Tuesday 11 December 2012

Photoshop - Broken Glass Effect



I used Photoshop to place the picture of the character behind the broken glass image. After this, I used the Layer tools, which allowed me to lower the opacity of the foreground image, to make it look like the 2 layers are part of one image. After doing so, to make it more effective, I used the shortcut cmd J to resize and rotate the foreground image, so it looked better.

Tuesday 27 November 2012

Photo Journalism

Henri Cartier-Bresson
 Henri Cartier-bresson was a famous french surrealist photographer. Bresson was one of the first to adopt the 35mm photography method. His method was also a very individual one to perform, especially at this time. he used a method, dubbed "The Decisive Moment". This would involve him  deciding on an area he liked, like a kerb or an alleyway, then he would wait for something to come into the frame to bring the life into the space. He would concentrate and keep one eye through the viewfinder, then, when he felt the moment was at it's most impressive, he would instantly his the shutter release.  Bresson had a great advantage, called technological determinism. This means he could look through the viewfinder with one eye, while looking at his scene and subject with the other. This allowed him to more easily determine when the moment was it it's climax.

What I like about this photo is, how Bresson composed this image. Notice how the rails, down the curved staircase give us a sense of perspective. This draws attention to the image without taking the attention away from the man pictured whizzing past on a bicycle. I also feel this is has been used well to show movement and life within the picture, as he allowed the blur to stay on the subject. I feel, if the man was not blurred, then the photo would seem, to me, almost posed.



I also feel that this image is a very good example and description of Bresson's method, as the timing is perfect. If the shutter release button was pushed a fraction of a second earlier, the ripple would interfere with the reflection of the man, and if it was taken a fraction of a second later, then the same would happen. What I mean by this, is Bresson has taken the picture at the absolute perfect moment as it pictures a perfect reflection of the subject in the puddle.
His most famous pieces are "Behind The Gare, St. Lazare", showing a stranger leaping over a puddle, and anotoher unnamed piece, showing a man whizzing past on a bicycle, both pictured above. Both of these above photographs perfectly illustrate the method and its effects and advantages.

Tony Vaccaro

Tony Vaccaro is an American-born photographer, who, unlike other photographers, was a soldier himself in the second World War. Vaccaro used his own make-shift methods of developing his work, mixing the appropriate chemicals in his helmet and hanging his half-developed photos on a string outside. What enabled him to do so is his position and role in the U.S. Army, as he was a scout, which gave him alot of free time on his hands, so he would explore various areas armed with a M1 Carbine and his camera, the Argus C-3, a rather amateur model. However this was an ideal choice of model as the camera was deemed "almost indestructible", which came as a huge advantage, as he had to sometimes move through dangerous areas. One of his most famous pieces of work are "The Kiss of Liberation", taken on 15th August 1944, picturing an american soldier kissing his daughter on the cheek goodbye, before being sent to battle.

This picture below, 'Hemmerden' was taken in a decisive moment by Vaccaro. This photo pictures a burning german GI beside an exploed tank. This photo is used to show the public the reality of the war. Vaccaro states that, in order to take this photo, he jumped onto the floor in a prone position o both stabilise his shot and to take shelter from possible gunfire. This is his demonstration of Robert Capa's motto "get closer, get closer" being put into action. I feel this image tells us all quite a lot about what happens in the war. The reason this photo was not seized, unlike many of his other works, is because the GI pictured is German, so it's almost used as a way of suggesting that the americans are more powerful, as it shows this german soldier in such a horrific position.