Archaeological Site and Artefact Illustration AHIS3306: Field Methods of Archaeology
Fig 1. Processed Landscape Photograph (Ref. Image: 4022_Overview_SW_01Perachora)
Process Journal
Week 3: The Basics of Archaeological Photography
A really great start in outlining the purpose of this assessment and providing some great tools to artefact and field photographic conventions. Dr Shawn Ross's lesson combined with Nathaniel Lowe's guide to using a DSLR camera has been really informative. Ross went through all of the workings of a professional camera, from switching it on to more advanced adjustment of modes for scope of photography taking. As I have never used a professional camera in my life, I was not aware of most of the concepts and processes that followed. Realising the overwhelming elements to 'Exposure' and just the wealth of lenses was really interesting. However, being taught a lesson remotely, without actually having a camera in front of me to practice on, was really difficult and I am afraid that a lot of the information that was provided wasn't fully absorbed. I am not sure that I will be able to pick up a DSLR camera in the future and fully understand all the buttons and settings I am changing nor exactly why. However what I did take from this, was really a more holistic understanding to the reasoning behind choosing certain lenses, like the purpose of 'Macro' lenses as opposed to 'Optical Zoom' lenses. The enthusiasm and expertise that was expressed by Ross this week will be invaluable for future archaeological endeavours and I am sure will prove to be extremely beneficial when I eventually experience using a professional camera. Importantly, this lesson also shed some light on how to take archaeological photographs - what elements to highlight, what angles and the necessary requirements that go hand in hand with the type of camera that is chosen. Before this week, I can honestly say I never realised just how many types of lenses there are and how impactful those lenses can be when photographic subjects are considered. Only the initial stages of this assignment unfolding, this week has been a really enthusiastic way to begin and I am excited to see how the next weeks will unfold.
Week 4: Processing Field and Artefact Photos
Fig 2. RAW Landscape Photographs (Ref. Image: 4022_Overview_SW_01Perachora)
I have never had experience with Adobe Lightroom before witnessing the lesson given by Nathaniel Lowe this week. The way the program works according to the demonstration given by Nathaniel, seems quite straightforward and I am quite excited to get started with this aspect. When choosing from the selected landscape images that were taken at Perachora, there was one image that stood out to me in all the options provided. The image of the rock formations which are very clearly the foundations of a building or wall structure. Upon looking at the image, I wanted to make a note of the reference points that should be the focus throughout the image and I noted the white rocks take take up a large portion of the image and are very obviously the area of interest in the photograph. Hence, there is a definitive zone in this image that will be the centre focus in my edit, that of the rock formations in the image.
Additionally to the rock formations, there are other greenery elements of trees and a white reflective section of sky. Confirming that there are no hidden elements of the rock formations nor any additional structures, I noted that the greenery and the sky are not relevant to the reference image. Therefore, after importing the image to Lightroom Classic, I cropped the landscape image to include only structural elements indicated by the rocks. There were some hidden white formations hidden by some greenery, therefore that was where I held the boundary for cropping, including everything below the sky and greenery. Therefore, to begin my edit I utilised the ‘Transform’ setting and altered the ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ elements of the overall view of the photo. This erased the bushland to the left of the image and brought more focus to the central elements of the image. Unfortunately, I needed to crop part of the right side of the image as well, which meant some of the formation on the right were cut off. However, each element from the entire right side remains in tact and the context of all formations are visible.
After cropping and altering the view of the image, I noted how 'dark' the lighting comes across with detail of the rocks and surrounding landscape not being a massive focus throughout the image. Next I wanted to alter the exposure of the image, as it is currently on the darker side with the histogram showing heavy distribution on the left. I also increased the ‘Temperature’ of the image to give it some warmth. I then wanted to create more of a contrast with the darker points as opposed to the lighter points, enhancing the focus on the rocks rather than the dirt landscape. I then increased the 'Highlight' and 'White' options in the tonal curve, which enhanced further the focus of the reference image. To created balance, I decreased the ‘Black’ option. The 'Texture' and 'Clarity' were only slightly increased to give the image some more sharpness, while I decreased the ‘Dehase’ only slightly to give the image more scope and avoid washing out the image. I tried to not touch the 'Shadowing' tool, as I experimented with this and it gave the image some distortion. When I checked the metadata of this image, there actually was none.
Upon comparing both images, the differences are really obvious. There is a significant improvement in the sharpness and clarity of the edited copy, whereas all reference points are highlighted. The brightness of the processed image also enhances the overall detailing in the image. My intention throughout this editing process, was to emphasise the incredible details that were hidden in the original. By cropping the image in the edit and eliminating the excess greenery, allowed for a more central image that clearly indicates the points of interest in why this photos was taken, while keeping the integrity of the original colours and objects in the original photo.
Like the Landscape image, when looking at all the artefact images supplied, the beautiful detailing on the stone object with hat looks like three figures stood out most to me. Upon looking at the image, my first thought was the detailing of the figures and how they could be emphasised further in the process of editing this photograph. I chose to crop this image, like I did with the landscape image and cut crop out the black and white scale that was at the top of the image, making the feature centre.
What I learnt in the early stages of experimenting with Lightroom editing of this photograph, was that this artefact requires a lot of care and can be easily distorted. I found that it was a much more ‘fragile’ editing process as opposed to the landscape image, whereas this image could not cope with vigorous adjustments. My biggest worry while editing this, was in ruining the integrity of the original image and creating a distorted colour that did not represent the RAW photograph. Therefore, I avoided too many changes that were capable of ruining the artistic integrity represented in the centre image. After cropping the image to a central area, juxtaposed the white background, I then began the editing process with intention to make the subject matter represented on this stone object ‘pop’. I experimented with the 'Exposure' option only to find significant distortion to the original image, therefore I reverted back to the original RAW photograph and instead increased the 'Contrast'.
By increasing the 'Highlight', I realised this process allowed for the central figure to stand out even further and be key central figures to draw the eye while looking at the photograph. By drawing the viewers' eye to the details in the image, really focuses the attention of the image at hand, emphasising the viewers’ ability to understand and interpret the elements of the image more clearly. There is really beautiful detailing in the dresses that are being worn by the subjects that I thought should be further elevated by increasing the 'White' and 'Black' elements of the tone, further generating texture and contrast within the photograph. I decreased the 'Vibrance' and 'Saturation' in order to counter the significant texture given thus far, with some more balance. I slightly 'Sharpened' the artefact in order to accentuate not just the central image but also the elements surrounding the centre image, displaying some really interesting carvings that are of some interest.
There is a really bright section on the top right side of the object that is really hard to discern in the original. When dealing with this part of the image, I tried to enhance the visibility of that area by using the 'Brush tool' to focus the editing in that area only. This I found was much harder than I expected and I didn't have much success in altering that one specific area, without making it look abnormal and disjointed from the rest of the image. Therefore, I enhanced the texture and contrast slightly to create more visibility.
Fig 5: RAW Artefact Photograph (Ref. IMG_1472)
Week 5: Digitising Artefact Illustrations
This was probably my most challenging aspect to this assignment thus far. The thought of 'inking' an artefact was really exciting and I thought would be easier than processing the photographs in Lightroom. However, I was mistaken! Adobe Illustrator is one of the most challenging programs I have used so far, and although Nathaniel Lowe's lesson was extremely beneficial, it was an instance of something looking really easy until tried yourself. It took me several hours to get the hang of using only a small portion of the tools available on illustrator, not to mention the difficulties in discerning exactly what were intentional elements or not intentional elements on the selected hand drawn images by Dr Karin Sowada. Upon looking at the various hand drawn images provided, an image of a vessel stood out to me.
I began my Illustrator journey by choosing the A4 option when creating a new document and dragging the reference image onto the page creating my first official 'Layer' which I labeled "Sketch of Reference Image". I then created another layer and labeled that one "Centred line" in order to make the ongoing process clear and concise moving forward. I then started the 'Penning' process of inking the line down the centre of the vessel, differentiating the 'Exterior' from the 'Interior'. I also used the alignment tool to make that centre line the centre of the entire document.
Although a basic start, I started getting used to the layering and created another layer which I labeled "Outline of Reference Image" in order to begin my inking of the outline. Needless to say, this experience was made up of much trial and error. The differentiation between the three layers took some getting used to and I made the mistake of accidentally penning lines from the outline phase, onto the first and second layers that were not created for that stage. Additionally, getting used to the 'Curvature pen tool' was not an easy process!
Fig 8: Second Layer on Illustrator with the "Centred line"
Since the artefact inking needs to be entirely accurate to the reference sketch provided, this was an aspect I had to redo multiple times to achieve the best replica that I could possibly achieve as shown above in the two images. I also experimented with differing colour options in order to create some notable difference. However, I soon inked everything in black as the pencil compared with the black ink, was variation enough as can be seen above. Following the outlining, I then created another layer and labeled "Decoration" even though I was well aware, not all the sketched elements in the next phase were in fact 'decoration'.
As can be seen in the above images (Fig 11 & 12), there were a lot of elements to this next layer of the document that I found quite difficult. I will begin with the really small shapes and elements of interest on the exterior of the vessel, hence the left side of the central line. Creating the exact curves and shapes with the curvature tool was near impossible, as some elements had a combination of both sharp and curved angles. Nonetheless, with some considerable effort I managed to replicate the original sketched hollowed shapes that were indicated on the original sketch. I believe these hollowed shapes are potential areas of interest that are highlighted to their difference in the grain texture of the pottery. Additionally to the difficulties of the pen tool, discerning intentional drawings from potential smudges was also difficult, as Egyptian pottery drawing convention is still really new to me and I am not exactly sure of what each element is meaning. The stippling that is evident on both the exterior and interior sides of the vessel does not change in density but does vary in size, which I have tried to replicate with the 'Ellipse tool'. From this, I also discovered the rotation option to change the degrees of each oval I created for this component. On the sketch, the colour 'Red' is written along with the stippling on both sides of the vessel, indicating that the effect was added as a reference of colour hence, density of the colour. I am assuming they are indicative of the vessel's colour and texture in it's entirety rather than specific only to that area.
One particular point of reference that I think is necessary to point out, are the zigzagged detailing on the bottom of the body on the exterior side of the vessel. It is extremely faint in the opposite photograph of the sketch, however I interpreted this as an important detail to include in my inking. I am not entirely sure of what this detail means according to the convention of Egyptian archaeological drawing practice, as Burke, Morrison and Smith (2020) do not discuss this in their chapter on this topic nor does an internet search shed much light on it either. With all of this in mind, I decided to ink this component in a light grey as seen in Fig 12 above.
Fig 13: Zigzag detail faintly seen in the sketch of the reference image.
I then added the object reference number and attribution of the sketch as indicated by the writing on the outside of the reference object. I also created a key legend of what I interpreted from each interest point according the conventions of archaeological drawing.
Week 6: Artefact Illustration
Drawing has never been a strength of mine and this weeks Artefact illustration lesson with Dr Karin Soweda made me realise just how much thought and effort goes into precise archaeological drawings. This element to the assignment has officially been the most difficult to achieve. A lot of practice is needed for me to truly achieve the accuracy necessary in archaeological drawing, while proper tools other than household objects on hand would be beneficial. The accuracy is crucial in archaeological illustration as they communicate to the viewer exactly what has been excavated in the most precise way, whereby viewers can discern exactly what is being presented in that illustration. Accuracy has never been so prevalent as it is with this task and throughout my illustration, I have intended to replicate that accuracy. After the seminar and demonstration given by Dr Sowada, I endeavoured to collect all the material necessary to replicate my own illustration of a household object. Before this weeks seminar, I intended on sketching a vase. However following the seminar, I decided that was going to be way too ambitious and instead opted to sketch a flat object that. From this revelation, I chose a circular pizza cutter which has also proven extremely difficult, notably due to the circular component. I taped the object to the grid paper and traced the outline of the object. I then measured with a ruler the exact dimensions of the object in order to concrete my tracing further. Using a ruler, I confirmed all the points of interest to get the most accurate possible results with the ruler. The most difficult component was solidifying the exact circumference of the circular blade, as I didn't have the correct tool to do this. To get by, I measured 8cm for each point of the circle to achieve the result in the end. I used shading to create the an illusion of the blade edges, however they are quite rough around the edges. I then used some stippling to show the elements of rust evident on the object. Although a really rough illustration, I am happy with the result and will strive to improve on this skill.
