Shape

Shape - is a flat, enclosed area of an artwork created through lines, textures, colours or an area enclosed by other shapes for example triangles circles and squares.

Form - can refer to a three-dimensional composition or object within a three-dimensional composition that relies on light.

Negative space - in art, is the space around and between the subject(s) of an image. Negative space may be most evident when the space around a subject, not the subject itself, forms an interesting or artistically relevant shape, and such space occasionally is used to artistic effect as the "real" subject of an image.

Geometric shapes - such as circles, triangles or squares have perfect, uniform measurements and don't often appear in nature

Irregular - without symmetry, even shape or formal arrangement.

Connotation represents the various social overtones, cultural implications, or emotional meanings associated with a sign.

Denotation represents the explicit or referential meaning of a sign. Denotation refers to the literal meaning of a word, the 'dictionary definition.

Image bank

Task1:

Brandt uses tight composition cropping the image creates three negative spaces. Brant's approach; Brant is associated with representing the body as landscape or an abstract geometric form. To some extent in working often with a female form he also creates images within a sexual content.

Research (of artists and techniques)

A photographer that I chose to study for my research on shape was a man named Andy Goldsworthy. Andy Goldsworthy was born in July 1956, and lives and works in Scotland. He is a British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist who photographs the land art situated in natural and urban settings.

In the photos above, you can see how Andy has used the natural beauty around him to shot his photos. However, in order to emphasise the shapes in each photo he has used Photoshop to draw his own shapes into the photo as well as using it lighten/darken the photograph. I like Andy Goldsworthy's technique and I feel like I could experiment with his techniques on my own photographs.

Image bank

My contact sheets

I shot these photos in my garden and when I was out in the near by village. Most of these photos fit with the style of Andy Goldsworthy and just need some editing. However, others do not fit, but when I was out with my camera I saw some interesting shapes and decided to photograph them.

My best images

In the top three photos I tried to focus on the close up shapes that I encountered and took them with the macro lens. However with the final photo, I used a zoom lens to capture a Red Kite and a Crow in the sky. although this is slightly different to my usual style and photo subjects I like the way this came out at the colour of the birds are highly contrasted with the grey sky, resulting in a clear image of the shapes, in which is my focus for this shoot.

Photographs that require improvement

With this photo, I made the background black. I did this because I feel that it emphasises the shape and texture of the Dandelion. I like the outcome of this as when I darkened the flower it allows you to see the shape in more detail.

With this photo, although it looks like the dog is facing away from the camera, I actually edited the photo so that no other details could be seen, like his face which was actually looking straight at the camera. I like the way this turned out because of the simplicity of the photo.

In this photograph I edited the object in the style of Andy Goldsworthy. I think that I like the look of this photo however I think that the brush I used to create the line was too thick, if I were to redo this, I would maybe choose a bolder colour in order for the seed pod to stand out from the background. I would also reduce the brush size to make this more effective.

In this photograph of a dragonfly it shows the shape of it's alien like head and it's delicate wings. To edit this photograph I cropped the photo in order to create a more defined picture as well as adjusting the contrast, brightness and exposure.

AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

I feel that the artist research was slightly helpful in this study as it helped me understand the theory on shapes and made me look for shapes in nature without sticking to the obvious shapes. My research on Andy Goldsworthy was not as helpful as I had hoped. This is because of the fact that his style of photography is different to mine which I feel restricted me whist I was editing my photos as I do not want to copy his style of drawing on the photos however I could not find a style that suited me whilst I was editing my photos from my shoots.

Although I did not find Andy's style of photography inspiring I was intruiged by the subjects and objects that he had chosen to photograph. in my shoots I was restricted on time but I did keep in mind that not all shapes need to be natural. Instead, they can be made by yourself, as shown in his own photograph of the stones in the spiral.

AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.

My idea for recording shape was to photograph the finer details in nature, and find how shape can present itself. I was inspired by Andy Goldsworthy's work, not by his method of editing the photos, but by his way of taking and setting up the photo. Andy Goldsworthy's work also gave me the idea to photograph plants and other natural objects.

With reference to my best selected images: I feel that these images link to the topic and to the artist that I studied. I also feel like the work in which I have shown my focus on shape in nature through some different forms.

The image of the Flower was shot at a canted angle to emphasise the shape of the flower petals, which are in a star shape. I also used the composition to draw the eye and create a more interesting image. This image links with my research of Andy photo leaf image.

The image of the Snail shell was inspired by Goldsworthy's snail shell that he made with leaves. I used a macro lenses which enabled me to zoom in and see every little detail in the shell. This photo was hard to capture as the light kept changing and was hitting the shell in different ways.

The image of the Dragonfly was an idea that I came up with myself. When shooting I noticed that it had landed in front of me. so using my macro lens I managed to shoot this photo. if i were to re-take, I would have adjusted the amount of light hitting the dragonfly and I wold have tried to get more detail on the wings. however due to the risk of it flying off, I did not have the time to move around and find the best angle, so this was taken straight on, at a slightly higher level than the Dragonfly.

The photo with the birds was taken from below. This photo was hard to capture due to focussing issues and the lighting.

AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.

To take my photos I used a Canon E10 1000D, with multiple lenses. I tried to increase the aperture setting to as high as possible so that I could end up with a sharper picture with a wider depth of field, however in some cases this was not possible as the lighting was poor.

In reference to my best images in which I have selected, these are the camera settings that I used.

Photo 1
Lens : TAMRON 70-300 mm F/4.5-6
Exposure : 1/320 sec
F/ : 5.6
ISO : 1600

Photo 2
Lens : TAMRON 70-300 mm F/4.5-6
Exposure : 1/2000 sec
F/ : 5.6
ISO : 1600

Photo 3
Lens : EF-S18-250mm F/3.5-5.6
Exposure : 1/800 sec
F/ : 5.6
ISO :1600

Photo 4
Lens : EF75-300 mm F/4.5-6
Exposure : 1/4000sec
F/ : 5.6
ISO : 1600

Photo 3

Lens : EF-S18-250mm F/3.5-5.6

Exposure : 1/85 sec

F/ : 5.6

ISO : 400

AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements.

I believe that I have produced a strong series of images inspired by my research of shape and the images of Andy Goldsworthy. The final images produced were refined by developing the photo in photoshop using a range of techniques.