even though I managed to get all the work completed to a good level, I could have benefited from documenting my times and my plans in more detail as this would have helped me to see what I can do next. I will remember this for my next projects and I will make sure that I consistently reflect in more detail to show how I have developed my ideas clearly.
All things considered, I am very happy with how this project has gone, and how my final images have come out.
Exhibition
Although I do not know exactly how the exhibition will work, when I saw my work up on the TV during my presentation I loved how vibrant the colours were on the screen and I think I would like to exhibit my work in a similar way. I think it would be good on a tv because the colours were very bold which makes them very attractive and stunning against the blacks in my portraits.
Harvard Referencing
References
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Cunningham, L. (n.d.). Mandala book - patterns of the universe.
Frost, L. (2011). 50 photo projects. Newton Abbot: David & Charles.
Hannuhuhtamo.com. (2018). Work – Hannu Huhtamo Photography. [online] Available at: http://www.hannuhuhtamo.com/light-art-photography/ [Accessed 4 Jun. 2018].
Harman, D. and Jones, D. (n.d.). The digital photography handbook.
Keimi, L. (2018). Night Photography and Light Painting.
Worobiec, T. (2011). The landscape photography bible. Newton Abbot: David & Charles.
YouTube. (2018). Hannu Huhtamo light flower demo. [online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKtS6b57nh4 [Accessed 4 Jun. 2018].
YouTube. (2018). How I use the Black Fiber Brush - Light Painting Tutorial. [online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdA7sra1TAs [Accessed 4 Jun. 2018].
YouTube. (2018). Orbs - Light Painting Photography Tutorial. [online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asx13Ah_xpk [Accessed 4 Jun. 2018].