I decided to do another photo shoot where I capture pictures every hour, throughout the day, in the same location. I took pictures from a balcony in a villa adjacent to the beach. From this location I was able to obtain a clear view overlooking the mountains located behind the village of Mojacar. Before I began the photo shoot, I had to choose a position on the balcony so I knew where I would need take pictures from every hour. This allowed me to maintain the same view of the landscape throughout the photo shoot.
For my second photo-shoot for the Journeys and Pathways project, I will be focusing on the idea of representing the concept of being on the wrong path or journey, emphasizing the contrast between the subject and the location they are found in (showing that they are on the wrong path in a more literal sense).
In order to follow the theme of a subject being on the wrong path, I will be taking landscape images of different landscapes and environmental situations, and will be editing images of subjects (representing different professions and lifestyles through clothing) into these images, as if they have been torn from their original path and stuck in an out of context, contextually inaccurate environment. I will be using a photo-montage style of editing in order to achieve this, and the final images will look similar to the below image;
Image of subject: https://www.istockphoto.com/th/photos/one-man-only
My first set of images includes all of the images that will be used as the subjects of the final images. These images are taken before the editing process, which will remove the background of the subjects, and will insert them into the correct environment image:
This photo-shoot will involve multiple locations and multiple representations of subject careers and backgrounds. For my first set of images, I compiled images to be used as the backgrounds. The following contact sheet contains all background images:
My second photo-shoot includes more heavy editing, as it involves merging 2 separate images so that the subject looks to be making their way through the scene. This photo-shoot is based around the fact that the subject is on the incorrect path, and has been placed in a scene that doesn’t match the context of what the subject represents (an office worker).
In order to do this, I used Photoshop to cut the subject from the background, in order to separate the body so that it can be edited onto the background:
After the subject was separated from the original background (using the quick selection tool) I used the eraser tool to tidy the boarders:
I then changed the colour gradient of the subject to greyscale, as I felt that by doing so, I could emphasise the separation and contrast between the background and the subject, and I would also be able to show the contrast between nature (the background) and the mundane reality of working life (represented by the subject), as the use of black and white coloring shows the negative effects that a repetitive modern job (such as working in an office) can have on an individual:
I then edited the subject onto the final background, which I chose from a selection of images I took of settings that did not seem to match the attire of the subject (e.g forests, beaches):
Final edits included either adding paper tears around the subject (as If they have been torn from their original journey/path and placed in a different one) or the addition of a “hole” through the scene, as if the subject is falling through the wrong scene while on their journey.
here is an example in which I used a torn paper effect, as if the subject has been removed from his original path and placed on a random/incorrect one.
This was the process for all of the images, until I produced all of the final images.
During the editing process for my final images, I made use of Photoshop in order to edit the saturation and colour of the images (which was the main point of focus). I did this in order to match the style of image with the original images, in order to create more points to compare the 2 images. This often requires raising the saturation and lowering the brightness, to give the effect that the new image was old.
In order to make the new image more similar to the original (and therefore provide more continuity) I edited the newer image so that the jumper of the subject was a similar colour to the jumper of the same subject in the original image. I did this by using the quick select tool to highlight the jumper, before using the saturation tool to change the colour from blue to green. This gave a point of similarity between the 2 images, and allows for the viewer to focus more on the differences in the subjects face, posture etc rather than the colors (which hold less meaning).
I also edited the colour of the tie in order to match the rest of the image. As the tie was a smaller area with a less simple shape, I used the lasso tool to do this, and the saturation option to change the saturation to a greener shade. This allowed for continuity to be carried throughout the subjects whole outfit.
The original image is the subject at an earlier stage in their life, and so to match the tones of the original image with the newer image, I lowered the brightness and heightened the contrast in order to change the overall tones of the image.
Above is the original image on the right, and the edited image on the left. The left image has been cropped, and the background expanded to create a square image, and the brightness and contrast have been edited so that they better match the newer image in terms of tone and lighting.
The final image is a side by side comparison of the 2 images, showing how the subject has developed through her life, without drawing attention away from the important aspects of the image (such as the facial structure changes, the hair growth, and other aspects that have changed that are not simply the clothing):
For the second image, I changed the saturation and contrast of the newer image to allow for the tones to match slightly more with the original image:
Image before editing
The original image I took involved the subject facing the wrong way, and so in Photoshop I simply flipped the image to resolve this, and have the subject facing in the same general direction as the original subject. In addition to this, I raised the saturation and contrast substantially to give the image a more orange overtone, which I feel both draws more attention to the image, and gives it a more vintage feel (showing similarity between the original and new image so that attention is not drawn just to the difference in shades and colors).
Image after editing
This image will be displayed with the archival image below, showing the contrast between the 2 images, and the difference in the subject, showing how she has changed over the years between the 2 images.
I have decided on the following 4 images for my finals for this photo-shoot:
I have decided on these images as I believe that they are the clearest and best produced, and the position of the subject matches with the background, and the size and shape of the subject looks as natural as possible alongside the background.
I have chosen the below images as my finals for this photo-shoot, as I feel they best represent the initial brief, as they represent 2 different times in the same subjects life, showing the journey that they subject has been on between the 2 images, in 2 still-frames, leaving the viewer to wonder how the subject came to look/be the way they are today.
