After the first photo shoot where I explored the rural/suburban countryside I was dissatisfied with the photographs especially the lighting which made the photographs appear flat. After looking at the photographs of Todd Hido and his use of dynamic lighting which could elevate and add narrative to an image I wanted to explore how I could use lighting from my surroundings to create a compelling photograph. I plan on looking at a more suburban area which will feature a more dynamic range of lighting such as streetlights as well as the natural light available. I plan on picking a time where the lighting is lower around six o clock onwards, this will give me a small window of time for me to take photographs as the light will be constantly changing during this time. I will also need to use a tripod as I will need to create long exposure photographs to work with the low light.
Due to there being a variety of different lighting sources I will need to take multiple exposure photographs and will combine them in Photoshop using HDR techniques. I have picked a location nearby to enable easy access to the area so I can get the best timing. I also know this area very well so already have photographs in mind I can take. I also plan on returning to this location to take different shots and build a consistent narrative which I could combine together to make a published book. Similar to Todd Hido’s and Bill Henson’s use of using people in his work I plan on using models in my work to build another level of narrative. This can also help explore ad expand on my initial idea of looking at peoples relationship with their natural surroundings and this contrast of nature and civilization. Creating atmosphere is crucial to this shoot. I plan on enhancing what is already present in the photographs to create a sense of mood and ambiance in the photograph.
Below are some tester shots of the locations I plan on using for my shoots. As I have discussed before I plan on picking a time of day where the lighting will give the images a very mysterious, cinematic effect. There are some features I may have to move out of the frame as they may be distracting or create an overly cluttered look, but I plan on trying to keep the photographs as authentic as possible.
