unit 2 - IDENTITY
Masao Yamamoto Research Page
From viewing Masao Yamamoto photography I was captured by his use of black and white that captures the clash between the background and the animal/objects color itself. Also just from viewing it my attention was captured from the tint of yellow giving a sense of vintage imagery that further brought a sense of realness out of his image which was already being explored by nature. This then made me feel like I needed to take photography in his style as I have always had a somewhat love for animals and nature itself. His images also made me feel relaxed as they brought nature in such a lively way through a black and white filter with a yellow tint that allowed the images to become more highlighted allowing them to have a 3d view for some of his work , this then also brought out a sense of realism.
Masao Yamamoto took images of nature , yet he explored many aspects of it from wildlife to plants as he caught a sense of nature that us as people miss out on in our daily lives. He also explores nature through taking some pictures of birds as they move in real time allowing us to see what a bird flapping in a second looks like. To provide us with these images exploring nature he took images of animals direct ranging from a medium shot angle to a close up angle whilst for other nature images he would range from a medium shot angle to long shot /extreme angle. To continue with nature photography he took them within in daylight allowing the whole image to have some sort of focus within it. Masao Yamamoto lastly added his own touch with his images through a black and white filter which is further detailed through a yellow tint that gives out a vintage effect.
Hid visuals remind me of a artist that explored black white filters similar to him , in which her name is Tatiana Parcero. Within her images she used a black and white filter to reveal her culture allowing a story to be told whilst Masao Yamamoto uses a black and white filter to bring out a inner relaxation from nature allowing the beauty to be pushed back and focus on instinct instead. I do believe that the meaning of his images is to show that in our present day nature is fading out so to continue seeing more of it we should take care of it. I also believe the meaning is for ourselves as people to start exploring what is hidden in the world, nature in it self.
His images will relate to my work as I will be taking images of nature too capture the same peace of Zen as he did. His pieces will also relate to my work as though out my developments I shall be using a black and white filter with the addition of a yellow tint to focus on the images more. I would also like to add that if I had the opportunity to speak to Masao Yamamoto I would ask him, why does he often take images of birds and is it because they represent innocence and peace just like nature itself ? I would also wished to ask Masao , why does he take his image in a vintage sense composed of black and white and a yellow tint and what does doing it mean to him?
To conclude I would like to say I believe his images are beautiful as they explore a untouched sense of nature one that is fading away , to an extent I believe its poetic clashing between old nature and new. I also view his images to be wonders as it is very unique and I also see them to what I image a flashback too look like, allowing his images to represent the past in away. Through out my new work I shall seek to take elements of his such as taking images in a close up angle to focus heavily on the object itself. Lastly I would also aspire to take his element of tints but I would seek to spin it in my style so I might do this by changing hue of the tint or opacity.
Contact sheet (raw imagery)
Masao Yamamoto contact sheet:
For my first set of Masao Yamamoto photography I took images of koi fish within daylight lighting. As I planned to do within my photoshoot plan preventing the light from distracting on the Koi fish or even the trees. This would allow my future developments to also allow me to take on the background and not just the koi fish or trees themselves.
Within my first set of Masao Yamamoto photography I continued from what I wished in my photoshoot plan by spamming between close up and medium shot angle for the koi fish. This allowed a range of perspectives to spiral as I took images of Koi fish swimming by in a pond. Although using a medium shot angle did allow a blur to aspire allowing for the Koi fish at times to be unclear within the water. I also hand my finger get caught in one image taking away from the background of the left corner and allow a blur to arise to the whole image. Yet majority of my images had no blur as I focused onto the koi fish this would provide my developments to focus on the fish details itself. I was also able to capture a mirroring like effect through some of my koi fish images as it occurred from the reflection of the water.
Experimenting with black and white imagery
For my first set of my Masao Yamamoto development I added a black and white filter just a Masao did. To develop this more I wanted to explore the dark atmosphere of the black and white filter. To do this I increased the curves within my first set of developments. This allowed the darkness from the black and white filter to be dragged out more across the image rather then hiding it to the side.
This allowed the darkness from the black and white filter to become a greater part of the image rather then being put out the side. Overall it allowed my image to become more focused on the black and white filter as a accessory to some sort. Which therefore prevented my images from appearing grey instead of black and white. As from adding the filter and increases the curve it highlighted the input of a black and white addition.
Further developments - experimenting with colour & the burn tool
For my further set of developments I sought to ensure his Zen style was caught. As my first set of developments only provided the building blocks for it, because a black and white filter would allow my further developments to be able to occur.
I have made my images to appear to a somewhat yellow tone by creating a yellow tint. Through out my first exploration of further developments I would create a yellow tint by finding a fully yellow image.
Once finding a plane yellow image I would put it on top of my first set of developments, then I would widen the plane yellow image to the point that it covered my first set of developments. Once this was set I would then explore layers and choose either multiply or lighten to give a splice like presence.
Lastly I would lower my opacity to around 39-72 percent to prevent the image from having too much or too little tint. This allowed my images to appear to have a smog light filter with a pond yellow tone.
This would cause my images to appear vintage which projected his style of nature as he sometimes explored them in a almost vintage style, just I did.
Experimenting with composition
Redraft Photoshoot - RAW images
For this photoshoot I continued to follow up with Masao Yamamoto artistry by keeping a consistency . I have done this by continuing to explore nature from within daylight lighting and using close up to medium shot angles for squirrels whilst medium to long shot angles for trees and birds.
To explore another essence of nature I chose to mainly focus my images onto the likes of squirrels instead of koi fish. I mainly have chosen to take images of squirrels as when I develop them I plan on the squirrels to appear on shadows onto the trees.
I chose to do this to be able to explore the level of curves and contrasts much more freely rather then having to struggle on preventing myself from over editing them.
Experimenting with black and white imagery
For my first set of developments I started off by styling my images within black and white in a start out tone like Masao Yamamoto. To explore this set of black and white images I added a black and white filter over my redraft.
I then decided to develop on from this by increasing my curves within all images. This would allow the the darkness to dragged out ore into the image even within the main focus.
This would then allow the squirrel to appear as a shadow whilst the tree branches become highlighted over a gray background from the sky. Which added a tone of horror through the black and white which adds my own style from my developments in Masao Yamamoto's work.
I would also like to add that the shadows formulated as a almost black blur allow the squirrel and trees to be focused around as a whole but not slight details within. The black and white very much focused on the trees and squirells removing any noise from the way
Experimenting with colour, burn tool and filters on Photoshop
I have then decided to continue on from my first set of developments by exploring Masao Yamamoto tint style once again. I kept a light yellow tone as I did from before as I did not want to have strong yellow atmosphere for my image that would take away from the black and white which could have prevented my images from looking shadow like.
Although to ensure I would not overdue the yellow tint I decided to use a darker yellow background from before to capture more of a similar yellow tint to Masao Yamamoto's artwork. Throughout my redraft further developments I decided to focus more on my contrast compared to my first photoshoot developments ; which I experimented with in all my further developments.
To do this I would increase my contrast from about 14 to 85 and once that would be done I would very slightly increase my curves. After doing so I would once again decrease my opacity as lowering contrast would have brought out to much yellow.
The final step was slightly increasing to brightness so my images are not too dark from the previous increase of contrast. This as a whole removed my horror like element from my first set of developments and replaced it with a relaxing atmosphere as if the images where caught at sunset
I started to set out to create my further developments by adding a yellow background. Which I then multiplied and lowered opacity to give it a yellow tint feel towards my image. I did this on top of my first developments of black and white work in masao yamamotot style.
I then added a burnt image over the yellow tint ,then multiplied it to give it a gold burnt paper texture style. Which I further explored by drawing on the side to create shadows around my image . To match this I decreased the contrast and curves to darken my image but increased brightness by 7 so it is not too dark
Highlighting success -Final Outcome
further developments -refining my process - considering double exposure/burning
To finalize my work with Masao Yamamoto I wanted to deepen my exploration in burning his images by exploring many roots to bring a burnt visual alive . This was done by expanding the editing techniques from my previous pieces of developments going through black and white to expanding with adjustments and color to lastly improving color and experimenting with burnt paper and ink overlays. This was done to ensure my images have a likeness similar to that of Masao Yamamoto by using the color look up tool to try and ensure my use of colors were in direct relation to his use of colors within his imagery. To expand on this visual I played along side new elements of a burnt overlay to blend in along side the colors whilst bringing out my own touch through that.
I continued to experiment by adding on ink overlays which was a difficult concept to grasp at first as blending it within the image played out as a challenge yet it fit well with the art work. It was done by my experimenting upon layers to give out a burnt look once again within this collection of photography in the style of Masao Yamamoto. Lastly expanding on my outlook of experimentation I added upon a retro over lay and experimented with layers on it and to stabilize it by rendering
lighting effects.