DSDN 144 Project 3- Light.

Project review-

 

This is my final sequence of photos for DSDN 144 Project 3- Light. My sequence has under gone many changes and much experimentation over the time I have taken to do this project. Changes include things such as the main idea/theme to it, the choice of lights and the feelings it's aiming to pull across.

My project idea origonally started to display the idea on "how lights act as guides in a location", but this soon changed to "how lights represent barriers in spaces". I went with this new idea because as I looked at my photos, I saw the new idea was working with the way my photos were developing because the lights were starting to give off a menacing look, as if though it's aiming to block you out from entering that space. Another reason why I went with this idea is because the lights are also travelling around the space, not going through it which is giving the impression that you shouldn't be entering through this way. You have to go around this particular part instead.

Reflecting on how my photos have matched my artist models and influences, I feel that the techniques I have taken on board have been taken in with my photos. For my first artist model, the photographer "Tokihiro Sato" the idea of how lights have been used in the outside has swept through my photos. I took his idea on using lights in an outside enviroment, but used it in my own way. Tokihiro Sato has taken his photos with lights that give off a clean sweeping path that seems to guide and relax the person looking at the photos, inviting them in to look at the photo. For my idea, I used the lights but took it in a different way- to represent the idea of the lights acting as a barrier in social spaces, rather than to invite a viewer to observe it like Tokihiro Sato does.

 

 With my second artist model, Henri Carter, I took on board his idea of how he has shown a movement in his photos. When I saw how Henri Carter has displayed a sense of movement in his photos, I wanted to bring this through because I felt that the movement would help to give my lights a sense of direction and purpose instead of merely being placed in the picture. When using my chosen location, I observed the spaces that were more than just straight, front on lines and used my lights in these particular places so that they expressed movement around the curves and bends. 

My third influence to my project was the lights used in festivals from traditional chinese festivals. The lights used in these festivals are aiming to give off an emotion through the light colur and the way its been placed and structured. I took these ideas on board because I wanted to bring an emotional feeling to my photos, so that the lights have been done to have a particular use, instead of just looking like decorations within my photo. I used the idea of emotional feelings and set it into my lights with a threating feel to it. The lights haven't been made into straight lines because if they were straight lines surronding a part of my location, then it gives off a warm and guiding feeling which is not what was intended. Since the lines are more jaggered and wavey looking, it almost mentally represents an electric fence that is threatning you to stay away from entering. Another way that I brought foward my dangerous look was by the use of the colour. Origonally there were four colours (blue, red, green and white) that were being used. I decided to cut it down to one colour because when the use of many colours was looking too distracting to the image and having one colour managed to bring this distraction down. The chosen colour (Blue) helps to represent the threatning feel that an electric fence brings to help make my idea more obvious in the photos. 

 

DSDN 144 Project 3- Light.

Final photos-

DSDN 144 Project 3- Light.

Review after fourth shoot-

When doing my final photos, it under went a massive change with the change in ideas on how lights now represent barriers in locations. One change is that I decided to change the photos to landscape because I felt that when it was in portrait that it was losing half of the area it was in and it allowed me to expand my pathway that the lights are creating.

Another area that changed when I was taking the photos is my decision of the path its making. When making my pathway, I set it through a large proportion of the chosen location rather than focusing on one particular area like my last few attempts. This under went a massive change because I felt that I was limiting myself when shooting in that one space and wasn't helping to create a succsesful pathway to it.

At first my idea was to have the lights starting off strong and lowly fading away, but this changed to making the lights a consistant set. I went with this change because when it was fading away, it wasn't really getting my new idea across. Having the colour tone consistant in the photos helps to carry on that idea of there being a strong barrier in the photos, unlike if they were fading because then this would look as if though the barrier is a weaker one and not really attempting to block someone out.

DSDN 144 Project 3- Light.

Forth shoot-

Open publication - Free publishing - More design

DSDN 144 Project 3- Light.

Review after third shoot and moving foward-

After reviewing my photos from my third shoot, I have decided that I will be going with one specific location to photograph and that place will be within the Parliment grounds. I have chosen to use this specific location because i've already explored the area and have seen what kinds of angles I can use to express my idea in a more interesting way. Another reason why I have chosen to go with this place after looking at my third shoot is because the grounds inside Parliment have less distraction to the areas in the city. When photographing places in the city such as the closed carparks, there's too much exposure and light that cause the photo quality to drop tremendously.


For my next shoots, I plan to head back to the parliment grounds with a new storyboard looking at the different angles within the place that will show my idea of how lights represent where we can travel through.

DSDN 144 Project 3- Light.

Final photos from shoot 3-

DSDN 144 Project 3- Light.

third shoot locations-

For my third shoot and after looking at the change in my ideas, I began to look at other locations to experiment on that may represent my new idea (How lights represent barriers) better. Areas that I feel would work well included areas that represent spaces where we sometimes aren't allowed to enter and have a clear path that we should travel through. These specific areas include restrooms and road crossings. These types of areas are perfect to represent my new idea on how lights represent how we should be traveling in spaces because these places are representing areas that we can't go through.

The other idea is to keep going with my chosen location and show how the lights represent how we should travel in the parliment grounds. I have kept this idea as a second option because of my knowledge of the place and that I have many photos that will help me structure my set for the finals that it would be of a great benifit to look over when taking in the structure of the photos.

DSDN 144 Project 3- Light.

Change in theme/idea-

After disscusing the photo sequence with my tutors and looking over it myself, I saw that there was a change going on in my theme to my photos. Instead of displaying the idea on how lights act as guides in a location, the idea has changed to how lights represent barriers where not to walk in spaces. I decided to work with this change instead of carrying on with my initial proposal because the lights created in my chosen location are representing barriers in a form similar to an electrical fence more than guides. I also liked this idea because it was a lot more abstract than my other idea and feel that the form my lights are creating represent this idea/view.

Looking at how from my latest shoot it has cut down the use of four colours to one, I feel that this is working effectively to show my new change in topic because the chosen colour (blue) is working effectively to act like an electric fence that is both visually and mentally cutting people off from a particular area and forcing them to travel in a certain path.

A way it influences a viewer to think this mentaly is because when a person is observing the photos I made where the lights are going around a location rather than through, helps to give off the message not to enter through this way. you must travel around instead of taking a short cut and going through. Visually we are influenced to think that its an area almost out of bounds because the lights aren't in a straight form that give that warm and flowing feeling. They're giving off a dangerous and intimitating look that threatens others to not enter through this space.

DSDN 144 Project 3- Light.

Third shoot-

Open publication - Free publishing - More design

DSDN 144 Project 3- Light.

At the moment this is my current storyboard. I am planning to redo these photos with a single coloured L.E.D light to see whether its going to help enhance my set of photos. The shot composition is what I am hoping to carry through in my set because the different views that it gives off are working well to give the pathway that I want to have in my photos while still holding a good view of the colours.

DSDN 144 Project 3- Light.

HDR image-

DSDN 144 Project 3- Light.

Review after second shoot and moving foward-

After looking through and reviewing the photos from my second shoot, I am happy with some of the photos and how the lights I attached on the pole succsesfully create the long trail of light I was aiming to achieve. They succsesfully guide a viewer through a photo and display my idea on how lights act as guides.

My next step to improve my project is to explore more areas on where I want to photograph my photos, and this time I want to focus on whether I want the viewer to be within the path of light or be observing the long path of light at a different angle that may appear more interesting. I want to improve this area because I want to bring the feeling I want to get across in my photos foward more. If the observer was looking at the photos from a different angle, they may appear at a more interesting view to look at, but won't be feeling as if though they are a part of the long trail of light that is aiming to lead the observer through the photo. However setting the camera to sit within the light trail may take away the use of different angles to observe at and make my photo sequence look boring and uninteresting.

Another area I am aiming to improve on with this project is to make sure my story is getting across more clearly- How lights act as guides with a specific location. I feel that this is an area that I would like to improve on because while it is displaying light in an abstract form, I feel that this could still be improved on some of the little things such as the use of colour. Even though the coloured lights are succsesfully showing a succsesful trail for the viewer to follow as a guide through the photo, the many different colours seem to be somewhat distracting. For my second shoot I am going to look at having one colour for it instead of 4 to see whether it makes the photos overall apperance better or worse.

DSDN 144 Project 3- Light.

Second shoot finals-

DSDN 144 Project 3- Light.

Open publication - Free publishing - More design

DSDN 144 Project 3- Light.

Research into more artists/influences-

After looking at how to use lights as guides, I began to research some examples on how lights can be used as guides in reality. These photos what made me change my idea from using the L.E.D lights to show a trail of dots to a long trail of lights to act as a path for the viewer to follow. 

I have decided to go with the idea of having the lights as a long trail rather than dots because I feel that this is working better to get my point across on how lights act as guides and they have a better look overall in the photos rather than just having little dots to show a sense of movement.

DSDN 144 project 3- Light.

Moving Forward-


After reviewing some of my photos with some of the tutors, the overall shot composition of the photos is working nicely. The way that the camera has been set up has positioned the lights in a way that it manages to create a guiding path for the viewer to follow and is working effectively. In terms of editing the photos, it was a bit over done when editing with the brightness and contrast, but nonetheless was a good first shoot. It allowed me to see what the location was like and what position to take when photographing my photos.

For my second shoot, the tutors I talked to have helped give me the idea to work with long exposures of the photos and using the little L.E.D lights in this weeks exercise to create a pathway of lights. I am thinking of doing this multiple times and then overlaying them in photoshop to create some nice looking photos that are visually and mentally representing lights that are acting as guides in the chosen location. It represents how lights act as guides visually because we will be able to see the light trail given off and how its direct us, as viewers, in a certain direction and mentally the lights are indicating where the path is going because of the way it'll be travelling through the space.

I have constructed a long 1 metre pole of about 40 L.E.D lights attached to it that will be pulled along to create long straight lines that will guide an observer through the photo.

DSDN 144 Project 3- Light.

Open publication - Free publishing - More design

DSDN 144 project 3- Light.

Review after first shoot- 


After my first shoot, I took out the photos I felt were best displaying the idea of lights acting as a guide and reflecting some of the work from my chosen artist models/influences. The lighting within the Parliment grounds has been set up in a particular way to have a path of lights for someone to follow, much like the idea I want to get across in my photos.

Tokihiro Satos use of lights to guide people through a path or journey has panned through my photos, especially in photos 3. In photo 3 a clear path of light leads the viewer to the deep dark side on the other end of the tunnel, creating a sense of movement just like what Tokihiro Sato does in his photos with lights. I've also used his idea of shooting outside rather than indoors to help enhance my idea. By shooting outdoors this is giving me a lot more space to use that will get my idea across more effectively.

The way Henri Carter took his photos at a large variety of anlges and distances has been used in my first shoot. For example photo 6 has been taken at a different angle to the other photos. It's been taken at an angle that seems to be looking down at the scene while still getting across a path that the lights make for the person observing the photo to follow.

Just like in the photos of the chinese festivals are able to give off emotions, the clear lights in the goverment grounds give off a nice and relaxed feeling. This is partly because of the nice white colour the lights give off. Because its a nice and bright colour that helps to light up the space, it helps give off a warm and comforting feeling, where as if the lights were a darker colour such as dark red, this is giving off a much more evil and threatning feeling to the photos.    

Moving foward for my next shoot, I am happy with the chosen location and have decided to try using lights in a much more abstract way with little L.E.D lights to make a path of light where I have some control, just like how the festival lights are ordered into place by people who can control the placing of them. Another technique I would like to take over into my next shoot is trying out different angles like how Henri Carter has done. This is because I feel that I could try out some more angles to shoot that will look even more interesting than the ones I took during the first shoot.

DSDN 144 project 3- Light.

Best photos from my first shoot-

DSDN 144 project 3- Light.

Weekly Task 1-

Light drawing photo-

DSDN 144 project 3- Light.

Artist Models/ Influences-

When searching for artist models/influences for my third photography project, an influence came from lights used in some of the Chinese Festivals (Hungry Ghost and Lantern festivals).

These lights became a major influence to my light project because of the way the lights were structured. The lights haven't been palced in any random order. Instead they've been placed in a way to lead and guide the observer through the space it's in. 

I really wanted to carry this technique over through my photos because it will greatly benifit my photos to have a strong structure to the lights so that it actually does guide the viewer looking at the photos rather than just seem like a random set of lines that have no sense through the photos.

Another thing I liked about these lights was that they all give off a feeling to them. The photos above all have a purpose as to why they are lit. The first two photos are from the Chinese ghost festival and are lit to show a sacred and respectful emotion (in the form of candles and flowers). The second two photos are representing a more lighter and enjoyable feeling because of the kind of festival it is (The traditional Chinese lantern festival) where they celebrate together rather than individually.   

This made me question on what kinds of feelings I want to give off in my photos. Some of the ideas that came to mind included to give off a smooth and calm feel to the images, where the lights are carrying you on a smooth journey. Another idea was to have a more darker feel where the lights are your only guide out of a horrid place, but in the end I decided to go with a more calmer feeling to my images. 

I decided to go with this idea instead because I feel this has a lot more potential to be developed rather than the idea of a more darker emotion to this project. This is because with a darker feeling it's very rare to find a suitable place where you can give off that particular emotion, but with a much more happier and smoother feeling, theres many places you can choose from that will help to give off that effect and the lighting given off by parliment grounds help to present this well.

DSDN 144 project 3- Light.

Artist models/Influences-

My second artist model/influence for this new project based on light is the photographer Henri Carter. Even though Henri Carters photography hasn't used any form of light in his photos, I have looked at him as one of my artist models for this project because of the particular way he has structured his photos.  Henri Carters photography hasn't just stuck to one particular view in his photos. There is a particular reason why he's chosen to photograph his images. The way he has photographed across all his images above is to show a movement in his photos.

For example the first photo is leading the observer through the long allyway and to the focal point at the end of the photo, guiding them through the narrow pathway. This is to make a path for the observer to follow and take in whats in the photo, which is the homeless man sitting on the ground.

Another example on how Henri Carter has shown movement in his photos is in the third photo. In this photo Henri Carter has taken his photo at an angle that looks down the stairs and still manage to guide us along the curving path to take in the man passing on the bicycle.

I'm positive that if I was to encorperate Henri Carters use of giving his photos direction, this will greatly enhance my idea, which is to show how lights act as guides.  

DSDN 144 Project 3- Light

Artist model/Influence 1-

My first artist model/influence for this project based on light is Tokihiro Sato. I have chosen Tokihiro Sato as one of my artist models/influences for this project because of the way he has used lights to light up a scene and create a pathway for the viewer to follow. These lights help to not only make the overall presentation of the photos look better, but really helps give a sense of direction for the viewer to follow, which is a technique I really want to pan across my images. 

Another technique that I like about Tokihiro Sato's photos and would like to use in my photos is how he has incorporated the use of lights on the outside enviroment. I really liked this technique because he's managed to use  lights in an effective way without overcrowding the image so that we don't lose sight on what else is sitting in the background. I feel that this technique is one that I can really use in my sequence because the area I am using for this sequence (Parliment grounds) is an outside locations, much like how Tokihiro Sato has used outside locations to make his photos look so effective.

DSDN 144 Project 3- Light

For this new project based on light, I was given two options on how to approach this topic. One choice was to explore a pure study of light (seeing how it relates to photography, how it can produce different abstract forms and what happens with its abscence in the form of low light photograph)y. The second option was to pursue a more grounded approach to light in relation to objects.

Some of the ideas I had for the first option (the pure study of light) was to present the idea of how lights act as guides in a particular space or how it has objects that help to guide (traffic lights, cars and decorations such as the street lights in areas)or how lightcan expose a place. For my second option, ideas I had that came to mind included the idea of how lights can be used to reveal certain details in objects or how lights enhance our vision from within certain objects.

In the end I decided to go with the idea on how lights can act as guides in specific locations. I have decided to go with this idea because nowadays lights are generally used in many forms (torches, candles, traffic lights etc) to help guide us and generally, we don't seem to realise just how useful this is to us as humans. The area I have chosen to photograph for this project is the grounds outside Parliment. I have chosen this particular area above others such as oriental parade is because the grounds outside Parliment have a lot more space for me to explore and create a succsesful set of photos for this project and also because the area is heavily marked in grass areas to help ensure that the area follows through in my set of photos.

DSDN 144 Project 2- Time

DSDN 144 Project 2 summary-

This is my final sequence of photos for DSDN 144 Project 2- Time. This sequence has undergone many drastic changes in areas such as the setting I used for the shots, the angles the photo's were taken from, and the colour range used. A total of 646 photos were taken and only the top 6 were selected after also reducing the sequence from 10 photos to 6. I chose to use these particular toys rather than more modern toys such as GI Joe and Barbie because they were relating too much to human life rather than the fantasies a child grows up on. I felt that these toys (Pokemon toys) worked a lot better than modern toys because they are more involved in child fantasy that are a lot more friendly because they're not as intimidating as GI Joe with a gun or Barbie with a kitchen knife. 

My photo set is based on the idea on "a toys experience as a childs best friend over time". This changed from my initial idea which was "what a toy experiences over time in the hands of a child". I went through this change in my photos because my set was leading to the ending of creating an abandoned feeling, and I felt this was shown better through this new idea rather than the old one.

My influences included a wide range. One influence was the Disney trilogy "Toy Story". Toy Story gave me the idea to do my project with toys because in the film, the toys all grow up with the main character Andy and after he's finished with them, ends up giving them away to another child. This climax gave me the idea to use this idea on the change in time (what a toys experience being a childs best friend over time is- Being loved and cared for like a best friend, but once it is no longer needed is discarded) because as we get older we tend to forget about our toys and not treat them with the care and respect children would give them.

Another influence was the artist "Elliot Erwitt". This particular artist model caught my eye because he managed to get right in close and flawlessly capture the subject he wants on camera. This technique is displayed through my 6th and final photo. In this photo I excluded most of the distracting background and made it focus solely on the toy that i'm using, much like how Elliot Erwitt focuses on the main object he wants to capture.

The artist "Bruce Davidson" is another artist I used to make my final photo sequence. In the 2nd and 5th photo, this is when Bruce Davidsons influence came in. Bruce Davidson aims to capture his photos at different angles rather than just at a front on angle, which is what I did for these particular photos. They are capturing which toy is the favorite toy and which toy is the one forgotten by the child in favor of the other toy. The use of experimenting with different angles like Bruce Davidson helped me display my idea on who is the more powerful toy much better because in the photos taken we can clearly see that the favorite toy is the one in the child's hands which is displayed well through the upper view of the camera.

"Michael Kenna" is another artist I took a liking too as an artist model. I really liked the way he used his background to his advantage to make his photos look stunningly beautiful and still make sure it doesn't look clustered with objects to achieve this. Michael Kennas influence came up in photos 1 and 3. I used the white in the back to help make my main section (my cousin Katie with the toys) stand out a lot more and display the subject simply and with little complications to it that make it over done.

My last influence was the use of looking at Pokemon manga or more commonly known as comics. The examples of how the pictures were drawn were inspirational to me as well as the use of comical symbols. The use of comical symbols was the most useful and inspirational to me because of the types of toys used in this set of photos. They're more of  child fantasy toys that are playing on a childs wonderful imagination instead of intimidating them like Action Man with a set of guns. I used the comical symbols to show certain things I want to have stand out in the photos such as what the toy is thinking and what the childs dreaming of. I feel that these comical symbols relate well to the toys because Pokemon originated from the Asia area and is also where the manga for this cartoon was created, bringing out a cultural side to the photos. The angles used in comics were used in photo 4. In comics the low angle is used to help display a sense of power. I used this technique for this photo to show that the old toy is slowly losing his power as the favorite toy and is being replaced by the newer toy, which is helping me lead to the idea of the first toy being abandoned for the new one. 

DSDN 144 Project 2- Time

Final sequence of photos-