Unit 2 - Life Cycle

Unit 2 - Life Cycle

Encounters, Experiences and Meetings Moodboard

One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine

Encounters, Experiences and Meetings Mindmap

Evaluation

Evaluation

This project involved exploring the theme of 'light'. I considered the different ways light can be used, different sources of light and how it can be represented. I started by looking at the work of Pablo Picasso, Bill Brandt and Patrick Rochon. Picasso's work inspired me to create my own light drawings. Picasso would use the light and direct it towards the camera to create different drawings. I decided to experiment with creating my own like Picasso's.
I used the software called glow doodle to experiment with light drawings. It was done interactively using a webcam. I thought of two ways of experimenting with light in glow doodle. The first was pointing the light source directly at the camera to draw the image. The second was by pointing the light source away from the camera and towards an object at different angles.


I then light drawings using a digital camera. I set the digital camera to the light tripod setting, this allowed me to take an image on a slow shutter speed. Even though the shutter was only open for a few seconds, that was enough time to draw some images and patterns. I took my idea further by using two torches that were covered in tissue paper, this made the images appear in different colours. Using some of the images I had created I edited them in Photoshop. I overlayed 3 images, 2 being the wings and the other being a halo. The outcome of my experiment was an angel. 


I used software such as photo shop to create light paintings. I found it hard to do them at first as I was not that familiar with some of the techniques in Photoshop. However as I created more of them I found it easy to do all the steps. In my opinion I think that they don't look realistic or look like light drawings but I do understand that they have the same effect. 
I explored different forms of light such as synthetic lighting being torches and lasers, and natural lighting such as sunlight, natural fires. I took some of my own photos of sparklers, sunlight through tress, settled snow in an early morning and candlelight. 


Using and SLR camera I took some still life pictures. The objects were bits and bobs that has reflective surfaces. I changed the angle of the light so that the light reflected off different objects in different ways. I liked experimenting with the light and positioning of the objects to create a range of images. 


I found researching the different types of lighting such as soft lighting, hard lighting and back lighting, helped me as I now have an understanding of the different types of lighting and how it can improve my techniques and skills. 

Portraits

Digital Portraits

I experimented with using studio lighting to achieve some portraiture photos. I only took close ups of the face to make the images look more dramatic. Once I had taken them I edited them in Photoshop by desaturating them and changing the contrast.

Candles

 Candles 

I took some images of candles to show synthetic forms of light. I used my 14 mega pixel Fujifilm JX530 digital camera to take these pictures. I Then edited some of them in Photoshop by Overlaying as a new layer some light drawings and coloured filters. 

I edited this image in Photoshop by adding a new layer of coloured light over the original image. I change the layer mode to screen so that the colours came out vibrant but without distracting away from the main image.

In Photoshop I opened the candle image and a light drawing image. I put the light drawing as a new layer on top of the candle image.  I changed the layer mode so that you could see both the candle and the light drawing. 

Sparklers

Christmas

I used my digital camera to take pictures of sparklers. I set my camera on the firework setting as it has a slow shutter speed. The firework setting only has a shutter of about 3 seconds which meant I didn't have enough time to draw anything specific other than circles.

This was the first image I took. I was experimenting with the different settings on the camera  to see what the different outcomes were. I set my camera to the firework setting so that it had a slow shutter speed.

As it was set on the firework setting this meant that the shutter could stay open for longer. By moving the sparker around these are the different outcomes I produced.

This is my favourite image because the light flares fill the whole composition space.