Final Piece
The three favourite artists I chose were: Thomas Barbéy, Anja Stiegler and Tommy Ingberg.
The techniques that inspired me the most were enlarging some of my subject matter, which is a technique often used by Tommy Ingberg and Anja Steigler; creating a photomontage with a strong personal or conceptual meaning, a common technique used by Barbéy and Ingberg; and experimenting with colour tone and blurring which features very strongly in the photography of Anja Stiegler. All of my responses to these artists have involved a large amount of digital editing, which has been a really interesting and inspiring learning process. I'm amazed at all the different techniques and tricks that are available to enhance your photographic images.
I have photographed people, landscapes, different structures and even an animal to create my images. My Anja Stieglar inspired image was my favourite artist response and by putting my model in a dramatic setting with oversized subject matter, I made links between her style of work and my chosen topic of 'Out of Place.' This was a particularly challenging piece of work because it involved working with a live animal (my cat!). Getting him to stay in the right position to achieve a clear, in-focus image, with no movement, was very difficult.
Final piece creative idea
My idea for my final piece was to create another response to Anja Stiegler's work, continuing with her idea of photographing female models, juxtapositioned with unlikely objects to create a surreal image. As teacups seem to feature quite frequently in Stiegler's work, I decided to position my model sitting in an oversized teacup, reading a book. Like Steigler, I chose to position this image against an unexpected and dramatic landscape/or setting.
The meaning of my Final Piece is 'Out of Place', which is the theme I have enjoyed experimenting with the most throughout my GSCE coursework. I set up a studio and used a green screen cloth against which to photograph my model and the teacup. I shot my background image outside and went on location to Painshill Park in Cobham to photograph the inside of the Gothic Temple, which is a place I have visited many times throughout my childhood.
Favourite artists
Final piece creative idea
Photoshoot contact sheet
Original images
Editing process
I cut out the tea cup and model using the magic wand, clone stamp and eraser in Photopea. I brought these images into Photoshop to finish the piece.
I cleaned up the outline of the tea cup and the model using the eraser tool, trimming off the remaining areas of green border.
I used the pen tool to create a clipping path to clean up the outline of the model against the tea cup, zooming in to outline the contours of her shirt. I used the eraser to perfect the line of the model's body against the tea cup rim so that she appeared inside the cup.
I zoomed in and used the eraser tool to clean any remaining green from the outline of the hair and used the clone stamp to re-colour areas of the hair where there was a green showing through.
I used transform /scale to size the model in relation to the tea cup, adjusting by eye to get the right proportions.
I experimented with different colour effects, trying out different coloured filters on the model and tea cup.
I selected "old style" in Hue/Saturation to create a slightly more washed out effect on the model and tea cup.
Next, I copied the tea cup layer and took out the shadow of the cup (using the pen tool to create a clipping path), but decided it didn't look very realistic.
Instead, I reduced the size of the shadow (using the pen tool to create a clipping path). I smoothed the corners using the eraser tool and then blurred the edges of the shadow by creating a layer mask and using the brush tool.
Final image
Conclusion
I'm really happy with the composition of my final piece, as the position of the model within the teacup works well. This was something I was really worried about, in particular whether her arm would be in the right place in relation to the teacup. Getting the photomontage to blend, so that all the elements seem like they've been shot as one original photograph is very difficult to achieve and is what makes Anja Steiglar's work so skilfull. A characteristic of Steiglar's work is also mixing colour with muted black and white or silvery blue tones, which is the the look I was aiming for here.
EBI
In hindsight, I think it would have been better if I had shot the teacup against a white background, as the green screen cloth I used created a lot of reflection on the teacup, giving it a greenish hue. It made it more difficult to edit and achieve a colour that I was happy with.
I experimented with changes to the colours on the background and the teacup using the colour balance, finally choosing to go for a blue moonlit background effect, which I felt looked more dramatic.