New Edits

These are photographs I have edited today. The top one is part of my weaving techniques, I started out with the whole photograph checkered like that but I decided it looked better with just me skin and hair checkered, this is the same photograph I used as my black and white technique.

The second photograph I did was part of an animation idea I was going to do. I started out with the smoke and wanted it to suit the theme of the other photograph of the birds in my hair. I darkened the whole setting to give it an almost daunting feeling from the viewer. I like this bird theme and I would like to relate it to my scale manipulation theme as well to give it more creativity. The third photograph was an idea I had from my first shoot, I just got round to doing it today. I didn't think it would work so I left it but I decided to give it a try. I cut out the tree and put onto another layer than cut part of my model's head off to put on the other side of the tree. I blurred the edges of my model's neck and head to make it look like it was moulded into it. I would like to continue with this kind of idea and explore the surrealism of it.

Personal Project Powerpoint

This is my surrealism personal project's best work so far.

This is my newest animation I've created. I wanted to create the illusion that the food was coming out of my mouth in a strange way but it didn't come out as I planned. The flash did not go off while I was eating the food and made the image go black, and since the food couldn't be un-eaten, I had to make do with what I had. So I did the sequence and did it backwards to make it loop in a flow.

Print Techniques

These are the print techniques I've done so far. I used the first photograph as repetition because of the almost jungle effect when it is repeated like that. I like this photograph because of the depth and contrast of the different colours. The black and white photograph, I think, shows a lot of emotion and creates at atmosphere with the viewer because of, not only, the focus but also the black and white theme. The duotone photograph looks almost vintage by the way the tone of the two colours are set. I am going to do more techniques such as weaving and image text.

New Edits

These are the edits I've added to my collection of surrealism. The scale manipulation was inspired by some photographs I look at through my research on the internet. I had already tried to do this type of scale manipulation before and one photograph didn't work as well as I thought it would but I think this one has come along quite nicely. The arm is from my most recent shoot in the studio because it is easier to edit if it's from there. The other photograph of me with floating headphones came to me as I was shooting and I thought it would suit my surrealism theme. I got someone else to hold the headphones in the air and I Photoshopped them out later. I think it looks like what I wanted it to look like and is a quick and easy photograph to do. I would like to do more on this kind of idea and develop it as I go along.

I'm planning a shoot with myself where I split my head in half and maybe create an animation out of it. I'd like to continue in the animation ideas I have and I'd like to add to my scale manipulation edits with some images of this shoot because I have new ideas.

Animation

This is an animation I did testing out my ability to animate. I adjusted the image slightly for each slide to make subtle changes. I would like to explore this topic more with my surrealism project.

Just a Few Shoot Ideas

I was thinking of all the things I would like to do on shoots but can't right now, so I'm going to write them down now before I forget and look back at them for another project or for later on with this one.

List of ideas

Tim Burton themed dark shoot, the woods at dusk or Photoshopped to look like a twilight dusk time. Make people or things look rotten or dead maybe? I know something like this has probably been done before but it's just a thought so far. Tim Burton is one of my favourite directors and an inspiration for some of my ideas and work so I'd love to produce some work that reflects his inspirational imagination that I've found to be interesting.

I've thought of an idea where someone or something is split in half on the floor but instead of guts and blood everywhere it is just flat and plastic like a Barbie doll has been chopped in half. Or there could be something completely different coming out of the model or object such as blood, melted objects, black blood, silver blood, confetti. The list could go on, I would really like to play around with this idea and see where it takes me.
I was also thinking, which relates to this idea, a real Barbie doll cut up with real looking blood around it or the other things listed above. It could be interesting to work on and it fits with my fine art surrealism theme I'm going with for this topic.

Another idea I've had was inspired by the game 'Portal', where two half of the same person are in different places because of the portal. I think it would be a fun shoot to work with and there are so many possibilities with this idea that I could develop it into something unique. Once again I'm sure there plenty of photoshoots with this theme but it does go with my surrealism topic and I'd like to see how it turns out.

There's also blackholes and/or whirlpools that I've like to take a look at. I really like the idea of under water shoots or shoots where the model is floating and I could use that and make them look as if they're in space. But under water shoots is something that I'd love to do because of the relaxing quality of it and the many ideas I could through around with it.

I would also like to look at animation techniques were there is only one thing moving in the image which gives it a 'stop time' effect which I think would look really good. I'd like to be able to do this and I'm sure there is a way of doing and tutorials of how.

A fun one that I've seen before is face swapping. It's surrealism and fun at the same time. I've seen babies and men's faces being swapped and it actually looks real in some aspects and I really like the idea that something like that could look real.


These are just a few ideas so far. I'll add more as I go along and see which ones are possible or suit my project.

Personal Shoot 5

With this shoot I wanted to play withe scale manipulation with models and landscape. I Photoshopped two photographs but I don't think they worked as well as I hoped.

 I tried to experiment with different ways of showing scale manipulation. I used a tilt shift technique to create the depth illusion. I don't think this works as much as I wanted it to. I think the lighting of the car and the shadowing doesn't work with the landscape. I think I can improve on this with more time and maybe a different image of a car to make it work better. I like the idea of using tilt shift and I would like to use it more for the surrealism illusion.

This Photoshopping needs touching up a bit more as well. I think it's the way the leg looks too flat and placed into the background instead of looking a part of it. I think I could have done more shadowing on the foot or changed the lighting slightly to make it more in tune with the rest of the photograph. Next time I hope to improve on my skills and try to take photographs of my model in the right position so it is easier to Photoshop. 

I would still like to carry on trying to achieve this scale manipulation technique and work on it a bit more. I may try it for my future shoot so I can gain some skills in the technique.

Inspiration For Today's Shoot

Today I'm looking at shooting scale manipulation. I'd like to create something believable and realistic to the viewer in a surrealistic way. I may use some passed photographs I have taken and Photoshop the new one's I'm going to take today. I'll be looking at landscape and close up photographs to manipulate the scale either way. This is more of an experiment with the large scale photographs because I've done close up small scale manipulative photographs before in this unit but not large scale landscape photos

Personal Shoot in London

These are a few photographs I took in London the other day. I edited them a bit with sharpening, levels and curves and thought they looked presentable. They're not surrealism but I thought they looked like some good photographs I could show in the future to show my skills and editing techniques. I didn't think about shooting these photos, I just did it randomly. In a spontaneous way to show that you don't have to plan every shoot, you can just take your camera anywhere and still end up with a few good photos. I like the bicycle photograph because I think it looks a bit vintage and old fashioned and the editing makes it look more so. The train one was a just a thought on the spot photograph as I always do. I thought it would look nice to have the depth and repetition in the photograph. I like depth and texture photos because it makes them come to life in some ways. The fog one was actually taken outside my bedroom window a few days ago when it was foggy. I like it when it's misty and foggy like this because of the fading distance and the way you're almost blind when trying to see further than a 40 metres. I like it when the fog creates layers in the photograph and makes everything that little bit dark and gloomier.  

Inspiring photographs from I Must Be Dead

These are the photographs from the I Must Be Dead photographer that inspire some of the work for my personal shoots. 

I came up with some ideas for some surrealism photographs and this is one of them. I used my personal shoot to do what I wanted to do. I didn't have this idea until later on but I thought this would be a good photograph to use for this idea I had. I downloaded some Photoshop brushes of birds to create this idea. I smudged and blurred the birds towards me to make it look like they are coming out of my hair. I desaturated and curved the photograph to make it look darker and make it blend in with the theme more. I added shadows to make it look more realistic which adds to the surrealism of the photo. I would like to do something as creative as this to another photograph of mine to show my skills.

This photograph was taken by myself with a tripod and self-timer. I did a few shoots this way and I think this photograph is one of the better ones. I think it shows emotion at a random moment. I didn't think about the photograph, I just did it. That's what I like about photography, doing something completely unplanned and it turning out alright. I like spontaneous photography because of the unique sense of it and the way nothing will ever be able to be like it again. A specific moment in time is captured and is irreplaceable.

Best 20 so far