Some cool Photoshop websites

These are some links fellow photo students shared in class about Photoshop (CS5):

http://photoshoptutorials.ws/


http://www.photoshopstar.com/


http://www.tricksdaddy.com/?s=photoshop+tutorials


We have a "photographic Fx" assignment coming up this week that I am working on and I am not familiar with Photoshop, so this should be interesting.....

(Will post work as I complete it)

Edward Thompson- artist

For my final project I am constructing a blurb book about the volunteer organization Steve and I serve, called CERT (community emergency response team). One of the questions in my proposal I didn't really have an answer for: What artists have worked with a similar theme or approach? My teacher encouraged the entire class to find other bodies of work with similar concepts that we can learn from.

I spent some class time looking and found Edward Thompson, based in England. His website is edwardthompson.co.uk.
He does documentary work on a variety of subjects and themes. Most of the documentary photographs I had come across did work in third world countries, about the sick, and traveling the world. Their work is fantastic and I can definitely learn from them, but Thompson's images are more appropriate to what I am doing and I hope to apply some of his technique to my work.

A few of things I made note of regarding his work that I can relate to my project are:

There is detail in the background, but the eye is first drawn to the subject, then your eyes naturally look around the image. Sometimes he does that with a slight change in the focus, with color or light, or with movement within the image.

There is good movement it adds to the image, so its not just a picture of something or someone.

He used his fill flash at night which I sometimes am afraid to do, but I can see it worked in his images. It was the only way to get some of the images he took!

He chose a higher vantage point to get detail in a large room, something I was just struggling with last week at a CERT meeting.

His descriptions of each body of work are really interesting and compelling. After reading about the "Re-Home" I wanted to buy one of the hens! I hope that a combination of my images and text can compel my viewers as I'm hoping (you'll have to wait for my project to know what that is).

Some of the images aren't of a pleasing subject, but are necessary to tell the story. This is something I learned from other photographers work as well. And sometimes they aren't technically perfect, but can still add something to the story (other photographers).

I also found on Thompson's website a reference to another blog created by a woman who loves vintage clothing (http://www.diaryofavintagegirl.com/). I'm not into vintage but I liked the photography from a documentary viewpoint. I just might include it in a later artist blog....

Foundry

Today we went to the Foundry Art Center in St Charles as a class. You're never too old for field trips!

It was a struggle to get there because my 6 year old was sick and I had to find someone good enough to watch a vomiting child for a few hours. I have the best neighbor in the world! And I was exhausted from being up all night with him...

But it was a great experience (the Foundry, not the vomiting). Its an old train car crash testing site from the early 1900's. Its been restored to a contemporary design. They have a large gallery for traveling exhibits and a few smaller galleries, like one for local children's artwork. And upstairs are working artist studios. They have classes and story-telling, and even lunch from Spiros on Thursdays...lots of great stuff!

My photo 2 class was privileged to be the first to see the Andy Warhol exhibit that begins Friday night. I am not familiar with him but I learned a little bit today and just might make him my next artist blog, or his photographer. The curator explained a little bit of the process of preparing for the exhibit and I was feeling a little interested in volunteering at the gallery. Then I remembered how little time I already have...

Upstairs was my favorite part. The studios are used by local artists for different mediums. The front of each studio is all glass so you can see them work. Only a few artists were in their studios during the time I was there. A fellow student, Zac, walked around a few of them with me and we got to talk to 2 painters. One gentlemen paints landscapes, including barns, and he had some really great pieces. If only I had $1500! His studio mate does watercolors and has a printing press he designed and built himself (with his dad). His style is very different from his studio mate's, but really interesting in his own right. Another studio was for bronze work, but no one was there. I'm dying to go back to meet the artist in that studio and ask about their process. Sounds like a fun date night idea....

Light Studio Demo

We got to set up a mock light studio in class and it really helped ease the overwhelming feeling I had experienced. Its simple in nature, but there are lots of details regarding bulbs, reflectors, backdrops, light boxes, etc. I'm excited to set up my next "studio session"!

I thought it was a precise process, but I learned you can do anything with the lights. Where you place them alters the feel of a photograph, but its entirely up to the photographer to determine where the lights go.

There are "recipes" galore on the internet for light arrangements. This is a link for adding a recipe app to your iphone:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scott-kelbys-lighting-recipes/id499033559?mt=8

 I really liked my teacher's favorite, the "clamshell". I tried to take a picture of it...






There is a soft box light above her head and one below her face. You have to get in between them with the camera.

This is the picture I got using the clamshell method (Debbie wasn't wearing makeup today and she was embarrassed but I think she's still beautiful).

I learned a lot about the strobe and model lights. I learned to NOT put the subject right in front of the backdrop, unless you want to see all the wrinkles! We learned about slaves and my "gotta try that" (aka gotta buy that) was the ability to connect to a laptop and see the image right away (you can see Kate's laptop on the stand). The benefit is the picture is accurate, unlike how you see it in the camera viewfinder. You know right away what the image looks like and can make adjustments. No more hoping you got a good shot.

Thanks Kate for showing us this!

Frans Lemmons- artist

So apparently I am totally into travel photography because that is what is appealing to me right now. And I found a new favorite photographer! Her name is Frans Lemmons (website: www.franslemmons.com) and her images are amazing!

I loved the work by Steve McCurry, still do, but I am in love with Frans' work. First of all, I am totally jealous of the traveling she gets to do. And she seems to be able to get into these cool places, mix right into local culture and get great shots. Being able to communicate and settle right in with people is a great skill for photographers, one I need to develop. She must have interpreters, but even so body language is a big factor. Anyways, she must have amazing people skills!

So this is my favorite of her landscape photos (Iceland). I am obsessed with getting the water soft and flowy like this and it takes patience and skill to do it right. I know because I have tried and have only been slightly lucky. Having a tripod is essential too....

This is my favorite of her people images because I'm a mom and I loved moments like this with my kids when they were little. Look at how happy she is, despite having very few clothes and carrying this huge sack on her head. It reminds me that we are all children of God and being a parent is a special privilege and source of joy, no matter where we live or what our circumstances are.

I like this image simply because its so freaking cool. How often does this happen and you're there with a camera? The colors are vibrant and I love the horse especially. He almost looks fake. And I just want to know where they are and why they are in the water. If a picture makes you wonder, its a story.

I may not get to travel much, but I am surrounded by people and they have a smile to share and a story to tell, I just need to figure out how to get it out of them. Frans Lemmons is one of the few people I would love to meet and ask "how did you do it?"

Tom Young- artist

I found the name of Tom Young while researching Eve Arnold and wrote down is name in my "artists to blog" notes. Today I found his website and went right to his portfolio and went "aahhh!" Maybe having a sinus infection right now is partly to blame for that reaction? HIs images made me feel dizzy and nauseous. They are fuzzy and hard to make out. 

I thought "what is the deal?" Being a some what smart person I concluded he must have a reason for his approach so I promptly looked for his bio or artist statement. On his website http://tomyoungphoto.com under "statement" it reads:

"When I was ten years old I went through a medical procedure that left my eyes fully bandaged for weeks. I remember well two things about that experience -- without sight my other senses changed greatly, and the darkness became somewhat familiar and at the same time fearful. I had heard that people who loose their sight acquire heightened remaining senses, and I was fascinated by this prospect. I would imagine visions of the world around me, often with areas merging into the darkness of my closed eyes. Saltine crackers were the only things I wanted to eat because their distinctive taste clearly matched my memory of them. Everything else tasted different, suspect. I liked to lie in the grass with my face burrowed into the earth. The quiet assumed a different nuance, both hollow and sumptuous. Certain sounds embraced the darkness, like the sound of the wind or water moving, something fundamental and solitary.

The photographs I have been making for the past thirty years are in part informed by a remembrance of that experience. The places I'm attracted to engage my senses in ways similar to those of the ten year old boy in bandages. I go out into the world to places where I sense something of meaning has once occurred and lingers. While photographing I feel out of time, blinded from my everyday life. I'm looking both out into the world and back into self, where the world in front of me appears both familiar and mysterious." 

That explains it! I can actually look at AND appreciate his art. It does still give me a bit of headache, but there's a sense of curiosity in his images. I want to look away but I also wonder what that thing is. I see what I want to see, but do would I admit what I see out loud? I wonder if he wants the image to be so open to the viewers interpretation. And when I consider his experience I think it must have been pretty scary for these images to be what he remembers.

I find some fascination in his editing. The edges are dark and rough and some images are scratched or blacked out. I think if I was trying to create a photograph of a dream I would try some of his techniques (mostly scary dreams). 

Young's work is not the "type" of work I have been studying or thought I would make myself, but the wheels are turning...

Eve Arnold- artist

So I have to play catch-up with my artist blogs because I have been crazy busy and haven't had time to sit down and blog. This post is about Eve Arnold:

Eve Arnold was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Russian immigrant parents. She began photographing in 1946, while working at a photo-finishing plant in New York City, and then studied photography in 1948 with Alexei Brodovitch at the New School for Social Research in New York. Arnold was the first woman to be nominated for membership in Magnum in 1951, and became a full member in 1957.  She was based in the US during the 1950s but went to England in 1962 to put her son through school; except for a six-year interval when she worked in the US and China, she lived in the UK for the rest of her life.

Her time in China led to her first major solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in 1980. In the same year, she received the National Book Award for In China and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Magazine Photographers. In 1995 she was made fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and elected Master Photographer - the world's most prestigious photographic honour - by New York's International Center of Photography. In 1996 she received the Kraszna-Krausz Book Award for In Retrospect, and the following year she was granted honorary degrees by the University of St Andrews, Staffordshire University, and the American International University in London; she was also appointed to the advisory committee of the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television in Bradford, UK. She has had twelve books published.

Eve passed away in January of 2012.

Eve Arnold is known for her celebrity photographs, and perhaps most known for her photos of Marilyn Monroe.  Arnold’s photographs of Marilyn aren't like others of her I have seen (which honestly isn't a lot because I'm not really interested).  Arnold's photos of Marilyn Monroe expose the icon’s personality rather than her flesh, most of the time.  I read that while many dismiss Marilyn’s intelligence, Eve didn’t.  Both women knew what effect being a woman had on the world around her, and as Eve says, “We could make use of it, or we could let it be.” Eve never liked to be a called a woman photographer, just a photographer (you wouldn't say man photographer).

I found the following quote given by a fan of Marilyn Monroe and the work done by Eve Arnold, Deanna Dahlsad "If the mark of a really good novel is that you think of the characters long after the book ends, then photographs of people ought to do the same. Eve Arnold’s photos do that.  Even if you think you know the people in the portraits.

And when you don’t know the people in the photographs?  You long to…"

I like the photos of Monroe, but its the work Arnold did in China that I really enjoyed. They are simple images of life and I feel they are very honest and true representations. There isn't anything tragic or glorious, she took pictures of life as she saw it (from what I can tell). Its the angle and framing that Arnold chose that makes the images appealing to me. They feel natural and real and I love that. This one is one my favorites, can't really say why, but maybe its the expression on the priest, or the guy behind him hiding his face (a lot to be interpreted about why and if it was intentional), or maybe its the light coming in through the window....

I didn't find a site created strictly for Eve Arnold, but there is a lot out there if you just google her name (she has a lot of fans) I kind of wish I had chosen Arnold for my homage project!

Jay Maisel- artist

In my quest to find an artist to study for my homage assignment, I came across a print from Jay Maisel:

I have seen a lot of cityscapes but this one is phenomenal! How many opportunities does a person to get to see something like this, let alone take a picture of it? I have tried to capture moments of awe like this and I can never get it on camera just right (its one of my goals to accomplish in my lifetime). Every time I look at it I see something new. There is so much detail in the sky, in the water, surrounding  the buildings...And I love the organic feel of the sweep in the cloud line and the fog. This is a picture I would make a HUGE enlargement of and put behind my couch. 
Since I loved this picture of his so much I decided to look for more of his work. He has a website (www.jaymaisel.com) that gives a short bio and has some of his work, recent and past. 

Here's his bio from the website: "After studying painting and graphic design at Cooper Union and Yale, Jay Maisel began his career in photography in 1954. While his portfolio includes the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Miles Davis, he is perhaps best known for capturing the light, color, and gesture found in every day life. This unique vision kept him busy for over 40 years shooting annual reports, magazine covers, jazz albums, advertising and more for an array of clients worldwide. Some of his commercial accomplishments include five Sports Illustrated swimsuit covers, the first two covers of New York Magazine, the cover of Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue (the best-selling jazz album of all time), twelve years of advertising with United Technologies, and a litany of awards from such organizations as ICP, ASMP, ADC, PPA, and Cooper Union.

Since he stopped taking on commercial work in the late ’90s, Jay has continued to focus on his personal work. He has developed a reputation as a giving and inspiring teacher as a result of extensive lecturing and photography workshops throughout the country."

As far as his work goes...I wasn't really impressed with anything else! There were a few that had some good color and composition, but nothing really moved me. This one was cute:

But after looking through all his images on his website I decided he wasn't someone I wanted to create an homage for. Although his work is good, I wasn't inspired by any of it. Maybe you'll feel differently?