Jerry Uelsmann

When I first heard about Uelsmann's work, I wasn't too impressed. What interested me was the fact that he does all his work in the dark room.  NO PHOTOSHOP.  How he manages to blend his components to effectively amazes me.  The shadows on some of his pieces look perfect,  now it's hard to get shadows right in Photoshop, but in a dark room?

This piece is called "Untitled" and it was done in 1982. Since Uelsmann does his work in the surrealist style, it is very interpretive. The way I interoperate it is because of the roots connected to the house,  is I think it's trying to say that the house has been there  a long time because of the how long the roots actually are. The house is also abandoned and broken, which could be saying that the environment is abandoned and broken, because it's connected to roots.

Flew Designs

Hey Guys. Today I would like to talk about and artist that I admire. This guys are is what inspired me to try out photo manipulation. He goes by "Flew" and in my opinion, his pieces are amazing. He very good at taking components from other things, and integrating them in a way that looks real.

 One of my favourite pieces by him, is this piece called "Out Of View". It's in the surrealist style, and there's many ways to interoperate this piece. One way could be it symbolises people being born, because of the people in the bubbles lying in fetal position, and the way their floating onto our world, and how the concept is "Out Of View".

His website if you're curious:
http://www.flewdesigns.com/
-Discord
 

Public Service Announcements

In class we've been looking at PSA's and what makes them effective. One PSA I found effective was the one embedded bellow. The reason I think it's so effective is  that they try to make it as relatable as possible. They use actors that are at the usual age that cyber bullying occurs. They also show how devastating cyber bulling can be, and what kind of effect it can have.  I think the main thing that makes a PSA stand out is how relatable it is to the audience they are targeting, and I think the makers of this PSA pulled it off.

Video Production Assignment: 3:6:9 Exercise - Shooting and Editing

The point of this assignment, was to create an emotional experience with an inanimate object. I think  some of the strengths in my video were the music and the imagery. I think both combined, elements really did a great job of setting the mood. Also the dim lighting added to the mood. Some things I could've improved on would be maybe canting some of the shots to create a more uncomfortable feel. The soundtrack definitely added to the mood, because it had a slow build up, and uncomfortable off pitch noises. I edited the video to fade in to every shot. This was an attempt to create build up. I also ordered the shots to reveal more and more of the context each time, until the middle, then the shots start to get closer and closer to the focal again.

Year 1 Tech--Stop Motion

For this weeks blog post we needed to find a stop motion animation, and describe what makes it an effective animation. After some youtube browsing I found one I quite enjoyed. It's called "NIGHTMARE" and it's a claymation set to music. What I liked about it is, there is no voice acting, yet it establishes a quick plot quite effectively. The sets look great, and the animation looks pretty fluid. It also does a great job of setting characters. The characters are extremely basic, but the creator did a great job establishing their roles. Another really cool feature of this animation, is the blood/gore FX. They are very well done and the death scenes are gruesome, and original. The majority of the animation takes place in the same area, and all the light comes from one light source. The lighting is slightly dim, creating a good atmosphere. Another thing I thought was really great here was the panning, it had this effect on it that created speed. One last thing that I thought was really creative is that some of the shots are from the characters camera, which added a cool new point of view.

After watching this animation I can't wait to go more in depth to this unit!

Digital Surrealism Project

In this assignment, we needed to learn how to answer this question. “How do I create a photographic art piece, in the surrealist style?” The answer I believe is SYMBOLISM. It’s a word that comes up quite often when discussing surrealism, and that is for a reason.  Symbolism is used extremely often in this style. Effective symbolism rarely makes sense to anyone else other than the artist, which leaves it up to interpretation.

I used symbolism in my piece mainly with the masks. They symbolize the fake emotions that people who are suffering use to get people not worry about them, but everyone has a mask. Everyone’s dealing with something. Whether it is selth loathing, troubles at home, or even homosexuality. The reason people have these “masks” is that they’re afraid what people would think of them if they saw what was behind.

For this project I was very inspired by the photomontages of Jerry Uelsmann. When I learned that he did none of his work on Photoshop I was extremely impressed. I have actually done a few of Uelsmann style photomontages in Photoshop so when I saw a master at work I’m determined to get to that level.

I personally thought I did a great job on this assignment.  All of the pictures I took were planned shots to get the lighting perfect.  I did little things like adding slight shadows under feet, and making subtle reflections to make the blending as seamless as I could possibly do at my level. I utilized the pentool constantly, and used masks as well. One thing I could have done better is utilizing masks a lot more. There were points where I just wouldn’t bother even if there was no point not to use a mask. In my future work I will make sure to use masks to my fullest advantage.

One thing I was very happy with was the tear, on Diana’s face. No one brought eye drops the day of the shoot so I had to make it in Photoshop. I used a mixture of the pentool, gradients, and bevel & emboss to create something I was eventually quite happy with. This was an achievement for me because I’m not used to creating elements in my photo manipulations, so this was something new for me, and I was proud of how it turned out.

All in all, this piece was meant to communicate a very important issue. I thought the name “Our Masks” was appropriate, because everyone has a “Mask”.

Tech Blog Post #4--Photo Composition

For this blog post we have been asked to describe what makes our photo "Awesome". I had many compositional techniques in mind when taking this picture.

I used the soccer net for framing, by taking the picture of the keys through a hole in the net. I used depth of field by focusing in on my keys, while blurring rest of the area. Depth of field helps create a contrast in the image, by leaving the focal and surrounding area the only area not blurred. I also utilized rule of thirds in my photo by placing my focal on an intersecting point. There is also another contrast between the modern metallic keys, and the rugged, organic earth.  

One thing I would do to my photo if I could take it again with unlimited resources, is I would change the object I used for my focal. The keys work, but I would've liked to have had an object that contrasted with the background more colour wise. For example instead of using my keys in my opinion it would of been better if I had a bright blue ball, because the colours would contrast more.

I think I did a pretty good job on this picture, and I'm defiantly open to any constructive criticism anyone has. Thanks!
-Discord