WOLFGANG TILLMANS
Wolfgang Tillmans is a German photographer born the 16th august 1968. His work is still known as modern and he is still a modern photographer. In his photography he uses a digital camera that captures underwater images. However for his style of photography he does not go under water, he rather takes images for a water tank filled with coloured water in many different colours.
My opinion on his work is that it is technically very advanced in how he captures his images and could also be very advanced for how he edits his images. His images include lots of shapes and models that could not be thought of or made in many other photography styles. He uses many different colours and shapes in his work, showing he takes a majority of his work time on capturing the images. If I were to consider his images on how he captures them and how I could it would be through colour-dye in water and bubbles. This would mean a very fast shutter speed would be required, which is how he is able to capture as many different images as he does.
For the capturing of his images, he has to consider the lighting behind and above the water and the background behind the water. He will also have to consider how close the camera is and that the tank is not visible when the image is taken, which would mean any aspect of the camera adding fade to an image would have to be reduced. The background behind the images would either need a fully white or black background as those are the easiest to edit off the final image. The lense of the camera would have to be as far zoomed in as possible and the shutter speed will have to be fast to capture the water shape in motion at multiple points. For his work he has to capture many images and at the end consider which is most successful meaning he would hold the shutter for multiple seconds (even up to a minute) to then at the end consider which images capture the water best.
For the images of water he spends time on finding the most successful images of all the images he has captured. This then means he knows what images to edit. In his images he has some images that appear negatively coloured meaning every colour has been swapped for its polar-opposite. In his images he uses lots of colour meaning he would increase the contrast and vibrance. If his images are to appear to contrasted he can use a higher shadow or highlight as this would not tamper with the colour. In his negatively coloured images, they would appear less saturated as the lighting is also changed and he would have to add a higher exposure and increase saturation.
The reason I chose this artist after my first artist Shilpa Gupta was because of his final development to his work and the similarity between how they present their final development to their project. They both use similar white frames with a thin white border around the inside edges. They also present them in multiple different colours and sizes with many different colour combination, which are considered when displaying them. I am also excited by Tillmans use of paper in another style of his work where he uses light blur and folded paper to create images that are visually very interesting and in my opinion simplistic but very successful. Additionally, it is a example of the photography and art behind the images I am taking for my concept for identity, using light and blur to make photography which explores shapes and colour in a different way.
PHOTOSHOOT PLAN
CONCEPT
CONCEPT 1: - To take photos of a tank or holder of water that will then be coloured with dye.
- Capture multiple images at a extremely fast shutter speed.
- Capture multiple different colours.
- Add negative colour when editing.
CONTACT SHEET
For the photoshoot I captured images of colour under water. I found that overall I was able to capture some successful images, however the style of how I captured the images would have to be improved for the re-draft. I found that I did not capture enough images for more than 12 developments as most images had blur or had did not capture a significant amount of the colour underwater.
For the editing of the images I captured close up images of less contrasted colours that could then be made negatively coloured to appear similarly to his work. A success of the photoshoot was that they included lots of different colours, and some photos were captured at other ends of the image so they could be double-exposed together. A failure of some images was that I captured the images at a too far away angle which showed a significant reflection on the water.
For the re-draft images I would capture more images to have a diverse amount of images for editing and use more light behind that image to have a white background rather than a light grey tone. I would have to use more different colours and when capturing the images I would have to think about capturing images quicker and at more angles so that the colour has not fully mixed with the water.
DEVELOPMENT
For these developments I used adobe photoshop to edit the photo's. I found that there was a split between some images being more successful than others. Overall I was happy with the outcome of the developments. I added hue to different images that had a dull colour. I increased the gamma in the images and used exposure curves that would increase the lighting and brightness making the background appear more bright (white rather than grey). I added double-exposure to some images to have to tones of colour in the image. For the developments I cropped most of them as the bottom of the raw images had a plain colour from the paint dropped in the water. One aspect I would change for my re-draft is capturing more different images as I found I was using similar appearing images over and over as they were the images that appeared most successful. I changed the hue twice over some of the last developments as this would appear more contrasted as the overall colour and brightness is low contrasted in his work. For the exposure of the images I did not change the brightness as this would effect the colour and over expose the background as it changes the whole image and not just certain aspects (unlike the curves of exposure). For the contrasts I lowered it as this follows his style of work and was more successful in not changing the aspects of colour in the images. On some of the last images I experimented with inverting the colour, which I could experiment with more in further developments. Additionally, the colour palette of his work includes many tones found in inverted colour images. Another aspect I would experiment with in further developments is collage and I could experiment with how the images appear collaged in further developments similar to the work of Shilpa Gupta. I found that the final developments were overall more successful than unsuccessful. One aspect that was unsuccessful was the lighting of the final images, which I could not change any further as it would change the colour and make the images appear over saturated. I used blur over some images as this would remove some grain, however the quality of the images was another unsuccessful aspect, which I would have to improve for my re-draft.
FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS
CONTACT SHEETS
I took multiple images over time and made sure to capture as many seconds of the images as I could. I found many successful photos and some photos that were less successful. I found that the lighting was successful for most images and having a partly see through piece of paper in the background made the images have a better colour in the background. I found that some angles at which I had captured the images were less successful than others and therefore I moved my stand through multiple positions while capturing the images. This additionally helped with the fact that the images were blurred a out by the subject as the lense too the foreground as the main area of where to blur. This meant some images were consectutively blurry.
DEVELOPMENTS
I used adobe photoshop 2021 for these developments. I experimented with negative lighting and colour and used the hue too to add different colours. I found that the most successful image colours were the ones I had edited. This was due to the tool decreasing the brightness and the contrast automatically to fit the exact colour of the image. For the images I aimed to decrease the shadow and fade as much as I could for a successful development. the image background needed to have a high amount of brightness for it to stand out (glowing) meaning I had to add a high amount of exposure and gamma light to the image and also add contrast to the image so that it had a controlled amount of light for the foreground and background. for images that I did not add blur over the whole of it I added haze where I did not add blur to the image but only the background.
FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS
For these developments I chose to experiment with blur and overlaying developments and raw images. I chose to do a mix of both as some developments did not correspond well together. I used photoshop to edit the images and I chose to do some images with a layer of blur over them while some of them did not have a layer. The main goal of these further experiments was to see how well they would double-expose together
colour correction
I experimented with different colour corrections on Sony app (VSCO) . I used different filters and different exposure and highlight levels. I increased the highlights on each image so that I could change the hue between different colour on VSCO This also meant I could change the hue of only one colour without tampering with the other colour. I also did some B&W developments as this would further experiment with aperture and composition and I could add more colour after the B&W process. Overall I found these developments very successful and are developments I could use for a final piece. I found that although they were partly away from his style the basis stayed the same and I found these images were some of the best developments in the ned.
3RD PHOTOSHOOT : DEVELOPMENTS
I took a third photoshoot in his style and edited the images experimenting with colour correction, exposure, saturation and B&W. I wanted to keep the images in his style but also experiment with aspects I have already added in past developments and refine them for final-piece like developments. I found that these images ended up still containing most of the idea of his photos, but also experimenting with the ideas and techniques I had used in past photoshoots and developments. The inspiration I took from recent developments tat were successful helped me make the perfect amount of lighting when edited and when takin the images.
HIGHLIGHTING SUCCESS
I found these two developments were some of my favourite developments in the whole series as they were able to contain very successful amounts of colour, exposure, brightness, contrast, vignette, fade, sharpness and blurred areas and shadow. They were both taken when I considered colour corrections which meant they were further developed of past developments I found successful. Overall, these were the most successful.
What I did for the first photo is that I developed a B&W photo 'recipe' on the app VSCO and used it for the photo when it was raw. Then I adjusted the blur as I found the raw image had some grainy and sharp areas that looked worse when in B&W. I used a mix of iris blur and gaussian blur for the photo. I adjusted the exposure and brightness to fix the darker areas and I used the vignette and adjusted it as high as it could go and layered it with all other adjustments into one layer. Then I placed this layer behind the blur of the image so that the adjustments would be blurred out with the image.
For the second image I wanted to change the original colour of pink and blue into the tones of beige and turquoise . I did this by increasing the highlights and shadows so that they would be considered the layer of colour and then changed the tone of the highlights and shadow to turquoise and beige as if it was overlayered or double-exposed. I also added a higher amount of temperature for it to be tinted more orange than blue.
CONTACT SHEET
I took the raw images of plastic bags after I found those details would be successful for his style. This was after my Naomi white photoshoot where I took inspiration from how she captured her work and used it to capture this photoshoot. I found these images very successful and I think that they will appear as successful developments when edited negative.
For the images I would hope they would appear more successful than my first developments and I plan to edit them with multiple different tones and colours.
DEVELOPMENTS
I edited these images as my last photos for Wolfgang Tillmans on Adobe photoshop. I found these developments were some of my most successful and the ones that were closest (most similar to) his style of work. What I liked about the images was that they had similar textures to the ones usually found in his work. Additionally, they had multiple different colours and had the sharp contrast from the tones of the object and the very soft background with a high amount of blur and very little contrast. I created this effect on the images using the iris tool and this appeared successful in most images. However, I did find one image was to blurry after editing it meaning I had to increase the amount of sharpen, which meant I didn't use the iris-tool for that developments (development 3).
I found I could use this style in my last ever photoshot for this style of Wolfgang Tillmans as this was overall very successful. What i could do to also make this more accurate to how he captures his work is add water and put the plastic in water and capture the images in a similar way to my first developments.
HIGHLIGHTING SUCCESS
I found this was one of the most successful images in my photoshoot and in my whole project for Wolfgang Tillmans. This image was edited in my most recent photoshoot and was therefore taken when I consider all the successful and less successful aspects of my past photos. I found this was successful in the aspect of being a close remake of his work. I added a image below it (made by him) showing the main inspiration for the image. I found that the lines, colours and tones were all covered in my development, which my past developments did not have.
INSPIRED BY :
