Photography Cert. 2014 -

Edward Jean Steichen  (27 March 1879 - 25 March 1973) An American photographer, painter, art and museum curator.   He revolutionized celebrity fashion photography in the 1920's and 30's.   As chief photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair Magazine, his work included portraits of writers, artists, actors, dancers and politicians.    At that time, he was considered the best known and most paid photographer in the world. Below is a portrait of silent film actor Gloria Swanson.   The textured veil positioned perfectly on her face creates an interesting mood.  Her facial expression seems quite piercing, her eyes appear strong as she looks straight into the camera. Her mouth clench tight keeping her lips together.  The pattern over her left eye appears darker, with a bit of blur over it.  Shes looks as though she's waiting behind leaves for the right moment to pounce.  I like how this texture adds another dimension to the pho...

Bernd and Hilla Becher are a husband and wife team known for their grids of black and white photographs of industrial sites.   Below are some photos which have been inspired by some of their photos.  With these photos i tried to take them on an overcaste day, however the second photo was taken on quite a sunny day hence the shadows.  I also tried to take the photos straight on, trying to capture as much of the structure as possible.  In post production i converted to black and white and adjusted the contrast and exposure to give the photos a flat appearance. Bernd and Hilla photo f/5.6, 1/30, ISO 100  Bernard and Hilla photo Title: Grain Elevators, Bins 1978-82, Bernd and Hilla, Medium: Photograph, Size 12.5x16inch, 8 Gelatin Silver Prints f/5.6, 1/30, ISO 100 Bernd and Hilla photo F/5.6, 1/200, ISO 100

Week 4  The journey continues with manual mode!  Today we are looking at textures and using positive/Negative space. Textures are described as something you can feel as well as see.  Textures add interest into your images, and often show objects from uncommon vantage points.  Below are some examples of texture photos which i shot. f/32.0, 1/5, ISO 100 This piece wood has lines running through it.  The wood has many grooves and furry spongy plant matter growing between it.  The reason why this photo is out of focus is because of camera shake.  This photo was taken hand held at a fast shutter speed.  For any speeds under 1/60 of a second require a tripod. f29, 1/250, ISO 1600 The tyre marks made in the dirt are raised imprints, between are spikes of grass which are spread all along the tyre tracks. I like how the tyre track patterns are interrupted by the greenery which break up the photo and lead the eye into another direction in...

Positive and Negative Space What is positive space? It is the part of your photo which is the central focus, it is your subject. What is negative space? This is the space which surrounds your subject.  The purpose of negative space is to direct your eye/attention to the subject. f/29, 1/160, ISO 1600 Negative space can be anything such as a surface, patterns, faces, clothing etc...  Above and below are my examples of positive and negative space.  The negative space is the wood chips, i position my subject (the mushrooms) on an intersecting line to reinforce its focus.  I like the contrast in shapes and forms the wood chips being linear while the mushrooms are circular. f/5.6, 1/80, ISO 200 My subject is the two little green plant matter.  The use of leading lines and the solid red directs right to the little plants.  This is a photo of the rear lights of my car. Self directed: Here are some shots i took using positive and negative ...

 Well well well good old photoshop.  Took a bit rebooting (my brain that is!), but with the help of Caryline (my ever so patient teacher) i was able to complete all my exercises.  I definitely will have a go with these so that i am able to navigate through photoshop easier. The photos are from the photoshop exercises we did in class.  f/3.5, 1/500, ISO 200  Below is textured image placed over a portrait.  The texture photo i used was a piece of wood.  I tried other texture photos i had taken, but it didn't really work. This was pretty cool, it took a few goes to get it right - i can see that i didn't get the textured part right on the edge.  I would definitely do this again and try and not have any of the face edge clear. f5.0, 1/15, ISO 100 This was cool, converting to black and white using the B&W adjustment layer.  I felt like i was actually painting the colour on to the bag.  I had to zoom right in and try ...

Shooting in Manual Hello manual! Over the last two weeks we have been shooting in Aperture and Shutter priority.  So when we were asked to switch to Manual, i was a bit apprehensive.  After great direction, it didn't feel so foreign. Framing Framing, draws attention to the subject in the photo by using other parts of the image with something in the scene. f3.5, 1/500, ISO 200 This isn't the best example of framing but i promise i will post up a better photo.  This was taken during our class exercise.  Shot at a low depth of field, my main focus was to practice shooting in manual.  I'm not 100% sure what im doing so i'll be doing alot of research with it all.  As you can see the colours are a bit blah, which i absolutely hate but i hope that as i become more informed the quality of my photos will show some sort of improvement.  While doing research on a website called Digital Photography School advice which was offered when framing a ...

This week we have been looking at various photographic elements used by artists.  The artists who caught my attention were Pat Brassingtion and Yasumasa Morimura.  There fine art works are really interesting and artistic.  They use a variety of photographic elements to compose their pieces.  They craft a perspective which define their styles. In class we have been looking at the basic photoshop options such as converting colours, adjusting the colour tones, image clarity etc.  Although the artists i am looking at this week who have advanced skills and techniques i will be looking that their photos from a novice perspective.  Just thought id put that in there (hehe). Pat Brassington  An Australian artist who produces surreal pieces which are use photo elements layered on top of each other.  Her current works have been described as "classically provocative and ambiguous in nature; striking, beautiful and superbly loaded.."ARC One.   Her p...