Unit 27: Digital Image Capture & Editing - Research

The process of photo montage or composite image making has always existed within the creative industry and has been embraced and practised by many influential photographers, from the past and present.  The process itself could involve cutting, pasting and layering of various materials in order to produce a new art form with a particular message or meaning, whether political, social or personal.  The message is not always explicitly clear and is sometimes left to the viewer to make their own interpretations.   

One of the very first pioneers of photo montage was Oscar Gustave Rejlander during the Victorian era.  He produced a very famous piece of work called "The Two Ways of Life" in 1857.  The final piece was made up of 30 images and it took him 6 weeks to make it.  The message behind it is the path one must choose in life, one of virtuous pleasure or sinful pleasure.  The image manages to pose a serious ethical and moral question and was seen to be quite innovative of its time.  The same message is still relevant now, in fact it could apply even more so now, then it did back then.    
     

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oscar-gustave-rejlander_two_ways_of_life.jpg

Another early pioneers of photo montage was English photographer Henry Peach Robinson.  He specialised in combination printing to emulate the look and feel of paintings.  In 1858 he produced one of his most famous image called "Fading Away".  His image depicting the death of a young girl suffering from tuberculosis, surrounded by her family, was met with disapproval and criticism from members of the Photographic Society of Scotland.  He was accused of falsifying something by using a truthful medium like photography.  However, the controversy helped to catapult the photographer into a life of fame and fortune.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fading_Away.jpg

Frank Hurley, The dawn of Passchendaele, 1917

Capturing the 'truth' was the job of war photographer Frank Hurley. Born in Australia in 1885, Hurley served as official photographer during both world wars with the Australian forces.  He became increasing frustrated with not being able to tell the 'whole truth' with his images so he decided to produce composite images, which attracted much controversy and criticism.  Hurley wasn't the first to use photo manipulation but he did take it much further creating a shock factor with his images.  Hurley's images highlighted the true horrors of war which was perhaps too disturbing for people to acknowledge or accept.        

Venus Anadyomene 
(after Titian)
1998

Many of these early pioneers of photo montage continue to influence contemporary photographers to this day.  One of these photographers is Calum Colvin.  Born in Glasgow in 1961, Colvin is currently a Professor of Fine Art Photography with the University of Dundee.  Colvin's work crosses many boundaries and is a unification of photography, paintings, sculpture and digital imaging.  Colvin manages to produce something truly unique by blurring the lines between reality and fantasy.  Most of his work is influenced by historical paintings and explores themes identity and culture.  There are a number of layers and techniques involved in producing his images.  He uses various household objects and paints classical figures from well known masterpieces across these surfaces and then photographs and exhibits them as large scale prints.  The very creative and complex nature of his images captivates and compels you to closely examine every single details, layers and textures.  

This image shows the complexities of Colvin's work.

Cupid and Psyche
1986

More of his work can be found on his website: www.calumcolvin.com

For centuries photographers have manipulated images in one form or another.  Montage has been a powerful tool used by many, at times of war for protest, to make a political statement and for propaganda purposes.      Each image serving its own purpose consisting of multiple layers and messages, waiting to be unravelled.  Montage definitely opens up many possibilities in the world of visual realities.  It's always worth exploring if you have the time, patience and inclination to do so!    

http://www.photoworks.org.uk/programme/projects/photographing-the-first-world-war
http://www.disphotic.lewisbush.com/2011/01/21/a-short-history-of-photomontage-i-1822-1945/
http://archive.garageccc.com/eng/exhibitions/18349.phtml

Unit 27: Digital Image Capture & Editing

Planning 

To say this is one of my least favourite unit is probably a bit of an understatement! for months I have briefly thought about montage and then within seconds I've moved on to something else.  That's because my mind just goes blank when trying to think of ways I could stick things together in PS to make an image to convey a message. Some people are naturally good at things like this and enjoy doing it. I prefer my traditional methods with only a bit of digital thrown in.  My brain must function in analogue as I try and make minimal use of digital editing with my images, unless I'm trying out something new.  I had contemplated doing something with a political message but some of the things I thought of would not sit comfortably with most people so I decided to give them a miss.  

Montages can be used and have been used to convey various political message and if done well they can be quite effective.  In this digital age most things are created and distributed in cyberspace leaving very little need for creating anything physical that you can touch and feel.  On-line social networking is a great tool for spreading a particular message worldwide at the touch of a button.  Montages are also used in the creative industry for various projects and art work and by practitioners to develop their work.    Lately there has been a surge in the number of mobile applications you can use to create various pieces of art using images and other paraphernalia.      

For my montage I finally settled on a family theme, but also adding the other most important thing in my life - photography. Sometimes (maybe most of the time!) photography takes over and I end up not giving much time to my family.  

Material for montage

I decided to use a few different pieces of material to put my montage together. I used a scanned negative from the film shoot we did for the Media Unit. I also used a scanned sunography print I did as part of the experimental unit. I also included one scanned print and three digital prints.

Message

All these photos represent what I truly value and hold dear in my life. The images are of my family and my achievements and progress in photography so far. My mum and my sister are the two people who have always been around in my life and are the biggest influence in my life. It's because of them I am who I am today. I had lots of independence to do what I wanted to do and was always encouraged to pursue my dreams, without feeling bound by any cultural restrictions. I was able to pursue my passion for photography because of the support and encouragement I received from my family. When my sister had her three boys, they became the most precious people in my life.  I have hundreds of photographs of the three boys and only a handful of me with them, as I was always behind the camera.  The family photo in black and white was taken abroad and is typical of how you would be required to pose in a studio. Looking very rigid without smiling at the camera and appearing very formal.  The image of myself with the three boys was taken three years ago.  It's one of those rare occasions when we were all in the same room.      

                                           

Scan images 

I scanned old black and white family picture but the resolution is pretty low in comparison to the digital images.  The resolution was showing as 72 ppi and 548 KB in file size.  As it was an old image it had some tearing and bits of dark marking around the edge.  I repaired this in PS and saved the document as high resolution at 240 ppi which increased the size to 1.23 MB.  The digital image of my two nephews is 96 ppi and 936 KB in size.  The family image of my three nephews with myself is 72 ppi.  They all fitted in well on the canvas regardless of resolution size as I varied the image size on the canvas.    

     

These two images relate to the time when I received my medal for excellence from City & Guilds for my Level 2 Photography. It was one of my proudest moments. I felt such a great sense of achievement, considering a year ago I didn't know anything about photography.  I still remember it well, it's a memory I will treasure for a long time. The image on the right is from the award ceremony which took place at the Roundhouse in London and was presented by Alex Jones. The image on the left is the award ceremony held by Oldham Lifelong Learning, where I did my Level 2. They made such an effort, showcasing my work, giving me flowers and a cake baked especially for me! it was a lovely evening.  These were digital images so I had no problems with image size.  

I used the scanned negative and the sunography to show where I am at this moment in time, in terms of my photography.  I am gradually moving forward from digital processes and have become much more interested in alternative processes.  It represents my progress and development in the world of photography.  Both of these images were scanned at 300 dpi and were combined in PS.  I used the layering technique to place one image on top of another and then reduced the opacity and used the mask to make parts of the other image appear.  I adjusted hue saturation and brightness and control to bring out the textures.  I then inverted the image to give it that sepia tone and to make the sunography more visible. I then flattened the image to save it.      

Equipment 

I used my Epson all in one printer at home to scan most of the images apart from the negative which was scanned in college.  All images were uploaded on my pc for editing.    

Image editing   

To put my montage together I started with a blank new canvas.  It was sized 12 x 8 inches.  I knew I could always resize the canvas if all the images didn't fit in.  I opened all the images in PS that I wanted to place on the canvas and dragged and dropped them on the plain canvas.  I added a mask to rub out the parts I didn't want showing and reduced opacity to show parts of the other images.  On the old family picture I also used the quick selection tool to use parts of the image rather than the full image. I used the brightness and contrast tool to highlight the layers and textures.  I finally flattened the image and saved it as a low resolution JPEG to upload on the blog.   The screen shot below shows my work in progress and how I used the layering technique.    

Montage 

The final image isn't completely to my satisfaction but I did my best with my limited PS skills.  Considering I don't get a lot of enjoyment out of doing something like this, I feel it's a half decent image but could benefit from some improvements.  To improve the image I could have ensured the layers blended in more and looked less stuck on.  However, it does show what I set out to do, which was to show the importance of photography and family in my life.  It manages to highlight those key elements.