How to use a phone

To follow on from our visual literacy discussions of the relation between images and words we were asked to create a series of images which instruct a person how to perform a simple task.

As you can see, my group picked "how to use a phone"
The steps we used were;
1. A portrayal of a phone,
2. Lifting the handset to your head,
3. Dialling the number,
4. The receiving phone ringing,
5. The recipitant talking to the caller.

We later realised that we missed a lot of basic steps out and someone that has never heard of a phone before probably wouldn't be able to use one even after looking at our step by step instructions.

We missed out simple steps such as plugging the phone in to the socket and receiving phone numbers to call.

Members of the group : Rob Colquhoun, Colin Self, Margarita Fafouti.

Another Panoramic image.

Today was actually the first day I took this well known short cut into Derby City Centre, I immediately recognised the photo opportunity. My aim today when I set out was to try and find something old and derelict which I could transform into something relatively contemporary via the use of digital means.

With the use of colour refining and a panoramic image I think I achieved my goal. I feel I have proved that it does not take modern design, architecture and corporate funding to create a contemporary scene.

I chose to over expose the sky when converting my RAW images for a few reasons, I wanted the main subject to be the foreground with no distractions in the sky whatsoever, the sky wasn't exactly interesting at the time, it was rather overcast but still I decided to blow out the sky to white because I wanted no distractions whatsoever, no matter how simple. Another reason for this decision was because I knew how much easier it would be to stitch together to create the panoramic image, the clouds could easily have moved whilst I shot the series of images and that could have had the possibility of increasing my editing time.

Via the use of a couple adjustment layers I was able to give the impression that the plants are becoming part of the art on the wall.

Self Portait Panorama

The idea for the creation of this image came from some of Chad Coombs' work which you can see in my last post.


This was created using 12 images that I took in my bedroom and then later stitched together manually in Photoshop. I originally attempted to use the automated photomerge capability which Photoshop has, but with computers being as intelligent as they are, it obviously did not work as intended, whether this was down to my own fault or just the programs I don't know but I decided to stitch the images together using the free transform tools in photoshop to attempt to create one seamless panoramic image.

Once my image was fully stitched together I needed to clean some of it up a little. In total I used the healing brush tool, blurred selected areas, duplicated specific areas and made changes to the levels and hue/saturation in certain areas to round off the image and make it believable.

At this point I decided that some of the images did not fit, I am talking specifically about the image where I am brushing my teeth, I am simply too close to the camera, and with it at the very end of the panoramic image I would not be able to fit myself in when I crop the image down due to the perspective so I had to remove that image, I think this was a decision for the better.

Whilst I was happy with the image I had arrived at at this point I still felt it was missing the dream like feeling which Chad Coombs' images of this style hold. In order to replicate this feeling I merged the visible layers, duplicated the layer, placed a high pass filter onto the top layer, set the layer properties to hard light and then desaturated the image a little in order to reach the final composition.

I do realise that the image still needs to be touched up a little in order to properly finish it, but for now I am content with my work.

Inspiration - Chad Coombs

www.theunsceneart.com










I really enjoy viewing Chad Coombs' images. They are extremely thought provoking due to the way they have been taken or edited. There is a large relationship between Chad's images and fantasy or dreams, he presents his images in a very unorthodox way, for example his panoramic images are rarely seamless, he even makes an effort to distinguish the transitions between each individual shot in the image.

I would like to follow some of Chad Coombs' ideas and visions and encorporate them into my own digital imagemaking module.

This Blog

This Blog will be used as my Reflective journal for my current modules in Commercial Photography and Video Production.

It will contain a wide range of research ranging from ideas to notes, information, inspiration and generally just anything related to the module. It will also contain descriptions of how I am developing my work to create the final products for the modules, how they work, what I could do to improve my images etc.