Introduction
This assignment
explores the issue of technique and ethical choices which are made in
photography by designing and producing a photographic image illustrating an
imaginary magazine. During the exercises and assignment work, I had the
opportunity to clarify my thoughts and question my beliefs on whether
alteration should take place and if so, what is acceptable and how tolerant are
the viewers?
Context
During November,
the Dukeries Rally passed though my local forest (Sherwood Pines) and I watched
a couple of stages. Whilst there, I experimented with a few photographs. When
considering a subject to study for this assignment, I recalled the event and
dusted off my son’s radio controlled rally car. I planned to juxtapose it
against the forest as a background to make it look like it was in the World
Rally Car (WRC) series. We had other models of remote control cars which I
could use to insert into the cover of my imaginary RC Car Monthly – a magazine
for radio control car enthusiasts for a piece on restoration. I considered my
plan a challenge to my manipulative Photoshop skills so decided to make the
magazine cover something which would develop and enhance my skills.
Other themes I
pondered were monster trucks, mountain biking, and food. An internet search showed there were about
four international radio control car magazines already on the market. By looking
at magazines online and on sale in the newsagents, I had several ideas in my
head.
Research on existing magazines
The entire collection
of car, radio control, bike and food magazines I looked at had a front cover in
portrait orientation. There were various designs for car and radio control
covers; some used a bird’s eye view, some juxtaposition where a whole car or
part of a car was set against a realistic background and a few had a plain
background (shiny or dull). Magazines either had a large single picture, more
than one car on the cover, or one car and an insert picture. Car(s) were
positioned on the whole on the diagonal and one magazine had a couple of covers
where the car was more of a triangle shape. Backgrounds either took up the
whole of the page or were designed so that the writing was placed in the sky.
Different types of cars had different characteristics of placement – for
example most Porsche and race cars had four wheels on the ground, dirt buggies
and monster trucks were on rocks and when one or more wheel was off the rock, a
shadow was present. Most of the cars looked stationary with very little wheel
motion and no spraying dirt.
Background Image
First of all I
needed a background in which I could juxtapose my car. Considerations were
orientation, scale, balance and colour. My original rally images were taken in
landscape and I saw from this that I needed to take a background with portrait
orientation.
I planned on
paper how I thought the final image would look and decided to divide the frame
into thirds. My idea was that the car, when positioned, would sit off centre on
a diagonal and I would be able to alter the size of the car to fit.
I walked through
Sherwood Forest looking for tracks and surroundings where an imaginary WRC
rally may have taken place. Colours had to complement a red and white rally
car, and trees in the background would add contrast to the final image. I
wanted to leave space for positioning the title, subtitles and an insert
picture.
I thought this
was an acceptable background to place a rally car. No major changes were made
at this stage – only checking colour temperature and a slight tweak in curves.
I opened the image as a background in Photoshop CS3 and built up layers and vector
masks on top of it.
Version 1
I thought (at
the start of this assignment) that the car would have to be positioned in roughly
the same angle that I wanted it to be in when cut out and pasted onto the
background. In this image, the car was propped up on yoghurt pots. I cut and
pasted this onto the background and realised that I could use the transform
tool. I took the car outside to look at what the effect of natural lighting would
be on the car.
Version 3
With the car
direction changed I decided to take the car indoors again as the paintwork showed
too much reflection.
Version 4
Car now facing the
correct direction, lit from a window rather than tungsten lighting. No
reflection visible on bodywork. Black velvet used as a base because there was
enough definition between wheels and material to enable polygonal lasso to work
effectively.
Space left at
the top for a title, space below right for insert, complementary colours (red /
green), car positioned on track.
Exploration of areas of adjustment and
manipulation to make a successful image
I cut around the
car using the polygonal lasso tool and cut and pasted it into Photoshop CS3 as
a new layer. Using the eraser, I removed the excess background. I cut and
pasted the antennae across separately and attached to the car so that I could
work at a different magnification. I cut and pasted the headlights across and
fitted them using the transform tool to scale them in place. Using the
transform tool again, I moved the car around, changed the scale and the
perspective a little to make it look more natural on the page. I added a drop
shadow gradient to this layer.
Tools used so
far: cut and paste to combine two visual elements in one photograph, erase,
transform scale, rotation and perspective, addition of drop shadow gradient.
Justification
for using these tools was that they were necessary to make the car blend into
the background and still look real. To have taken an image of an RC car in the
forest would possibly involve a forced perspective to which one could still
question the reality. By cutting and pasting an image and erasing the
background to tidy it ensured the image fitted in to the background as I wanted
it to.
I questioned the
use of the eraser when my image would not quite fit in the white frame I
created for the magazine title. I shaved off a little of the bumper and thought
that it was acceptable because it was not a distinguishing feature. I could
simply have resized the car without altering it.
Transform,
rotate and change perspective were tools that I discovered which made
manipulation so much easier. This cut down the work which I thought I was going
to have to do by hand with re-positioning the car. So from this point of view, I
thought it was acceptable because time taken to create an image must also be
considered.
I applied a drop
shadow layer style to the car which I
considered as acceptable because in reality the car had a shadow. Because I had
used black velvet as a base, the shadow did not show up. The background was
taken on an overcast day, but even then shadows are still visible.
Considered area of adjustment
I applied a
gradient to the whole background image before starting to add titles to see if
by toning down the brightness the image was more acceptable. I tried several
types of gradients before removing it.
I debated
whether to add a rectangle with a gradient behind where I was placing a title
or subtitle. I did not think this looked effective either for my image,
although some magazines appeared to use a technique similar to this.
At this point I
was still considering the position of the title and whether to retake the
background shot with more sky so that the title was not distracting. I recalled
Kit Car magazine which I used to read had quite an expanse of white / pale page
at the top. This was similar to a copy of a Canon EOS magazine I had.
Insert photograph
Tools used: Cut
and paste to combine two visual elements in one photograph, erase, transform
scale, rotation and perspective, addition of drop shadow gradient, clone and
patch. I felt there was too much burnout from the overexposed area on the roof
and bonnet of the purple mini so replaced some of the pixels using clone and
patch to enhance the image. I changed
the background to give more of a studio effect which I thought was acceptable
as space was at a premium. I had taken an image with tools laid out too, but
thought the image was too cluttered.
I opened the
image in Photoshop Elements 5 and made some finishing touches such as a band
across the bottom and changed the font styles.
Finished cover
Ethical Justification
I like to
produce realistic, acceptable photographs that inspire others and can be used
for teaching or storytelling. I think surreal images are acceptable but they have
to be believable. For instance, one of the collections that inspired me at
Focus on Imaging Derby 2013 were photographic images of plants by Putput which
when viewed from a distance looked realistic but actually contained household
objects such as spaghetti servers and body polishers. I was reminded of this
work when researching photographs of Sian Bonnell. I felt that in keeping with
the type of magazine I had chosen to illustrate I needed to keep my image real
to attract the readership, although my final cover had combined images. I
reconsidered my cover and whether I should have chosen a different type of
genre, and the more I thought, the more ideas I came up with. I think that for
where I was at the time with learning how powerful Photoshop is and what it can
do, it was good to start with something quite realistic because I knew what I
wanted to achieve and reached a point where I was satisfied. I think if I had
created a surreal image, because it is not my type of image, I would still be
left wondering if it was successful.
The ethical
impact of the magazine on the environment is about encouraging recycling. I decided to include a photograph
which could carry a restoration story in light of the fact that Christmas had
just happened, children receive shiny new toys and old ones are sometimes put
to the back of the cupboard. Perhaps their old, broken toys which need
recycling or mending could become projects in the long winter evenings, so it
seemed appropriate to include this on the cover. I used a natural environment
to encourage people to go outside with their RC cars which could be seen as
encouraging a healthy lifestyle.
The other
consideration for my magazine cover was whether it would sell or just sit on
the shelf. I tried to pitch it in the
middle of magazines; not elite and not a weekly edition. I imagined it being
made of reasonable quality paper and being kept by the reader for some time as
a reference magazine.
Conclusion
This assignment investigated
the issue of adjusting and manipulating an image and still making ethical
choices when producing a photographic image illustrating an imaginary magazine
cover. During the exercises and assignment work, I was able to clarify my
thoughts and question my beliefs on whether alteration should take place and
how much was acceptable. I think my imaginary readers would find this magazine
cover acceptable as it is not too far removed from the truth.
Key learning points from assignment
· My initial point for using Photoshop for manipulation
rather than enhancement at the beginning of the exercises and assignment work
was virtually nonexistent. I took a logical approach to researching how to make
things work and gradually built up skills which after some practice became
second nature. I found some processes relied on trial and error to decide which
methods worked for me. I was able to look at an image taken previously and decide
which methods of manipulation would work.
- I began to understand how layers and vector masks worked which is an area I knew needed development.
- I felt a sense of achievement of being able to do more creative work in Photoshop.
- I was able to explore how I felt about altering images and question the reality of images in magazines and adverts I looked at.
Areas for further development
- Use the available tools in Photoshop to become more creative. Now that I have completed this, it feels quite “safe”. However, at the beginning of the assignment, I found the task very challenging.
- Improve (faster, more efficient) work flow with Photoshop.
Bibliography
Clarke, G (1997) The Photograph, Oxford
University Press, UK
Fox, A, Caruana, N, (2012) Behind the image,
research in photography, AWA publishing, USA
Gulbins, J, Steinmueller, U (2011) The
digital photography workflow handbook, Rocky Nook, USA
Wells, L (2009) Photography, a critical
introduction, Routledge, UK
http://www.putput.dk accessed
16/1/14
http://www.sianbonnell.com/ accessed 16/1/14
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