Website

http://www.wix.com/emmagill64/photography#!

This is the link to my website where i have uploaded images of my zoetrope and bookcover.

Conclusion

Overall I think this module has been successful and I have completed everything I needed to. I think I could have worked faster in my research.  If I had managed my time better I could have a broader range of ideas to choose for my final outcome.

My ideas did change throughout the topic as I was unsure of what I wanted to base my book cover on. I originally wanted to do little red riding hood with a twist but wasn’t sure how to come about this. I found it easier to brainstorm my ideas to help me decide on a theme. I finally choose to do a horror twist in the tale.

I collected my primary research by sketching out diagrams and drawing images that would link to my final book cover. I collected my secondary research by searching the internet and reading books from the library where I found lots of different variations of the fairy tale ‘little red riding hood’.

I have learnt many key skills throughout this module such as refine edge, the difference between raw files and JPEG files, the noise test and much more. I used the refine edge tool on my book cover to put the image of little red riding hood onto my chosen background which is a forest nearby home. I choose to dim the colours in the forest background to allow the model to stand out.

I found creating my zoetrope was rather difficult but I enjoyed the challenge. My original images were very dark so I brightened these up in Photoshop and resized them. The overall appearance is affective and seems to blend together nicely. I think if I was to do this again I would choose a different location maybe somewhere with more light.

I created my website on wix.com which made it easy for me to create. I am happy with the colour theme as it relates to both male and female- wide audience. I will definitely make more websites in the future now I have the skills to do so.

Final Book Cover

This is my finished book cover with all the text added on. 

GIF Animation

I have set the frames at 0.1 frames per second. The GIF file consists of 11 photos and the image colour has been lowered to 90 so that it plays smoother, but it isn't necessary for it to be using a lot of colours.

Polygonal lasso tool

This is the image I have choosen to use for my book cover from the contact sheets below. I thought this would work the best because of her facial expression. She isnt looking directly at the camera which make her look like she is searching how the wolf. The knife is held up so its visible and so she looks like she is ready to fight.  I Used the polygonal lasso tool on photoshop to cut around my model so I can copy and paste it onto another background. The background I want to copy and paste it on is the image of the forest. By shooting the images on the green screen background has made it a lot easier for me to cut them out.

Little Red Riding Hood- Contact sheet

props

My original idea was to have a variation of different props but I thought that might look too cluttered. So I have decided to have just one prop as it will look really effective and help create a spooky atmosphere. There is obviously a few health and safety issues  I need to cover when using this prop before i shoot my photographs.

My book cover sizes

Photography by Elias Tahan

These photographs caught my attention because of the ‘moody’ effect that has been created. This is how I want my little red riding hood model to appear. The dark moody effect will resemble the revenge she is trying to get on the evil wolf. Fear may be another emotion seeping through.

This image has influenced me while creating my book cover as I love the plain expression on the models face. Also the way her hair is swept across her eyes which builds up suspense for the viewers and hides away her identity. Her eyes are what I was first drawn to. This is the area that seems to tell the story and shows her emotion. The fact that they are dark and covered up makes me think she is insecure and timid, but then other people could see this as fearless and strong.

Likewise the image above this image has been put into monochrome when editing. This could be to create a more dramatic affect. This photograph seems relaxed and chilled out. The pose she is making with her arms raised above her head makes her look very laid back. Her eyes are closed with dark makeup which shows her toughness.

In old, black and white movies, it is common to see the main character smoking a big cigar or a long slim cigarette. These characters are sexy, glamorous, rich and smart. Their skin is clear and teeth are white. It seems like their tobacco habit makes them more attractive. http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4564282_smoking-affect-appearance.html

This might be what Elias Tahan was trying to make the model appear like.

The shadow in the image breaks the background up so it not one big negative space. Also add detail in the photograph.

Video I found on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CkCpx3CE2Q

zoetrope strip

This is an example of the animated images i would like to use in my homemade zoetrope. These strips will be looped together to create a repeated pattern.

Homemade zoetrope

Here is a simple idea for creating my own homemade zoetrope.

1.    Start with a circular box or lid.

2.       Cut a piece of tape 3-4cm square (2 inches)

3.       Make a hole in the bottom of the box, just bigger than a marble.

4.       Stick tape on the outside over the hole and cut radially from the outside.

5.       Glue a glass bead from the outside so it extends beyond the bottom rim of the box- remove the tape.

6.       Draw a picture on a paper strip like you would on a flip book. The paper should be the same length as the box/lid.

7.       Make sure the paper strip goes in a loop.

8.       Cut slits into the black paper- same distance as the pictures.

9.       Make the black strip smaller than the container.

10.   Place the black strip around the edge of the box.

11.   Set the illustrated paper strip on the inside of it, with the illustrations between the slits.

Visualising Little Red Riding Hood- Sarah Bonner

In recent years contemporary artists have been appropriating and re-inventing traditional fairy tales. Subverting and interrogating received meanings, artists are challenging the traditional parameters of tales which convey ideas of gender role and racial identity. The fairy tale is being translated from literary text into visual culture. The artists recoding the tales address shifts in cultural attitude, engaging predominantly with issues of identity and discrimination. In this paper I examine the visual development of “Little Red Riding Hood,” investigating the manner in which the literary tale has been adopted by contemporary artists, how the visual responds to the textual, and cultural attitudes embedded in reiterations of the tale.

Critical literature dedicated to the field of fairy tale study is extensive, drawing its interpretive framework from historical and ideological discourses. Jack Zipes employs a socio-historical model for analysing the development and significance of the tales. Writing from a Marxist viewpoint, he argues that fairy tales embody the shifting cultural codes of history and, as such, they can be interpreted as records of social production. Zipes holds that the genre is as relevant to contemporary culture as it was for pre-literate society, especially in terms of gender politics and identity construction. His analysis of the illustrations of “Little Red Riding Hood” provides a sound basis for continuing research into visual representations of the tale. Where Zipes comments on the ideologies conveyed by fairy tales, Catherine Orenstein explores the historical and cultural meanings of “Little Red Riding Hood,”—its broad cultural incidences from cartoons and pornography to films and advertising, focusing closely on the construction and interpretation of gender. Bruno Bettelheim, a Freudian psychoanalyst of the genre, suggested that fairy tales were instrumental in developing children’s identity. For Bettleheim, children were able to locate in the text answers to their own trials and tribulations. Psychoanalysis constitutes significant research in this field, but it operates a closed system preferring universalities over individualities. Freud’s patriarchal meta-narrative favours boys’ development rather than girls’, and tends to ignore subjectivity as a whole in childhood development. Bettelheim’s assertions have been scrutinized by contemporary artists, who subordinate the prescriptions and constraints of fairy tale psychoanalysis to the interpretive freedom of narrative analysis—in particular, Roland Barthes’ conception of the relationship between text and image. These critical commentaries express the ubiquity of the tale in popular culture, emphasising its continued relevance on an individual and social level.

Although the critics mentioned above have informed my understanding of “Little Red Riding Hood,” my main aim here is to examine how contemporary artists are appropriating the tale and to what end. The text and image are intimately related, yet I propose that the image contains qualities that release interpretation from the strictures of tradition, making them more relevant and immediate in contemporary society. “Little Red Riding Hood” has sustained continued analysis and appropriation making it a forum for interrogation. References to the tale are abundant, indicating its presence in our cultural unconscious, and Maria Tatar identifies the tale as a place to “work through anxieties about gender, identity, sexuality and violence” (Orenstein i). In her 2002 study Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked, Catherine Orenstein claims that the tale “embodies complex and fundamental human concerns” (8).

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/english/graduate/issue/2/sarah.htm

Little red riding hood- Influential images

The fair-tale Little Red Riding Hood is a dark story that warns children of the dangers of talking to strangers. Photographers have always been fascinated by the imagery depicted in the tale.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ashleybaccam/stunning-red-riding-hood-photo-shoots

Vogue, September 2009

 

mp4 Slideshow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFCKEsMftkc

This is the slideshow i created in light room. I have included one scanagram and one photogram within this slideshow. The rest of the images are captured from a handheld digital camera located outdoors. I based these series of images on nature.

I think my music choice has worked pretty well although it build up to a crescendo toward the end. I don’t think the last images fit in with the crescendo so this is something i would have to think about if i was to create another slideshow in the future.

Brainstrom

    I sketched out this brainstorm to help develop my ideas. It also made me look deeper into the topic.

QR code

<img src="http://qrcode.kaywa.com/img.php?s=8&d=http%3A%2F%2F" alt="qrcode"  />

example of little red riding hood model

Danielle is the model I want to use for my little red riding hood book cover.  She will work well on my cover as she has all the features I needed for this topic. I wanted a petite girl with long dark hair, as this is how the cartoon red riding hood appeared in the fairy tale.

 The red long coat also fits in well with the image I am trying to create, as it resembles the cape from the story. As I am doing a horror twist for my dust cover the red coat connotes blood and mystery.

I want her expression to be dark and dull, looking downward. I don’t want her to make eye contact with the viewers, as it will ruin the mystery feel to the image. The hood on the coat it up creating shadow on her face, which also makes it more dramatic. Her hands are slotted in the pockets to give off a laid back posture and to intimidate the viewers.

When shooting this image properly I will use the studio with the lights so it’s more professional. I will then edit the photograph on Photoshop to emphasise the darkness and shadows in the image. 

Example of zoeytrope

We were set out a task to put together a zoeytrope during the lesson. I searched for a series of photographs on the internet that would make this effect. I had to cut each indivdual square out on Photoshop then animated them to form this video.

Time lapse photography, in which a series of still photographs were taken one after another, provided the first “scientific” glimpses of ‘frozen motion. Using a series of cameras that were triggered one after another (an approach popularised more recently by which sci-fi film of the last 10 years. Eadweard Muybridge was allegedly able to settle a wager about whether all four of a galloping horse’s hooves were ever off the ground at the same time.

The Classic Age of Traditional (Cel) Animation

Realising that objects could be made to appear to move by displaying a sequence of images that differed slightly several times a second, one ofter the other, the pioneers of drawn animation developed a technique that remained largely unchanged for much of the 20th century.

Images were hand drawn and painted onto transparent celluloid sheets (from which we get the word cel), and overlaid to build up a single ‘frame’. Fixed background images were placed at the bottom of the stack of cels, and cels detailing foreground imagery aid on top. An overhead camera could then grab a snapshot of the apparently flat image. Drawing images over several multiple layers meant that background imagery could often remain unchanged and the background cels reused in multiple frames.

http://digitalworlds.wordpress.com/2008/03/17/making-pictures-move/

Viewing these images quickly one after another gives the impression of motion.

JPEG files vs RAW files

A topic debated regularly in digital photography is the choice of format to shoot with. All formats have their advantages and disadvantages so it is important for me to research each one before I make a decision. The most two common formats are Jpeg files and Raw file.

I think JPEG is the most well-known format and is familiar to most people. Most digital cameras use this format as these files need a lower amount of memory; therefore this is the correct format for photo images which are very small file for example Websites and emails. The JPEG file is very small compressing to perhaps only 1/10 of the size of the original data. Although when in the process of compressing the photograph some of the image will get lost and once save this data can never be recovered. The compression works by exposing the camera senor to light. Light energy then gets transferred into electrical energy which is then processed into a JPEG file. Information is then picked up while processing, the important data is used in the image and the information not required is removed.

Raw file information

The argument of JPEG vs RAW then comes down to a few considerations. Do I have the memory available to shoot in such a high format? Will I be able to use the format that I shoot my photos in? Will my camera be able to work fast enough for my needs? And possibly the most important; Can I afford to lose quality, or do I need the highest quality images available?


Original Image

Raw file

Jpeg file

ISO and Noise test

 ISO is used to figure out cameras sensitivity to light controlling the sensitivity of the sensor.  An obvious reason for the use of higher ISO's is so that it can be possible to take photographs in low light without having to have an extended shutter speed. Noise can sometimes be seen within an image when higher ISO is used in digital photography. Signals are produced when light hits the cameras sensor; some of the signals become distorted and change the result of the photograph. Noise can be seen when some of the pixels in an image changes colour.

 I wanted to do two different tests to see how my camera reacts to different ISO setting. Firstly I found a space in my house with very little light and took 5 photographs changing the ISO setting on each photograph. I used a tripod as I had to use long shutter times and wouldn’t have been able to keep the camera still hand held. I kept the shutter speed at a constant 20 seconds and aperture at f3.2. I carried out this test to see how the ISO setting would affect the sensitivity of the cameras sensor.

I am happy with the results I have got from this test because it is clear to see the effect that the ISO setting has on an image. It amazed me that the only variable was ISO and that the shutter speed and aperture were both constant, I have learnt that changing the ISO can make a big difference to what is captured by the camera.

I then went on to perform the 'noise test'. Like the ISO test I also had to find another low-light area where I could set up my camera on a tripod. This time because I already knew the effectiveness of the ISO I was able to alter the shutter-speed from picture to picture. I was now able to control the light levels throughout the images so that it would be easier to compare them with regards to noise levels. . This test is done to see how well the higher ISO settings on the camera work.

The outcomes of these images are very clear. I found that the picture on the lowest ISO is much clearer and cleaner compared to the higher ISO which is left with a lot of noise and distortion. As the ISO level was increased, the shutter-speed was decreased to help the additional sensitivity work well. The shutter-speeds were declining in the same fashion, each speed being halved. I also found out that although a higher ISO speed produces a much noisier photograph, it allows an image to be taken in an area with less light at a higher shutter-speed, this is helping this images becoming blurred caused by movement.  

Edited Photographs

These images are the edited versions of the originals below. Instantly the photographs look miles better as the highlights and shadows have been emphasized hugely. The one on the left is the one I have choose to use for my book cover as I think the composition will work better than the image on the right. I might have to do a second edit as the photograph at the moment looks too happy and bright. I will darken the image and maybe dull out some of the colours.

I darkened this image on Photoshop because the original photograph looked far too bright and had a happy feel to it. I am trying to create a dramatic atmosphere therefore it wouldn’t have worked. Because I still wanted colour in the image I didn’t put it into monochrome so i lowered the saturation. This made the colours appear less vibrant which will now fit in with the mood I am trying to create. I also brought down the brightness level which made the sky in the background appear duller taking the attention away from this area.

Background image for book cover

These two images are the possible backgrounds for my book cover. I think they would both work effectively but cannot decide which one i prefer. These images were photographed in the Lake District as the original forest near home wasn’t going to work for this project. I really like the type of trees in this photograph as they are tall leading your eyes out and above the image. 

 I think the photograph of the right would fit the book cover template better as the stones at the bottom of the images will look nice on the front cover. Whereas the image on the left is more central therefore will be hard to fold in half and it still look good.

 I also like the fact you can see the light shining through the trees- creates a lovely effect. I would like to edit these images to make them look more dramatic highlighting and shadows in the photo. I will do this by using the curve tool on Photoshop. This will also emphasize the highlights in the photo.

 

Midpoint Evaluation

After starting a bit a research I have started to put some of my images together which will help me create my fairy tale book cover. A few changes have been made but everything seems to be going well at the moment.

As I am shooting my foreground and background separately I had to make sure I found the perfect locations for both. While shooting the background which is going to be the forest in the cover I found quite difficult to find the right location. Also in my statement of intent I said I was going to shoot the forest at night time to give it a spooky, gloomy effect, but it turned out it was easier to shoot during the day so that no detail in the image would be lost. In the image I have decided to use I really like the light shining through the trees.

I haven’t yet started my shoot of the model because I am not sure who I am going to choose to do the job. Also I need to purchase a little red riding hood cape for my models costume. I want my model to have long black hair coming out of the cape to show her feminine side.

I have decided not to use any props as this will make it too complicated and only have limited time to finish it. It would have been difficult to put the props onto the forest background as I would have to use the refine tool on Photoshop which could start to make it look fake as I already have the model with this technique.

I have also started to research into zoetrope’s and now have an understanding to how they work and what they are used for. I find them very interesting and think they are an amazing idea. I don’t think this will be an easy task for me to make but I am looking forward to the challenge. My idea so far is to have someone skipping with a skipping rope on a white background.

Zoetrope research

The zoetrope is one of several animation toys which were invented in the 19th century, as people experimented with ways to make moving pictures. It was invented in 1834 in England by William Horner. The American developer, William F. Lincoln, named his toy the 'zoetrope', which means 'wheel of life'.

When you place a strip of drawings inside the zoetrope's drum, spin it and look through the slots, you will see the images come to life. Of course, they are not really alive. This illusion of motion depends on two things; persistence of vision and the phi phenomenon. The faster the drum is spun, the smoother the image that is produced.

If you look over the top of the drum when the zoetrope is spinning instead of looking through the slots all you will see is a blur. The illusion of motion is gone. The slots of the zoetrope simulate flashes of light, creating a strobe. The images you see must be interrupted by moments of darkness in order for the illusion to work. Our brains strive to make meaning from what we perceive. When we see different images close together our brains quickly create a relationship between them.

This is a link to a video I found on YouTube. It’s the Toy Story Zoetrope created by Pixar, at the Disneyland Resort, Disney's California Adventure. I think of it like a flip book put instead of pictures it uses sculptures on a spinning wheel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjSxrVXsfVM

More links to zoetropes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKEM5sYnOjE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=kI1Y2RFfXh8&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfS2kGO5lg8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHa1Y4ljB64&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p93FaJ91gcs&feature=related