This is my favourite Weston Image. When I first saw it, I thought that it was someone in foetal position on the floor with a white sheet draped over them. I believe that it is beautiful, as the way in which he has captured the lines in the leaf makes them appear as if they are melting into the ground. The leaf looks very withdrawn and hunched over, almost as if it is a spine or as if someone is laying on the ground beneath it.
The capturing of the creases on the cabbage leaf remind me of a velvet stage curtain or a satin sheet laid over an object. He has made an old seemingly worthless leaf resemble satin, something of great luxury. Weston has made nature appear man made, as the photo is so visually beautiful it almost seems like it has been manufactured and polished and could not have just been found that way. |
Edward Weston
Light - This image looks like it has been taken using artificial lighting and the light is not dispersed, it is rather saturated and the highlights (lightest parts) of the image are very bright. Weston may have done this to expose his subject, to light it up very brightly in order to capture as much detail as possible. Pattern - Lots of circle like and rounded shapes can be seen within this image. It reminds me of water marbling in art, when you place the ink into the water and one colour sits on top of another in a circular shape. It also reminds me of when a stone is thrown into a river, and the water ripples out in a circular motion, making the river sway and shake. This calming circular shape that can be seen in this image is repeated, it is a naturally occurring repeated pattern that Weston has spotted and decided to capture. This pattern has been accentuated through his use of black and white and the contrast that is rather prominent in his image. There is a clear and quite heavy tonal difference between the different shades within this image, especially within the crevices of the leaves, the black bold lines that can be seen repeatedly, echoing across his whole image, and the white highlighted parts which are closest to the camera and are touching the most light. Framing/cropping - This image is extremely cropped in, more so than Zielke's photograph on the right. It does not have any background and is completely focused on the subject. This was most likely done to capture a huge amount of detail and to retain as much texture as possible. It also may have been done to get a very close up feel, to really see the subject as if we were seeing it in real life and as if the image has an actual rough feel to it. Depth - This image has some depth to it in places, but overall the depth of field is not that vast. The depth is mostly where the vegetable falls and creates a gap (the bold lines). These crevices are the furthest away from the camera that the object goes and the clearest, most focused areas are closest to the camera. |
Willy Otto Zielke
Light - This image appears to have been taken in natural lighting conditions as the light is very soft and dispersed, it is not concentrated in one area like artificial lighting is. It is spread out across the whole image and is not harsh. It is lit quite warmly and gently, in contrast to Weston's image which is quite harsh and is not very warm. Zielke is likely to have done this to prevent unwanted reflections off of the water, glass and mirror like surfaces in this image. If he had used artificial lighting, it would have reflected off of the surfaces and create unwanted brightness and glare in parts of his images. It may have also washed out texture as the surfaces in his images are rather reflective, light would bounce off of them harshly and could eliminate small details. Pattern - Some pattern can be seen within this image if you look closely, however this pattern is not consistent or repetitive, creating contrast to Weston's image on the left. The edges of the glass objects represent themselves as thick, black lines due to the composition of the glass and the angle in which he has captured at. They create a pattern as they cross and overlap each other in various different ways. The reflection of the glass and the water on top of the smooth surface in the image also have patterns within them, which are more rounded and blurred. Even though Zielke has some pattern in his image, there is also a rather large plain area on the left hand side. I believe that he may have done this to create contrast and to highlight the reflections and the patterned area more. If the whole image was patterned, a detailed and intricate part may go unnoticed as it would not be isolated like the pattern within this image is. Framing/cropping - This image is quite cropped in and is very focused on the subjects. The background is not very elaborate, it is quite blank. This was most likely done to make the objects stand out and to not divert any attention from them. This is much like the work of artists associated with the 'New objectivity' movement, as a trait of this was to take images very close up and cropped in, to keep the focus on the subject and to keep the attention on the detail of just the subject itself. Depth - This image does not have that much depth to it, as all of the objects in the image are located in almost the same place. The objects in the image are all located in the mid-ground, this is why there is not much depth here, as there is nothing solid in the foreground, so the image appears rather flat as there is not really any comparison or juxtaposition of distances. |
,Original image:
I wanted this image to have far more contrast and depth in colour, I wanted it to appear more rich and have more of a differentiation between the dark and light tones within the photograph. I also wanted the texture and surfaces within the image to appear more rough to relate more to the work of Zielke and Weston. I chose this image out of the other ones I had taken of the cup as I liked the natural and soft lighing upon the water and side of the cup. This image was the best in terms of capturing light. I also liked the sharp reflection of the cup in the water and the reflections of the branches behind it. This photo relates more to the work of Zielke as it has at least two different elements in it, (plastic and water), much like a lot of his images. I also captured two contrasting surfaces, the smooth, moving water in the top right corner, and the rough ridges on the cup. I also tried to capture the dirt on the cup to add another layer of texture into my image. I found the cup like this and did not physically set up the objects myself. I chose to photograph it from this angle as I believed that it made the objects look the most well composed and considered in terms of the type of photograph I was trying to create. I took it whilst sitting on the ground at a very low angle, almost on the same level as the object itself. |
Edited image:
To arrive at this finalized image I focused mainly on the highlights, shadows and shades. I increased the contrast to really bring out that difference in dark and light in my image and then also increased the highlights and shadows. This image was also turned to greyscale by completely turning down the saturation. After these few steps, I saved the changes that I had made. Then, I turned the colour temperature to warm and brought up the saturation ever so slightly to give my image a sepia feel without using a filter. This was done to give my image an older feel, and to make it appear more similar to some of the work of Zielke. I also decided to sharpen my image to enhance the texture of the plastic, the dirt upon it and the reflection. I really like how I managed to bring out multiple textures of different surfaces within one image (the water, the plastic cup ridges, the dirt on the cup and the objects floating in the water). If you look under the cup on both images, you can really see how much darker and deeper my final image is in comparison to my original one. |