Printing and mounting my images..

I’ve decided to go LARGE with my final image, as there’s only one. But, with printing large scale images, comes the price tag. Shopping around printing places, i’m not able to get anything under 100 bucks, and it’ll have to be sent down.

UNTIL I found warehouse stationary. Genius.

24″ x 30″  = $38.40. (My physical workbook has more details on printing prices, receipts etc)

And, i’ve decided to get my final image mounted, to give it a more sturdy, cleaner hang.
Going into Art Zone, we discussed pricing, and also had a brainstorm about how we’re gonna keep my image from bending or warping in the heat..So we’re gonna frame the back of the image with a light wooden frame, and from that, hang it from command hooks on the wall.

 

 

 

Using the ‘HDR’ technique for my final image

When all these under, correct and over exposed images get sandwiched together in Photomatix, the outcome is this:

A surreal, bright, contrasted image. Darkening the edges slightly has drawn more attention to the centre of the image also.

Using HDR (High Dynamic Range imaging) when shooting my final image..

Here’s my final image, shot as is:

But, it’s missing a lot of subtle lighting differences, missed by one exposure..So halfway through the shoot I remembered that I’ve never used HDR this year in a final image, so I gave it a shot.

Here’s the basic, wikipedia.org lowdown on ‘High Dynamic Range imaging’..

“In image processing, computer graphics, and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminance between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than current standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods. This wide dynamic range allows HDR images to more accurately represent the range of intensity levels found in real scenes, ranging from direct sunlight to faint starlight.

The two main sources of HDR imagery are computer renderings and merging of multiple photographs, the latter of which in turn are individually referred to as low dynamic range (LDR) or standard dynamic range (SDR) photographs.

Tone mapping techniques, which reduce overall contrast to facilitate display of HDR images on devices with lower dynamic range, can be applied to produce images with preserved or exaggerated local contrast for artistic effect.

…High-dynamic-range photographs are generally achieved by capturing multiple standard photographs, often using exposure bracketing, and then merging them into an HDR image. Digital photographs are often encoded in a camera’s raw image format, because 8 bit JPEG encoding doesn’t offer enough values to allow fine transitions (and also introduces undesirable effects due to the lossy compression).

….Any camera that allows manual over- or under-exposure of a photo can be used to create HDR images.

…Tone mapping reduces the dynamic range, or contrast ratio, of the entire image, while retaining localized contrast (between neighboring pixels), tapping into research on how the human eye and visual cortex perceive a scene, trying to represent the whole dynamic range while retaining realistic color and contrast.

Images with too much tone mapping processing have their range over-compressed, creating a surreal low-dynamic-range rendering of a high-dynamic-range scene.”
Here’s some of my favourite HDR’s from the wonderful artists @ FLICKR:

New directions, final images!

After running two projects alongside each other, i’m come to a final conclusion about how and what I want to shoot for my final exhibition piece. I’m still working with the night, and the light sources that it brings (Street lamps, floodlights, spotlights, traffic lights, and security lights) and how these light sources illuminate an object in an eerie, surreal way.

My passion for the derelict is still going strong, and recently my hunt for abandoned, run down buildings has come to a halt because i’m starting to look at the isolated, and the temporary. Permanent structures created for a moment in time, a coming and going.. if you will..The places we temporarily seek shelter in between the final destination.

Whilst in christchurch, helping a fellow classmate out with her photographs, I noticed how illuminated and welcoming their bus stops are, compared to the wooden, graffiti covered shelter boxes we have in our home town, Dunedin.
Our bus stops are quite the opposite, and instantly I was fascinated. Driving around Christchurch I took as many as I could find! (probably a small percentage! it’s a big city)

Looking back through all the images, the last bus stop on this grid (with the stripes, green bushes in the background) really caught my attention, the welcoming, safe looking lights, coupled with one single seat, pushed to the left just defined exactly what I’d been trying to capture..Eerie, yet welcoming..Illuminated yet unclear. Such contradiction, yet you still sit in one of these, paused. Coming and waiting for the next moment.

In photographing this bus stop, i’m creating a moment. As with all photography, you’re capturing a split second or seconds of something we can never control..Waiting for a bus is a simple, everyday thing that we don’t really take notice of. I guess in a way, with this image, i’m highlighting a “Pause”.

Christchurch adventures begin!

Fluorescent Sunsets

Waiting for the night in Christchurch before the fun begins

Couldn’t pass it up..

Monograms

this building shot water at you if you approached closer than three feet. Anti-Graffiti to the next level..

twos in Christchurch down the lines

subconsciously shooting things in pairs?

Concrete Jungle

“a dedicated area that has been provided with a durable or semi-durable surface”
Christchurch, 2010

(click for larger image)