Weird and wonderful is surreal photos that play with the viewers mind and makes them have to think twice about the photos they are viewing.
For my initial research I shall research a variety of artists and photographers to portray I variety of themes and techniques. I hope to recycle various techniques that I learn from my artist research and use this and possibly recreate some of the photos toshow my understanding of the project and that I can use a variety of skills to get a photo that could be sold at a professional level. I will create a mind map that revolves around themes so I can demonstrate knowledge of using a variety of themes and I can possibly decide the future of the project and what ideas and themes I want to incorporate into my final photos.
To show development and progression I must be able to use a variety of themes and Photoshop techniques to enhance my skills and demonstrate I understand what has to be used in surreal photography to get high marks and make my photos have a sense of class to them.
I would like to experiment with using a combination of drawings and images in conjunction together instead of a photo with pure photography, I feel it would show skills in using inanimate objects such as a drawing and comparing it with real life items that we use day to day.
During this project I will be sure to evaluate my direction of the project and critique my photos so I can adjust as needed to enhance my outcome of the project
rene magritte
This is a painting by Rene Magritte. It portrays the darkness of night but with the daylight sky but it looks very neutral. The painting has a neutral eye level so you can see the contrast within the darkness below and the brightness of the sky. The street light helps to portray that the bottom of the photo is a dark night setting and the bright blue sky shows the daytime while the whole photo still looks very natural. Personally I like this picture because of how well the blend is between the day sky and the dark town. It is not a choppy and does not have a very poor transition, there is a lot of detail implemented into the painting to make this very seamless transition between night and day. The Picture is called the 'Empire of Light' and was painted between 1953 and 1954. This painting inspired a scene in the 1973 film 'The Excorsist.' The photo uses two main colours, primarily black and blue. This adds a simplicity factor and helps to decipher the contrast between day and night, it helps to set a specific atmosphere of quiet and calmness.
Salvador dali
This is a painting by Salvador Dali. The picture has a bending, melting, deformed clock with parts and numbers flying out the clock. This photo has a very supernatural and eery atmosphere because it is an inanimate object, like a clock and that object is being used in a very supernatural setting. This painting fits well into weird and wonderful because of how such a casual object such as a clock is melting and bending and every part inside of it is just being sucked out. This painting is really realstically painted and it sort of plays with your mind. Personally for me this photo is very supernatural because this is an object that is not notmally asociated with supernatural. I don't really mind this picture, I think the use of colour is a bit dull and the photo for me is not very eye catching.
Chema Madoz
Chema madoz
Chema Madoz is a Spanish photographer, best known for his surreal photography in black and white. I really like his style of photos because it has that factor of simplicity, yet his surreal photos are very effective.
I like his photos because they mainly involve only one or two objects, and the pictures taken are not overly complicated, the photographer uses a black and white to filter to keep the simplicity in the photo.
This is a photo from Chema Madoz. This photo uses a watch face and instead of a watch strap it uses train tracks for a very surreal effect. This photo uses a birds eye view and it is really effective because your eyes follow the train tracks. Your eyes are focused to the train tracks because of the contrast in colour, you have the white background and the black train tracks, and that contrast attracts your eyes to the tracks. Personally I like this photo because it is very simplistic, but is very surreal and wonderful at the same time as it uses an everyday object such as a watch and makes it into a surreal thing, instead of a watch strap there are train tracks and it is a really effective photo.
This is a poular photo from Chema Madoz. This photo shows raindrops on a surface and one of the bigger raindrops is in the shape of a jigsaw puzzle. This is a close up shot taken from a birds eye view, it is very effective as you can see with all the raindrops and one of them is a jigsaw it adds that surreal and weird and wonderful feeling. The colour is black and white, in a typical Chema Madoz fashion, as he uses black and white for all his photos as that is his personal style. The photo uses a deep depth of field as you can see the whole shot and none of it is blurred out. The lighting is directed at the jigsaw piece making it stand out. I think this photo was taken in a studio and the photographer maybe used like a toothpick and a straw to get the shape of the jigsaw puzzle. Overall I really like this photo because it is very surreal how the jigsaw puzzle peice is there amongst the other raindrops and how it is really effective and attractive to look at.
Photoshoot 1
For this photoshoot I plan to imitate the enlargement affect that water has on objects, such as the fork when placed in water it looks double it's size. I feel this photo will get me off to a good start in portraying what 'weird' and wonderful is really about.
BEST PHOTO
I feel this is the best photo from this photoshoot. I feel this photo represents the style of Chema madoz and that is what I am aiming towards. I like this photo because it shows off the water effect, as the handle of the fork looks minute compared to the bottom of the fork that is submerged in water. For this photo I took it outside on a bench, I used a plain white piece of paper to give it a clean look to make it in the style of Chema Madoz. The negatives of this photo is the bottom of the piece of paper is wet, so it takes away from that 'clean' look a bit that I was trying to acheive. The lighting in the photo is quite dark so I could of used a lamp to make it brighter and add to the effect of the photo, to give it a spotlight look so the focus point is directed at the fork. I could have also put a pace of paper on the bottom so it is completely white, and there is no contrast in colour, as I want the only contrast in the photo to be the reflecting silver of the fork.
worst photo
This is the worst photo I took in this photoshoot. I dislike this photo because of the environment it was taken in. Firstly the photo has a very yellow tint to it because of the lighting in the room this photo was taken in - and the white balance setting used in this photograph. Secondly the background is absolutely terrible, the white paper used to give a clean background does not cover the whole area that the camera is taking a picture of, this can be resolved by cropping but I feel personally this photography is not worth salvaging. I dislike how the shadow of the glass is bouncing around everywhere, it really runs the look of the 'clean' style of photo I am aiming for. Overall I dislike this photo as it not taken well at all and I feel personally I could have done much better.
photoshop
photoshoot 2
For this photo I plan to play with peoples perspective on 'never ending' by using a photo of the horizon and placing a protractor over it to show that 180 degree line and how it seems to be 'never ending'. I feel this makes a very good photo as it makes you really think about the photo and what it means, rather than just looking at the photo it engages the mind as it plays with the individuals perspective.
photoshoot 3
I decided to experiment for this photoshoot, by using an inanimate object such as an egg, and trying to make it a real thing - with real thoughts. I tried to make a person using an egg and chopsticks, show him laying and I have attempted to make simple yet effective.
photoshop
Photoshoot 4 - Final
photoshoot 4 - part 2
Continuing on the topic of giving inanimate objects life, I deiced to combine drawings with objects, this time being lungs with oranges, as they represent the shape of lungs fairly closely, and I feel it links with the topic of 'weird and wonderful' very well.
photoshop
photoshoot5
For this photoshoot I wanted to make the idea of the end of the spoon being a raindrop, and the spoon at the bottom catching it, but I feel like it did not work too well, so I had to use photoshop to imitate it to try make my idea come across.
photoshop
photoshop attempt 2
FINAL
photoshoot 6
For this photo shoot I went two ways with it, Initially wanted to combine a tape measure with the apple so it sort of wraps around, but I saw that didn't work. So then I decided to give the apple life, by putting a mouth on it. This method was much more effective and gives the photo that 'weird and wonderful' look I am striving for.
Photoshop
PHOTOSHOP ATTEMPT 2
FINAL PHOTOSHOOT
Throughout my photos in weird and wonderful, I have followed a very specific, very strict theme. It has given my photos a style of class and simplicity. As I move into my final photoshoot I look to continue this style of photography for a professional look to my photos. I only use one or two objects in my photos but use them in a very abnormal matter, and this is how it links with the weird and wonderful topic.
Throughout the topic, I have used a variety of different objects and although it doesn't have to make sense because it's weird and wonderful, I personally prefer there to be a reason behind my photos as it makes the photo even more interesting as you can see a bit of a backstory of how the idea has come together.
Continuing on the apple idea I plan to make a GIF, using photoshop, of water pouring over an apple, as it shows a high level of complexity and is much different from just an average photoshoot. It shows a greater level of research and adds finesse to my photos as instead of being still it adds life to my photos.
gif attempt 1
GIF ATTEMPT 2
gif photoshop process
Step 1: Open the first photo in Photoshop, this will be the base frame, also open the animation window in Window > Animation.
Step 2: Now to place your other photos as frames. go to File > Place, place every other photo of the original and press enter, do this for every photo you want as a frame in your GIF, you will see every time you add a photo it becomes a new layer on the left side
Step 3: Once you have placed all files, on the right where there is the layers window, you want to deselect all the eyes, until you get to base layer, then you want to click the button at the bottom at the animate window, then select the eye on the next layer, and press the button on the animation window and repeat this process until you reach the last layer.
water gif
This is my final GIF for weird and wonderful. I prefer this one as it shows the progress as the water fills up the glass. I personally feel I could have executed this picture much better.The background is plain white which is good, but there are too many shadows that interfere with the clean white background, not giving it that professional look I strived for.
final evaluation
Over the course of Weird and Wonderful I have evaluated and intricately chose and catered to a certain style and perspective. It has helped me to advance and prosper my work to a high level of dexterity. I began from the basics, from the start taking a very primitive style of photos to now at the end having an advanced level and direction of which my photos were taken in.
From the start I had a clear intention of the style and procedure that I wanted to follow, clean, clear and attention to detail. I started out basic taking style from Chema Madoz, a photographer who takes clear, clean photos of objects in every life but uses them in different ways that we do not normally associate these objects with and I used this as my re-occurring theme throughout my weird and wonderful project.
I started basic with something that could relate to weird and wonderful but was easy to set up so I could perfect a clean style of photos, and I chose to do the fork in a glass illusion as it is simple but it relates to the project theme. The photo was easy to set up, the only primary issue was the white background as it would not stay up, and it also reflected too many shadows so it got rid of the clean look I aimed for.
My next photo was a direct copy of Chema Madoz, I liked the picture a lot so I insisted on creating it as I could compare the originals to my own to show depth and understanding in my photos. It was easy creating that photo, I printed out a picture of a horizon and placed the protractor along the coast and took a photo, but the outcome portrays that it is still clean and classy.
Fast forward to near the end of the project I decided to experiment using GIF's that I would take myself in Photoshop so it is a 'moving image' of sorts. To create these I took about 60 photos of pouring water into a glass, then in Photoshop looped them all together and I had turned it into a GIF format. I personally think that these GIF's are very effective, it still contains the clean look I was after but is a 'moving image' Personally this was my final piece and it was the best possible way to end the project.
Overall over the course of this project, I have evaluated my style of photos and catered to am higher skill after every photo shoot. I believe I have shown a variety of practical photography skills along with Photoshop and GIF making skills.