Location Photography

We have been assigned the task of producing a series of 12 images from a location photography shoot. Here is some initial research of my own as to how I will conduct the shoot and the style of photographs I would like to emulate.

Firstly, I will explain that for some time I have been planning to produce a series of landscape images which I can then photoshop people into to produce an all encompassing series of portraits with magnificent natural or urban backdrops. I plan on this unit to capture 12 location images in which I can later add people into the photographs.

Below is some research of the types of images I would like to produce and the way I would like to go about producing them.

The first photographer I looked at was a photographer who's work I know very well. He produces composite imagery to create a feeling through his photographs, although there is a sense of unreality in his images I don't think his purpose is to create realistic images. His name is Erik Almas and the screenshots below are taken from his website: http://www.erikalmas.com/

They say it's better to aim high so these are the kind of images I would hope to produce, allowing room in the foreground to add human subjects. I too would like to produce such images through composites but more likely in settings of greenery due to a national park being close to my home. 

Here are some other photographs in which carry a similar depth of feeling. I would like to recreate the power of these images in my own, although the locations will be considerably different. 

The below image I found on viewbug.com, taken by an individual who goes by the name of Wolongshan on this particular website.

The image carries incredible power, he captures the stillness of the sky and the rocks with the almost violent, ceaseless power and movement of the waves. He uses a composition which pulls you into the centre of the image, leading your eyes in from the left corner and outward from the very centre to view the rocks waves and stars, all the way back to the foreground where you can once again see the power and detail of the waves.

I have planned a shoot in the following location, I found this location on darkskydiscovery.org.uk, I plan to take images of the night sky in this location to replace with the sky from other images I take where the sky may not be so incredible:

I can't choose a date as such to photograph at this location as I need to be sure on the day the sky will be clear. The same is true with the location I hope to do the bulk of my photography in: The Ees, Chorlton. The Ees is a small nature reserve, there is small lake in the park and the river mersey which passes through, there are numerous woody areas and also a few wild meadows, however I may also try and incorporate images I have previously taken of fields and hills in North Yorkshire.

Here is an image I have captured a few years previous in the same park (chorlton ees), along with a map of it's location (The largest green area towards the bottom left hand side):

Below is a mood board of some images similar to the style I would like to finally produce with the human subjects added. All of the images have been produced by Erik Almas and are unfortunately not captured in locations similar to where I will be shooting.

 This is the end of my brief :) Thanks for reading.

Joseph Rigby

www.josephrigbyphotography.co.uk

Pre Raphaelite research

We were briefed to emulate a painting or photograph produced by the Pre Raphaelite collective.

I began researching the pre raphaelites at the Manchester art Gallery, here I got a view of their great works portraying the 19th century the way it actually was, a stark movement at the time. The most notable painting I saw was entitled Work Painting by Ford Madox Brown, although it would be too resource intensive for me to replicate it gave me a good feel for their work, steeped in metaphors and hidden meaning.

I went on to research more of the collectives work on the internet, using various websites and search engines to discover more of their paintings and hopefully find a piece of work I would like to emulate that ins't too resource intensive. One of the first images that caught my eye was a historical painting of Lady Godiva by John Collier

Lady Godiva was a noblewoman from the 11th century who rode the streets of coventry in protest of her husbands oppressive tax on his tenants. John Collier portrayed her as a young and graceful woman, with her head down, perhaps from the traditional victorian perspective that it's a shameful thing to be naked. The grand background and mighty horse mixed with the soft morning light and heir of grace and gentleness in her posture however definitely give her the feeling of a heroin.

I thought deeply about wether I could reproduce this image in a modern setting and tried to think of metaphors to surround the image for a modern interpretation. However, I found none to do the image justice and continued to search for other paintings whilst still bearing this one in mind.

I found several technically basic portraits produced by the pre raphaelites, including: Sophy Gray by Millais, various works of Jane Morris by Rossetti and a portrait of Cecily Horner by Edward Burne Jones, (all images found and downloaded from Wiki Art)

However, none of these images really inspired me, so I searched for a painting with a little with a little more of a meaning or story behind the image.














I continued my search by looking for any historical or mythical paintings produced by the brother hood using wiki art to search for the categories of each individual painter. I first stumbled across Cinderella by John Everett Millais and felt as if I had found something I could relate to. However, the images itself struck my as quite boring and flat, so i decided to continue looking as i would rather emulate something a little more passionate.












Finally I found Pandora By Rossetti, here was an image I could relate too, was colourful and enjoyable to look at it ( in my opinion) and was also technically a viable option which could be produced with a small budget.

I have chosen my painting to emulate and am currently looking for models and MUA's etc to help me with the production of a final image.

Joseph Rigby 

www.josephrigbyphotography.co.uk 

Using a Range of Media

Evidence of using different media and evidence of importing images from multiple sources. 

The above 2 images are scanned rubbings of various textures i found around the college, the one on the left is a rubbing of a perferated wall mounted file holder whilst the rubbing on the right is of a mac keyboard.  I then scanned the rubbings into the computer. 

    

The above 2 images are natural materials i found outside of the college and then scanned into a computer. My medium being real life !

The Two images above are evidence of me working with printed images which I photographed and imported from my mobile phone. 

 The Three images below are images I produced on the white infinity product background with my DSLR camera, I imported the images from an SD memory card.

Adjusting an image for optimum appearance

 Adjust images for optimal appearance 

St Pancras Hotel

To the left is the original out-of-camera HDR JPEG. Below is the adjusted image, I used photoshop to make the adjustments.

I began by retrieving the 3 raw images used to create the HDR and re-merged them in photoshops built in plugin: HDR pro. I desaturated the whole image to almost 0, added a blue filter and re-saturated the light streaks created by the long exposures. Finally I rotated the image so the hotel was more horizontal.

Pre Raphaelite Research

Research for my Pre Raphaelite Project

I began my project to emulate and re-interpret a painting or photograph by the pre raphaelite brotherhood by first searching for examples of their work:

 I then, by clicking on an image of John Everett Millais, found a website called wiki art:

Here I found a list of all of the members of the Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood along with selections of their artwork. I browsed through much of their work, I found several of their literary artworks such as Cinderella by John Everett Millais and Historical paintings such as Lady Godiva by John Collier along with researching the stories behind the images on wikipedia. 

After researching many photographs I decided to emulate the painting: Pandora by Dante Gabriella Rosseti.

To be sure of my choice I withdrew a book from the library, the book was called "pre raphaelite paintings" Here i found several works i liked along with their related history / meaning. My eye was particularly drawn to Opheilia, 

However, I decided it was probably too difficult to replicate due to the location and unique look of the subject. 

 I am currently looking for other creatives (models MUA's) to work with on the reproduction of the painting.

 

Joseph Rigby