Experimental Photography - Projector and Light painting.

In the studio we were given two projectors (a slide projector and a digital projector) for the projection task, and some torches and glow sticks for light painting. 

In class we looked at various photographers using these techniques to inspire us in the studio. I must say I wasn't too enthusiastic about this task as I don't really like the images I have seen created using these techniques. 

Here are some examples of projection photography:

In these photographs, images, shapes and patterns have been projected on to peoples' bodies and other objects to create different effects. This technique seems very limited to me in that you are simply photographing a projected image on someone. It is possible to disguise people, or change the shape of a projected image to create effects, but I don't find it very interesting. I think it would be impressive to see in real life, such as with the tree image, but as a photograph of the projection it loses its edge for me. 

I think the best example is the work of  Tobias Bjorkgren with these dreamlike effects, but it's still not my thing. 

Anyway... here are some images we shot in the studio, the top image is just a projection, the bottom image is projection and flash. They are nowhere near as good as Tobias' but we just couldn't really get in to the task. 

Next we did light painting, again, a technique I'm not fond of. It is done so often and by so many that it doesn't really have any value for me. Some people do it better than others, but I don't like the futuristic look achieved. If i had to pick a favourite it would be some photographs by a Californian photographer named Eric Staller taken in the 1970's(?), he used a sparkler to create his light paintings and this gives it a a more individual look than the smooth coloured light of more modern techniques. 

Eric Staller: 

Some more modern work by photographer Alex DeForest :

To me, even though these images look complicated, I think they probably aren't. This is partly to do with the simplicity of the technique as I have read, and the sheer volume of similar images on his website. They also look a bit over processed, even HDR style which is not something I like. 

The light painting I thought the best was that by photographer Paolo Roversi, by pointing the light at the subject rather than the camera and 'painting' it on to the, he has achieved a brush type glowing effect  that is reminiscent of watercolour painting:

Although I don't intend to follow this up in my experimental photography, it is something I am going to explore in another unit based on still life photography and studio lighting as I have mentioned here.

I will add the results to my experimental work as well to add to my list of experiments. 

Here are a few shots from our light painting in the studio:

To take photos like this you need to use a long exposure. We had all the lights off in the studio and so the images was always black no matter how long  the shutter was open ( up to 30 secs). This meant that only the light we used would show up. Our typical shutter speeds were between 8 and 16 seconds. 

 The below photo is using a line of fairy lights, the multiple small lights gave thin wiry effects similar to those of Alex DeForest, but less controlled. I suspect he used lights like this, or fibre optics for a much finer and more tidy set of lights.

The next we used glow sticks for the green light, and used Paolo Roversi technique of shining the torch on the subject to fill them in.

The below photograph was made using a similar technique to Paolo Roversi, but instead of painting, the torch was just turned on and off once pointing at the face and not 'pained' over Joes' face. This could be useful in my film noir recreation for my studio lighting brief. 

The same again, this is a photo of me but this time I did the light myself, the time before I was holding the torch and Joe was sat still. The movement caused by me moving my arm to switch the torch over meant my face wasn't in the exact same position and so I got this distorted effect. 

Here Jess painted down one side of me to give an outline, the length of the line makes me look even taller than I am in real life but it is quite a cool effect.
We enjoyed this task much more than the projector task.

I will not be re-visiting any of these techniques specifically but I will likely be taking elements and using them in other tasks and other briefs. 

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