Shoot 11

Shoot 11

Artist Influence - Marcelo Monreal

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

I have completed a shoot in response to this artist before however I wanted to expand upon the initial edits that I created because I was not happy with them. Within the previous edits I aimed to copy the work of the artist however I would now like to use elements from his work but go beyond the artists ideas and create my own edits. I would like to incorporate the use of depth within my photos. This is something I feel Marcelo Monreal does extremely well within his work and I think this is because he draws the depth into the images physically rather than using computer experimentation. I would also like to incorporate the idea of using different flowers to look as though they are growing from the face however I do not want to manipulate the entire face, just a smaller section. I feel as though this will make my edits look more realistic which would over come the issues I had when looking at this artist in a previous shoot.   

Images that have inspired me 

The image above was the first image I saw that used this technique and I loved how effective this was. I think that it looks slightly more realistic than the edits by Marcelo Monreal. I think the reason for this is that Marcelo Monreal hand draws the flowers onto his photo therefore I think it is meant to look slightly more unrealistic. Trying to create this did not work for me as I felt it didn't look very natural and it looked like the flowers had just been simply placed on top of the portrait image. This is why seeing this image drew me in because I really liked how realistic the image looked. 

After finding this photo I did some more research into this technique and found the youtube video above. This allowed me to learn how to complete this technique. Throughout this tutorial I also learnt other skills which can be transferred across other areas of photography like how to add depth to an image.  

Contact Sheet - Flowers

The first shoot that I completed was aimed at the use of roses. I did also include some dying or dead flowers within the shoot to add some variation however I wanted the main focus of the shoot to be on roses. I feel as though this shoot was successful because I was able to take many photos with different angles. This was something that I wanted to achieve because I was unsure of the way that I would be editing the images therefore I wanted to have a wide range of photos to choose from.  

Contact sheet - Portraits

I completed this shoot at home rather than in a studio environment. This is because I wanted to use models with a wide age range and it would not have been possible to do this in a studio as the models were not available. When completing this shoot I asked someone to hold a black blanket up behind the model. This became a difficult because sometimes it was not in the exact position that I wanted it to be. This was an unsuccessful element of the shoot however I did manage to get successful photos which I can use during my edits.

My Best Images 

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

I have chosen this as one of my best images because I like the composition of the image. At the bottom of the image it is slightly out of frame however this is something that can easily be fixed in photoshop. Also with regards to the edits of these images I will only be using the actual flowers rather than the image as a whole.

F/22   1/125    ISO 200

I have chosen this as one of my best images because of the detail that I have captured within the flower. I like the way that the flower is in the centre of the frame. I also feel as though this will be a good photo to use when completing creative edits. I would like to slightly brighten the image because ideally I would want the white to look slightly brighter.

f/20   1/125   ISO 200

I have chosen the image above as one of my best because I like the composition of the image. I like the angle the photo has been taken because it allows you to see another element of the rose and you can see the flower from a different perspective. Due to roses being the main focus of the shoot I wanted to include many different ways to photograph that one flower.

F/18   1/125   ISO 200

I have chosen this as one of my best images because I liked the texture that the dying flower created. I feel as though including dying flowers within this shoot contrasted the fresh roses and has different connotations. For example including dying flowers may have connotations of growing old or love slowly fading away over time. I also like the saturated yellow within the image because yellow represents happiness but the flower is dying which may reflect people becoming unhappy.

F/18   1/125   ISO 200

I have chosen this as one of my best images because I like the way that the stalk of the flower is curving round and creates a leading line within the image. I think that this is very effective because it draws your eyes to the flower itself which looks very out of shape and irregular. The irregularity of the flower could have connotations of being unique.

Images that require improvement 

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

F/16   1/125   ISO 200

This photo requires improvement due to the composition of the image. As I mentioned the entire shoot was based around roses therefore I wanted to incorporate many different angles in order to capture a range of images. I do not like the angle of this image and I feel as though the photo needs to have included more negative space surrounding the flowers. I do like the idea of having all three coloured roses within one frame but I think that I have captured this better within some of the other photos in the shoot. I do not like the way in which the photo has been taken from a side angle.

f/18   1/125   ISO 200

I have chosen the image above as one that requires improvement due to the fact that the image is slightly under exposed. I was using the correct camera settings when taking the photo however when capturing some of the images I did not use a tripod. This meant that I was standing in front of some of the light box when taking the photo. This resulted in me blocking some of the light that was aimed at the flowers which made this image slightly under exposed. I did take other photos from this angle but altered the way in which I was standing and this resulted in the photo being slightly brighter with better exposure. 

Camera Setting and Equipment

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

With regards to the first shoot that I completed in the studio I used a canon eos 400d to capture the images. I also used a tripod when capturing the majority of my photos because I felt like this made it easier to get the correct composition and desired frame of the image. To capture the photos of flowers I used two soft box light attachments which were pointed towards the table that the flowers were placed on. I used soft boxes because I wanted to create a soft, distilled light. I did not want any harsh lighting which would have been achieved through a snoot light attachment. Throughout the shoot I used an aperture range of f/18 to f/22. The aperture had to be altered depending on what object I was photographing. When photographing white roses I found that the aperture had to be slightly increased because white reflects more light. This meant that by increasing the aperture slightly the images of the white roses were more evenly exposed. If I were to leave the aperture the same then the photos would have been slightly over exposed. I used an ISO of 200 throughout the shoot because I was using unnatural lighting and ISO 100 would have meant that the camera was not sensitive enough to the lighting and the images would have been under exposed. Although using a lower ISO results in better quality photos, sometimes it is not possible to use the lowest ISO settings on the camera. The shutter speed remained the same, 1/125,  throughout my shoot as well. I wanted to freeze motion throughout the shoot. If I had have increased the shutter speed the shutter would have been open for slightly too long and the image may have had an element of blur to it.

The second shoot that I completed based on portraiture was completed in my house. This made it harder to control the lighting and it was also harder to get a perfect background. In order to try and minimise these problems I had m models stand next to a large window to use as much natural light as possible. I also had to ask someone to hold up a black blanket as a background which meant that this was slightly inaccurate on multiple occasions. In order to ensure I got the desired photo I took each photo and then looked at how the photo came out and directed the model and the person holding the background accordingly. With regards to the camera settings of the camera, I had to alter them multiple times before I found the came settings that worked for the conditions that I was photographing in. For each of the photos I used an aperture of f/4. This was because there was limited lighting and by using  lower aperture the camera was able to capture more light due to the size of the lens opening being larger. I also used an ISO of 400. I did try to use ISO 200 however the images were too under exposed therefore I decided to use ISO 400 in order to capture a better exposure.

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

When gathering ideas for this shoot I focused on experimental editing of the images. My main inspiration for this shoot was Marcelo Monreal. I completed a previous shoot based on his work however I decided not to continue with this idea as I did not like the way the edits turned out. Below is an example of one of the edited images I created from shoot 4. I decided that I wanted to expand upon this idea by doing some research into portrait photography and the different ways in which these can be manipulated. I consequently found a video on youtube named 'Photoshop tutorial - Flower Face Effects'. From this tutorial I learnt the technique that I have displayed in my edits. I feel as though these photos look a lot more realistic than my previous photos that I edited in response to Macrelo Monreal. The main element that I feel has made a lot of difference to the edits I have completed is learning how to add depth into photoshop. I think that this resulted in the images looking a lot more realistic. This is something Marcelo Monreal displays within his work however I did not have the photoshop skills in order to do this. 

   Edits

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

Firstly I dragged the portrait photo into photoshop that I wanted to use.  

I then created a new layer. 

I then selected 'edit', 'fill' and selected black. This resulted in there being one background and a new black layer. 

The next step was to duplicate the background layer and rename it 'model'. I then dragged the 'model' layer above the new black layer that I created. 

I then selected the pen tool which I used to cut out the shape on the face. The reason I used the pen tool rather than ay other cutting tool, like the lasso tool, is because the pen tool allowed me to get perfect curves and straight lines. This tool is more precise. 

Once the entire shape had been outlined I then right clicked with my mouse and selected 'make selection'. 

I then used the marquee tool. 

I right clicked again and selected 'Layer Via Cut'. This cut out the selection that I had previously made and made it into its own layer. 

I then repeated this process for another part of the face. This was no something I did for every edit however I did do it for some of them. 

This was the final outcome. 

I then double clicked on the 'model' layer and selected 'Bevel&Emboss'. I then altered these settings to what you can see above. This ceased depth to the layers which made the cut outs on the face look a lot more realistic. 

I then copied and pasted the image of the flowers that I wanted to use into this open file. Once this was done I ensured that this layer was located below the face layer. This ensured that the flower would be behind the cut out parts of the face, giving the illusion that the flowers were growing out of the models face.

I then created a mask on the flower layer. I then clicked 'edit', 'fill'. I then selected black. Once this was done I then used the pain brush tool and ensured that the colour was white. I then painted over the parts of the flower that I wanted to be visible. This allowed me to keep some shadows in order for the entire edit to look more realistic.

My Final Images

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