2D Project 3 Process_2 : Ego in different settings

SEQUENCE 3

Eggs – BTS
My third subject is are eggs on kimchi fried rice. The egg to me is the ultimate compliment to basically any food. It doesn’t taste like much and don’t really add much flavour to a dish but it makes it so much better. I hope to see myself as a service for the arts in the future, similar to the function of a fried egg. The main dish/art can exist, but I will be able to provide support to make the end product even better.

For this sequence I plan to use the triadic colour harmony that features red, blue and yellow. As the shoot is in a controlled environment at home, I had more control in terms of including elements within the image taken.

I included small elements such as the NTUC plastic bag which have vibrant red and blues into the image to reinforce the colour theme. The backdrop also featured a blue Ikea bag that provided blue and yellow tones into the image.

Eggs – BTS
Eggs – Original colours
The original colours of the shots leaned towards an orange hue. I had to correct the overall warm glow of the photographs and then increased the saturation and luminance of the reds and the yellows to make sure they do not blend with the background.

The primary colours should come from the subject, which is the elements of the kimchi fried rice. I then enhanced those elements to allow them to stand out with the aid of colour.

Eggs – colour correction
As the main 3 colours in the chosen triadic harmony are red, blue and yellow, I had to correct the colours of some details and elements that may be distracting. For example, I edited the the trees on the bowl to have a yellow finish instead, to avoid introducing another colour into the triadic colour harmony.
Eggs – Colour Correction
I also corrected the glow of the yolk to be more yellow. However after consultation with my tutor and peers, the original colour way suited the sequence better.
Eggs – Text edit
Due to the issues that came up during print (which will be covered in later), the final image was left un-cropped with brought in elements of the window in the background. This also introduced some greens in to the image which I then attempted to alter the hues to match the blues in the sequence. It was a pity I wasn’t able to salvage the crop but i guess that was takeaway i can keep.
alternative career options

SEQUENCE 4

Temple – BTS
The fourth and last sequence revolved around the temple as a subject. There is no main subject in focus for this sequence but rather the idea of the connotation a location holds.

I identified myself with a traffic cone marker beside the Phoh Kiu Siang T’ng temple that had the temple’s address on it. It alone does not have any meaning but in the compound of a temple it becomes a small landmark holding the name of the place of worship.

The temple is special to me as it holds my grandfather’s ashes. Places of worship to me slowly grew to becoming places that holds death or becomes the resting place of the dead. It brings about the idea of how earthly life is temporary and cyclical. I represented this idea through the last square which featured a flowering tree with some flowers falling off and slowly losing its colour on the floor. After walking around the space for awhile, I figured that the tetradic color harmony of blue,green,orange and red stands out in the location.

Temple – BTS
Temple – Original colours
The original colours that came out from the camera were well saturated. However to match the tetradic colour harmony, the yellows in the image had to be converted to orange. There are some elements that are sitting in between orange and red that have to be corrected to suit the harmony too.
Temple – Colour correction
Temple – Colour Correction
The biggest change was the colour of the flowers as i felt if i altered it they would look strange. Thankfully they turned out alright and i also decreased the saturation of the traffic cone to allow it to match the hues of the orange flowers.
Temple – Colour correction
After the consultation, I received feedback that the signage of the temple was distracting as it introduced a muted yellow into the colour harmony. After getting quite abit of help from my fellow classmates, we figured the easiest way of getting rid of the yellow is to match the signage with the granite colours of it’s backing.
Temple – Colour correction
One other issue that surfaced was the last square which lacked a colour for it to be part of the tetradic colour harmony. The composition lacked the blue of which there were various options to work around it with. One of the options is to change the colour harmony to a split complementary of green orange and purple. I decided to stick with the tetradic harmony for consistency throughout the series and added a light blue outline to the building on the top left. It’s pastel finish camouflages in well and blended well with the hues of the sky.
Temple – Text edit

 

TEST PRINTS

Test Prints
After the first two equations were approved, I went ahead to try out some test prints to see if the colours come out right. I printed the photos on 250 gsm matte paper as i felt the colours may go off if I were using a thinner paper. I chose matte over glossy as my previous experience with gloss resulted in prints being too saturated and the reflection could be pretty annoying
Pixelation!
Just when i thought all was well, the reality of bad quality lab scans hit me real hard. One of the rice compositions was heavily pixelized as the lab scans of my film roll was low in resolution.

Commercial film labs in Singapore cater for the general crowd, so the scans are just sufficient for web publishing. This was a factor i totally overlooked which was made worse as I cropped into the image of the rice bowl. After various tries on salvaging the original image through digital means, the pixelation was way too horrible to be exhibited on the wall for crit.

I therefore used the uncropped version instead, that thankfully suited the colour harmony as well as bringing the whole homely vibe of the line together.

2D Project 3 Process_1 : Ego in different settings

PROCESS

I decided to work with the medium of photography for this brief. Unlike creating illustrations or images from scratch to apply the colour theories with, i have to seek for subjects that already have colour theories being applied. Therefore location scouting and the framing of the shots are key in communicating the message to the viewer as distracting subjects or colours have to be excluded when taking the photograph.

SEQUENCE 1 : TRASH

Trash – Site BTS
My first subject is a trashcan located at 120 Prinsep street. The trash can was my primary focus as i felt the graffiti sticker and burn marks on the lid represented the gradual change over a standard public object in a specific environment. My main locations revolved around close ups of the trash can, the interior, and the general space around it. Light meter readings were also taken to give a rough gauge on what aperture range I’m allowed to work with.

 

Trash- BTS
Trash – Original Colours
The original colours that was captured on film had a cool overcast due to the cloudy weather that made the light diffused. The primary colours that stood out were the green, yellow, red/orange and pink. The main colour theory i wanted to apply was the complementary colour scheme along with the Split- complementary color scheme. In order to bring the colours to the foreground, I enhanced the colours by raising their contrast and saturation to allow the colour harmonies to stand out.
Trash – Drafts
There were a few variations for the line sequences that although follow a similar colour scheme, different photo subjects play an important role in relating the accompanying words to the understanding of  whole sequence. I experimented with images being out of focus to capture the essence of the shot through colour instead of subject. What felt like a good idea in concept did not translate well in the final shot, highlighting the importance of shooting more safety shots and spares as they you never know when you need them again. Going back to the same location may not produce the same results as the light is dependent on the weather and the colour hues will change along with it. Editing the choice of images were then an important factor to take note of when creating the sequences.
Trash – text edit
The selected sequence is then layed out with the accompanying text to see if the they work together coherently and in harmony. Text is a strong element to create a narrative. For this example, the text provides ideas or insight on linking qualities of the subject to human qualities or emotion.

SEQUENCE 2: CHAIR

Subject BTS – Chair
Subject BTS – Chair
Chair – Original Colours
My second subject for the project was a chair located in my house. The chair is a constant in every room that is occupied in the house, what gives it a character is the individual in the room and the objects the keep in it. The main colour scheme i wanted to showcase in this sequence was the analogous colour scheme from green to blue.
Chair – Drafts
Similarly I experimented with various effects on blurring the subject but after a few tries the concept didn’t really play out that well.

The original colours were actually very pleasant however the greens and blues are crossed each other too often and did not fit in a colour theory or harmony. The greens are then enhanced to be more illuminated and obvious to spot.

The chair image on the right has the colours of blue, green, green blue and a reddish brown. I was advised that to continue with the split complementary harmony of blue, green and red, the blue green towel in the composition have to be adjusted.

Chair – Adjustment
The towel was masked out in Photoshop and it’s hue and saturation was worked on to bring it towards the blue colour tones.
Chair – Text Edit
After editing the colours on the towel, the blues were more prominent with less distracting colour tones. There is also a running theme of the “self” square being neutral in terms of colour, the “setting” square to be of a stronger, saturated colour, and the “response” square to be a balanced colour to it.