transform - lecture1

Paul Caponigro

Project Two Transform

Project Two Transform

Paul Caponigro

• Transforming objects through photography

• Controlling light

• Digital darkroom

• Quality prints

Keywords

scale, translation, interpretation, transformation, communication,

reflection, representation, differentiation, attachment, mnemonics, memory,

desire, artefact, revelation, abstraction, focus, reframing, rearranging, lighting

Reading

• Clarke, Graham. How Do We Read a Photograph.

• Barthes, Roland. Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography

Minimum Submission Requirements

• First 6 – 10 images uploaded to Flickr• 6-10 images uploaded to Flickr for interim grade• 6 digitally (2 for each object) generated professional

prints produced and mounted to exhibition standard• digital version to be uploaded to Flickr and the

R:/drive• short statement reviewing your project’s development

and final outcome with references to theoretical ideas from class readings

• answers to the required reading documented in your workbook

• workbook documenting your research and the development of ideas

Exhibition Standard– exhibition standard work + photographic

prints– Mounted– Not Big Image across road, not something

off home/uni printer!– Quality prints – ImageLab, Wellington

Photographic Suppliers, Photo Warehouse – Avoid happy snappy labs – poor quality –

colour casts, etc.

Assessment Criteria

• ability to imaginatively explore photographic vision

• quality and coherence in your concepts• effective technical control• evidence of research and successful

understanding of visual precedents• evidence of documentation of and reflection

upon project's progress• high level of craft and attention to detail

Key Dates• Project 2 intro: Wed 24th March• First images uploaded to Flickr: by

Wed 31st MarchInterim assessment of work in progress: Wed 21st AprilTest 1 – Camera as a Tool: Wed 21st April – 10% of course grade

• Final hand-in and review: Wed 28th April. N.B. it is mandatory that all students present during the review.

Technical Info

Digital basics

Continuous tone

Ten pixels

Digital BasicsPixels and LevelsPixels - small square picture elements that contain colour, greyscale, or black and white information.

These ten pixels, each with a different tone are used to describe the continuous tone above. Each different tone is called a level.

A bit (short for binary digit) can either be a one or a zero and is the foundation of a computer’s language.

A digital image is just a long string of binary code.

Bit = 1 or 0Byte = 8 BitsKilobyte (k) = 1024 Bytes Megabyte (Mb) = 1024 K

Gigabyte (Gb) = 1024 MbTerrabyte (Tb) = 1024 Gb

Digital BasicsBinary Code

A 2-bit image (00, 01, 10, or 11) contains pixels of four values - black, white and two different greys (22 = 2x2 = 4)

A 4-bit image contains pixels which can be any of 16 values (24 = 2x2x2x2=16)

Digital BasicsColour Depth

A 1-bit image (1 or 0) contains pixels which can be either on or off (black or white) (21)

1 bit 2 bit

An 8-bit image contains pixels which can be any of 256 values (28 = 256).

A 16-bit image contains pixels which can be any of 65 thousand values.

A 24-bit image contains pixels which can be any of 16.7 Million values.

Once we get to this size of colour depth the palette of colours is virtually unlimited.

Digital BasicsColour Depth

Digital BasicsColour Model• closely related to bit depth. • greyscale goes up to 8-bit, which renders 256 shades. • colour images are multiples of 8-bit channels• RGB, the normal model for computer graphics, goes up to 24-bit (three 8-bit channels for red, green, and blue).

8 bit 24 bit

Digital BasicsRGB Colour ModelRed, green, and blue are the primary colours of light. RGB is also the colour model for light that's emitted from a source such as a computer monitor. Camera sensors and most scanners also use an RGB colour model for recording digital image data.

RGB ColourRGB colour is called additive because colours throughout the spectrum are created by adding varying intensities of red, green, and blue light to black (no light).

These intensities vary from 255 (full intensity) to 0. Each colour channel has 256 variations and their combinations allow creating a total of 16,777,216 colours.

Digital Basics

????

Histogram

Tonal distribution

low key image

high key image

Camera Resolution

Pre-Photography

Jan Davidsz Heem

Attributed to Pieter Clausz, Still Life with a Skull and a Writing Quill, oil on canvas, 1628

Willem Kalf, Still Life with Ming Ginger Jar, oil on canvas, 1669

A New Era

William Fox Talbot

Roger Fenton, Still Life with Fruit and Decanter, albumen print, 1860

Hippolyte Bayard, Arrangement of Specimens, cyanotype, c.1842

William Fox Talbot, Articles of Glass plate 4 from The Pencil of Nature, calotype photograph, c.1844

Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, Shells and Fossils, Daguerreotype, 1839

Still Life – Modern Vision

Josef Sudek

Karl Blossfeldt, Urformen Der Kunst, p. 26, photogravure, 1928

Karl Blossfeldt, Maidenhair Fern, Unfurling Fronds, photogravure, 1928

Paul Strand, Still Life with Pear and Bowls, platinum print, 1916

Andre Kertesz, Mondrian’s Spectacles, gelatin silver print, 1926

Andre Kertesz, Fork, paris, gelatin silver print, 1928

Eugen Wiskovsky, Moon Landscape, silver gelatin print, 1929

Eugen Wiskovsky, Screws, silver gelatin print, 1929-34

Metropolis, Fritz Lang

Eugen Wiskovsky, Isolator II, silver gelatin print, 1935

Josef Sudek, Two Glasses, silver gelatin print, 1950-54

Josef Sudek, Simple Still Life, silver gelatin print, 1954

Paul Caponigro, Galaxy Apple, New York City, silver gelatin print, 1964

TransformationTranslation

Sian Bonnell

William Wegman, Cotto, gelatin silver print, 1970

Tina Modotti, Flor de Manita, c.1925

Edward Weston, Pepper #30, 1930

Imogen Cunningham, Datura

Anne Noble, Rope from the series Night Hawk silver gelatin print, 1982

Yuki Onodera, No. 2 from the series Portraits des Fripes, gelatin silver print, 1994

Yuki Onodera, No. 5 from the series Portraits des Fripes, gelatin silver print, 1994

Yuki Onodera, No. 45 from the series Portraits des Fripes, gelatin silver print, 1997

Abelardo Morell, Book: Le Antichita Romane by Piranesi #1, gelatin silver print, 1994

Abelardo Morell, Book of Stars, gelatin silver print, 1994

Victor Schrager, #21, c- print, 2003

Victor Schrager, #37, c- print, 2004

Victor Schrager, #49, c- print, 2004

Victor Schrager, #65, c- print, 2004

Milagros de la Torre, Untitled from the series Los Pasos Perdidos (The Lost Steps), gelatin silver print, 1996

Milagros de la Torre, Untitled from the series Los Pasos Perdidos (The Lost Steps), gelatin silver print, 1996

Chema Madoz, Untitled (Cerilla-Mad-Era), gelatin silver print, 1994

Chema Madoz, Untitled (Cerilla-Termometro), gelatin silver print, 1995

Peter Peryer, Headless Chicken, gelatin silver print, 1995

Peter Peryer, After Rembrandt, gelatin silver print, 1995

Robert Mapplethorpe, Cala Lily, silver gelatin print, 1986

Fiona Pardington, Pamamao / Afar North Island Piopio from the series Fugitive Beings, gold toned silver gelatin print, 2004

Fiona Pardington, Ngai raukura Moa from the series Fugitive Beings, silver gelatin print, 2004

Fiona Pardington, Ake Ake Huia from the series Fugitive Beings, c-print, 2004

Sian Bonnell, from the series Glowing, colour photograph, 2003

Sian Bonnell, from the series Glowing, colour photograph, 2003

Sian Bonnell, from the series Glowing, colour photograph, 2003

Sian Bonnell, from the series Glowing, colour photograph, 2003

Sian Bonnell, from the series Glowing, colour photograph, 2003

Olga Chernysheva, Waiting for the Miracle, 2000

Rinko Kawauchi, Untitled, from the series Aila, 2004

Peter Fraser, Untitled, from Material, 2002

Abstraction

Andre Kertez

Judy Natal, from the series The Hermetic Alphabet, black and white photograph, 2004

Imogen Cunningham, Contorno

Imogen Cunningham, #8

Imogen Cunnigham, Exploding Seed Pod, 1963

Eliot Crowley, #9196 from the series Succulents

Eliot Crowley, #9204 from the series Succulents

Eliot Crowley, #9430 from the series Succulents

Levi Brown

Levi Brown, Crayons

Richard Maxted

Ann Mandelbaum, Untitled, 1994

Ann Mandelbaum, Untitled #176, gelatin silver print, 1997

Richard Garrod, Grill Rolls Royce, Pebble Beach, 1999

Victor Schrager, Untitled #271, 2008

Victor Schrager, Untitled #291, 2008

Victor Schrager, Untitled #529, 2008

Student Work

Jess Morris

Sean Antrobus

Caroline French

Ben Thornton

Terese Soderling

Ben Hines

Hannah Griffin

Michael Hobbs

Kent Khoo

Josh Vermuelen

Jack Jiang

Matt McCallum

Tui Harrington

Rachel Brandon

Nitasa Samountry

Tips• Don’t just position objects to transform them

• Primarily you should be using light, the lens and camera angle

• Don’t totally abstract for both images of object

• In one, reading of object should come through eventually

• Remember - No extreme digital colouring.

• Minor enhancements can be digitally done (we will be covering this in studio time)

• You can use colour gels in the studio

In the digital age, photography is increasingly considered to be a product of technology rather than vision.

Hell No!

• 3 objects (no bigger than something that can sit on a table)

• must have substance (i.e. not grains, fabric, towels, clay, etc)

• 2 photographs for each object• 6 digitally produced prints (exhibition quality)

• each photo exploring a different idea (i.e. they should not look similar)

• using light, camera angle, scale and >,compositional techniques to transform

• EXPERIMENT!

SUMMARY

• test shots and interim images to be put on Flickr

• unlike Pro 1 you are not producing a series

• can shoot in the studio and / or on location

PROJECT1 REVIEW

• Session1: photos already downloaded from R:/drive

• Session2: upload photos to R:/drive by 3pm

• You [most likely] cannot access R:drive in review

• If your file sizes are large, they will take too long to load

• Prepare a statement and keep it concise• 4min per person• Submit clearly labelled workbook