Experimental Photography

Courtney Day

Out of focus
Using manual focus on the SLR camera I made everything I viewed out of focus. I started the experiments by taking a picture of the wall lamp in college. I made it so the lens was completely out of focus and zoomed right up so the light was pretty much in the center. You cant tell that image is of a light on a wall, the background ended up being really dark and the light turned a more orange/yellow colour. This effect on the image makes the light look like something from space like the sun or another star. However, you also can not tell that I have used an effect at all. You cant tell that I have used zoom and an out of focus effect to make the image look like this. I wanted to know that if I got a shot of loads of wall lamps, would it have the same effect. I looked for a shot which contained lots of lights and edited the focus slightly. The image then made the lights look like blurry orbs on a blurred background. The background has quite a lot going on, including a big window which didnt make the lights stand out so I moved the shot slightly. The shot I then found was on a darker background and I thought this might work better. I also changed the focus so the image was as blurred as it could get. The lights then stood out a lot more compared to the second image I took. Its like the camera has focused completely on the lights and blurred out the background but that is not the case as only the colour coming from the lights are prominent.

Use this slide to annotate your best image

This is what I feel is the best image I produced when experimenting with the out of focus effect. I like how the focus has made the lights seem more like orbs of colour rather than actual lighting. You can see the background in the image out of focus and looking slightly ghostly. This I feel looks good with the image as it emphasises the orbs. The effect of the building and the way the lights have come it out the overall look of the image is ghostly and makes it seem as though it has more personality than if I had just taken a photo of the building in focus. I think this image may look a bit better if the background was a little bit darker. This would make the lights stand out a lot more. I like that the orbs are of a different opacity to each other. Some of the orbs look bright and stand out from some of the others that you can barely see. I think this adds a lot more depth to the image and make the orbs look as though they are moving or floating. The lights have come out all different colours. This looks good as it makes the whole image have a lot more personality.

Movement
For this technique I experimented with the shutter speed, which allowed me to capture images with subjects that are moving or the camera its self. I experimented by moving the camera as I tried to pictures. It made the images look really ghostly and distorted. For the first image I took a picture of a subject as someone walked through a nearby door. The camera captured the movement of my hand shaking while holding the camera and the movement of the door opening. The long shutter speed also meant that lots of light was let through lens and made this made the image look really ghostly. For a second experiment I walked down a corridor while holding the camera as it was taking the image. This captured everything around me as I was walking including the walls, floor and lights. As the camera was shaking while I was walking it gave the whole image a distorted look. It captured a trail of light which looks almost like a pattern.

Use this slide to annotate your best image

This I believe is my best movement experiment image. It shows clear paths of movement from allsorts of elements such as the lights, walls and carpet. I like the way the light path stands out and creates a pattern within the image. I also like the way the I have moved with the camera and the image looks as though its been taken at a really fast pace. The walls and carpet lead in a dir ection and this makes your eye follow down the corridor which looks longer than normal and distorted. However I feel I could of experimented more with the slow shutter speed. I could of concentrated on people moving or cars rather than just holding and walking with the camera. I could of also experimented with keeping the camera still like on a tripod. For all my movement images there is an element of camera shake so I do not know what type of images I can capture when the camera is still. I also think I could of captured a lot more clearer images so you can see what is actually moving.

Photomontage
Photomontage is the joining of lots of images of the same subject. I took lots of images of a bookcase then put them into Photoshop, which then automatically puts them together to try and create the full image. I experimented with the way Photoshop out them together. In the first image it shows that Photoshop put them together in a really distorted way. The top shelf looks almost perfect, but the bottom shelf looks really jagged and warped. In the second attempt, Photoshop put the images back together again, almost perfectly, but the bookshelf now looks as though it is leaning to one side. For the third attempt one side of the book shelf looks warped like a fish eye effect.
I did another experiment with a wall poster. I took loads of images of the poster, all from the same distance with the camera on an automatic setting. When I came to put all the images into Photoshop it managed to put them all together perfectly. There was no warped or collage effect which I got with the bookshelf.

Use this slide to annotate your best image

This I think is my best photomontage image. The warped look which the photomontage has achieved adds a good effect to the image overall. Its not too distorted to the point where you cant understand what the image is, but has warped it enough to give the bookshelf a new perspective. I think the effect that the image has achieved would look better if it was applied to the whole bookshelf. As the fisheye look has only happened to one side of the bookshelf the rest of the image does not look effected by the photomontage. I like how the edge of the image is rough and not a perfect square. This adds to the perspective of the bookshelf as it looks like pages overlapping. I think if I were to try and create this image again I would try to make it so the edge was more jagged and rough.

Reflections
Taking pictures in reflections seemed to be the most challenging of all the experiments. Trying to get decent picture in something that isnt necessarily a mirror was the hardest task to do. I attempted to this in one of the plastic signs dotted around college. Within this image you see the reflection of the giant windows at the front of the atrium and some of the wall lights from the floor above. I took the image so that you couldnt see the camera and myself in the reflection so you see a distorted view of the windows and any silhouettes. I think I could of made this image better by making sure you could see that this was taken from the balcony and maybe positioned my camera better in order to do this. I then looked for something which had a more reflective surface. This image turned out a lot better overall as there is a clear reflection of a corridor. Again, I positioned my camera so you couldnt see it or me in with the reflection. This gave the corridor a distorted look as the reflection curves with the reflective object. There is also another separate reflective surface so the image is mirrored twice and this gives it a better look than the first experiment I tried.

Use this slide to annotate your best image

I believe this is my best reflection image. I like the way there are two reflections in one object, a larger one and a smaller one. I think the way the reflected image curves with the shape of the object which gives the view of the corridor a distorted look. However I feel I could have been more experimental when it came to practicing with the reflection technique. I went for a pretty basic reflective object when I could of tried capturing images reflected in water and windows. I also think this image could of looked better if I managed to make the whole picture of the reflection rather than seeing the object which is reflecting. I could of experimented with camera placement and where about to shoot so I didnt capture an image of me but the area surrounding me. I could of also experiment ed with what I was reflecting, subjects such as people.