New Build - Evaluation

I think that the PowerPoint presentation about the new building that I have created for the project looks very nice and satisfies requirements given in the brief.

• I have taken photographs of different sections of the building, including outside and inside shots, communal areas and arts department
• The pictures that I have taken are not boring because they show students at work and in their free time
• I have managed to cover all the aspects that I have described in my plan
• I have adjusted and set up my photographs on the presentation slides exactly in the way described in the brief

To sum up, I am very pleased of what I have achieved by creating the presentation.

New Build - Plan

According to the brief I will need a range of photographs taken in different places both inside and outside of the building.

For the opening slide I will take a wide angle of the outside of the building. It should show as much of the building as I will be able to get from the wide angle lens I will be using.

Another photograph will be that of college interior. It will be showing students spending time in one of the seating areas. For the best result in showing as much of the interior as possible I want to take the photo from above, probably from the stairs.

To demonstrate how important safety is for the college I am going to take several photographs of entrance gates and security stand.

I will take various photographs of comfortable areas where students can spend their free time. It will include overview and detailed shots of canteen/cafe and communal seating areas inside the college.

Another aspect that I have to present in my presentation is arts and photography department. The photos that I am going to take will show different areas of these departments, like painting workshop and darkroom. In order to make the pictures more interesting I will include students doing their work. It will show how active students are during the classes. The darkroom photographs that I want to take will include the overview of the room, with students working at the enlargers and sinks with trays containing chemicals used to develop prints.

New Build - Research

In order to do my research for the New Build projects I have looked at the Barnet College's Full Time Education Courses prospectus which can be found on the website. I have mostly paid attention to photographs similar to the ones that I would like to include in my presentation.

Firstly, an outside shot of one the college's building called Tudor Hall. Page 25 of the prospectus includes a wide angle photograph of the building and a church nearby. Its strong point is that it shows surroundings of the building, including a large square in front of the Tudor Hall and therefore it achieves its objective.  The thing that I do not like it in the picture is a part of college's main reception that can be seen on the right side of the frame. The photo would look better if the camera was positioned more to the left side when taking the picture, what would cause the main reception building not being in the frame.

A photograph on page 5 showing students in one of the communal areas of the college is another picture that I would like to include in my presentation. The good thing about it is that it is not just a boring photo showing tables and chairs set up in the canteen. Instead, it shows students having a good time during a break. We can see that the college is not only an educational place, but it also offers students comfortable seating areas. The only downside of the picture is that it is crooked. It could have been fixed by simply positioning the camera so that the photo produced was straight.

For the presentation I also have to take a pictures of arts department facilities, including a darkroom. There is a photograph taken inside the darkroom on page 70 of the prospectus showing a photography student placing a filmstrip in a negative holder of an enlarger. This picture is taken properly, probably using a high ISO value and large aperture, because it is the only way to get a photo that is not moved and blurry in a dark place without using flashlight. It also shows the enlargers in the background and pretty much sums up the work of photography students.

How to make a multiple image on Photoshop

First you need to open all the photographs that you want to make your multiple image from in layers. One of the ways to do it is to open them as a stack of layers. In order to do it, click on File --> Scripts --> Load files into stack.

In the window "Load Layers" that appears click Browse to select the files you want to open.

Choose the ictures that you have shot for the multiple image, then click Open and OK.

Once you have done this, you should get all your pictures open as separate layers. If you do not see the layers window, click Window --> Layers.

In order to hide certain parts of the layers you need to apply layer masks for all of the layers besides your chosen background. Click on one of the layers and select Layers --> Layer Mask --> Hide All. Repeat it for all the other layers.

Now you should have the layer masks filled with black color next to your layers. The layer that you see now on the screen should be your background layer.

In order to reveal part of a layer make sure that you are working on the layer mask (you should click on it and see a thin frame around the mask) and using a WHITE brush with opacity of 100% paint on the image. One of the hidden layers that you are working on should start to become visible. When you want to hide some part of the layer use a BLACK brush on the layer mask.

After you reveal all the parts of one layer you have to repeat it for all of the other hidden layers in order to finish your multiple image.

Things to remember when working on layers/layer masks:

• Make sure that the layer or layer mask you want to work on is active (thin frame around it)
• When working on a layer mask make sure that you are using either black or white brush in order to hide or reveal the layer.

Final Multiple Image Evaluation

Full size version of the image

I have created my final multiple image by merging four separate photographs I have taken using a camera set on a tripod. I have used the tripod in order to have the pictures taken on exactly the same background so I could merge them easily in Photoshop. I did not change any exposure settings during shooting because I wanted all of the photos to have the same brightness. I have changed my original plan, which was based on fashion shoot in a studio. In the end I have taken the photographs outside, on a sunny day, with trees and bushes as background, but I kept the idea of one person acting as a model and the other one as a photographer.

Good points of my final work are:

• People on the photograph seem to interact with each other
• Colors are saturated quite strongly due to local color corrections I have made for grass, bushes and sky
• A person in front of the photo is partially out of the frame, what creates a sense of movement and makes the image more dynamic

 Some of bad things I can say about my multiple image include:

• I have deleted a shadow of the first person on the right side of the picture. It can be overlooked easily when not paying attention to details, but once noticed it makes the photograph look manipulated
• Some parts of the frame lost details in shadow areas due to strong sunlight

I could have improved my work by spending more time on post-processing of the picture in order to get more details in shadows. I could also have thought about deep shadows caused by the sunlight during shooting and tried to overexpose the frame a little so I got more details in dark areas. By looking at the photograph now I noticed that I could have done it without fear of getting the entire frame overexposed because I have enough details in bright parts. I could also have spent more time on getting the shadow of one of the people correct. I had to remove this shadow because it collided with the background picture and I could not place the shadow underneath.

Multiple image - using layers in Photoshop

To create a multiple image in Photoshop I have used two photographs of the same cat. I have first opened one of the pictures and used it as a background. Then I have pasted the second picture as a new layer and changed its size and position so that the cat from the second photo was behind the one in the background. I have also added a layer mask to the second layer by clicking 'Add layer mask" button in the Layers window. I have then changed color of the mask to black by clicking 'Image --> Adjustments --> Invert' to temporarily hide the new layer. In order to reveal the cat from the second layer I have used a soft, white brush and painted on the mask precisely the area I wanted to be visible. At the end I have used the 'Brightness and contrast' adjustment layer to darken the top layer down so its brightness was matching that of the background. In order to be able to save the file as a JPG image I have also merged the layers by clicking 'Layer --> Flatten Image'.

Levels in Photoshop

To present the use of levels in Photoshop I have chosen one of my old photographs and improved its colors and contrast. I have opened the picture in Photoshop, duplicated it by choosing Image --> Duplicate and added a Levels adjustment layer. In there I have moved the pointer on the left side of the histogram (dark areas) to 26 and the pointer on the right side (bright areas) to 216. I have also moved the middle pointer to 0.92 and set the white balance using the white color eyedropper. The original photograph had a greenish tint and I got more exact colors by choosing a white point with the eyedropper. Another thing I have done in order to improve the look of the picture was to use a Selective Color adjustment layer. I have changed settings for cyan and blue areas of the photograph to boost color of the sky. As the picture has still had a little bit of the green tint I have applied a violet filter using the Photo Filter adjustment layer. I have set the density of the filter to 38% and opacity of the layer to 59% to get the best result.

My multiple image - rough plan

My multiple image - a fashion photoshoot

• photographs to be done in a studio
• one person is a model, appearing on the image in various poses
• a second person is a photographer/assistant, holding a camera and setting up lighting equipment

In order to create the image I will need:

• a tripod
• a second camera to be held by the person acting as a photographer
• lighting equipment
• white background

Multiple Image - Paul M. Smith

This photograph is an example of a multiple image. It was taken by a British photographer Paul M. Smith as a part of his series called "Artist Rifles". Smith, born in a town dominated by a large military base has shot the series of multiple self-portraits to show how an individual becomes the unit in the army. The picture shows a soldier lying down on the ground and two other soldiers kneeling above him. One of them, with a knife in his hand, is trying to kill the lying soldier, while the second one is trying to save him. I like how the image shows duality of human's soul; we can see the same person trying to kill and protect the lying soldier simultaneously. From a technical point of view I like the vibrant colors of soldiers' uniforms on the dull, brown ground in the background. The lens flare on the right side of the image suggests a sunny day, what gives an interesting contrast between nice weather and a violent event on the photograph.


I have chosen this photograph because it clearly presents the idea of a multiple image. You can see, that the role of the three soldiers is "played" by the same person, what could not be achieved in any other way than shooting three separate images and merging them into one in an image processing software.

• Image source: http://www.paulmsmith.co.uk/