Shoot 7

Shoot 7

Artist Influence - Imogen Cunningham

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

Imogen Cunningham takes very intricate photos of many different types of flowers. Each of the photos that she takes use black and white tones and I feel as though this has been done because by creating monochromatic images there is a lot more emphasis on the details within the flowers rather than being distracted by saturated colours throughout the image. For my shoot I would like to incorporate the idea of not enhancing the colour within the photos. I am unsure as to whether I want to use black and white images however I would like to experiment with saturation of images. The use of black and white could have connotations of the sadness that is associated with flowers. For example flowers may be associated with funerals and people passing away.  I feel as though Imogen Cunningham uses the lines within the flowers to create leading lines within the photo. For example in the first photo the curves of the flower petals guides your eyes to the centre of the flower which further enhances the detail. I feel as though all of Imogen Cunningham's photos focus on the flower itself rather than being distracted by any other elements within the frame. This is why I like the idea of using a black background because it allows the flower to fill the entire frame of the image. I would like to incorporate this within my photos .  

 

Images that have inspired me 

The two images above are photos I have gathered from google. I liked the way in which each of these images used a completely black background and then had a coloured flower as the focal point of the image. I wanted to look into colour a little more than Imogen Cunningham has because her images are in black and white. I like the vibrant colours within these images and would like to take photos with different elements of bright and slightly lighter coloured flowers. 

 

Contact Sheet 

I feel as though this shoot had successful and unsuccessful elements within it. Firstly I think that a lot of the images that I produced were successful because I altered my set up after completing the first couple of photos to improve the overall image. I moved the table I was using further away from the background and this made the background very dark and a much stronger black. This made the images more effective because this allowed the photo to be very focused on the flowers rather than there being a slight grain to the background. An unsuccessful element of the shoot was that some areas of my images were slightly darker than I wanted them to be. Due to there only being one light source used within the photo shoot there was a stronger amount of light shining on a certain area of the photo. An example of this is that if I alter the light the be focused on the centre of the flower of the bunch of flowers then the outside areas may be slightly darker.  

My Best Images 

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

F/8   1/125   ISO 200

I have chosen this image as one of my best because I like the use of pastel colours within the image. I also like the contrast of the pale colours with the completely black background. I also like the way that due to the light being positioned on the left side of the flowers this area is very visible in comparison to the right side of the image where there are dark areas within the flowers. I feel as though this gives the image an idea of mystery and the unknown because certain parts of the flower are not visible. 

F/9   1/125    ISO 200

I have chosen this as one of my best images because I like the way that the yellow and the purple compliment each other. These photos are opposite each other on the colour wheel and therefore are complimentary colours. I did this because I wanted the colours to look aesthetically pleasing next to one another. The image as a whole is slightly under exposed however this is something that I can easily fix and adapt in photoshop. 

F/8   1/125   ISO 200

I have chosen this as one of my best images because I like the composition of the image. I like the way in which I have used many flowers to create a composition rather than just using a few flowers which is what I have done for a lot of the shoot. I feel this image stands out from the rest due to the composition. I also like the fact that the entire vase is in the frame of the image and that there is a lot of negative space which I feel is effective.   

f/5.6   1/125   ISO 200

I do not feel as though the image above is one of my strongest photos however I like the composition of the image. One reason I feel this is not as successful as I would have hoped is due to the light reflection on the vase. I feel as though due to this slight imperfection I did not want to discard this image because I think that including the entire vase and flower in the image is effective and gives the photo an interesting composition. 

f/6.3   1/125   ISO 200

I have chosen this as one of my best images due to the composition and the way in which I arranged the flowers. I like the way that each flower is a different height meaning that every single flower is visible and you can see the fine details within them all.  

f/16   1/125   ISO 200

I have chose the image above as one of my best because I like the way in which the one flower has such an impact on the entire frame of the photo. The sunflower that I used is slightly decayed and has a very unique shape. Looking at the shape of the flower is something that Imogen Cunningham focuses on a lot within her images and I feel as though this photo reflects her work in that way.  I also feel this image is different to the other photos I have taken because this is the only photo that focuses specifically on one flower rather than multiple. 

Images that require improvement 

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

f/6.3     1/125   ISO 200

This image requires improvement due to the photo being over exposed in the centre, where the light was pointed at. I used incorrect camera settings and this resulted in the light over exposing the centre of the image and making it look washed out. I used an aperture of f/6.3 to capture this image. I believe this was the issue when taking this photo because using a lower aperture means that the shutter is open wider. This resulted in too much light flooding into the lens whilst the image was being taken. This means the final image was over exposed. If I were to do this again I would use a higher aperture, for example f/11. I feel this would give me a more even exposure. Although I do want the part of the flower the light is aimed at to be bright than the rest of the photo this was too bright. 

f/11   1/125    ISO 200

I have chosen this image as one that needs improvement because the entire image is under exposed. I think that this image is under exposed because I used an aperture that was too high. I believe that I should have used an aperture of about f/5.6. This would have allowed more light into the camera and would have brightened the overall image up. I also believe that the light may not have been bright enough when taking the image. 

Camera Setting and Equipment

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

During this shoot I used a canon dos 400d to take my photos. During this shoot I altered the camera setting multiple times, mainly the aperture. This was due to the me changing the flowers that I was shooting and due to me altering the light settings. I altered the intensity of the light based on each of the photos I took. I also took time to change the angle of the light which also resulted in the camera settings being different. Each time I altered the intensity of the light or moved the angle of it I took the reading of the camera settings again and altered them accordingly. The apertures used during the shoot ranged from f/5.6 to f/11. Whilst taking the photos I had to alter the camera settings frequently to ensure that I captured the exposure that I wanted. When using a lower aperture I found that the photos turned out slightly brighter due to more light being able to enter the lens. I used a higher aperture when I wanted the light source to be aimed at a specific part of the flower because this meant that the area surrounding the light was darker. I used this technique when taking photos of the sunflower because I wanted the light to be focused on the centre of the flower. Throughout the shoot I used an ISO of 200 and this remained the same throughout the shoot. Although I altered the intensity of the light, the light meter still read ISO 200. The shutter speed did not vary whilst shooting. I used a shutter speed of 1/125 because this allowed me to freeze motion within the images. I do feel as though the exposure could have been slightly longer to allow a little more light into the photos because some of the images ended up being quite dark. This was not an issue as it is something that I fixed in photoshop. I shot my photos in jpeg and in raw. This allowed me to edit the photos in a raw setting before putting them into photoshop. I also feel as though the raw photos gave me slightly more detailed images.

Below are photos of the studio setup that I used whilst shooting. I felt as though the photos were too dark when I initially started. This is why I set up a reflector on the side with no direct light. This allowed some of the light to bounce back and hit the object I was photographing. By doing this I was able to slightly brighten the photo without using another light source because I think this would have been too overpowering. I then used a tripod to ensure that the photos were framed correctly and that I could capture the image without any blur or movement. 

AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress. 
I have been inspired to create the images in this shoot by Imogen Cunningham. Imogen Cunningham focuses on the intricate details within each of the photos that she takes. I like the way in which she uses the curves and the lines within the flowers to give the photo dimension and in some cases she creates leading lines using the flower itself. With regards to the photos that I have created I feel as though I have taken many different elements from Imogen Cunningham's images however I have also incorporated my own ideas in order to extend myself and go beyond the artists concepts. For example I have used negative space within my images which is something that Imogen Cunningham does effectively and I have ensured that the flower is the focal point of the image which is something that Imogen Cunningham does very well and I feel as though this accentuated the details within the different flowers have I have photographed. The main element of my photos that was influenced by photos from pinterest was the black background. Due to the colourful wallpaper not working for me in my previous shoot I wanted to do the complete opposite and explore the use of a black background. I had a rough idea of what I wanted the images to look like however by looking at pinterest I feel as though I gathered many different images that I have taken elements from. An example of this would be using a black background and using a brightly coloured flower to make it stand out in contrast to the background. Although I liked the brightly coloured flowers I did decrease the saturation in photoshop because I liked the effect that this gave to my images.

Edits

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

Firstly I edited each of my images in raw because this gave me an opportunity to alter the exposure, contrast, highlights and shadows slightly more specifically than I would be able to do in photoshop. 

I then placed the image into photoshop because I felt as though certain sections of the images were slightly too dark or too light. In order to brighten up specific areas I firstly used the curves too and dragged the curve towards the top. This made the entire image over exposed.  

I then clicked 'edit', 'fill'. 

My Final Images 

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

Progression

To progress my work further I would like to continue with studio photography. I would also like to focus specifically on using a dark background within my work because I feel this fits in with the overall style of my work. I would like to look at doing some edits that are slightly more creative rather than just altering the contrasts and saturation of the images.