Task 1

Image Manipulation 

Historical Research 

Image manipulation is the when you use image editing techniques on photographs, in order to create an illusion after the original photo was taken. After Niepce created the first photograph in 1814, photos were already being manipulated around the 1860s. The portrait of the U.S President Abraham Lincoln, is an image manipulation of Lincoln's head and the body of the Southern politician John Calhoun.

Hippolyte Bayard was a French photographer and a pioneer in the history of photography. Born 20th January 1801, and died 14th May 1887.  He invented his own process know as direct positive printing. He also presented the worlds first public exhibition of photographs on June 24th 1839.  His method of photography was to expose silver chloride paper to light, which turned the paper black. He then soaked it in potassium iodide before being exposed in a camera. After the exposure, it was washed in a bath of hyposulfite of soda and dried. This process made his photos unique and they could not be reproduced. Due to the papers poor light sensitivity, an exposure of about 12 minutes was required. Using this method of photography, still objects were considered more appropriate, such as buildings. When this method is used for people, they were told to keep there eyes shut, to get rid of the eerie quality produced, when blinking and moving ones eyes around during a long exposure. 


William Mumler was an American spirit photographer, who worked in New York, and Boston. His first spirit photograph was when he took a self-portrait, which developed to apparently show his deceased cousin. He was born in 1832, and died in 1884.
Mumler then left his job as a jeweller, and worked full time as a photographer, he took advantage of of the people who lost there relatives in the American Civil War. His most famous work, the photograph of Mary Todd Lincoln with the ghost of her husband Abraham Lincoln. After being accused of different things, he was taken to court for fraud. Even though he was found not guilty, his career was over, and he died in poverty. Today, Mumler's photos are considered to be fakes.  


 

The Cottingley Fairies, are in a series of five different photographs. The photos were taken by Elsie Wright, and Frances Griffiths. They were both cousins who lived in Cottingley, near Bradford in England. The first two photos were taken in 1917, at that time Elsie was 16 years old and Frances was 9. The pictures caught the eye of a writer called Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, he ended up using them for an article on fairies he had been assigned to write, for the Christmas 1920 edition of The Stand Magazine. Doyle was a spiritualist and he was very intrigued, and enthusiastic about the photographs, so he interpreted them as visible evidence of a psychic phenomena. Some people believed that the photo was real, and others thought the photo taken was fake. In 1921 people lost interest in the Cottingley Fairies. When both the girls grew up, and got married they lived abroad. But in 1966 a reporter from the Daily Express newspaper traced Elsie, who had returned to the UK. 


Elsie left open the possibility that she believed she had photographed her thoughts, and the media became interested in the story once again. But in the 1980s Elsie and Frances admitted that the Photographs that they took were fakes, and they used cardboard cutouts of fairies that were copied from a popular children's book at that time, but Frances still said that the fifth and final photograph was real. The photographs and the two cameras used, by them are on display in the National Media Museum in Bradford. I found this pretty interesting because, I live near Cottingley, so I thought I should write about it. I have even visited Cottingley woods, and I was told that the photos were taken in Cottingley woods.

Contemporary Research  
 
Christopher Gilbert is a Belgian Advertising Photographer that specializes in photo Manipulation and has an impressive client list which includes clients such as: IKEA, Levi's, LG Electronics, Mercedes, Ogilvy, PlayStation, and Toyota. He describes him self as a detail-maniac fanatic, because he truly believes that small details can make a big difference.

I really like this photo because, it just looks like a bunch of people that make a tree, but to me it looks like a group of people working together to create something beautiful, like nature which symbolizes peace, and life. It also looks like, different types of people harmonizing together to help the planet.

Frank Uyttenhove, is a Belgian photographer and film director. His photography is mainly based around advertising and fashion assignments for Belgian and international advertising agencies. His work usually has a massage and contains humor and emotion. He was frequently awarded at international festivals. When I looked at the work Frank did, I thought it was really good, and some of the images made me laugh. I found his work very interesting.

 

Erik Johansson is a Swedish Photographer, but he used to be a computer engineering student. He hasn't been professionally trained in photography but, his Photo manipulations are awesome and very creative. His work is tends to be unbelievable and reality-defying, but, because the fine detail that Erik includes the image looks almost real. Erik first has to create an idea in his head before he goes to make the images. He as even models in some of them. For example the blond guy punching his own face. I really like his Photo manipulation I think its very interesting, and pretty clever. I have added a few photos of his work that I really liked, because the images make you think about them.

- Technical Retouching
Is when you edit an image by adjusting the colour, contrast, white balance, sharpness, removing elements or visible flaws on the materials or skin.

- Creative Retouching 
This is used for commercial use to make a more sleek and interesting image for advertising. It can be used in fashion, beauty or advertising photography. 

Grimm

Grimm is a story about a detective called Nick Burkheart, who suddenly starts to see strange things. When he was looking at one of the criminals caught there face changed and became monstrous. He thought he was becoming insane until, his aunt came to visit him. His aunt has been looking after him since he was about 9, because his mother died in a car accident. But when his aunt came see him, she told him there family secret, they are the descendents from a line of guardians known as Grimms. They are the so pose to keep balance between, humanity and the mythological creatures of the world called Wesen (pronounced as vessen in the show). Grimms have the ability to see creatures called Wesern that look human to everyone but Grimms have the ability to see what others can not. 
Nick can see them now because his aunt is dieing and her gift is passing to him, so it is now his responsibility to keep the Wesern from hurting humans. Nick finds it difficult to deal with but, when he was on a case he seen a Wesern thinking it was the murderer on the case so, he started spying on it but the Wesern knew he was being watched so he tackled Nick, by jumping through and breaking his own window, telling Nick he would have to pay for that. In the end they started talking and the Wesern was called Monroe, he ended up helping Nick solve the case and they became friends. Grimm is a T.V series I really like, and it uses special effect for the transformations. I think this could be classed as photo manipulation because, a video is basically a bunch of images that creates a movement when put together so when, CGI is used basically each frame is edited in special effects, so i think it could be classed as photo manipulation. 

 

 

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

Was released in 1944, and is about a pet detective that lives in Miami, Florida, he specialty is retrieving, taming or helping captivated animals. Even though his methods are strange, he is very successful in what he does. He doesn't always get many assignments, so he isn't able to rent or repair his car, which is a 1970s Chevrolet Monte Carlo. He is also the laughing stock of the Metro-Dade Police Department. There is also a Sequal to the film called Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. The film is about Ace having to find a kidnapped Bottlenose Dolphin called Snowflake, who is the mascot of the Miami Dolphins. Snowflake was kidnapped two weeks before the team is due to play the Super Bowl. Melissa who is the Miami Dolphins press officer, tries to find out who kidnapped Snowflake, but is told by a colleague that she should hire a pet detective, so she hires Ace Ventura, who finds a gem stone in the filter system that belongs to a 1984 ACF Championship Ring, which was won by the Miami Dolphins. He tracks down all members to see if there ring had a missing stone, but later realizes that one of the players isn't on the photograph he used to track them down. He was called Ray Finkle, and is a psychopath ex-football player, who wants revenge on one of the other players called Dan Marino. In the end he finds out that the chief of police Lois Einhorn is connected to Ray Finkle but doesn't know how, and ponders on it until his dog sat next to Rays photograph, which led Ace to believe that Ray is Lois disgused. Melissa ends up falling in love with Ace, and he catches the culprit in the end.
 

X-Files


The X-Files is a American Sci-Fi Horror Drama T.V series, Which started in 1993 September 10th, and ended in 2002 May 19, and was nine seasons long and has 202 episodes. The show is about FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder, and Dana Scully who investigate X-Files. X-Files are unsolved cases that have paranormal phenomena, Mulder believes in the existence of Aliens and the paranormal, but Scully is a skeptic and is assigned to make Mulder return to mainstream cases. In the beginning of the series both of them are become pawns in a large conflict and end up only trusting each other. They start with a platonic friendship, that develops into a romance by the end of the series. 
Mulder believes in the existence of extraterrestrials and the government conspiracy to hide the truth of the existence of Aliens. He works on cases marked on unsolvable, and involve supernatural/mysterious circumstances. Mulder sees the X-Files as so important that he has made them his life's main purpose. I am looking into X-Files because my story is about a detective who is ends up coming across a burglary, but end up tracking down an Alien. So I was told to look up The X-Files, as a reference for my Idea.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

In 1988 the film was released, and is an live-action/ comedy film. The film is in a world where there are cartoon characters, human beings and animals live in the same world and can interact with each other. The film is set in 1947, where cartoon characters are called toons, and they act out cartoons the same way actors make a live-action movie. Toons interact with humans and animals freely, and live in a place called Toontown, which is an area near Hollywood, California. The owner of Maroon Cartoon studios, is R.K. Maroon  who is a human. Maroon studios star is Roger Rabbit, who is a fun loving toon. Rogers wife is also one of Maroon studios stars, called Jessica Rabbit who is also a toon. Maroon hires a private detective called Eddie Valiant to investigate the rumors about Jessica having an affair. Eddie hates the toon community because his brother Teddy, was killed by a toon who dropped a piano on him. Since then he has hated toons. When Eddie met Roger, he told him to move on because he had photos of Jessica cheating on him. The pictures show Jessica playing patty-cake with Acme. Maroon and Eddie said to Roger that he and Jessica should split up, upset by this Roger runs away but that makes him a prime suspect because the next day Acme was found dead. At the crime scene, Eddie meets Judge Doom who has found a way to harm toons, because toons can not be virtually harmed. He can kill them by submerging them into a mixture of Turpentine, Acetone, and Benzene which he calls Dip. He demonstrates it by getting an innocent toon shoe and putting it in Dip, the toon dissolves quickly into the Dip leaving only behind red paint. In the end Eddie finds out that it was Doom who, killed Acme and is attempting to take over Toontown because Acmes will has disappeared so Toontown will be sold to Cloverleaf Industries at midnight. In the end Eddie,Jessica, and Roger are captured by Doom, but they manage to escape and Doom gets run over by a steamroller, he survives but it reveals that he too in a toon in disguise as a human, and is wearing a mask. When he is revealed to be a toon Eddie recognises him to be his brothers killer. Eddie ends up dessolving Doom in the Dip and avenges his brothers death, and finds Acmes will on the blank piece of paper that Roger wrote on a love poem  to Jessica, it had Acmes will written in disappearing/reappearing ink. Eddie kisses Roger, proving that his humor has returned and the toon celebrate their victory, as they head back to Toontown, and Porky Pig and Tinker Bell end the film with the usual "That's all folks! ".