#somethingtold

Contact sheets from the something told brief.

I used a blue tea pot set as the main subject in this still life as I wanted to just practice on composition and shadows and tones that I could achieve with the lighting in my kitchen. The lighting was a struggle as it was an overcast day and the sun would appear every five minutes which led to some of the images being well lit and some being very flat.

Contact Sheet

Final Image

The Old Masters

The term”Old Masters” refers to the most recognised European painters, working between the Renaissance and 1800′s. This category includes artists who fall within Gothic Art, Mannerism, the Dutch ‘Golden Age’ and Romanticism. This includes artists such as Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Rembrandt.

There is one general method the Old Masters used in their painting, called the “The Flemish Method.” This method was named after the country of Flanders, where it developed to its highest point. This is an elaborate, multi-layered approach to oil painting.

Depending on the artist, there are different ways to use the Flemish painting approach. Each Master added their own modified way of painting and developed it even further, sometimes changing the approach during his lifetime. There wasn’t just one technique used by all of the Old Masters. So, the term “Flemish Method” is a generalisation of all the various methods used by the Masters at that time. Lighting and composition were used to create symbolism and tell stories within these paintings too.

Julija Levkova

Julia is a fine art photographer , She was born in Latvia in 1982. She works as a photographer between the Netherlands and Belgium. At a young age she was interested in painting from the golden age which was the old masters in the 17th century. Her work has been exhibited in various countries around the world including London, Venice and New York. Her recent work includes creating work from multiple images creating a hyper natural beauty giving a slight tension to her work. In the image below, the plants and butterflies are symbolic of life. The bright colours emphasis this. The dark background represents death. The dark background and colorful foreground is a contrast of life and death.

So for post production on this image I mainly wanted a slightly softer painterly finish with the B&W edit, I was after a high contrast “Shaft of light” look too, so b&w was the natural choice for that. 

As you can see below, I’d did some rough edits in camera raw. I did my usual high contrast work with the basic sliders in raw, then dropped both dehaze and clarity to give a little softness to the edges of the surfaces. 

Once I’d opened the image in photoshop I was then able to apply the dodging and burning to give just enough light to the coffee beans + Cup. Then to burn around it to define a shaft of light. coming from its original source like intended. I had Caravaggio listed as one of my influences in my research as I loved his work and it’s utilisation of light sources (Both still life and other works).  I personally found this to really make the photo sing and bring my vision to life. 

Here is my blend mode info and brush patterns for my dodge and burn. 

For this brief I wanted to do some coffee themed still life as there were plenty substance for my story in that field. In addition to this, I have plenty of the apparatus around, since I drink it a lot. 

As far as my narrative goes for this brief, I purchased a 9 cup Bialetti moka and drank its entire contents every morning without being aware that it was 9 shots of espresso. This of course made me nauseous, to which I just thought I was working out too hard. So, with this being said I wanted a dark composition which displayed two themes, one of the Bialetti being villainous in some way and the subject matter conveying Nausea. 

I decided to do this by using the L composition trick. This would be easy with my idea for the composition anyways, due to my Bialetti being tall and vertical, then for my coffee cup to be in the base of the L. This was also a great vessel to have my coffee beans spilling out of, ticking the box of conveying nausea. This also paired with the correct lighting, I could then highlight the key factors of the composition which I’d like to guide the viewers eye to. 

As you can see, that was achieved by having two large wooden table tops as flags which I would move to adjust the amount of light hitting the coffee cup. This worked incredibly alongside some dodging and burning, which I will cover in the post production post.  

The kit I used for this was both a 50mm and 85mm prime. which I think I prefer the 85mm, for the compression of the longer focal length.