themanipulatedimagecody

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Reflection

My intention for this project was to capture the feeling of loneliness in an image. Images can tell stories just as well, if not better than words can, but how can you capture an emotion? Inspired by the work of Aristotle Roufanis, I wanted to use the lights of the skyline to invoke a feeling of familiarity. By blanking out the lights of all but a few isolated pinpricks, you create a feeling of isolation, loneliness. A shared experience, and a familiar feeling of solitude.

I am incredibly pleased with the outcome of this project, and I can safely say these are some of the images I am more proud of in both my design and photography portfolio. When I first started this project, with the experimental photo’s, i was unsure i could meet the level of quality I was hoping for. However with a few ‘warm up shoots’, the photo’s were beginning to emerge beutifully. I feel like one of the best decision i made in this project was the change from random windows, to windows with life. This adds a well needed level of intrigue to the images, and invokes more of my intended emotion. I am not just creating the feeling of Isolation, I am capturing it. Sure, the people in these photo’s very well may be happily going about their night. But when they are formatted in this way, it makes them appear lonely to the viewer, as the only light in the sky they are lonely together in an expansive sleeping city, noone to the window next door.

I was also concerned about the editing process. This was the first time i had truly gone for realism in my photo manipulation. My usual style is “clearly fantasy, yet well considered.” These images however were supposed to be as close to realistic as possible, a very daunting challenge, yet one I feel I achieved well.

If I were to do it again? Perhaps I would have simply taken more photos. I am very happy with the results of this project and I wouldn’t want to change the image's design, style, or theme. However, experimenting with more locations or taking more photos at different times to capture more winks of life could only be perceived as a good thing. I feel this work is some of my best, so given more time, I would have loved to have done more.

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Contextual Positioning

So where would this work be viewed? I imagine this work would best be fit for a large exhibition. Much like the extensive street portrait photography of Vivian Myer is displayed alongside one another, capturing different people, stories, and moments throughout history, this range could be the same. Filling a Gallery with a whole cityscape of isolated moments, and dimly lit buildings in the night.

[themanipulatedimagecody]

My Presenation

I like to keep my presentations very simple and with very minimal writing. I believe it is better to speak to the work rather than write large bodies of text no one in the audience will read.

I made a cover I felt captured the essence of my project, and laid out all my images. Every image page displayed all the images it was composed of on one side, with the image in large on the other. I also dedicated a slide to zooming in to highlight intriguing parts of the images.

I also made a brightened version, as last presentation we did, the projector had a very limited dark value range.

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PhotoShoot #5

For the fifth and final Photoshoot, I returned to my original shooting location, the Takapuna Building. After making my other finals and laying them side by side I realized that the styles of the two were distinctly different. I took the same camera on similar settings and took a whole new portrait-orientated set of images of the Takapuna building.

Comping in the man from the original image, I was very pleased to see his light was still on, meaning the only editing required was on the man himself.

This Photo marked the completion of all my Photographs.

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PhotoShoot #4

I returned to both the city locations. The Apartment Complex and the Skytower. In order to take a second set of Photos in hopes of getting some new points of interest.

However, this shoot was a non-success, none of the images weighed up to the originals, and I decided against using them in my final hand in.

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Photoshoot #3

For my third image, I wanted to black out the CBD itself. This would be a very different, and notably more difficult, task than my last two images, which revolved around apparent blocks for two main reasons.

Reason 1: The sheer scale of the image. In an image like this, a far larger number of windows would be required to blackout, not to mention light pollution would be unavoidable.

Reason 2: The sky tower, I knew I wanted the sky tower included in this image as the striking subject of a recognizable tower blacked out would be a unique moment to capture. However, it usually shines like a beacon in the skyline of Aukland, blacking it out the same way as the windows would be impossible.

My Solution was to take an image of the tower in the daytime, under exposed and in the late afternoon, this image would make the sky tower appear dark, but not yet lit. I could then comp this version of the sky tower over the image taken later that same day.

I knew that I wanted life in the lit window, and due to how close it is, I decided to add a cat rather than a person. An animal brooding over a sleeping city.

I tracked down the original Photographer of the cat photo and made sure to get her permission to use the image.

Melnikova, I. (2020). A cat in a bright window in the night. [Deviant Art] Available at: https://www.deviantart.com/phaengris/art/A-cat-in-a-bright-window-in-the-night-843939054.

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Photoshoot 2

My next photoshoot continued the concept of capturing moments of life, and highlighting them I the darkness. Same as the last image, this was supposed to create a sense of loneliness, aswell as develop intrigue in the viewer as to what the individuals stories could be, who they are and why they are awake while the rest of the world slept.

I took this image from Wellsley street car park, and turned off every light that did not include life.

I feel this image was incredibly clear and successful, not just one, but three lights had life, with another more subtle one drawing attention through the vibrant red gleaming from the window.

I feel this image is very clean and well-devised and feels like a natural upgrade from the first one.

[themanipulatedimagecody]

Photoshoot #1

My first proper shoot took place in Takapuna. I se up my Tri-Pod, called the police on a Meth Head harassing people, and started taking photo's at a far low frame rate than was possible before.

Unfortunately it was raining once again, however im not that considered, as I intend to return to this location and I can use that secondary photo to mask out the rain.

I captured a moment of life in one of the upper windows, a man brooding in his window. It was here that a new and important aspect was highlighted to me. The mood I was trying to capture, the lonely contemplation of feeling like you are awake while the rest of the world sleeps, can infact be captured.

I think this project should capture this by highlighting as many of these moment's as possible, perhaps even ONLY turning on these lights.

Regardless as to how exactly I realise this in the other images, for now, I edited this image together and made a temporary final until the next set of images are taken.

[themanipulatedimagecody]

My Call Sheet

The first attempt set some of the ground work, but the photo's were not sufficient, henceforth I would need to set up a Contact Sheet as to what would change that in future.

Most notably, I need a Tri-Pod so I can shoot the Shutter Speed down, eliminating a large amount of the haze, distortion and noise.

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My Location's

Since I would need to return to each location multiple times, I planned out my locations in advance while driving around the city, and getting angles in VR Earth .

These were my Photo locations.

The Takapuna Apartment Tower taken from the car park.

Zest Apartments, taken from Wellsley carpark.

The sky tower, taken from AUT, WE Building.

These locations were chosen because of their sheer size, the amount of life usually present in them, aswell as my accessibility to these locations, to return numerous times.

[themanipulatedimagecody]

Call Sheet Exercise 2

Elements-

Snail

Pink smoke

Building

Graffiti (Multiple Elements)

Clothesline

Figure

Sky

Tower

Street lamp

-Model

Outside natural photo of a girl - can tell from the lighting from her leg 

-Building

roof /floor being edited in

-Lighting

Natural lighting

-Edit

Graffiti edited on top of the building

Washing line from outside

Lamp photos taken from outside in the street and edited on

-Props

Powerline

Pipe on the building

Sky photo being taken during sunset

Building

Castle looking part of the building

Snail

Washing line

Pink smoke

[themanipulatedimagecody]

First Attempt

I wanted to test out this concept in a short and easy way to work out which problems I'll encounter, and what I need to prepare going forward.

I travelled into Takapuna at night and a set of photos of the skyscraper in the center. Some bright, some dark.

I think compiled these together, and painted over all windows but one, to turn off every light. Adding some new floors, spotlights and other edits in post, I created a concept photo.

There is alot to improve on however. Most notably, the grain. The edit is great, but the photo itself is poor quality. To fix this I will bring a tripod from now on. This will allow me to take a photo at a far lower shutterspeed and ISO, which should get rid of the grand bulk of the grain. A little grain is acceptable as it is how we are used to seeing dark imagery, and somewhat adds to the gloomy aesthetic of the image, but not anywhere near this level.

Secondly, in the final images I will have taken the same photo on numerous different nights, this will not only allow me to make the edits appear more authentic, but also increases my chance of getting little tidbits of life within the windows.

Thirdly, even though it is intended, this image is still too dark and I should try and make it slightly lighter going forward.

[themanipulatedimagecody]

Sleeping City Concept

The concept I have decided on is a "sleeping city" concept. The placeholder name playing on the concept of the saying "the city never sleeps" at first glance these images may not seem manipulated, but Paris is never truly this dark.

These photos invoke a sense of loneliness, the idea of a city full of people resting while the quiet few stay up and somber In the windows is an unfamiliar fact but a familiar feeling.

These images were created using a combination of two techniques. Photo Montage and Inpainting.

My plan is to choose 5 or 6 photo locations, and return to them on multiple different nights, at different days of the week. I will combine these images in an attempt to turn off as many lights as possible, and turning some off in post where appropriate.

Two of my inspirations, who I will talk about in greater detail later, are shown below.

Aristotle Roufanis

Nina Nayko

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Call Sheet Exercise

CALL SHEET:

Studio 

- STUDIO lighting Lighting

- Reflectors 

Black background 

-Or green screen we are not sure 

Models 

-Two plus people to help 

Makeup/ hair 

One or more art pieces for post-editing 

Camera

-Batteries spares

-All the essentials   

Photoshop 

-For the art piece 

[themanipulatedimagecody]

Hollow Faces Series

- Images for a Mental Health Campaign, faces and heads made hollow and empty.

Impossible Spaces

- Abstract and impossible spaces, made for Video Game Concept Art.

Fantasy Characters

- Portrait Photography of models, edited to look like fantasy characters for TV Show Concept Art .

Trevor Henderson Type Monsters

- Realistic found footage style Imagery hiding monsters and horrifying creatures lingering in the dark for CreepyPasta / Hoaxes

[themanipulatedimagecody]

Reflection

This assignment offered me with many challenges I was not expecting, which although could be irritating at times, offered me a lot more to learn from than I could have expected.

When I found out that we would be creating a digital artwork this semester, and judged on our ability to use Photoshop, I was very pleased as have worked on Photoshop and other image editing tools much in the past. However, the image bank concept put a unique twist on this.

Much of image manipulation relies on the ability to match the environment of the photos you are editing together, in the past I have always taken photos specifically for these images, considered the color and lighting of the environment, and taken photos that fit the criteria of the artwork I am aiming to create. However with rules in place, that we could only use images from this photo bank, and only use one of our own photos, I had to approach this from a new angle.

Instead of pre planning your images and taking photos to match,this assignment forced you to look through a small image bank, work out which images could be paired together, and devise an artwork from this selection. Because of this my options were greatly restricted, but in design we are taught to allow creativity to flow through restraint, and this project certainly brought that out.

I found creating a unique, purposeful and well made Photo-Montage using these images an oppurtunity to find new solutions to the problems they presented. Utilizing new Artifical Intelligence features and applying those to my work, turning cloudy sky’s into foggy overlays, and duplicating the same images in such a way that they looked different from on another were all new concepts to me, and ones I am proud to say, I feel I accomplished.

I am very happy with my final image, the dreamlike nature of the image, and the story it presents feels like it found a purpose made in the chaos of a photobank built on randomness. And the new skills I have learnt while attempting this assignment will carry my photo- manipulation forward into the future.

Overall, although this assignment could be restrictive at times, I found it very educational and relevant and I am proud of what I have created.

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The Final Edit

In the final edit, I retouched all of the birds, added some new adjustment layers, and most importantly. Adjusted the road to be straight on rather than at a slight angle. As a final touch-up, I frayed the hair of the angels, making them feel more alive and detailed without losing their statue-like feel.

These subtle changes do a lot to make the overall image more clean. and achieve a more complete artwork.