nikitacogc

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Moving Image - Irn Bru

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Architecture - City of Glasgow College

exterior:

interior:

photoshop: 

before:

after:

contact sheet:

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Architecture Evaluation

This project involved photographing architectural structures and getting the right perspective of the building in shot and then optimising it on RAW using lens correction or perspective correction. I found the optimising interesting as I got to learn about the lens correction and perspective correction on RAW for the first time.

I researched photographers by the name of Nicéphore Niépce, William Henry Fox Talbot and Markus Brunetti who all have photographs of architectural structures. These photographers influenced my structure images with how they shot buildings outside. Example of this could be to leave some free space around the building before shooting and shoot from a tripod.

I enjoyed using the tripod to shoot my images as I could adjust the height of the stand to be taller than me to get a better perspective shot of the building.

I think the optimising side of this brief was successful as I could make my images of the college building look correctly straight and use a lens correction to fix distortion.

I think some of my interior shots where a problem at first with my first shoot, but I took multiple shots of each room afterwards to give me a bigger contact sheet of images for my final 5.

If given the chance to do this brief again then I would photograph a different building. A smaller building that’s simpler looking than the college building as there was too much in the way and the building is massive to try fir everything in frame so I would like to try capturing easy small buildings to frame better just as a starter in Architecture photography.

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Structure - different ways to correct different distortions

By taking a few steps back and keeping the same lens on your camera, you will either reduce or take care of distortion issues completely. On the negative side, more of the environment will be included in the image. If you switch to a longer lens, the relationship between the foreground and the background will change and if you are forced to move back, it will also trigger a change in perspective. As a result, your photo might get a completely different look and feel to it than originally intended. 

Choosing the Lens Corrections option under Photoshop`s filter drop-down menu is often the first thing that comes to mind. The correction is pretty similar if you use Lightroom or Adobe Camera RAW.

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Architecture Research Task

examples of early architectural photography:

The first permanent photograph, View from the Window at Le Gras by Nicéphore Niépce, was also the first architectural photograph as it was a view of buildings. Similarly, photographs taken by early photographer William Henry Fox Talbot were of architecture, including his photograph of a Latticed window in Lacock Abbey taken in 1835. 

Original plate (left) and colorized reoriented enhancement (right). The photo was found to be taken at his home from a second-story south-facing bedroom window.

Niépce captured the scene with a Camera Obscura projected onto a 16.2 cm × 20.2 cm pewter plate thinly coated with bitumen of Judea, a naturally occurring asphalt.

The Camera Obscura Niépce used, differs from a traditional analogue 35mm or digital equivalent SLR because it had a completely different printing/developing  process method.  A very long exposure in the camera was required. Sunlight strikes the buildings on opposite sides, suggesting an exposure that lasted about eight hours, which has become the traditional estimate. A researcher who studied Niépce's notes and recreated his processes found that the exposure must have continued for several days. 

If working with a DSLR to capture architecture, using a wide lens or standard 18mm - 55mm is good enough to capture the whole building. 

Markus Brunetti

Brunetti exhaustively photographs each architectural detail close up, from small stone sculptures flanking a stained glass window to richly carved doors. And he can spend up to an entire year taking thousands of high-resolution frames of one subject.

Siena, Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta, 2008–2017.

Brunetti would try to take these images at 5 or 7 in the morning so there's barely anyone around to ruin the scene.  And he can spend up to an entire year taking thousands of high-resolution frames of one subject. 

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Personal Project Evaluation

This Personal Project brief was an opportunity for me to have freedom of my own creativity at making images I would be happy submit for grading. I decided to do my project based on surrealism with fruit. I was extremely inspired by a Japanese graphic designer and art director named Yuni Yoshida, who has a series of surreal imagery work on their website. I was also inspired by some stock photographers who created some simple surrealism work involving food as well. Another reason I choose this type of photography work was because I developed a lot of photoshop skills this year and I felt it would be good to show that in my personal project for the end of this first year in HND.

So, the action plan was simple. I had drawn different types of fruit combos I wanted to composite on photoshop, so I had a rough idea of what I wanted the final image to look like. Then I had to draw a diagram of what lighting type I would like my fruits to be captured in (this would stay the same throughout the shoot to have accurate lighting on the composite) and then find out fruit prices from chosen store, then capture the fruits in studio, optimise them and then output to Tumblr and submit to MyCity. Some positive aspects from this were seeing that my drawn work come out well on Photoshop during compositing. A good example of this was creating the Pineapple Ukulele which was an idea I had originally came up with months back but hadn’t done it until now. Another positive one was deciding to use my pink and blue backdrop nearer the end of the project as I felt it gave those images a proper realistic look with the shadows and reflection of the fruit sat on the backdrop. I gained some knowledge of different types of fruits that would look good composited together and how texture of each chosen fruit is very important to keep in focus when shooting.

In conclusion to this project experience, I think it went very well in the pre-production, production and post-production side. I knew what I wanted from the beginning which helped me get from A to Z instantly. The studio helped me achieve my images and my past post-production photoshop classes helped me composite ten final images to submit. Improvements for next time will be more planning as this was a simple concept that I got out the way too quickly. I hadn’t realised background choices or colours which did make it difficult when optimising on Photoshop. If I had realised sooner to use my blue and pink backdrop, all my images would look just that bit better for showing them together to look like they were part of a series but only a few looks like that and some look out of place from the others which is a lesson learned for next time to improve my images more.

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Graded Unit: final 10

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Graded Unit: getting ready to print

I have changed the printing store to Deadly Digital because it is a lot cheaper than The Print Space and plus student discount is available at Deadly Digital. 

Starting of with resizing my images and putting them onto a white canvas to create a border for each image. 

Then filling in the online form to get my images to Deadly Digital for printing. I choose A3, Brilliant Matt Plus paper type for all five images because I preferred that paper out of the others when viewing the Paper type book by Deadly Digital. 

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Graded Unit: third shoot images

banana and kiwi composite: 

composite working:

lemon and lime composite: 

composite working: 

contact sheet:

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Approach essay and plan

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Graded Unit: 2nd Shoot composites

photoshop: 

contact sheet:

Next composite:

contact sheet: 

photoshop:

selected the part of the kiwi I wanted to use and then painted that selected area in the same green it has to make it look like its going through the apple. 

adjusting brightness and contrast

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Graded Unit: third shoot plan

Inspiration:

Things I will need:

•Kiwi + Banana

•Lemon + Lime

•blue + pink backdrop

•clips, tape, reflectors and blue tack

•Paring knife to cut the fruit

*cutting board 

*containers to store the cut fruit afterwards

•Camera (Canon 6D), 24mm - 105mm lens, SD memory card, tripod and a stand for reflector

Lighting plan: side lighting (left and right)

prices of the fruits I will need to buy for this shoot: 

Kiwi - 40p (large)

Banana - 78p 

Lemon - 30p 

Lime - 18p

All according to Sainsbury's fruit price list. 

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Graded Unit: 2nd Shoot Plan

for 03/05/2022. I plan to composite two objects together to create a surreal image.  

I have a ukulele that I will replace the body of with a pineapple. I plan to do this in the studio using the studio lights and gear. I’ll have the pineapple sliced in half first then lay it flat on the ground and match that with the ukulele too. Then have a soft box light coming from above the objects as well. 

Also if i have more time after that shoot, I want to create a floating fruit look with wire and string - this is to experiment and bring a new idea into the scene. 

This will require string, wire, wire cutter and chosen slices of fruit. I want to use a honeycomb grid light for this and also reflectors if needed.

Inspiration behind this plan:

https://youtu.be/cTpQ_JCZBbA

Prices of fruit:

Pineapple (large): £1.50

Pomegranate: £1.25

Apple: 30p

Orange: 50p

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Graded: first composites

contact sheet:

photoshop:

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Unseen: captured images

contact sheet:

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Graded unit: quick sketches