Presentation/Adding Borders

As part of my final presentation of images I have been using Photoshop to add borders as a final finish, here are some screen grabs to illustrate the steps taken.

After dragging and using the 'transform' tool to place the image on a background, a grid was used for centreing and then 'stroke' to add a black edge around the border.

The finished mounted and bordered images along with the 'raw' originals will then be copied to a CD for Mr Steve.

Presentation Methods/Creating a Portfolio 2

There are several methods of presentation available, these include;

Unmounted prints - probably the cheapest method but only for informal viewing since they are easily damaged in handling.

Mounted prints - still inexpensive but prints do have some protection, window mounts are probably best for this but will add to bulk and weight.

Mounted colour transparencies - these are inexpensive and many images can be shown at once, however, a lightbox and magnifier will be needed, or a slide carousel could be used.

Large-format transparencies - popular in advertising and commercial photography, and more expensive, robust but can be heavy, easy to view without a lightbox.

CD - Cheap and reliable, images can be shown in the best light and can be easily transported or posted, recipient needs a CD player in their computer.

Website - Inexpensive and easily set up, anyone in the world can see your pictures with 24hour access, assuming client has internet access.

Presentation Methods/Creating a Portfolio 1

A Portfolio is a selection of your best work, work which you are confidant in and pleased with and work which you would wish to be known for.

It should be work that you are willing to undertake, for example do not include portraits if you only want to undertake landscape work.

A client or potential employer may be interested in employing you for interiors work and you should therefore make your portfolio appropriate by including this type of work.

Do not make your portfolio too large since a client does not want to wade through mounds of work, but show enough to make it clear you are capable of producing results.

Allow the viewer to look through your work at their own pace, and discuss images when invited to do so.

Dress appropriately and be polite even if rejected, you may want try again in the future.

Make sure you leave contact information, this could be a business card, picture or print. 

Think about the presentation as a whole, the impression you give by your dress and manner, the type and style of your portfolio, and the type and style of contact or other information you leave with the client.

Presentation/editing

As part of my final editing I have used the 'sharpen' tool from the Filter menu, 'unsharpen mask' to reduce blurring on this part of the image due to movement.

I also tried presenting a number of images in one bordered frame to see how this would look.

I like the effect this gives and may decide to combine images in this way.  However, with time constraints involved and the decisions which will have to be made as to which images to put together, I will probably give each an individual border.

Preview of Final 10 - Architecture/Street

These are the final 10 photographs, for each theme, I will be using, they have been edited in photoshop and now I need to decide on a title for each picture.

A title can be either a 'denotation' a simple description of the picture, devoid of any emotion, or attitude, or a 'connotation', having cultural, personal and/or emotional associations.

After researching the options for presentation, I have decided to use an internet based gallery presentation on a dedicated website.

Prints after all can be damaged by constant use and carriage and since most, if not all, businesses these days have a web-site and internet connectivity, this seems to be the most convenient. 

The only drawback is the client has no tactile image to handle and display and you also have to get the client interested enough to look for your website in the first place.  In addition, you are not there to promote your work in person or explain your thinking behind a particular image.  You are relying to some extent on your work speaking for you, to get over your enthusiasm and committment to the subject and client.  However, you can include personal information and experience on your website, it is a whole package representing you.

You could present your work in CD form, this could be posted, or you could be on hand to give information if requested to do so, this way the client meets you as an individual and you are able to convey your feeling for the work.

However, a wider audience can be reached via the internet and since carriage from one place to another is not involved, immediate viewing can take place, anywhere in the world at any time.

 

Photographic Exhibition - V & A Museum

Whilst in London we also visited the Victoria & Albert Museum which houses a permanent Photographic Exhibition detailing the history of photography, as well as an exhibition running up to 20 Feb titled, Shadow Catchers, Camera-less Photography.

This was a series of prints ranging from A2 up to lifesize of various subjects, made directly on to light sensitive photographic paper, and then fixed in the normal manner, as well as video footage of the artists at work.

The portraits were the most striking although due to the nature of the medium these were in silhouette.

Interesting patterns were formed with organic material, rocks, crystals, clothing, the list was almost endless.

Unfortunately, photography  in the exhibition, was not allowed.

A photogram is a photographic image made without a camera by placing objects directly onto the surface of a photo-sensitive material such as photographic paper and then exposing it to light. The result is a negative shadow image varying in tone, depending on the transparency of the objects used. Areas of the paper that have received no light appear white; those exposed through transparent or semi-transparent objects appear grey.^[1]
Artistic cameraless photography, as the technique producing photograms is usually known, is perhaps most prominently associated with Man Ray and his exploration of rayographs. Others who have experimented with the technique include László Moholy-Nagy, Christian Schad (who called them "Schadographs"), Imogen Cunningham and even Pablo Picasso.^[2] Varieties of the technique have also been used for scientific and other purposes.

Research/printing Differences between C-types & Giclees

I have been looking at the different types of paper available for printing, if this is the route I want to take,
and whether to make a choice between glossy, matt or semi matt paper.  I found this short video which explains some of the paper choices which have to be made.

London Art Fair 2011

We went down to the Art Fair held at The Business Design Centre in Islington yesterday.

It is a showcase for contemporary art work, including photography, with 124 galleries showing curated and solo shows.

There is a section for emerging artists in the 'art projects' as well as Photo 50, a showcase for contemporary photography.

Photo50 is our showcase for contemporary photography.  Now in its fifth year it will feature 50 works by artists selected by a distinguished panel with both established artists and less well known figures.  This year’s panel includes Zelda Cheatle, Curator and Director of the Tosca Fund Photography Collection, Celia Davies, Head of Projects for Photoworks, Sebastien Montabonel, European Senior Specialist of Photographs at Phillips de Pury and Joanna Pitman of The Times. We asked each member of the panel to nominate up to three artists and then introduce their work. A Photography Focus Day on Wednesday 19 January 2011 will feature a series of discussions and tours dedicated to contemporary photography.		Scarlett Hooft Graafland / Polar Bear / 2007 / C-print/ 100 x 125cm / Scarlett Hooft Graafland courtesy Michael Hoppen Contemporary
		David Spero/ Studio 3/ Image courtesy of the artist
		Bill Armstrong/ Renaissance 1005/ 2006-7/C-print mounted to aluminium Framed/ 76.2 x 91.4cm/ Edition of 5/ Image courtesy of Hacklebury Fine Art

 

I couldn't resist taking this shot of the roof structure of the exhibition hall.

The works on display covered all artistic genres and no doubt we only saw a small proportion of those on display, it was fascinating and very inspirational.

Off the wall, you could say, I remember the flying ducks my mother used to have on her wall, an example of image manipulation.

This is photograph of New York which has been manipulated to reflect itself.

Here the artist has made a composite from iconic images from around the world. 

This is a beautiful wall panel made up of coloured blown glass, reminded me a little of the marbles I used to play with as a child, or the glass made by Murano glass works in Italy.

Some of the viewers were as interesting as the art works.

Since I am in the process of deciding how best to present my images, it was interesting to see the different treatments used at the show.

On the whole however, I found that most of the contemporary photography was presented  mounted behind a sheet of acrylic, this made some difficult to view since lighting reflected off the surface.

ARCHITECTURAL DECORATION (NAPLES ARCHEOLOGICAL MUSEUM)

Whilst in Italy visiting the National  Archaeological Museum of Naples, I was inspired to photograph many of the exhibits.  These help record the daily lives of the inhabitants of the surrounding area right back to Roman times.  Many of the exhibits were taken from Herculanium and Pompei, Roman cities of great sophistication, and show how people lived, how they decorated their homes and the items they used and treasured.

Since one theme of my assignment covers architecture, I thought I would include these since architectural decoration and detail is covered by this.  In addition I feel that architecture influences the way people live and inhabit a space, therefore this translates into the items they use in daily life and treasure for decoration.

This is a detail from a sarcophagus carved in the 4th centure AD, of Roman origin and shows very find detail.

This detail is taken from the so called 'blue vase'.  It is a wine amphora depicting a Dionysiac themed grape harvest, made by adding a layer of white paste to a blue glass background.  Locally made in the Augustan period, 1st Century AD.

This must be where Wedgewood got his inspiration for his Jasperware, paste cameos on blue unglazed pottery.

This shot was difficult to get since the vase was in a square glass case with four tungsten lights inside attached to the top, shining directly down onto the vase.  Great illumination for viewing but not for photographs.

This is a wall painting taken from a villa in Pompei of Terentius Neo (a baker) and his wife. It was found on the rear wall so that anyone entering the house had an immediate view of it from the atrium.

Below are further wall paintings taken from Pompei and Herculanium and show how wealthy Roman families decorated their homes.

These animal head spouts were taken from a fountain and must have looked very impressive when in use.

Since they were lined up on a plain wall I liked the idea of giving an impression of the spouts but concentrating focus on one, I therefore used a wide aperture on autofocus and then recomposed the shot.

This is a silver drinking vessel decorated with olives and branches from the House of Menander where a silver hoard was found.  There were 118 pieces packed in wooden cases in the basement of the house and were placed there during restoration of the villa, after damage during the earthquake of AD62.  They had been wrapped in cloth and wool for protection.

The figures of athletes below were most impressive since they were in running position and not the usual erect pose draped in robes and holding spears, shields etc.

They were recovered from the Villa of the Papyri, with another 65 works in bronze and 28 in marble and more than 1000 rolls of papyrus.  They decorated the gymnasium  at the centre of which was a swimming pool.

These were difficult to photograph since  I wanted to depict the running action but with the striking face in focus.  The large windows behind let in bright sunlight and there were constantly people milling about.  I got as close to the runner as I could and used a shallow depth of field to try and cut out some of the distractions.

The final shot is part of the museum building itself, the building was originally a palace, constructed in the Renaissance period and renovated and restructured by Ferdinand IV of Bourbon around 1780.

This is the Great Hall of the Sundial and was begun in 1612/1615 and was intended to house the 'Studi' and the public library, so called because of a sundial built into the floor, lit by a shaft of light which enters the room at midday, through a hole from the south-west corner of the room.

Research - Presentation 2

From previous research it is clear that if choosing printed images it is essential to ensure that the printer used is of sufficient quality, to make a faithful image of that seen on screen.

Most printers are either ink-jet or laser, ink-jet work by squirting minute amounts of ink onto the chosen medium, whilst laser printers use a xerographic printing process, the image is produced by a laser beam scanning across the printers photoreceptor.   The printers ability to accept a wide range of paper sizes and weights also needs to be considered.

Higher resolution printers will give better results with some printers able to produce up to 1440x720 dots per inch, (dpi).  However, the way in which the printer uses these dots has a significant impact on the printed image and it is better to compare results rather than the number of dpi.

Following the decision to print images, whether in house or using one of the many companies offering this service, the decision then has to be made as to what form final image will take.  Whether it be on canvas, contemporary acrylic or box framed.  It could also be presented on white card or mount board, fibre or foam board with various finishes.  Framing should also be considered and there are many types and sizes available.

Another alternative is to present as an album, see an example below:

PhotoCoverBooks

One Vision’s PhotoCoverBooks offer the photographer a unique way in which to present a photographic album. Photographic paper is widely recognised for delivering the finest quality of image onto paper. Therefore, as our core customers are professional photographers we don’t believe in sacrificing your images to anything less than optimum image quality.

We have created a solution to build a high quality photographic book for those price conscious couples or those customers just wishing to enjoy their images in a book format.

With a choice of 10 popular sizes ranging from 5x4” up to 16x12” we can now produce the below types of PhotoCoverBooks:

You could even print onto mugs, t-shirts, mouse mats, calendars, the list is almost endless.

Or you could present on line using one of the many companies that offer this service as seen here.

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