Editing Film Photography

This is another of my film photos. I like the layout of the image because it was quite a deserted place and I feel the added touch of the two people walking in the middle makes it that more interesting. I subtly altered the levels within the photo using Photoshop, I feel that by using this simple changes it really livens up the image and adds more depth to the photo. 

Editing The Photo

After looking at the original photo for this I decided later that I would try to edit it. This was just to darken things up and to make it all more refined. I feel that by doing this it has made the image feel less calming than the original because the black is coming through more than before. 

Film Photography And Showing Emotion

This particular exposure I took with my film camera I thought was very subtle with showing its emotion. It was taken with the Pentax MV1 and shot with Ilford 400 black and white film. 

I thought about editing this photo but I liked how subtle the effect has. I would say it was quite a calming image where you can see the woman reading on the bench with the birds lingering behind even quite playfully. I like how the black and white photo isn't completely shown as black and white. It has a hint of red within it which gives it quite a warming feeling. I feel like if darkened it could easily be altered to look very dark as the birds and how its so deserted could effect the mood of this still image. 

Film Photography

A form of media that I really enjoy is film photography. I feel that the colours are more definitive than if you were to use a normal digital camera and you have a sense of old fashioned photography. This particular photo was taken on a Pentax MV1 using AGFA photo. I found through my experience with using this particular film that it works at its best inside so when I take photos outside they seem a little more washy than usual. Saying this however, it still does not stop me from loving film photography and the way the photos come out when developed are inspiring. 

This first photo was taken in Brussels in Belgium. I was in a park where I saw some interesting statues that looked weathered. This inspired me because also their positioning looked quite sad. I wanted to edit the photo to emphasis the sadness and despair within the exposure. 

I have placed the original exposure so I can compare the difference between the original and the edited photo. 

Culture and the media

Culture around us is changing drastically and this then changes the way we perceive things through art and graphic design. Technology is becoming more advanced so that everything is starting to be more accessible. 

Artist Media Ltd

A City In Colour from Artist Media Ltd on Vimeo.

Tom Henshaw

Going Against the Grain - Colour Grading Test from Tom Henshaw on Vimeo.

Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali has done the exact same thing in the way of his use of colours to create an unsettling feel within his artwork. The dark tones create a sense of mystery, even some of the brighter colours that are usually presented as nicer colours have been used in a way that still gives quite an unsettling sense within the paintings. The emotions that are conveyed through all of these paintings leave the audience as an unease. 

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat has such an interesting take on showing emotion through his work. I like how the colours and the textures within the painting really grasps an understanding of how your meant to be feeling. These painting are quite unsettling, and I feel this is done by the thick dark lines shown in all three of these paintings. Bright blues and reds really come through these paintings but again its not very calming but adds to the unsettling feeling you get when you look at them. 

I find these paintings very inspiring when looking at how to use colours to express emotion through my own work. Because even using bright colours but done in a certain way can see make the audience at an unease. 

Jackson Pollock

I wanted to research into other artists ideas and ways of how they show emotion within their art. I thought of Jackson Pollock because I feel that there is so much depth in these paintings and I feel that so much emotion is shown through them too. I like how it feels just so messy and the colours he uses too to create the painting adds to this effect. 

This first painting Pollock has only used blacks whites and browns. This gives me the impression that its quite an angry painting and dark. I like how the white contrasts well with the black. Showing that black doesn't always get the high end, that white and purity can shine through all the dark times. 

This next painting Pollock has created is very colourful. I like the use of yellow and red in there. It feels to be quite a mixed feeling. The touch of blue shows the sadness and the red shows anger and warning, whereas the yellow and white and pink make the painting to seem happier. However, you have to take into consideration the act of movement within the painting. There's so much going on you can really concentrate on one part for too long without looking at the next. I feel that this has something to do with the use of colours and how they all interlink together with certain emotions. 

This particular painting represents fire. I like how the chaos really comes through in this painting. You have the red and white which represents the fire and the black which represents darkness. This portrays well at how terrible a fire can be and can cause so many problems within the situation. I feel that Pollock has used colours in a professional and mature was, understanding what the tension of the situation really is in reality. 

Why Colour Is Important

Colour is one of the most powerful tools a designer can use and to do so you need a high understanding on how colour affects us, this is key in communicating messages effectively. Colour is all around us and it effects us in our day to day lives. For example, in nature we a know that red is a warning colour and that yellow can be in certain situations a danger colour. Over thousands of years we have interpreted colour to mean things, in a way we have learnt to read the world around us using colour. However, living in a modern society people think that this development has been lost, but it has not. Understanding the power that colour holds over us and using this effectively is what designers strive for. 

A Different Response To Media

There are many different ways to interpret media and I feel that it doesn't just have to be set by one artistic skill to represent that. After I had researched into gaming and how violence can be shown through, I decided to broaden the ideas on you can represent an idea through using alternative techniques. 

Through the use of movies its all about composition and how you move and change the angle of the camera to represent how mood can be expressed. There are no limits with a moving image because you can have an actor show emotion as well as using shots to express their feeling. Also adding in music sets the scene because you can express the strain or happiness the moment has. This allows the intensity of the scene to further come through and it starts to really engage what the audience should be feeling within this particular scene. 

Not only can a movie can show and express emotion but photography can as well. This is slightly harder to set the scene however, because you don't have music or a moving image to follow the story in its intensity. All you have is a single image and it needs to capture your eye within the first few seconds for you to understand the intensity of the story. 

There are two ways you can create a still image. Through a digital camera and through a film camera. A digital camera allows you to recreate a scene over and over again so that you are able to re-try capturing a particular still that expresses how you feel. You are to freely experiment with the ISO and shutter speed to create the perfect image and for any that don't come out how you want you can just delete. What I like most about film is that you have one chance to capture the essence of the scene. I like the idea of this and how it can make the person taking the photo to work harder on getting it perfect first time. I also like how different film canisters can create different colouring effects. I feel that using film the colours come out more vibrant and intense. 

Colour Contrasting with Emotion

I took a trip to Brussels in Belgium and while being there took a series of images on my digital Cannon EOS 1100D. This next image was taken in a park on a fairly average day. the sun was out but it was still a bit duller than usual. I took several images of the same shot but using different exposures and changing the iso on it to see what I could do. There was one photo that I thought looked really nice but it already had quite a high contrast on it. So instead I decided to pick a photo that didn't have such a high contrast because that wouldn't limit me on what I could do on Photoshop to change the hue for emotion. 

Here is the original image that I decided on to edit.

The first emotion I wanted to show through this image was again another bright one. One where everything bright and all seems good. 

I spent a lot of time on this photo using the clone tool. I tried to edit the trees on the right to look brighter and show more brighter colours within the image. This is because when I originally edited the photo to look bright the left side looks brighter than the right side. This gave a very unbalanced look to the image. So once I had edited out the lens leaks on the image I cloned different parts of the leaves to make it look that slightly bit more lively. I also tried to edit out some of the people within the photo. This made the image emptier but it also has given a little bit of a distorted look to it. If I were to concentrate more of developing this image further I would carefully edit out all of the people so that it doesn't look out of place but getting Photoshop to automatically take them out. 

This next image is again the opposite of the bright coloured one. I wanted to show a contrast between the two scenes so that I can compare how to show different emotion through the use of colour. I like the layout of this particular photo because it feels more emptier than the previous image I edited. This allows me to use many other concepts I could interlink with the image through colour. 

I tried to create this image to be darker and more mysterious. I feel that the sky lets me down a lot in this. I tried to darken the sky and by doing this I have ended up creating a line divide between the blue and the white. I found it quite tricky to get the sky right. I also changed the colours of the trees so that they didn't look very autumn anymore and more dark. I feel that If I were to do this image again I would add shades of brown into it so that the trees would look like they were dying and unhealthy. I could also had a filter over the top of the photo to make the sky look darker too. By doing this I feel the image would become more effective as I'm trying to give a miserable emotion though this image. 

Editing My Own Photos

I started to experiment with using the techniques within colour grading using my own images I had taken with my digital cannon EOS 1100D. I used different exposures on my camera to create a good quality photo for me to work with, this then allowed me to proceed to photoshop where I began to edit the image. 

Here I have the original image taken straight from my camera. 

I feel that the original image itself shows quite a bit of contrast already through the colours and brightness within the image. But it add a bit more emotion within the image I started ti edit it. 

The first emotion I wanted to create within the image is quite a calming one with bright colours and a sense of longing. I used the levels option along with changing the hue/saturation within the image to brighten it up. 

Just by the subtle changes of colour and levels within the image it becomes a lot more brighter. I also added an extra layer of sunset yellow and laid it on top of the image and by using the opacity and fill have created it to look like a very subtle touch to the image. The face itself looks cleaner than the original and it also adds more colour into his face making him look healthy. I also wanted to add more vibrant colours to the hair to emphasis the ginger coming through. 

I wanted to show through my images how you can really show different comparisons with images and how you can use the same image to create different emotions. So this next image I decided to go for the complete opposite from the previous one. I darkened everything and made his face paler. This makes him look a little unwell and helps the audience start to feel sad for the person in the image. 

I still wanted to emphasis the ginger in the photo, so that I don't lose what the person actually looked like. So I kept the slight vibrant ginger but also creating it darker to go along with the theme of this image. I've really paled up his face which I feel has started to make the person start to look a little unwell. I like this touch within the image because it really shows a contrast of the different emotions I could create within only one photo. 

Emotion Through Colour Themes

One huge aspect that I feel clearly controls the emotion through film is through colour. There are however different aspects within colour that you need to consider when colour grading on film. 

You need to consider:

- Brightness
- Contrast
- Quality of Light
- Focus
- Perspective
- Colour
- Grain
- Look

Brightness 

Brightness within photographic images supports the underlying emotion of the scene. Terms such as High-key lighting, Low-key lighting and Mid-key lighting represent different overall outcomes.

The content within each scene dictates the need for how bright or dark it needs to be. Upbeat films general have high-key lighting and low-key films general are for slow or taut dramatic action. Although these parts usually refer to the overall brightness within the frame it can be use for specific aspects of the film, to define and illuminate certain areas for the attention to composition. 

Contrast

Contrast has a range of tones between white and black and its how you use this within the image to how you can create emotion. Low contrast images have a wider range of tones which appear to be softer, whereas a high contrast has a fewer range of tones and appear sharper.

Quality of Light

The quality of Light is down to how hard or light it is. A hard quality of light has darker shadows and sharper edges where a soft quality has light shadows.

Focus

The focus of the image is down to how sharp it is. Depth of field is the amount of acceptable focus behind and in front of the subject.

Perspective 

The perspective changes and can be manipulated by the choice of lens. This can change the distance between the foreground and the background and how it appears on screen to be closer together or further apart. A depth perspective can effect the perceived speed of movement.

Colour

When editing colour within an image or movie you use several different aspects that are used to change the colours. For example changing the hue can manipulate the lighting, art direction and laboratory procedure. A scene be edited a certain colour which can convey different emotions, locations and time. 

Different colours relate to different tones and mood someone can feel. Such as cool colours are associated with sad or dark or calming emotions, whereas warm colours are associated with happiness and romance. These colours can also determine different times of the day or distant time periods. 

Changing the hue from different scenes helps the audience understand the development within the sequence and it also creates a variety of moods. 

The change of colour saturation determines on how rich the colours may appear on screen.  When made high, the saturated colours become vibrant, while when made the opposite the colours aren't as bright and come across quite muted. Through the use of doing this it can create different techniques within a movie by indicating different time periods within. 

Through the use of colour and if it is used correctly it has the tendency to draw the eye, this all can depend on how they are arranged in the composition. Contrast of colours within a frame can be used to convey characters or tension within a scene. 

Grain

Grain depends on the quality of the image of movie, it is the tiny particles of dye crystals. This is usually invisible but under certain exposure or when the image has been edited through saturation and levels so much that the conditions can start to be very noticeable. This can result in a gritty look but it can be used as a technique within the film. 

Look

The look is obviously the visual feel of the movie but it can also be a lot more than that. The look within the image or video can be manipulated by all the different aspects I have previously mentioned. By having all of them work together it sets the tone and mood for the image. It can be done in a very subtle way which can compliment the image or video well. 

Showing Emotion Through Media

Showing emotion through media is not something that can be done easily, despite its importance to interpersonal integration in modern lifestyles. But when done effectively can express strong emotion through a moving image or just a still. 

I feel that emotion within a motion film is crucial to portray how the characters are feeling and set the mood for the film. You need that there so that the film can become powerful and relates to the audience well. 

Everything within the the design piece is crucial to how it effects the reader no matter what form the design is in. This allows the design to become a more mature piece by allowing the readers be enchanted through the message that is said. 

Violent Video Games and Bad Behaviour

A meta-analysis of 98 studies with nearly 37,000 participants, includes without equivocation that violent video games increase aggression. Also further evidence in Italy indicated decreased self-control and increased cheating. 

"Participants who played a violent video game for only 35 minutes exhibited less self-control, cheated more, and behaved more aggressively than did participants who played a nonviolent video game."

A violent video games effect on kids is worsened by the interactive nature. For example, in many of the games you get rewarded for being more violent and the more you kill the more you win at the game. Through this the act the violence is done repeatedly throughout the game where the person is in control of the violence and experiences the violence with through their own eyes. The idea of this is that from the repetitive nature of these kind of games leads to an effective way of developing a learning behaviour, such as becoming aggressive. 

People can become socially isolated which leads to less time being spend doing other activities such as interacting with friends and family. 

You can learn the wrong values from playing video games such as violent behaviour, vengeance and aggression that within these types of games you are rewarded. Negotiating and other nonviolent solutions are often not options. Women are often portrayed as weaker character that are helpless or sexually provocative. Keeping this in mind games can be easily confused between reality and fantasy. 

Jon Harris & Danny Boyle

Jon Harris has also inspired me with the way he used film to create tension and longing. There are many films that are inspiring but one if particular again is 127 hours. He has used his editing techniques in an interesting way. He has managed to build tension and helped the audience relate to the pain and desperation the character within the movie was actually happening at the time. 

I feel that it was a lot harder to try and relate the storyline considering that it was based on a true story. And with the directing skills of Danny Boyle and the use of adding in scenes to show his insanity starting to kick in from the lack of water, sleep and food, starts to brush on the depth of the desperation his must have been actually feeling. 

With the use of these ideas to set the mood of feeling his desperation, Harris adds in short clips of the main character which help along the movement of the audience starting to understand and feel themselves his desperation. I like the use of short clips from adverts and events that happened the year of the accident and using that to convey his desperation. Such as old coke adverts all coming together to show his depression of water and showing close up clips of his water bottle where it allows you to see his dehydration. Also the quick changes between shots again shows his desperation to get out of there.

Jean-Clément Soret

Jean-Clément Soret works for a company called MPC Advertising. Soret is their Global Creative Director of Colour Grading and has received numerous outstanding industry accolades. He is a five-time winner of Best Colourist at the British Arrow Craft Awards, and was voted Best UK Colourist four years in a row and Best UK VFX artist by Televisual Magazine. He also received a Fellowship award at the British Arrow Craft Awards in November 2013. 

Jean-Clément works with internationally acclaimed Director and DP's across both commercials and film. What I find most inspiring about his work is how he can create an atmosphere that suits the video just through using colour on film. I found a short video where he worked on the colour gradient within it. I feel that without the lighting textures within each individual video it wouldn't make the ideas and concepts of the video shown to be portrayed in the right way. 

L'ODYSSÉE DE CARTIER from Digital District™ VFX Post-Pro on Vimeo.




John Lewis 150 years  | Never standing still from Jean-Clément Soret on Vimeo.


Jean-Clément Soret also worked on a film that I found absolutely fascinating called 127 hours. I feel that the way he has used colour within the film gives the footage a rich feel to it and completely contrasts with the storyline and whats happening around him. 

Through the use of colour within a film I feel can completely change ash set a mood for the film. There are many aspects within a movie that all adds together to create an effective movie and I feel the a digital colourist is vital in the setting of your mood. 

A brief History of Video Games

The earliest design of video games weren't actually how you see them but instead they were text that created the world around you allowing the player to explore. These kind of games were simple to use and simple to make, they work around the limited RAM by focusing on a story rather than the graphics. The largest evolution of gaming was the transition from text into an actual visual format. In 1980 a game was released called Adventure which included the player gathering loot and simple monster fighting. Due to the technology at the time and the limitations computers had then the character itself was a coloured square and any other aspects to the game were crude pixelated graphics. However, this new visual game was a revolution within the gaming industry. 

With the technology becoming more advanced the development of video games proceeded in its advancement alongside it. They firstly took advantage of the hardwares capabilities which were increasing, to accompany the development of technology so that they could store more of the game. The controllers also started to develop further so that they now look how they are in modern forms. More inputs on the controllers meant more actions someone could take in a game. Then from now our most modern controllers the development of the mouse and keyboard combination allows for an even greater number of player inputs. 

These slight changes within the development of gaming through the years has affected adventure type games in unique ways. As good as the original Adventure game with its storyline, the development of design within modern games increases the adventure and genre, which then there came for a demand for more sophisticated stories and moral choices.