Work Record

·       Contact sheet

These images were part of my contact sheet but didn't register when I was producing it. 

·       Straight images (as many as you wish to post)

·       AO1: Develop ideas through sustained investigations informed by research and other sources.
o   Discuss your research influences including examples of their work and how they relate to the topic studied

   I was influenced by a particular number of people during my prep shoots but Ive decided to adapt the styles of Ben Heine and the Sleeve face movement to my work. Ben Heine was one of the first artists I looked at and his 'Pencil vs Camera' series really interested me. It seemed as if Heine used his photography to frame his drawings and what I by this is that, it looks like he had peeled away the photo to reveal this drawing underneath. 

   His work is very abstract and different which exactly the direction I wanted to take my own work when interpreting the exam question. What I especially liked about his work was the way that the two mediums gelled, the drawings are immediately striking but do not look out of place within the scene. This is something I will look to develop on, as I will try to make my drawings and images blend naturally together. 

o   Discuss your ideas for the exam topic, what you intend to do in response to the exam

    I knew from the offset that I would want to pursue other art mediums along side my photography. I initially looked at Saul Leiter who used car doors, window frames and railings to frame his work. This gave me the idea of using CD cases to frame my work eventually resulting in me stumbling across the Sleeveface movement. However, I did not just want to emulate the style but also develop it further so instead of just using the record sleeve as a frame and main image, I decided that I wanted to replace the images on the record sleeves with people I knew to give it more character. This has led my final outcome to be something that encompasses the art techniques I have used along the way as well the different ways I have framed my images. 

·       

     AO2: 

    For this shoot I decided it was best to shoot within the studio as a lot of album art is made in the style of a fashion. It also allowed me to manipulate the lights the way I wanted them to be. For the first half of the shoot I used the camera settings with a shutter speed of 1/125 an aperture of 8 and ISO of 200. These were no random numbers, as they were generated by a light meter. The first studio set up I used was to have two soft boxes either side of my model, behind the soft boxes being the reflectors to help keep the lighting focused on my model. The soft boxes gave me an even lighting, which gave off the 'fashion shoot' look. For my 2nd studio set up I had one light cover by a snoot which helps direct light into certain area, allowing me to manipulate where the shadows would form on my models face. This set up was inspired by Ansel Adams tonal range as I wanted to create dark deep pools around the eyes and mouth for one of my particular shots. This new set up also presented the opportunity to use different camera settings. Because I was not using a flash whilst in this set up I had to alter my shutter speed so that my camera was letting enough light in to capture the image, so I brought my  shutter speed up to 1/30 and because this part of the shoot I was very focused in what features I shot of my models, I used a lower aperture to get a narrower depth of field (F 6.3).

o   including Computer experiments (if carried out during the exam)

o   Physical experiments (if carried out during the exam)

      EDIT 1

This was the initial image I started with after the shoot and seeing that I was replicating Michael Jackson's 'Greatest Hits' album I needed to darken my image considerably. 

To Start This process off I changed the levels of my image. I brought up the darker output levels so that it darkened my whole image without it looking incredibly underexposed. This was again inspired by Ansel Adams tonal range as I want to bring my white tones to a minimum. 

I then applied an exposure adjustment to further darken the image. This helped me capture the
depressing look of the album art. By reducing the exposure toggle and then increasing the offset toggle, I was able to darken the image whilst keeping the pink fleshy tones.

One of my final steps was to apply the rain drops photo I had taken and place it over the image so that it reflected the album art properly. The way I did this was to drag my photo over the edits I had already made, making sure it filled the whole screen. I then changed the layer type to screen which changed the opacity of the photo that it was transparent, giving my images an almost double exposure look. 

The  only issue with the screen that I had applied was that it had rendered my other edits ineffective as it had completely brightened up the image. I fixed this problem by applying a layer mask to image, creating a shadow round the outside of the image similar to how it looks in the Album cover. 

EDIT 2

This was the initial image that I was left with from the shoot. I decided to go one further on Ben Heine's  drawings on top of images by making my model the drawing, using face paint as a form of physical experimentation to help replicate Paulo Nutini's 'Caustic Love' album cover. 

 Where I had used the snoot to replicate Ansel Adams tonal range, The image came out very dark and so colours could not really be seen. This led me to use the selective colour tool to bring out each of the colours I used on the face. 

The selective colour tool alone would not help brighten up my image and so I applied the exposure adjustment to the image. By increasing the exposure toggle I was able to increase the amount of light directed onto my image. This helped me bring out the colours more so that it became a better reflection of the album cover. 

I then applied a layer mask to the image as there is a dark shadow that goes around the edges in the album art. This however, meant that the opacity of some of my image was a lot lower than other areas.

 I therefore, applied a black under layer to the image which really worked bringing out the layer mask I had applied just before. My main concern was still that the colours looked too muted so I took this image into an iPad app called Affinity. 

Here I was able bring out the colours fully by painting on the image using an iPen. The app gave me many different brush types and I experimented with different brushes for a while unit I had found pencil stroke that best emulated the style of the album art. I really like the way the physical face paint as well as the virtual painting has blended together making it hard to distinguish between the two in places. 

EDIT 3

This was the initial photo that I was left with from the shoot and as you can see the soft boxes have given me even lighting on either side of the image. 


I then cut out the background from the image using the quick selection tool.


I then used one of the techniques I had recently learnt in changing hair colour. By applying a hue and saturation adjustment to the selected area of hair and then transforming it to a layer mask, I was able to turn the hour blue. 


I then applied then cut up a piece of paper to mimic the out lines of the rocks and scanned this into photoshop. This extra layer would help me in the future as I would be able to paint over it without fear of cover the layer on top of it. 


I took the edited image into Affinity where again I was able to paint over the image using different textures and brushes to help recreate the rocks that were in the album cover. This again was one of my attempts to further develop Ben Heine's style. 

EDIT 4

This was the initial image I was left with after the shoot. Again this was one of the shoots I had done using the snoot to create different tonal ranges. 

I then added a black and white filter to the image so that, similarly to the sleeve face movement, my images matched up with what was on the album cover. 


The next step for me was to increase the exposure. This is because the there is a bigger contrast in tonal range within Adele's 21 album and so I had to increase the exposure toggle to intensify the light in that area.

I then played around with the selective colour tool to really increase the dark pools under the eyes. This was linked to Ansel Adams again as I and now used a full range of tones in my image. 

I then applied a layer mask to get the dark curve that can be seen in the album art. This changed the opacity of my layers so they were almost completely transparent. 

To fix this issue I simply added a black layer underneath my image.

EDIT 5


I took the initial photo into photoshop and added the curves. This allowed me to get a more accurate representation of the album art as that is more exposed. This was inspired by the accuracy of the Sleeveface movement.

I then decreased the dark levels so that it was more exposed to make the models skin look smoother like within the album art. 


I then scanned in my drawing and using the quick selection tool to cut out my image placed it on top of my models head to mimic Ben Heine's style.

The same steps were followed from the above edit. 
AO3: (Reflect critically on your work and progress, (evaluate the images you have produced in what way do the images link to your initial plans/the exam paper… )
I believe that I have produced a strong set of images linking to my artists influence in the way I have physically experiment, as well as linking to the paper in the way that these final image will be put into CD cases and displayed on a board inspired by Piet Mondrian. The CD cases were something I experimented with throughout the prep shoots and so to me it is only fitting that they become a physical presence is my final presentation. They link to my initial ideas really well as I have mimicked 2 different styles like I set out to do, the first being Ben Heine's and the other the Sleeveface movement. I believe I have developed these two styles as well trying to blend my drawings and photos together seamlessly and although it has not worked in all cases I believe it is still a strong set of images.