Shoot 2

Shoot 2 

Artist Influence - Patty Hankins 

AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

The artist that I have been influenced by during this shoot is Patty Hankins. I was drawn to her use of colour within her photos and the way in which she enhanced and saturated colours. I was also very intrigued by her images being taken in their natural environment because I like the connotations this has of the importance of nature and the idea that the flowers have been undisturbed and are in their original condition. The image above of the orange flower has intrigued me because I like the way that the flower fills the entire frame of the photo. I feel as though this gives the photo an element of mystery because it is not fully clear what the photo is of due to the entire flower not being visible. I would like to use this within my work but incorporate my own unique colours.  

Images that have inspired me 

This image has inspired me because I like the detail of the insect on the image. This is something I would like to try and include in my photo shoot because I feel as though the initial focal point of the image is the flower however your attention is then drawn to the insect. I also like the depth of field in this image. The photographer has used a narrow depth of field to draw your attention to certain parts of the image. 

I am inspired by this image because I like the narrow depth of field in the image. The depth of field is something I would like to focus heavily on in this shoot because I want the flower to be fully in focus and the background to be very out of focus. I also like the saturated colours in this image and colour is a formal element I would like to focus on in this shoot. 

 

Contact Sheet

When completing this shoot I wanted to take as many photos as I could so that I was able to have a wide range to choose from when selecting images I wanted to edit further. I believe that a successful element of this shoot was the amount of photos I took and the different angles that I managed to capture of flowers. I feel as though sometimes when photographing flowers in their natural environment it may be challenging to capture them from a lot of different angles however I feel as though I did this well in my photos. I also feel as though my camera setting were successful throughout the shoot, although there are a couple of under and over exposed images, overall I believe that I used camera settings successfully. An unsuccessful element of the shoot for me was trying to be creative when photographing flowers however I do want to be more creative when editing my photos.

My Best Images

AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

F/5.6   1/125   ISO 400 

I have chosen this as one of my best images because the plant that I photographed here is very different from the rest of the plants that I looked at. I also like the dark purple colour within the plant. The texture of the plant is very different and looks slightly harsher than some of the other flowers I have photographed. I do feel as though this image could have been improved slightly by the composition of the image. I feel as though I could have taken the photo with slightly more space around the centre of the flower.    

F/7.1   1/100   ISO 400

I have chosen this as one of my best images because I like the colours within the flower. I think that the shape of the flower is very unique and the use of the saturated colours, the orange in the centre of the flower, is very eye catching. 

F/11   1/500   ISO 400

This image is one of my best images because I like the depth of field in the image. Due to using an aperture of f/11 the background of the image is not completely blurred however it is still slightly less focused than the large flower which is the focal point of the image. I really like the way that the other flowers in the frame of the image are still visible. 

F/8   1/125   ISO 400

I have chosen this as one of my best images because I like the way that I have captured a wasp on top of the flower. I feel as though this is a very subtle detail in the photo that adds intricate detail. I also believe that I used the correct aperture,f/8, to capture this image. This is because I like the way the background is out of focus and the focal point, the flower is in focus. 

F/9   1/250   ISO 400

I have chosen this as one of my best images because I really like the depth of field in this image. I like how the foreground is so in focus and your eye is drawn to the wasp in the flower. I also like the actual flower that I was photographing because the flower is coloured yellow and purple. These are opposite colours on the colour wheel and therefore I think they two colours contrast and work very well together. 

Images that Require Improvement

AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

F/5   1/60   ISO 400

I feel as though the reason I do not like this image is because I used a low shutter speed of 1/60. Due to using this shutter speed the camera caught motion within the image and this made the photo blurry. To have evoked this happening I should have used a higher shutter speed. This would have not caught the blur in the image and therefore the foreground would look a lot more in focus. 

F/16   1/400    ISO 400

I have chosen this as an image I feel requires improvement because there is a heavy shadow that surrounds the focal point of the image, the flower. I do not like the shadow in the image because I feel as though it creates a harsh line though the image which takes away from the elegancy of the flower. 

Camera Settings and Equipment

AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.

When completing this shoot I used a tripod to frame some of my images however I did not use this to capture all of my images. This was because when capturing some of the photos I had to take the photo looking downwards onto the flower and using a tripod wouldn't have allowed me to capture these specific angles. In regards to my camera settings I used the camera in aperture priority mode. This was because when taking these photos I wanted to focus on depth of field. I have looked into this skill in the technique post named 'location portraiture' which made me understand the effect that aperture has on depth of field. I used apertures ranging from f/16 - f/5. When using the higher apertures I wanted to capture photos that had a wider depth of field and I created images that were fairly in focus throughout the foreground and background of the image. When using the slightly lower aperture settings I created images with a narrow depth of field and aimed for the background to be out of focus. I did this to make the flower the focal point of the image and when taking photos with an insect on the flower I used a low aperture so that the insect on the flower would be one of the main focal points of the image. When looking at the shutter speed, although I was using the aperture priority setting when photographing I did take into consideration what shutter speed was used. The shutter speed ranged from 1/60 to 1/400. When using shutter speeds as low as 1/60 rather than freezing motion there was blur captured in the images which was something I did not want therefore I decided to use a higher shutter speed to ensure I freeze motion rather than capturing a blur. I used ISO 400 throughout my shoot because I was photographing in natural daylight on a slightly cloudy day.


AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress. 


This shoot took place in a garden centre and I wanted to explore in more depth the macro technique. After completing my first shoot this was something that I wanted to progress onto and focus heavily on within my entire project. I aimed to take a wider range of photos than in my first shoot because I felt as though I didn't take enough photos during my first shoot. This shoot has also been based on my artist research of Patty Hankins. Hankins inspired me to take photos of flowers in their natural habitat because I liked the connotations this has of nature being beautiful and important enough for humans to not ruin nature. I also liked the way that natural lighting can be used to create a soft and even exposure throughout the image. Due to my prior research I decided to focus on the formal element of colour and so I aimed to take photos of a wide range of flowers with different saturated and non saturated colours. I wanted to explore this more because in my previous shoot the use of colour to edit my photos, in response to Esther Teicmann, interested me and inspired me to explore colour in different ways.     

Edits 

AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.

I have edited all of my images in the same way. I decided to alter my images by enhancing the colours within the photo. I wanted to make the colours stand out because this is what I feel as though Patty Hatkins has done in her photos and I believe the focus is colour within all of her images. 

Firstly I altered the curves within each image. This brightened up the image and allowed me to specifically alter the bright and darker areas of the image. I like the way that curves allows me to look at certain areas of the image rather than the image as a whole.  

I then used the brightness and contrast tool. When looking at altering the contrast this is a more overall edit of the contrast unlike curves which focuses on lighter and darker areas of the image. The brightness tool just brightens the image as a whole. 

The main tool that I found effective when wanting to edit these images is the saturation tool. This is because I wanted to bring out the bright colours in the image and make them stand out a lot more than the original image. This bought out all of the colours and made them even more saturated.

My Final Images 

AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements.

I feel as though I have created a meaningful response of images in response to my artist research. This is because during my edited images I have focused on bringing out the different colours within the flowers. I also feel I have looked closer into the macro technique and I have captured images that show the intricate details within the flowers and in some of my images I have looked at bees and wasps on the flower which I feel adds another element of depth to the image. I also like the way that I have used my camera settings to manipulate the depth of field and create an out of focus background and a sharp foreground. I feel each photo is subtly linked by incorporating different colours within each photo.   

Progression 

To progress onto my next shoot I would like to look into completing a more creative shoot in regards to capturing the images. For example I would like to look into a different way of photographing plants rather than just in their natural environment. I would also like to look into using a wide depth of field because in my two outstanding shoots I have captured a narrow depth of field.