This document summarizes Abby Downing's experimental photography project. It discusses multiple techniques Abby experimented with, including multiple exposure, where she combined exposures of a dog with trees and grass. It also discusses her experiment with the Harris shutter technique, where she combined exposures of a dog running to depict movement. The document evaluates Abby's ideas and the results of her experiments, discusses the qualities and strengths/weaknesses of her work, and how she could further improve and develop her experimental photography.
3. Use this slide to annotate your final image
Dark coloured
photograph
Close up
2 different
textures in the
image because of
the multiple
exposure. 1 is
bumpy and one is
prickly
Naturalistic/candid
photograph
The darkest areas
of the photograph
are the dogs eyes
and gums.
The lightest
areas of the
photograph are
the background.
High aperture was used to
photograph this picture as
you can see from the out
of focus background
The tones in the
image range from
white to dark blue
Photograph
taken at eye
level
Contains 3
exposures. One
of a dog in a field,
one of trees that
has been rotated
and another of
long grass. All of
them have been
turned into one
image on
Photoshop which
gives of lots of
textures.
4. Evaluate: ideas eg analysis, results;
How well do you feel you have realised your ideas and intentions and what results have
you got?
By looking at artists and their photographs themselves helped me decide what I wanted to experiment. The main experiment that stood out to me was
‘multiple exposure’ because I had never seen it before and was very different. The artist’s Sara K Byrneby and Jerry Uelsmann inspired me to do this
sort of experiment and use both nature and humans combined to create 2 or more exposures in one photograph. The first experiment I initially did
was I took various photographs of a dog and took 1 really close up one of which I used as my main image, then I took a picture of some tree’s
and put them in Photoshop and screened the tree’s. this made it so that the dog and tree’s
were blended together to create a surreal photograph, after this I used the same photograph
of a dog but with a different exposure of long grass to see how that looked. I thought they both
looked nice but thought I would blend all 3 exposures together to create the final images and
tweaked the colours and levels. This reminded me of some work I had previously seen by
Byrneby. Such as her photograph of the girl with tree’s inside her. I wanted my work to have
some qualities and aspects of the kind of work she produced. I think they’re similar because
they both show the main features of both human and animal with nature inside them. My work
is not as enhanced as hers as you can see the trees very clearly within her whereas on mine
they are not as prominent. For all of my experiments within multiple exposure I have done in
Photoshop.
Qualities:
What I like about my work is that you can clearly see all exposures, I like that you can see that it
is a dog with nature In and around her. I think that it looks not as professional as I’d like it,
maybe if I spent more time on it, it would have looked a lot better, however I do like how I’ve
learnt how to do this through experimenting and reading upon how to do it. The strengths of
the work I think are the colours, it makes it look different and this one isn’t just black and white,
the photographs themselves are really good quality, so when it came to experimenting with
them through different techniques the outcomes never looked really bad because of the high
quality photographs. To get the blurry faded background, when I took the photograph I
changed the aperture setting so that her face was much more prominent and noticeable then
the background, I did this because I knew at this point that when I was going to edit the
photographs the background was not important or essential. I also increased the shutter speed
as well, because the dog was moving around it was hard to capture her really still so I made
sure the shutter speed was fairly fast to avoid camera shake and out of focus photographs.
When it came to post production I don’t think I did the best I could, because the exposure is
quite bright overall on my final image I didn’t think this looked great, as you can see on the
black and white photograph I produced the contrast is higher and there is a range of dark and
light tones whereas on this image it is particularly light.
4
5. How could you improve your work? Could you develop your work further with additional work?
What would you try to achieve with this? Could you undertake further experiments? If so, what
would they be?
I could improve the work I carried out by changing around the levels and exposure more and concentrate on this
when I have combined the exposures, I do not think that I did enough of this. I developed my first image of the
dog into a few other images until I was happy with the final outcome, this took time and was very time
consuming to find the right photographs to combine together. I could undertake further experiments by making
both exposures black and white to create a cut out effect I have seen a lot within Sara's work. This looked really
difficult and didn’t work with any of the photographs I took so I would have to experiment with this a different
time.
Because I was using more then one exposure in one photograph it created lines and shapes within the
photograph which made it look interesting and surreal. The contrast of my photograph was fairy low but their
were elements that were a lot lighter then the others, due to where the photograph was taken against the sun.
The colours of the photograph are cold and not bright, more dark. The colours were from the photographs added
of the tree’s and grass, which include blues and greens. The photograph could be developed further by maybe
adding a texture of another exposure to the photograph to make it more interesting. I think more colour added
would make it better also, and the contrast higher.
The work I have produced fulfils the brief because it involves a theme, which is nature and fulfils this in different
ways. You can tell that these photographs contain nature because I have used a main subject(s) and added
nature to the photograph, or more nature. They are all experimental because I have used techniques that I had
learnt from other experimental photographs(photographers) which is multiple exposure, which is a technique
that can’t be done without Photoshop or the setting on the camera. It is not ‘natural’ and cannot be captured
within one shot.
The photograph of the women and the dog next to each other I produced looks rather natural rather then
experimental but it is in fact a combination of 2 exposures. The first photograph I took of the women and the dog
was combined with a photograph of a river on Photoshop and the levels and curves were changed around, which
created the final image. I like this photograph because it looks natural but the women looks like she is fading
away, it could have a story behind the image.
5
7. Use this slide to annotate your final image
3 exposures of the
same background
were placed into
one image so that
the colours of the
subject moving
change colours.
Some of them didn’t
show up as much of
the others but that
was due to the
quality of that
photograph and the
colour.
Colourful photograph
Large depth of
field
The lightest part of the
photograph is the sky
Their is texture in the
photograph, the grass looks
rough
Landscape
photograph
Mid/long shot of
the dog
Taken at a
slight high
angle
The contrast
of the
photograph is
quite low
Posed
photograph-made
the dog
run across the
field
The main focus of the
photograph is the dog
running across to suggest
movement
8. 8
Evaluate: ideas eg analysis, results;
I think that I have done well within this technique, because it is really hard to understand and be
able to accomplish, especially in Photoshop. The only thing that went wrong in my photograph is the
pictures were not all taken with the same background, so the background showed movement which
I didn’t want. I only wanted to show the movement of the dog. If I had kept it in the same position it
would have been a perfect picture to capture of the Harris shutter effect. The images on the right
inspired me to try out the Harris Shutter Effect. I thought they looked really interesting, I had never
heard nor seen this effect before and I think it works really well to show movement in a photograph
and the colour just makes it look professional and amazing. The differences between this work and
my own is that there background is the correct original colours, whereas mine are a bit of and show
movement when it is meant to be still, however this could improve with further practise. It would be
nice to try this effect with different moving objects. There wasn’t a specific photographer I had
found that influenced me to do this technique, it was just the photographs people had created with
this effect that I saw that influenced me.
Qualities:
I think the look of my work is good considering that the technique itself is hard to do. I think that it
worked really well with the images I had for the technique and looks professional. I like that the dog
is running in a line across the camera and you can see that it is the same dog repeated 3 times to
show movement. I dislike that the background is slightly of because the camera was millimetres of
the same position of each shot. i like the technique itself and would love to practise with it in
further projects.
Further development would be to rearrange the photographs all together to make sure they are at
exactly the same position then create the effect and carry out other post production such as alter
the levels and curves. This would make it so the photograph itself looks better.
To capture each individual photograph I put the camera on ‘TV’ which is shutter priority and made it
so that shutter was quick. This helped me capture the dog in a still position and made it so the dog
was not blurry and in a ‘freeze’ position. I also put the camera on burst mode so whilst I held the
shutter button down it took a picture one after the other with about a second or two in between.
This helped me keep it nearly in the same position because it captured the dog in a different
position across the camera 3 times.
I carried out this experiment 3 times with the dog running in different positions, so I had a lot to
work with when it came to doing post production. I also experimented it firstly with my cousin to
see if it worked.
9. How could you improve your work? Could you develop your work further with
additional work? What would you try to achieve with this? Could you undertake further
experiments? If so, what would they be?
I could improve my work by making sure that the tripod was completely still whilst doing this experiment, it is
essential because if it is moved slightly then the effect will not work as the Harris shutter will take effect on the
foreground as well as the background. By doing this I could set a timer on the camera so that I am not even
touching the camera when it is taking the shot, which ensures that the camera will not move. I could develop my
work further by using different things as a Harris shutter. Maybe with the dog being the foreground that is still
with a moving background behind it. To achieve this I would have to have a moving background such as water or
tree’s in the wind and then take a few shots of it moving. This would be harder to complete as the dog would
move and it wouldn’t be a simple thing to capture.
When talking about your work, consider formal elements such as lines, shapes and
patterns as well as the colour and contrast and also tone of your image. Think about the
composition of your work and where this could be developed.
The photograph creates a direction because the dog is running from left to right which you can clearly see. The
colours go from yellow to purple to green which contrast each other which makes the photograph bright. I like
harris shutter photographs with a plain background so that the main element (the dog) is seen more clearly. This
would be a thing I could think about if I were to develop my wok further.
Finally you should consider if the images you have produced fulfil the brief you were
set. Do they match the theme? Are they experimental? Explain your answers using
specific examples.
the images I produced fulfil the brief because they match the theme of Harris shutter because I
have carried the effect out on the image which was from research the main way to carry out the
theme and has been done this way by other photographers.
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10. 10
(multiple Exposure)
The first thing I did was open my man image and enhance the exposure to make sure the background is
bleached out. I did the same thing with the other photograph and pasted it onto the first image. I then used
screen to make them combine. It works by the photograph merging into the darkest tones. I then changed the
images to black and white because I did not like the colours.
12. The photographs were taken
separately and merged together on
Photoshop by using ‘screen’ I also
changed the saturation and made
the photograph black and white
because I thought I worked better
and also looked better with the
harsh tones
The clearest part of the
photograph I think is the face,
because this hasn’t really blended
much with the other image
The light used in this photograph is
artificial light from the studio, which
also makes it high key lighting
The lightest part of the photograph
is the sky and the darkest part is
the trees
12
Use this slide to annotate your final image
Oragic shape: Treeline
rotated landscape
Monochrome black and white
photography
mid shot to show most of
upper body and enough to
see facial expression
Combination of 2
exposures to create the
overall photograph
Tones ranging from light to
dark throughout the
photograph
Photograph is meant to come
across as passive, in the sense
that she is lonely in a forest.
Naturalistic photographic, the
photograph is not obviously posed
and Photograph taken at eye is supposed to look natural.
level
The lines fro, the trees create a bit
of a direction to the model
because of the shape of the trees
The texture of the
photograph looks hard
and prickly because of the
trees incorporated
13. 13
Evaluate: ideas eg analysis, results;
The results I got are better then what I expected, this is because it is hard to create a multiple exposure; you need the right
photographs for It to work. These 2 photographs were the ones that worked the best with each other, especially in black and white.
Christoffer Relander inspired me to do this kind of work because I thought his work was the best from all the multiple exposure
photographers I have researched, all of his photographs just fit together really nicely. The ideas I created from his work were black
and white photography of humans with a bleached out background and combining the photographs with nature. The photographs
can tell a story and it’s really interesting to see the facial expressions on the people. My work is like his with the way our
photographs ‘cut away’ each other, for example the cut away on my model is the tree’s.
The photograph on the right Is one of Relanders of a women who's been cut away by nature.
Qualities:
Consider the aesthetic qualities of your work. How does it look? What do you like about it? What
are the strongest and weakest elements from an aesthetic point of view?
I think the work I produced is different and I enjoyed doing it. I’d never seen this type of
photography before until I got introduced to it this year and I really am interested by it. I like the
way that If the photograph is rotated it looks like a treeline photograph until you realise that it is in
fact a women combined with tree’s, it’s really interesting to look at. Along with the other multiple
exposure photographs I created. The strongest points of my work I think are the fact I enhanced
the black and white to make it so the tree blended how I wanted it to. The weakest points are in
the face, because not much of the tree you can see in the face, which I would of liked.
I enhanced the exposure in post production to make sure the background was completely bleached
out. The shutter speed was 1/125 this was enough to get the light in that I wanted and to make
sure there was no blur or camera shake. The ISO speed ratings was 400 which is standard because I
do not like to alter this because it can make the photograph to dark or bright. The aperture was
4.375, for this photograph I did not need to change the aperture settings round much because I
had a plain white background.
The post production I carried out on this photograph included editing the first image of my model
to enhance the exposure slightly, then I added the treeline and flipped it vertically. I then enhanced
the exposure on this photograph as well. ‘screened’ the photograph and moved it around until I
was happy. I made the photograph overall black and white because I thought it worked and looked
better. But saved both copies.
14. How could you improve your work? Could you develop your work further with
additional work? What would you try to achieve with this? Could you undertake further
experiments? If so, what would they be?
I could improve my work by experimenting with taking a double exposure within the camera settings themselves
to test how reliable and good this technique is, a lot of the photographers I looked at used this method but also
post production as well.
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I could develop my work further by adding in more than two exposures to make it really interesting, this will
also give the photograph different colours and textures. Another way is by taking photographs of animals and
nature to combine these, to see if it worked as well as a human. This would be interesting to see if it worked as
good. I would have to undertake taking more photographs to be able to do this and also research if using
different techniques.
When talking about your work, consider formal elements such as lines, shapes and
patterns as well as the colour and contrast and also tone of your image. Think about the
composition of your work and where this could be developed.
There are a lot of different shapes and lines in my work because of the photos combined. The top that the
model was wearing created a different pattern because when I ‘screened’ the image it creates a sort of fading
affect and the contrast between the white and black on the top worked well with the effect I was trying to make.
Finally you should consider if the images you have produced fulfil the brief you were
set. Do they match the theme? Are they experimental? Explain your answers using
specific examples.
My work matches my theme because it revolves around nature. They are also experimental because they do not
follow usual photographic rules and they use experimental techniques such as multiple exposure.
