The Last Project - Collage ;(

Artist Reflection for Project 8

     My strongest technical aspect of this project would be would be the diversity in the values in the final product. There is both black and white as well as at least 8 different shades of gray. I had used a 2 1/2 contrast filter on it to give it the variety in values. The original photo also was composed of several different objects with varying amount of shade made it a perfect choice for this assignment. Something I could have improved on was to increase the darkness overall on the negative. I could achieve this by changing the filter to a 3 or 3 1/2 or higher, but i believe past that it could make things too dark. Another way to darken the results would be to expose it to light more by a second or 2 more or increase the F-11 to F-8.
     The easiest part would be agitating the chemicals over the paper like all darkroom projects. It was also easy to cut out what film I would use for this image, then choose the winning frame. The more difficult things were to find what light level and duration I would use, as this was my first dark room assignment. Those who were already in the dark room gave me numbers to work with and I worked from there, but since each enlarger is different and each picture needs different amounts of light to meet the same result as others, I had to experiment some and the large test strip had helped plenty to choose the result for the finished product. I admit I was not sure why some of the small strips were so dark, but later came to realize I did nothing wrong, but the papers must have been previously exposed to light when they were being pulled from the drawers.
     I demonstrated the objective by accurately making an enlarged version of the film on the light-sensitive paper using the enlarger. The objective was to go through the process from taking pictures to using the enlarger to make the contact sheet in the from of a test strip, then choose the best value and make another test strip to replicate that, and choose that best result and make a finished product with that chosen value. If I were to repeat this project, I would take a snapshot of something that isn't school related (because I do not need a reminder that I am in school). Overall this activity is easy now that I understand it, but since it was my first experience in the dark room, it was actually relatively disorienting.

    

Artist Reflection for Project 7

     I believe the strongest technical aspect would be my ability in this series to keep the focus center on the subject (Marie). Lining it up is highly important because it defines the balance of the photo. The stools that were used had legs that matched up on the same axis having two points to reference. The weakest aspect would be my inability to permenantly fix the blur effect on most of the image. the small strips had a nice focus, but when it came to that large positive sheet only the leftmost area had any clarity. Specifically the wheel which would almost rival a company manufactured camera that a customer would buy. What had worked on the small sheets to provide a precise image was using a mild light setting (F-11) and increasing the time compared to the first couple positive strips. This experience is similar to cooking, and the blur is tantamount where the food is burned in some areas and uncooked in others. 

     The easiest part was keeping the photo paper in the chemicals and agitating them to catalyze the reaction. Shifting the tub requires no critical thinking and adapting to improve. Albeit sometimes one can forget exactly when the paper is deposited in the liquids, but the matter of a few seconds do not make a difference. The hardest part of this activity was figuring out the issues that troubled the perfection of this project. When I thought of this as similar to cooking (as stated earlier), I remedied the solution, despite being confused as to what caused the blur. 

     The objective was to learn about how lighting affects light sensitive paper, and to create an image with it. I had first learned about how to block light as not to disturb contents inside.  As Marie had used this coffee camera several times it was proven to be light proof besides the shutter, as it should be, so I did not add more time to test to see if there is a light leak. When I had put in my first test strip for the coffee camera in it was exposed to too much light and off center, which I had learned from and adjusted the stools and the time the shutter was open. Then it was time to make the positive from the negative from the coffee camera. The new objective was simply to create a positive of the results from the coffee camera. After a few successes with the small strips I made a large sheet version which mysteriously wasn't able to capture any definition from the smaller samples (besides on the wheel of the car on the bottom left), and had to call that a wrap before using too many resources. If I were to reenact this activity, I would want to build a scene, like borrow some artwork and line it up outside, or take a picture of the cars parked outside. 

Powerpoint on Christopher Bucklow by Kyle Krainski (Marvel Kyle)

 Artist Reflection for Project 5     

     The strongest technical aspect would be the use of circles to create different shapes. Circles are a constant theme in each of theses pieces in varying ways. Those bingo chips are first used to create a creature that resembles a dragon/wyvern flying at night (landscape - bottom left). Due to my lack of experience the clouds and wings didn't turn out to make it appear like said mythical creature(s). In the picture to the right of that (symmetry) the circles are used to create something like that of crosshairs on a scope, and the corners attach to that figure like spiderwebs. In the top picture (magazine) large reels are in the corners that create angles upon angles in the for of a broad cone, as it can not be accurately described as a full circle or a triangle. The smaller chips reappear here in a smaller amount around the mildly curved diagonal. they serve the purpose of adding more white to the blend, in a more-or-less unexpected fashion to the pattern. What I could improve on was my weakest technical aspect, the use of grays.  I knew that tissue paper would create grays, but I had not anticipated that multiple layers were needed. That is why there are no large clouds or wings on the landscape, and that led to the happy accident that the moon had experienced, which turned out different in the least. The grays had turned out exactly as needed for the magazine project because the enlarger was set properly for it, 10 seconds on F-11, which has the same F-stop as the other projects but longer duration. The additional time was needed to penetrate the magazine as it was a thick substance that was still able to let it a portion of light.  

     The easiest part was timing the chemicals and agitating them in the dark room. Just keeping track of when you put it the specialized paper and add the time that is instructed above the containers was all there was to it. Planing what to put on as blockers of light was much harder, as I was not sure how much tissue paper to use to create some good grays, on top of that I had to plan something without color, but just using white, gray, and black. The symmetry was the easiest to plan because it would be even on both sides so I had to only play with half and then duplicate. The hardest part would be trying to rearrange the blockers in the dark room because with the lack of visibility I could only get a general idea where I was placing things.

     The objective is demonstrated in the landscape only barely, with grays occurring sparsely. I want to redo that with more grays so that my imagination lines up better with the end product, but I didn't because I was instructed to use this result and learn from it because my progress lagged behind others. The white worked perfectly, with just more black than intended. The symetry picture had achieved its goal with less deviation due to being easier to reconstruct. The extreme right and extreme left have differences due to the tissue paper not being perfectly shaped, as it is hard to shape, and then replicate so it would it the same on both sides. The magazine project had filled its mission as the light penetrated the sheet and the image transferred onto the paper with additional blockers complicating the image. For the first project I would redo it where the grays show up as intended with more tissue paper; the wings and clouds would then be able to appear as gray. Redoing the symmetrical project I would use bigger pieces, as there would be less to balance on each side making it simpler and easier to do. I would use scissors to cut multiple layers of the tissue paper so it would be able to be more perfect clones. To redo the magazine image I would create a small message to write to go with the elected page. 

Artist Reflection for Project 4

     My strongest technical aspect for this project would be how well cut the edges are done, when things were in contact with something else they become hard to separate. Examples of things that are hard to separate in particular would be the light sky on the lemurs' white fur or the lemurs digits from the log. The earths had a white background when they were inserted in and now none of the copies have any of the void background showing. The technical aspect that could be improved in this piece would be choosing a better theme for the background. The current theme ties in well enough, as recycling, and the image of the planet are related to nature as this animal is from.
     The easiest part would be duplicating the layers. It is simple to select a layer, click layer, and hit duplicate layer. The background with the Earths and recycles symbols have multiple layers to it. Sometimes the layers had to be move forward or backward as not to overlap improperly. The hardest part is the same as my strongest part, being the erasing. If you erase too little, then the it creates too much of a distraction. The earths mentioned earlier are a good example of this. If you erase too much then you destroy the image you are meant to enhance.
     The objective was to paint the polaroid's in the scenario that they have been thrown on the table, and how mine are laid out it looks like they have been thrown with a thrust motion. There also are multiple points of the animals are reaching out of the photos onto the background. And the background consists of "3 layers" with the recycle emblem, green color over that, and Earths in the middle of the emblems. There is air quotes because each layer is duplicated to span the entire frame. I have learned the difficulty of separating fur from skin and which to count as a border to the sky or other object. With this knowledge I would stray from my nature theme that I prefer to use for photoshop and use something else, like a president in a photo. It would be fun to have a background with eagles, the flag, or fireworks, there is room for imagination depending on who is chosen and what they have specifically done.

(The Altered)

(The Original)

Artist Reflection for Project 3
     The best technical aspect was using the spot healing brush tool to remove the blemishes. Using this I was able to use the normal looking skin and use those colors brushed over the freckles and irritated skin spots. The result is that she looks like she had no skin disorder. Although this was my best technical aspect, it could have been improved some. If someone were to zoom in on the picture and investigated it closely, the patterns that I used my healing brush for can be seen. Maybe if I were to experiment with more sizes of the brush and use different patterns to mask blemishes it would create a more authentic looking result.
      The easiest part would be to use the tool to simply cover up the blemish. Click from one spot and drag is easy. The harder part is to be careful on what sort of displacement it creates with the colors. Sometimes the hair is on the very edge of the range and would create an orange streak through the skin. Other times it is the shadows that affect the tool. To see if a questionable stroke helped, I would quickly hit the "command" and "z" buttons to undo and redo, and a good portion of the work was left undone due to the difficulties I mentioned, and tried a different angle. This made the project easier by helping me understand how the brush worked better.
     I had achieved the goal of removing the blemishes by making her natural skin tone go over irritated skin points and freckles (and at one time an annoying strand of hair). Another objective was to change the eye color, but that would in the end make the picture worse because in her eyes the observer can see the bride and groom. Changing the eye color would distort the reflection in her eyes. This was an enjoyable activity in which if I had to do it again I would use another picture. I would also dabble more with the paint brush. In this project I didn't use it more than a few times, and it proved to help with spots that the healing brush couldn't seem to fix.

(The original)

 (The altered)