Mood board
Eric staller is an American artist born 14th of September 1947. During his career he as achieved multiple great things such as releasing his book called out of my mind, he also created a movie named wild wheels. Eric's work has really caught my eye for inspiration for this project, the image of his I really like the most is the top middle on my mood board because it really extends the colour of the luminescent cyan blue lights around the windows and shows the range of creativity within this project.
Pablo Picasso - Light painting analysis
Gjon Mili - ' Pablo Picasso drawing a centaur in the air with light '
Gjon Mili, a photographer born 1904 in Korçë, Albania. Who developed their career in North America, and died aged 79 in 1984 Stamford, conneticuit, USA. Gjon Mili is and was best known for his popular series of photographs documenting the creativity of Pablo Picasso during Gjon's visit to the south of France in 1949. Throughout his career he also captured other famous lives of the Italian actress Anna Magnani, actor Sal Mineo who famously acted in the heavily influential drama film amongst the younger generation in the later 1950's ' James Dean, A Rebel without a cause' and Marlon Brando who also famously acted in other influential films such as, the godfather and Apocalypse now.
I am unable to find any factual information to the reasoning behind Gjon Mili's capturing of this photograph. However, what I do know is that Mili consistently caught the beauty of artistic creativity, musicians, athletes, actors and dancers to perhaps show how dark day's of repeated discipline can lead to inevitable greatness or success in life. The title of this photograph being ' Pablo Picasso drawing a centaur in the air with light ' lets the viewers understand that this imaginative, abstract image of the centaur drawing could possibly allude to the ancient Greek looking pottery that Picasso is stood in front of. In this photograph the shadows surrounding the subject matter and Picasso look to have been exaggerated to allow the light drawing to become highlighted and accentuated. The wall behind Picasso seems to have been slightly distorted while it already has a rough looking texture. This will have been done to allow the shadows surrounding the wall to act almost as a frame for a painting which almost juxtaposes with the fact that Picasso is one of the most famous artists to have ever existed.
Throughout the creation of this photograph Mili has used a wide range of compositional rules. For example, Central focal point, asymmetry, some leading lines, Triangles and perhaps the rule of odd. Central focal point is when the subject matter is placed essentially directly in the middle of the photograph to guide the viewers eye's straight forward. In this image central focal point is presented through Picasso stood in the middle and the centaur painted above him guiding the viewers eyes to both focal points. This photograph presents asymmetry and some leading lines in very similar ways. The asymmetry is presented through the 'painting' subject matter having it's what look to be legs on the left side of the image and the shadows on the right side of the photograph being visibly different to the shadows on the left side of the image which appear to have sharper edges. The leading lines in this photograph are shown through the shadow on the top left of the image drawing the viewers eyes to the top of the image above the painting and Picasso.
The rule of odd is when a group of subjects in an image are scattered or placed spontaneously. In this photograph the rule of odds is conveyed through the 'Greek' pottery in the middle ground and background of the image stood as if they had been placed randomly on purpose yet still in some sort of order. Within the creation if this image Gjon Mili has altered a range of camera settings that have ensured that the shadows are prominently shown and the subject matters are well focused. For example, the ISO, the shutter speed, the white balance and the F/stop. The ISO in this image will have been set to around 400 - 800, this will have allowed the cameras lens to let enough light into the image to the point where it doesn't become too noisy and grainy. In this image the Shutter speed will have been set to a slower setting, at around 1/8 - 1/4. Setting the shutter speed this low has allowed the cameras shutter to open and close slow enough to the point where the its able to capture the light from Picasso's torch or candle flame to appear as if its floating. To allow the camera to stay perfectly still during the creation of this photograph Mili will have had to use a tripod other wise if this image was taken with the camera in his hand it would turn out heavily out of focus. The F/stop in this photograph will have been set to either F/2.8 or F/4.0. This has caused the photograph to keep a well balanced exposure and the depth of field allowing the foreground, middle ground and background to all stay in focus.
I really like this photograph by Gjon Mili of Pablo Picasso as it subtly shows a strong similarity between Picasso's art style which is very abstract, and the fact that this photograph in itself is fairly abstract. There many strengths in this photograph by Gjon Mili. For example, the wide range of photography compositional rules he used which indirectly refer to the intricacy of this image and Picasso's own art. Another example of a strength in this image would be The use of the shadows surrounding Picasso really highlighting the subject matter. This image correlates to my own Painting with light work in a few ways. One way it correlates is, through the use of a frame created by shadows in Mili's image, while a frame in my own photographs has been created by the light painting itself. Another way my own images link to Mili's photograph is through the use of similar camera settings being utilised throughout my light painting photoshoot.
In future Light Painting photoshoots I will ensure that I focus on making the camera has the backdrop in frame fully and that I am giving the person with the light more clear instructions of what I want them to try and create with the light. I will focus on these two things in particular as I ended with a larger amount of photographs that were not angled correctly and contained random, messy shapes with the light than actually well thought and planned photographs.
I am unable to find any factual information to the reasoning behind Gjon Mili's capturing of this photograph. However, what I do know is that Mili consistently caught the beauty of artistic creativity, musicians, athletes, actors and dancers to perhaps show how dark day's of repeated discipline can lead to inevitable greatness or success in life. The title of this photograph being ' Pablo Picasso drawing a centaur in the air with light ' lets the viewers understand that this imaginative, abstract image of the centaur drawing could possibly allude to the ancient Greek looking pottery that Picasso is stood in front of. In this photograph the shadows surrounding the subject matter and Picasso look to have been exaggerated to allow the light drawing to become highlighted and accentuated. The wall behind Picasso seems to have been slightly distorted while it already has a rough looking texture. This will have been done to allow the shadows surrounding the wall to act almost as a frame for a painting which almost juxtaposes with the fact that Picasso is one of the most famous artists to have ever existed.
Throughout the creation of this photograph Mili has used a wide range of compositional rules. For example, Central focal point, asymmetry, some leading lines, Triangles and perhaps the rule of odd. Central focal point is when the subject matter is placed essentially directly in the middle of the photograph to guide the viewers eye's straight forward. In this image central focal point is presented through Picasso stood in the middle and the centaur painted above him guiding the viewers eyes to both focal points. This photograph presents asymmetry and some leading lines in very similar ways. The asymmetry is presented through the 'painting' subject matter having it's what look to be legs on the left side of the image and the shadows on the right side of the photograph being visibly different to the shadows on the left side of the image which appear to have sharper edges. The leading lines in this photograph are shown through the shadow on the top left of the image drawing the viewers eyes to the top of the image above the painting and Picasso.
The rule of odd is when a group of subjects in an image are scattered or placed spontaneously. In this photograph the rule of odds is conveyed through the 'Greek' pottery in the middle ground and background of the image stood as if they had been placed randomly on purpose yet still in some sort of order. Within the creation if this image Gjon Mili has altered a range of camera settings that have ensured that the shadows are prominently shown and the subject matters are well focused. For example, the ISO, the shutter speed, the white balance and the F/stop. The ISO in this image will have been set to around 400 - 800, this will have allowed the cameras lens to let enough light into the image to the point where it doesn't become too noisy and grainy. In this image the Shutter speed will have been set to a slower setting, at around 1/8 - 1/4. Setting the shutter speed this low has allowed the cameras shutter to open and close slow enough to the point where the its able to capture the light from Picasso's torch or candle flame to appear as if its floating. To allow the camera to stay perfectly still during the creation of this photograph Mili will have had to use a tripod other wise if this image was taken with the camera in his hand it would turn out heavily out of focus. The F/stop in this photograph will have been set to either F/2.8 or F/4.0. This has caused the photograph to keep a well balanced exposure and the depth of field allowing the foreground, middle ground and background to all stay in focus.
I really like this photograph by Gjon Mili of Pablo Picasso as it subtly shows a strong similarity between Picasso's art style which is very abstract, and the fact that this photograph in itself is fairly abstract. There many strengths in this photograph by Gjon Mili. For example, the wide range of photography compositional rules he used which indirectly refer to the intricacy of this image and Picasso's own art. Another example of a strength in this image would be The use of the shadows surrounding Picasso really highlighting the subject matter. This image correlates to my own Painting with light work in a few ways. One way it correlates is, through the use of a frame created by shadows in Mili's image, while a frame in my own photographs has been created by the light painting itself. Another way my own images link to Mili's photograph is through the use of similar camera settings being utilised throughout my light painting photoshoot.
In future Light Painting photoshoots I will ensure that I focus on making the camera has the backdrop in frame fully and that I am giving the person with the light more clear instructions of what I want them to try and create with the light. I will focus on these two things in particular as I ended with a larger amount of photographs that were not angled correctly and contained random, messy shapes with the light than actually well thought and planned photographs.
Painting With Light Photoshoot
Rob Gale mood board
I couldn't find much out about him, however from what I have gathered he is from Florida, USA. The reason I chose Rob Gale's images for my mood board over the other photographers is because I find that the colours of the images really pop and stand out far more to me than the other photographers images. I find the locations of his images really intriguing as the kaleidoscope effect make the original look completely different.
Kaleidoscope Edit 1
Before |
After |
video tutorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JCt0GWzsDw&ab_channel=ArynBergsven
kaleidoscope edit 2 Homework
Edit Images
Before |
After |
Edit tutorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JCt0GWzsDw&ab_channel=ArynBergsven
kaleidoscope Edit 3 homework
Edit Images
Before |
After |
Unfortunately this one didn't go to plan, but that is expected to happen at some point.
Light Painting Double Exposure Edit 1
Edit Snips
Final gallery
Kaleidoscope Edit 1
Kaleidoscope edit 2
Light painting double exposure edit
Project Evaluation
For this project we explored the theme of light painting. Going into this project my initial thoughts mixed as I didn't realise the amount different and creative things you can explore with this theme of photography. Throughout the completion of this project I have researched a number of photographers that use light painting in their own work, but two that really stood out to me were Eric Staller and Rob Gale. I used some of Eric Staller's work in one of the mood boards for this project as I really like how he uses his architectural photography style and then compliments it with light painting, I also used his work because I felt that it would be achievable too use inspiration from him and then implement it into my own work. The reason I chose Rob Gale for my second mood board was because I liked his use of combining the kaleidoscope edit with just the raw image on his work making look very abstract, so I then thought I could use the kaleidoscope edit and combine it with some of my light painting images.
During the duration of this project I only carried out photoshoot however, because we spent so much time making sure angles, camera setting's ( slow shutter speed at 1/4 - 1/2, ISO at 200 - 400 and aperture ) and the tripod hight was all correct we ended up with a higher amount of clear and good quality images over quantity. As this project was fairly short we only did one photoshoot, however, I think that this also gave me more time to work on the quality and detail of my editing and helped generally with my confidence within myself when using a camera.
Overall I feel as if I haven't explored the theme of light painting as in depth as I would have of. This is because I didn't get or have the opportunity to do another photoshoot directly catered towards taking kind of architectural pictures and complimenting them with light painting, using inspiration from Eric Staller. From looking at my work as a viewer I hope to create an understanding that all of the work displayed on the page took a great deal of effort to correct and perfect.
During the duration of this project I only carried out photoshoot however, because we spent so much time making sure angles, camera setting's ( slow shutter speed at 1/4 - 1/2, ISO at 200 - 400 and aperture ) and the tripod hight was all correct we ended up with a higher amount of clear and good quality images over quantity. As this project was fairly short we only did one photoshoot, however, I think that this also gave me more time to work on the quality and detail of my editing and helped generally with my confidence within myself when using a camera.
Overall I feel as if I haven't explored the theme of light painting as in depth as I would have of. This is because I didn't get or have the opportunity to do another photoshoot directly catered towards taking kind of architectural pictures and complimenting them with light painting, using inspiration from Eric Staller. From looking at my work as a viewer I hope to create an understanding that all of the work displayed on the page took a great deal of effort to correct and perfect.