Leonie Hermitage

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HAI GUYS

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In order for me to produce my CD cover I had to find an analogue picture from a book, which I thought, would be suitable for the background of my CD cover. I have decided to use an image, which I thought was unusual. This image came from a book ‘The History Of Urban Art’. I chose this image because the quote makes you think about life and your thoughts. It makes the audience think about what that quote could mean and how you see life through individual’s eyes. I used this image for the background of my CD cover so I was able to bur in the digital image I had taken of my rapper to enhance the cover and make it stand out. I wanted my CD cover to interesting, to make the audience have an outlook on life. A different perspective for different objects, it is what you want it to be. I wanted it give off an impression that people should appreciate the things in life, have different unusual opinions on life and to understand that just because there are perspectives on different objects it doesn’t need to be your own perspective. I decided to use dull colours on my CD cover such as a mixture of greys, whites and black. I made sure I used a black font, using capitals in order for the title to stand out.

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Here is the digital image I have taken from my Cannon Camera that I am using on the front of my CD cover. 

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Contemporary Art and Design practise in Digital Media, used in music practise

  Digital Media Audio – This refers to technology that records stored and reproduces sound by encoding an audio signal in digital form instead of analogue form. Digital audio is useful in the recording, manipulation, mass production and distribution of sound.

  Digital art can be defined as the process wherein creative art is produced using digital technology. The impact of digital technology has been used in a variety of different types of activities such as paintings, drawing, music and sound art. These have become recognised as artistic practises.

  CD Covers

  Around 1910 records were designed in order to listen to music they were covered in brown paper or cardboard sleeves that were sometimes printed to show the producer or the artist’s name. However, beginning bound collection of empty sleeve with a pain paperboard or leather cover were sold as ‘record albums’. From the 1950’s through to the 1980’s records became the major formats for the distribution of popular music. A CD cover. This has become the most common form of music products. All CD covers come with different genres of music, such as hip-hop, rock, indie, house music, urban, there are many other genres of music that has different types of CD covers for each CD. 

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Rap

Rap re-invented everything. Rap music started as party music, it was nameless for a time and then it became a movement. Rap is a style of hip-hop; other styles include graffiti artists, break dancers and DJ’s. Hip-Hop came through “The White Man” taking advantage of black culture in the ghetto areas of major cities and towns in America, by this I mean coloured people were extremely talented the had an interest in playing pianos and saxophones. Black culture provided us with great music such as Blues, Jazz and Funk. But when “The White Man” (White government, police forces) took the liberty of no longer providing black culture with music schooling or instruments, they were left with nothing more then record players, to listen to their Marvin Gaye and Al Green. They took what they had – record players and made it into an instrument of their choice. Making scratching sounds and custom beats, all they needed were the words to go over track, then came rap. All raps came across angry and emotional because they were oppressed people, then we had hi-hop. Hip-hop is a global movement. Rap is now known as emceeing, spitting bars or rhyming lyrics. The art can be broken down into different components where it is separated into content, flow and delivery. Associating with hip-hop and reggae. 

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Comparing both CD covers, Eminem and Lil Wayne they both have got two images on the front of their CD covers which portrays a meaning of their life and their outlook on life. Such as Lil Wayne’s cover has a moth displayed on the front of the album. This moth is representing going through different stages of life, seen as beautiful but yet so ugly. It is showing that there are lots of changes through life good and bad. However with Eminem’s cover he has an image of a house. The house on the front of his album is where he used to live as a teenager, bringing back the memories of happiness and heartache throughout his different stages of life. The colours of Eminem’s cover are showing a full outlook on life that he could have been through some rough teenage years by expressing the colours grey and brown. This also links in with the music he writes himself. Lil Wayne has three strong colours, white, red and black. The red has been used for the moth of a way of showing that he doesn’t know what’s going to happen in life, good or bad. Wayne has used a strong coloured background. This is to enhance the moth, showing that the background has no meaning to his music or life and he doesn’t know what will happen. Whereas Eminem has used his old house to give the audience an ideal look on his background life. Eminem and Lil Wayne have used a strong bold font for the tittle and the artists themselves to make it stand out so that the title and name is the main focus point within the cover, Both American rappers have found a way to enhance their cd covers about meanings of life, their life, how their life used to be and what life is able to bring. All together they have used a range of techniques such a visual language and contemporary art in order to get their CD covers to relate to the music and the artist themselves. 

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Lil Wayne - American Hip-hop rapper

‘I am not a Human being II’ is an official album that was released by Lil Wayne 2013. Kayne West Company, ‘Dona’ designed the CD cover. The colours used for this CD cover are red, white and black. These colours that have been chosen for the design of the cover are eye catching. Wayne discussed the meaning behind the art, which is a moth on a black background through a red filter. Lil Wayne has chosen the moth for the CD cover as he feel it has so many different stages of life and it goes through so any changes, yet no one can figure it out and its always beautiful. This relates to the music he has produced. The writing used on this album is in capital letters this is to make the title stand out and give the cover an outstanding font towards the audience, making it catch their eye. The letters have been made strong and bold and white this is to give off a great effect amongst a black background. There is not a lot of detail on the front of the cover. I feel as though Wayne has done this to get the audience thinking of what his music could be about, what meaning has the moth got that relates to his music. By not putting a lot of detail onto the front of his cover it keeps people concentrating on the moth and wondering. It also shows a neat well laid out design and has a lot of meaning and feeling towards it. 

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Eminem - American Hip-hop rapper

Here is one of Eminem’s albums that have been released. The cover art for ‘The Marshall Mathers’ features an image of the childhood home for Eminem, which was also featured on one of the two covers of the Detroit rappers 2000 album. The house is surrounded by blighted and burnt out homes in the area, looking dangerous, terrorized by drugs and gangs. The album is based on his childhood life in Detroit. The colours within the image are dull in order to portray the message of gloom and heartache throughout his teenage life in the cover. This is made for the audience to question what his music is about, what is so special about this house. The font used is sharp and bold, this is so that the title of the album and artist himself stands out and is eye catching towards the rest of the CD cover. The whole of the CD cover gives off a dramatic effect. I feel as though this image was taken in a dim atmosphere waiting for the right time of the day to take the image, maybe the evening. The image looks like it was been taken with a tripod to get the accurate image without any blur. When creating this CD cover Photoshop was used in order to edit the image giving it a background effect behind the house and to add the writing on the cover. Photoshop was used to merge all the aspects of the cover together. 

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Health and Safety in the Darkroom

It is important that the health and safety procedures in the darkroom are followed. Any trip hazards must be addressed before turning out the light, for example bags, wires, tools, bottles of chemicals, chairs etc. Before turning off the lights in the darkroom you should always make sure you have everything needed on top of the work desk this is so that your able to proceed with your work and so that you know where everything is. When putting the light back on to then develop the images you must be very careful when handling the chemicals because they can be dangerous if not handled correctly. You need to make sure when pouring them a way or back into the bottles you must be careful not to spill them. When taking the filmstrip out of the coil after developing you must be careful not to get fingerprints on the negative. Also once the strip is finished drying in the dryer is it very hot so leave to cool before taking it out.

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Portrait Photography

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Practicing portrait photography

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A light meter is used mainly for portrait photography this is because the light meter allows the photographer to know what settings to have the camera on and this is set and done accurately. A light meter works by having a lead that is plugged in to the back of the light to allow the connection between the meter and the lights to allow it to flash, letting it go off when the light meter button is pressed. This is used in the Studio. There is a pacific button on the light meter, on the side, that allows the meter to read the light falling of the lights to go off and is able to read the models lighting from all angles. By using a light meter it gives the photographer an advantage to know exactly what settings to used on the camera such as what aperture to use so that the light is exact on a certain area ready to take the image. It is important that the white dome at the top has to be slotted over the metering cell; this is normally a 180 degrees diffuser. Although many light meters are used for studio photography, they can also be used for macro photography. Light meters are used in macro photography by being held up to the subject so that the light is able to read from different angles, making sure the photographer has the correct apertures for the shot.

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A light meter is used mainly for portrait photography this is because the light meter allows the photographer to know what settings to have the camera on and this is set and done accurately. A light meter works by having a lead that is plugged in to the back of the light to allow the connection between the meter and the lights to allow it to flash, letting it go off when the light meter button is pressed. This is used in the Studio. There is a pacific button on the light meter, on the side, that allows the meter to read the light falling of the lights to go off and is able to read the models lighting from all angles. By using a light meter it gives the photographer an advantage to know exactly what settings to used on the camera such as what aperture to use so that the light is exact on a certain area ready to take the image. It is important that the white dome at the top has to be slotted over the metering cell; this is normally a 180 degrees diffuser. Although many light meters are used for studio photography, they can also be used for macro photography. Light meters are used in macro photography by being held up to the subject so that the light is able to read from different angles, making sure the photographer has the correct apertures for the shot.

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Mirror Mirror Evaluation

This week we have been working on a project ‘Mirror Mirror’. We started this project by having to choose three different types of photographers who use portraits in the studio, using three different eras and write an essay on the photographers. For our research I used three different books from the Library. The three photographers I studied were ‘Zaida Ben-Yusuf’, Bill Brandt and Thomas Ruff.

I used these photographers to research their photography background, what types of photography they were mostly interested in, what types of cameras they used and about their life and career. This got me to know a little bit about their background in order to write the essay. Once I had finished writing about all three different photographers I then had to find a picture out of the three books I had chosen ready to recreate. I then found a picture to recreate ‘Henri Florence’ I started by studying this image and drew a lighting diagram of how I thought the lights could be set up in the studio in order to recreate the image accurately. I used a digital camera to recreate this image. For me to be able to get the correct lighting I had to use a light meter this enabled me to get correct lighting on the models face so that it was bright enough to match the image I was recreating. I also needed to make sure I used a white reflector on the right side of her face to enhance the face with light making the image clearer.

I decided to use this image to recreate due to the image being different. I liked the way the model was laughing creatively on the floor surrounded in cards. This made me think that the image looked interesting and that the picture could be giving off several different types of meanings. I liked the idea of using cards within my image as the cards in the background represented her dreaming of what life holds in the future. For me to create this image I chose a model with long hair so that the model could recreate her image, I also used a deck of cards for background use. Once we had finished taking images with our digital cameras, we had to take a few images using a film camera. I chose a different image by David Bailey to recreate for my film camera, using a male model. After taking a few shots with the film camera and hoping for the best, we had to then develop the pictures in the darkroom using different types of chemicals and equipment. Before we went into the darkroom to develop our pictures we all got taught on how to put together the developing tank in the dark room so that the pictures could be developed without getting exposed to light. This was important because I did not want my images taken being ruined or undeveloped by light. Once we had developed our images they were ready to be used. I then scanned the film images onto the computer so that I was able to save them and put into my coursework as evidence of using a film camera as well as a digital camera. 

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Developing the film

When it comes to developing a film, the time and amount of developer, stop and fix you use will vary this is because it depends what type of film you are planning on developing. The film I have used in this project is the Kentmere FP4 with an ISO of 100. I made sure that I had all the correct equipment with me such as measuring cylinders, agitator, stopwatch and water. This is so that after I have loaded my film into the developing tank I am able to start the process of developing the film.

I started by making sure that the developer is at the correct temperature making sure that it doesn’t go over 20 degrees this is because the image may end up being destroyed. The developer I am using is made up of 125ml of water and 125ml of rodinal in a measuring cylinder. The developer is used to allow the image to appear onto the film. Once the developer is prepared, it is then poured into the tank and an agitator is used to agitate the film, this is continuous. (Every 30 seconds for 11 minutes) This is to make sure the developer coats the whole film in order for the image to be produced. I then measured out 250ml of stop into the measuring cylinder (500ml for a double spiraled tank) then poured it into the tank. To stop the film developing further I then had to agitate this every 30 seconds for 2 minutes.

 I then measured out 250ml of stop into the measuring cylinder and poured it into the tank. I then agitate this every 30 seconds for two minutes. This stops the developer from developing the film. After the time is over, I pour out the stop back into the measuring cylinder and back into the bottle of stop so that it can be used again.

Then I measure 250ml of fix into the measuring cylinder (500ml for a double spiraled tank) and poured it into the developing tank. I then agitate the tank every 30 seconds for 5 minutes as this is enough time to stop the developer from developing further so that the image that has formed, a negative, it then stays in its processed form and does not get ruined.  After the allocated time is up, I poured the fix back into the bottle, same as the stop, as I am able to use it again.

Lastly, I washed the film with water for 15 minutes; this allows the chemicals to wash off completely. I can also added wetting agent to prevent dried marks from forming onto my negatives however these is also a tool that helps the water to be wiped away. I then unwound the film from the reel and hung it up to dry in the dryer for 5 minutes as it gets rid of any access water.

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Here is an image I have recreated using a film camera. Due to this being my first time working with a film camera and developing my image from an analogue camera I feel as though I struggled to maintain this image such as not having the correct hairstyle or outfit for the recreated image. I also feel that by using a film camera I found it harder to get accurate lighting. My attempt at using a film camera and developing the image was successful..however the lighting was not. If I was to attempt to redo this image I would make sure next time the photo was over exposed this is due to the image I created was to light.

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Equipment Needed

Here is an image of the equipment I need to use to be able to develop my film from analogue cameras. Firstly I took the film out of the canister and cut the film so that I was able to put it straight into the coil. I then inserted a small amount of film into the coil, twisting it back and forth this enabled the entire film strip in round the coil. Once having done this I inserted the thin black tube through the middle of the coil in order to keep the coil in place inside the large canister. I placed the coil into the large black canister with the black tube facing upwards then insert the lid, by twisting it i was making sure that it is secure. Lastly I put on the film lid.