Faith and religion are very present in our society. Faith is very important to millions of people. I live in a multi cultural and multi faith country and city. I intend to produce a study that explores and celebrated faith and religion in a contemporary society. I intend to look at a number of faiths and beliefs and will take advantage of the many synagogues, churches, mosques and Sikh and Hindu places of worship that can be found in the city of Liverpool.
Mind Map: Original Ideas
Research: The Work Of Other Photographers.
The images above are both dramatic and powerful. It is the use of black and white photography that has been very successful here. I certainly intend to use monochromatic photographs as part of this project. This type of effect will be especially useful for any photographs i take that relate to death because it gives it a more gothic feel.
The images above seem to be more gothic and dark than the others. Gothic photography will play a part in my project because death is a major part of religion so it is important that i feature things related to the idea of death in my project.
I have chosen these photographs because to non religious people these are just photographs of crosses, however to christians these represent something much more important. These photographs are symbols for Christ. For christians, Christ is a major part of faith because he is the son of God. The lighting on some of the images also helps represent the importance of Christ because it seems as though there is something holy about the cross. I will try to capture photographs like this in my project.
I have chosen these images because they are the places of worship for religions other than christianity. Many people immediately think of christianity when they think of religion because it is the biggest religion where they are from. I want to highlight the fact that every religion has their own place of worship so it is important that i take photographs of things that relate to other religions
I chose these images because they are taken in different types of weather and at different times of day. This can inspire my work because when I took my photos the weather was dull but the images above show a sunny day. This will also inspire my work because as you can see above some photos have been taken at night and it makes the cathedral look even better than how it looks in the day so I will try to take a photo at night.
The different times of year also create an opportunity for a better photo. As you can see one of the photos has been taken in the snow. This will help me with my work because I can try and take photos at different times of the year so some would be sunny taken in summer and others could be taken in the winter giving it a colder look.
Research: The work of other photographers. Pinterest
The photographs i found on pinterest are of different things that link to religion. Some of them are of the sacred buildings that the followers of the religion go to. Some of the photographs are related to the gothic side of religion and show graveyards. The other photographs show people's hands and what they are doing has religious significance. Some of the people are praying and others are holding crosses or have the bible with them giving the photographs even more religious significance.
Research: Sebastiao Salgado.
Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado Júnior is a Brazilian social documentary photographer and photojournalist. He has traveled in over 120 countries for his photographic projects.
Although his photos don't directly relate to my project, it is the editing technique he uses on his photographs that i am looking at. The black and white effect he uses creates a moody and dark setting will work well with any of the photographs i take in places like graveyards.
Research: Amanda Norman.
Amanda Norman is a photographer from Liverpool. She takes photographs that have elements of horror and she edits them to make them look more gothic. Most of her photographs are taken in graveyards and captures the eerie feeling that graveyards give people through the effects she adds in photoshop.
I hope i will be able to replicate the style of these photographs in my own work because these types of gothic photographs work well with the "In the name of God" project so i will try to take photographs in a similar style and try to edit them so they are similar to Amanda Norman's photographs.
Horror Photography:
The photographs above focus on horror and they attempt to create a spooky atmosphere which will if done right should be creepy to the person viewing. Horror will play a part in the graveyard photographs i take as the setting can seem creepy when edited in the right way, which i would say i have done in my photographs. I like these photographs because i would say they are successful in creating a spooky and creepy atmosphere and they would give the viewer an eerie feeling.
My Own Photographic Work.
Examining symbolism and projected light.
Using the Promethian classroom display board, I decided to explore the use of symbolism in my work. The history of all faith's is a mass of fascinating symbols that represent elements of scriptures and beliefs. The idea of projecting the symbols and images onto my model is an idea that I believe has worked very successfully. The images here are without editing. The lighting has produced a range of colourful and intriguing images that I now intend to further explore in Photoshop.
I took these photographs using the promethean to project images onto the model. For the projections, i decided to use symbols and images that have value in different religions. I used images of stained glass for Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It is important to take photographs that have meaning to multiple religions because, while they have different ideas and beliefs, most religions have a belief in God.
More of my own Photographs:
These were taken from the Metropolitan and Liverpool cathedral. I have edited these photographs in photoshop in an attempt to make them look more interesting. Some of the photographs have lots of colour already but it is dull so i have slightly increased the saturation to make it stand out more.
To improve on the work I previously did I went back shortly after that day in the night to give the photos a different and more interesting look. The photographs below were taken on an iPhone camera. I have placed a row of photographs on a white background to make sure the layout isn't the same for all of my photos.
The photographs above were taken hours after the sun had went down, whereas the photographs below were taken shortly after the sun went down. The ones below were taken the third time i went to the Cathedral. The ones above were taken in the summer while the ones below were taken in the winter. The time of year makes a clear difference as during the winter the sky has many different shades of blue at night. The time of day makes a clear difference as the photographs above have a pitch black sky but the photographs below have a dark blue sky.
I believe the photographs below work better because the dark blue sky makes the photographs more interesting. The photographs with the black sky have more of a contrast but i would say the blue sky makes the photographs look better.
I believe that the photos of the cathedral look better at night. I think this because the cathedral and everything around it is lit up which make the photographs colourful. When the cathedral and setting is lit up it also causes a contrast between the dark sky and the bright lights coming from the church.
The research that I did helped give me the idea to go back at night because it makes the photos look more interesting and from the research I could see that at night the setting is lit up making the photos contrasting. I have not edited these photographs and i don't think i will need to because the contrast between the dark blue sky adds interest. The photographs with a darker sky can be edited to make them brighter and the photograph with the stained glass can have the saturation increased to make the colour stand out.
My own Photographic Work: Making my Photographs Black and White.
The Black and white filter changes the look of the church and the setting and makes it look darker and more sinister. I think that the black and white filter improves the photos because it removes any colour and creates a contrast between the black and white. I may use this technique on some of my photographs because it gives it a gothic tone which can work well for religious photographs.
The second photograph in particular works well with the black and white effect because it was taken outdoors. The dull weather on the photographs can ruin photos with colour so when they are black and white it adds a sinister tone and looks better than when there is colour.
My Own Work: Photoshop techniques. Blending modes
I like the blending modes on photoshop because they can make the photos look a lot more interesting by putting two different photos together. As you can see from the photos above the first combines inside of a cathedral with a graveyard. I believe it is a good idea putting the two photos together because one photo shows the place where people worship God when they are alive and the graveyard then shows the place where people are placed when they die. This is a good contrast because they show life and death in one photo and these concepts are big in religion.
The last photo is different to the others because in this photo I have blended two photographs of different cathedrals into one. This works well with the "In the name of God" project because it shows how two cathedrals that follow one religion are different. Both cathedrals are dedicated to christianity but the architecture is different. The Metropolitan cathedral is a modern cathedral but the Anglican cathedral is a more old fashioned cathedral.
My Own Creative Photographic Work: Typography
As text and scripture is a key part of religion, i have added famous quotes from the Bible to photographs taken inside the cathedrals. For the photograph below i have added quotes that are specific to Jesus because the photograph shows something that represents Christ. I made the second photograph black and white because the text was hard to see with the gold colour so i had to change it so you could see the text.
Experimenting with Photoshop: Collages
Experimenting with Photoshop: Textures
The Process: To begin you have to change the original photograph to black and white. You can select certain parts of the photograph and make them lighter or darker. Then create a vignette by using the marquee tool to select the parts you want to darken. Feather the selected area and inverse to get the outer parts. From here use the levels adjustment to higher or lower the brightness.
You then need to select a texture from the internet and place it over the photograph. Make sure it covers the whole photograph. Change the texture to black and white and lower the opacity so you can see the photograph behind the texture. You can rub out some of the texture if needed.
The final part is too make the image blurry. Select the layer with the photograph on and apply the gaussian blur to the entire image. Don't make it too blurry, it just needs to look a bit blurry. Then with the polygonal lasso tool select random parts of the image and apply the motion blur. Change the direction of the blur to what suits the image best. Once this is done the photograph should be complete.
My Opinion: I think this technique works well for these photographs because it makes them look more gothic, which works well with this project. I may use the technique again if i take more photographs in places like graveyards because the gothic look that is created will work well with these types of photographs.
My favourite photographs are the ones i used a scratched glass texture for because the scratches stand out and it makes it look like they were taken from a window. I would say i like the first one the least because i don't think the crumpled paper texture works as well as the other textures
Experimenting with Photoshop: Duotone effect
The photographs used in these edits were taken inside the Anglican cathedral in Liverpool. I like the contrasting colours on the photographs but i won't use this technique again for this project because i don't thinks it adds anything useful to the photographs and it can take away from what makes the original photographs religiously significant. This type of effect could even ruin some of the more gothic photographs as it would make them too colourful.
Experimenting with Photoshop: Adding a drawing element to my work.
The photographs used for the technique were taken from the Anglican and Metropolitan cathedrals in Liverpool. I like the technique but i don't think it adds anything to the topic so i probably won't use this technique too much. For the black and white photographs it takes away from the gothic element so i won't use it again on black and white photographs.
More of my own Photographic work: Graveyards.
I took the photographs during the day so the original photos aren't gothic so they will all need to be edited to fit in with the project. I used Amanda Norman's work as inspiration for my photographs because these are my attempt at a more gothic look at religion. All of the photographs were taken in West Derby cemetery and they all focus on the graves. I have changed all of them to black and white and adjusted the brightness on certain parts of the photos. I have also added a vignette on most of the photographs to make the edges darker and make them more gothic.
How my Photographs relate to the Research:
My own Photographic work:
Amanda Norman's Photographic work:
As you can see from the photos above, i have chosen to take more of my photographs in a graveyard so they can relate to Amanda Normans work, who i looked at for my research. I have tried to create a similar moody effect that her photographs have by changing them to black and white and lowering the brightness.
My own creative photographs: Editing in Photoshop.
I have edited these photographs in this way to give them a more professional look. This layout is commonly used by professional photographers on their websites so i wanted to replicate this layout for my own photos. I think it works well because this is the type of layout you might use if you are trying to sell a photograph so I would say it's successful in making them look more professional.
My own Photographic work:
Projections.
I went back to do more projections similar to the ones i did at the start of the topic because i thought there was still some work that could be done with the religious projections. I found these stained glass projections on the internet and projected them onto a student in my class using the promethean projector.
I have edited all of these photographs to make the background projections darker because the original photographs were very bright. I didn't lower the brightness on the model so that she stands out. I have also increased the saturation on some of the photos so that the colours stand out more. I would say the best photograph is the one in full frame. I like this more than the others because i think the projection worked well.
Some more projection Photographs:
My own Creative Photographic work: Photographs of a St Mary statue
I found the statue of St Mary in a charity shop. It will work well with my project because St Mary is a huge figure in christianity as she is the mother of the Messiah. I am going to place the statue in front of different backgrounds and take the photographs so that they look more interesting than being placed on a table. Some of the photographs will be taken outdoors on a bright day with the sky as the background, while some will have the statue of a pile of leaves. One of the photographs was taken with a painting ion the background.
Exploring the use of Typography to Develop My work:
I am going to add text to some of the photographs of St Mary because there are quotes from St Mary in the Bible that I can add. I am going to use the photograph with the sunlight reflecting on the statue and one of the photographs taken outside because the light in the photographs give it more of a religious tone.