Before and After

I attended an open day at the Arts Institute at Bournemouth on Tuesday. I am going to apply there for next year and hopefully I'll get in.

Im concentrating on my personal statement and I'm getting on with my portfolio. For my course I would be doing a module on photo editing so I'm putting together some before and after images, which I have used photoshop to edit.

Going through my images of before and after, I have looked at my images with more criticism and I am cutting down on my very best images.

Here are some of the images I have edited.

I used the actions I have on photoshop to edit this image.

I used 'boost' to boost the colours and the contrast. I also sharpened the image and then gave it a letterbox crop.

This is another picture of the same dog. I boosted the colours and cropped the image to get rid of the top part of the image. I also had to clone the top left to make it all grass because otherwise the background would be eye catching.

I also sharpened the image and made the right hand side lighter to even out the image more.

When I had edited the images, I realised the grass in the foreground is more in focus than the dog is. I am not as keen on this image as I was before because of this.

This is the end of today's post.

Thanks for reading. :)

More Darkroom Techniques :D

This Image was taken with a pinhole camera. The method is so easy to use. Look up pinhole cameras on wikipedia :D to make a pinhole camera you make a box light tight and then make a tiny hole on one side. You also have to have a flap to open so the paper can be taken in and out. then you just let light in through the hole and it creates an image on your paper. when you put it through the machine that develops it, it comes out like this.

This is the result of printing through a paper negative. A paper negative is where you peel the thin layer print off of the paper and then print through it like a contact sheet. I realy love the effect it has had on the image, it looks almost like its been rained on.

This is the solarized image that I used for the paper neg.

This image was taken with a fish eye lens.

Darkroom Technique

I handed in my street photography assignment yesterday. Now I'm focusing on a project where I'm using stereotypes as my main focus. I'm also writing up a sketchbook which has all the darkroom experiments that we have done in it. Not alot of people know much about the darkroom and what can be made by experimenting with different techniques so I thought I'd post the experiments here. :] I'm going to go get my scanner so I can scan the piccies in.

In this image I printed through the plastic which I had drawn half a picture on. My friend drew the other half of the person and we printed them side by side.

I printed this image by placing the plastic onto some photography paper and then I put the glass on top and printed through it. This is the result, above.

Using the filters in the darkroom I experimented with the contrast. This is what using the filters does to an image:

Before and After

The below image was made by putting my fingertips into some developer and then pressing them onto photography paper, I then put the image into a tray of fix for five minutes and then into the wash for another 10 minutes.

Here are some more images from this experiment:

This next experiment is called sunlight printing. To do this, you put some flowers onto some photography paper and then place some glass over the top, you then leave it there for about ten minutes and then you put it into the fix for ten minutes.

These are just a few of the experiments I have done, I will post the rest tomorrow.

I'm watching CSI now then I'm gonna go bed.

Thanks for reading.

Birds

One of my preferred subjects to photograph is of the winged kind. I have always found birds fun to photograph and I thought that I'd post a few of my favourite bird images that I have taken.

I haven't taken many photos lately because I have been busy doing sketchbook work.

Most people find my first bird annoying, but I managed to capture a more... inquisitive look for this bird.

I love how its turned it's head to look at the camera and try and figure out what it is.

The only thing I don't like about this image is that the background is lighter than the foreground and theres not much definition of the seagul against the blue sky.

Here are some cute little duckies!

They are so sweet! This was taken on a really sunny day. I spent the whole day exploring this town near Alton and I found a beautiful park and managed to get some awesome pictures :D

Heres a picture of a jackdaw (I think) :P. It's not very good quality because I was quite far away but I like it anyways.

I love how gothic this image feels with the spiky chain and the shape of the birds wings.

This next one makes me want to shout 'tally ho!'

The image isn't that clear to see, it's two ducks coming into land and I managed to photograph them from a distance and continually capture them until they landed firm on their feet just yards from me. One of them landed wonky and fell over which was funny, it was ok though.

Another jackdaw (I think) Im sure Ruta will let me know if I'm wrong :P

This picture looks better bigger because the details are clearer than when it's small.

I made this picture black and white because I think it really emphasizes the eye.

One more duck image.

Having to capture this moment quickly, the original image was very dark. I had to lighten this image and also replace the original ducks eye with a lighter eye from another duck image. I've cropped it like this because I think it makes the image feel more dramatic and action packed.

Check out these bad boys:

These are the budgies I used to have, they were called Reggie and Stumpy. Awesome.

Swan picture!

This is an unusual picture of a swan, photographers usually photograph them with their heads above water and their necks in a nice curve shape. I thought I would be different an photograph this one like this!

I had to edit the edge of the walkway out of the right hand side of this picture and replace it with water and still keep the right pattern in the water.

The white of the swan is burnt out which isn't great for the picture. But, I'm happy with it just as it is.

I have shown a whole range of bird pictures from my collection. Hopefully, when I next go to a zoo I'll get some funky penguin shots.

Penguins are cool.

I'm going to get on with my assignment now, just an evaluation to write and I should be done!

Thanks for reading!

Toner and Food Colouring

Today at college we did a workshop which included sepia toning, blue toning, scanning a print into the computer and using photoshop to colour it, and using food colouring to selectively add colour to a black and white print. I scanned the images into the computer and saved them to my Pen Drive. However, due to technical problems I cant post the photoshopped image or the food colouring coloured image. I havent scanned the food colouring image in because it was still wet when I wanted to scan it.

The image I used was taken by my grandad about 45 years ago, and is a picture of my dad as a child.

Here is the blue toned image:

To blue tone this image I soaked the original print and then put it into a tray of blue toner. When the image was as blue as I liked, I removed it from the blue toner tray and put it into the sink to wash in the water. After ten minutes I used a drying machine with rollers to dry the image and above is the final result.

Here is the sepia toned image:

To sepia tone this image I put the original print into the soak tray, and then I put it into the bleach tray and took it out when the image was just starting to disappear. Then I put it into the sepia toner until the image reappeared as a sepia image. Finally, I put it into the sink to wash.

:D.

Another picture of a child that I have taken, is one of a girl called Grace who I have been photographing frequently since she was born. She is the child of my friends mum and was very tiny when I first started photographing her. This is one of my star images:

I have recently developed a keen interest of black and white photography, probably because I have started to work in the darkroom more and I have learnt more about the processes involved in printing an image. However, this picture was taken digitally and I used the levels tool in Photoshop to get the effect I wanted.

I have come to Plymouth for the weekend to spend time with my boyfriend who has moved here to go to university. As we were walking through the shopping centre we walked past an inclosed studio where photographers were photographing babies for the baby of the year competition. I can't wait until I set up my own business and can do things like this :). Also, when I was in town I picked up some white jeans that only cost me £1! bargain!

This is the end of today's post.
Thanks for reading!

The Man In Uniform

I printed the image today of the man in uniform, it wasn't my grandad in the picture. But it was a soldier. Here is the picture:





















I havent done much photography work today, I need to finish writing up my sketchbooks for my projects, so I wont be posting a long post today. I just wanted to show this picture :D
Today my class experimented in the studio with lights and umbrellas, we got some good shots and I got to play with the medium format camera, which was good because I want to start using medium format more in my work.
I'm going to go and do some coursework now while I'm inspired to do so.
Thanks for reading!

The Mysterious Film, Exposed?

Phew, I just tried to post this and it was taking ages and I thought it might mess up so I quickly copied all the txt and then the page came up saying server down but thankfully it had copied my text. I've just got to re upload my images..

Today, I processed the mystery film that I found in a canister. At first, I didn't think it would fit on the spiral but I was lucky and it did. I processed it as a 400 ISO film and luckily it came out ok. Bear in mind, this film is around 50 years old and was taken by my grandad while he was in the army.

The images show many of the old fire engines that were used in the war, also, some motorbikes and a Land Rover. There is another image of a person standing in uniform which I will print tomorrow at college.
Here are the images that I printed today, one of the negatives has different exposures because the camera that was used had to be wound on by hand and the spacing had to be estimated by the photographer. I will print the man in uniform tomorrow and post it here tomorrow night.

This is a picture of the fire engines that were used in the war! My Grandad was in the fire brigade which explains why there are engines here. There are also some motorcycles that were used in the war! This film was a fabulous find! it was over 50 years old and still processed fine! yay.

Here is another image from the film:

The men in the background are all in uniform and theres some text on the side of the landrover, I can only make out the word 'services' on it though.

I think I know where I got my photography genes from too! :D

The Studio.

Today I had a photoshoot with a girl who I know from North Devon, we had a great afternoon taking pictures and photographing different stereotypes. I photographed her as a secretary, a chav, a party animal and an Emo/Scene person. I have only edited a couple of pictures but I'll post one from each stereotype here.

Secretary.

I quite like this picture, it has grown on me in the last hour. Lol. Looking at it now, I realise I need to tidy her hair up abit. I hope you like it! I used the High key option with Color Efex Pro.

Chav.

This shows my friend as a chav smoking a cigarette with her hand on her hip. We shot many pics of her with an annoyed facial expression to help bring out the chav in her. I really like her pose.

Emo/Scene Person.

I like her pose in this one too, her legs look good and I like the composition. I boosted the colours to make her stand out more.

Party Girl.

I think her pose is great for this stereotype. I boosted the colours in this one to make it more vibrant.

I had a great time today in the studio, I didn't have a lead to join my camera to the lights so I had to use my flash to set the lights off which left a shadow in some of the pictures. In the end I decided to just use continuous light and had the model stand close to the lights and far from the backdrop to stop any shadows.

Awesome Day!