My Visual Logbook

I went back over my images to further refine them. I wanted them to look as coherent as possible. I had previously adjusted the curves and although they looked the same, I wasn't happy with them as they lacked the warmth I wanted them to have. After Jame's lecture this morning on adjusting certain colours hue's by selecting them, I used this technique to go back and try again with my images. I edited them side by side so I could easily see the changes against each other as I went. I brought the original warmth back into the image, and brought the saturation of the green down slightly.

When trying to keep a good level of coherence within my images I wanted to experiment with these two images to see if I can get the blues to match and for it to look realistic. I think altering the luminace of the blue in the second image changes the image quite drastically.

Today I experimented with putting my images into professional contexts to see how they would look. The first mock up works better and looks more realistic. I think the image works well in that context, its more plain than some of my others which is the reason I chose it for toyshop as the majority of their advertising is shot on a plain background when in the studio. I chose to aim the second mock up at Zara because its where the styling came from, I don't think it looks as authentic, but that is maybe because of the large scale of the billboard and it isn't really something Zara would do.

I experimented with the combination of a GIF and stills over the weekend.  I really like the border and repetition of the same image. This was my first attempt. I think it came out okay, but you can see where the background colour changes really clearly, so I plan to try again later and see if I can rid of this by editing the original stills.

I found JH Zane on Instagram after they came up as a sponsored post on one of my friends phones and they thought it would be relevant to me. What I found I liked most was their short moving image pieces;  I've still got to edit together my moving image from my Diversity brief, and was planning on doing this monday in our workshop on creating gifs and cinemagraphs, however I wanted to try out this as the combination of still and moving really appeals to me.

Links for the clips:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BPHaMmMh2ds/?taken-by=jh.zane&hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/p/BNPrhEGhXqW/?taken-by=jh.zane&hl=en

Lazy Oaf is another brand who's fashion stories containing gifs I thought worked really well. Again, its the combination of both still and and moving image which I want to experiment with.

They use these GIFs as part of editorials to add another aspect other than flat stills, something I really like as its understated but still creates another dimension for the stories to sit in. They're so simple; literally an infinite loop of two images but together with the speed and in combination with the still for the first example, and the fact its such a subtle movement in the second that it still works as a still.

Today I printed my final three images for the Diversity now brief in preparation for my show and tell crit on Thursday. I am really happy with these three and how they work together as a set. My main inspiration came from Mark Sanders and his series 'Contours' even though I ended up not using nude images, I think you can see the visual references and in todays 1 to 1with Matt, he asked if I had looked at Elad Lassry, even though I hadn't in relation to this set of images, he is one of my influences throughout my work and I like that that comes through any of the work I produce.

Matt looked through all of my work which I plan to submit and said it looked very coherent and he could see my visual style coming through. The only thing I was worried about was my essay but he has given me some confidence behind my written work too. I came out of my tutorial very happy and confident that I can submit a good bulk of work that I am proud of.

Tonight I shot the final images for my diversity now brief. I used a friend of a friend as a model as I thought she really embodies diversity and has an alternative take on beauty.

I really liked the blue from my previous experiment and it worked really well again with the idea of body form more so than the darker purple or the yellow.

The close crop of my images is partly because I was using paper backgrounds which were limited in size, at A2. I had this same problem with the final images which I used for my rough cut brief.
However, I do really like the crop and I shoot alot of the time with a 50mm lens which means I have a similar crop throughout my work.

The brief asks for 1-4 images, I plan to submit three, of the same model, because they work really well together. I will adjust the blues so that they match too.
I'm really happy with these images and I had today marked as my last day to shoot any images for my three projects, and I've definitely got enough to work with, its a nice relief that I can now focus on getting everything ready for submission and focus on my written work too, including the essay.

On sunday I shot an experiment for my diversity brief. I used a model which had quite a bony body shape, something which I thought could look quite abstract and show how bodies are different. These are the best two outcomes from the shoot, I like them, but think I can produce far better quality of work and hope to do this tonight in the studio. I shot these at home infront of a window using natural light and a A1 paper backdrop.

I took these to my workshop this afternoon, where we presented our work to the rest of the group and got technical feedback. Things brought up were the model looked cold, and you could see hairs. I didn't photoshop these to the highest standard because I wasn't happy with them, but I didn't think the tiny hairs were a problem as it was showing diversity and I'm not going to photoshop every tiny hair out so she looks like a stereotypical model on the front of a magazine because that wasn't the point.

The technical feedback I received for my other briefs was overall quite positive, some I didn't agree with but they were suggestions and its nice to know other peoples opinions.

I found Nadav Kander's faceless portraits for the Samaritans We Listen Campaign commissioned by communications agency MullenLowe on Its Nice That. I really like the angle which the portraits are shot from, and the coloured backgrounds. The campaign also demonstrates diversity with the idea that depression and suicidal thoughts aren't ageist, sexist, or racist.

I want my set of images to have some personality within them, as well as documenting the diversity of the model. I plan to shoot from different angles of the face as well as from behind like these, and just of the models arm where she has tattoos. I think an image like this would work really nicely within a set of three or four images, where other shots display other parts of the body and the models face.

After shooting one of my final sets of images for the first brief I tried to match them up with a landscape to see how they work together and what adjustments need to be made. After matching the tones with one image, it will become easier to do this step by step with the remaining ones. I'm really happy with the outcome of these and how they look together; putting them side by side with a landscape completes the image in a  way and I can see the pairs together in an editorial for a fashion brand or in a magazine.

I'm at the final stages of my first brief and all thats left to do is to make my images look more consistent as a series, and doing this by very subtly adjusting the curves. Its quite a time consuming process for such subtle adjustments as trying to get images I took on different days, months apart in different conditions to look the same is more difficult than I first expected. Despite this, I'm happy with my progress and excited to see how they all look in the end.

After my 1 to 1 with Andi I realise that I now need to go through all my images for the first brief to adjust the curves very slightly so that the tones all match and are much more coherent. I started with the two portraits below and theres a before and after. They look much better and I didn't realise how different they really were until you put them side by side and see the difference between before and after. I plan to go through all my images like this so that they match better than before.

James' lecture today was on beauty. I think I gained some knowledge and it made me question a few things about my own practice, which I can write about in my 3000 word essay. The main topic that stuck with me was my stance on my practice and how Taste fits within in.

Where do I stand within the spectrum of wanting to take cool images because they're cool rather than to actually mean anything, and having meaning behind them?

I take pictures because I think it looks good or for a purpose other than to have any signifiant meaning behind it. My commercial practice is totally fashion based and I do not mind producing apparent 'meaningless' images as long as people look at them and appreciate them for being 'beautiful'? I question the word beautiful because beauty is based on taste, and as James argued today, who dictates what is good taste and what is bad?

What I think is good taste will be very different from what the next person argues good taste is, unless they agree with me, then they will have good taste, too. But only in my opinion.

I turned to one of my close friends who explained her opinion in terms of design, and showed me a very inspiring video which illustrates the idea so well for me.

in terms of design everyone who designs has good taste, its basically on the job application. 'Good taste' is your eye for design; your ability to tell if something works or if something doesn't.
It doesn't matter if its a picture of a tomato or of a dog and you dont like tomatoes or dogs, you can still tell if it works; if the composition is there or if the colours are saturated enough. A good designer, (or photographer I think) can differentiate between the good and the bad qualities, and not allowing their personal opinions to get in the way of their critiquing work.
People say art is subjective which is true in a way, but as a designer you have to be objective to be able to remove personal opinions when viewing others work.
This makes total sense to me because thats what tutors do when they see students work.

colours are emotional contagegent within artwork. for example inside out, the colours reflect the feelings, joy is yellow, fear is purple, sadness is blue, anger is red, disgust is green.

The video below illustrates taste and how designers have to work to be able to demonstrate theirs to its full potential.
The idea that your work kills you because your taste strives for you to do better, and that the only way of rectifying this is to keep working because by going through a large volume of work you close the gap between frustration and ability. I love that idea so much; its really helped me to understand the process of learning too as its putting words to my frustrations. It will be really helpful for me to include this in my essay about the process of learning.

I have previously seen my images as sets of two and three to make sure I am maintaining an aspect of consistency, however for the first time as I have near enough chosen my final 12 apart from one final portrait, I wanted to see them all together in one space to see how they look as a set.

Some are finished and some still need retouching and refining, however as they look now, I am confident that they will work together and that they all look similar enough to be identified as my work. It was useful to put them all in one space as it was much easier to identify where they needed to be adjusted and which ones didn't fit within the set. I now need to go through them individually and adjust the curves very slightly to help them fit better.

Today I hoped to capture a final still life and a portrait for my first brief. I hope to finish this as soon as possible to then be able to focus on my remaining diversity brief.

In our lecture on Tuesday James tasked us with producing a treatment for our new brief. I had made mood boards before and didn't find it very different apart from including some more words and direction to be able to sell my idea and provide more information other than visual.

I found Mark Sanders photography on It's Nice That, his personal project with Charlotte Heal titled 'Contours' combines close up cropped images of the body alongside clothed images, so carefully done that the lines of form match up perfectly and flow completely. I had to look twice when I first saw them because of the cleverness to align them so fluidly. Art director Charlotte Heal describes them as 'their modern take on the nude'. This combination of fashion photography and the human form really inspires me to do something similar for my brief on diversity and the human form. My next post shows my treatment for the brief, demonstrating the aesthetic I am going for and the types of models/styling I plan to use. 

The colour and crop is beautiful and its minimalistic take on the human form is something I hope to speak through my images also.