MS1404 - Media Production 2

Photography – and Photographic Conventions -

Week 19 – 11th February – Image&Text

Want to have a listen to ideas and what you might create – how far you have got.

Would like to refresh ourselves with the range of photography we might like to refer to and think about.

Want to explore some basic techniques of photography in composition (this week and next) in relation to creating composite photographs.

Remind you of workbook, technical demonstrations and next week.

Your ideas – how far have you got?

Formation of Groups and ideas.

Group 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Refresh ourselves with the range of photography we might like to refer to and think about - Dream Logic

• The logic of dreams is different from the logic of being awake.

• Two contradictory ideas can exist side by side.

• Logical connections in speech may appear not to exist in the dream however relationships do exist. This has been compared to how we use language.

• In language we have a) the ability to tell a story b) the ability to use substitutions.

• Meanings in both language and the dreamscape are endless. Both use metaphor and metonymy. The idea of substitutions and associations.

Man Ray (1890 – 1976)

Surrealist photography

Man Ray (1890 – 1976)

Martina Lopez (2008) Remembrance 4.

Pedro Meyer (1992) Saint

Digitally manipulated Photographs

Karen Ingham 2008

Ruth Robinson 2004

Joan Fontcuberta (2002)Miracle of Cryofloration.Nancy Burson (1982 )Warhead 1.Burson began working with computer scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop software that could be used to “age” a human face. This composite was created using images of five world leaders, each represented proportionally by the number of nuclear warheads deployable by the nation they led: Ronald Reagan (55%), Leonid Brezhnev (45%), Margaret Thatcher (less than 1%), François Mitterand (less than 1%), and Deng Xiaoping (less than 1%).

http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/view?exhibitionId={2E988323-B8DF-496F-B72A-E999E567FABA}&oid=190018759&pg=1&rpp=20&pos=5&ft=*

How does Dream Logic and the ideas of Freud translate to Practice?

Photography• Connotations in an image work like condensation and

displacement.• Some of the best advertising uses these techniques. • Meanings are constructed through multi-layering and

work on our hidden desires, secret fantasies, wishes or even death-drive.

• Meanings are often displaced with a series of associations ultimately taking us to the product.

Look at Other Books.

Explore some basic techniques of photography in composition (this week and next) in relation to creating composite photographs.

Photography – basic conventions of composition

1) The golden rectangle or golden ratio – working within ratios: 4:3 or 16:9 (HD). Associated with Greek artistic practice. Can be more complicated of exploring rectangles within rectangles for composition. See: http://www.dpreview.com/articles/6426089447/compositional-rules/2

2) The Rule of Thirds as a source for composition and dynamism in the image.

Photography – basic conventions of composition

3) The Rule of Thirds is developed to work with The Spiral where you can continue to dissect the rectangle into ever-smaller rectangles historically called the Fibonacci spiral. Think about the composition of the photograph (whether digital composite or composed in the viewfinder).

Photography – basic conventions of composition

4) Diagonals, Zigzags and S-Curves thinking about the shapes in relation to the golden third also helps with composition.

5) Dynamic Balance or Dynamic Symmetry – that looks symmetrical at first but then contains imbalance.

Photography – basic conventions of composition

6) Negative and Positive space. The yin-yang of compositional devices, negative and positive space uses the edge of the photograph’s frame to create tension within the photograph.

7) The Dutch Angle/Lasso. where the camera is cocked at an angle to create tension in the frame. It is often used to denote a time when the main character is mentally unbalanced

Photography – basic conventions of composition

8/9) Frame within Frames and the dirty frame. Using one object to frame another or where the main subject is framed by other objects or people (usually out of focus) for dramatic effect..

Photography – basic conventions of composition

8/9) Frame within Frames and the dirty frame. Using one object to frame another or where the main subject is framed by other objects or people (usually out of focus) for dramatic effect..

Remind you of workbook, technical demonstrations and next week.

Please can you take some pictures this week exploring these conventions and bring to class. This can be on your iphone, or instamatic that you might have at home.

Download or email this to yourself.Or upload to the website as the wordpress gallery if you can post.

We will go through composing for Photoshop next week.

http://adims1404.wordpress.com/