For my foreign landscape I thought my photographs from our universities trip to Paris on the 7th of February would be perfect. I thought Paris would be the perfect place for my foreign landscape because it was my first visit to Paris, I had no sense of direction, no idea what the simplest of things would be like such as the traffic, food and the people. I didn't understand the language so it was quite difficult to even communicate with people. What I loved about Paris was how beautiful and unique each street and each part of paris was, so when taking photographs I tried capturing things that people would probably pass by as it would be normal for people who live there as it is their normal, everyday environment. Before even going to Paris I had been looking at photographers who had given me ideas of what I thought I'd like to photograph. I had an idea of what Paris could be like after seeing Tim Walkers Dior advertisements and Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge, but they don't depict what Paris life is really like. below I am going to look at different photographers work and display my contact sheets, editing techniques and best shots.
Andre Kertesz
Andre Kertesz moved from Budapest to Paris in 1925, he was excited to participate in the bohemian artists life, working as a freelance photographer and became a major contributor to European illustrated periodicals. He became friendly with many influential artists such as Piet Mondrian and Marc Chagall. Knowing these artists allowed Kertesz to create portraits of the Parisian culture. He moved around the streets of Paris to capture spontaneous moments of urban life. I have decided to look at Andre Kertesz's photographs of Paris for inspiration of what I can photograph when I am in Paris.
Unfortunately there was an exhibition of Kertesz's work at the Jeu De Paume that is a contemporary Art Gallery and this was held until February 6th and I am arriving on the 7th. I would have loved to see his work in person then I could get a real sense of it rather than just seeing photographs on the internet and in books.
As I have said I love the composition in Andre Kertesz work and his unusual angles. I have also noticed that the majority of his photographs are in black and white. When taking my own photographs in Paris I could change my camera settings to black and white or change this during the editing process. I am going to think about using quirky and strange angles for my photographs as I don't want the exact same photograph as someone else from my class. I am now going to continue looking at different photographers work before I go on my trip to Paris.
Robert Doisneau was a French photographer, along with Henri Cartier-Bresson he was a pioneer of photojournalism. He documented the French people and surreal everyday life. I decided to look at his photographs because they are of Paris, I want to look at photographers work for inspiration because they photograph the french people and landmarks and I want some ideas of the things I can photograph whilst I am in Paris.
Again I have decided to look at another view of the Eiffel Tower. I have never been to paris so obviously I have never seen the Eiffel Tower in person and now by seeing the works of Kertesz and Doisneau it has been put in an entirely different perspective for me because of the use of their unusual angles and viewpoints of this monument. I have decided to look at these 20th century photographers because their images have such a vintage feel to them as they were took in the early-mid 1900's at its cultural peak. I want to create my own vintage feel to these photographs as then they can be more personal to me, even though I am going to be capturing an alien environment I still have an idea of what Paris will be like.
The above photograph is Doisneau's most famous photograph named 'The kiss by Hotel de Ville' taken in 1950. This romantic snapshot is famous because as it symbolises what Paris is known as 'The city of romance'. What is surprising about the photograph above is that it is posed but this still doesn't dampen on my ideas of finding the bohemian side to Paris. I know that the Eiffel Tower, The Louvre and other popular tourist destinations in Paris are going to be full of tourists like myself so when i'm there I would like to find the bohemian soul. I think I will be able to find this in little cafes on side streets, secret backstreet bistros and hidden gardens, I would also love to find some vintage market/stalls during my visit. As we only have 3 days there I am going to have to be fully concentrated on taking photographs. I hope to come out with some quite quirky images of Paris as I can imagine the rest of my class who go on this Paris trip will also be using their Paris photographs for this foreign environment brief.
I have been on several different websites gathering inspiring images, not necessarily by photographers, but they have given me more of an idea on my plans for editing and on what to photograph.
I wanted to look at Bardell's work because not only has he photographed major attractions in Paris but has also focused on little details that not many people would think of taking photographs of. I am going to show examples of his work below.
I really liked the above image from Peter Bardell's 'Cafe' set of his coffee. I find it interesting as he is surrounded by Paris and all the things he could be taking photographs of he takes one of his coffee and I think it is a wonderful image. All the photographers work that I have been looking at have been in black and white. Although I am going to experiment using black and white during the editing process of my photographs I also want them to be in colour to flourish the images natural beauty. Bardell has also took several images of Paris in colour but the majority are black and white.
The above image is of the Musee De Louvre. I plan on definatly visiting as I know I have to see the Mona Lisa, so I am planning on capturing images here too. I liked the photograph by Bardell because of the contrast in old and new buildings mixed together. I think this image captures the vintage and beautiful buildings of Paris but also captures the new 21st century lifestyle. On Peter Bardell's website he has listed 10 top places to visit and take photographs in Paris that includes The Eiffel Tower, Jardin du Tuilleries, Gallerie Vivienne, Montmartre and other places. I plan on trying to visit as much places as possible in paris and also photographing little back streets and hopefully things that no one else will think of taking photographs of.
Below are my contact sheets from Paris, I have annotated and reviewed my images. When looking through these and deciding which to edit there was quite a lot of images that I was pleased with, so I am confident that I will have some great best shots. When in Paris I photographed back streets, cafes and the people. I also went and took photographs of The Eiffel Tower, Musee De Louvre, Pere Lachaise cemetery, The Moulin Rouge and Galeries Lafayette.
Editing
I had a variety of unique shots from Paris which made me not want to edit my photographs all the same. When editing my photographs I put some in black and white, some in sepia and used Vintage Scene software on some to create a range of photographs. Below I am going to show screen shots of my editing process for these foreign landscape photographs.
I used some of the presets in Light room on some of my photographs and then adjusted them to my liking. I used some of the black and white presets, sepia tone, bleach bypass, antique lighting, creamtone and more on several of my images. I think the black and white worked best in some of my images and also added more that this was a foreign place to me. Also images that I used sort of cold tones for and de saturated slightly I feel also worked well for depicting that this was a foreign place. I will show an example below of the presets I used in my photographs.
Light Room
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| BW Creative - Look 3 |
In my images I wanted them to be sharp and to bring out the main subject of my photographs I feel this tool helped me to do so. After editing various images in vintage scene, the sharpen tool helped me to pick out and define certain parts of my photograph.
The small screen shot above is an example of where I was sharpening certain parts of my image. Here I was sharpening the flowers to make them stand out and to define the detailing in them more.
Vintage Scene
Vintage Scene is a software I bought from the Mac App store and it transforms images to make them appear as they were taken many years ago. I love this software and have used it to edit some of my Paris photographs with to give it that old vintage feel I wanted to achieve.
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| Overlays |
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| Borders |
There are a number of presets I can use and have a choice out of Vintage scene, Antique photo and Faded time, I think all those names describe some of my images perfectly. I used some of the presets on here but adjusted them to create the perfect vintage feel I was striving towards. The screen shot below shows the sliders I use to adjust the textures, age and strength of the image to get the photograph exactly how I want it.
The texture strength slider I have put slightly in the middle, as too much texture ruins my Image but not enough texture doesn't create the vintage effect I wanted for my images. I have done some screen shots to illustrate how too much texture can overpower and ruin my photographs and how the image looks when I adjust the sliders and put the texture strength in the middle.
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| Too much texture |
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| Right amount of texture. |
Over all I am pleased with my different editing techniques to make each of my images individual and beautiful in their own way. Below I am going to present what I think are my best shots from my visit to Paris, what I feel displays my own feelings towards this alien environment and which photographs I think fit the brief and my aims best.
Best shots
I am extremely pleased with my best shots from Paris and also found it quite difficult on deciding which to present for my final prints.
I am extremely pleased with my best shots from Paris and also found it quite difficult on deciding which to present for my final prints.
