Shoot Four
When taking my fourth shoot, I took the photos in a box to represent collections and memories. I took them in the box so that the background of each image would be the same and they would all follow the same theme of being inspired by Joseph Cornell. For this shoot, I used a Nixon D3100 camera which was on manual focus so that I could vary the focusing and this made it easier for me to focus on various parts of each image. I think this shoot was successful people I am moving on with my ideas and I think that this shoot is quite different to the rest of my shoots. I also think that it was successful because the images containing the lights actually worked, even though I could not use the flash as it would make the lights less visible. However, if I was to do this shoot again I would use studio lighting inside the box so that all of the images as not as dark, but the lights are still visible, I think that some of the images are underexposed because not a lot of light was present when shooting these images.
I think that this image is a quite successful image as when looking at the depth of field, I have managed to included everything, that is in the foreground, in focus, this makes the image look high quality and more professional. Also, this image has quite a low vibrancy as, due to the lights, not much colour is allowed into the image, however I think that this improves the image allows the lights to stand out more. The idea of this image is that collections allow people to reflect on their memories, and this makes them ‘glow’ inside with happiness. The background of this image is also a wooden box, to illustrate collections and memories within the box, which links with the objects inside. Furthermore, the main focus of this image is the lights inside the jar showing the reflection that collections have on people. The contrast within this image is the lights in the jar contrasting with the shadows in the corners of the image, this allows the colours in the image to differ.
In this image, I focused on the lights outside of the jar, as the idea of this image is the memories overflowing and the collection of the lights getting out of hand, however this contrasts with the idea of the lights, as the lights illustrate the positive sides of collections and memories. Also, I would say that this image is quite dark, despite the lights in the image, therefore it would be classed as underexposed, so if I was to shoot this image again, I would use studio lighting to brighten up the image, as it could not use the flash as it would distort the lights and they would not be as clear in the image.by focusing on the lights, I have made this the main focus of my image, taking depth of field into consideration. Furthermore, I have taken this image from a side view angle to get a long shot of everything which is in the image. By including the lights in the foreground this emphasises on the main focus of the image. Moreover, when analysing the saturation of the image, it appears that it is quite low as the colours included in the image are quite cold colours.
When planning this shoot, I knew the overall idea of the shoot, which was that the lights would represent how collections and memories make people happy. Also, I thought that there are lots of types of collections which are unique to the individual, but most people either collect natural things such as leaves, or artificial things such as stamps so I thought that as well as taking photos of artificial lights, I would compare this with natural light, and each image represents a natural or artificial collection. When looking at the differences in the two photos, there is quite a lot of contrast – one being very obvious which is that one is natural light whereas another is artificial lighting. Another contrast within these images is that the image of the candle is a bright image containing a lot of light showing that there has been a lot more light let into the image. However the second image containing the artificial lighting, contrasts with this as there is not a lot of light let into the image at all, and I would say that the image is underexposed as there are also quite a lot of shadows within the photo. Furthermore, when looking at the points of focus in each image, depth of field has been considered within both. The main focus on the first image is the rim of the jar in the middle of the image and the main focus of the second image is also the rim of the jar, showing that even though they are different, the image are also quite similar. This relates to the fact that even though all collections are different, they still all mean something to someone and the majority of collections will make people happy even though they are all different.
This is an overlayed image which I think has been successful in this shoot. For this overall image, I have overlayed a candle jar with the candle light showing, with the jar full of lights which are artificial. I think this image works well because it shows the idea that collections can overlap each other and fit together as one, so that one person can have lots of collections but they would still relate to one another. I also think that the image works well as it illustrates the contrast between and inverted image and a normal image within one picture, this is unique and different from other images. This image portrays a good atmosphere with the natural light giving warm colours in the image. The main focus of this image is the inverted lights within the jar as they make the image unique and stand out from everything else as the colours contrast, the inverted lights are also the thing with the most focus in the image, making this another reason for them being the main focus.
I have created this image by overlaying a focused images of the lights in a jar with a blurred images of the lights when zoomed in. There was a couple of outcomes with the overlay but I think that this overlay effect is the best. The idea of this image is that all collections make people happy in some way, and the focused image represents the collections that definitely make people happy and the blurred image represents the collections that people don’t realise make them happy. Furthermore, there is not much vibrancy in this image as I have made the colours very basic allowing the lights to stand out more. There is a contrast of the focused part of the image and non focused part, but also there is an ironic contrast with the focus of the image, because the focus of the image is actually the unfocused lights as they are in the foreground and this is what the viewer will look at when he/she first looks at the image. I would say that this image has quite a low saturation because the colours in the image are quite cold showing that there is not much of a variation of colour.
In this image, I have manipulated the colours to try and make a contrast within ideas from the shoot and this image. The idea of the overall shoot is that the lights represent collections making people happy, however by making this image dark, I have illustrated that some collections have dark sides too - as well as making people happy. By making the image dark, I have contrasted these ideas and the dark side of collections could be that some people get out of control by collecting something and take it too far. Taking into consideration the depth of field, I have mainly focused on the opening of the jar for this image, making this the main focus of my image and it will be the first thing that the viewer will look at when looking at the image. Also, by changing the colour settings with this effect, I think that the lights are more visible to the viewer and stand out a lot more, this illustrates that the lights are the subject of the image and this links in with the idea. Looking at the saturation, I would say that it is quite low because the colours are cold meaning there is not much saturation within the image. Alike the rest of this shoot, the theme of this image is still life as it is my strongest subject and I think that it looks a lot better when you can see in focus, the details of the image.
Ideas to Progress:
I think that overall, this shoot has been successful as I have experimented with my ideas and developed them. I also think that I have been successful in digitally manipulating my ideas to improve the images and enhance the ideas behind them, by manipulating each image differently, it has allowed me to change the ideas of the images so that they are varied and some are better than the originals. I have also been successful with the variation of depth of field within my image as when taking the images I thought out different focuses for each image, making each of them be focused on a different part of the image, allowing each image to be about a different thing.
To improve this shoot, I would vary the angles of the objects more allowing more variation of the images and this would also make the shoot more interesting. I would also physically manipulate my images to try and develop the image further and this would mean that I have experimented more with the images in the shoot, however at the time of manipulating I could not think of any physical manipulation that was relevant to the images. I would also try to vary shutter speed to experiment with the different outcomes of the shutter speed images.
When progressing to my next shoot, I am going to use Cornell as an inspiration once again but this time I am going to take pictures of different objects and I am going to find someone with a different type of collection so that I can enhance ideas within the collections area, I am going to include ideas of memories within the shoot also. To progress from this shoot, I am going to take the images from more varied angles to try and vary the images in the shoot more.