Making my final images

I created these multiple exposures in Photoshop:

Each image has 3 different image, a scene, a portrait and a bedroom scene.
Each image started with a bedroom scene image. I then added a scene image and lowered the opactity and changed the blending mode (usually to multiply or darken) until it looked blended but visible.

I then added the portrait on top of these using the mask tool and slowly revealing the portrait with a detailed brush. I used brush 66 to add the portraits in to my multiple exposures. I added the portraits in at a low opacity and layered the opactity by using the brush more over certain areas like the eyes as I wanted these to show more as a focus point. I blended the portrait in to the rest of the image by lowering the opacity of the brush whilst adding in the edges of the person in the portrait. I made sure the portrait was enlarged and placed in the image to keep a good composition rather than placing it randomly within the image.

I then lowered the saturation of all of the bedroom scenes to -100 to remove all colour. I lowered the saturation levels of the portrait and scene to around -80 so that they still showed slight colour but not too much as I thought the colour of the saturated images was too bright and made the images look too busy as the colour was quite distracting.

When I took the colour away from the layers I then added a gradient map over the layers and chose colours for the gradient map that would have been in the images before I took away the saturation as I thought it would be fitting. I used the soft light blending mode for all of my gradient maps as I thought this worked nicely as it wasn't too contrasting. I lowered the gradient opacity to between 50-80% to create a nice soft colour tone which fitted with the dream-like feel I was trying to create.

Final piece description for exhibition

Lucid Dreams

I created these multiple exposures as I wanted to show my visual representation of lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is the state in which a person realises that they are dreaming. The images that I have created show a similar scene to that I see whilst I am having a lucid dream. I wanted to turn my unpleasant experience in to a pleasant visual experience and I hope to widen your understanding of the subject. - Shannon Jaques

Changes from proposal.

I have decided to no longer add light streaks or filters as there was quite a lot of colour and saturation whilst I was editing my images as I used a gradient map with a blending mode which added colour over my multiple exposures really nicely. If I had added filters it would have looked too colourful and  distract from the narrative and imagery and If I had added light streaks, I feel they would have blocked out too much important imagery as I need everything on show to tell my narrative of lucid dreaming which is the whole idea of the images.

I am presenting my work as A3 prints which will be hanging from the ceiling rather than being stuck to the wall. They will be mounted on foamboard.

I will have my original 6x4 prints from my disposable cameras and 6x4 prints of the original portraits that I used so that people can look at them and think about which images I put together in my final images. This allows them to think more about my work and get involved with my work rather than just scanning and walking by.

I did not print on acetate as unfortunately I did not have the funds to do this, as I did not save each layer of the images as an a4 file it would have taken me a long time to rescale and resize all of the separate layers that I would have needed for each print.

I am still very happy with my results and Originally I wanted to print my finals in A4 but after some advice I printed them A3 which worked really well as they were a lot more visible and eye catching and I look forward to seeing them displayed.

Artists from London exhibitions

Samuel Fossa

The exhibition I visited , called 'African Spirits' he had placed huge portraits of himself inside of black frames in a grid format which I thought was a really eye catching way to lay out images you are presenting.

The size of the images caught my eye straight away as you don't usually see people in such a blown up way, you could see all the detail on the face and clothing which you don't really see in real life as you can't 'zoom in'. Each image in the display was 1016 x 760 mm.

From looking at the exhibition I was unsure as to whether he was portraying different personalities within himself and styles or whether he was impersonating other people.

The large format in which they were, I feel as though he chose this to show the significance of the people/personalities in the image. They could've meant a lot to him or he was showing how loud his different personalities are and how he feels or should look of importance. This could also be on the subject of race, he could be showing the significance of the African race due to the history of the black race.

I really love his work as his images are in black and white showing a lot of detail and contrast as well as being layed in a grid format which I love as I enjoy the typology feel.

Jo Spence

Jo Spence exhibited a series of self portraits showing her battle with breast cancer. I really like her images as I feel she is trying the show the beauty of the female form even during a time in which the body is deteriorating which in it's way is morbidly beautiful in itself. Each of her images is slightly different which made them interesting to view and I was also intrigued as breast cancer is not often a subject photographed so I thought she was emotionally brave to share the images with the public which had a positive effect on her negative subject.

Project proposal

Proposal For my final idea I am planning to create a series of multiple exposure images that will show my representation of lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is when a person knows that they are dreaming I will take most of the original images using disposable cameras and the portraits using a digital camera.


 I am doing this as I love the nostalgia feel that disposable cameras give their images as it reminds me of looking through old family albums which is something I find enjoyable and want to incorporate in to a project. Also, dreams are quite similar to memories as most of them you can't remember forever but you can capture the moment with a camera. This will be similar to me showing the dream in a picture so that you can remember it. I am taking the portraits using digital as I have not experimented with the disposable depth of focus a lot so I don't want my portraits to end up blurred or out of focus.


I will then turn my images in to multiple exposures by scanning the negatives, uploading the digital images and using Photoshop to put them together as I feel multiple exposure will be the best way to visually show the subconscious sights that can be seen during lucid dreaming as whilst  am lucid dreaming I often see my bedroom as though my eyes are open even though they are shut and my dreams often look like they are projected in to my bedroom. I am creating my multiple exposures so my explanations don't paint a different idea in peoples heads. I plan on using two or three images for each multiple exposure. One a portrait of a person with their eyes closed, one a scene (e.g. A busy crowd, a supermarket aisle, a park, a family dinner) and the third a picture of a bedroom scene. The scene that isn't the bedroom will represent the dream and the portrait will represent the person the sleeping. The bedroom scene will help narrate that it is dreaming you are visualising as this is where most people sleep.

The way I plan on presenting my final images is on a projector. I would like this as I could have a slideshow of my images that keeps on moving so people will be attracted to the moving images rather than printed images on a wall. The projector will also project them as a large format on to a wall whereas if I printed them, due to costs, they would be quite small and less eye catching than if they were projected. As well as having my final images projected I thought it would be a fun idea to have all of my original scans printed out (not cropped, with the scanner in the background for added effect) and placed unorderly on a table beside the projector as this would be interactive for the audience to look through the original images and to think about which ones have been put together to create the multiple exposures. I could also print my scans on to transparencies so that the audience could put the images together so that they look like multiple exposures whilst together. I would do this as my favourite part about visiting galleries is the interactivity, for example, at the Photographers Gallery in London, they had red buttons on projectors at an exhibition. You got to press the button to change the image that was projected which made me more likely to view the images and enjoy the exhibition as a whole. Also, At the Format Photography Festival, I went to an exhibition in Derby in which they had a blank wall acting as a canvas; people would then send their images via Twitter which was then printed out of images on sticker paper. This was then left to the public to choose an images and stick it on the wall wherever you liked which made it fun to view the images. The more interactive an exhibition is, the more enjoyable the experience the audience will have and the more likely they are to enjoy looking at your work which is what you want to gain recognition.


The alternative option that I have thought about of how to present my work is printing out my multiple exposures at around an A3 size for mounting on the wall and then having my printed out scans underneath as I would if I had them projected. I feel having them projected is definitely what I want to do the most but if certain circumstances stop me from doing this then I shall print them out and mount them on the wall above a table with all of my scans on.

This project will challenge me as I am not confident with film photography or editing in Photoshop so I will get to experiment with the two and learn more. I am also going to try and create colourful filters and light streaks to add to my final images to make them look more dream-like so I will have to learn that along the way.

Creating light streaks

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/light-streaks/

I followed this Photoshop tutorial to create a light streak over an image:

After following this tutorial I made a decision that I was no longer going to add light streaks as I didn't have the skill to create better ones and wouldn't be able to practise in the time that I had left.

I also thought that the light streaks I could make would look a little odd if I added them in to my final work.

Filters

I am planning on adding coloured filters to my final work as most dream-like images have colourful filters over the top as they are commonly associated with dreams due to the nostalgic feel.

I found this series of images by Susanne Stemmer that incorporate the coloured filters that are often entwined with dream-like artwork:
http://www.fubiz.net/2015/01/31/dreamlike-underwater-series/

The colours I see are reds, greens and blues. These are all vibrant colours and I think the blues and greens are to go with the underwater theme but the highlights, lowlights and slight blur help it to become not just a connotation but to make it fit the dream theme.

I also viewed the work of Takeshi Suga:
http://beautifuldecay.com/2012/05/04/the-dreamlike-daysdaze-of-takeshi-suga/

As well as having different bright colours incorporated, the artist has also use bokeh and light streaks. This has inspired me to want to create some light streaks or patterns of colours in the filters that I create to add to my final multiple exposures.

I also looked the some work by Anthony Samaniego:
http://culturenlifestyle.com/post/118802591742/stunning-dreamlike-cityscapes-of-los-angeles-by-Anthony

From looking at his work I can see that he has also used some bokeh and light streets as well as vivid colours as a filter which is what makes me think they have a dream-like, nostalgic feel.

I'm not too keen on bokeh but I would like to try and add some light streaks perhaps to my final multiple exposures as well as vivid colours over the top.