evaluation task 2

I first began this project by looking into photographers that specialize in book cover photography such as Jim Higgins who works for Higgins and Ross photography. I wanted to make my cover look different but also incorporate some of my ideas from the ‘book of face’ project as I didn’t get to produce my photos as well in that project. I went along with the ideas of self-portrait as I enjoyed what I did in the ‘book of face’ project and wanted to expand on it.

I chose to do the ‘interzone’ book as I felt that a self-portrait would fit nicely on this book. I used the medium format camera to take my pictures as this provided the quality i wanted for the images. i had no problems when shooting and i had someone to help press the shutter down as i needed to stay still also Tim done the lighting for me as i couldnt do it myself.

when it came to developing my photos it was a quick rush on friday morning but i got them all printed succesfully. in conclusion my book cover turned out good and i will like to do it again sometime

This is my finished book cover for the book 'interzone' by William S Burroughs.

I created a second variant of my book cover

This type of book cover is made for a biography so the picture has to relate to the person who the biography is about. This book is about the 17 years Steve Peat has been racing downhill mountain biking. This book is made up of photographs from the years Steve has been racing and it gives the reader an insight to what it was like building up to be world champion. The photography has been done by Victor Lucas who specializes in mountain bike photography. This cover is good as it draws the audience in and makes them more interested in the book.

 

 

This is another biography about the late Cliff Burton from the heavy metal band Metallica who died in a bus crash whilst on the damage Inc. tour. The cover is a classic picture of Cliff that most Metallica fans can relate to so this is a good picture to have on the cover to sell the book. The book is about the life and death of Cliff Burton from his early days in trauma to writing masterpieces like ‘Orion’ and ‘The call of Ktulu’. This book is a must have for any Metallica fan and anyone interested in music in general as Cliff was a great musician.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jim Higgins

Jim Higgins is a photographer for the company Higgins and Ross which was formed by Jim Higgins and Joan Ross who have been in the image creating business for 30 years. They specialize in cover art as they have had their images printed on more than 30 books from completely different genres.

The two covers here are covers that Higgins and Ross produced for these books. They are heavily photo shopped but many of their photos are as this is their unique style. The cover for ‘put a spell on you’ relates to the title as you would think that the cover is to do with magic and spells.

 

 

evaluation

evaluation 

I began this assignment by looking at photographers such as Vivian Maier and Christina Nunez, I liked both styles of work as they both worked in self portraiture. I preferred Vivian Maiers work as she used much more interesting camera angles and set up here shots a lot different than other photographers. I wanted to create an image in black and white using a large format camera this is because I wanted to print my image large when I came to finish as most of Vivian Maiers photos were fairly large to. 

when it came to taking my photo I set-up my lighting and backdrop so I could use the lighting more effectively so I went with a black back drop to show off the lighting better. as I wanted to take a self portrait and use the large format camera I needed someone to literally take the photo as I could not take it myself as the large format camera shoots film and doesn't have a self timer. I got around this problem by asking one of my friends (Will) to take the photo but I set-up the camera and lighting so it was still technically my self portrait I just had a bit of assistance.

after I took the photo Tim got the negatives ready to be developed. As I was shooting large format I needed to use much more chemicals than a standard 35mm photo. I used 2 litres of each chemical (developer, stop and fix) then left it under running cold water to rinse them chemicals off. once I removed the negatives I found that there was nothing on them which resulted in my large format photos being un successful I have learnt from this that next time I will take more care when adding chemicals and using the correct amount.

my next option was to take a photo with the medium format camera and developing the negatives  this made a really interesting photo as the image came out ghostly and strange looking. these images were much easier to develop as I was only developing the negatives and it was a lot less time consuming. I also created some photo-grams as these were very straight forward to make because all you had to do was put objects on top of photographic paper and expose it to light for a short while.

in conclusion I believe my project could have been more successful if i had taken more care with the chemicals but I still managed to produce some interesting work influenced by my research

self portrait

 

 

when all else is incapable

in·ca·pa·ble/inˈkāpəbəl/

Adjective:

Not capable; unable to do or achieve (something). (of a person) Too honest or moral to do a certain thing: "incapable of prejudice".

 

ED2 photography assignment 1 studio equipment

Professional photographic

studio equipment

 

 

Cameras

Digital SLR

 

Digital SLR cameras are the most common camera used in photographic studios today because they are easy to use, user friendly and you can take as many photos as your memory card can hold. digital photos are also alot easier to use as they can be tranfered into a computer quickly and easily they can also be edited or tweaked in a photo editing programme such as photoshop elements. digital photos can be shared much easier as they can be copied in an instant as computers allow you to copy photos that you have taken. using digital are also good for photographic companies that sell their photos to clients as they can edit them and then sell them but also keep copies of the photos.

 

Medium format

medium format cameras are common cameras found in a photogrpahic studio. they come in digital and non digitial formats. the advantages of having a digital medium format camera is that you do not need to develop anything all you have to do is upload them to a computer. it is also much easier to edit digital photos as they can be opened into photoshop and edited easily.

Medium format cameras also come in a film format which you use 120mm film with to create your images. The disadvantages of using film cameras is that you have to develop them to see if your image was succesful or not whereas digital you can instantly see your image.

 

 

 

ED2 Photo Assignment One

Self portraiture photographers

Vivian Maier
Vivian Maier was an American street photographer during the 50's and 60's. Vivian Maier was born on February 1st 1926 in New York, USA. She grew up in the USA and France as her parents moved around but when she was 25 she moved to New York to work and do photography. Vivian Maier died in 2009 aged 83, a lot of her work was un-printed and produced, so historian John Maloof went ahead and printed some of her work to show it in museums across the world.

  In this photo Vivian Maier has created a self portrait in a bathroom which is interesting as there is a mirror to her left which is showing a reflection of her so there is two of her in the picture. Maier is using a medium format twin lense reflex camera. These style cameras were first designed in 1870 and were a breakthrough in photographic technology as you didn't need to change any lens to focus and take pictures with. the next major breakthrough in twin lense photography were Rolleiflex cameras in 1929, these cameras were much better quality and designed. the disadvantages of these cameras were that on many of them you couldn't change the lenses so you'd be stuck with the lense on the camera unless you bought a different camera
It is seen in this picture that Vivian Maier is using a Rollieflex camera as these were the best at the time and Maier had started her photography around the same time these cameras came out.

This is another self-portrait that Vivian Maier created. She took a photo of her reflection in a mirror that this man is holding. this self portrait is good because she hasn't just took a picture of herself sitting in-front of a camera she has created something interesting and different. also the attention of the photo isn't just focused on her there is also other events going on around her which gets the viewer thinking about why the man is holding the mirror, is there a purpose other than the photo? and the person emerging from the walk way to the right of the photo. It is just a very interesting self portrait which is unique to many others.



Cristina Nunez
Cristina Nunez is a professional artist-photographer who has been taking self-portraits since 1988 as a form of self-therapy, to explore her creative identity and to raise her self-esteem. She has held workshops on self portraiture photography in various places such as prisons and photography centres across Spain. Her work as an artist-photographer has been internationally awarded, shown in many exhibitions and published in several photography books.

In this photo Cristina has also used a twin lense camera like Vivian Maier, these cameras a quite popular within self portrait photographers as they are small and can be hand held easily, they also look good in a photo. this self portrait does look like a generic  self portrait but it does have a different look to it as the corners are dark and it fades into the middle. this self portrait also has other objects to pay attention to like the Vivian Maier self portrait in the mirror, the viewers attention is also drawn towards the camera she is holding aswell as this is quite a nice part of the photo






this self portrait is also fairly generic but its interesting because she is using the same camera as the the previous self portrait I looked at. This self portrait is almost the same as the previous photo but she is a few more years older in this photo but she has still shot it in the same style as her previous photo.