Shoot Five
These are images from my fifth shoot, the reason I have combined two genres together in one shoot is so that I can manipulate them into each other so that I can show my ideas for the shoot. By manipulating the images it will allow me to link the images to beneath the surface and then link them into my own theme of collections and memories, within this shoot I have focused mostly on memories and these are the memories of the model in the images. Within the first part of the shoot (landscape) I have tried to use different points of focus and different angles to again, create a variation of images. Also, within the portrait part of the shoot, I have used studio lighting to create shadows and so that I can focus on different parts of the models face. All of these images were taken on a Nixon D3100 camera, half of the images were taken in the burn valley family wood and the other half where taken in the photography studio in the college.
From looking at the final product of the manipulated image, the viewer is able to see the different leaves that are shown. The idea of this image is that the living leaves and the dead leaves represent old and new memories, the fact that the old leaves are in front shows that people think about older memories more often, like when they are children, but as people get older, the older memories start to fade and new memories are created as people live their lives. I think this image has worked well as it has linked nature in with peoples thoughts, and this image could be seen as a portrait of thoughts within a landscape image. On both of the separate images, I have thought about depth of field and have focused on the closer leaves (manual focus). Even though there is no background to these images, it is clear that the location is somewhere outdoors, they were taken in a park and this can be interpreted by the viewer. If I was the viewer and had not created this image myself, I would look at the image and see the yellow leaf at the front, to the right of the image, as the subject of the image as this stands out to me when I first glance. To improve this image, I would substitute this image into a portrait, either the head, of the body of the model so that I can get the idea of the image across more clearly.
I created this manipulated image by experimenting with different techniques that I have recently learned, the initial idea was to manipulate half of the models face so that it was the image of the leaves, however there was no shapes to cover this area of the image, so instead, I combined the overlay technique with the clipping technique to create this image with the same original idea. Firstly, I covered the models eyes and around with the selected shape, so that the shape was a plain white fill, I then double clicked on the shape layer at the side where I them had to create a shadow drop, in which I altered the opacity, distance and size. After this, instead of duplicating the background to create the clipping technique, I dragged another image on top of the existing portrait image and clipped the two layers (shape and overlayed image) together. This then created the first image to the left above. After I had done this, I used the smudge tool to go around the outline of the shape filled with the overlayed image, so that the two shapes would blend into better together and look like one complete image. Furthermore, I then used the lasso tool to select all of the image but the leaves shaped and then created the black and white effect allowing the main point of focus to stand out more. I then made the colours more interesting within the shape of leaved and increased the saturation and exposure to fade image slightly.
Progressing from my original idea of overlaying the leaves, I have developed the initial thoughts and added the overlay into a portrait image, which distorts the image and gives the viewer a better idea of the theme of the image, which is what the model is thinking. There is definitely a hidden contrast in this image; we cannot see the models eyes and some of her face which would illustrate that she is hiding something however, the idea of the image of the leaves coming through the portrait illustrates the exposure of her thoughts, meaning the idea of the image is that it shows more than what it hides. The lighting of the portrait image was studio lighting, which can be interpreted when looking at the image, the way that the lights were positioned allowed me to concentrate and see more of the left of the models face meaning this is what the viewer will look at. Furthermore, the focus of this image is the photomontage technique of the leaves over the models face, by creating only the leaves in colour, it also makes the technique stand out more when looking at the image.
I think that this image was a successful image as it is clear straight away that I have focused on the depth of field as the only part of the image which is in focus is the orange coloured leave in the center of the image, I would also say that this would indicate the rule of thirds as my image has been divided in 9 pieces with the different point of focus etc. Also natural lighting has been used within this image and the way I have taken the image allows the viewer to look more at the top of the leaf that is in focus rather than the bottom. The angle of view for this image is almost level eye view with the leaves showing that it is a still life image as it is zoomed in to the focused leaf. Furthermore, the idea of this image is linked in with memories again, the dying leaves represent dying memories in which people cannot remember all of the details of, however the leaf which is in focus represents memories which are in focus and which people can remember them in full.
In this image, I experimented with overlay, putting landscape and portrait image together to create this unique effect. Unlike my other overlay images, I took away the background of my first image, which was the portrait, so that when I overlayed it with the other photo it would only give the overlay effect on the model and not all of the white background behind her. The idea behind this image is that the models memories of places where she has been are showing through her expressions, however to make the image more artistic, I have manipulated the image so that the overlay technique shows the location in which the memory had taken place, the original image was actually a path and this shows the paths of memories in which the model has. The different lighting techniques that are used in both images contrast as one was taken in the studio with studio lighting, which was set up. The landscape image was taken with natural lighting giving the fully brighter effect on the image. The angle of view focuses on only half of the models face linking with the idea again; illustrating that only half of the memory is shown through the image.
This is my first attempt at the clipping technique, I do not think that the technique works well with the chosen image and so would not take the image any further, however, the idea behind this image is that the highlighted areas are the important memories in someone's life in which they can recall better than other memories. The lighting on this image comes from the top of the leaf which instantly directs the viewer to this point in the image when first looking at the photo. The main point of focus is also the leaf and the highlighted bits surrounding it. The theme of this image is still life, which is probably my strongest area and will continue and develop still light photography in future shoots.