Summary

Etude 2

Forced Perspective and Composition

Statement Of Intentions

My thoughts about this study were to produce some forced perspective and composition art work that looked realistic. I have never really done any photos in this style and I wondered how easy it would be to create something. In a similar way the the first study the idea of doing forced perspective as a project was purely on an artistic and exploratory level and having the freedom to try things that you have never tried before. I will research the method behind forced perspective photography and see if I can get some hints and tips to assist me in producing a good realistic piece. I think it will be very much trial and error.

Conceptualisation Of The Work

The purpose of the Etude is just a curiosity and exploration of different art processes that I have never done before. It is an interesting area as it has been used a lot in professional settings for adverts and films. The forced perspective idea appeals because of it's recent use in the Harry Potter and the Lord Of Rings series of movies, which are very much prime examples of the magic of film. Whilst I'm not looking to produce film footage in this way I think it would be nice to produce a still photo that has the wow factor, which I think is easier said than done.
Forced perspective photography is relevant to the 3D hybrids module in a similar way to the last Etude in that you are taking 3D objects and converting them into 2D via the medium of the camera, but also by way of tricking the eye into believing the impossible. As if the capturing of the 3D scenario on camera could mean that it possibly exists in reality.
I'm not looking to use any of the skills I have learnt about forced perspective in my final project, however, it's an interesting area of exploration.
There is no real target audience in my mind for the exploration of forced perspective, other than I guess, anyone who is interested in playing tricks on the mind, I feel the area is non genre, age, race or culture specific.
I think forced perspective photography is very difficult to do well and because of the lack of apparatus that I have I don't think that I'll achieve anything too fabulous or with much audience appeal. If I had lighting rigs and a high end camera then I might stand more chance, however this is why the subject I've chosen also includes composition pictures, the type that make you question their validity. I think if I can create something that looks real but couldn't possibly be then I'm going to be very happy with the results.

Documentation of Technical and Artistic Process

See blog entries below

Technical Analysis

See blog entries below

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_perspective

http://www.travelblog.org/Photos/153602.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/steve-brandon/178839409/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ddVo1c_1Gs



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZYh_HRY70g

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/giant-skeleton.html

http://www.maj.com/gallery/DaRkSiDe/animals/megaladon.jpg

http://www.stinkyjournalism.org/images/pig_sm.jpg

http://humanflowerproject.com/images/uploads/hoax-fairy-pic.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilt-shift_miniature_faking


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilt-shift_lens

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thiru/1514344777/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdashton/1480013373/

How Successful Is The Etude?

I've struggled greatly with this study and I think that the results are a little changeable. I like the last picture I did, I think it's quite a sweet composition, although there's still issues with the lighting. A lot of the compositions and forced perspective photos don't achieve the wow factor which was what I was hoping for. The limitations that I have had with all the pictures is that the background items in the room effect the realism of the photo. I've learnt that the lighting is the essential factor that makes one picture look effective in comparison to one with bad lighting that doesn't. Lighting is an extremely difficult thing to control and adjust realistically and I don't think that I have achieved perfect lighting on any of my photos.

Composition 3

I've done one more piece that I'm reasonably happy with I've Photoshopped the background out of the picture and I'm not sure whether it looks better with it or without it.

Here's the piece:-



I think it looks quite nice really. I'm happy!

Here are some of the other photos that I took that have not had any processing done to them.

Composition 2

I have been experimenting some more with composition/forced perspective pictures and I have done another one. This particular piece was taking as a forced perspective photograph but because it didn't work very well I though I would amend and composite the idea so it worked better. Here's the original photo.



Here's the background I chose.



And here's the composition below so judge for yourself.



I'm not sure it works really, although the composition is more realistic than the first forced perspective photo. I thought it was important to explain what I did. In photoshop I cut out the arms, the ball and the head as separate items. I then arranged them in a new document and adjusted the brightness and contrast to ensure they were a similar shading level. I then using gaussian blur setting I made the ball a little less detailed because this showed clearly that the ball was at forefront of the the photo and that Ben was blurred because he was further back. I used the sharpen tool to sharpen the arms and head up. I then imported the window background and adjusted the contrast levels to make it brighter in order to make it appear that the shadow across the ball, the arms and face were coming from behind. At this pint I realised that there wasn't enough light outlining Ben and the ball because I had cut it out too tightly. I flattened down the ball, head and arms and duplicated it. I adjusted the brightness and contrast and made it white like light and slightly offset it behind the other layer but infront of the window scene. I then rotated the object so the were more horizontal and cropped the picture down.

I am struggling with the forced perspective photographs, I tried to do some more and I've realise the problem I'm having is down to the space in which I'm trying to take the photos within. The thing I've realised is that the surrounding size of furniture, doors, window etc. effect the realism of the photos. I guess I should have known this already but when you've got an idea and the photo is compromised by the surroundings then it is slightly annoying.

I've put an example below as a demonstration.



You can blatantly see that the robot is a toy, whereas I was hoping to make it look enormous by taking the shot as a close up.
I'm feeling like this project has beaten me and I'm struggling to feel passionate about this study!

Simple composition

I decided to try and see if I could create a simple composition. I have done one using my hair brush and hand just to see what was involved in the process. I'm not too happy with the results, I don't think it is very successful. but it was just an experiment.