Adding Old To The New

We all enjoy looking through old photographs from our past family members and especially for me, i enjoy seeing what the photography was like back then and what cameras or equipment they used to take their images. I decided to do a photo shoot about the old vs the new. I love mixing the two together and seeing the interesting effects at the end. I first scanned a bunch of old photographs that would be useful for the shoot and i also took images of my family now. I used Photoshop to create the final images by editing the new images into black and white to still get that old tone to the images and so it related to the shoot and i also used Photoshop to add the old images over the top of the new. The images that include the old image being placed over the top is easy to create as all you do is cut the image up into sections that you want (e.g. if you want to paste an old image of someones eyes, then crop the eyes only) and then add it over the top of the new image. I think the colour of some of the old images contrast so well because it's really washed out and has a yellow tint to them so you still get the impression that they are old and it contrasts with the monochrome images well. The images where it looks like the old images have been projected over the new, was done by using the 'multiply' blending mode in Photoshop and no editing needs to be done apart from that and you get a double exposure effect which also looks like a projection. I find these images work the best because it also has a creepy element to them with the out of focus and overexposed effect, it makes the images look ghostly. 

Double Exposure (Inspiration From Christoffer Relander)

I decided that i wanted to really try something different for a change and really push myself to deliver some different and detailed images. I had looked at Christoffer Relanders work who focuses on double exposure images and his were fantastic so i thought 'yes! This is something i need to try!'. It took me absolutely ages to try and figure out how to achieve the look in Photoshop and it literally took me i'd say about 5 attempts of trying out different effects and blending options in Photoshop. After about 2 hours i had finally figured out how to do it and i was over the moon. I then applied the same effect to most of my studio images. I used images i had taken of a few models in the studio with some images of trees to overlap the image with as trees have different shapes and structures to them (especially with different styled leaves) and i then attempted to make a full range of different images with this double exposure effect. I made sure the images of the trees had a white background as the images of the models had a white background so when overlapping them the background stays white. I then changed the blending mode on the tree image to 'Overlay' or 'Multiple' or even 'Screen' (depends on what you prefer and what you want the final outcome to be) and i then turned the opacity down just a little to get both images showing and not getting one coming through stronger than the other. I then changed a few of the images into monochrome as i felt the colour from the trees clashed a little with the skin colour from the models, but i was really pleased with the results and i was really happy with the final results and happy that i had successfully achieved this style of photography. I would definitely recommend having a go at this effect because it's so much fun and you get a result that makes you happy and it's quite simple once you have cracked it!

The Beach...

 

In the summer holidays I took a visit to Bridlington on a very muggy day. I decided to get some macro shots of the different textures around the beach and I got some wide angle shots of the landscapes and the different surroundings. I also made the most out of my surroundings by create really arty images and by using stones to create a sculpture and I used shells in different ways to create really delicate but arty images with them. I faded the images a little again in Photoshop as again this is a memory for me visiting this beach and because I haven't been for ages it was a vague memory to me so fading the images out created that physical distortion of it being a memory to me. It was a really muggy day which helped with the images and the effect I wanted to cerate with them as there was a foggy effect to it already. It was a lovely day overall and was quite warm and it was a typical day at the beach... what can you not like about the seaside! If you want to see more of these images leave a comment so I can post them in another blog post.     

 

 

Memories Theme

I went to my grandmas this week for this photo shoot as I wanted to adapt the theme of memories and photograph things which were quite old and fragile. I used the same effect as I did in my last blog post as I wanted to create that sense of the fragile and delicate touch. Some of the images are macro to get most of the delicate details in the image and then some of them are more wide angle images to get a sense of the atmosphere. I really like he simplicity of some of the images and I was really thinking about the composition of the images because you want to get certain elements in the images. I will be doing a block mount with the images (4 block mounts as one final piece) and I think this will help the images stand out on the card and I will post the block mount in a separate blog post when it's done. If you want to see anymore of the images you can post in the comment box and ill post them in another blog post.