Preparatory Evaluation

So far during my preparatory shoots and research, I have looked into various photographers' work such as Richard Billingham, who presented harsh and contrasted streetlights on the roads of his childhood. Bettina von Zwehl, who presented vivid and personal portraits of women at vulnerable moments. Phillip Lorca Dicorcia, who presented theatrical portraits of people trying and struggling to live the American dream. Brassai, who presented deeply contrasted and suspenseful photos of the empty streets of Paris at its darkest hours. And finally, Victoria Siemer, who presented vibrant landscapes with forlorn pieces of text. I feel that the photographers Phillip Lorca Dicorcia and Victoria Siemer have influenced my final pieces' intentions the most. Dicorcia's work was theatrical and presented a deep complex story for each subject simply by just the positioning of artificial light and the surroundings around them. This made me want to create more of a story in my portraits and have the subject and surroundings create a mysterious story. Siemer's work was vibrant and mysterious with its abandoned landscapes and forlorn and emotional pieces of text. This influenced me to have my photos be more colourful and vivid in expression, while also conveying that emotion with surreal editing such as text. 

From focussing on these photographers and their techniques and aesthetics, I was able to gain skills in a new area by using gels and different light methods such as flashgun use. I learned to use a flashgun for photos and understand the intensity of light needed to create a vibrant photo. I learned the effect that gels have over a photo and how they can create vivid imagery. I also looked into more complex editing processes so the photos can have a surreal appearance to attract the viewers. I have now learned how to create glowing text that merges into a realistic photo to create a surreal photo. Although I have not practiced it yet, I have also found an editing process that makes objects within a photo glow a vibrant colour, and plan to be experimenting with this for my final photos.

Moving forward for my three final shoots, I plan for each shoot to have a different composition and presentation. One of the shoots will solely be close-up portraits that will involve items that will be edited to glow a vibrant colour. Another shoot will also be portraits, but this time involving backgrounds to create a story to the subject, and inserting glowing text and making objects in the photo glow too. For one of the last shoots, it will possibly be just landscapes and inserting glowing text. These shoots will present forlorn pieces of text and create emotional, complex stories to the subjects.

WR7

Plans for Shoot

For this shoot, I will be researching into an even more complex editing process to incorporate into my photos. I will also be creating a shoot involving gels to continue my more colourful work but adding in portraiture to make the photos more social and intriguing. This inspiration will come from Victoria Siemer, who created colourful surreal landscape photos, and Phillip Lorca Dicorcia, who created meaningful and mysterious portraits of the people of Hollywood and New York. 

Research

Victoria Siemer

Victoria Siemer is a Brooklyn-based American graphic artist who focuses mainly on photo manipulation using Photoshop. She goes by the moniker "Witchoria" because "digital manipulation has given me the ability to create my own alternate realities where anything is possible. Sometimes it feels like magic." Her personal portfolio 'Hue Don't Own Me' is an exploration of 'emotion + light + colour'. She used gelled lights to create the landscapes and added the text in Photoshop. I did further analysis into Siemer's work on the blog post 'Photographer Research - Victoria Siemer'.

Phillip Lorca Dicorcia

Dicorcia is an American photographer who captured people of America in the 1980s-90s who were in pursuit to follow the American dream and were not so successful. Every photo of a person was titled their name, and certain photos would be titled the person's name, age, location and price. The price was related to the fact that some of these people had to sell themselves to survive in the states. I did further research into Dicorcia's work in the blog post 'Photographer Research - Phillip Lorca Dicorcia', after research into Dicorcia's work there, appeared to be no specific camera or editing techniques to the photo, but Dicorcia does use a composition technique of positioning the artificial light to highlight the subjects face as if a stage light to create a story to the photo.

Image bank

These are a few photos from Siemer's portfolio 'Hue Don't Own Me'.


These are a few photos of Dicorcia's work.

Contact sheet
These are all the photos for this shoot.

Best Photos
These are the best-selected photos from the shoot.

Photos that require improvement

These photos I believe required improvement. For the first photo, the issue is the lack of exposure, the exposure settings were aperture F22, shutter speed at 1/250sec and exposure set to ISO12800; these were the common settings for all the photos taken. From the top of the stairs, my appearance is too dark and my expression is unclear to the camera, to resolve this I would've either had to increase the flashgun intensity (it was originally the lowest setting) or made the exposure settings more sensitive, such as expanding the aperture to F5. For the second photo, the issue is the lack of vibrancy. I used a thin magenta gel over my flashgun, the colour was too transparent to create a vibrant overlay of colour in the photo, this can be resolved by editing possible, or use a gel similar to the colour but with more density.

AO3: Record ideas, observations, and insights relevant to intentions reflecting critically on work and progress.

My Ideas

My intention for this shoot was to further experiment with my gels and flashgun to create colourful and vibrant photos, but this time incorporate portraiture into the photos so they have a more social and lively atmosphere. My inspiration for this incorporation was from the photographers' Victoria Siemer, with her colourful landscapes and surreal text, and Phillip Lorca Dicorcia, with his mysterious and emotional portraits using light to highlight their appearance. I feel I was successful in meeting my intentions, but believe I can make these photos even more lively and intriguing in the photo.

Reference to best photos

I selected this photo because of its mischievous and troubled atmosphere. The deep red surrounding the stairs creates a dark and tainted feeling to the subject. The subject is slouched over the stairs but still composing a confident expression, this suggests a mischievous personality to this subject.

I selected this photo because of its calming and simplistic presentation. The subtle magenta hue surrounding the photo creates a calm and gentle atmosphere to the subject and photo overall. The composition of the subject just sat at the couch probably staring at the TV can make a viewer feel relaxed as if they are able to sit with the subject.

I selected this photo because of its vibrant and enticing composition. The deep cyan hue surrounding the photo creates an eye-catching feature to the photo, this is then emphasized by the subject looking directly to the viewer as if they are aware they are being captured. This adds a mystery to the subject and their body expression.

AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques, and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.

Shoot Process/Use of Camera

For this shoot, I used a DF-400 flashgun attached to my Nikon D3400 camera; a tripod was also used since I was capturing myself in various locations of my home. A self-timer was also necessary for this shoot because I was capturing myself. The flashgun was set to mode M, which means that the flash will flash in synchrony with the camera capturing the photo, and the flash intensity was typically at its lowest possible setting due to it being a very intense flash. The camera's exposure settings were aperture set to F22, the shutter speed would vary from 1/250sec and 1/320sec (however, 1/320sec appeared to be too fast for the flashgun as it created a black line at the bottom of the photos because it didn't capture the light there), and the exposure was set to ISO12800 due to the photos being taken in dark settings.

Experimenting

Siemer's edit style involves inserting surreal glowing text into her photos, I used photoshop to do this with my photos.

Firstly, for a few photos there was a blank line at the bottom due to the shutter speed. So, using the crop tool, I removed this black line.

 I also made a copy of the original photo so I could go back to the original if needed (CTRL+J).

 I then added an adjustment layer of 'levels' to increase the contrast and make the photo's hue appear more vibrant.

 Then, using the 'horizontal type tool', I inserted a text layer into the photo and typed an appropriate piece of text for the photo. I positioned the text in an area of the photo I feel looks best.

 I copied this text layer (CTRL+J), right-clicked to then pick 'rasterize type', making this text layer into a whole image layer. Then, I added a filter called 'gaussian blur'.

 For this copied layer the blur only had to be subtle, for this photo it was 8.4 pixels.

 I then copied the original text layer again (CTRL+J) and rasterized this layer also. Then with a paint bucket tool and a cyan colour I filled in the text on this second copy.

 Once filling all the letters, I added the filter 'gaussian blur' once again but this time increased the radius of the pixels to 80.6. To finish this off I moved this copied layer just below the original text layer.

 To then increase the colourful appearance, to the original text layer I altered its colour to a pale cyan tone.

This is the before and after effect.

AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

Through my research, I was able to further experiment with portraiture and artificial light incorporation. I was also able to practice and look into more possible photo editing possibilities for my final pieces. Philip Lorca Dicorcia and Victoria Siemer have inspired me to continue creating emotional, lively, vibrant photos.

AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements. 

Here are my final pieces.

Progression

Overall, I feel this shoot was successful, but not outstanding. I was able to further experiment with my flashgun and gels, but this time I incorporated portraiture into my work, this made more lively and meaningful photos to me. I was also able to also further experiment with surreal edits and glowing text. Moving forward, I am moving onto my three final shoots for my final pieces, for these shoots, I will continue to use gels and portraiture to create colourful and social photos. This work will continue to be inspired by Victoria Siemer and Phillip Lorca Dicorcia for my photos. For improvement, I have looked into more intricate editing processes and believe for the final shoots I will be editing areas of the subject also to create more enticing photos. 

WR6

Plans for Shoot

For this shoot, I plan to be progressing from my previous shoot inspired by the photographer Victoria Siemer, who uses intense editing processes and gels with artificial light to create vibrant and emotional images. In my previous shoot, I didn't have the materials to recreate her work and was reduced to little flexibility. In this shoot, I will now have the necessary materials and plan to recreate Siemer's style of work by taking photos in my garden and using gels to create colourful landscape-esc photos.

Research

Victoria Siemer

Victoria Siemer is a Brooklyn-based American graphic artist who focuses mainly on photo manipulation using Photoshop. She goes by the moniker "Witchoria" because "digital manipulation has given me the ability to create my own alternate realities where anything is possible. Sometimes it feels like magic." Her personal portfolio 'Hue Don't Own Me' is an exploration of 'emotion + light + colour'. She used gelled lights to create the landscapes and added the text in Photoshop. I did further analysis into Siemer's work on the blog post 'Photographer Research - Victoria Siemer'.

Furthermore, I plan to use more complex editing processes in my photos, and to recreate Siemer's work I have to insert glowing text to create more surreal appearances. I found a video that presents a way to make text glow in the photo. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q41vifReiMk]

Image bank

These are a few photos from Siemer's portfolio 'Hue Don't Own Me'.

Contact sheet
These are all the photos taken for this shoot.

Best Photos
These are the best-selected photos from the shoot.

Photos that require improvement

These two photos require improvement; this is mainly due to their over-exposure. Working with gels and a flashgun for the first time made me have to be very aware of my exposure settings as the flashgun is very vibrant and powerful. For the first photo, I used a magenta thin gel over a flashgun attached to my camera, the flashgun was set to mode M on its third to lowest intensity. The exposure settings were aperture F5, shutter speed 1/250sec and exposure at ISO12800. Now, these were the exposure settings for almost every photo, what was varied the most was the flashgun intensity. It appears that the third to lowest setting was too intense for the exposure to be moderate. This photo was later improved by lowering the flash intensity to the lowest setting. The second photo, I used a thin yellow gel over the flashgun attached to my camera, with the flashgun settings on mode M and one the second to last intensity setting. Since the yellow gel was thin and wasn't a deep enough yellow to diffuse the flashes intensity, the intensity setting was too intense for the exposure settings (which were the same to the previous photo). This was later improved by having the flashgun set to the lowest intensity level.

AO3: Record ideas, observations, and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.

My Ideas

My intention for this shoot was to progress my skills using gels and artificial light to create more vibrant and lifeful photos, with then a mysterious twist by using heavy editing processes to create forlorn messages. My inspiration for this was influenced by the photographer Victoria Siemer, who created colourful and emotional images using gels and editing processes. I feel with the limitation of being in lockdown and so resorting to my garden for landscapes and the use of new materials, I was successful in meeting my intentions for this shoot, but the work was not outstanding.

Reference to best photos

I selected this photo because of its calming and simplistic environment. The teal gel tone over the flashgun created an ocean-like hue over the grass and fencing, almost as if someone is going through a memory or flashback and everything is distorted in an unnatural but calming hue.

I selected this photo because of its simple composition and satisfying hue. By using a magenta gel over the flashgun I was able to create a subtle purple-pink hue around the landscape like Siemer was able to. The subtlety and almost random location reminds me of lights that would be set at a home party in someone's garden, symbolising a wild and social atmosphere. 

I selected this photo because it is similar to one of Siemer's pieces and there appears to be an urban feeling to the photo. One of Siemer's pieces captures dehydrated and shrivelled plants with an orange hue surrounding it, this is similar to my photo. The orange hue combined with the dead nature appears urban and intended to have a symbolic aesthetic.  

AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.

Shoot Process/Use of Camera

For this shoot, I used a DF-400 flashgun attached to my Nikon D3400 camera; no tripod was needed as I was only capturing areas of my garden on a short shutter speed so there was no risk of blur. The flashgun was set to mode M, which means that the flash will flash in synchrony with the camera capturing the photo, and the flash intensity was typically at its lowest possible setting due to it being a very intense flash. The camera's exposure settings were aperture set to F5, the shutter speed setting varied from 1/200-250sec (if the shutter speed was set any shorter than there would be a distortion where light would not be captured at the bottom line of the photo), and the exposure was set to ISO12800 due to the photos being taken at a very dark setting. 

Experimenting

Siemer's work presents vibrant colouring over landscapes and glowing surreal text within those landscapes. I used photoshop and tutorials to recreate this with my own photos.

Firstly, I created a copy layer so I can go back to the origin photo if needed by pressing CTRL+J.

Then, using the 'horizontal type tool', I added a text layer onto the photo and typed a message that felt appropriate to the colouring and composition. I adjusted the font and size to what appeared best.

I copied this text layer (CTRL+J), I right-clicked on this layer and chose 'rasterize type', this made the text layer a whole image layer. Finally, I added a filter called 'gaussian blur'.

For this layer, I made the blur only subtle, for this photo, it was set to 14.1 pixels.

I then copied the original text layer again (CTRL+J) and brought this to the top of the layers to be seen, and rasterized this layer too. Using the 'paint bucket tool' and having the colour similar to landscapes colour, I filled the text with this colour.

Once again, using the filter gaussian blur I blurred the coloured text outward, this time with 55 pixels to go out further.

Once this is done, I brought this layer down below the original text layer.

Finally, I altered the colour of the original text to a pale tone of the magenta colour, this was to make the text appear even more vibrant. This is all the layers once done.

An extra step I added was adding an adjustment layer of 'levels' to the landscape, to create a better-contrasted photo.

Here is the phot before and after.

AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

Through my research, I was able to practice the use of flashgun lighting and the use of gels to create colourful photos artificially. I was also able to learn and practice a new photoshop technique where it presents glowing text in the photo. Siemer has inspired me to create vibrant and meaningful photos by presenting colourful photos with expressions of conflicted thoughts and feelings.

AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements. 

These are my final pieces.

Progression

Overall, I would say this shoot was somewhat successful. I was able to experiment successfully with my new flashgun and gels to create colourful photos artificially, and I was able to successfully learn a new photoshop technique so I can create more surreal photo presentation. The only issue was the limitation I had with available landscapes; due to lockdown, I was limited to capturing landscapes only in my garden, if I was able to I would've captured larger and more intricate landscapes. I feel very inspired by Siemer's work and plan to continue my work with influence from Siemer, by this I will be continuing with colourful artificial photos and possibly the heavy editing process also. Moving forward, I plan to once again incorporate portraiture into these photos and feel I can take this influence from Phillip Lorca Dicorcia, who I previously researched into; I will also continue with heavy editing to create more enticing photos.