Shoot Three
Plan
When deciding what to do for my third shoot, I have decided to continue on with the idea of the mirror but in this shoot I intend to smash the mirror so that the images contain a smashed mirror instead of the whole full mirror, this will hopefully improve the composition of the image and the idea of the shoot. For this shoot, I am planning on going to Hardwick Hall Country Park, which contains woodland and streams in which I can include in my images.
Overview
This is my third shoot, where I have developed my ideas with my last shoot, I have taken this shoot at Hardwick Hall country park where I have used the nature to developed my idea of the mirror. In this shoot, I have used a broken mirror to illustrate the idea of the reflection in the broken mirror showing how man has destroyed nature and the viewer can see this through the broken reflection. I used a Nikon D3100 camera to take this shoot and when taking the images, I tried different techniques to vary the types of images I took. I experimented quite a lot with the angles of the mirror and camera, as this was essential to capture to correct reflection for each individual image. Also, I tried different lighting techniques with the camera and the mirror. When editing the images, I also experimented with Photoshop to improve the images by discarding any shadows and marks that were on the mirror when the image was taken.
Contact Sheets
This is one of the images in which I used a smashed mirror to capture the nature through the reflection and to portray the idea of man destroying nature by showing nature through a broken mirror. When i took the photograph, I focused on the reflection in the mirror, which is the main point of focus in the image and is what the viewer will focus on when they look at the image. I have placed the mirror on a tree branch as I think it gives the image a better composition than it would if the mirror was just laid on the floor. By placing the mirror on the tree, it also varies the images in this shoot from the images in my last shoot, and shows how my ideas are changing and developing. When editing this, I have eliminated shadows and fingerprint marks on the mirror as best as possible to improve the quality, I have also enhanced the colours of the image to make it more appealing to the viewer.
This image is successful because it links to the concept of nature being destroyed by man. When taking the photograph, I did not think that it was that successful because of the overexposed parts of the image where the sun had reflected through the mirror as well as handprints on the mirror. To solve this, I used Photoshop - I selected part of the image and decreased the brightness, this eliminated most marks on the mirror, I then selected the whole mirror in the image and I enhanced the exposure to even out the lighting in the image. Looking at the composition of the image, I have focused more on the reflection in the mirrors making this the point of focus and the background as blurred, increasing the depth of field. When setting up the image, I placed the two pieces of broken mirror on the floor against the bottom of the trunk of a tree, I then positioned them so that I got the correct reflection, which then gave me the image I wanted when shooting.
Similar to the other analysed images, this image is one of the most successful in the shoot. I particularly like this image because of the layers of focus within it, such as the mirror in the foreground, which is in focus, whereas the mirror in the background is not as much in focus and the background is not at all in focus meaning the camera had a significantly large aperture at the time. However, even though the lighting in the reflection of the image is at a good level allowing the viewer to see a lot of detail, some parts of the image are overexposed which makes the image less successful, if I was to shoot this image again, I would try to capture the lighting through the mirror so that it was not as bright as it is here. The concept behind this image is that of nature’s reflection through a broken mirror, implying that man has broken up nature.
