Project: A web gallery

Continued...

I have looked at a number of photogrpahers' websites and it's been a really good learning experience. My observations:

1. I was shocked to see that a number of 'not so well' designed websites  seems to be much higher than a number of well-desinged and well-presented websites.
2. Some companies provide domain hosting and website development services specifically to photographers but I've noted with regret that many websites that they produce look very similar (probably because they keep using the same templates over and over again).
3. It's important to think of who the website is for (who is the customer), who will be using the website and for what purpose before committing to anything. It's also helpful to try and imagine yourself being this customer/ end user and try to re-create their experience. Testing an idea of a website or a pilot website on people that might be the customers in the future, might be useful. Their feedback might change the way the site is developed and used.

Below are some websites that I've looked at this week:

This website offers a lot of good pictures, carefully catalogued into separate folders. The person who created the site was quite methodical but I found the number of images included was just too overwhelming for me - I did not know where to look and felt like in a big supermarket with too much choice. Maybe limiting the choice is not such a bad idea?

Project: A web gallery

A link to my portfolio of work displayed on the Royal Photographic Society's website:

http://www.rps.org/portfolio/6615-Anna-Allen/

My flickr photostream:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/63191587@N07/sets/

Project: A web gallery

Learning points:

At this stage I am not yet ready to create a website but the leaning points from this exercise will help me to develop one that displays my work in the best possible ways.

It is possible to generate web galleries and contact sheets in Photoshop and Lightroom. I practiced generating web galleries in both programmes and found the whole process easy and intuitive. The web gallery output has two main functions: it is used to select the images that will be displayed online and also for generating the HTML codes that will be necessary for building the website. There are many output options available now, including one for Bridge. 

The web gallery converts all colour modes into sRGB so there is no need to worry about changing the colour modes. There is no need to resize each image to the viewing size either as this could be done automatically. It is easy enough to change the position / the order of the images by just dragging them to a new location. 

Real or fake: continued...

Skills and learning

This exercise gave me an opportunity to practice the whole range of selection and adjustment tools available in Photoshop. It also helped me to practice and further develop my workflow that I designed in the assignment one.

Through this assignments and the Part 4 exercises, I‘ve learnt to use the clone stamp tool more effectively and I also experimented with brushes of various hardness and size.

I was also able to practice removing and adding an object, as well as altering or replacing the background.

Real or fake: continued...

Techniques considered and used

For the exercise I selected:

1)     Two long-exposure images of passengers waiting for a train at a train station.

2)    Two separate images of CCTV cameras taken on a bright day against a blue sky background

I started by thinking about the positioning of the elements on the cover sheet. I decided that the best place for the book title will be at the upper part of the cover (I will need to leave some space for it). The author’s name might be best placed at the bottom of the cover sheet. I wanted to place my two images of the CCTV cameras against the blue sky at the top corners of the cover sheet – to make an impression of the cameras overlooking the scene.  The torn/ distorted paper will be at the central part of the sheet, between the cameras.

I considered using  the following tools and techniques for this assignment:

Real or fake: continued...

Ethical considerations

This assignment raises the dilemma between using some altered content and only including true unaltered images. In doing so, it raises the question about the validity and ‘truthfulness’ of an image that has been altered.

On the basis of the previously completed exercises, my view is that the answer will depend on the circumstances of an individual assignment and the use of the image. My personal preference is to keep the image adjustments and corrections to the minimum where possible; however, this often depends on the assignment and how well it is possible to convey the key message without altering the image content. In some circumstances it might be necessary to make some changes to the image.

Drawing inspiration from Maurizio Cattelan

A retrospective of Maurizio Cattelan's work  at the Guggenheim Museum is trully inspiring! I had a similar idea for a photographic installation so his work seems close to my own yet unrealised ideas.

Real or fake: continued...

Continued...

Reviews
It was helpful to look up some book reviews online. These reviews convinced me to look beyond the main plot of the book and explore the Power and Control relationships unpacked by the novel.
I found one of the reviews from a book club particularly encouraging. “This novel has so many layers that our group was able to have its longest-running discussion over what has been our shortest selection to date. There’s women’s lib, race relations, man versus the Man, man versus machine, what it means to be crazy, treatment of the mentally incompetent, and much, much more.”

Real or fake?

My chosen task for this assignment is to design a front cover for the ‘One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest’ novel by Ken Kesey.

There were many reasons as to why I selected Ken Kesey’s book at my topic for this assignment. Firstly, I wanted to take part in the real book cover competition and, after a brief research on the internet, I found out about the competition to design the cover for this novel. Unfortunately the competition was aiming specifically at design students and the entry level was set higher than a foundation degree. Despite that, I decided to take up the challenge and have a go at designing this book cover although I knew I would not be able to submit it for the competition.   

Sharpening: lessons learnt

I printed out all four final images and compared the results with the respective images on the monitor screen.

The image that was sharpened using Martin Evening’s technique, came out very well – in fact, the best out of all four images that I printed.  The image 3 that I expected to be too sharp, was not as harsh as the same image on my computer monitor. I noticed that the threshold setting is really important to get right in portraiture to make sure that the skin remains smooth (unless a rough effect is required).

Original image

Sharpened Image 1

Sharpened Image 2

Sharpened Image 3

Sharpened Image 4 (Martin Evening's method)

Lessons learnt from this exercise:

This exercise demonstrated that it is very hard to estimate how much sharpening would need to be applied just from looking at the image displayed on the monitor.

To my surprise, the sharpening that looks harsh on the screen, does not appear as harsh when the image is printed out.

I’ve learnt that the image viewed on the monitor at 100%, is likely to look too sharp on the screen but would come out just fine when printed out.

The amount of sharpening applied to an image depends on the specification of the printer, the type of paper used for printing and the output resolution applied to an image.  

Amazingly, the maximum amount of sharpening adjustment that could be applied in Photoshop (Unsharp Mask) is not 100% but 500%!

Images that are printed at a higher resolution, are likely to need a higher pixel radius sharpening.

I ‘ve learnt to use the Unsharp Mask more effectively and was able to further develop my digital workflow.

The more you practice, the more you learn! 

 

Sharpening: trying Martin Evening’s method

Continued...

I also decided to try the method offered in Martin Evening’s “Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers” manual (pp. 614-615).

The images below shows the steps I followed for this exercise.

Picture 7: Step 1: Unsharp Mask Settings: A 320, R 0.6. T 4

Sharpening: continued

Continued...

It is always challenging to know where to start with sharpening unless you have some practical experience. I usually start looking at the values around Amount 100, Radius 0.8 and Threshold 6 for portraits. It’s also important to experiment!

So, let’s practice.

Picture 4: A100; R0.9, T6

Sharpening for print

Sharpening is the tool that everyone seems familiar with – at least to a degree. We looked at the noise reduction techniques earlier in this course and now it’s the time to consider how to maximise the look of the final image. Today I am looking at how to achieve the best results from sharpening for print.

For this exercise I am using a portrait image. I first open it in Photoshop and after a slight tonal adjustment; I am ready to start working on sharpening.

There are many tools in Photoshop that would allow to perform some sharpening adjustments. It is important to remember that some sharpening can be done with Camera Raw and Adobe Lightroom. However, we are now at the final stage of the process and, as we are getting ready to print out the final image, the sharpening adjustments might be quite specific and distinct from the noise reduction techniques used at the beginning of the digital workflow.

To start my exercise, I am going to open the file in Photoshop and go straight to Filter – Sharpen – Unsharp Mask. The Sharpen section contains more than one tool; these tools are: Sharpen; Sharpen More; Sharpen Edges; Smart Sharpen, and Unsharp Mask.  My usual preference is to use the Unsharp Mask tool. It seems to offer a wider range of controls than the first three tools mentioned here. Smart Sharpen filter has two modes: basic and advanced. The Advanced mode is useful, for example, when there is a need to sharpen the shadow and highlight detail differently. However, there are similarities between the Unsharp Mask and the Smart Sharpen filter. The latter also is likely to work slower so I usually prefer to use the Unsharp Mask.  

Picture 1: Unsharp Mask controls