tone

Tone

Tone: Tone refers to the lightness or darkness of something. This could be a shade or how dark or light a colour appears. Tones are created by the way light falls on a 3D object. The parts of the object on which the light is strongest are called highlights and the darker areas are called shadows. There will a range of tones in between the highlights and shadows. Without tone Form does not exist, tone is therefore an important aspect in the visualisation of 3D objects.


When light hits an object at different angles, different shadows and highlights are made. There are different zones which indicate the lightness or darkness of a photograph. 

Zone 0 shows a very dark shadow. Zone 10 shows the bright highlights. Around the middle at zone 5 we will see light that is not directly on that point, but is hitting it from either a larger distance away or it could be a softer light. 

 

For example,in this photograph the light is coming from above the mans head but also in front of him. We can tell this because of the shadows created under his eyebrows and at the sides of his face. These are zone 0 shades which means that no light is hitting it. The highlights are on his forehead and the bridge of his nose where they are high scale zones, between 9 and 10. This photo, along with most that explore tone, is in black and white to dramatise the tones rather than focusing on the colours. 

(AO:1.  You must ensure that several of the visual ideas/inspirations within the image bank are pursued. )

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

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

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

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

Image Bank:

  

  

Artist Research: Imogen Cunningham

  
   

Imogen Cunningham was an American photographer in the 1900's who focused mostly on taking sharp focused photos in order to catch detail. She has explored many different styles of photography, including Street Photography, Landscape and Portraiture.



Contact Sheet:

As the settings were manual for most of these pictures, some of them have an aperture thats too high as well as the incorrect iso settings. For example, image 7557 is way too bright, indicating that the aperture was far too high along with the iso setting. Another fault with the photographs is the framing of the first image, 8581, as the camera is too zoomed out, so more than the desired background is in frame. Lastly, I think that using a tripod would have benefitted me in some of my images, as i only used one for the first set and they came out clearer and sharper than the second shoot.

Best Images: 

I like these photos the most out of the whole shoot as I feel they reflect Imogen Cunningham's style the most. Most of her works are just head shots that portray a certain pose, and I believe that these images capture that. With the simple backgrounds, the eye is drawn straight to the subject/model, creating simplicity to the pieces.

Images I should improve:

The first image's framing could be improved as the lens was not zoomed in enough so therefore there was undesired distraction in the background. To fix this I must either create my set up closer to the subject or zoom in further. In the second picture, the model quickly spun in order to get a freeze-frame shot. This photograph would have been more successful if I had adjusted the shutter speed to be shorter, perhaps to 1/500". The next image didn't work out due to the aperture and iso being too high. If I were to retake this image I would try an aperture of f//8 and iso 400. My last image could also be improved by shortening the shutter speed to about 1/250" to get a freeze-frame shot.

The intentions for these photos was to feature tones and reflect Imogen Cunningham's photography. I used a Canon EOS camera with aperture f//4 or f//8 and an iso of 200/400 with the shutter speed at 1/125. I then used photoshop to edit and finish these pictures.

Editing Processes: 

Final Outcomes:

Overall Analysis:

Overall, I believe that I have achieved what I wanted to reflect through my images and that my final pictures were successful. My final edits reflect all of the research done and the different styles i wanted to investigate. The use of Black and White edits help to stop the eye being distracted by the colours and focus more on the tones in my images. The different framings and compositions of the camera enabled me to capture different tones from angles that may not be seen by the regular eye. For example, edit number 1 is taken from an eye level angle, creating tones from the lighting that hits the face directly. In the second shoot, natural lighting was used rather than studio lights and so therefore the tones are softer and less varied. I prefer the effect produced by the studio lights as the tones are sharper and bring depth to the photograph. In photoshop, I adjusted the lighting, brightness, saturation and contrast by using different settings such as curves. This helped to create the final outcomes desired. If I were to re-shoot these images I would explore different lighting intensities to capture more varied tones. I would also consider having my subjects express more interesting poses such as a hand over their eye, as this would provoke viewers to think about possible denotations and connotations of the images. In conclusion however i think these photographs were very successful in capturing a variety of tones and exploring Imogen Cunningham's style.