Tutor’s feedback for Assignment 3

My Tutor’s feedback was very good!  He liked my work!

Shaun Mullins – 512659 – Photography 1 Context & Narrative – Assignment 3 (1)

I went on holiday and had to wait until my return before I knew what he thought of my work and if I had to re-do any of it.

I was happy to learn that my assignment had been successful with only advisories that he suggested that I could do to improve the pictures.

I had complained that I could not obtain a true black-and-white with my Canon printer and that Canon was unable to help as they will always use the colours in the mix even for grey-scale only images; so Clive my Tutor has suggested that I deliberately add a colour cast similar in practice to Ansel Adams.  Clive suggests using a slight blue purple hint to the images and advised that this could be achieved using the Black-and-White feature in the Layers and ticking tint and clicking on the tint box to bring up the colour menu.  Type 257 as the value for Hue and 3% for saturation.

He also suggested some adjustments in Levels to improve the images.

Image 1# for example, Clive suggests that I darken the bottom left corner in order to prevent drawing the eye towards it.

 

This is my new version which I hope is closer to Clive’s idea.

This again needed more work, Clive notice a dark line at the top right of the image that I had missed and I wasn’t happy with the cross that I wanted in the image, it was too faint.

This is with the new adjustments made in Photoshop using the cloning tool and the dodge-and-burn tool.

This next image Clive suggested the shadow behind Sarah should be softened for better separation.

He is right of course and I think that this is a better version.

Image 4# was a little too dark.

This is the new adjustment.

This was not my favourite image and I have struggled to improve it as Clive suggests.  I need more Photoshop experience.

Image 5# Clive complains that the composition is too tight with the edge of the box too close to the edge.

Unfortunately I do not have anther photo that offers more space and this would require reshooting; so all I can do is add the tint.

Image 6# Clive complained was too dark.

I hope that this is an improvement.

Adjustments made in Photoshop, Layers, Levels.

Image 7# This image Clive felt was okay.

I have just altered the tint.

Image 8# Clive suggested that the background was similar in tone to the hands.

This is my new version.

The last image that Clive critiqued was both for composition and exposure.  My hand should be more central and the focus of the picture and my shoulder is too bright, so drawing the eye away from the subject.

My solution was to choose another image and make some adjustments in curves in Lightroom before finishing in Photoshop.

This I hope is better.

 

 

Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema

I learned about the existence of this essay from a text-book I read a few weeks ago (Reading Photographs by AVA Publications) whilst on holiday and thought it useful to get a copy and read it for myself.

Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema by Laura Mulvey has only recently been published as a book accompanied by an illustrated essay by  Rachel Rose.  This essay has apparently been very influential in the world of cinema since it’s first publication in ‘Screen’ 1975.  So I thought it important to read it.

The essay discusses a similar argument to John Berger in his famous ‘The Way of Seeing’ regarding how woman have been used in the arts and media as sexual voyeuristic objects. that employed and seen on the movie screen.  Mulvey goes on to argue that women on the cinema screen represent castration due to their lack of the male sexual organ and also objects of desire by way of their glamour.  Mulvey suggests that the audience is encouraged to become voyeurs by the the theater that puts them in the dark; so that they can feel that they can look in private.  She also goes on to consider the ideas of voyeurism that she believes has been explored by the great Hollywood Directors, Sternberg and Hitchcock, in their movies, Morocco and Dishonored by Sternberg and ‘Vertigo’, ‘Rear Window’ and ‘Marnie’.  Much of Mulvey’s essay is now regarded as out of date regarding how women are now portrayed in modern films (by Mulvey’s own admission as a footnote).

A small book of about only 30 readable pages, interesting and I am sure that if I didn’t read it now I would find myself reading it later in my degree course.

 

Exercise-Project-2-Masquerades-Childhood memories

In this exercise I have created an image to represent a childhood memory.  I have based the idea of this project on Roland Barthes theory of mythology.  It struck me that our memories are a form of myth.  Our memories are never quite as they really were.  We recall through rose-tinted-glasses, our childish imaginings were myths both good and bad. My memory is of being scared of the dark as a child, particularly after having watched a scary episode of Dr. Who.  I was most scared of the Cyber-men and I recall dreaming of being chased and caught by the Cyber-men, I would hide under the bedclothes and peek out and being afraid of the shadows.  The myths of the Bogieman, monsters, ghosts and goblins haunted my dreams and imaginings to such an extent that as a very young child I could not go to sleep unless a light was left on in my room.

D-800e, 24-120 f/4 @24mm, 1/125, f/11, ISO-6400, WB-Auto.  One remote speedlight operated via Pocket Wizard, converted to grey-scale in Lightroom and cropped.

I planned this idea out first on paper, putting my thoughts down which helped me quickly find an idea.  My thoughts initially were the usual happy memories of sunshine and ice-cream; but as I considered the theme of myth and I considered the darker side of childhood fancies.  The final product was converted to black-and-white as I felt that this made the image more dark and sinister, I also was not concerned about high ISO for this image because the grainier the image appears the better to imply a memory.