PROJECT 2: Emphasis, Texture, Tone, Lighting & Form Texture Project

EMPHASIS Emphasis creates a focal point in a design; it is how we bring attention to what is most important. Emphasis is what catches the eye and makes the viewer stop and look at the image. Without emphasis, without getting the viewer to look at the image, communication cannot occur.

WHAT IS TEXTURE? Texture is the surface quality that can be seen or felt. Textures can be rough, smooth, silky, soft, bumpy, furry, fuzzy, spikey etc.

TYPES OF TEXTURE There are two types:  Implied- Implied texture, or visual texture, is texture that you can see but not feel. Objects and artworks with implied texture look like they might have the tactile surface quality that you can observe with your eyes, but when you actually touch the surface, it is not textural at all, or has a different texture than it appears to have.  Real- Real texture, or tactile texture, is texture that you can see with your eyes and actually feel with your fingers.

TONAL RANGE (AKA VALUE) Value/Tone is the lightness or darkness of a color. The word Tone is used for Photography. Tone may consist of shadings from white-to- gray-to-black, or it may consist of darks against lights with little or no grays. The use of dark areas against light areas is a common method of adding the feeling of a third dimension to a two-dimensional black-and- white picture.

TONE Artworks that exhibit a full range of value are typically more successful.

HISTOGRAM The Brightness histogram, which is a little graph that indicates the distribution of shadows, highlights, and midtones (areas of medium brightness) in an image. Photographers use the term tonal range to describe this aspect of their pictures.

BRIGHTNESS HISTOGRAM

HISTOGRAM CLASS ACTIVITY In your visual journal: Review your composition photos and histogram. While viewing the histogram note changes that need to be improved for each photo. Additionally, draw the histogram for each photo.

LIGHTING Lighting is also an important creative element of composition. By controlling the light and directing it where you want it, you can subdue objects or distracting elements in the scene to give more emphasis to the main point of interest (creating emphasis).

LIGHTING CONTINUED For good picture composition, you must develop an awareness of how changes in lighting can affect the appearance of things around you. Light and shadows can be used in composition to create mood, to draw attention to an area, to modify or distort shape, or to bring out form and texture in the subject. Without shadows, the subject records without form, curvature, or texture, appearing flat and lifeless.

MORE ON LIGHTING Be leery of harsh shadowing Soft lighting can be just as effective depending on your subject Generally harsh shadows are undesirable due to the loss of detail  Harsh shadows can be effective for emphasizing texture and form however it can just as easily remove texture and form.

SUBJECTS MUST HAVE FORM What is form? Form- three-dimensional shapes expressing length, width, and depth.

HOW DO WE SHOW FORM IN A 2-D PHOTO? Choosing a subject that has form Excellent Lighting Excellent Angle Choice Rule of Simplicity Minor Editing

EDWARD WESTON Among the twentieth century’s most influential art photographers, Edward Weston (United States, 1886–1958) is widely respected for his many contributions to the field of photography. Along with Ansel Adams, Weston pioneered a modernist style characterized by the use of a large-format camera to create sharply focused and richly detailed black-and-white photographs.

MORE ON EDWARD WESTON The combination of Weston’s stark objectivity and his passionate love of nature and form gave his still lifes, portraits, and landscapes qualities that seemed particularly suited for expressing the new American lifestyle and aesthetic that emerged from California and the West between the two world wars.

MORE ON EDWARD WESTON He spent the years 1923–1926 in Mexico City as a part of an international milieu of creative minds attracted by the post- revolutionary excitement of political activists and artists such as Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, Tina Modotti, and others. From the moment he returned to the United States, he began making work that would fundamentally change the direction of photography in this country.

In 1932, Weston, his son Brett, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, and a handful of other Bay Area photographers formed a group of like-minded realists who called themselves Group f/64, in honor of an aperture setting on a lens one might stop down to in order to attain the sharpest focus in a photograph. They introduced their work in an exhibition at San Francisco’s DeYoung Museum, and the exhibition still stands as a landmark in the history of photography. In 1937 Weston became the first photographer to be awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship. He continued working until Parkinson’s disease forced him to give up the camera in 1948.

Dry Lake Bed

Tree

Pepper

Snowy Mountain and Water Reflection

Glacial Silt

Tidepools

Rock Formation

LeafAndFerns

Mushroom

THE TEXTURE PROJECT Concept: Photograph textured surfaces filling the entire frame of the photograph. Locate unique kinds of texture with direct light falling on your subject. Your images should contain as broad a range of tones as possible. Make your photo interesting! Procedure: All photos must be taken outdoors. All photos must be changed to black and white during the editing process using Photoshop NOT on your phone. Criteria for Grading: You will be graded on the uniqueness of your subject choices and the lighting conditions under which they were photographed.

DUE DATES (NO LATE WORK)  5 Thumbnail Sketches to gather original ideas for types of texture- Due Tuesday (tomorrow)  3 Original Photographs & 3 Edited- Due Monday, December 7th  Must fill the entire frame with unique(!!!) subjects.  Editing Allowed:  Dodge, Burn, Crop

TITLE YOUR IMAGES  LastFirst_1_texture_original.jpg  LastFirst_2_texture_original.jpg  LastFirst_3_texture_original.jpg  LastFirst_1_texture_edit.psd  LastFirst_2_texture_edit.psd  LastFirst_3_texture_edit.psd

WHAT’S DUE? Final submissions must include: 3 complete photoshoots (3 contact sheets)- 1 at school required  At minimum 1 photo submitted for final project from the school- class photoshoot  Two others are your choice