Light writing evaluation1111

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Experimental Photography

Nicola Kilgallon

Light Writing1.

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6.5.

Use this slide to annotate your final image

Origional picture of Newcastle.

Light writing added into picture Light writing is

in blue to act as water

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My intentions of light writing was to be able to create a word, put two images together to create a better one and put some into a photograph. I managed to do all of these things. I intended to make a shooting star by doing a star and the detail separate, otherwise I would have gone all over the place with out realising. I also wrote ‘hello’ and my name. My last and biggest intention was to get light writing onto an image that I have already taken. I decided to make some lines to represent water for a picture of a bridge and river I took. I am very happy with the results I got as it isn’t easy, especially when you can’t see what you are drawing until you can see the image after. My final image compared to image 4 are very different in the way that one was completelyrandom and the other was more difficult and had to be through through. Image 3 and 4 contrast as one was one light which was quickly covered to stop the light when needed, and the other was done with two lights which was difficult as my left hand always turned the light away from the camera. Stephen Poff influenced me to try and do some light writing when I came across his blog when doing research. He has several words on his photographs which I’d like to be able to do if I had more time. He also has several different coloured lights which influenced me to try two different coloured lights at the same time, image 3, which didn’t turn out quite as I wanted it too. I like image 4, although if I tried more and did more attempts I think it could be a lot neater and then more interesting.

http://stephenpoff.com/blog/?p=342

The aesthetic qualities of my final image go well together. I like that it is a piece of light writing on top of an origional image. I think it looks good as it is bright and eye catching, both of the pictures have bright colours in making it look aluminous. I like that I tried to make the light writing give off the effect of water as it is blue and on some water to make it more obvious. I also like the fact that the light writing is a bit blurred so its not too sharp and doesn’t stop the city lights in the background from being noticeable. The strongest element in my work from an aesthetic point of view is the origional picture in the background, I think it brings out the light writing more and gives it more of a meaning, rather than just being some blue lines. I think that the weakest element is the shape of the light writing, it could be more wavy and water-like but as I couldn’t see what I was drawing I had to stick with what it came out like. The technical qualities of my work involve editing and resizing the light writing once it was on Photoshop. To do this, I changed the hue and saturation until I decided that was the colour I wanted. I then put it on top of the picture of Newcastle and resized it go a good fit. For image 2, I had to crop two images down to put them together, they then overlapped so I had to use the erase tool to get rid of it, to create a shooting star. I think that this was done well as I managed to get them to the colour and size that I wanted. When taking the images, I had to keep changing the shutter speed on the camera until it suited what I was drawing. When I was writing, I had 5 seconds and when I was drawing squiggles I had about 4. It had to be in a dark room which didn’t let much light in otherwise the light wouldn’t have been caught on camera easily. The strongest element technical quality wise was the writing as I had to block the light from each letter which was difficult and took me a few attempts. The weakest was image 3 as I couldn’t get the red light to shine as much as I kept turning it away from the camera, I could develop this by trying more attempts at it.

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I could improve my work by doing more practice, I found it difficult trying to draw and write when I couldn’t see that I had done until the image came out on the camera. I could have also kept trying to get the light to show up more as I found it difficult. I could develop my work by involving more lights and people to make it really interesting, I could have tried to write more than one word and tried to draw more than one thing if I put the shutter speed on for more seconds. I would like to do more of having an original photograph and added light writing onto it, I think that I could have a made a more interesting one if I had the time. If I do develop my work, I would try to achieve more words in one image and to do one outdoors. I think it would be interesting and more of a challenge with the lights.

For the formal elements such as lines shapes and patterns, I could have made my drawings a lot neater by practicing more and giving it more time. I could have made more interesting patters if I had more time to plan what I was going to try and do. I could have made the lines a lot neater and the shaped I could have taken more time to so, like image2 for example, could have been more like a star shape if I practiced more. For the colour, I edited some of them on Photoshop like in image 5, the colour of the light writing was originally yellow, however I edited the hue and saturation to make it green and then the contrast to make it brighter. My final image was also originally yellow but I did the same to make it blue.

As the theme of the photography was discovery, I think my light writing fits the brief. This type of photography can be done anywhere with the right lighting, even outside making it fit the theme discovery well. It is also mysterious as nobody will know where it will have been taken, whether it is just a room or outdoors somewhere. I think with more practice, my light writing will fit the theme even more. I have managed to manipulate images by putting two together and making one image from two different images of light writing. This type of experimental photography expanded my creative and technical skills as I had no idea how to do it before I researched it and attempted to make images from it.