Proposal for picture stop motion

For my stop motion I will use different images printed out then retake photos of the images. I will take photos of paper airplanes and print them out in differnt sizes. For the background I will use photos of a landscape that have been taken through out the day. This will be the "changing landscape" aspect of my work. To start with I will have an image of myself holding one of the paper airplanes. I will cut my arm at the shoulder and elbow so that I can make it look like i am actually throwing the paper airplane in a fluid movement. I will throw to air planes then I will make them do acrobatic movements. Aswell as moving the objects I will move the camera, this includes zooming in. I aim to use 300 frames to give the short film a good length.

The video above is by Tony Gilliam and is from the film Monty Python and the Flying Circus. The aspects of stop motion are similar what I hope to achieve from my stop motion. For example, it uses photos of photos which is what i plan to use. The above video is about humour, which is not what i am trying to achieve. I that my video will have the same fluidity as the video above which I will achieve by having a fast frames per second and make each movement very small.

Stop motion test and evaluation of premiere

To practise using the camera and how the computer can automatically capture the frames and put it into premiere, we made a small stop motion clip as practise for our real one. We moved a bus and made a trail of paperclips to follow. I took about 100 photos which gave the clip a esmooth trail. The best bit about using premier is the onion skinning tool which allows you to see the last photo which allowed me to allign the next frame better.

Below is the final clip that we made.

Joiner Photomontage

This photo montage has been done using Hockney's joiner style. I have used about 20 images taken from differnt perspectives, with some being taken closer up than others. I took the array of photos so that I could make the photo montage slightly panoramic. When joining up the images I was not too worried about how precise they were, this is because I like the effect it gives.

The panoramic effect allows more detail to be shown of the large area, as each separate photo has its own focal point which makes the image very busy. If the I took the photos in the day I think it would be too crowded and as it is dark it works well. Originally the photo would of had a white background due to photoshop, but I made it black as the white was too bright for the image and the glow of the buildings and lights was lost.

This ties in with "changing landscapes" as the centre of town is a busy place in rush hour which shows the speed cars changing. At this moment the town is busier than normal. It is also getting dark so some photos are darker than others.

I really enjoyed making this even though it was quite tricky and I want to do more in the future.

Photomontage attempt

I am really unhappy with this as it is not what I set out to do. I found it a lot harder than I anticipated to make a Photomontage with real meaning. This is simply 4 images combined, with the background being an optical illusion taken from a book. I liked using the stamp filter and the effect it gives though I found it hard to match colours correctly. My first attempt is random. In the near future I will upload another Photomontage that i have been working on that conveys a meaning specific to me and changing landscapes.

Photomontage Research and Plan

I like the photomontage below as it shows how the city has changed. The artist who made this used differnt images from the city. In the foreground the images are very historical and as you get further back newer buildings are used. The older images are made smaller and the larger images are larger. This gives the feeling that modern times dominate what happened in history.

I like how this image conveys a meaning and has not just been done for the sake of it. I am going to make a photomontage that means something to me, not necesarrily to anyone else. I am going to take iconic images that are important to me such as my dog. I planto have an image of my room and composit differnt surroundings onto the walls. I will then composit images of things that are important to me such as my motorbike. I think this will give the image a random feel. I will add as many images to further effect. I will use differnt perspectives and change the sizes of images. I will make sure the photomontage doesnt get stupid.

Stop Motion Animation

Stop motion animation is the process in which many photos are taken of a scene where tiny alterations are made so that when put together they look a video. This is similar to a flip book where in each frame a small change is made. The more frames per second in your film the smoother it will run. Stop motion enables you to move inanimate objects as if they were real. This gives the video a very different feel compared to a normally filmed movie.

I like the originality of the video above as it is Lego and there are no other music videos in that format. There is no other way that specific video could of been made due to the stop motion. The bright colours and fast moving frames go well with the music.

Photomontage

This is the process of using many images and combining them to create one image by composting them onto each other. This effect can make the image look real, or can look totally surreal depending on what photos are used and in what context. Photomontage can be useful to create cross sections of objects, for example an iceberg, a photo can be taken underwater and above water then pieced together. One photograph would not work as you would get a reflection in the water. Photomontage can incorporate photographs, paintings, illustrations and graphics.

David Hockney

I like this image as it incorporates many images. I like how it is not square and each image is of different sizes and rotated differently. I like the trees because the leaves have different colours due to the different pictures that were used. I like how it is not perfect, for example the car is made up of different images that have been taken from different viewpoints.

Johannes Baader

This image uses different media including a randomly cut out photo, with another photo placed on top, with a silhouette cut out to make it seem that the man on the photo underneath is in the background of the second image and is in a different pose. To add to this is some writing that looks to be from a newspaper. This is a self portrait of Baader and the photomontage conveys him as being a highly ranked military officer due to his attire and the office in the top image. I like this image as it is different.

Compositing images

Here is my original image. I have composited the elephant using the same method as the post below however i have not blurred it as that effect is not desired.

I have also changed the levels to make the picture look darker. I am happy with this image as it is interesting and because it is unusual.

Compositing images example

For this post I am going to composite the air plane onto the landscape as subtly as I can. The images I am going to composite are below.

To start with I used the magic wand tool on the background. I then clicked edit then invert selection. I then needed to make sure te right parts of the plane are selected so I used the selection brush and removed certain white areas so that in when i composite it it would look normal. I then contracted the area by one pixel so that it did not have a halo around it. I then feathered it by half a pixel to further help this. I then copied and pasted it onto a new layer on the image of the landscape. I then used the select tool on the plane and reduced its size by 75% and held the shift key to constrain the proportions. I then positioned so that it looked as if it was flying. I duplicated the layer by right clicking on it then clicking duplicate layer. On the new copy i added blur by using the motion blur effect and selected the direction so it was in line with the direction it was travelling. I then erased the leading edge so that it was not blurred. I then blurred the background so that it looked like a panning shot. To further the effect i blurred the foreground once more. I like the final effect, it is pictured below.

Mood Landscapes

For this edit I used as many of the skills that I have learnt so far. To start with I decided not to crop my photo as it would not of allowed me to edit my photo to convey the mood I wanted as the whole photo is needed. I first started by changing the levels. In doing so i made the image darker and have more contrast. I then by using the select tool highlighted the are of the sunset with a feather of 250px so that it was not obvious when I edit it. I then created a layer and pasted the selected area, then i changed the hue/saturation. I increased the saturation by 20 which made the yellow darker and more vibrant, and on another layer i increased the lightness by -8 to make the rest of the image slightly darker.

I tried to make the image convey the mood "hope" by making the left of the photo dark and get brighter towards the right. I think that this has worked okay. I like how the silhouette of the stadium shows up and how the people in the foreground are looking out to sea.

Alternatively i have cropped the image so that the horizon is in line wit

h the bottom line on the rule of thirds and the people are on the bottom left corner of the golden sections. This makes the image more personal to them which helps me convey the mood of happiness as they are happy. I then changed the levels so that the mid tones where 0.87 and the white tones were 255. This has made the image a lot brighter and more detail can be seen in the buildings. To finish off I used a warming filter (85) to increase the saturation of the picture. I have tried to change the picture to show happiness.

Filter Effects

On this post I will be looking at lots of different filters that can change an image drastically for a desired effect. The image I will use is below.

Original

Cut out

This filter groups similar colours into a set amount of layers. It gives the effect that it has been cut out and layered. I like this effect because it makes the image stand out more.

I set the filters settings to:

Levels - 7

Edge simplicity - 3

Edge fidelity - 1

Grain

This effect gives the image a grain texture. I think this effect makes the image look good as the background is out of focus and it is snowing.

I set the filters settings to:

Intensity - 67

Contrast - 88

Cross Hatch

This effect made no dramatic effect as I did it before I resized the image. Though, it has subtly made it look softer which suits this image.

I set the filters settings to:

Stroke length - 40

Sharpness - 6

Strength - 3

Charcoal and chalk

This effect makes the image look black and white and supposedly done with chalk and charcoal. I think it is too perfect as this would not be able to be achieved by hand. Though i do like the effect as the black is dark and the white is bright.

I set the filters settings to:

Charcoal area - 14

Chalk area - 6

Stroke pressure - 3

Experimenting with filters.

To start with I am going to edit a photo so that it is good to have a filter. There is no point placing a filter over a badly composed photo, or a photo where the colour isn't good. To start with I am going to take my photo and I am going to crop it improving the composition. First of all I cropped the front of the crowd off so that there were no gaps in the crowd. I adjusted the levels so that the sky was lighter and the crowd was slightly darker. After I did this i started adding filters. My original is below.

Level changes.
After crop and levels.

Cooling Filter - This makes the blues get more vibrant and darker.

Yellow 30% - I cant notice much change.

Green 30% - more green tones.
Magenta 70% - most of the photo has got a tinge of magenta.
Sepia 100% - this is my favourite. I like how it looks differnt with the sky being in dark and the people still in colour.
I like how the filters change the images sometimes subtly and others not so. I played with the intensity of the filter. Doing this has shown me how much more useful photo shop is and how it can be used practically not just for abstract things like photo grams.

Hand colouring with paintbrush

For this task I am going to be picking out certain parts of the picture to make different colours. To start with i am

going to copy the background layer in case anything goes wrong. Next I am going to make the saturation 0 so that

the picture goes grey scale. This image is below I then needed to high light the part I wanted to colour with the

brush. I then

copied the part that I wanted and pasted it onto a new layer. I then created an adjustment layer for hue/saturation for the previous layer. I did this so that I can

change the colour. For each thing that I wanted to change c

olour, I made a new layer and new adjustment layer. The layers can be seen on the picture to the right. My final post is below. Overall I am happy with it as it took me a while to get used to as I found it hard. It doesn't really fit within the context of the photo but it is a useful technique that I will be able to implement into my work at a later date.

Colour Variation

For this entry i am going to use the colour variation tool. This tool is special as it allows you to change the intensities of the blues, reds and greens as well as the lightness of the mid tones, shadows and highlights. What is good about this tool is that it shows you what will change before it does finally and allows you to compare the original to the changed version along the way.

Below is the before and after of my colour variation after i played around with the colours.
Here is a big version of my edited version. As you can see the blues are darker which makes the picture look calmer as well as darker.

Warming up images

This is the image i started with.

I am going to add a photo filter. To do this i need to select "add photo filter" from the bottom right hand side of the screen from the create or add an adjustment layer button. I chose warming filter (85) and set the intensity to 50% otherwise it would look unnatural as the picture is by the sea.

Below is my final version. Personally i prefer it without the filter as it looked more natural.

Digital Photograms - Colour

For this set of digital photo grams I am going to use colour instead of monochrome. The image below is the image I am going to start with.

I then clicked invert colours to see what it would turn out to look like before doing anything else to the image. I liked the way it came out as it is abstract and different.

Another way to change the colour of a photo gram is to move the saturation all the way to the left to 0. This makes the image black and white. Then you click the colourise box under hue and saturation then you change hue until the picture is a colour you like. Below I did yellow to give the picture a washed out black and white look.

Digital Photograms - Monochrome

To start with i opened an image that i thought would look good in monochrome. I looked for a photo that had lots of dark and light parts. This i knew would give a better monochrome image as it would stand out more. In the photo i chose the bright light makes a lot of contrast.

I then needed to make my photo unsaturated. I did this by sliding the saturation on the "hue/saturation" tool bar all the way to 0. This gave me a grey scale positive. The screen shot below shows the steps above.

I then pressed the invert colour button, which swaps the tones around, for example, black became white and white became black. This leaves the photo in the form of a negative. It is now a digital photogram.

I like the effect it gives as it intensifies my personal experience. The different shades get darker towards the stage and on the side screen. This effect has also added vignetting though it gets lighter on the edges instead of darker. This effect is similar to that of Henry Fox Talbot and Man Ray.

David LaChapelle

LaChapelle is a credited photographer specialising in comic portraits of celebrities. He has four published photo-books which include portraits of Marylon Manson, Naomi Campbell, David Beckham, Angelina Jolie, Pamela Anderson, etc. His portraits are vivid and surreal and usually convey irony. His work has been criticized for being over exaggerated, grotesque and shocking.

Personally I think his work is good because in some cases his work portrays what the public really feel about the celebrities. The use of colour in his work is very important as the colour can change the meaning of his photo. He doesn’t use bright colours sparingly which gives the photo a good mood. I enjoy looking at his photos as they are sarcastic and different.

Feedback #1 Term 1

Well done Julian, This is a very detailed record of your stages of development with accurate technical terminology. I particularly liked the work on the Liverpool image and canal barge.

Colourise Tool

The colourise tool can be used to change all of the tones of the whole or part of an image to one colour. I did this now for various colours to show the effect. My original image is a sunset and is already an orangy colour. The original is below:

Below is a screen shot of how I achieved it.

As you can see for the red I changed the Hue to 0 which gives red, the saturation to 60 which gave the red a more intense colour, and the lightness to 11 which makes the lighter tones brighter. I did this for blue which the hue was 200 and the saturation and lightness stayed the same.
I did this to make green, all I changed was the hue, which I changed to 100.

I like this effect and I think it would come to be very useful in the near future as I will be able to intensify parts of photos.

Changing hue, saturation and brightness to parts of an image

For this task I looked at various ways of changing an image’s colour to make it look better. For this I had to adjust hue, saturation and lightness . The original is below :

For this I used a photo I took in Liverpool. The photo is very bad so I needed to improve the colours as they were dull and monotonous. First I duplicated the background layer to start my work from, so that if I messed up I could easily start again. I then used the magnetic lasso tool around the bridge and the lampposts. I then copied this onto another layer. I changed the hue to -30 and the saturation to plus 61. This made the bridge go a green-blue colour which emphasised that it was rusted copper. Personally this has improved the colour as they are now brighter and more vivid. A screenshot below of changing the above on the selected part of the photo.

Next I wanted to edit the sky as it is dull and too grey. I used the magic wand on it so that all of the sky was highlighted. This did it perfectly so I copied it into a new layer. I changed the hue saturation so that the hue was -30, this made it blue. Then I increased the saturation so that the colour was intensified. I then increased the brightness so it looked lighter and more washed out. The screenshot below shows me changing the background (sky), making it look better.

Overall I am happy with what I achieved as it improved the picture completely and made a bad photo look greatly improved even though it does look a bit over saturated. Below is my final photo.