Erik Johansson

Erik Johansson is a swedish photographer I've been following for some time since a research project in college. He creates amazing surreal composites of everyday scenes with quirky twists and executes them perfectly. Some of my favourite work below:

His work is always flawless and very memorable, something which is hard to do right when combining photography and manipulation so heavily. It's definitely food for thought when thinking about my own personal boundaries with photoshop. My final image will be no where near as technical as Johanssons work but hopefully the editing will be seamless into the photo and not stick out like a sore thumb!

http://erikjohanssonphoto.com/

Photoshoot

Technical Decisions:

I decided to shoot outdoors to use available light to keep things simple. The reason I wanted to shoot outdoors and not in a studio was based around the idea of not wanting to be too conceptual with my final image. I wanted there to be obvious clues in the background as to what my subject was involved in and I think this is clearly shown in the photos below.

As far as equipment I chose to shoot with a wide angle (10-20mm) lens and all the below shots were at 10mm. The reason for this was to exaggerate the size of the model and fit as much as possible in frame. The lens stretches perspective without distorting lines unlike a fisheye. It provides nice colour and contrast which was perfect for such an overcast day.

I chose to place my subject against a simple background so that he would stand out and the red kit he is wearing aids this. I think If there were distracting background elements the attention would be pulled away from the centre of the frame which could leave the viewer wondering more about the location than the subject.

I was shooting wide open which is f4, i chose a high shutter speed of 1/200 to eliminate camera shake as I was shooting handheld and found iso 200 gave a good enough exposure with just ambient light. Looking back on some of the shots I think they may have been slightly overexposed and I would have benefitted from a polarising filter due to the sky being quite bright. This would have allowed me to expose for the foreground and capture detail in the sky. 

I also experimented slightly with off camera flash. I used wireless remote triggers and a speedlight set to manual power. I had a diffuser on the end as I didn't want any harsh shadows being cast, the flash was set to half power off and was pretty direct. I used it to try and lift the shadows from under the chin and generally brighten the models face up:

No Flash

With Fill Flash














I actually decided against using the flash for my final shot as I felt it washed out some of the colours and seemed to make the model sit above the background which isn't what I was looking for in my final shot. However I was happy to experiment but for this project it just didn't work for me. I think if I was shooting towards sunset/dusk off camera flash would benefit me a lot more and this is something to bear in mind for the future.

Project Proposal

So I've now finally settled on an idea for my composite image. I'm still not 100% sure on how the outcome will look but I have a tutorial with david coming up in which I can talk some ideas over with him and see if he can provide any input.


"Matt Smith

Project Proposal – Cyborg

For this project I want to create a final image that has some concept behind it. I am well versed in photoshop so I’m trying to push myself with my ideas as I feel competent enough that I can create a composite image easily enough using photoshop.

My initial idea was sparked by an Olympic athlete heavily featured in the media. Oscar Pistorius has been a double leg amputee for his entire life but went on to become a successful sprint runner and ran in the London 2012 Olympics last alongside non-amputee athletes. There was a debate about whether his prosthetic limbs provided him with an advantage over the other runners because he has mechanical legs. He was allowed to compete but some of the other runners were not happy with the decision. I then began to think about if someone having human limbs replaced with mechanical/prosthetic limbs is more able than someone with normal human limbs. How far can this be pushed before someone is more mechanical than human? Thus leading to my inspiration for this project.

Is the perfect human even human at all? I’m looking at this in an athletic/fitness aspect and while I don’t think there is an answer I think it would be interesting to create a composite image where a group of athletes are given tools to make them the best at there sports. How far could it go before we have robots competing against each other in the next Olympics. My final shot will consist of 2/3 different people within the frame all aimed towards a certain sport. I will then use photoshop to manipulate them and add/remove limbs and replace them with elements that would allow them to excel at their chosen sport eg. A tennis player could have a tennis racket for an arm with a ball dispenser attached.

I will try as much as possible to make all the images my own and I think this is achievable as I will be using standard sporting equipment and models, the rest will be done in photoshop."

Initial Techniques

Although I feel I'm well versed in photoshop I think the workshops have been a great chance to refresh my knowledge and pick up a few tips and pointers from John. I personally love using shortcuts in photoshop and these workshops have helped me pick up a few new one's which will speed up my workflow.

As far as ideas go I'm still pretty open ended, I've decided I want to do something around sports or athletes and try and steer away from obvious manipulation techniques such as circuits, wires etc and focus on mechanical changes to someone to improve performance in some way.

I've decided to do some research into superhuman specimens and I've been quite lucky in finding a particular news story about an Athlete called 'Oscar Pistorius' who was heavily featured in the media during the 2012 Olympics. Pistorius has been a double leg amputee for his entire life but went on to become a successful sprint runner and ran in the London 2012 Olympics last alongside non-amputee athletes. There was a debate about whether his prosthetic limbs provided him with an advantage over the other runners because he h. He was allowed to compete but some of the other runners were not happy with the decision. I then began to think about if someone having human limbs replaced with mechanical/prosthetic limbs is more able than someone with normal human limbs. How far can this be pushed before someone is more mechanical then human? Thus leading to my inspiration for this project.

I want to create a composite of an athlete who has a limb/limbs removed and replace with mechanical parts. I don't want to replace it with an already existing prosthetic leg design I want to use objects that I feel would improve there abilities in one way or another.

Briefing

For this project we've been asked to create a composite image of a cyborg. What is a cyborg? I suppose this is the first question I have to ask myself!
A quick search turned up this dictionary definition:

"Noun A fictional or hypothetical person whose physical abilities become superhuman by mechanical elements built into the body." I feel this definition can be interpreted differently by many people, I personally think of a terminator/irobot combination when I hear the word 'cyborg' however I'm keen to look deeper into it and find my own ideas. I think creating a composite image will be a good challenge. Finding the balance between original image/manipulation will be key in having a final image I'm happy with. After all I don't wan't to create anything too cheesy or futuristic as that isn't where my interests lie.