Sarah Bennett @sarahnb-negotiated - Tumblr Blog

Critical Evaluation

The process of my first long term project has not been easy but has definitely been rewarding. I didn't always feel on track to make what I was aiming for, but having re-read my proposal today I think I have achieved it, which is a great feeling.

I started off unsure of whether to go down a purely commercial route or make something more personal. I knew from the start that I wanted to work with still life as I really enjoy it, and thought for a long term project it would be more practical for me personally to work with objects rather than people. The first set of group tutorials helped me realise I didn’t want to be restricted by conventions or requirements that could come with commercial work so I adopted more of a personal approach.

When I solidified my idea I really enjoyed carrying out in-depth research into artists such as Scheltens & Abbenes, Sarah Illenberger and Daniel Gordon. I was hugely influenced by all three, but Scheltens & Abbenes’ work influenced me the most with their aesthetic and process. They are known for simplifying objects to purely visual elements that make up the composition meaning the final image is the most important thing, rather than the actual objects in the image. This rubbed off on me quite a lot and the cartoon theme became purely the catalyst for my series. The faithfulness of the images to the cartoon became less important, and how the objects visually made up the photograph became the priority.

When it came to the actual production of the series, I felt unprepared and the schedule I made before Christmas seemed very unrealistic. Despite feeling like I had a lot of time beforehand, the deadline suddenly seemed very close. This stage was definitely the most difficult, and although I had a clear idea of what I wanted to produce, the realisation of it was a real challenge. I think this was due to practical issues like gathering props, and after taking on too much in my second shoot I was feeling quite stressed.

The group tutorial helped me get around this as my vision had become quite narrowed and I needed to step back from my work. Getting help with my lighting setup and positive responses from other people, particularly the fact that they could recognise each cartoon, made me more positive and gave me more motivation to make work I was proud of.

Keeping the blog also helped me organise my thoughts, reflect and make realisations that I wouldn’t have otherwise. An example of this was the strong intertextual relationship between my Popeye photo and artists Rene Magritte and Andy Warhol.

After this spending more time in the studio, but taking on less was definitely a better way to work and I enjoyed the process more. I also collaborated with a model effects student who helped with the visual tricks and chemiwood blocks. This was a great experience as it helped me with things I would’ve physically struggled with, as well as forcing me to clarify what I wanted to achieve. I found the idea of collaborating quite daunting but I definitely won’t hesitate to do it again in the future.

In the future I’d love to make more work like this, and am basing my next fashion project on a similar aesthetic and attitude. I’ve learnt a lot about how to realise my ideas with this series so am excited to be more productive with the fashion project. For example, creating no shadows was difficult so next time I plan on accentuating them as another graphic element, by using light that’s still very even, but much harsher.

#Critical evaluation

Final Artist Statement

In recent years Sarah Bennett has developed an appreciation for still life photography. Previously more preoccupied by the fast-paced world of alternative sport photography, she has chosen to relocate to the studio and slow her process down. Interested in the relationship between creative conceptual work and outright commercial photography, Sarah’s approach is characterised by her aim to incorporate a concept or theme that enables the viewer to engage with the subjects of her images.

The series ‘Cartoon Food’, based on the iconic relationships between cartoons and certain foods, is no exception. In these photographs the contents are reduced to purely visual elements working to create a bold, bright aesthetic. However, the choice of objects and colours also triggers the connection to cartoons in the viewers’ minds, giving them a way of relating to the two-dimensional graphics. Adding to the lively mood of the series is the air of surrealism that runs through it. By using methods such as armatures to suspend objects, and carefully considering the placement and composition of each element, Sarah puts the everyday objects in an unusual new context.

Her choice to work in medium format film goes some way to eliminating the possibility that these precise and practised setups were created digitally. We are reminded of the hands-on, practical approach Sarah had to this series by choosing to keep the film borders as part of the final images. Although the images themselves are often playful, the setups are planned and considered; a complete contrast from the spontaneous character of sport photography.

#Artist Statement

Artist Statement (Practise)

Above shows the most important details for me to consider when writing my artist statement; what media/materials and why, what I am trying to do/say, where I got the idea/why, and any relevant things others have said about/relating to my work.

Answering the questions this way actually helped me clarify a few things about my work, and helped me think about how I want others to receive it.

In the workshop I wrote an artist statement for Julian Germain’s work based on viewing a few images from his series ‘For every minute you’re angry you lose 60 seconds of happiness’. I found that third person sounded more appropriate and is more what I’m using to hearing. The questions I tried to answer about the work were the same as the questions I answered above and I felt that everything was covered without being too descriptive or being too long a statement.

I have also looked at the biography/artist statement page of Schelten & Abbenes’ website, a duo who have greatly influenced my project. I found a few interesting things that I hadn’t previously thought of.

“Combining their distinct but partly overlapping fields of expertise, Scheltens & Abbenes create commissioned photographs for large companies such as Valentino, Hermes, COS,” etc.

The inclusion of the purpose of their work, where it comes from (personal or commercial?)

“The specialty of Scheltens & Abbenes is to meticulously arrange objects - chairs, glassware, shirts, perfume bottles - into configurations that have a strong two-dimensional or graphic character. A good example is a series of photographs for the magazine Fantastic Man.”

An overall idea of their aesthetic/approach is given and then specific examples are outlined - so the statement is both general and also goes into detail about certain projects/piece of work.

“Essential to their work is the process in the studio where they construct their settings. A laborious process, in which Scheltens & Abbenes continuously move things around, painstakingly join pieces together and adjust little details.”

The last paragraph gives an outline of their approach and their physical and emotional/personal process, explaining how they go about making the actual work.

I also noticed the tone of the statement is quite light - particularly the introduction “In 2002, Maurice Scheltens (1972) & Liesbeth Abbenes (1970) put an ampersand between their names,” this is the kind of tone I would like mine to have; not too formal as my project is supposed to be quite fun and not taken too seriously.

Biography (n.d.) Scheltens & Abbenes. [online] Available at: http://www.scheltens-abbenes.com/bio.php [Accessed 19/03/15]

Considering Presentation/Layout

As we don’t yet know the location of our exhibition I haven’t thought too much about how I want to present my series. I really like Daniel Gordon’s limited edition portfolio which I have looked at previously, and still think this would suit the kinds of photos my series is made up of (not really editorial or advertising).

Fig. 1. Daniel Gordon, ‘Flowers & Shadows’ limited edition portfolio. 2011. [image online] Available at: http://www.onestarpress.com/cameraartists/GORDON_PORTFOLIO.html [last accessed 19/03/15]

However, I’m thinking this might not be the best way of presenting work for an exhibition and seems more like something someone would buy and collect, to look through personally.

I would like my photos to be presented in a way that shows them off as a series all together in the best way possible. The solution to this might simply be six equal sized prints. I like the idea of framing the prints, but as they already have the film borders I wouldn’t want them to get lost in the frame. I could always use white frames or put a border around the whole image so it doesn’t touch the frame:

Out of those I prefer the look of a white frame because I think it finishes the presentation of nicely and cleanly but doesn’t interfere with how the actual image would look. I also briefly considered coloured frames but think that would just be too much.

I could place the images in two rows of three/three rows of two, or could place them in one line, which might better suit the theme of cartoon; more like a film strip, a sequence.

Out of these 3 options I like the first and third arrangements most, I don’t think the three rows of two looks very good because it feels too long and thin. I also positioned each image specifically in place where I think it looks best with the series. I tried to balance the mainly blue images with the mainly red, and looked at how the lines and shapes carried on from image to image. As the subjects of the photos fill the frames in roughly the same way in each image, I don’t think this is a huge issue to consider when ordering them.

(I also made low quality prints of each image to try out some arrangements with them physically in front of me, seeing as I found this really useful in the group tutorial earlier on in the project)

Another thing I need to do is size the images so they’re all equal sizes; at the moment they vary slightly. This can just be a case of trimming or resizing the borders, because the actual images themselves are consistent.

As mentioned, these aren’t final decisions at all, but I’m almost sure of the fact that I would use a glossy paper that would emphasise the colours as much as possible.

The main thing is that in an exhibition context I think the images would work best as simple prints, all equal size and displayed evenly. All the images are of equal importance and I don’t really think a book would be suitable. In another context I would like them to be presented in the style of Daniel Gordon’s portfolio.

Ideally I would like a print size of around 12″ x 16″ but space and cost will definitely have to be considered. For the exhibition I am also considering producing an art/photography/culture style magazine (such as Foam, Pop Magazine, Cereal etc.) in order to show my work in the kind of context I intended it for. I would need to collaborate with other students as I would need other work to go in the publication, but these kinds of magazines feature all kinds of work and I think this could be really fun.

#post production #presentation

Final 6 Images

These are my final 6 images, colour corrected and with their borders.

#final images #post production

Final 6 Scans

Because of the issues I’ve been having with the negative curling and warping the image, as well as Newton rings, because of the fact that I’m not using the film holders as they cut the borders off, I’ve decided to scan the image in the film holder and then scan the borders separately. I had briefly considered this before, and it is something Michael has also suggested so it seems to be the most straightforward way to get the results I want.

These are the original scans I’ve made of the 6 final images, in the film holder. In my experience this makes for a much better image and requires less work; I don’t have to straighten and crop the image myself, and the colours appear much more like the desired end result.

Of course I still have to make adjustments, and these include colour and exposure correction and removing dust, scratches and other imperfections that are not part of the actual image. I will make sure to do this on a calibrated Eizo screen so that I have most control over how my final images look.

Next I need to scan the film borders, which I will do by scanning the negatives again with glass on the top holding them flat. The Newton rings won’t be an issue in this case because the film borders will be absolute black and white after I correct the scans. I want to make sure the border corresponds with each negative as I want it to be as authentic as possible. Adding the borders digitally is not ideal (considering the theme of ‘real’ as opposed to Photoshopped setups) but it definitely makes the most practical sense.

These are the scans I made to get the borders, and then the final borders after I put them into Photoshop, straightened them and got rid of the actual images. I named each border to correspond with the image it’s for so the photos match up to their original border. I also used levels to make the black total black and the white total white, so the borders are bold and clear:

I also feathered the centre selection by 5 pixels so there isn’t too much of a sharp join between the image and its border when I put them together. In the scans I made of the photos with their borders, I noticed the centre edge of the border was slightly blurred.

From looking at the scan with the border I’ve also noticed that the writing on the border is slightly orange and not completely black and white like I thought. When it comes to putting the final images together with the borders I will bear this in mind and apply a slight orange tint to each border.

I now need to colour correct and clean up the scans of the images, and then I’ll be able to put the borders on the photos and have the finished images.

Above are the final colour corrected, cleaned up images which I worked on on an Eizo screen to make sure they are just how I want them. After this I have to add the borders but I’m really pleased with how the images themselves have cleaned up. I started by putting them through Camera RAW to do basic adjustments to exposure and colour:

As the original scans were quite flat and dull, this was mainly increasing exposure and highlights, and adding vibrance. I also reduced the shadows as they were too prominent beforehand.

I then went on to Photoshop and used the patch tool to remove obvious dust and scratches. With this process I was careful not to get rid of any of the imperfections in the actual image, as it has been by aim all along to not digitally manipulate the actual content of the photos.

Here is before dust/scratch removal:

And after (which made a big difference to the appearance of the image overall):

I then went on to the colour correction, aiming to get the colours back to the true colours of the objects/food/coloured paper. I used my digital versions of each photograph for reference as I didn’t manipulate them so they’re quite true to life. To do this I used the selective colour tool which I hadn’t actually used before but found it was perfect for this job. Initially I tried the colour balance adjustment layer but this didn’t give me enough control or precision.

As an example, the Spongebob photo was too warm overall, and the yellows in the image didn’t pop like they did in the actual setup. I found that very simply reducing the amount of magenta was a huge step toward correcting this and all I then had to do was increase the saturation by about 15 and very slightly adjust the levels.

I applied all of these steps to each image, with only slight variations, and am now pleased that the images are true to life.

The next step is adding the corresponding border to each photograph which is a simple process of copying the image into the border Photoshop file and placing it behind so the image fills the space. I am also adding a slight orange tint to the white areas of the borders, after realising that they maybe shouldn’t be total black and white, and am doing this by adding an orange layer on a multiply blending mode (at 20% opacity), which only applies to the border:

#post production

(I also dramatically changed the hue of a couple of the images while I was applying rough colour correction and actually really like the results! However I think applying this at this stage of the project would be a bit random and impulsive, and would probably take away from the photos as I thought about the original colours a lot in relation to the cartoon they’re portraying. Maybe I could bear this in mind for a future project.)

#post production

Once again, the setups themselves don’t differ greatly in these photos. The angle and position of the camera is the main thing to decide between, and again I’m looking for a nice even and central composition, as well as perfect focus. As this is just a pile rather than different objects in the foreground and background, the focus is less of an issue and looks good in each image. (It’s also hard to tell because if an image isn’t in focus it could be due to the scanning problems I’m having, not the actual negative).

I think the bottom centre image looks the best in terms of the things described above; the focus is good and the objects aren’t too close to either the left or right of the frame. I also like the size of the blue area of paper at the bottom.

#post production

This set contains clear lines where the film has curled and the scanner has scanned the negative differently.

Other than that I’m pleased to see the actual photos are more or less how I wanted them. I think it would’ve been good for the objects to fill the frame more but that’s not something I can change now, nor is it a massive problem.

Out of the four images I’m trying to decide between the two on the left to have as my final Popeye image. This is because I think the blocks etc. are the most neatly and evenly lined up. I like how the objects do appear larger in the bottom left image, but I think the top left looks more front-on and precisely placed.

I am finding this selection difficult but I think I’ll go for the top left image because of the fact that it’s more central in the frame, and generally appears more even.

#post production

It’s clear from the images above that I had some issues with scanning these negatives. For some reason the bottom right image is absolutely covered with Newton rings, and I have no idea why considering I scanned it in exactly the same way as all the others.

I also found it difficult to colour correct as the red paper appears pink, and the black paper appears either blue or green and not as dark or even as I would like. There are also some marks on the paper that I will need to remove.

However, looking past these problems for now, I have decided to use the first image (top left) based on the fact that the focus allows both the tomato in the foreground and the tomato in the reflection to be in focus. This is better because wide depth of field is something I’ve been very clear on getting throughout the whole project, as I want the images to appear flatter and more 2-dimensional.

#post production

As these scans show, I began to have trouble with flattening the negatives which curled up and have warped the image. It takes quite a lot of work to correct this so I will aim to eliminate this problem in the actual scanning stage when I do my final 6 scans.

Ignoring this problem for the time being, there doesn’t appear to be much difference between the 5 Tom and Jerry photos. The only issue is that the paper doesn’t fill the frame in the top right hand corner of all the images (it is more noticeable in some than others). This was one of my main concerns with the film versions of the photos so I’m pleased it’s only happened with one setup, and it will be relatively easy to correct in Photoshop.

Seeing as the actual setup doesn’t change much in any of these 5 photos, I may as well select one of the ones where the corner isn’t as much of a problem. I think this is between the first and third image, and as I find the mouse wire slightly too close to the top of the image in no.1 (top left), I will use no. 3 (top right) as my final photo for this setup.

#post production

This set of images was much harder to colour correct, and in some cases the bread looks quite overblown and loses detail. Above are rough corrections so I can choose an image, but when it comes to making a better final scan I will also spend more time on the colour correction to get it just how I want.

What was tricky with this setup was getting the focus right; although I shot every setup with f16 for maximum depth of field, shooting through the magnifying glass really narrowed the areas of the objects in focus. My aim was to get the olive, corner of the sandwich and the dog treat all within the magnifying glass and evidently it was difficult, as this was only the case with 1 out of 5 images (top left). However, I feel the focus and the positioning of the objects within the frame are good and therefore I’m happy to choose this photo as my final for this setup.

#post production

I think this set of photos actually has the best scans. I couldn’t notice many areas affected by Newton rings, if any, and with some use of the free transform tool (distort, skew and perspective) the images are nice and straight and aren’t distorted.

I love how the borders look in the images because it makes them even more bold and graphic, and I like the fact that the viewer is more likely to know the photos were taken on film and aren’t digitally manipulated setups.

Out of the four images I prefer the two that include the blue bow. I think it balances the composition nicely, and I find Michael’s suggestion of putting less important objects on the same colour background that he gave in the group tutorial works nicely in this case.

Out of the two with the bow, I prefer the top right image because I think the slight angle of the objects works as a better composition and works better in the frame. The objects in the bottom right image are to the right slightly, making it feel a bit uneven. I also like the angle of the donut in the top right image because it emphasises the fact that it’s ‘floating’.

I did remove some dust and scratches from this image but thankfully there are no major issues on the negative that means I wouldn’t be able to use it as a final image.

#post production

Final High Quality Scans from Each Roll

I’ve now scanned each photograph from all 3 rolls of film at a higher resolution. The scans still aren’t perfect (Newton rings, warping, dust, and the visible lines from where the film has curved even if the image isn’t warped) so I’ve decided to choose the final 6 images from looking at these scans, and will then make as good a scan as I possibly can of these final chosen images.

For now I’ll look at things like focus, exposure, composition and how it is in the frame in order to pick the best from each photo.

#post production

Scanning the Negatives

Now I’m back from Berlin I have a week to scan all the images and select the final 6. This time I’ve put into practise what I decided to do after my test scan and researching how to scan film with the borders. I’m using the same image again to try these as there is a lot of clear negative so I can handle it more easily.

The above scan was made with a sheet of photo frame glass holding the negative strip in place, which has definitely solved the problem of the film curling and the image being warped. However, as the photo below shows (after I applied ‘auto tone’ in Photoshop to quickly see what it looked like), I am having the problem of the Newton ring that I read about in online forums. This is a really difficult problem because I don’t know of any other way to hold the whole film strip in place so I can scan the borders.

Below is a scan I made with the film area guide in place and the mask from the photo frame laid over the negative to hold it in place more. Although it didn’t hold it as flat as the glass did, I thought it would be good to flatten it slightly and avoid Newton rings. However, there are still Newton rings down the centre of the image, even when I didn’t use the glass, so I am really confused about what is causing this.

I read this tutorial on how to eliminate Newton Rings. Apparently they are caused by contact between the scanner glass and the negative, so this tutorial advises to place a thin piece of cloth in the scanner so the top doesn’t shut the whole way. I tried this, as well as flipping the negative which is also said to help, which resulted in the scan below. For this scan I also applied ‘unsharp mask’, ‘colour restoration’, ‘backlight correction’, and ‘dust removal’ because looking at my previous scans, I thought they would benefit from these adjustments. I think this is probably the most successful scan I’ve made so far, though a tiny bit wonky and perhaps slightly warped from the curve of the negative due to it not being held down by anything. There is a small area affected by Newton rings but not nearly as much as in previous scans.

I also applied my own colour corrections to this image as opposed to quickly using ‘auto tone’ which is definitely what I plan to do with the final high quality scans.

Above is the original scan which I rotated, cropped and colour corrected. Below shows the method I used with the scanner.

This is a high quality scan of the same image made exactly the same way as above. I changed the resolution from 300dpi to 3200dpi. I am really pleased with this scan apart from the fact that again there is a small area affected by Newton rings, which I just can’t seem to prevent! I don’t think it’s too noticeable and I don’t know what else I can try to solve the problem so I’m going to carry on scanning the rest of the images.

Above is a screenshot of the PSD file, showing the colour corrections I made. This consisted mainly of reducing the amount of blue and cyan through using curves and colour balance, as there was a definite blue tint. I also increased the saturation to make the colours pop and I compared the scanned image to the digital version that I was pleased with, to try and get the colours as similar as possible.

The only other alteration I made was removing a few scratches/dust marks with the patch tool, to remove these artefacts that appeared on the image from the scanning process.

Now that I have hopefully solved most of the problems I’ve encountered with the scanning process, I’ll apply the same to each other photograph on my negatives.

#post production

All Negatives Received - Scanning Test

I sent off my second roll (with the Tom and Jerry and Dennis the Menace photos) the day after I shot them (Feb 26th) and received them a few days later. I also sent my final roll off on the day I shot it (3rd March) which arrived on Saturday.

This means that I have received all my negatives and from what I can tell from looking at them, I am happy with the photos meaning I won't have to reshoot any and can spend the remaining time before the deadline (and after I get back from Berlin on the 13th) scanning the film.

I have had some time today to carry out a test scan to get over some of the initial hurdles faced when scanning, as I often find scanning takes a long time and there are often a few problems I have to solve to start with.

For the test I used a Simpsons photo as it was the end of the first roll and therefore gave me some blank space on the film where fingerprints wouldn't matter, for me to get back into handling the film carefully.

The first issue I had was not being able to include the film borders when I used the appropriate medium format film holder, as the screenshots show:

The film holders crop off most of the border, and the automatic thumbnail selection trims off any remaining black. I noticed under the 'document type' dropdown, 'film (with area guide)' was an option so I looked through the other holders for the scanner and found the area guide. I placed one section of film in it to test, and was pleased to see the borders still intact:

However, I then noticed that my image was quite distorted and this must be due to the fact that there's nothing holding the film in place in the scanner, so the edges curl up.

I searched online for ways of including the borders in 120 scans and found a lot of discussion, particularly on Flickr. Flickr users have some solutions such as using the area guide with glass to flatten the negative, or using black card. The glass seems like a good idea to me but there could be the issue of having to use anti Newton ring glass to avoid a different kind of distortion of the image. The person who uses black card does so to keep out extra light, which could be the cause of my quite washed out image.

(Link to discussion)

My plan after reading through this is to buy some anti glare glass which I can lay over my film and scan any size or area of a negative. I will try looking in a frame shop for this, and will also try the black card mask to see if it solves my problem of a washed out image.

#scanning #post production

Shoot #7 (last shoot) - Popeye & Spongebob

Today I shot my last two setups, Popeye and Spongebob. This means that if my negatives come back OK and I am happy with the photos, this has been my last shoot for this project. Considering there are only 20 days left until the deadline (and I am in Berlin next week) I am pleased about this, and can spend the remaining time scanning and colour correcting my images.

I started off with the Popeye setup because I knew what I wanted it to be. In this case, getting the perspective and exact position of the elements was trial and error. As the blue block and pipe were also in front of the red black, they were causing some shadow which I tried to eliminate with some small paper reflectors after anything else I tried was just too large and impractical. The photo below shows how they were set up, and although they didn't solve the problem completely I think they did help.

In terms of perspective, I found that a more front-on (though not completely font-on) angle was better than a higher angle as it seemed to simplify the objects slightly. When I got the angle right I wanted to line up the front corner of the red block with the line where the blue paper meets in the background, in a similar way that I did with lines in the Dennis the Menace photo. I think this makes the composition look more polished and tricks the viewer's eyes a little bit.

This contact sheet shows some of my experimentation with the Spongebob setup. Straight away I liked the aesthetic of the pineapple in front of the light blue and yellow paper, so it just became a matter of getting a good composition that made sense and didn't look too random, as the rest of my images are quite precise in their arrangements. I played with using the sponges and pineapples in different ways but ended up with the tower of alternate pineapple slices and sponges which I was happy with. I decided on this composition because it fits in with the rest of my images; the objects fill the centre of the frame with coloured paper in some cases adding extra graphic elements. I also liked it because it appears more arranged and precise than the random setups I tried; this looks a bit strange and is more likely to make people question why it is as it is, which I like. I also really like the use of the sponge in this photo because it is an object that appears in quite a lot of still life photography that deals with taking unimportant everyday objects and bringing them into a studio environment, making the fact that it's being photographed even stranger.

I used the same little reflectors that I made for the Popeye photo, though I found I didn't need them as much because the objects are in one stack so don't cast much shadow onto one another.

For the background I stuck the light blue piece to the wall behind and allowed it to curve round gently so it all appeared one colour, and then with the yellow and other blue pieces, I had more than enough of a background to make sure it filled the frame which I was happy about. I decided the yellow stripe added one final touch that I felt the photo needed.

I am happy with the texture in this image as I managed to include both the graphic pineapple skin and the plainer inside, as well as both sides of the sponges which is what I was aiming for.

#shoots #production

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