Development One

My Plan

Within my development I hope to...

1. combine influences from each of my 3 chosen artists

2. make sure my work is about my theme

3. include my own research and ideas

For my first try at this is in Development 1 I will create a series of three edited photos in which I will mix Alberto Seveso's photography style with Sebastian Magnani's style. I will take a photo in the style of Sebastian Magnani and a photo in the style of Alberto Seveso and I will edit the ink from the Alberto Seveso photo onto the mirror in the Sebastian Magnani photo so that it is spilling out. This will link to my theme of edges because it will show the contrast between the defined edge of the mirror and the free and undefined edge of the ink.

Taking my Photos

In this Photoshoot I intend to use plants and grass outside and a circular mirror to try and replicate Sebastian Magnani's photography style and a glass tub to use to photograph ink spreading through water to replicate Alberto Seveso's style.

I will need to be outside and use natural lighting for my Sebastian Magnani photo. On the day that I took my photos outside it was quite cloudy so there wasn't much natural light however I fixed the problem by brightening the image on Photoshop. I will need studio lighting to take my ink photos so I will use a light box to get lighting evenly all around the photo and to make sure the photo is bright enough.

In my photo I will use the compositional rules and formal elements of negative space and balance for the Sebastian Magnani photo, texture, shape and form and contrast for the Alberto Seveso photo.

Contact Sheet of the Raw, Unedited Photos I will use

My Outcome

To edit my first photo, I opened it in Adobe Photoshop and firstly I cropped it so there wasn't too much negative space in it, next I adjusted the brightness, contrast and saturation of the photo. Then I wanted to make sure that the background was all grass and there wasn't any leaves in it so I used to clone stamp tool to clone an area of grass and stamp in onto the area that needed it. Then I opened the ink photo and copied and pasted it onto the other photo and made sure the ink was the bottom layer so it was behind the background photo. then I selected the mirror and made it a clipping mask so that it was invisible and you could see it behind the background through the circle where the mirror was. After that I wanted to make the ink look like it was flowing out of the mirror to contrast the edges for my theme so I copied and pasted the ink photo onto the background again and cut off the bits that I didn't need. Then I selected bottom part of the ink and made it a clipping mask. After that I moved the bottom bit of ink to a position that it was flowing out of the mirror and also joined up with the top part of the ink in the mirror. Now that the ink was in the right place I had to make it look realistic so I softened the edges using the eraser tool at an opacity of 30% so that it didn't completely erase the edge. Next I used the dodge tool to create a shadow under the ink to make it look like it was actually part of the photo.

To edit my second photo I opened it in Adobe Photoshop and first I cropped it so there wasn't too much negative space in it, next I adjusted the brightness, contrast and saturation of the photo. Then I opened the ink photo and copied and pasted it onto the other photo and made sure the ink was the bottom layer so it was behind the background photo. then I selected the mirror and made it a clipping mask so that it was invisible and you could see it behind the background through the circle where the mirror was. After that I wanted to make the ink look like it was flowing out of the mirror to contrast the edges for my theme so I copied and pasted the ink photo onto the background again and cut off the bits that I didn't need. Then I selected bottom part of the ink and made it a clipping mask. After that I moved the bottom bit of ink to a position that it was flowing out of the mirror and also joined up with the top part of the ink in the mirror. Now that the ink was in the right place I had to make it look realistic so I softened the edges using the eraser tool at an opacity of 30% so that it didn't completely erase the edge. Next I used the dodge tool to create a shadow under the ink to make it look like it was actually part of the photo.

To edit my third photo I opened it in Adobe Photoshop and first I cropped it so there wasn't too much negative space in it, next I adjusted the brightness, contrast and saturation of the photo. Next I noticed there were some gaps where the background was just grass so I used the clone stamp tool to clone a leaf from another part of the photo and stamped in onto the area that needed it. Then I selected the mirror and made it a clipping mask so that it was invisible and you could see it behind the background through the circle where the mirror was. Then I opened the ink photo and copied and pasted it onto the other photo and made sure the ink was the bottom layer so it was behind the background photo. After that I wanted to make the ink look like it was flowing out of the mirror to contrast the edges for my theme so I copied and pasted the ink photo onto the background again and cut off the bits that I didn't need. Then I selected bottom part of the ink and made it a clipping mask. After that I moved the bottom bit of ink to a position that it was flowing out of the mirror and also joined up with the top part of the ink in the mirror. Now that the ink was in the right place I had to make it look realistic so I softened the edges using the eraser tool at an opacity of 30% so that it didn't completely erase the edge. Next I used the dodge tool to create a shadow under the ink to make it look like it was actually part of the photo.

Review

How has it gone?

I think that the message/context of my theme is conveyed effectively because the development clearly shows the contrast between the edges. The photo is similar to my 2 artists because I have used compositional techniques that they both used, for example negative space, texture, contrast and shape and form.

What are you pleased about?

I am pleased with my editing as the editing I had to do for this development was a lot harder than I have previously done for my photographer analysis and I think my photos look realistic. I successfully edited the photos in photoshop by putting the ink into the mirror and making it look like it is spilling out. This effectively shows my theme of edges through the contrast of the 2 edges in the photo.

In my next Development

To make my next development work even better I need to:

Keep doing: using the compositional techniques of contrast, shape and form and negative space as they have been effective in showing my theme. From this development, I should carry on doing complicated editing to make my photos look real

Do less of: When editing the third photo of my development 1, I started using the clone stamp tool to add more leaves into the background and I took quite a bit of time on this but then later on I just ended up cropping the photo and all of that editing was cropped out so I wasted quite a bit of the time that I had left so next time I need to think more about my time

Do more of: I think I could improve these photos by increasing the brightness more as the photos are a bit dark