Album Covers

In this task I had to create an album cover/sleeve from scratch. I had a very basic template to start with, including just the album title and song names.

For this project I could use whatever medium I wanted. This included choices from digital photography, traditional fine art work using pencils, paint, etc, or creating a collage using various different sources. I could use any or all of these methods in creating my cover. I focused on using digital photography in my work as it is my main interest.

I also looked at different photography websites including Flickr to explore different photographic ideas I could explore. I was frequently drawn to photography utilising different light sources at night and decided I would try something similar using a globe lamp that I own.

I also had to work heavily with typography on this brief. I downloaded new free fonts from DaFont.com. I found the typography to be the hardest part of this brief and spent a lot of time experimenting with different fonts, sizes, placements and spacing.

After completing these two covers with this theme I went on to experimenting with other styles of covers. I also experimented more with spacing and kerning in my typography, utilizing the Character Palette. 

I created a third cover using a different style of photography. This cover would probably be used by a fairly different band to the first two. 

Overall in this task I thought I produced some good work but I did find it difficult to get inspired in the beginning. I worked a lot with typography in this brief and think my skills in that area definitely improved. 

Giants Project

In this project I had to create 'giants' in photoshop. This involved taking background/landscape images as well as photographs of people, so I could combine them in photoshop.

When taking photographs for this task I had to be aware of how my models would later fit into the images. This meant I had to be conscious of having enough space for my 'giants' and making sure they would look realistic in the environment.

Once I had posed my models to fit into my landscape images I took my photographs into photoshop. My main task was cropping the model photographs. I had to work very neatly, making sure I cropped and selected my models down to select details. If I did not do this my giants would look too obviously photoshopped.

One of the new tools I used in this project was the Mask tool. This is another way to edit selections and offers more freedom in experimenting with selections and making mistakes.

Overall I thought I did well on this task and understood it. I produced five different Giant images that I was pleased with. I found the process interesting and felt confident using different techniques in Photoshop. I think the results I gained from this project fit the brief description well.

Collage

I created a collage to later on use for screen printing. I struggled to find a theme at first but the idea developed as I began to research and create the work. I found some examples of collage using natural images and geometric shapes and began to form ideas with this inspiration. 

I arranged my collage in a fairly neat way, focusing on shape and contrast of images. I chose images with some action and movement in them, including crashing waves, cracking ice and explosion.

After my image was scanned I turned it black and white, increasing the contrast heavily so it could be used for screen printing.

Advertising Photographs

For this task we were asked to recreate an advertising campaign for an object of our choosing. We chose a guitar and a motorbike. Our challenge was to recreate an ad campaign for these objects in the studio, including choosing the set-up and lighting.

This is the advert we based these photographs off and were trying to recreate:

Pinhole Photography

These are some different examples of pinhole photography I have found on the internet that I liked. I gathered these images as inspiration for my own attempts at pinhole photography. These images are by various different photographers and display a range of different styles.

Colour pinhole photography is less common but I think it has an appealing dreamlike quality to it.

This particular image (above) utilizes multiple exposures. 

Pinhole cameras are a very old form of photography. The original name for this photography process was 'camera obscura', which means 'dark chamber' in Latin. The term pinhole has come into use because of the literal pinhole light filters through to form the image.

Pinhole cameras are very simple and something that anyone can make. They are very cheaply made, only requiring a tin/container, tape, black sugar paper, some kind of foil and photographic paper.

Here is a diagram of an old 'camera obscura' camera:

Typography In The Landscape

For Unit 23 I took my camera around the college, exploring the environment and trying to find typography in my surroundings. Rather than taking photographs of text on signs or posters, this involved finding shapes and objects that created typography in the landscape.

I used my Canon 550d around the college to take photographs. Finding typography outside of the more basic letters (T, L, O) was a challenge and getting I could see to translate to my camera was another obstacle.

I chose these pictures in particular as I think they show a wide range of typography in the environment rather than just the simple, easy to find letters. I made them black and white to remove distractions and to best showcase the basic forms in the photographs.

Shape & Form

For Unit 23 I went out of college to a nearby church to take photographs. I was focusing on shape and form in the environment. With this task it was necessary to make sure I filled the entire frame on the camera, ensuring the image was nothing but texture and shape.

This was a particularly deteriorated gravestone in the church. A lot of the stone had worn away to reveal the more natural reddish colour at the base of the stone. I picked this image specifically as it shows a very wide range of texture and colour.

This image and the one above it are of the marble steps in front of the church. They are evidently very old and the whole building has become neglected, but one positive of this is the natural wear that has occurred on the oldest parts of the building.

I used the manual focus on my lens to get this photograph. I was pleased with how sharp it came out and I felt it was a good example of natural shape and form.

I chose these nine pictures in particular as I felt they best presented a wide range of shapes and textures from the environment. Some are natural textures and some are man-made. I used my Canon 550d to take these photographs. I took these photos on a very rainy day, which didn't give particularly good light, but I felt I got good results despite this.

Guard Animals

This is a Guard Animal. A Guard Animal is a beast made up of various other animals.



To create this image I first sourced images on the internet. I had success simply using Google Images to find useful pictures, making sure I was only searching for large images so they were good enough quality.



After deciding on which three images to use, I opened them in Photoshop. I used the lasso tool to crop around them carefully, eventually having three different animals to use together in one image. This task required me to create ‘Guard Animals’ by putting together different parts of the images I found, forming a new creature. In the image above, for example, I used a falcon’s body, a lion’s head and a goat’s horns.

I also used the scanner to get images from books I took from the library. Scanning is a good way to get images because you can guarantee that they will be of high enough quality to use to create Guard Animals.



Creating successful Guard Animals relies on cropping images effectively, picking interesting or amusing animal combinations and keeping each image clean and not overdone.



I created ten original Guard Animals in total.