Solarisation – Jennie Meadows MA Photography

AGM60 Initial Images 6 March 2020

While waiting for the focus of this project to sharpen, there were two things I needed to do. First, start taking photos. Second, get refamiliarised with my DSLR camera.

21 February 2020 – Richmond Park

These images were captured during a walk from Kingston Gate to Richmond Gate, following the lower path. The last time I made this walk was at least five years ago. I used to spend a lot of time running and along this path, so it was interesting experiencing the environment at a slower pace. This enabled me to spot the following tree formation.

It seemed to resemble a pterodactyl. This reminded me of a dragon I spotted in the same park back in 2014.

This was at the very early stages of my photographic work and I was experimenting with an open-source photo editing software, Irfan View. The original image was taken with my mobile phone while out on a bike ride. The latter was inspired by the solarisation technique famously attributed to the surrealist photographer Lee Miller and a technique used extensively by Man Ray.

The sky in the park that day was dull pewter which gave a very haunting effect when looking up through the trees.

1 March 2020

While sitting on Brighton beach, a particular rock caught my eye.

I could see various faces on the rock’s surface depending on the part on which part I focused. Interestingly, when I posted the image on Instagram, a comment was made by Paul Kenny (a photographer whose work I greatly admire): Modigliani.

I also carried out a quick experiment using my colour negative technique.

1 March 2020 – Cuckmere Haven & East Dean Village

On a beautiful sunny, and very windy, afternoon, I visited Cuckmere Haven with my partner. This is one of my favourite spots near to Brighton and I have been there many times. The sunlight was quite harsh and there were lots of specular highlights on the waves. I knew that if I did take any photos, even with a polarising filter, the images wouldn’t be anything special. This is when I remembered the multiple exposure function on my Nikon D750. I had recently read a feature on the subject, so it seemed a good time to experiment. My previous work involving this technique was carried out using Adobe Photoshop, not with the camera on location.

After a walk along the cliffs, we made our way to the village of East Dean. While sitting outside the Tiger Inn enjoying a well-earned drink, I spotted this on the wall outside.

This reminded me of a profile of an 18th-Century man resplendent in a wig from that time. While waiting for the bus, I noticed the light coming through the window in the shelter nearby.

2 March 2020 – Brighton Beach Double Exposure

Inspired by my trip to Cuckmere, I continued experimenting with the double-exposure function.

3 March 2020 – Brighton Beach Double Exposure

The light wasn’t as good as the previous evening but it was still worth capturing these shots.

Bushy Park Friday 6th March

After a morning visiting the British Surrealism exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery, I was again inspired to go to Bushy Park to see what I could find.

The recent rain had made a particular area extremely water-logged, so I was able to capture this image with my mobile phone.

It gave this image a very dreamy and surreal feeling. I also took the following double exposures using my DSLR camera.

The project was off the starting blocks.

AGM60 Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom Classic Workshops 3 March 2020

Two further workshops as part of the MA Photography course were Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom Classic.

Adobe Photoshop Workshop

I was already quite familiar with Adobe Photoshop, having first used it back in 1998 and during my previous studies and photographic work. The programme is an essential element of digital photography. However, despite its extensive capacity for editing and manipulating images, it can be over-complicated and downright frustrating. The other main aspect of Adobe Photoshop is that there is always more than one way to get a result.

During the workshop, Simon introduced the class to a range of the programme’s functions, starting with the basics and taking us through the main functions. One of the functions that Simon outlined was ‘Curves’. This is a function I currently use in Adobe Camera Raw to create my colour digital negatives, but not in Photoshop. As I explained in the post outlining the Preparation for Digital Printing Workshop, my current workflow is to prepare and edit the images as much in Adobe Camera Raw then use Adobe Photoshop for the final touches and manipulation. It was interesting to see the effect I could achieve using the Curves in Photoshop.

For this quick experiment, I selected one of the double exposure sunset shots. The original is on the left, the adjusted one is on the right.

This was the setting that I used to create the solarising effect.

Interesting – something to keep in mind and experiment with further. As with all digital manipulation, it can be quite tempting just to add an effect because you can. As my HNC tutor, Ria, drummed into me during my course, there has to be a darn good reason for changing an image – don’t just focus on surface or aesthetics.

Adobe Lightroom Classic

This is a programme that I am aware of and have access to, but have never used as part of my workflow. According to Adobe, it is ‘the essential tool for organizing, editing, and sharing your photography.’ Simon explained it was a mix of Adobe Camera Raw and Adobe Photoshop. He also outlined that, unlike the latter (which is a combination of functions that have just been added to and adapted over the years) Lightroom Classic was created in a logical way.

I have to admit that the workshop was a bit of a blur for me, as this type of lesson doesn’t suit my kinesthetically learning style. I’ve also developed a workflow in processing my digital images over the last four years that I have got used to. Maybe it is time to try something new and, potentially, more effective and efficient. This will have to be addressed and assessed over the coming months.

As with all Adobe applications, there are online tutorials for both of these applications. I have found these to be very useful in the past. Now is the time to revisit them.