Statement of Intent
Theme
The theme of my photography is going to be colour, I am going to look at lots of different types of colour photographs to get an idea of what I will be doing and take inspiration from it. My pictures will contain different ways to show colour. To present my work I have created my own photography website using the website creator called Weebly, there are a lot of tools that I can use to make my website look professional, organised and easy to navigate. It is very easy for me to upload images either in galleries or alone, I can also add titles to say what is next. The ability to add text boxes is useful as I will be able to do a 'Best and Worst' for my galleries.
Research
I am going to begin by researching photographers that focus on colour in their photographs. After looking at multiple colour photographers including William Eggleston, Fan Ho and Richard Mosse I have decided to focus on three photographers. The first photographer is William Eggleston because of his ability to capture the vibrant colours in everyday life. While doing more research and viewing his images I can look at the methods he used and take inspiration. The second photographer I have chosen to focus on is Nik Merkulov. Nik Merkulov creates coloured designs using paint and nail varnish, which he then photographs which is similar to what I will be doing as I will be taking photographs of ink in water, oil in water and possibly even paint on a surface, creating an image similar to Nik Merkulov’s. The third photographer I have chosen to focus on is Mari Dein. Similarly to Nik Merkulov, Mari Dein creates artwork using alcohol ink and then photographs the outcome which I may take inspiration from and do so myself later on.
Initial Thoughts
My initial thoughts when I chose this theme were of coloured objects placed close together symmetrically, for example coloured pencils, coloured pens and fruit etc. But as I've thought about it more I realised that I can combine colour and close up texture in one image which could be done in a classroom or outside. This gives me a larger range of possible objects to capture and it is something I enjoy more.
Equipment
To show progression through my work I will upload all of the photographs I take on the Canon DSLR camera provided by the school, and some of my own images I take out of school using my mobile phone camera. I will take some of these images and modify them on Photoshop which I will showcase on my weebly website. I plan to take a wide range of photographs sticking to the theme of colour and improve over time. I hope to be able to have the opportunity to participate in a workshop with a professional photographer where I can further develop my skills and gain more experience and knowledge on photography. The equipment I would like to use for an oil in water photoshoot is a Canon DSLR camera, a glass container to hold the water and oil, an apple iPad to place underneath the glass container creating a reflection on the bubbles of oil, a tripod and a laptop with software that connects to the camera that enables you to change settings, preview the image before you take it and capture images using the laptop instead of manually on the camera.
Experiments
I would like to experiment with the different settings and functions on the manual DSLR camera, for example, aperture, exposure, shutter speed, ISO, white balance etcetera. I will also experiment with different filters and photograph settings on the camera application. When using photoshop I will try to be creative and not over edit my photos.
Progression
As my project advances I will document my progress using my website on weebly.com formatting my images into galleries and showing my opinions on the best and worst image for each gallery. This will help me improve my images as I can see where I didn't do as well. I plan to present my work to my peers and take their constructive criticism into consideration to improve my project. I will also watch tutorials and demonstrations to help me develop and refine my photoshop skills.
What I hope to learn
By the end of this project I aspire to 'level up' my photography capabilities and to produce higher level end results. During the project I will use photoshop and hopefully learn some new techniques and become more familiar with the features.
Mood board
Research
William Eggleston
Context
"William Eggleston is an American photographer. He is widely credited with increasing recognition for colour photography as a legitimate artistic medium. Eggleston's books include William Eggleston's Guide and The Democratic Forest."
Composition
The first thing in this photograph that catches my attention is the saturation and grain on the image, the saturation makes the image more vibrant and makes each colour individually stand out, the grain shows that the images was taken between 1960 - 1980 and adds a nice effect to the image. The second thing that caught my attention is the tower of KARCO advertisement signs and the range of bright and dark colours used for the writing and the background. The third thing that catches my attention in this image is the car wash sign, because it's in large bold red text that stands out against the off white background of the sign. This image was captured at eye level and the way the image is cropped cuts the car is half, it also gives the effect that the image is zoomed in. The image also has signs and logos on the foreground, middleground and background. The use of leading lines directs our attention from the right of the image to the bottom right of the image at the car where there is a vanishing point. The time of day is midday which features a clear blue sky which means the lighting is perfect. You can also notice a slight yellow tint on the surroundings from the sunlight. This image contains various shapes but the two recurring shapes are squares and hexagons which are the shapes of the signs.
Connection
William Eggleston is relevant because he was a famous photographer that captured images of colour. He is connected because my new project is all about colour which I have taken images of. Edward Weston is a good photographer to research and study about as he is a good inspiration for aspiring photographers.
Comment
I personally like William Eggleston's images as he was a fantastic photographer and took excellent images that relate to what we do in Photography.
Nik Merkulov
Context
Nik Merkulov is a photographer from Ukraine who was a painter before he decided to become a photographer as he enjoyed mixing various paints and decided to capture them as photographs combining both skills. While researching his work he advises a minimum ISO and a wide depth of field in order to create an extremely sharp image and an aperture of around F14-F22. He uses a soft box as his main light source as this gives a nice light with high power. He sometimes uses a hard light reflector to create vibrancy. His work is created using paint brushes, palette knives, acrylic surfaces, paint, nail varnish and paper cups to pour the paint.
Composition
He uses paints and nail varnish as they have different textures and densities. He pours the paint and varnish onto canvases and uses a palette knife to create various lines and patterns whilst also mixing the colours creating different colourways and tones of the same colour. He uses sparkly varnish to help with the composition in some of his paintings as he feels as though it creates a complete picture. The effect the varnish has on the paint creates bubbles as the heavier varnish sank to the bottom and the lighter varnish rose to the top which is the technique he uses to create the unique images.
Connection
This image, and Nik Merkulov's many other images, link to my own work of close-up colour photography and is a great example of what I hope to achieve by the end of my project.
Comment
I picked this image because I liked it, it caught my eye because he used compositional colours that are opposite to each other on the colour wheel for example purple and yellow. He has also used complementary colours that blend into each other creating a gradient for example blue, purple and pink. Another reason I chose this image as it links to my work of close-up colour photography and is a great example of what I hope to achieve.
Mari Dein
Context
In fact, I don’t consider myself a photographer but an artist. I paint pictures and then photograph their fragments, resulting in unusual textures. At the beginning of the year, I managed to take a master class on alcohol ink, a technique I had been interested in for a long time.
I was not sure that I would find the right alcohol and ink, and the few lessons I found on the internet did not make me confident that I’d be able to figure it out myself. By taking this master class, I realized that it’s not nearly as scary as I had feared. As they say in Russia, “Fear has big eyes.”
In literally a couple of weeks, I created a triptych using this technique. This is a fragment of my biggest work so far: a painting with a diameter of 1.5 meters. This is actually a repainted version. First, I created a picture and photographed its details. While post-processing, I then repainted it in different ways, finding interesting color combinations and translating them into new works.
Source: shutterstock.com.
I was not sure that I would find the right alcohol and ink, and the few lessons I found on the internet did not make me confident that I’d be able to figure it out myself. By taking this master class, I realized that it’s not nearly as scary as I had feared. As they say in Russia, “Fear has big eyes.”
In literally a couple of weeks, I created a triptych using this technique. This is a fragment of my biggest work so far: a painting with a diameter of 1.5 meters. This is actually a repainted version. First, I created a picture and photographed its details. While post-processing, I then repainted it in different ways, finding interesting color combinations and translating them into new works.
Source: shutterstock.com.
Composition
The first thing in this photograph that catches my attention is the range of colours and shades from purple to orange. The photographer, Mari Dein used implemented vanishing points and leading lines. My attention is initially directed to the area of dark pink at the bottom of the image, and is then taken along the the channel of white ink flowing up to the top left corner of the image where it blends into a peach shade leaving my attention at a vanishing point. Judging by the lighting of the photograph I can assume that it was taken in a studio from a downward angle with a light above.
Connection
This image, and Mari Dein's many other images, link to my own work of close-up colour photography as they are similar to what I am currently photographing.
Comment
I picked this image because I liked it, it caught my eye because of the range of pink shades going from light to dark. The image has large white areas and also contains miniscule amounts of orange and red, which makes the image unique and intriguing.
Two images I saved during my research to use as inspiration for my own shoots.
Shoot One
Shoot Plan
How does it link to your research?
I have been looking at the way paint flows in water and marbling techniques to bring out the theme of colour. I am going to use this to start my own photography shoots, exploring paints and different mediums. I really like the work of Nik Merkulov because he has captured strong colour ways and interesting shapes. I also like the glitter effect of the paint.
What I would like to try to capture in this shoot
In this shoot I would like to try and capture close-up of colours and different mediums as a staring point. Then I want to move onto trying to capture close-up colour moving in water and across surfaces. I can then decide which direction I want to go in.
Location
These will all be studio shots and so I will need to have props, my camera on a tripod, lighting and a tank. I don't think I will go out on location as this does not fit my brief.
Lighting
For this shoot I will be using natural lighting from the windows but will also explore the lighting rig or the light from my phone.
Models/props
I am going to use art materials and colourful objects that I can use the microscopic lens as I enjoy working close-up. I think this will bring out the colour and detail.
I have been looking at the way paint flows in water and marbling techniques to bring out the theme of colour. I am going to use this to start my own photography shoots, exploring paints and different mediums. I really like the work of Nik Merkulov because he has captured strong colour ways and interesting shapes. I also like the glitter effect of the paint.
What I would like to try to capture in this shoot
In this shoot I would like to try and capture close-up of colours and different mediums as a staring point. Then I want to move onto trying to capture close-up colour moving in water and across surfaces. I can then decide which direction I want to go in.
Location
These will all be studio shots and so I will need to have props, my camera on a tripod, lighting and a tank. I don't think I will go out on location as this does not fit my brief.
Lighting
For this shoot I will be using natural lighting from the windows but will also explore the lighting rig or the light from my phone.
Models/props
I am going to use art materials and colourful objects that I can use the microscopic lens as I enjoy working close-up. I think this will bring out the colour and detail.
Shoot Two
Homework
Shoot Three
For this shoot I used a Canon DSLR camera attached to a tripod for stability, a plastic fish tank, paint and water. To get a neutral background I created an infinity curve using a large roll of white paper. To capture the paint sinking into the water I had someone ready to drop the paint in from above, some time into the shoot I adjusted the settings on my camera and put it on the automatic focus mode to be able to capture the paint in motion.
The quality of images were good but inconsistent. I attached my camera to a tripod and changed the picture mode to automatic, these changes drastically improved the quality and consistency of my photographs.
SHOOT 4
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SHOOT 5 PLAN
For this shoot I used a Canon DSLR camera attached to a tripod for stability, a glass dish, oil and water, which were put in the glass dish and mixed around to create a range of bubbles, a laptop which was connected to the camera, and an iPad which was placed underneath the glass dish and used to project colour from an image onto the oil and water. And lastly, I used a fast shutter speed in order to capture the moving oil bubbles and a low ISO to emphasise the vibrancy of the colours.
I had the opportunity to utilise professional photography equipment for this shoot which gave me the ability to capture high quality images. The camera was connected to the laptop which was linked to a software that enabled you to see the camera screen in real time, alter settings on the camera very quickly, and capture the images.
I had the opportunity to utilise professional photography equipment for this shoot which gave me the ability to capture high quality images. The camera was connected to the laptop which was linked to a software that enabled you to see the camera screen in real time, alter settings on the camera very quickly, and capture the images.
All the images in the gallery above are unfocused.
BEST |
WORST |
In my opinion, this image is the best from this gallery as it shows more than the rest.
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In my opinion, this image is the worst from this gallery as it's all unfocused and isn't visibly appealing.
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BEST |
WORST |
In my opinion, this image is the best from this gallery as every bubble is focused and the colour is a smooth gradient.
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In my opinion, this image is the worst from this gallery as it is all blurry and it's not clear what the photo actually is.
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BEST |
WORST |
In my opinion, this image is the best from this gallery as every bubble is focused and the colour is a smooth gradient.
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In my opinion, this image is the worst from this gallery as the majority of it is unfocused.
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BEST |
WORST |
In my opinion, this image is the best from this gallery as it's a mix between empty and filled which is an interesting contrast.
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In my opinion, this image is the worst from this gallery as it's slightly unfocused and the majority of it is empty space.
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BEST |
WORST |
In my opinion, this image is the best from this gallery as it is focused and the two large bubbles on the sides make and squashing effect.
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In my opinion, this image is the worst from this gallery as it's unfocused and it's mostly empty space.
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Best |
worst |
In my opinion, this image is the best from this gallery as there's a nice contrast between the colours and amounts of bubbles.
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In my opinion, this image is the worst from this gallery, although it isn't bad, there is a lot of open space.
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best |
worst |
In my opinion, this image is the best from this gallery as there's a nice contrast between the colours and amounts of bubbles.
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In my opinion, this image is the worst from this gallery as the colour isn't appealing, it's unfocused and it's primarily empty space.
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FINAL GALLERY
Evaluation
The main theme was close-up colour. I took photographs of various objects, ink in water, and oil in water. This theme allowed me to be creative and see the finer details of objects. I enjoyed the theme of close-up colour because I was able to take fascinating images using a macro lens.
In photography I enjoyed using Photoshop as well as taking photographs at shoots. The shoot I enjoyed the most was the oil in water shoot with professional photographer Justin.
Creating and designing a website using weebly.com was just one new skill I learnt during GCSE Photography. Before I started photography I didn't know how to use a manual camera and the settings on it, some of the settings and features we looked at were white balance, ISO and exposure. I knew how to use Photoshop before I began doing photography but I refined my skills and discovered new ways to edit my images.
During this project completed research on three photographers; William Eggleston, Nik Merkulov and Mari Dein. I looked at these photographers because it is relevant to my work as they are all colour photographers. I used their work as inspiration and an example for my own.
I learnt how to use different software, such as weebly.com and Photoshop to help me create a professional looking portfolio of work. My ability to take good photos improved the more shoots we did.
In my opinion the most successful part of my project was photoshop as I made progress and learned new ways to edit my photographs.
I didn't encounter many problems I can think of but one problem I encountered was not having enough photographs, which I solved by doing another shoot and taking more.
I refined my photography skills by taking photographs and improving each shoot by utilising new settings and features on the cameras. This meant that my more recent images are much better than images from my first shoot.
If I had the opportunity to do this project again I would like to do another oil in water shoot.