Photographic Abstracts

Glass

2007-05-13T09:08:00.000-07:00

Again another image I’ve a while, I should have added this ages ago. I did quite a bit of work to this in Photoshop. It’s a close up of a glass dish. I firstly inverted it but then I had to do lots of editing to get the dark blue lines in the middle. All these adjustments make it abstract

surreal......

2007-05-13T08:59:00.000-07:00

I know this seems a little out of place being as I’ve been posting my landscape abstract photos. This is a photo I took a while ago; I’ve done some editing to this, to get the smooth blurred effect in the background using radial blurred. I think this is an unusual image. It’s a macro part of a sharks jaw believe it or not. Use your imagination and maybe you might see some kind of strange/surreal landscape. I'm seeing some kind of a mountainous hill from above.

Retro Lines

2007-05-04T07:15:00.000-07:00

2007-05-02T12:48:00.001-07:00

A nice splash of red!

2007-05-02T12:44:00.001-07:00

Blurry hallucination

2007-05-02T12:32:00.000-07:00

If I was on crack the tree would have looked like that!

Reality

2007-05-02T03:53:00.000-07:00

Reality……….

Hmmmmm…… time for more of my thoughts about this abstract art/photography business. I been thinking a little, yes me, thinking….! Unheard of.

I’ve decided that all art, whether it be an oil painting, or a digital photo, is abstract in some way. Every time you take a photo, reality of what you’re seeing is being altered. What do I mean? Think about it, when you take a photo you may actively alter aperture setting, shutter speeds, colour setting etc, which contributes to the reality being altered. Even if it’s a completely recognisable photo, it still is abstract for the reasons I’ve just mentioned. When you load your digital photos onto a computer and view it on the monitor, that monitor has just gone and altered the image. Then all the Photoshop alterations you may well make also contribute to it becoming more abstract. Then the final print also alters what the image was originally. The printer, the ink, the paper etc, it all alters how the image will finally look. So that’s it I guess, any piece of art is abstract to varying degrees.

I’m going all philosophical on here and say to you what is reality. Our reality is simply what we perceive it to be, and we don’t question it. However the life in which we live could all be an illusion. We would struggle to accept it, if someone came along and said there is another world, a world of reality and you were told that the life you were living was all one big illusion. This is kind of touching on Plato’s “Analogy of The Cave” theory. If you’re into light reading you should definitely read it, or watch the matrix……

I don’t what came over me, my philosophy a-level all came flooding back, kind of. Is our life real let alone what we’re photographing? We will never know……….. Maybe in an after life, if there’s such a thing. As humans we’re too small and insignificant to ever understand reality. I often think to myself, well how did we end up here, on planet earth. I often look at the stars at night and wonder what is out there and it’s kind of scary really to think of the size and the power of the universe in which we live. In truth we will never find out the answers to life. People believe in the “big bang” or in God but this is because people need to grasp onto something to believe in, because that’s all we can do is believe. Wow I’ve just gone on a typing rampage, perhaps I’ve have digressed a little.

2007-05-02T01:51:00.000-07:00

2007-05-01T05:25:00.000-07:00

"blurred bamboo"

2007-04-30T09:59:00.000-07:00

A highly inventive title again? But why give it some pretencious title anyway? This is blurred bamboo using the same technique.

"Abstracted Landscape"

2007-04-27T03:50:00.000-07:00

Only now have I been able to get outside and do some photography, because finally its a little warmer! Went to Cornwall and boy was the weather great, really absolutely stupendous old chap......... So only now can the abstract project link to my original landscape project I wanted to do. I can't link bog standard landscapes to abstract photography, because I’m obviously avoiding representation. But I can deliberately blur the landscapes I capture by physically moving the camera. I’ve got my own method of doing this by balancing the camera (praying I don’t drop it!!) on my knee and moving the camera as much as I can as I take it. I can’t physically lift the camera off of my lap so the way I do it is the only way I can. I thank my lucky stars I can still manage with my condition. Oh yeah almost forgott, I took this at trelissick gardens.

Everythings So Blurry.......

2007-04-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

Sparks flying

2007-04-26T10:15:00.000-07:00

Captured at "5 Degrees West" in Falmouth, Cornwall, great place it is too, run by my Cousin. I took it looking through the back door into the patio area with white lights in the Trellis. I've deliberately moved the camera to capture the light trails. Its Non-representational of what I was seeing, so its arguably abstract.

2007-04-12T08:02:00.000-07:00

"Antartica"

2007-04-01T07:02:00.000-07:00

A comparision

2007-04-01T06:45:00.000-07:00

I've found these landscape paintings by Jonathen Shaw. I think it's interesting to see the visual similarity to my glass photos with the flowing lines and colours.

The why Factor.......

2007-03-29T08:22:00.000-07:00

Green abstract

2007-03-28T11:00:00.001-07:00

light trails cont......

2007-03-28T10:57:00.000-07:00

light trails....

2007-03-20T09:25:00.000-07:00

"Golden water fall"

2007-03-19T10:23:00.000-07:00

"Lines of blue"

2007-03-19T07:47:00.000-07:00

"playing with Shadows"

2007-03-19T07:42:00.000-07:00

This is definitely a Barnett Newman........

2007-03-18T07:57:00.000-07:00

2007-03-18T07:29:00.001-07:00

Barnett Newman gone mad

2007-03-18T06:52:00.000-07:00

Go on click on the title above!

"Blurred Abstract"

2007-03-17T11:01:00.000-07:00

My thoughts on abstract photography so far……

2007-03-15T07:22:00.001-07:00

I've done quite a bit of research into this so far and what seems to be case is that people have totally different opinions as to what have abstract photography is (all art is very opinionated) what I have been starting to do is to look at abstract art. Its definition is relatively simple. Abstract art is an art form which departs from natural appearances. Taking it to the extremes abstract art can be non-objective however as I've said before a photo can never be totally non-objective. Obviously as photographers we rely on what we see around us. I've always considered an abstract photo to be one that is unrecognizable. One of the ways to create an unrecognizable photo is to use macro and capture tiny details, detail you wouldn't necessarily recognize with the naked eye. However, thinking about it, is this really abstract. Capturing close up detailed, isn't the way of attempting to alter reality, because the camera is accurately capturing what we see. However, if you start to alter colours or for example use black and white you are actively altering what we see. Let's think about black and white. Black-and-white is non-representational of how we see the world and you could therefore argue that any black-and-white photo is abstract somewhat. However I don't want to take black-and-white photos thaI've done quite a bit of research into this so far and what seems to be case is that people have totally different opinions as to what abstract photography is (all art is very opinionated)

What I have been starting to do is to look at abstract art. Its definition is relatively simple. Abstract art is an art form which departs from natural appearances. Taking it to the extremes abstract art can be non-objective, however as I've said before a photo can never be totally non-objective. Obviously as photographers we rely on what we see around us.

I've always considered an abstract photo to be one that is unrecognizable. One of the ways to create an unrecognizable photo is to use macro and capture tiny details, detail you wouldn't necessarily recognize with the naked eye. However, thinking about it, is this really abstract. Capturing close up detailed, isn't the way of attempting to alter reality, because the camera is accurately capturing what we see. However, if you start to alter colours or for example use black and white you are actively altering what we see.

Let's think about black and white. Black-and-white is non-representational of how we see the world and you could therefore argue that any black-and-white photo is abstract somewhat. However I don't want to take black-and-white photos that are totally recognizable and argue that they are abstract, I want to do something a little more interesting than that. A black-and-white photo doesn't totally depart from naturally appearances because really for something to totally depart from natural appearances it must be unrecognizable and therefore the natural appearance of it must have been altered.

To physically alter an objects natural appearance in photography we must use techniques like blurring, which is moving away from exact representation. I would therefore also argue that Photoshop editing is a valid way of creating something that is abstract. Some people seem to really hate Photoshop, they feel that with Photoshop you can cheat, and create images quickly than would otherwise be quite technically difficult to do using only a camera. They feel that it's taking away the skill element. I can kind of see where they're coming from, but it's not always a simple click of a button on Photoshop. Layering up photos can become quite technically difficult in Photoshop. Depending on what you do, there is quite a bit of skill in using Photoshop well. For me Photoshop is brilliant and I really don't know where I'd be without it. I'm quite limited in a way I can photograph things, being quite weak physically in the upper body and particular my arms, due to having Muscular Dystrophy.

There are certain techniques in photography which I simply wouldn’t be able to do myself without help. Moving the camera to create a radial blur by moving the camera in circular motions would be impossible from me, but there is always a radial blur option in photo shop. Altering a photograph in photo shop in my view is most certainly a valid way of creating a non-representational and therefore abstract photo.

"Wave"

2007-03-14T10:09:00.001-07:00

Figure of.......ink?

2007-03-14T09:44:00.001-07:00

"Abstract Pattern2"

2007-03-13T06:31:00.000-07:00

"Abstract Pattern"

2007-03-13T06:16:00.000-07:00

This was an idea I had a while ago (see this in my photography ideas) For these photos I filled a plain white vase with water. I wanted a perfectly white background and didn’t want to be able to see the glass. I used a red head light in the studio, and lit the paper behind the vase. Lighting it made a nice bright white background. So I then started to drip ink into it and I was pleasantly surprised with the way the ink reacted with the water, creating beautiful twirls and patterns. The light seemed to make the black ink appear purple, not sure why.

2007-03-11T11:21:00.001-07:00

2007-03-11T11:15:00.001-07:00

2007-03-11T11:08:00.000-07:00

2007-03-11T07:51:00.000-07:00

flickr slide show

2007-03-10T11:02:00.001-08:00

2007-03-09T07:12:00.000-08:00

2007-03-09T06:32:00.000-08:00

2007-03-08T03:44:00.001-08:00

B&w

2007-03-08T03:35:00.001-08:00

One of the great things with Photoshop is how you can layer stuff up. As you can see there’s white & black lines running through. This tells you there are two layers. Now the one layer was a desatured inverted version of the original and the other layer is just a desaturated version. I placed the desaturated version over the top of the inverted one. I made the top layer opaque (around 40%) which means the layer underneath showed through. I altered the levels, brightness & contrast and curves to add as much contrast as I could between the dark and lighter tones, so obviously the white is bright and black is really dark.... I much prefer bold, strong contrasty b&w imagery than pale delicate imagery.

2007-03-07T08:26:00.000-08:00

Yeah I really can't think of a descent title for this abstract, and well is there really any point in giving it some long pretentious title. I think too much art is pretentious and well I really don't want to go down the slippery slope of pretentiousness. So perhaps I ought to give it away and tell you guys what the image(s) actually are, I wouldn't have done this but beings as this blog is part of my project I do really need to explain how I captured this photo. I said in my photography ideas lower down in the blog I would take photos of items of "glass wear” and so that’s what I've done here. These are images of a curvy s shape white glass vase. However to capture images like this one I have used a mirror. That white highlight you see near the bottom of the image, in the middle is the edge of the glass vase and the rest below is the reflection in the mirror. Now I have slightly edited this image but now filters have been used. What I had to do was use the clone tool to edit out what appeared to the like scratches or something. I've decided that I think the scratches were on the actual mirror which I didn't notice until I got the photos on a computer. I'm a bit annoyed because I thought most of the photos looked pretty good on the camera screen but it seems that most of these images show the scratches. Therefore, with the images I feel work best I will have to work on them a bit to edit out the scratches. I didn't do a lot else to this photo other than increasing the contrast a little, which added a little warmth to colour of the image which makes the image stand out. I've always most liked images that have a good bold contrast as I think they stand out really well. I'm not a great fan of these very opaque and pale photos some photographers create, but then it depends on what the photo is and sometimes the pale image does work, no doubt. Right, so why did I pick this photo from the contact sheets? Well obviously because its one my favourites, but why, there has to be a why. There’s reasons why I must have chosen this one to work on. It seems stupid but it always quite difficult to decide exactly why a piece of artwork attracts you. I don't like images that seem to be a mess of lots of different colours, there is something tacky about an image with all the colours of the rainbow, it’s just too much. I quite like images that are just one colour with different shades of that one colour. Perhaps this is what I like about this image because it’s beige with light brown with some dark brown which are similar colours and they just look right together. What else do I like about this photo? Well its got quite a smooth finish, its been taken on f/2.7 so most of the images is out of focus apart from the middle strip running through. I think the dark lines running through are what make this photo, without those lines the image would just be nothing.

"Grunge”

2007-03-06T06:08:00.000-08:00

Symmetrical Checkerboard

2007-03-05T11:53:00.000-08:00

"colour range"

2007-03-05T11:14:00.000-08:00

"colour"

2007-03-05T09:53:00.000-08:00

2007-03-05T07:02:00.000-08:00

notes on glass dish photographs page2

2007-03-05T06:36:00.000-08:00

Notes on glass dish photographs page1

2007-03-05T06:34:00.000-08:00

"Photography Ideas"

2007-03-05T06:19:00.000-08:00

From Light into Dark

2007-03-05T06:09:00.000-08:00

This was desaturated and then invertred so the strokes running through are white and therefore stand out as against the dark background. The grdient shows up well hence the title I've given it. Looking at this more I think perhaps it works better than the red edit below as it stands out more and perhaps is therefore a little more dramatic.

"red abstract"

2007-03-05T04:24:00.000-08:00

Again I’ve just added this so you can view a bigger version of this abstract. As you can see this is the version with the spattered effect, which just adds a different textural quality to the piece. To go with the texture of the piece I've deliberately made the edge textured by scratching into it by using a grass blade shaped eraser tool in Photoshop. Just thought I'd try this just to experiment and to try something different, in the hope to try and display it in a more artistic manor.

"Light bulb"

2007-03-03T08:55:00.000-08:00

I was taking some photos of a white vase using this small light I have (I will post the photos of the white vase very soon) After I had taken these photographs, some kind of overwhelming divine power took over my thoughts telling me I should photograph the bulb itself, so in answer to this I photographed it, funnily enough. This is the message I received from god "Lewis, I see the future, there’s abstract potential in this bulb, its up to you to capture it" now imagine that in a deep powerful voice....... so Anyway lol, I set my camera to f/8 (aperture) a small hole in lens because obviously there was a lot of light. Combining f/8 with a very fast shutter speed meant I could capture the filament inside a bulb without too much light burning the picture out. Now as you see above the original is on the top left, this is a reasonably interesting photo in itself, but it is by no means what I would call abstract, after all I do want to try and capture unrecognizable images, and it’s far too obvious it’s a bulb. I was interested in the filaments inside the bulb, so I got into Photoshop and straightaway used the crop tool and cropped out just the middle bit. I then reduced the brightness levels slightly and added lots of contrast of it, which meant the light stood out against a black background, as you can see. I was instantly happy with this, I wanted to do more to it and just see what I could create in Photoshop. I used the motion blur tool as you can see; I then used the colour gradient tool on the photograph. I did usual brightness and contrast tweaks until I simply thought it looked best, I believe art is about personal feel and you do what you personally think looks right. You release the shutter on a camera when you think every element of the photo looks correct, there’s this bloody great quote by Ernst Haas which I think is so right, nice one Ernst mate, that’s right on money. Here it is, you ready?

"My theory of composition? Simple: do not release the shutter until everything in the viewfinder feels just right"

I love that, its almost implying not to follow any golden rules, just do what you think is right, that’s what I do.

So back to the photo. I was rather pleased with the results of this edit, why? well its definitely abstract, I don't think any passer-by would instantly say well that’s a bulb, everyone who reads this now knows what it is though (dammit lol). I'm really not interested in actual subject matter I use; I’m more interested in creating ascetically pleasing abstract photographs. This image again kinda looks like a painting, it’s got a painterly effect to it. Bottom right, is a slightly different edit, I have applied a splatter effect, again giving it a painterly effect.

Lewis

"Green abstract"

2007-03-02T06:10:00.000-08:00

I know this is already on the little slide show, but the slide show doesnt really show it for long enough for you to study it, but you can now. Thought I would post it above the blue abstract as it a very similar piece.

"Blue abstract"

2007-03-02T06:00:00.000-08:00

Thought I ought to post a bigger image, so you can take a closer look. Intesting pattern formations have emerged through the middle of the image by mirroring it. What do people think about the gaps I've added, do you think they add something to the image?

"Screwed up paper"

2007-03-02T03:18:00.000-08:00

"pillow case"

2007-03-01T07:02:00.000-08:00

href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_ziN1XO-8iOY/RebrhklDH1I/AAAAAAAAACA/jT6XOvNZBro/s1600-h/page3+scans.jpg">

More experiments here using my scanner. I was thinking of scanning some plain fabric to captures the folds and curves of the fabric. So I gapped a pillow case, well mum did lol being as I can't reach, being a short arse, no because in a wheelchair lol. So I had the pillow randomly placed on the scanner making sure it was scrunched up. So I did a couple of scans (4 along the top) The images created were quite interesting with lots of dark and light tones. The lightest tones are the ones closest to the bed of the scanner and the darker tones being the parts of the pillow case furthest away surface of the scanner. I wanted to get rid of the black background like with the napkin scan, for the same reason. Again I gave it more contrast. I then simply inverted the image, and added a photo filter to create the pink tones you see on some of the edges. (bottom row middle image) I think it’s a striking image with those very dark heavy tones, in contrast to the light highlights in the image. Then I took manipulation a stage further as you can see with the red image I created. So I took the inverted image and added lots of motion blur. The motion blur didn't do much for the image, it just looked blurred lol, and there were no definite shades of colour or tones. However I then used the warp tool to add the curve you see. This instantly added more definite bands running through the image. It seemed to restore more detail and brought more colour tones to the image. It brought out that white band you see running through. I think the image looks kinda 3d, don't you think? Not sure how to explain why it does, it just appears to. Perhaps this image is going too far in terms of manipulation, what do people think? If I painted I would probably create images of this sort, I'm using Photoshop as a means of creating these, cheating some might say, but I would most certainly argue against this because creating these images doesn't happen instantly. To get from the original image to that red image didn't happen instantly, it took a certain amount of time and persistence. Painting isn't an easy option for me, having md makes it a real struggle nowadays. I use computers for everything, and I’m still developing my Photoshop skills.

Lewis

Just found this photographer called Jesse Cohen. One of her abstract images is really similar to the red one I've done here. Its got this 3d feel create with curves, kind of like mine. Hers arn't manipulated in photoshop shes deliberatly create the abstract blurred effect with the actual camera. to see this photo by Jesse Cohen, follow this link:

http://www.cohenphotos.com/atf2.html

Scan of tin foil

2007-03-01T05:57:00.000-08:00

Ok so this little slideshow shows the original scan first and then shows the different edits I created in Photoshop, in the correct order. I didn't create the slideshow myself I used photobucket. I just thought it would be better for the blog instead of having loads of images above each other taking up loads of space. With the image I Firstly desaturated it and increased the brightness and contrast a little to make it stand more. Without increasing the brightness and contrast the image looked very dull and gray. Then I used the gradient tool both sides of the image to create this fading effect. This has given the image a little more depth and it looks almost like the image is curved, obviously because the faded edges look further away. Then I started to experiment in Photoshop with different filters and effects. I thought the extrude tool added an interesting effect making the image appear to be coming towards you or exploding. Then I thought well the extrude tool looks too obvious and particularly shows up against the white both sides of the image. Therefore I started to work on this a little more, so I duplicated the image so I had 2, 1 underneath the other. With the one underneath I added motion blur to blur the squares created with the extrude tool. Then with the image on top of the one blurred underneath, I used the erased tool to erased out the edges to show the blur underneath. I did this carefully so the 2 images merge together. After this I added the green using the colour gradient tool. The colour adds some more life to the image, wouldn't you say? I prefer the single colour used to the original colour with blue and bits of light brown. The chopped the image in half and then duplicated it and mirrored it to create the symmetrical pattern running through the middle. Then with the final image I just divided the image up. I think separating it like this makes you also look at each part of the image separately, even though its still one large piece. I think this image is taking on an unrecognisable form and most certainly is non-representational of the tin foil, so I think it’s successfully abstract.

What do you guys think of these images?

Lewis

"Symmetrical multiple"

2007-02-28T12:07:00.000-08:00

Symmetry is something I quite often use in my imagery by simple mirroring a single image a number of times, like I've done here. Interesting and unusual shapes and patterns seem to appear when you do this. Even just the middle of the image is quite interesting in its self. An unusual pattern has appeared, almost like some kind of a surreal eye watching you. In fact the whole image is kind of surreal. It could make for a surreal sort of fantasy setting in a computer game. Perhaps an arrow would have to be fired at the eye in order to open a secret door or something lol, you can tell I used to play a lot of computer games when I was a kid, games like Zelda and metroid (classics)

Lewis

"napkin edit"

2007-02-28T11:19:00.000-08:00

First cut out a section of the napkin, basically cut out as much as I could with getting any of the black background because I really didn't want any of the background because it would stand out like a sore thumb and therefore lead the viewers eye straight to it therefore distracting the attention away from the actual image. Ok I then increased the contrast and brightness levels a little to make the image stand out some more by bringing out the shadows and highlights. I added a hint of turquoise blue to the image and thought this tone stood out better than the others. I find that the image almost appear to look like the side of rock face, with jagged edges.

"using a scanner"

2007-02-28T10:59:00.000-08:00

I thought I would do some experiments with my scanner. For my project I want to take simple households items/objects. I want to scan some stuff with lots of texture. I was having my lunch and there was a paper napkin, so as you do I took the napkin and thought well I’ll scan it in. I screwed it up to capture the texture and the creases. I wasn't expecting I would be able to create something that was visually interesting but was pleasantly surprised when I scanned it to find a image with some good shadows and highlights. Ok so you may be thinking what is this bloke going on about, it’s just a napkin? Well do not fear I thought there would be some photoshoping potential in this.

"Initial Thoughts"

2007-02-26T09:39:00.000-08:00

Hey I'm Lewis I'm at uni studying art at the Bourneville campus which is part of UCE. Those of you who think UCE is rubbish, let me just tell you you’re just so wrong, it’s a qualty uni. Photography and digital art is what I enjoy most. I've always been quite attracted by abstract art as I feel it frees art from the burden of having to represent anything we see in the real world. God I hate it so much when people say "well what is it" it’s just so annoying don't you think? Then you have to explain to them that it’s abstract, it’s not meant to be anything. A lot of people do instantly think art should represent something. Anyway I’ll stop ranting, because really if you don't have much knowledge and understanding of art you may well think like this.

Obviously Abstract Art is very different to Abstract photography. Abstract art can often be totally non-objective, for example like Mondrian and his non-objective painting of grids with blocks of colour, or Jackson Pollock and his abstract "action Painting" which are meant to express his inner feelings (expressionism).

Let’s look at some definitions of abstract art. Google definition is very useful.

"Pure abstraction can be interpreted as any art in which the depiction of real objects has been entirely discarded and whose aesthetic content is expressed in a formal pattern or structure of shapes, lines and colours. When the representation of real objects is completely absent, such art may be called non-objective"

Okay so let's look at this definition and see how we can apply it to abstract photography. Now obviously creating a non objective photograph is impossible, of course because we take pictures from reality. However I then thought of painting with light, you know those picture you see of light-trails created using slow shutter speeds. An abstract light Trail is definitely non-objective and can purely be looked at in terms of its pattern, shape, colour, composition and other visual qualities. Looking at another definition it states that Abstract Art is one that "departs significantly from natural appearances" Again let's think about this in terms of photography. You could create a photograph that departs from natural appearances if you took a photo and deliberately blurred it for example. However thinking about it, a straight black and white photograph is definitely departing from natural appearances, because we see the world in colour, obviously. A black-and-white image isn't departing “significantly” from natural appearances but you can see where I’m coming from. However for my project I don't just want to do is take a ordinary black & white image of a hmmmm.... lets think urrrrr a pig (random?)and call it abstract because that’s just silly and pedantic really. So what do I want to do for my photography? I want to try and create unrecognizable images. I think capturing images of this kind makes the viewer intrigued about the image, and they'll quite often make lots of guesses as to what the image is. However I don't want people to necessarily guess what the image is, instead wants people to look at it for its abstract qualities, its colours, textures, shapes, tones etc.