NAOMI WHITE
ARTIST RESEARCH
Naomi White is a female artist that does photography based on abstract shapes and colour that are very vibrant and saturated. She is a visual artist and educator that explores the themes of consumerism and identity. In her work she implements surreal objects that create a visually pleasing images, the images that she is recognized for as a professional photographer.
In her photos she captures images that appear as if the subject is a scrunched-up bin bag. However, what makes it stand out is the extreme vibrant colours that are in the images. Her images are edited to have backgrounds that fit the colours of the subject very well. For her images she captures them with a digital camera so that she can edit her images. In her images she uses contrast to add the sharp contrast between each fold of the bags and paper. She additionally uses vibrancy for her colour and could decrease the saturation so that she could increase or decrease the exposure without tampering with the colour. In some of her images she could possibly capture mid air with a green or blue object holding them, which she would later have to cut out when editing either by using a healing tool, chroma key or another eraser tool that also fixes the background. She clearly has lots of colour in her images and in some she has two to four different colours. In some images she uses multiple bin bags, which is an aspect when capturing the images, however in some images she edits the images by possibly double-exposing the m and changing the colour of one image and erasing parts of that image out.
For these image their is much meaning behind her work. For instance, she works on the idea of identity explored through the variety of colour in her work. Further more, the ideas of the intersection of political ecology. She focuses on the transformative power of photography and tries to show a different method of art to typical stereotypes of art and photography.
Naomi White is very well known in California, New York and overall a very well known photographer across the United States due to her appearance in magazines, social media, art awards and exhibitions.
CONTACT SHEET
For these images I photographed coloured paper in multiple 'scrapped up' shapes. I aimed to capture each images at a high ISO however some images were partly under exposed and some were over. I found the photoshoot was overall successful and I liked the last images I had taken of all the paper together however for photoshoots such as the re-draft I would change the paper/object I use to bin bags or a material closer to the type of subject she uses in her photos. An aspect I found successful was that I was able to capture multiple angles and colours for a variety of developments I could experiment with. I would have used a higher ISO in some of the close up images and I would have used multiple lenses so that I could capture them close up with a high ISO without a high amount of blur due to no focus from the camera.
Overall, I am happy with the outcome of the images as I have a variety of photos to work with, however there are aspects I would change/improve for my re-draft.
DEVELOPMENT
For these developments I chose to edit the images in two different styles as I was not able to fully re-create her images as the subject of the images was less see through and had less sharp edges. I chose to add a high contrast with the level/curve tool for each image(either very high or very low). I added negative colour to some of the last (zoomed-in) images that I found successful as it could be further developed with layering of paper. Additionally, I found that mix of colours was successful under negative colour and looked successful when cropped close. Some of the success's of this work was that I was able to capture many different colours and shapes and the use of the hue-tool made it more successful as I could experiment with multiple images from one or two photos. I found I was also able to capture a low-key or high-key background in every image and their was not many grey backgrounds in the developments. Further more, the images were not over contrasted so that the colours appeared over saturated or to bright for any saturation. However, there were some less successful aspects such as the amount of images that were developed and how the raw images affected the final outcome. I found, for the images to appear close or inspired by hew work I had to capture more plastic bags, which were see-through and had clearly sharp edges.
FURTHER DEVELOPMENT
CONTACT SHEET
For the re-draft I took images over plastic over a stand and also plastic bags over a white background from a bird's eye view angle. I found that overall these were not my most successful images however the outcome could change after I had found a style for the re-draft images. I had hoped I would be able to find plastic with a contrasting colour to the background ,however white was the only plastic I had other than black which was too dark to show any of the folds on the plastic. one aspect I was more happy with in this photoshoot was the plastic as it showed more folds compared to the paper I used in my last photoshoot, which I wanted to improve for this one.
The aspects that I would improve for my next photoshoot are the angles at which I took the photos and the colour of the object/subject I use for the image. I found that using a white background and white subject meant it corresponded less to her usual work. Additionally capturing the images with the light source behind the camera meant there was a large contrast, which wasn't successful in terms of the appearance of the lighting. If I were to have a light source behind the camera and behind the stand the image would appear less contrasted after it had been taken.
DEVELOPMENTS
I took these photos for my re-draft and I edited them on adobe Photoshop. I found these to be very difficult images to edit as they were not exactly in her usual style as instead of having the image be a white/beige background with coloured plastic in the center I chose to have the plastic be white meaning when I edited them they appeared in full colour. In some images I did experiment with using the colour selector tool to only colour parts of the image however it was difficult to do this and then have the images appear in her style due to the plastic sharp curves and see through appearance. I found that the images were overall partly successful however I will take another photoshoot due to the many less successful aspects of this photoshoot. One aspect I could change in this photoshoot for further developing is making the images B&W for a fully white image or reverting the images to the raw images and then editing them in a similar way with a white background and a beige/white plastic. To edit the images in this way I would use the same technique as my first developments (which I could also use for the further developments), where I used the colour select tool and the rubber tool on photoshop to individually edit every aspect of the image. I picked out the plastic first and experimented with different filters, hue's and saturations and then I copied the image over the original and then edited the background. I found most of the time I used the same filters and hue's for the background however this separation meant I could edit the background darker if I needed to. A aspect I could improve if I were to re-draft this photoshoot and edit them in the same style is put colour over the source of light when taking the images as this would mean I could control the final outcome more, before I took the images.
B&W
I adjusted these images using WIX´s editor and filters.
HIGHLIGHTING SUCCESS
I took this image in my re-draft photoshoot and edited it from a plain whit image to have its pink tone. I found this image very successful as the tones went well with the low light at the edges ,but high exposure in the center. Further more, the hues of pink and magneta were not over saturated or lacked vibrancy. I also liked that the raw image was able to capture the sharp edges of the bag, which is usually incorporated in Naomi White's style. Overall, the aspects of the image such as light exposure background and focus were very good in the raw image. Additionally, adding the colouring and the parshall gaussian blur made this image a very successful development.
CONTACT SHEET
I took these images as a final re-draft of Naomi White after also having looked at would I would do for my final piece. I found these images were successful and I enjoyed how they looked raw meaning not a lot of editing would be involved in the process of these being developed. I like the colour and how saturated they are. additionally, the light shining on the plastic created folds on the plastic that did not appear in past photoshoots, meaning I can experiment further with this photoshoots developments.
DEVELOPMENTS
I edited these images using Adobe Photoshop CS6. I found that these developments were not outstanding, however I liked the simplicity of the images and how they appear. The multiple hue's are very appealing and I liked the filters that add multiple colours, but do not ruin the image by over-saturating it. I used filters such as: lunar, light sunset, moonlight, sienna blue, tension green and light haze. I also used the hue tool, however outside the colours there were not many aspects to change/edit and the raw images were already very successful images that did not need many aspects changed.
HIGHLIGHTING SUCCESS
I liked this image from my last photoshoot for Naomi White. I found it successful due to its colours and the brightness. other than using the hue tool, no other aspects of editing were used in this image making it relatively close to its raw image appearance. However, that aspect of the image is what I like and is what makes this image successful as it is simple, colourful and bright (all the aspects of my concept for identity).
FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS
I edited these developments using ADOBE photoshop CS6. I was happy with the outcome and appearance of these images. They included colour, light and still maintained the original appearance of the plastic. Their appearance also mixed with how the images for my Wolfgang Tillmans appeared as. they also had a large diverse amount of colour, which was different to the first developments as here colour on both sides of the colour wheel were combined, while in the first images there was only plain colours, which was a simple aspect I liked about those images, however these images were more successful with their colours in my opinion. Out of all my developments on this page these were some of the most successful, and the developments that were most successful here, I would describe further in a highlighting success.
SUCCESS DEVELOPMENT OF PAGE
this was a development from my last photoshoot further developments. I was very happy with the outcome of this image especially. It had colour that I enjoyed when combined (blue, 'magenta' and teal). the folds in the plastic were still visible and I liked the combination of large areas where lights was very visible and smaller areas with low light and a larger amount of small folds from the plastic. The image also had a good exposure and the image had no areas where it was pitch black or a bright white that was not visible. I also liked the quality of the image especially in the pink and teal areas where there were small patches of those colour that were not grainy or 'pixelized'. I liked the image overall, and as a Naomi White developments had more then the usual color in some of her plain images and had the hues she has in her images with multi-coloured plastic and fabric. - Further Development 3 for Third Photoshoot