Playing with colour and repetition

Experimental Placement....

Now that I have finished my owl, I want to give it a home. I have and will continue to experiment with different backgrounds and finishing techniques to create an interesting image. With this photo, I have duplicated the owl three times and changed the hue and saturation slightly to give them all individual characteristics, then placed them on an image of a tree which I have previously used as part of my photo joiner shoot. I also used a lens flare filter to create the magical look of fireflies around the three owls. I personally feel that this look doesn't look as professional as I want it to so I will continue to experiment with different backgrounds.

Finished Textured Owl

This is the final image of my 'textured' owl. Since my last post, I have individually edited each layer to adds shadows to add more depth to the leaves/feathers. I also added an overlay to change the colours slightly of each layer slightly so that they worked well together. 

Textured Owl

Today I braved the snow - and hurt myself, badly - in order to take some pictures of natural textures, plants and other useful objects which I envisioned would make up part of an owl. Using a Photoshop tutorial which i have posted the link for in a previous post, I manipulated all of the photos I took to create an illustrated owl character. The image below is what the owl looks like currently, but I need to step back one and focus on the colouring, shadows and special effects of each layer to make it look more 3D and realistic rather than a flat image. Once I have done that, I can then flip the half I am working on to create a full owl like the one below. I will then take the owl and create an interesting and effective background for it to feature in - so I may need to go out again next lesson to collect some more resources/pictures for the rest of the final image:

Developmental Shoot 1 - Work Record - 13/11/12

Plans for the shoot –

My plans for the shoot are to base it around Great Britain (more specifically England) and the military.

On the day of the shoot I plan to come in wearing a green army-style jacket, leather leggings and military boots to reflect a similar outfit which would be worn in the British army, but is also keeping up to date with current fashion trends.

I also have a large Union Jack flag from when I went to the Olympics in the summer, and I have also purchased some Union Jack lip tattoos to wear for the shoot. I will be using the flag in various ways to show how much the army/military means to Great Britain

I plan to use the studio for this shoot and it will either be mostly or completely self-portrait work. I may also take some photos on location around the college to use and edit together with my studio work.

What I hope to achieve –

What I hope to achieve by completing this shoot is something that will symbolise and represent all things British and more specifically, the British Army.

Also, as I am personally quite a self-conscious person who doesn’t like there photo being taken, I hope to produce my shoot in a way that doesn’t show my whole face, using a variety of techniques. I want to do this to show that everyone, in some way, can take and feature in great photos – they do not need to be models to look good in an image. With this shoot I also hope to develop my knowledge of Adobe Photoshop as this is what I will use to manipulate some of the photos into the way I actually want them to look.

What I actually achieved -

For my first Developmental Shoot, I chose to look at the use of colour, pattern and texture, through basing my shots around the British Army and the Union Jack.

This shoot was made up of a combination of both studio and location work. Here is one of my favourite shots from my location shoot. I have chosen to edit the image by applying text to the image, as it makes it look like something that would be used in an advertising poster. I am also using these developmental shoots to experiment with all sorts of different effects, such as applying text to the image. With this image also, I really like the contrast in the colours in the flag, but also the contrast againt the darkness in my boots.

This is one of my favourite edited photos from my studio shoot. To create this look, I took two images from my shoot in the studio, one of my eyes and one of the flag, and layered them over eachother in Photoshop. I then changed the opacity of each layer, which allowed both the layers to be visible at the same time. I really like this effect as it gives a mysterious, ghostly mood/tone to the image, which is something I could really develop in further work as I think it looks really effective.

What I am going to do next -

 From completing this shoot I have realised that I don't really enjoy doing self-portrait work, as I found it really hard to position the camera correctly - I much prefer to take the pictures myself of someone else, so that I know how well the images come out and having total control of the camera.

For my next few developmental shoots, I want to completely change the theme to give me a chance to experiment.

One of my ideas is to do a complete location shoot, themed around animals and fashion. I would like to go into the woods and photograph people in a way to make them represent animals. By getting my model(s) to dress in a certain way and using natural resources around me, I could get them to look like deer, squirrels or birds, which I think will look really effective in the natural lighting.

My other main idea is to do another studio shoot but using a model instead of myself this time to allow me complete control over the photo quality. After being inspired by some research and a specific music video, I want to dress someone up as a fairy/angel, and explore the use of colour, the human body and different emotions.

I will post more information about the research and inspiration for these possible developmental shoots in separate blog posts nearer the time.