My six final images

These are the six images I have chosen to represent what I think means 'movement'.

This is the first picture, I chose this because I learnt how to photoshop pictures into other pictures and I wanted to use on of them in my final pieces. I chose this one because it is a hand coming out of a table and I think this is a kind of motion, movement coming out of the table.

This is one of the light painting pictures I did in the studio. I really like it because I wanted it to be colour circles but as I turned around the light went off the picture so it turned out like this, as if the light is turning corners.

I chose this photo because I love the way it draws you in. I zoomed in as I took it to create this effect. This is why I chose it because it really is full of movement.

I really love this photo because it also draws you in with making you think about what it could be. I think it looks like a christmas tree and spirals or a dress flowing as if its dancing.

I made these gifs because I took loads for photos, of the dancers and my tutor, moving and I was looking through them and thought that they would look great as a gif, like a video, but made of photos. I really think they both worked very well for this project.

Movement artist research

I started of my research by looking at Rachel Neville.

                           She photographs dancers and this is perfect for a movement project.

I love the surreal feel to this photograph. It is really full of movement, which is hard to capture considering it is a still picture and not a video.

Dancers are full of movement, it's a great idea to try some shots out with different settings. You could do some with long exposer so that there are several dancers as they jump and leap around or you could just capture them in midair. I think she has a great eye for these sort of photos. I really like the way she captures them and fills them full of life and energy. I am thinking about asking some of the dancers in our college if I can have ago at capturing them in mid dance.

Then I went on to Michael Israel.

He is a fine arts artist and has a rather unusual way of doing it.

These are some of his work, and this is how he does it:

There are videos on Youtube of him in concert painting on stage. He does it by running and jumping around on stage, full of movement which is then embedded into his work as he does it. I really like his work and the way he does it. I think it is a very different it clearly works for him very well.

Then I looked at Eric Staller, I chose him because we have been playing with lights and that is something he is famous for.

He paints with light, here is some of his work:

I really like these pictures because there is a lot of thought and planning gone into them and they have worked out really well. Some of them are simple yet effective. I think one or two of my final images will be light painting photos because I really enjoy creating them and seeing them come to life.

I then started to look at fashion with movement.

I looked on deviantART and found a few people who had some great pictures.

I found this artist (Never-let-me-go) and I really like their work. I think it is very energetic and full of movement, I think these pieces of work were for her final project and they are very good. I like how they are in full focus as a posed to them being blurred and in motion, but they are captured and held still in time, but you can still see that they are full of movement.

This work was done by (eco-girl) and I really really like it. I love the way that the dress is in mid air. I will be attempting to try and get some pictures like these because we have the dancers if we can photograph them while they are in a lesson.

These are some of the photos I took.

I made another gif because I took then continuously as they were dancing and they fit really well.

I will be using this as one of my final images.

Here are some other photos I took:

Some turned out really blurry and others like these were great. I had the camera set at Aperture: 5.6, Stutter speed: 25/30's os a second and the ISO at 400.

I like how I focused on this one girl and caught her mid pose in the shot above. I think it makes her look like a ballerina.

Movement Trying out settings and lighting tricks.

Playing with the flashes and settings on our cameras in the dark studio.
 The aperture was at 5.6, Stutter speed was at 1" (1 second) and the ISO was at about 200/400 and the setting was at M (manual), same as the focus because it was dark. We divided into two groups. One group had the settings above, and one group had their cameras on TV and their flashes up on their cameras. Then two people stood in the middle of the room, and made a pose between the two groups. The group with their flashes up provided the lighting for the group on the other side of the room, then we swapped over settings so everyone had a go.

Here are the results:

Then one person stood in front of us all, we had our settings at: Stutter speed- 1" (1 second), Aperture at 5.6, manual focus and the flash up. Then he moved every time we took a picture which looked something like this:

This gave me a great idea to make a gif video of some of these pictures. As the name of this brief is called 'Movement' I think it fits perfectly.

I am using this as one of my final images.

Another task we did was to hold the camera at arms length and point the lens at ourselves. Then we had to spin around and take pictures of our faces as we did. The background was blurred but our faces were in focus, it was a very good effect to create movement in a picture.

These are what I took:

We then practiced safety in the studio room, with the lights and cables.

We took pictures of the wrong way to have the room and the right way to have the room.

These are the wrong ways to have the room set up: The cables stretched out and tangled up, lights plugged in when not in use, drinks on cables, bags all over the room (blocking the door), touching the bulbs after they have been on (they get very hot and can stick your skin to the bulbs).

And here is how it should be: Tidy, space for light drawing photos, drinks away, bags out of sight (under tables), lights unplugged, things put back when moved, wires untangled.

Also in the studio, we had ago at playing with lights with the camera on long exposer. 

Here are some of the turn-outs:

These were done by having the camera on 'BULB' and using coloured lights on my phone.

One person would man the camera and then another would draw.

If we wanted different things in the light picture but not connected like in the tree picture above, we turned the phone around so the light was facing away from the camera and then moved it to where we wanted it and then turn it back towards the camera.

I also had ago with sparklers and fireworks on Bonfire night:

With this shot, as I took it I zoomed in.

I un-focused this on purpose to create these pretty circles of light in the fire.

These again were done on the 'BULB' setting. It is great fun drawing with lights, it has to be one of my favourite ways of playing with settings.

Then we had a go at photoshopping with picture frames.

I combined these two pictures.

This is the finished photo.

I started by taking both pictures and putting them on photoshop.

Then I put them on top of each other.

I then added a layer.

Then I changed the opacity.

So that they were both showing.

Then I painted in the bits I wanted from one picture.

Then I put the opacity back to normal.

And then it was finished.

Then I merged the layers down into one.

Then I saved it as a JPEG.

I also did this with another picture.

I used the same editing tools as above in the other picture.

I think I might use this or something like this for another one of my final images.

These are some other pictures I took:

I started with these two pictures,

I put both pictures in photoshop and then cut the wall out of the first picture.

Then I put it on the other picture.

Then I fitted it into the frame of the other picture, then I merged it down.

This is the final image.

I really enjoyed doing this, it's not as hard to do as I thought it would be and it is very effective.

We then went back into the studio and learnt a bit more about photographing with the studio lights.

This is called The Beauty Dish. It helps you to see how the light will fall on the model when the flash goes off.

This is called The Light Box. It helps create soft lighting.

Whenever you plug the lights in, make sure to loop the cable around the lamp stand so that they are not lying all over the place and if you do trip over them you will just pull them along the floor and not make them fall over.

This is The Reflector.

The Gold side helps to create a warm tanned feeling to a photo.

Like this.

The white side reflects the light onto both sides of the model's face.

This is the defuser, it helps to reduce hard/harsh light in your photos. It is perfect for portraits outside when the sun is shining brightly.

The ring around the bulb is the flash, it should never be touched because you could hurt yourself and also you could damage it. If you need to replace the beauty dish you are to do so with out touching either of these bulbs, with the dish or your hands.

These are the controls for the beauty dish light. The green button operates the flash.

We angled the beauty dish at hip level and then got someone to stand in front of it. 

It created an eery atmosphere.

Then we took some Black and White photos. To get this setting I went to 'Menu' then to 'Parameters' and then 'B/W'

I love the shading on these photos, I think they are all very well lit.