Weird and Wonderful photos are unrealistic, this is why they're so eye catching. You can photograph anything and edit it into something out of this world. To come out with a striking image you have to be creative, this is the whole point you have to make it as weird and wonderful as possible.
Surrealist Artists
Rene Magritte
The image i'm looking at is mainly dark, the sky is blue and the tree is very dark. I the painter was very clever because he used dark colours and then one bright colour. In the middle of the dark tree he put a bright white moon, which makes it stand out. The painter used dark colours for the background and the tree, he has used and he has used a bright colour for the moon which makes it stand out and makes it the main focus. The image is a portrait and he has places the tree in the middle. This painting makes me feel very calm and its very relaxed because its not complicated image which has much detail in it and it makes the picture simple and unique. In my point of view I dislike this image because its very simple and its not that unique, this picture could of been better if the painter put more detail. I think a person would not look forward to a simple image like a dark background with a tree and a moon. However in the other hand I really like the imagination of the painter it was a very creative and its an eye catching picture
Chema Madoz
Chema is an Spanish photographer. His work is in a particular style, it is very clear and straight. His work is always in black and white and with a amusing catch in every picture. He creates this qauntity of wonder, by blending two unrelated objects that share at least one visually similar feature, or by placing an object in visually out of the blue settings.
I like Chema's work because it is basic but unique he does not over do pictures. Unlike some photos Chemas photos are not packed with loads of objects, they are focused on one or two objects. His work is easy to figure out. I also like the black and white theme it makes his work more effective.
This photo is a picture of a tree trunk with a photo of a cloud edited on as its leafs. These two objects work well together, it looks like a picture of a tree with a cloud floating by. It is a creative photo as the cloud is a similar shape to the tree. The black and white hides the fact it is a cloud and not a green tree, also this picture shows the use of Photoshop. I know this has a use of Photoshop because he has used a cloud on top of a tree bush. The photographer is clever, the facts that he has used more clouds in the background fits in with the whole picture. He has used a good use of contrast. The picture really stands out because the trunk is in the middle and there is two branches coming out the trunk which gives it the shape of a tree. The photographer has used the rule of thirds, he has put the cloud in one of the hot spot. My last opinion on this image is that it is a very good picture and it really focuses the viewers eyes into the tree.
I really like this image because the hands look like they are trapped in their own thoughts. In this image the photographer has used dull colour such as black and white which makes the picture stand out. The photographer took a mid shot which makes the picture more stand out.
Arthur Tress(Surrealism)
I had chosen Arthur Tress because I found it very interesting, the dreams explored by tress are diverse, but common. Being buried alive, flying. The humiliation of failure in the classroom. Monsters looking in the bedroom window. Being lost or separated from everybody you know through a natural disaster.
Arthur Tress was born in 1940 and grew up in a strange time in the United States. In 1952, when he was twelve, his father gave him a Kodak camera. It was the first of many cameras he would own and use. Tress began to spend time at a local community center which had a darkroom and offered lessons in developing and printing.
I really like the way Author Tress takes his pictures because they are black and white pictures. This makes the artists picture very unique and different from others. This picture is a mid shot and its not a close up, I like this because you can see the background as well. If it was a close up I wouldn't really look nice. The photographer has took the picture from the top which makes the model very small, I like this idea because the photographer has used a big chair and a small person and he took the picture from a birds eye view. The photographer has used black and white, the background of the picture is bright white and the model is black which makes him stand out. The photographers focus point is on the model and the background is abit blurry. The photographer has used fast shutter speed. The photographer has taken the picture outdoors which makes it more realistic if it was inside the picture wouldn't make sense.the lightning of this picture is quit echoed because the straight line of the chair connect with the trees.
Philippe Halsman
Philippe Halsman was an American portrait photographer. He was born in Riga in the part of the Russian Empire which later became Latvia, and died in New York City.
I like this photographer because he takes black and white pictures, dull black and white. I like the way the photographer is has took this picture because hes very creative and very unique, different from others. The picture I am looking at is a close up, and the eye level of this picture is in the middle as well. The photographer has used dull colours, the pictures background is grayish and the models face is bright gray and he has used black, black coat and the bird. The photographer has took the picture in a fast shutter speed. The photographer took this shot outdoors because he needed the background and the way it looks like the bird is sitting on his cigar.
Salvador Dali
In this painting by Salvador Dali, the main focus is on a melting clock that is flowing over a cube shape. I can also see parts of the clock are flowing out of the clock face and up into the sky. At the edge of the cube your eyes are drawn to a beautifully painted moth which is small in scale to make the clock look bigger. Dali has set these objects in a realistic landscape which acts as a contrast to the weird and wonderful melting objects. The composition of the painting is made up of the sharp angle of the cube against the soft flowing lines of the clock. The foreground is dominated by the clock and cube but Dali has created a sense of depth by painting the background in a small scale. The soft blue and white sky has a contrast between the warm tones of the cube and this contrast makes the corner of the cube stand out.
The painting to me seems weird and wonderful because this is not an image you see on a daily basis. The artist used his love for the subconscious art style to inspire him for this painting which is also as if he painted a dream. I find his work disturbing and this might be because of how realistically he has painted his subject matter. I wouldn't use this artist for my shoots because I do not know how to apply it, but it does inspire me to be creative. I quite like the idea of having something or somebody be in a realistic setting but something is not quite right. I am going to link this idea to my work by trying to create the illusion of something you recognise but is almost like a dream.
MY IDEAS
My first shoot: Planning
My final image
I like this image because I have made it weird and wonderful by cropping one layer and putting it on the other layer. I have done that by taking a portrait picture of my model and then I cropped it using Photoshop which you can see in the screen grabs. Another reason why I like this image is because it is a full shot, and its a humans eye view which makes it stand out more. The colour green and brown stands out in this picture because its all in focus and the depth of field is high.
I have decided to move on from mirror reflections to building reflections. I have done this because I wanted to relate my photography to an photographer called Idris Khan.
Second shoot
IDRIS KHAN
idris is a Pakistani/Muslim photographer born in 1978 based in London. I like Khans photographs because they are unique from other photographers, he layers his pictures up which make them stand out a lot. one of the strength is that he uses black and white. One thing I don't like about his images is that after layering them up they look blurry to me which also makes them look unprofessional. Khan normally takes his images outdoors in famous places, he also takes images indoors. I like Idris Khan's work because he uses a unique skill that only the minority of photographers use which is layering photographs on top of each other. I can use Khans pictures to inspire my work because my theme links with his photographs.
Some of Khan's work
Idris Khan's work
In this photograph Khan has captured a photograph in a famous place. This photograph seems old because of the quality of it and the fact its black and white you cant really tell when the photograph was taken. This photograph was taken with a D-SLR, I know this because in order to manipulate an image multiple times and still get a good quality out of it shows it was taken from a professional camera. Khan has only used structures in this image this gives an effect on the photograph overall as the observer can only see the man made things.
In my opinion I think this photograph was taken in a humans eye view as its not too high up or too low its in the middle. In this photograph there are leading lines that make your eyes drawn into the middle of the image, Khan has used diagonal lines o0n each sides of the bridge, this makes the observer automatically look in the middle. I think Khan has yoused rule of thirds as bothe of the big building are on the sweet spots and how the water is under the architecture and the sky is on top. Khan has used great composition as he captured this image from the middle of the structure. I think Khan has used sharp depth of field as you can see each piper on the bridge clearly.
The theme in this image is landscape which links to my theme as well the only y=thing different about Khans work from the other photographers is that he manipulates his image by layering the picture multiple of times and get a overwhelming outcome. One thing I rally like about this image is the fact he hasn't only used one image that he keeps on layering but its different photographs that he pout on each other to get a unique result. One thing he could do is to convert his images in colour to get different outcomes, black and white and in colour.
My work.
My final piece
Comparison
My work
Khan's work
Small world project
To create a globe in Photoshop you will have to do these steps; 1) You need to open Photoshop and go on FILE on the top left and then go on PHOTOMERGE 2)Go on auto and press browse and then select the pictures you want 3)You could then crop the picture to whatever size you want. 4)Finally you need to go to filter and then press distort and then toy press polar coordinates
I am developing my work further by researching different apps and Photoshop techniques to edit my pictures. The app that I am using is pixlr. The app is very good because you can do a lot of things like blur, aperture etc.
The next topic that I found to be interesting was the small world photography. I like the idea of turning a photo into a small globe and I want to take a photo which looks good as a small world
Evaluation:
This year I had an option to pick a theme which I then picked the theme of Weird and Wonderful. Within the theme I was inspired by different takes on Weird and wonderful through artists such as Idris Khan and Arthur Tress. These surrealist artists had intrigued me to broaden my ideas which led to these masterpieces. I believe analysing these photographers work had truly inspired me in multitudes of ways, which have been represented through in my work. Throughout my project, I have researched six artists who all cooperate to the theme of surrealism. The first artist I had researched was Rene Magritte. I believe his work created a calm and relaxed feel to his images. I was inspired the most by the photographer Idris Khan. His work correlates to the theme of 'Weird and Wonderful' by overlapping the same image multiple times and making the final image uncanny. Another surrealist artist I have researched is Philippe Halsman; I was intrigued by his work as it was mostly black and white which left a professional look overall. I had researched Salvador Dali because I was fond of his perspective of time. I was filled with ideas by the photographers I had looked at and started to come up with a plan on how to present my ideas.
With taking on this theme of 'Weird and Wonderful' I was given the opportunity to explore Manchester and develop my work further. I was able to capture different styles of photography where I was then able to manipulate in Photoshop and make it correlate with my artist research. Photoshop was not the only skill I had learnt, I had also learnt how to correctly use a camera and taught myself the qualities of a camera such as the depth of field and exposure. However, I enjoyed editing my images as I was able to explore new techniques and improve my skills.
I believe that the most successful part of my project was correlating my work to the artist I had researched, such as my final outcomes that has resembled Idris Khan's work. I am also fond of the Small World Project which I had researched upon for my final idea. Instead of a photographers work, I had taken my initiative and searched elsewhere for ideas such as YouTube. I had come across two videos which helped me understand how to Photoshop a "small world".