1

Experimental Photography

Stephanie Yarrow

Out of focusFor this certain project we worked together in pairs with a Canon EOS 600D camera and took it in turns to take out of focus photos. We changed the setting the camera. We changed the focus from automatic to manual and kept it on Programme setting and then we just changed the focus on the camera to make it make the picture out of focus. With this we did it quite well and we took it in turns to take our own pictures and try and make them as much as out of focus as we could. We found this easy to do when we were told what to do and it was just finding things that we could take pictures of and make them out of focus.

The first image was taken in the libraries at York College and I just found a few shelves and did a long picture as if I was in the path between the bookcases. I just looked through the looking point to make sure that I had got what I wanted and then put the lens out to its furthest point and then took the picture.

The second image was of the computers that were in the library. I went up to floor 3 and then took the image from that floor. I focus the camera on that point and then did the same again and then took the picture.

The third pictures is just a picture of the floor as I couldn’t decide what else to take a picture of. It came out quite well to say I was walking at the same time back to class.

Some of the pictures are completely out of focus but others have got bits of the picture in focus and other parts are not in focus which is good for some of the pictures as it gives the picture a bit more to look at and make you think about why is that part blurry and the other parts aren’t.

Best image and annotations

Out of focus picture of the vending machine on floor 3. We changed the setting the camera. We changed the focus from automatic to manual and kept it on Programme setting and then we just changed the focus on the camera to make it make the picture out of focus.

MovementWith movement task we either had to move the camera around when you had pressed the button or you had to find something that moved e.g. people’s legs or with the lens you would twist it to move the lens in and out, again for this certain task we used the Cannon 600D. At first we didn’t understand what we were doing at first and then when it all became clear we went out and took pictures of peoples legs as they walked by and then we messed around with the lens in the picture. We found it quite hard to do but after a while we got the hang of it and got a few good shots. The results I got were ok but I think I could have done better shots but the shots we got were ok but that was after we knew what we were doing as the first few shots that we did didn’t work at all and we didn’t know what we were doing to make the movement photos we tried to move the camera around when we clicked the button but I think we had the shutter speed on the wrong setting.

The first image is of the corridor and we were just messing around with the lens so you got this kind of blur, I think we moved it around at the same time so it didn’t work fully but it is still a movement picture. The other 2 are off people’s legs as they walked pasted us. I think there maybe a bit of camera shake on them too but I’m not 100% sure. These are the legs of some of our class mate that were walking past us at that certain time. These are good pictures but if we had more time and more time to do the whole project I think I could have got a few better pictures.

I think some of the pictures have a bit of camera shake because we were holding the camera and it wasn’t on a flat surface to make it steady plus they are also at an angle which is ok as it is different but they still have camera shake because they were hand held. If I had to do these images again then I would either get a flat surface that I can put the camera on or I would hire or borrow a tripod to put the camera on so then you won’t get this camera shake.

Use this slide to annotate your best image

PhotomontageThe photomontage work was really fun to do I really enjoyed doing this but to me I had something else that I wanted to do for the final products. These were very easy to do and for these as we needed no fancy lens or special setting I used my own camera. The first couple I didn’t work because they were around the same colour so it didn’t work on adobe Photoshop as it was all the same colour so it couldn't work out which part went were so I had to go and take some pictures of something else . You started at one side and then went across the certain thing until you had taken a photo of each section of that certain thing.

How to get a photomontage picture: 1. Start by opening Photoshop up and inserting the back ground you want, then

add your other picture on to the picture by going File > place to get the second picture that you want to use.

2. Once you are happy with your 2 pictures then you click Layer >New Adjustment layer>black and white and with that you can change it any way you want.

3. Once you are happy with the black and white then you will need to probably do some changing to the light. To do that you click Layer > New Adjustment layer > curves. When you get this layer if you don’t click ALT and click the layer you want to change then it will change the whole picture .

The pictures I got were of the college staircase which I did in colour and black and white just to see the difference. The other one was a picture that was hanging on the wall and it seemed like a good place to start. Once we had got the images we had to upload them into different files so then you could just have all of one picture ready to do the photomontage.

How to get a photomontage picture: 1. Start by opening Photoshop up and

inserting the back ground you want, then add your other picture on to the picture by going File > place to get the second picture that you want to use.

2. Once you are happy with your 2 pictures then you click Layer >New Adjustment layer>black and white and with that you can change it any way you want.

3. Once you are happy with the black and white then you will need to probably do some changing to the light. To do that you click Layer > New Adjustment layer > curves. When you get this layer if you don’t click ALT and click the layer you want to change then it will change the whole picture .

reflectionReflection topic was fun but the problem for me is that my batteries died half way through taking pictures so they aren’t as good as they could be. With this one again you needed no special lens or setting so I could just use my camera. All you had to do was find a reflective surface and take en exciting picture but mine weren’t that exciting as I have said my battery died.

The result I have got is two of them are in the mac computer screen and another one was the gum bins that are around college. They weren’t the best reflective surfaces at all and they weren’t the best ones that I could have done.

This task was going ok until my batteries died so I couldn’t carry on as I didn’t have any spare batteries and I didn’t have the lead for my phone so I couldn’t do it that way either.

If I had to do these again which I would have done then I would get better pictures and maybe use things like a puddle or a window reflection surface.