Final Photos on location:

After changing my ideas and testing what I wanted my final pieces to look like I took my final photos. Here are the ones I took on location in my shower at home.

I firstly turned my shower on to hot and shut all the windows and the door to the room so that the room would become foggy and so that the shower door would become wet and misty. I then put red lipstick on my model and turned the shower off. Then I got my model to get into the shower and to stand up close to the door. I then took photos from the other side so I could capture the foggy window in front of my models face. Then when I’d captured a good amount of photos with it like that I rubbed out part of the fogginess on the window so that there was a gap that could be seen through better. Then I took more photos but including the gap that I’d just made. I tried to just have the lips and the nose through the gap as it means that you can’t fully identify the person which creates a sense of the unknown.

Here are some photos of me setting the bathroom up:

I her to wear a pretty brown dress that was low cut so that the shape of her body could be made out behind the fog making it easier to see that it’s a girl and they are wearing a dress. I also styled her hair so that it was straight and pointed at the edges. I did this so that her hair is noticeable and also catches peoples eyes and makes them want to have their hair like that. There are patterns on the door of my shower which are captured in the photos but I think this makes the photos more bizarre.

Here are the four photos I chose and edited:

The top photo is my favourite as the angle is really flattering and the whip through the glass really make the photo become unusual. I also like that the hair in the photo is being caught by the sun which makes it have a nice pop of colour. I feel the top two photos with the whips out worked the best whilst the bottom two photos look good but aren’t as easy to know that they are of someone in the shower as the foggy glass looks weird. I think these photos are bold and fashionable as they catch your eye easily due to the scenery and the pop of red coming from the lipstick. The lipstick is also the thing that could makes it fashionable alongside the hair which is also a main feature of the picture. To make sure that it  wasn’t just me that liked the photo, I went out and asked people within the age brackets what they thought of the photos and they all were very positive.

Here are are the comments people said about my photos:

“I really like how unique your image is and it’s defiantly eye catching. I think using the bright lipstick worked really well and I like how it’s brought to your attention by the wiped clean bit of glass”

“I love the idea behind the theme of the image. Very creative, also love the colours used in the image”

“Unique idea but works really well, I think you captured your ideas perfectly”

“I like how you used something in your everyday life to make a unique photo”

 

 

Location risk assessment:

>Room hasn’t got anything dangerous in it which could be effected by water

>Put towels on the floor so there is no danger of slipping over

>No spraying in the room whilst the doors and windows are shut so the air is safe

>Make sure the water isn’t too hot for people the model getting into the shower

>Make sure the model is wearing grippy shoes in the shower so that they don’t slip over

>Keep camera out of damp room as much as possible so not to ruin it

>If using lighting that needs plugging in do not plug it in in the bathroom

>Make sure there aren’t cables near water or anywhere that could get splashed

>Don’t keep people in the foggy room too long as it’s not healthy to breath for too long

>Walk slowly around the room so not to knock anyone/anything over

Studio risk assessment:

>Plug the lighting into the generator by putting the head into the socket tip first and then the back (like a dolphin) this is to prevent the plastic tip snapping off

>Take the light off the stand to remove covers or heads

>Always put a cover over the lights when done with them so that the bulbs can’t be smashed

>Hang up any unneeded equipent so it’s not all over the floor

>Use the fan while in the room so that it doesn’t get too hot and start a fire

>Let the light covers cool down before removing it as it’s made of metal and will burn

>Try and keep wires limited so you don’t trip over them

>Don’t take food and drink in their as it might get onto the equipment and break it

>Don’t touch the bulbs with your fingers as the mousture off them will break it

>Put the legs out as far as possible on the tripods so that the lights are stable and won’t fall over

>Tape the paper down on the floor so that you don’t trip over it

>Pull the tape off from paper to floor so that it doesn’t rip it

>Get people to help change anything on the crane lighting as it has a weight on it and this could make it dangerous to people near by

>Always discharge the lighting before using it – make the lighting go off once before you actually use it so that it is working properly

>Don’t have too many poeple in the room as there isn’t enough space

>Don’t sit on the products shooting table as it is like glass and will break with too much weight

>If you put the camera on the side be careful that the cable from it to the generator doesn’t get bodged as this will cause your camera to fall on the floor and possibly break

>When using the teddy bear stuffing keep it away from over head lighting as it could set on fire

>Don’t let anything hanging touch the lighting or knock anything over

>Make sure everyone in the room is being sensible

 

Final photos in the studio

After changing my ideas and testing what I wanted my final pieces to look like I took my final photos. Here are the ones I took in the light studio but ended up changing to the dark studio so that I could get a stormy look and be able to control the lighting in the photos.

I firstly started by making thunder storms on A3 pieces of card and then cutting them out and connecting them to string. I then once they were connected to the string put them onto a bamboo stick using tape and made sure they were all spaced out and at different heights. I then connected the bamboo stick to a camera pole that was in the studio using tape and positioned it over the set where I was taking my photos. Then to create a cloud I bought 5 bags of teddy bear stuffing and spread out on the studio floor under the clouds that were hanging. I then used yellow face paint to paint my model so that it looked like he’d been shaded.

Here are some photos of me setting the studio up:

I got him to wear fashionable clothing and to look like something that someone would inspire to be like. I wanted the feeling of the photo to be as if it was taken in the clouds and that my model is asleep up there and meanwhile there is a thunderstorm happening above. This is why he has yellow on his body so that it looks like the yellow from the lightning has caused reflections of yellow onto his skin.

Here are the four photos I chose and edited:

I feel the top two photos are my strongest out of the four I have taken for my final piece as they are from a flattering side angel. I also like the placement of the clouds over him as they bring your eyes down but don’t take full concentration away from the model. I do like the bottom two as well though as they show a different perspective of the cloud world I created and could tell a different story to views. I like the clouds in the last photo as they are placed differently compared to the other photos which shows that I’m experimenting and not just sticking to the same plan. I took them all in portrait as a magazine would need them to fit on the front cover. I feel that they worked really well and when I went out and tested it by talking to people within the age specification about what they thought about the photos, I got positive feedback.

Here are some of the things people said about these photos:
“the cloud images are very imaginative and you have shot them very effectively”

“I like the clouds as it’s a unique idea especially with the face paint”

“The cloud ones are cool and well thought out – tells a story behind the images”

“I like the fluffy cloud photos, incredibly unique”

Improving my Final ideas

After trying my first ideas out and thinking about if it would work for the front cover of a magazine, I came up with improved ideas and ones that I felt could be front page quality.

1)

For my first idea I wanted to create a photo in a studio with someone lying down and have them surrounded by things. Well that idea has changed quiet a bit but the basics are the same. Instead of patterns and the person being on a silk blanket, they’d be lying on a cloud of teddy bear stuffing and have massive drawings of thunder storms hanging over them from the ceiling. The person would be wearing fashionable clothing and would probably be a boy so that it could interest girls and boys. I want to make it like a drawing so that’s why the storm clouds are drawings. Also the boy would be shaded with yellow to match the lightning colour and give it the drawing feel. Here is a drawing to show my idea:

This is a rough sketch of my idea and I will be shooting the actual Final piece of it soon. I really think this would make a perfect and new idea for a front cover of a magazine. It would easily make people pick it up and it could make people want to feel as awesome as the photo.

 

2)

For my second idea it hasn’t changed much from last time but now I’ve changed it to being in a shower or somewhere weird. This would be my location portrait and I would use a girl to make it something both a girl and boy would be interested in. I would want the person to wear clothes and makeup to still show the fashion side of it and so it’s really weird. Here is the photo I took:

I took this without lighting or setting up properly as I just wanted to see if it would look how I expected and that you could still see the face enough. The only thing that I don’t think worked is that there’s no proper lighting making the photo very dark and grungy. When I take my actually final piece for this I think I’ll use bright lights and do noticeable makeup with a fashionable outfit.

Final Piece

After I’d decided my photography style and how I was going to display them I went out and took the photos from beginning to end of the exhibition which was over 2 weeks. When I’d got all my photos taken, I edited them and sized them all to A5 so they could be printed. In the end I had 11 final photos which I felt showed the stages of the exhibition really well. Here are the photos edited and sized to A5:

 

I got them all printed out and connected them together with a continues piece of translucent wire using a needle to thread them through the photos so that there aren’t massive holes in them. The wire travels along the back of the photos and comes over the top in the gaps and is held in place with tape so the photos don’t move around. I really like how they look and how long they are when connected together. I feel it’s eye catching and tells the story really well but with not too many photos. I think the photo angles do have a look of Henri Cartier-Bresson to them and have a really interesting feel to them.

Overall I feel the photos work really well for a narrative story and create an easy way of viewing it too. The floor angle gives the photos a quirky and uncommon look to my project. If I had to do them again I would captured an equal amount of each part of the exhibition going up so that the photos are mostly of the putting up like mine.

Development of Final Ideas

After thinking and trying out my ideas, I have photos to show how they are going and which one I’m preferring and I want to use. I also have thought about how I would like them to be displayed and I will be discussing this also.

Photo Style 1:

I tried this out and got many photos of people working on their work from just putting up to just finishing up the final details. I feel it does connect with the people but you can’t easily tell what point the exhibitions at from them putting their work up as everyone is at different stages at the same time. Meaning that I don’t think this would be a good idea for showing the stages of the exhibition. I feel like I captured the same kind of style as Doisneau as the others in the class didn’t seem to notice me taking the photographs, like I was somehow hidden and the photos are completely natural. Here are a few of the photos I took in this style:

 

Photo Style 2:

I tried this out and decided that I’d change it a little so that it’s not fully from the floor but more from a crouched potion so that I can capture more of the exhibition in my photos. I feel the photos are perfect for showing the stages of the exhibition and what people are getting up to. The photos show what is happening and what stage it is perfectly and they are interesting to look at too. What is really good, which I hadn’t thought of before taking these photos is that you don’t just capture what one person is doing you get to see what loads of people are doing in exhibition. I feel like Henri Cartier-Bresson photos helped influence the angles I captured in these photos. Here are the photos I took in this style:

 

Photo style I’ve chosen to use:

I’m going to be taking my photos at floor level as it’s an angle that is not seen much but can give us a lot of information from the shoes we can see or the state the floor is in. If the floor is dirty then it’s not fit to have people come around and see it and if people are wearing fancy shoes then it’s most likely open. The floor is some what the base of a story and is very important for details. As I said earlier I won’t take the photos straight from the floor but at a crouching position so that more can be seen.

The framing I’ve chosen to do:

For framing I’ve decided to do the ones that hang from each other as I feel it will make the photos more interesting and go best with the style of photography I’m going to be taking. I’m going to have the photos around A5 and hang from each other with transparent string so that it doesn’t distract from the pictures. I also want it to hang from string at the top so that the pictures can swing freely from the wall.

My Final Piece Ideas

For this project we need to take photos showing the stages of the exhibition in Northampton of our last final piece photos going up and being taken down. We also need to display it so that it tells the story of the exhibition stages easily. The photos can’t just be simply of the exhibition, they need to be creative. I’ve thought of two different ways of taking the photos and how to display them and so I’ll explain them below:

 

Photo Style 1: 

I could take all my photos of the people working in the exhibition so that the whole stages are shown by the students and how their work is going. This way you’ll be able to know what stage you are at as if their work is up then you know that the exhibition is nearly open or is open but if their work is still going up then it is either not open yet or is being taken down. This also gives the viewers of the photos get to know more about the people and their work. I feel this links the Robert Doisneau as I’m capturing peoples lives just naturally and showing what they are doing without positioning them myself. I like how Doisneau can take photos and nobody notices so I want to try and make the photos like that too.

 

Photo Style 2:

I could take the photos all from floor level so that you can see what stage the exhibition is at by the shoes people are wearing and the things on the floor such as equipment. This will be a really interesting thing to view as the floor tells a lot about a situation as people won’t be wearing their best shoes to work but will wear their best to look around an exhibition. You can’t normally see everything from floor level but I think that everything could be way more interesting when you have to think about what you’re looking at the know what stage the exhibition is. I feel this links to the photos that Henri Cartier-Bresson took as he takes photos in interesting ways and angles and also captures people when they aren’t expecting it and they also don’t know they are having their photos taken. I’m inspired by his photos and I think my photos will be slightly like his but mine will be by the floor level.

 

Framing Idea 1:

I could hang them all under each other via string that’s invisible so that they go down in order. This way they can go on a wall and be easy to follow as narrative photos. I also wanted to hang them from each other as a story can’t be a story without the other parts just like the photos hanging from each other as the photo are dependant on hanging from the next one. This framing idea is both practical and attractive.

Framing Idea 2:

I could put them in a frame going sideways with two lines with one under the other. This gives the photos a simple display and makes them easy to follow. This idea could also look good on the wall, instead of only being practical. There would have to be an equal amount of photos so that the photo lines can be the same length.

About the artists I looked at

Maria Slough:

Slough’s photos are taken to tell stories and for them to have meanings. I feel this links to  my piece of work perfectly as this is the point of the photos I need to take. Her work is mostly with water which interests me due to my liking to water in my photos too. Her photos also have a surreal feeling to them which is the theme for most of my photos so I feel I could take some tips from her photographs.

 

Jacob Sutton:

Sutton’s work contains a lot of movement from clothes or the models half way through moving. This gives a really nice effect and this inspires me to have some movement in my photos to make them more lifelike and maybe to show distress. Also in some of his photos a girl is under water and there are air bubbles which I would like to capture in my photos as it makes it more real.

 

Lydia Lingenfeld:

Lingenfeld isn’t a famous photographer and only has one of her photos on the internet but that does stop that photo being really inspiring. Looking at her photo you can tell a lot about the person and give them a story. Lingenfeld also includes water in her photos which gives me more possibilities for my photos.

My final Diptych’s

Here are my 3 final piece diptychs of people I know but who aren’t the same age as me or in my class. Here I’m going to be talking about why I chose these photos and what I think about the outcome. I will also be going through the different stages it took to get to these photos and how the ideas changed.

Stress drowning:

For this diptych I couldn’t decided between my night and day photos so in the end I decided in combing the two but after further research I figured that a quidriptych would look out of place in the exhibition due to the rest being diptychs. Due to this I changed my idea to have to separate diptychs printed instead so I could have both but still fit in with the other students work within the exhibition. I really feel that these photos have turned out how I’d wanted and that they’ve come a long way from them only going to be day photos and up close just of the face to them now being both day and night photos both far away enough to be able to see the hands and the edge of the acrylic too. I feel my idea changed a lot over time but I think it’s for the best and that they show anxiety really simply but helps you know what it would feel like. I’m mostly happy with the night one as it includes the red and dark side I was looking for.

 

Heavy Balloons:

For this diptych I really wanted a surreal look with bright unnatural colours for a fairy tail look. In the photo my dad does have more emotion on his face then I wanted. I was looking for a completely poker face so that the viewer could choose what the meaning of the photo for themselves. Even though I changed the object photo from balloons to a pair of secateurs I still feels it gives the same message but tells the viewer more about my dad. I do feel that the photos have the bright colours I’d been looking for and that it gives the surreal and weirdness of him being in a suit whilst sat in water whilst surrounded by balloons. The photo has turned out how I wanted and I feel that the only thing I would want to be improved is the way the photo pops out at you and gives that wow reaction which I was looking at.

 

Happy Go Lucky:

For my final diptych I really wanted a fairy feel that you see when watching Disney or a theatre production. I used bluebells to create this as they are normally foun in woodlands and this is normally the home to mythical creatures. I really like movement in photos, so to capture the water being kicked was to make the photo feel more alive and as if it’s more than a photograph. I did have a problem with matching the blues of the flowers in both photographs but the way that the flowers in the object photo are so bright really makes it better and more like a fairytale. I am sad that the water idea didn’t work but sadly I didn’t have anything to back light it meaning the water wasn’t visible in the photos. I’m happy with how the photos came out though and how they changed to be better over time.

Overal I feel that all the photos turned out to show exactly what I’d wanted and even include parts that I didn’t think about when first writing my ideas down. All the photos have deep meanings and all of which perfectly describe the person. Some of the photos changed a lot along the way but that’s a good thing and has been done due to test runs. If I could change any of the photos I would have liked to add more link to show that they all have water in them for a reason. The reason isn’t for me to explain though as it’s for people to get out of it what they want.