For this project, I wanted to go for a somewhat creepy/unnerving feeling for my overall piece. I wanted my composition to be somewhat of a constructed reality, where I have the main character in the center and have some clues of a story littered throughout. I dressed in an old-timey costume shirt, a work apron, and some boots to create a character for my location. For my location, I took my dad's workshop and tried to fill it with older furniture and remove any blatantly modern items to help set the stage better for this carpenter-like character. In Photoshop I replaced the picture in the background with a painting of air balloons I found from the library of congress, then proceeded to add layers and layers of different brushes, noise filters, and level adjustments to get the desired effect. I also found two cracked images from the library of congress to add a crack to the image.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn your photograph, the viewer sees the setting is of a carpentry workshop enclosed space, a person standing in the center wearing an apron, glasses, and work attire, to match the scene. Scattered within the image you can find tools, wooden chairs, a desk workspace, and a picture sitting on the desk to the left, and a crack near the center of the image. The addition to the chairs in the lower corners, help fill the image, and maintains a balanced composition with the opposing side.
ReplyDeleteLooking at the image, I see the character in the center, holding a tool or weapon it seems, and with a disgruntled appearance. This leads me to believe this isn't just a workshop, but something deeper in context. Looking at the image on top of the desk, it almost appears to have bullet holes. The wet collodian appearance adds to the unnerving context, and also the small detail of the faint white lines to the left of the image adds something interesting to the image composition.
I feel like you did well considering the wet plate collodian process and also considering context of the image. The black and white contrast, the light leaks, scratches, cracks, as well as frame all play into the composition mimicking a wet plate collodian. I really like the light leaks, it looks as if the image was beginning to over processed, and it really adds to the image. The crack also adds to the context, and before diving deep into the image clues, you almost instantly get an unnerving feel right off the bat. A small detail that caught my attention is the lower left corner, you see black smudges, that almost mimic the look of blood splatter. I think your choice of adding a small frame border helps add to the light leaks, and splatter/smudge.
Overall taking a look at this composition there is a good balance of context composition, and wet plate technique. The furniture placed around the bottom frame and also the picture on the table helps enclose the space, and the slight blur adds to the short depth of field. Without the picture I think the image would feel empty and that something was missing in that space. I really loved your composition, the only critique I would say is if you added more of a rough edge, like you did in the top left corner to other edges, or even display a deep ripped edge. But I don't necessarily think the image needs it. I think you did a great job overall with context and technique for this project! -Brooke B