khai uniforn experiments

thought i'd try something different for a change. the same processing of selecting the uniform, but instead of turning the saturation -100, i pushed it up to maximum 100. scrolling through the hue slider also changes the color interestingly. i'll see if i can upload it here somehow.

whitening attempt 6

two more today. i like ade's. friends say it looks like he's wearing prayer robes (the shape of the hands might also suggest that)

alif's i'm not so hot about. might change to another image as well.

singapore armed forces commercials

when i used to own a television i'd see SAF commercials every so often. but now that i don't have a tv, i just watch them on youtube.

it's funny how the commercials are so slick and fast-paced and generally videogame-like. it's so obvious who they're trying to target. but since NS is mandatory, the point is not to get young guys to sign up for the military is it? are the commercials just for getting them excited to go to NS? or softening the blow?

white attempt 5

i'd call this an unsuccessful attempt. while aaron's had ideal lighting for this kind of photoshopping, this image of zid doesn't. i'm particularly bothered by the left side of his uniform. it's just so dark that there are no details visible and it looks like just a clump of white. i'm gonna have to look for another image of zid to use.

whitening attempt 4

back to doing uniforms in white. these are all just low res so it's quite easy, but i really like how they turn out. especially this one of aaron, i think the light falling onto the uniform is perfect for this treatment

amirali ghasemi

the artist i was referring to earlier was amirali ghasemi, an iranian artist who works with photography and video. the work is from his series "tehran remixed: party series." i think his work has a social and national angle to it as well, which makes it similar to mine not only in aesthetic.

white attempt 3

tried something different this time. saw something similar by another artist, will try to find it. i don't think i'll end up doing this, but it does look interesting, visually.

singapore pixelated camo combat uniform type 4

when zai told me about the history of singapore's armed forces camouflage, i did a bit of googling and found an interesting article about the camouflage they use. apparently it's the 4th incarnation, a new type of digitally pixelized pattern that even better than tradition camo for blending into singapore's jungle environment.

"The full explanation from the Singapore Army is that becuase of the advanced surveillance equipment and weapon optics in use today, soldiers face a greater risk of detection in combat. Recognising this, the Singapore Army and the Defence Science & Technology Agency (DSTA) jointly developed the new SAF combat uniform with an enhanced camouflage pattern to reduce detection – based on the science of human visual performance and visual biophysics. Research was done to see how the defined boundary lines in the current camouflage pattern could be replaced to improve the camouflage capability of the combat uniform. Pixels were used to break up boundary lines and to generate a quivering effect. This affects the ability of the eye to see solid lines and the brain to detect recognisable shapes, resulting in a slower detection rate of the pixelised camouflage pattern at short distances (micro-pattern). Viewed at longer distances, the pixelised camouflage works just like the traditional camouflage which comprises pattern shapes (macro-pattern)."

so it's because of new surveillance (read photo and video) technologies that they now have to redo the uniform. i bet it has something to with the way CCD digital chips are used to record everything, the way they see everything in pixels. hence pixelated camo. very interesting.

whitening attempt 2

attempt #2

it's a lot easier with this image of imran because it's a solid mass of uniform and not as complex as the shape of shaf's. used quick mask and some lasso tool, same -100 saturation and 80 lightness. lecturers like that it's not completely white and some detail from the uniform is still seen.

whitening attempt 1

first attempt at whiting out the uniform as suggested by lecturers. i really like how this looks.

done mostly using quick mask in photoshop to select the uniform part. then bring saturation to -100, lightness to 80 in Hue/Saturation/Lightness. it's not super neat but it's a good attempt. more playing around to follow. it's really hard with a trackpad.