I'm a photostudent, and tomorrow I'm supposed to hand in a minimum of 5 abstract images. My problem is, I have no clue of what abstract is or what it looks like. I read about it, I have looked at many of the abstract entries here, and I ended up with this:
Is this anywhere near abstract? Or is it just plain photoshop art of an image shot with a camera?
That's certainly abstract. By definition, to "abstract" something is to reduce it to its essentials. So, for example, I used to earn some coin doing "abstracts" of books, where I'd boil the whole book down to a thousand words, and the company I was freelancing for sold these abstracts (of business titles) to businessmen who needed to be familiar with the material but were too lazy/busy to read the book.
So if you take a macro picture that shows half a button and buttonhole and the swath of fabric next to it, that's an abstraction of a shirt.
There are those who would say, in art, that if it's recognizable then it's not abstract, or "an abstraction"; for all practical purposes, any image you cannot easily identify what it is "of" is an abstraction.
"Abstract", in the context of art, is a generic term with more defined subcategories. Yes, the image you posted is an abstract, and "yes" it looks like pain photoshop manipulation. Anything not clearly figurative can be said to be more or less abstract.
Among lay people the consensus of what an abstract is is even broader. Here, on this site, many close-ups and macros, even though they clearly depict an objective, tangible reality, are regularly classified as "abstract".
That's certainly abstract. By definition, to "abstract" something is to reduce it to its essentials. So, for example, I used to earn some coin doing "abstracts" of books, where I'd boil the whole book down to a thousand words, and the company I was freelancing for sold these abstracts (of business titles) to businessmen who needed to be familiar with the material but were too lazy/busy to read the book.
So if you take a macro picture that shows half a button and buttonhole and the swath of fabric next to it, that's an abstraction of a shirt.
There are those who would say, in art, that if it's recognizable then it's not abstract, or "an abstraction"; for all practical purposes, any image you cannot easily identify what it is "of" is an abstraction.
R.
Thank you so much! That actually inspired me to my final photo. Don't worry, I won't steal your idea!
If took one, or two (can't remember...), "sides" of a soapbubble and rotated them and put them next to each other, etc. My teacher wanted us to explore photoshop with this assignment, so at least I got to do that.
Originally posted by glad2badad:
And a very pleasant one at that! Nice.
Thank you, that helps! Got a minimum 4 more to edit tonight.
He-he, and just when was this assigment handed out? :-P
A while ago, but I've had my reasons for starting late! Had a musictheory and pitch test to study for. And I only got the editing left, so now that I know a little bit more I should be fine. I'm not lazy when it comes to music and photography, just everything else. But aren't we all?
A while ago, but I've had my reasons for starting late! Had a music theory and pitch test to study for.
Do you happen to be studying Joseph Schillinger? Jeremy Arden's workbooks on his theories? I've been editing/designing Schillinger books off and on for years now :-)
A while ago, but I've had my reasons for starting late! Had a music theory and pitch test to study for.
Do you happen to be studying Joseph Schillinger? Jeremy Arden's workbooks on his theories? I've been editing/designing Schillinger books off and on for years now :-)
R.
Ufortunelately no. This was one of those "prove yourself worthy for the acadmey" tests.
This is my shot of a straight pin stuck in a piece of black cardboard. I was doing an exercise of auto-focusing the camera on the smallest possible subject.
Abstracts are a subject that is near & dear to my heart. To me, every photo is abstracted from reality because the act of framing the shot is a process of selection. When I think of Abstract in terms of a genre of Art, then it's more like a process of selection from that selection. Like distilling. I keep taking things out until it's perfectly Abstract. I guess perfectly abstract music would be nothing but silence.
In my experience many photographers consider a macro shot to be abstract. If you google Abstract Photography, that's what you get--macro shots of a part of the subject.
Your abstract comp looks fully abstract to me, a bit mathematical & symmetrical, but Abstract.
