Shooting Plan : First Film

3D Photoshop Effect

original photograph

3D photograph outcome

step by step guide is here.

This was inspired by two artists. I decided to pick the skeleton photograph inspired by Carsten Witte and the 3D effect was inspired by Brad Carlile. I think that this 3D effect works particularly well with the skeleton makeup as it makes it look more interesting and 'ghostly'. I also think that it works with my two chosen themes - 'movement + light' and also 'inner character'.

Another example-

Carsten Witte

Carsten Witte is a 48 year old photographer who attended the Bielefeld school of photography. He really experiments with the use of shadows in his photographs. The photograph mainly relates to the starting theme of the five senses, however I think that it also relates well to the inner character theme. 

This photograph is very different from work I've seen before, as it incorporates the skeleton into the photograph. I created my own version below using makeup, but this one looks like it could be either double exposure with an image of a skull, or could have been drawn on to the model - either on set or edited in. I think that this would be an interesting photograph to add the 3D photography effect to. This photograph is from a collection titled 'Intuition', which features several photographs of women with this skeletal effect. What is interesting about this series, is that the skeleton art work is only on their faces, rather than continuing onto the rest of their bodies. 

"One main idea behind my work is the belief that everything is constantly changing but photography can preserve the moment. Beauty is almost nothing without the knowledge of how fast it will fade..."

 With these images, I feel like there is a juxtaposition between the innocence of the models - the fact that their hair is away from the face, and that they are not clothed, with the harshness of the skeleton pattern on their faces. I like how these shots are all close up head shots, as it creates a flow within the series, showing that there are similarities between each photograph, rather than just the skeletal features, as the models are different in every picture. With the harsh lighting, there are lots of shadows created, and the face has a strong contour to it. The lighting almost creates distortions to the face which is an interesting technique and something that wouldn't be too difficult to recreate myself. The use of the black background is interesting as the model's face appears to fade into the background, with the use of the lighting. 

Overall, I personally really like these images and I think that they are effective and unique. Although they are mainly related to the theme of the five senses, I think that they can relate to portraiture/inner character also, and in some ways they could also relate to my other chosen theme of movement and light, due to the extreme lighting conditions. 

For my personal experiments, I used black eyeliner and eyeshadow to create this skull effect. Although it doesn't quite replicate the work of Carsten Witte, I think that it works well. I think that to improve this, I should have used harsher lighting to create the effect of shadows and distortion.

my own experimentations :

black and white

colour

creating an effect similar to the original photographs.

Eve Arnold

Eve Arnold (April 21, 1912 - January 4, 2012) was an American photojournalist who is best known for her photographs of many of the iconic figures who shaped the second half of the twentieth century, including Marilyn Monroe (pictured above). She has also photographed people such as migrant workers and disabled Vietnam war veterans, so there is a range of styles throughout her work. The majority of her work is black and white, however in the early 1960s when she moved to London, England and was working for The Sunday Times, she began to make use of colour photography more and more. I personally really love her work, especially her collection of photographs of Marilyn Monroe as I think that they really capture her expression and mood at the time. The photograph above was taken behind the scenes on the set of The Misfits (1961). Although the photograph is in black and white, it still captures the details of the image. I also particularly like how Marilyn is the only thing in focus in this image, as it makes the viewer think about the setting and what it is and where she is - I think that this is an interesting technique that Arnold has used. 

This photograph doesn't seem too posed either. It looks like it was taken when she was walking, or just looked up to the camera, rather than the photograph being set up and staged. It appears more natural which I think is something to think about when taking my own photographs. The black and white effect also adds to this. These photographs really work with the 'inner character' theme as you get to see her as herself, even though she is dressed to play the part of somebody else. In this photograph (and the collection as a whole also) the lighting is very soft, which again makes the photograph seem more natural, because if the lighting was harsh and bright, the photographs would seem staged, as if the artist had spent a long time setting up the outfit, setting, lighting, camera angle etc... instead of it being a snapshot. Snapshot photography also makes it work look more like photographs that are taken for memories rather than a magazine or a portfolio - which, again, makes them appear more natural. 

I think that it would have been interesting to take pictures of the same actor/actress but over a long period of time where they're in different costumes for different roles, as you would be seeing the same person in each of the pictures, but they would look different in all of them. It would also be an interesting way of documenting their time on set when they were being filmed. It would also be showing all of the different types of roles that they portrayed in that time frame of their career. 

Throughout the collection, the artist has used different camera angles for different picture. For example, the photograph shown above is a portrait from the waist up, but there is also quite a bit of space above her head. In the first photograph below, it is a close up, and the background is dark so that you only see Marilyn (I also like how in this photograph, her hair appears to be fading into the darkness as this makes the photograph seem more dramatic and perhaps even slightly gothic). 

I think that inner character is an interesting theme to explore and I plan to combine it with the movement + light theme to create a unique final outcome. If I were to recreate photographs like this, I would perhaps double exposure the image with colourful lights, such as fairy lights, to combine both the black and white portrait with the colourful light (perhaps using the bokeh technique). Overall, I think that this collection is very inspirational for work that I want to create for this project. 




More photographs from the same collection:

Inner Character

• Why have you selected this starting point?

I selected this starting point as after experimenting with portraiture and self portraiture in the previous project, I decided that I wanted to continue it in some way for this exam theme. I'm thinking about combining this theme with the movement + light theme also.

• What are you planning to look at for primary/secondary research?

Take photographs / contextual research .

• Which artists/designers will you be looking at (you must select a minimum of 3 from the theme)

Eve Arnolds, Bruce Davidson and also Inzajeano Latif.

• What materials/techniques would you like to experiment with? 

Double exposure.

• Which experiment(s) are you planning to make?

Experimenting with colours and how they affect the images.

Movement + Light Digital Experiments

Brad Carlile

Brad Carlile is a contemporary photographer, who is most well known for his extreme use of colour in his photographs, such as the one above. His photographs almost have a 3D effect, which is something that I'd like to try and recreate and experiment with in my own photographs. The extreme use of colour is interesting and grabs the attention of the viewer. It appears unnatural yet it is appealing to the eye. In this photograph (as well as the other photographs from his collection), there appears to be some use of double exposure, if you look at the chair. This could be because of a slow shutter speed when using the different lighting, or he could have just used double exposure to create an interesting effect. 

In a lot of his photographs from this collection, he uses a mirror to show the rest of the image. I think that the use of the mirror is important as it reflects more light - rather than just taking the picture of the bed. It also makes the room appear bigger and more colourful, and we can also see more of the room. It's almost like an illusion. The photographs are from a collection titled Neon Hotel Interiors, and there are several different styles of interiors, but they still all have the interesting lighting - making them relatable. 

"Each image takes two or three days to create from three to nine exposures at different times of the day. All work is done in camera on film and no colored bulbs or gels are used" 

Although these photographs are dramatic, intense and bold, I feel like they are still quite simplistic in what is actually in the photograph. They would be quite easy to recreate as the room is fairly normal. If you were creating it in camera, you could use different coloured lights, and if you were creating it in photoshop, you could add in colours and change the layer types so that they look more 'natural'. 

I also really like how in the room, although there are several lamps/lights, only one is turned on (in the mirror reflection). This brings a warmer glow to the photograph and makes the setting appear more real, even though there are lots of strong and vibrant colours everywhere. 

Overall, I personally really like his artwork. I think that the use of colour is interesting as well as unique, and can make a fairly boring and basic setting detailed and will captivate the viewers' attention. I think that you could incorporate this technique into any setting, and change the colours if you wanted a particular theme or make it reflect the surroundings in the photograph. I think that it is an interesting new way to do light painting, rather than just photographing traffic at night on a slow shutter speed, or using a laser pen to draw or spell out words. It is something that I am interested in recreating myself, and perhaps even going on to explore 3D photography. 

It would also be interesting to experiment with different settings using this effect, and perhaps even looking at portraiture with either just the model with all of the colours or just the setting. I think that it would also be worth experimenting with different colour palettes - perhaps one using bold colours and the other using just pastels, or something like that. 

More photographs from the collection:

Movement + Light

• Why have you selected this starting point?

I chose to start exploring the movement + light theme, as I have a strong interest in experimenting with light painting and how light can affect and enhance images.

• What are you planning to look at for primary/secondary research?

Take photographs / contextual research.

• Which artists/designers will you be looking at (you must select a minimum of 3 from the theme)

Wolfgang Tillmans, Uta Barth and Brad Carlile.

• What materials/techniques would you like to experiment with? 

Double Exposure, Light Painting and 3D Photography.

• Which experiment(s) are you planning to make?

A collection of double exposed photographs that influence light painting into portraiture / self-portraiture, experimenting in the dark room with perhaps solarisation. 

Exam Moodboard

1) Eve Arnold
2) Brad Carlile
3) Christopher Maloney
4) Jasper James
5) Carsten Witte
6) Uta Barth

Exam Theme : Inside, Outside + Inbetween