Manga Dreams - Anderson and Low.

I have just got back from visiting the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts and the University of East Anglia, Norwich. Manga Dreams features highlights of a recent Anderson and Low project which were featured in the 2011 Venice Biennale. This series combines photography and digital techniques of subjects that have been hand picked by the artists over many years.

Photographers Jonathon Anderson and Edwin Low have worked together since 1990 and have achieved critical acclaim. Manga Dreams is the first museum exhibition of this work in the U.K and the first of a series of similar exhibitions worldwide. Accompanying the series is a book of the same name.

This series of extraordinary work "blurs the distinction between photography and other forms of visual art, using old and new technologies to explore concepts of identity".

Anderson and Low’s clever, energetic artwork and Manga characters fuse the cartoon world with reality. Walking around the gallery viewing these photographs you get a real sense of energy radiating from them.

Alan with Gun.

I have to say when I read the title to this image it did make me laugh out loud. For a start the name does not suit the person pictured but it is also very literally. No beating around the bush with fancy titles. I really like the quality the digital painting brings to the pictures. All of the images are pigment prints on loan from Hamiltons Gallery, London.

Untitled (Aqua Boy).

Straight away I felt that this image has an airbrushed quality to it. I find the way  that the boy stares into the camera quite unnerving, as if he is watching you where ever you go. His right hand is gripping the boomarang rather tightly while his left hand is clenched in a fist which also adds to the feeling I got.

Untitled (Ming with Sword)

Again the girl is staring straight at the camera. A common theme within the pictures is that the majority of them have the subject clutching some kind of weapon creating a striking image.

Untitled (Kit the Swordsman)

Out of all of the images this one for me has the most movement within it, particularly with the flames to the bottom left of the frame. This is also the image that most merges reality and fantasy more so than any of the others. While some of the images have quite a cartoon feel about them with the clear outlines, colours and spiky styled hair; Kit the Swordsman literally has the cartoon background and flames around him.

Untitled (Eyes)

I have saved my favourite image until last. To be honest I am unsure as to why this is my favourite. I think that it might have something to do with being immediately drawn to the eyes staring out at you. The deep blue contrasts so well with the hair and skin tone. I almost get a feeling of sadness from this image, as though it is looking into your soul.

I have to say I have never seen anything like this exhibition before and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The fact that it is so different really encourages the viewer to think and analyse what they are seeing. I love the quality of all the prints and the feeling of texture you get from them rather than a flat glossy image.

The SCVA also currently has another exhibition on at the moment - There is here, photographs by Avi Gupta. I must make sure that I go back to visit it.

Information from www.scva.org.uk

Exposure Bracketing

I feel that now is as good a time as any to research exposure bracketing. I have heard and seen it mentioned several times but I have never really been 100% sure what it really means.

Exposure bracketing is the technique used to ensure that photographs are correctly exposed particularly in more awkward lighting situations.

Before taking a photo the camera's light meter will automatically choose the aperture and shutter speed that it thinks will produce a correctly exposed photograph. With exposure bracketing two or more photographs are taken, one which is more under exposed (to a negative exposure compensation) and another which is over exposed (to a positive exposure compensation) in accordance with the camera's light meter.

The reasoning behind exposure bracketing is that the light may deceive the camera into thinking that there is too much or too little of it available in the scene which would result in the image being over or under exposed. By taking several shots the photographer can be sure that this has been compensated for.

Many cameras now have auto exposure bracketing (AEB) so that in theory if I was to select this option then the camera will automatically take three shots for me........under exposed (usually by -1/3 EV), correctly exposed and over exposed (usually +1/3EV).

Now that I have a better understanding of what this means I intend to experiment now. I have seen examples of other peoples work who have used expose bracketing and then loaded their shots onto Photoshop. Using the layers setting they layer up the image erasing over or under exposed areas and have then ended up with some brilliant photos. 

Information from wikipedia,  

www.photoxels.com

hdr-photography.com/aeb.html

Assignment 3 - Feedback.

This is the first feedback for an assignment that I have received and been pleased with. Normally I tend to take comments and constructive criticism personally and then become disheartened thinking that I am not good enough.

This time I have been much happier with the images I have produced, mainly as I moulded the assignment and as my tutor said “took the step past photographing things to fit the brief to photographing your own ideas to illustrate it”. I must continue to do this. I was worried that as this assignment was more personal to me, I would also take any points made pore personally also. However, this was not the case. I knew some of the images had issues, mainly lighting wise, but I have also treated the assignment as a learning process, rather than the be all and end all. I also worry how the end result will appear, rather than experimenting and looking at my creative process. I need to be more willing to try out new ideas and maybe I will be pleasantly surprised with the result.

A major issue now is my naming system. My tutor mentioned this after the first assignment, and I couldn’t really see how it was a problem at the time, but now I am starting to. I think this is something I am going to have to ask advice about as my filing system needs considerable work.

More detail is needed when talking about my photos. I think that I always talk about the technical issues as I still do not feel as confident selecting settings. I think that I expect to be told I have done it all wrong. Having said that I do think that I have improved as before I would take a photo and think that it was fine where as now I can sometimes see where I have gone wrong and how to rectify the issue.

I need to sort out the lighting in quite a few of the photos and I feel that a lot of research will be required, particularly as I am not familiar with some of the equipment used to achieve desired affects.

To improve I will read up on the technical balance of light theory and the use of both natural and artificial light and how to combine them.

I really did enjoy this assignment, and I am glad that came across. I feel I have started to make a break through with the work I produce and I shall try must best to keep it up.

Assignment 3........Didn't quite make the cut.

I took many photos for this assignment that for one reason of another I felt weren't quite good enough. I wanted to show how I came to use the photographs submitted, and a bit more about my working process.

Colour harmony through complementary colours. 

Red and Green.

Nikon D90 1/1000 f4.5 ISO 640 40mm +0.3

I really like the bright red of the tree but felt that the ratio was slightly out. Also because of the frost, the grass was not particularly green and I was looking for a richer colour.

Nikon D90 1/500 f4.2 ISO 640 32mm +0.3

I came across this bus stop near to the previous photo and just by chance my friend happened to be wearing a bright red t-shirt. He kindly agreed to pose for this shot in the freezing cold! I felt that the ratio was nearly there, maybe a little more red present, but the light was reflecting off the sides of the bus stop too much, causing a distraction.

Nikon D90 1/750 f4.8 ISO 200 42mm

This is a variation of the shot I submitted. When shooting this one I have forgot to alter the exposure as the bright light bleached a lot of the red from the sheet. I have since altered this in Photoshop. I feel that by changing the models positioning I then produced a much better image.

Colour harmony through similar colours.

Red, Orange and Yellow.

Nikon D90 1/200 f8 ISO 200 70mm flash and tripod used.

This was one of my first attempts at photographing this colour combination. Post processing I have increased the level of black to even out the tone of the sheet. I felt that some of the flowers were not clear enough and was generally not 100% happy with this photo, although I cannot put my finger on why.

Blue, Violet and Green.

Nikon D90 1/200 f5.6 ISO 640 105mm -0.7 flash and tripod used.

I felt with the composition so rigid that it made the picture seem rather dull. Plus I don't like how the background is so plain and uninteresting. This obviously led me on to scattering the pencils and drawing on the background to create more interest.

Blue and Green.

Nikon D90 1/200 f4.8 ISO 640 48mm -1.3 flash and tripod used.

This was actually my favourite image using this colour combination as my model looks nice and relaxed and the colours are shown off well. Unfortunately the eye nearest the camera is blurred and out of focus so I could not use it.

Colour contrast through contrasting colours.

Red and Blue.

Nikon D90 1/4000 f4 ISO 3200 22mm -2.7

The problem I had here was that the day was very dark but the flash was causing too much reflection (I ended up shooting it in my porch). I used a high ISO to try and compensate for this. There was no room for my tripod to be set up so I had to use a high shutter speed as the freezing cold was making my hands shake. After doing all of this and then evening the tone of the sheet in Photoshop, I then decided that I was not keen on the composition. The same also goes for my next attempt shown below.

Nikon D90 1/4000 f4 ISO 3200 21mm -2.7

Colour accent using any of the above.

Blue and Orange.

Nikon D90 1/1000 f4 ISO 640 28mm +0.3

I should have altered the ISO as I feel it is too high but I think my problem is that I forget the settings I have previously used and then just leave the camera on them. I really need to get into the habit of checking and altering as I go. The day was very bright so a lot of colour was lost. I have altered the exposure and brightness in Photoshop, as well as increase the blue and orange slightly. Whilst I like this picture I felt that I could achieve better.

Nikon D90 1/4000 f4 ISO 640 28mm +0.3

I felt that this image meets the accent criteria quite well, my only complaint with it really is that its hardly very exciting and there is no real context for the ball (which is also out of focus)......it just seems to be sat in mid air. This obviously then led on to the photograph that made it into the assignment, with the hands having just thrown the ball into the air.

I wanted to show a small amount of the extra work that went into producing this assignment showing how I work and the processes I go through that leads to the work I produce.