Shoot 6

Shoot 6

Artist Influence - Erwin Olaf

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

Erwin Olaf takes photos that I believe have been very thought out and planned. Each of his images use very tonal colours and don't include any vibrant or saturated colours. Also I think it is interesting how all of his photos include flowers that have been purposefully placed in a vase, out of their natural environment. I feel as though this could have connotations of the plants being trapped in pots and homes and not being able to grow into beautiful bright plants. I was very intrigued by the composition of Erwin Olaf's photos because the plant is in the  centre of the frame. Many other photographers I have looked at have a lot of negative space around their image however he has purposely tried to fill the negative space with a homely scene. This could have implications of people using flowers as an aesthetic centre piece in their homes rather than appreciating nature. The main element of Erwin Olaf's work that I would like to incorporate into my own is to use backgrounds and create a scene rather than just taking an image of a flower with negative space surrounding it. 

Images that have inspired me 

Both of the images above have mainly influenced me due to the bright colours that have been used. Erwin Olaf tends to use very monotone colours within his work which I do like as it gives the whole image a formal and organised feel however during this shoot I wanted to experiment with the use of colours and patterns and the images above inspired me to do so. 

Contact Sheet

Throughout this shoot my intentions were to capture photos with different backgrounds. I wanted to create an element of a window sill and a set up of a homely environment. I feel as though an unsuccessful element of the shoot was the materials that I had in order to complete the shoot. I was only able to purchase fairly small pieces of paper to use as a wallpaper. This meant that I struggled to incorporate negative space within my images and it also meant that all of my photos had to be taken relatively close to the subject of the photo. This is something I would change if I was going to complete this shoot again. Something that was successful during the shoot was the angles at which I was shooting. I feel as though I made good use of the space that I had whilst shooting.

My Best Images 

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

I have chosen each of the images below as my best because I feel these are the strongest images I have taken. An unsuccessful element of each photo is that the white background behind the paper I used is slightly visible. This was because I was not able to get hold of larger pieces of paper. This is something that I will fix when editing each of the images. Initially during the shoot I was trying to take photos of just the flowers within the vase however I decided to use the table that the flowers were sitting on to try and crate the illusion of a window ledge. I think that by doing this my photos reflected Erwin Olaf's work a lot closer. A successful element of my photos is that I like the use of the different backgrounds because I feel this entire shoot contrasts with my previous shoot which was done using a black background and very dark precise lighting. 

Each of the photos used an aperture of f/18, an ISO 200 and a shutter speed of 1/125. 

Images that Require Improvement 

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

F/18    1/125    ISO 200

This photo requires improvement due to it being under exposed. When shooting this photo I used the same camera settings as many of the successful photos I have taken however this image was underexposed due to a technical fault. When shooting the trigger on my camera did not process that I was taking a photo and therefore did not allow the soft box to flash. This resulted in the photo being over exposed. I think the reason this happened was because I did not leave enough time in between capturing each photo therefore the trigger did not work. Due to this happening I have learnt to take my time whilst shooting to enable me to get the best results. 

f/11   1/125   ISO 200

This photo is slightly over exposed. This photo was taken relatively close to the start of the shoot and I was slightly struggling with capturing the correct camera settings. I used an aperture of f/11 however looking back on the shoot now, this aperture was too low because the soft box lights were on a high setting. This meant that by using a smaller aperture too much light was being let into the lens and the photo was coming out over exposed. Once this had occurred I learnt from this and used a higher aperture throughout the rest of my shoot and I was very happy with the exposure of my images. 

 

Camera Setting 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 canon eos 400d. I shot the photos in a studio so that I could closely control the lighting and the camera settings that I wanted to use. I used an aperture ranging from f/11 to f/18. I used lower apertures like f/11 during the start of my shoot because I was experimenting slightly to get the correct camera settings. I found that using f/11 resulted in my photos being very over exposed therefore I tried to use f/13 then f/16 and eventually I used f/18 and I felt this gave me the best exposure. With regards to the shutter speed I used 1/125 throughout the shoot. This shutter speed was used because I wanted to freeze motion and also because this worked very well with my lighting set up to give me the correct exposure. Throughout the shoot I used an ISO of 200 and this remained the same during the entire shoot. If I had of used a lower ISO the camera would have not been sensitive enough to the lighting and my photos would have come out under exposed and if I had of used a higher ISO, for example ISO 400, my photos would have turned out over exposed due to the camera being too sensitive to the lights that I used. 

Below are some images of the setup that I used in the studio. To attach the pieces of paper to the wall I used a foam reflector and some pins to hold the paper up. I then used two soft boxes to create an even amount of light coming from both sides of the image. I also used a tripod to ensure that I was getting the correct composition. In this shoot the composition was very important due to the size of the paper I used as a background. The paper was quite small and therefore I wanted to make the best use of the small space that I had therefore framing the photo allowed me to do this successfully. 

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

The main source of inspiration for this shoot was from my research in Erwin Olaf and his work. I took a lot of compositional inspiration from his work because I wanted to try to create a scene within my image rather than just having a black or white background. I used the table to create a shelf like structure to the image. This was directly taken from the way in which Erwin Olaf uses a table or a shelf within his images to rest the vase of flowers on. Erwin Olaf's images use very neutral tones like white, black and brown. I wanted to experiment with slightly more colour than this because I was unsure whether colour was going to be a focus within my project because I had not explored this in enough detail. In order to gain inspiration to explore colour I used google and pinterest to gather different images that included saturated colours. Once looking through many different images I went to a local craft store and I had a look at the different wallpapers that they had on offer. I feel as though this then inspired me to use some unique patterns as backgrounds rather than just plain colours.

Edits

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

 Edit 1

Firstly I created a blank document of photoshop. I altered the width and height to make sure that the document was landscape rather than portrait. 

I then cropped each of the images that I wanted to use in order for them to all be the same height. I also had to slightly crop the top of the images as some of the foam reflector was visible due to the size of the paper. This is something I mentioned when evaluating my photos. 

I then selected each image I wanted to use by clicking cmd+A and then copied it by clicking cmd+C. I then pasted each of the images into the blank document I previously created by clicking cmd+V. 

I then altered the images using cmd+T. This step took time because I wanted the photos to all be the same size. I also wanted to ensure that the gaps in between each of the photos were equal. I then used the crop tool to crop the edges of the image to make the border around the edge equal. 

I then merged each of the layers together to enable to me edit the entire photo as a whole. 

I then altered the brightness and contrast of the image because I felt as though the contrast needed to be enhanced slightly. 

My Final Images 

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

After exploring the idea of using brighter coloured backgrounds and trying to cease a scene within the image I have decided that I would not like to take this technique any further. I like the way in which the backgrounds I have used add an element of colour and texture to the images but I do not feel as though this idea would fit with my overall portfolio. By completing this shoot I feel as though I have learnt that I want to focus on darker images possibly using snoot attachments for the lights in a studio rather than a soft box. By doing this shoot I am not able to focus my project and aim towards my final portfolio. 

Progression

To progress my photography skills I would like to focus on the use of negative space within my photos and use space effectively. I feel as though during this shoot I have not been able to do this due to the size of the pieces of paper I was able to use as backgrounds. To progress I would like to focus on the use of negative space. I believe that although I have looked at studio photography which is something I wanted to explore, the colourful backgrounds are not something that I feel work for me. I would like to look at some darker backgrounds however there are elements from this shoot that I feel I can take away and use such as lighting setups within the studio.