Special Effects: Photo Filters

This is our last Monday blog post for the semester – just a few ideas about photo filters, that you could use in your own image-making pursuits. Like Light Painting, the purpose of this post is simply to introduce some techniques that could be good to experiment with, and which, if you have time, I will again offer you 1-3 points extra credit if you create ten or so filtered photos and post them to a Picasa album. 

There’s two basic kinds of filters: physical filters that you put in front of your lens, and software filters that you can use when processing the image. Physical Filters… most screw on to the front of a lens, but basically a filter could be anything that you place between the lens and your subject matter.

 [photo courtesy TiffenFilters.com]

UV Filter: basically this is a piece of glass screwed on to the front of a lens. Its main function is to protect your lens from scratches, sand, water, etc. It doesn’t really change the colors or values of your images, but can save you a lot of trouble… much better to scratch a $50 filter than the actual glass surface of your expensive lens! If you’re using a digital SLR camera with interchangeable lenses, then this filter is a must-have safety device.

Polarizing Filter: Useful for cutting out glare and odd reflections.

Neutral Gradient Filter: mainly for landscape imaging. It’s quite difficult with certain types of scenes, such as an expansive view from the Hairpin Turn across the valley, to get a good exposure and detail in the land when the sky above is bright. Half of the filter is dark, half is clear -- you can set the dark part on the part of the scene that's too bright, thus altering your histogram's width, avoiding the dreaded blinkies.

Color Filters: any color of plastic or gel can be used to change the images you create. For example, many black-and-white photographer use a red filter to alter the contrast in their images. A sepia filter will make the images brownish, often quite lovely.

Home-made Crazy Filters: You can use any transparent or semi-transparent material to create your own filter… tape on plastic, soda bottle, sunglasses, Vaseline on a uv filter, paint on glass, plastic cling wrap, and so on. Here’s an example of a photo I made in NYC, using a homemade filter made of scotch tape and stringy packing tape placed on a piece of clear glass and then held in front of the lens to blur out the text in the menu above the waiting line:

Here’s another image, using scotch tape on glass to blur out some of the content

There is a look and a kind of visual detail that only physical filters can give you. But many appearances can also be created using software filters. Post-processing images can be useful and a lot of fun. And easy to over-do. If you’re in Photoshop or GIMP, then you have an entire menu of ‘filters’ which except for tools for blur and noise and sharpen, are in my oh-so-humble opinion truly ugly ways to ruin good photos. For example, there’s a filter called ‘watercolor’ that’s intended to mimic the look of a watercolor painting. If you apply it to a photo you’ll see quickly just how awful the results are, how it doesn’t at all look like watercolor paints, and so on. To show you the problem, here’s a delightful bunny photo I made, titled ‘Home’:

Here’s the bunny photo altered w/the watercolor filter:

And just to prove the point, here’s the same photo altered using the ‘brush daubs’ filter:

Yuck. But there are filters that are potentially useful. For example, here’s the Photoshop ‘Diffuse Glow’ filter, applied lightly:

That’s not that bad, and if applied more subtly could really alter the symbolism and mood of the resulting image.

Color Software Filters: two ways to make them – in Photoshop you can select Image -> Adjustments -> Photo Filters; or in GIMP or Photoshop you could create a new transparent layer, in which you paint a solid color and then set the transparency to what you want. Similarly, you can create the look of a neutral gradient filter: create a new layer, apply a ‘gradient fill’ of any color combination that you need, and then set transparency, luminosity etc. If you were a graphic designer charged with adding text to a photo, you might create a software gradient filter so that you could amplify some text.

Ultimately as artists we each find our own favorite ways to create images. Some of us will find it beautiful and interesting to heavily retouch, fiercely filter, and radically alter our images. Others of us will need to create minimally retouched or processed images. The same artist might also grow throughout a career, and in one phase of experimentation alter images a lot, where in another, the work is more minimal or straightforward. The choice is yours! 

Halsman's JUMP

After the photo shoot, artist Philippe Halsman always asked his subjects to jump, resulting in some of the funniest celebrity portraits in history. Here's the famous J. Fred Muggs:

[image courtesy Laurence Miller Gallery]

Halsman's work is on exhibit now at the Laurence Miller Gallery in NY, click here to see a lot more images including Salvador Dali, Audrey Hepburn, Brigitte Bardot, Dick Clark and many more.

These photos bring up the portraitist's all important rule: getting your sitters to feel natural, relaxed, and human. Portraiture is social by nature -- person to person making images about the person. The photographer can smile, tell jokes, talk to and interact with the sitter -- make that camera less intimidating. In such situations staging the scene is all-important. If your lighting, your camera and the environment are all set ahead of time then you can concentrate on the person rather than fiddling with your camera!

"Imagine. Make. Create." opens Thursday 29th 5-7pm

The annual student exhibit at Gallery 51 opens on Thursday evening. Congrats to all of the students who got work in the show!

Painting with Light

To paint with a brush, you stick the brush in some pigment and then smush, smear, or gently caress a surface with the paintbrush – and viola! in time and with editing, a good image! With photography instead of a paintbrush you can grab a flashlight, set the camera on a tripod and at a long exposure, and then smush, smear or gently caress the scene with the light – and woot! in time and with editing, a good image! “Light Painting” is a technique in photography where the artist moves a light source while creating the photo, thus building images that have a wide array of light and shadow effects that cannot be accomplished any other way. The results can be spooky, sublime, dream-like and futuristic depending on the scene, the lighting you create, and the colors.

Probably the most famous example is this photo of Picasso quickly moving an ember to draw with light, by Yousef Karsh:

Besides burning sticks, you could use a flashlight, a laser pointer, a glow-stick, LED keychain – anything with a light. You’ll need longer time exposures to get the effects – experimentation helps. You could tie a flashlight to a string, and suspend it from a ceiling or swing it in the air. You could lash together fifty lights and sweep them through a room. You could take one powerful hand-held spotlight and illuminate the night, or use cardboard reflectors and the headlights of a parked car. The potential and possibilities to make images that are unusual seem endless: all you need is creative approaches to your scenery. (And don’t forget that you can alter your ‘white balance’ settings to amplify the color of the light in radical ways). Here’s some outstanding contemporary examples: 

Jens Warnecke and Cenci Goepel of Lightmark created these surreal moments: 

Kay Canavino of Adams, MA, has done a wide array of award-winning night scenes using light painting. For example:

To see more of Canavino’s work, click here: Night Portraits.

Chad Coombs –  inventive, gritty, and lively photographs include this high-fashion, dream-like portrait: 

In addition to his stunning fine art work, Patrick Rochon has used light painting for ads for Honda. He  makes incredible, surreal imagery as solo and group portraits:

A hearty thank you to Kay, Chad, Jens and Cenci, and Patrick, who each kindly gave permission to allow their photos to be posted here.  :) 

Students: I dare you to try out some light painting. Not required as a project, but will give 1-3 points extra credit if you try light painting and post your results to Picasa. Otherwise, your assignment is to keep working on your final project images, about which I urge you to carefully consider each composition -- your framing, cropping, rotation, etc. Reshoot if needed, edit as always. Deadlines are getting close so be sure that you figure out which publisher to use, and start building your book.

Finally, please schedule time to go to this year’s student art show, “Make. Imagine. Create.” which opens Thursday evening at Gallery 51. I believe Alex, Signe, Kevin and Stephanie have photos in the show, along with the artworks of many other students!

Feature Artist: Anita Alvarez

Artist Anita Alvarez created this thoughtful composition for our 100 Steps project:

In her bio Anita noted that "My passion for photography has grown over the years but really took a spike with my first nikon last year. I specifically love landscape & portraiture which some may say are complete opposites, but i love nature and people. My mother & I have done lots of traveling around the world & my passion for people, culture, & landscape most definitely arose from there."

Feature Artist: Walter Bouchard

Here's a wild and inventive photo from Walter Bouchard, from his 10x100 project for our class:

Feature Artist: Stephanie Naffah

Photographer and Arts Management Major Stephanie Naffah developed this image as part of her final project:

On her website Stephanie noted that she is "the secretary of Mass. College of Liberal arts Photography club. I work at MCLA Gallery 51. Since I can remember, I have been dramatically drawn to photography. When I looking at other works of art I get inspired. By observing other pieces of art, and have create new ideas for photo shoots and photos. Have practiced photography since 2003."