OCA Learning Log - Digital Photographic Practice: Assignment 4

I started planning what I would produce for this assignment when I was shooting assignment 3 in Rome. My plan was to take images of 2 or 3 recognised land marks and combine in a 'come to Rome' type of thing. The images taken were of the Pantheon and the Coliseum, one on the left, one on the right, combining the two in the same positions in the final frame. My inspiration for this image came from artwork seen whilst in Rome. I am inspired by the photographer Eric Johansson and his extreme style of combining images to produce Salvador Dali type images which are intriguing. I combined an image taken within the Pantheon of the ceiling with the open oculus, with an image of a water tap, suggesting the water tap pouring in through the oculus. I was unsure of the ethics behind this image given that the Pantheon is a sacred place, used today as a Catholic Church, I used the image for one of the exercises instead.

The idea for this image came from a piece of artwork seen whilst in Rome, the image was in black and white and, until I had explored the city, seemed like an ordinary image of Rome, I later realised that it had been manipulated from two separate images. The image was instantly of more interest to me possibly due to the fact that I am on this course, but others would find the image of interest and certainly from a tourist point of view, from a ‘must see’ perspective.

This image has been created using my two images of the Pantheon and of the Coliseum. The images were taken in daylight with similar settings in order to get as similar outcomes. I used Adobe Photoshop Elements to carry out the ‘cut and paste’ exercise, which was more challenging than I’d first thought as I’m not familiar with this process. I consulted a ‘Photoshop Elements 7’ book and watched some you Tube videos in order to figure out how to carry out the process. The coliseum was turned using Lightroom as when I initially joined the two object together, the angle wasn’t pleasing to the eye, turning it slightly until the angle was acceptable. I filled in the colour of the sky which included in-between the columns of the Pantheon. I was unsure whether to move the objects closer but as they are quite similar in colour and size this might overcrowd the frame, this issue of the gap between the objects was resolved by placing the text vertically and horizontally in order to balance the image and fill the gap. There isn’t much more to say really than ‘visit Rome’, I considered city of love, fountains, food, beauty, but having explored the prospect of going to Rome and the experience of spending time in Rome, there is no ‘snappy’ encompassing description, so just to visit Rome was the message of the cover.

I had considered converting the image to black and white as in the artwork that inspired me to create the image, lines and texture of the stone might look quite effective. I decided against this as the colour of the stone gave a warmth to the image, which was also inviting to any prospective tourists, the objective of this particular piece.

As for the issue of the ethics of manipulation, the location of these iconic images within this frame is obviously ‘fake’ as the Pantheon and Coliseum couldn’t possibly be in the same frame, although situated in the same city, they are quite a way apart. Visitors may initially think that they are located close to each other by this image, which could be viewed as misleading, but the intention is to be informative of the sites to be seen in the city, the images of the actual ‘attractions’ have not been manipulated in any way. My justification is that there is no misinterpretation or inaccuracy as they are set apart from each other, without adjoining streets which might appear to ‘join’ the two locations more literally.

The image was created using the two following images:

ISO200 f/3.2 1/1600 17mm

This was the most difficult area to select, with the narrow pillars of the Pantheon, using the Magnetic Lasso tool:

Magnetic lasso tool

ISO200 f/3.5 1/1600 42mm

Tutor comment: The idea is simple but effective to highlight two of the keys buildings in Rome.

Cropping the buildings to show sections of them is enough to communicate the idea.

The images have been taken in similar lighting conditions so they do marry well together. The selecting of the buildings could be better – particularly on the Pantheon as it is a bit lumpy around the columns.

Taking time to experiment with different methods of making a selection in Photoshop can help you. A quick Google search will find lots of various tutorials on this. There is no one technique that works well in all situations. You haven’t detailed your selection methods in the description.

Amendments: descriptions of how I carried out the task have been added to this post.