Final Self Portrait and Rationale

Influenced by a large PDF file drawing its layers sequentially as it was slowly loading, my final self portrait project is made up of four different images of myself taken in quick succession against a plain wall. The layers were then tinted and placed in the following order: red, green, blue, grayscale. The result of superimposing four images that were taken in quick succession is that it seems like the focus of the image, in this case me, is varying in position. I have chosen to tint the layers in RGB, because this can be seen to represent my life in the digital realm, as most of us do now, relying on different technologies to provide entertainment and information. Rectangular chunks were then taken out of each layer to represent bits of data, as well as the flaws in myself. In some cases the chunks overlap; in this case, it is representing the integration of humans with technology. The grayscale layer of the image not only represents the "down to earth", physical reality portion of my personality, it is also used to preserve the details in the image. This is because layering images and blending multiple edited layers results in a loss of detail and lack of contrast in the image. Too many layers can also cause the viewer to be disoriented as to what to focus on in the image. By using the black and white as an image base plate, I was able to preserve the detail and visual comprehension in the image.

When taking the photo, I kept in mind the laws of composition. When taking and processing the photos, I used the rule of thirds to guide myself. In the final image, I have placed myself on the right third, and allowed the visual centre to fall onto the centre of my face. The resulting blockular grid pattern is also in reference to my interest in De Stijl art. The colourful ordered overlay, in addition, represents my style when designing, preferring to use ordered geometric shapes over free form shapes. The photos of me were taken with manual white balance and exposure settings, because this allows me to not only control the outcome of the image to a higher degree, but also when taking images in succession, they would have the same colour toning and exposure levels. In this way, the images would look more unified when placed together. I feel that I have achieved what I have intended to do with this work, which was to transmogrify myself and my personality into a piece of digital art, that is not only visually appealing, but also well composited.