LO-FI ZINE Assignment : Task 3: Body of work on the theme of home : Leo

Here are my first developmental images on my theme of home. I have chosen to use my dog to represent this theme because I feel like our house isn't a home unless he's there. He is always there wherever I am when I'm at home and he is great company. If ever he is out (on a walk or maybe at kennels) the house always feels empty without his presence and quiet tapping of feet walking around the house. I originally wanted to capture objects that represented him e.g. his toys, a bone, his bed, his water and food bowls. I went out with this idea in my head and found that there was only a certain amount of objects that could represent him before I was going to have to start filling my zine with images of him to bulk it out. 

Once I had started taking pictures of him I really liked them (because he is so photogenic and he is gorgeous) and so decided to mix the two styles of imagery - I want to have some images of objects that represent him and some of himself. 

Black and white images :

Here I have been experimenting with how my images look by making some of them black and white. As much as I admire and am a fan of black and white photography, I don't think that I am going to go down this route for my own zine on the theme of home as the photographs which I have originally taken have a much warmer feel to them which is representational of home.

My original images were taken both indoors and outdoors. I find that the images which were taken indoors using natural lighting from the sun coming through windows are more successful and aesthetically pleasing than those taken indoors with artificial lighting. When I have had to use artificial lighting I have used portable lights to illuminate certain aspects of an image and to aid shooting indoors with poor lighting. I have also found that the early sunrise lighting is beautiful for photographing my dog looking out of the window.

DOCUMENTARY Assignment : Part 2 : Task 1 : Research : 'Cuts'

'Cuts' is one of the topics that we can choose to photograph in a documentary style. Cuts could be illustrated by demonstrations or strikes, abandoned shops, queues for the job centre, etc. Cuts are a very worrying thing especially for the younger generation. Nothing is guaranteed: pensions, career paths, even having a job isn't guaranteed. Because of the economic downturn lots of things have been cut by the government. People have been made redundant and lost jobs, this has lead to some having to move homes or take out larger mortgages. Student fees have been raised from an average of £3000 a year to £9000, leaving students struggling even more to pay for their education or choosing to not get an education at all.

DISCLAIMER: None of the above images are my own.

Cuts is a really interesting thing to photograph especially from a Documentary point of view. It's the sort of thing that you probably wouldn't notice when you are going about your average day but when you look into it you would notice derelict buildings etc. I think it is a huge shame that we are in such an economic crisis and people are fearing for their jobs and eventually their livelihood. 

I think that the best thing to illustrate cuts would be a strike like some of the images above, however, a strike is usually planned to be on one day and this sort of footage would be hard to capture within the amount of time I have to hand this assignment in so I have chosen not to work on the theme of 'cuts'.

IMAGE AND TEXT Assignment : Task 6 : Images showing student life

For this effect I was trying to imitate the 'kaleidoscope effect' created by a piece of tin foil. I created this effect using the modern digital techniques in Photoshop. I applied a grey solid colour layer over the top of my image. I then applied an artistic brush stroke over the top of that to give it the grainy effect. Once I had done this, I altered the opacity of the grey layer to reveal some of the subject underneath. I then used the eraser tool to reveal a circle of the image - around the feet. I really like this effect as it draws attention to the feet and then it makes your eye wander across the rest of the image to see all the cables etc.

This effect was created using modern digital effects in Photoshop. I created a vignette effect by applying a solid black colour layer over the top of the image. I then used the eraser tool to work from the centre outwards to create the darkness around the edges of the image. I like this photograph and think it represents student life because it shows people having a good time in a bar. I think the vignette adds to the image because it creates an atmosphere and makes the images darker, and it is usually quite dark in bars.

This image was edited using modern digital in-camera techniques in Photoshop. I applied a purple vignette because there are a lot of purple colours in the original image of someone setting up his guitar. I did this by applying a solid colour purple layer on top of my image and using the eraser tool to reveal the original image by erasing the purple layer from the centre outwards. I really like this effect because it looks like the guitarist is glowing and I love the pose in the original image. This image represents student life because the people in the band were very young and were probably students and also students like going to events like festivals and concerts.

This effect was created using modern digital in-camera techniques using Photoshop. I applied a green colour fill layer onto my original image. I then altered the opacity to reveal the image underneath. This makes the image have a green tint to it. This could be created using traditional in-camera techniques by holding a piece of green plastic in front of the lens, or using green nail varnish to create a green filter. 

This effect was created using modern digital in-camera techniques using Photoshop. I applied a Gaussian Blur to the image and then used the eraser tool and erased the effect in a diagonal from top right to bottom left. I did this so that it would work with the fact that the original image was shot at an angle. This effect could be recreated using traditional in-camera techniques by applying vaseline to the lens at the top and the bottom. This would make the image being taken blurry at the top and bottom or left and right side.

For this image I applied a pink vignette using modern digital in-camera techniques in Photoshop. I chose to apply pink because there was a lot of pink in the original image. I really like this effect as it lifts the image and makes it have an even happier feel alongside the two smiling people. This shows a different aspect to student life as they are having fun in their own time being festive trying on hats at the Christmas German Market. 

This effect was created using modern digital in-camera techniques in Photoshop. I applied a black fill colour layer onto the original image and erased it from the centre outwards to create this vignette effect.

This effect was created using modern digital in-camera techniques using Photoshop. To create this effect I applied an orange fill colour layer onto my image. I chose orange to go with the orange scarf being worn by Ceri. I then altered the opacity to slightly reveal the background. I then used the eraser tool and carefully erased the effect exactly where the people are in this image so that they are in full colour and everything else in the image is orange toned. I really like this effect and the image shows student life well because it shows three people who are really good friends and are having a good time. I think it would be very difficult to create this effect using traditional in-camera techniques because it would be very hard to create a colour filter (whether on the lens or on a piece of acetate) that would fit perfectly around the subject of a photograph.

This effect was created using modern digital in-camera techniques by applying a gaussian blur over the image and erasing it from the centre outwards.

The above two images were created using traditional in-camera techniques. I applied a cling film filter over the end of my lens. I really like this effect because it appears to be more raw than the modern digital in-camera techniques created using Photoshop. Although the effect is not always reliable in achieving the desired image, the rawness is really aesthetically pleasing to me and reminds me of how raw film photography is. 

This image was created using modern digital in-camera techniques. I applied a purple and yellow gradient to work with the colours that were already in the original image. I then used the eraser tool to remove most of the gradient and just leave some colour around the edges. I really like this effect as it creates a kind of haze around the people in the image.

This image was created using modern digital in-camera techniques using Photoshop. I applied an orange solid colour fill layer over the top of the image. I then altered the opacity of the colour fill layer to reveal the original image with an orange toned tint to it. This makes the image look quite vintage.

For this effect I applied a Vignette by adding a black solid colour fill layer over the top of my image and using the eraser tool revealed the image underneath from the centre outwards.

LO-FI ZINE Assignment : Task 2 : Research : Jo Longhurst

Jo Longhurst works with dogs in a lot of her photographs. This links to my own theme of home for my project as I want to photograph my dog in various different ways around my home.