Experimenting on Photoshop - Changing the tones of my images

Original Image: 

Black and white:

Adding a 'blue' tone to the image:

Orange tint: 

All though the original is a more natural tone which you could say works best for the theme I'm doing. I wanted to experiment with changing the colours/tones ever so slightly. I wanted to make the images bolder and more attractive. With images like these - based on everyday - they can appear to be quite bland, normal, boring. So with changing the tones, I wanted to see if I could make them more attractive and interesting. I would say the black and white one doesn't work, due to the nature of the work I want to take. It takes away the 'natural' element of them- changing them to black and white gives this type of image a fake and set up element, making you think that the image was set up. Also, people often tend to view black and white images as more emotive. I don't want people to force themselves to have to find an emotional meaning behind my images (just because it's in black and white) if there is a meaning, I want them to naturally find it themselves. 

My favourite of the three would definitely be the 'Blue' one. Her skin colour still appears to be a normal natural colour - unlike the orange toned image- and despite the background being a less natural colour. I feel that this all works together. The image is more eye catching and interesting.

More on Andy Warhols Polaroids

Last shoot

I'm quite pleased with how my last shoot went, simply because it fits all the areas I wanted to portray. Such as Friends, Social situations, Portraiture, Natural, Invading the privacy of your friends etc. I feel the tone of these images is much better than my previous ones, they have a similar look to them of Nan Goldin which I would see as a huge positive.
However a negative would be that I am unsure of where I can go next with these images. I could carry this onwards but I don't want each shoot to look the same /similar.

My Images

Contact sheet

How I made the polaroid layout on Photoshop

The making of the polaroid images was actually extremely easy to do, which in a way encouraged me to experiment more. I feel that had I taken the images with an actual polaroid film camera, they would have 100x more ascetically pleasing however I still wanted to try the layout in this format, simply to see if the type of images I want to take would work as a polaroid. 

Here is the finished edit of the image.

I then using the 'CROP' tool created a bored around the image - much like the shape of a polaroid. I made sure the top and two sides were all equal by the grey boxes from the tool itself.

Then by using the PAINT BUCKET tool, making sure the colour was set to white. I simply clicked in the cropped new space and it automatically turned the whole area white. This being the main polaroid and backdrop for the image.

Finally, by using the TEXT tool, I chose the colour and font I wanted and simply clicked into the image, typed the heading and made sure it was in the middle. Placement was an important aspect of this step. I found that if there is two lines of text, use two sets of text boxes as it makes it easier to move and line up. 

Andy Warhol : Polaroid Camera

I've been looking into artists and photographers that used polaroid cameras. The reason for this being I wanted to see how they portrayed someone/ a model through this medium and if they used it for more 'casual' snapshot type images or if they used it for high end fashion etc. To do this I simply googled 'Artists or Photographers that use Polaroid cameras' and the first name to come up was Andy Warhol - an extremely famous artist.  

He displayed his work in a gallery, the title of his collection being 'Big Shots'. Within this collection he "sought to capture the world with his camera" There was a total of 250 polaroids all together, some which mainly included famous figures. Before this however, he began to document his life in the 1960's, where he would take a camera with him everywhere he went. His aim was to show all aspects of his life, the private and the most public - this is the notion I want to bring to my work. This element of oneself in the images. 

- Valentino, 1973

-Andy Warhol, Self portrait in Drag, 1981

The only thing with this type of work, is the actual images are set up. I don't feel there's a level of 'invading privacy' or sneaking into a moment with Warhols images, this is something Nan Goldin does which makes me enjoy her work more. They connote more emotive feelings and are intriguing to look at - you imagine the moment, who the person is, why they're acting in that way etc. 

Corinne Day: Exhibition: Diary

This collection of work was shown in the Photographers gallery, 5th October 2000 and represented ten years of her life in which she kept a photographic diary of the people she met, her family, her experiences and the places she went.  

"Good friends make you face the truth about yourself and you do the same for them, as painful, or as pleasurable, as the truth may be."

These images are showing all elements I want to portray in my work. This sense of fun, friendship, naughtiness, naturalness etc.  

Polaroid Experiment

To make my images more interesting I decided to experiment by putting them into a polaroid format. By adding the names of the people, what they're doing/ where they are and also a date, it makes the work more personal and despite all the images being natural - not set up - the polaroid layout just makes them appear that little bit more personal. 

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My Images

Here are some more images taken of the people around me. With me invading their privacy, these are completely natural images and environments - none of these images have been constructed/set up. Which I feel adds a sense of 'realness' to the images, it connotes a story. However, like my images before they're still not of interesting acts - such as intimacy, asleep, gatherings etc.

Practicing my ideas

With the idea of making work that invades my friends privacy and also my own. I wanted to practice the techniques I will need to get an interesting picture. I simply took pictures of my friend doing her lunch routine. I feel there are some good images in regards to her expressions but the actual act isn't very interesting. So in response to this, I think I will need to catch my friends in their most intimate moments such as when they're out, in their bedrooms, with their partners etc.. These are the type of images which will be most eye catching and interesting. 

 

My photography practice

I'm currently struggling with the self portraiture side of the 'mini project'. The space I'm in now compared to the space I was in when the bath image was taken is completely different, so I'm not getting the right lighting or the right location - which is becoming extremely frustrating. The only half effective/ good image I've managed to take was this one:

The colours are quite bland and not as 'beautiful or bold' as my previous image. This was taken using a tripod and timer in my bedroom, where the lighting is quite dull and reflects an orange tone. I have managed to get some of the orange out on the simple MAC picture editor but if I pushed the levels and tones more the image was becoming more dull. 

I also looked at the putting the image in black and white but this changed the whole concept of the work I want to portray. It was no longer 'beautiful' or 'real'. Nan Goldins work was reflecting real life - like her own photographic snapshot diary- this is the effect I want my work to have. Also the black and white always seems to connote a negative, emotional response rather than a calm, serene one. 

Mariell Amelie

Aspects of Marielle Amelies work that could link with my own project:
-Photographer inspiration, based on my 'Bath images'
-Self Portraiture
- Female
-Elements of nude
-Displays privacy  or 'private moments'

These are all self portrait images which have given me some ideas for my own work.