Exam Plan

Shoot 9

Work Record
This shoot was a practise for a shoot I want to do in my 15hr exam. I want to create black and white images inspired by David bailey because I think I want to but coloured flowers over the top of the peoples faces to create an interesting effect. I will increase the contrast, lower the saturation, to make the  shadows as harsh as possible. I hope to achieve about 5 images which show different compositions of the face. I will do this by create different angles of the face and the angle in-which I hold the camera.

Preparation:

• Camera
• High tripod 
• The strongest light

I thought this shoot well because I achieved four images thatI am happy with and show different compositions. The two images above I thought I edited so it was black and white however they both have slight tints of colour and this is not what I was going for. I an happy with the first to images but the first one is the best. I believe I have achieved my aim of practising what I want to do for one of the shoots in my 15hr exam and I am happy I looked at david bailey because he inspired me to do the shoot  in the 15hr exam. Creating interesting shadows was more difficult them I thought so I am happy I know which ones work and which ones don't. 

When editing these images I changed the levels and curves, lowered the saturation, increased the contrast and some things to the individual images. I found this this worked to create the whiteness of the face and the black for the dark shadows too. I changed the levels and curves for the individual images because some had more light then dark and more dark then light so I wanted to try and balance them out.  

Overall I am happy with this shoot and now I know which composition work best and how to create the effect and this will give me more time to shoot and not worry about what I want and what works.

This image is the best one out of the four I create because it shows the outline of the face and it shows the harsh contrast of the shadows and the light section of the face. I think her glasses creates a nice contrast to the image and highlights the direction she is looking. When editing this image I had to play around with the levels and curves to create the strong contrast of the white and black. I believe I cropped the this image so it was tighter around her face but also so it showed all the dark and light areas. I don't think this image is good enough to be in my top 20 final pieces because I think its looks to simply but for what it is I really like it and I think some of the images I create in the 15hr exam will hopefully be better. 

This image is my favourite composition because her face is off to the left side of the image but you can still see the other side of her face. I think its the most interesting and the most affective composition but I didn't execute the editing for this image.  I did make the image black and white but I think I lightened the image using the brightness tool on photoshop and this create the shadows lighter which looks odd. I think I should re-edit this image to make it better. The image on the left is the new image and I think the editing is better and I think this image works better. 

I am not sure what I want to do for my tenth shoot but by next lesson I hope that I have a clear idea of want type of image I want to create. 

Shoot 8

Work record

For this shoot I want to do close up images of my dogs. I want to look at changing the angles in which I shoot and also to create depth of field because I think it will show the contrast of the focused part of the dog. I think a low saturation will work best because I don't want the colour to distract. I will shoot this on dog walk with my mum so she can assist with creating the images I want. I hope to achieve about four images that show close up well and has detail in my dogs faces and in there fur. 

Preparation:

• Charge camera
• Arrange a good time to go

I thought this shoot went well because I like all the images I edited, however it took about 8 images to get one image that I could use because the dogs kept moving or I wasn't in the right place at the right time. I found the best images worked when it was just a close up of the dogs face because it showed depth of field and I found it worked best. I would have liked more of a range of angles but I am happy with the images I got. I did find that at some points I had to change the setting so it takes the image as quick as possible because it reduced blurring. This shoot was also difficult because the dogs didn't really like the flash so I didn't use it and they didn't like the noise either. 

When editing I selected around the head of my dogs to desaturate the background because I wanted the colour to only come from the dog but I did desaturate the dog but not as much as the background because I wanted to the change to be subtle. I did this to 3 of the edited images because I felt it worked for them. There was one image I desaturated all of it and I think it was the best image because of the arrangement of the composition.

Overall I am pleased with the outcomes from this shoot and I think I will have one of them as a final piece. All but one image I believe shows close up and I'm happy with the outcome. 

 This image is my favourite from this shoot because I like that she is looking away from the camera and it makes the viewer ask the question where is she looking? the depth of field in this image I think really works because her nose and eyes are in-focus and the background and ear isn't and I think this really works well. When editing I desaturated it because I felt it looked more meaningful with it in black and white and I thought it showed the tones well in her fur. I think this image will be one of my final pieces because I think it shows my best work.

The image to the right is the best image I got of Charlie because I like that he is looking at the camera and his head is at a tilt.  This is one of the images that I desaturated the background so it was black and white and desaturated Charlie slightly. I did this because I wanted Charlie to stand out more but not so much that it looked fake. When editing I also made the focused part more detailed using the sharpen tool. I do like this image and I may put it in my top 30 images because I think it shows some of my best work.

For my next shoot I want to do a portrait shoot with the inspiration from David Bailey. I want to look at different angles of there face.

Research Log

Shoot 7

Work Record
This shoot I want to look at the small details in different fruits and leaves because I think I will be interesting and it links well to close up.

Preparation:

• Book studio
• Set up the light box
• Objects I need to bring in: leaves, cucumbers and kiwi. 
• Macro lens 

This image I thought went well because the images I got I am happy with. When doing the shoot I decided that I needed a camera stand that has the ability to tilt down so the lens in pointing down because I was doing close up the slight move of my hand the composition changes and I wanted the images to be as in focus as I could get them. The light box had different settings for the brightness and this I changes a couple of times to get the contrast I wanted. Also I needed four pieces of card to block the light around the fruit out because the light was affecting the image. I felt the animation went well and the five other images I got. 

When editing I increased the contrast because I wanted the little details to show up and stand out. If I had four different fruits I think four images in a grid would have looked good. To make the animation I used Photoshop and made the four images the same size and then put them in an order. I think the best images where the once that had the most contrast in the shades in the colour of the fruit. 

Overall I think this shoot went well and the images I got I think shows the detail I wanted but I wish I thought about getting four different types of fruit to mage a grid. 

This image was the best still image that I edited and I think it the best because I think it shows the fruit and contrast is really strong. The line green is really bright I like how there are different shades of green is and I like the composition. When editing this image I changed the levels and curves and increased the contrast. I think this images would have been better if it was in a grid because I don't think it is interesting enough to be a singing image. I think this shoot links really well with my topic and I think I should, in the future, repeat this shoot to get make my grid idea. The left side of the image is darker and I think this was because I cut it wonky. 

This animation I created by taking four images and repeating them over and over again. I didn't edit the individual image because I new I would be able to edit them all the same so I just kept them the same so I knew they were all the same. I had to crop the images to all the same size which was quit difficult and than I had to arrange them into the correct order. I used Photoshop to create the animation and then I put it on PhotoBucket and then on to my blog. I think if I lost one piece of fruit and then put them back but the other way it would look better because the kiwi is nearly always there and the cucumber isn't. I think this was a good idea and I'm happy with the outcome but I think I could have made it a bit better. 

For my next shoot I plan to take the dogs for a walk and take picture of them. I want to look at close ups but also medium shots of them. 

Shoot 6

Work Record

From this shoot I want to create close up images of candles. I want to look at different angles, composition and saturations. I don't think black and white will work for the images I take because I think colour will be the main focus for these images. I will shoot this at home because fire isn't allowed in the studio so I will try out different background to see what works best. I hope to achieve about four images that all show different compositions and angles. 

Preparations:

• 3 candles 
• Matches
• Charge camera

This shoot I am happy with but I do think looking other my contact sheets I didn't look at different angles like I wanted. I did find that thinking up different and interesting compositions was harder than expected. If I were to shoot this again I would properly use a range of different objects so it would be easier to think up different compositions. I wanted to create depth of field in these images and I am happy with this side of the images. I also like the colours in this image.

When editing I found that desaturated the images didn't work as well as keeping the bright bold colours so I only changed the saturation in one of the images. I increased the contrast of all the images and changed the levels and curves. For four of the images I wanted to put them in a grid format so using photoshop I did so. To this image I added a drop shadow behind all for images to make them stand out from the background.

Overall I am happy with the images I created and edited but I think if I did the shoot again I could create better images with a range of different objects and compositions.

This image is my favourite from this shoot because I like the colours and the depth of field in this image. I like that part of the front of the image is out of focus and the centre of the image is in-focus. The colours I think work well together because there all blend well together and they are calming to the eye. When editing I increased the contrast and the saturation by a little. I edited this image just to enhance the colours. I think this image could be improved by maybe doing it in the studio because I could have experimented with the right lighting.

This image I think has turned out better than expected but I still don't think it shows the best of my ability. I like the idea but in the background of some images there is some distracting objects that I think the images could benefit from them not being there. I like the colours and the range of different compositions in the images. When editing I but the four images in a grid format and then added a drop shadow to all the images.


For the next shoot I plan to use the light box and placing different objects on it that lets light though. I am think of fruit and leafs as the objects I use.

Shoot 5

Work Record
For this shoot I want to take images of water. I think close ups of water will be quit hard to photograph because to get the movement will be hard to time. I think blowing bubbles and dropping water into the water will look really nice and I hope that I can find a way to create this and make it look professional. The images to the right are the types of images that I hope to achieve but I don't think the detail will show in my images.

Preparation:

• Book Studio
• Do a test shoot (to see if it works)
• Set up the lights
• Test out what background would work best
• Use the macro lens
• A bowl 
• Straw

This shoot was really hard to do and I anticipated this so I did a practise shoot to make sure that it was possible to get images with the equipment available. I originally was going to drop something in the water but found this was hard to capture the impact on the water so I thought about blowing bubbles in the water with a straw and this worked well. Also using the straw I dropped water into the water and this seemed to work well if I took the images quick enough.  I needed another pair of hands so I used someone to drop the water and to blow the bubbles. When it worked I was very happy with the outcome and I think this shoot went well.

When editing these images I found that black and white and due-tone worked best because it showed the complexity of the water and the tones. At least two of the images I thought cropping out the straw was the best option because it didn't suit the image I wanted and the water to look natural and the straw wasn't so I thought it would look best.

Overall I am happy with this shoot because of the challenges I had to overcome and I believe the images work as a shoot with the topic close up.

 This image I think could have been better if I had the top part of the splash in because at the moment it looks like I have cropped it weird. I do think the black and white works well for this image because it shows all the tones in the water and I think the shapes that the water has created are really interesting because this happens all the time but because it happens so quickly you don't see it. I like that the splash is in the centre of the images because it draws the viewers eyes into the main subject. I like the fine line of water at the bottom of the water because I think it breaks up the image well and the arrangement suits this image.

This image is my favourite image from this shoot because I like the arrangement of the image and the light colour that I edited on. I think the subtle blue works for this image because it gives it a bit of colour and shows the dark and light areas of the image well. The splash is to the left side of the image and there isnt anything to the right and i think this works because it makes the image not look so busy and makes it look calmer. I think this image is more in-focus than the others and I think this shows in contrast to the other images.

The next shoot I plan to do is a shoot of fire and candles. I think depth of field will be a key thing I will try to create.

Discussion

When I received the exam paper and saw the different topics that I could possibly do, I had to do some research into what some of them meant, such as The Photoessay. After finding out what it meant I decided it wasn't for me. The top three that I choose to do a mind map-on were: Close-up, Family Life and Fantasy and after doing the mipmaps the topic close I thought gave me a lot of paths that I could take and I thought it was a very broad title. I think close up would suit me better than the others because it gives me the freedom to do want I want but as close up images which I'm happy about. The are range of ideas that I have and I hope these ideas turn out the way that I ant them to and that the images I produce are well taken and edited.

There were many ideas that came into mind when I was doing the mind-map for close and the one I wanted to do first was facial features. I thought that this would give me the opportunity to improve my studio work and would give me the a good starting point to this close up project. This image is the sort of image that I would like to achieve. This idea could possibly work well as a photo-joiner or as a grid of images because the images would be sections of the face so I could recreate the face using small close up images.

This image represents another idea I have, which is close ups of flowers. I want to try out different angles and composition to create an interesting image. I think I will do this shoot in the studio because I can get the correct lighting and I will be able to use the macro lens. I will have to buy a bunch of flowers to bring into the studio.

I think these to ideas will sprout different ideas and I think this will be a could starting point for this project.

Definition

Definition from emmawaite95

Image Bank Close up

Shoot 4

Work Record 

For this shoot I wanted to take close up images of everything to do with the forest. I want to use the technique depth of field to create these images because I think this would be a good technique to highlight the main part of the image. Also this time of the year there will be some new plants and buds forming and this could be a contrast to the old leaves leftover from winter. I think selective colour would also be a good idea to use if I get the right type of image. I hope to achieve about 8 close up images that show the contrast of winter and spring and just some nice images that represent the forest. 

Preparation:

• Charge camera
• Arrange a lift to the forest 
• Look at the weather

This shoot was fun to do because I just walked around the forest looking for things that I thought would  make a nice image and there was no time span that I had to stick to like in the studio. I think the range of different images and composition I took was good because I had a lot of freedom when editing the images. I produced 9 images which I am happy with and I am happy with the quality of the images as well. I found looking for different objects and composition was ok because I sort of new what I wanted and what I thought would look good or not. 

When editing these images I found that selective colour came in handy because I wanted certain parts of the image to stand out and selective colour did this. There were three images that were created using depth of field and I just changed the saturation and the contrast for those images. Looking thought the images I had taken I saw two that I thought would create a good contrast of autumn and spring because I could crop the images to the same size and this would show it nicely. I was thinking of writing autumn and spring under the images but I thought the images show what the image is supposed to look like. 

Overall I think this shoot shows some of my best work because I was relaxed when taking the images and I could try out anything that I thought would look good. 

 This image is one of the images that I didn't edit very much because I was happy with the outcome. I really like the way the depth of field has created three different areas in the image because it shows the depth and contrast in the image. The centre part which is in-focused I think really stands out as the main focus and I'm really happy with this. I did try and desaturate the image but I thought the green is the main colour and taking it away changed the overall look of the image.

This image is the contrast between autumn and spring and I think it really works. I think the dull brown/grey colours represents the dyeing paints in autumn and the bright green from the spring images shows the regrowth of new life. When editing this image I wanted to create a boarder of some sort so I used a drop shadow to make the images look 3D. I cropped the two images so the leaves were in the centre of the image and I think this makes the images look better next to each other. I think this image tells a story and this is my favourite image from this shot.

For the next shoot I plan to......