Elements to include in Studio Shoot

In order to be fully prepared to take my images successfully in the photo studio, i am going to briefly look into the elements needed for a good image.

• Lighting– Different lighting points could be played with in order to get the image you are looking for. The lights used could be a soft light, spot light, ring light, hand above light etc..
• Recording- When recording/taking the picture, it should be taken from different angles so that you capture different view points of the object. Different angles could include from above, right side, left side, front, back.

Planning my photo shoot

In this photo shoot I plan to take images of object from the Occupation in Jersey which has been gifted by Jersey Archive. Their are many objects to take images of and I will chose a few which stand out to me and which i find interesting due to them symbolising elements in the war. I will use two set ups for my photos, one for flat objects which will be done from a birds eye view, as well as a 3D objects which will be photographed straight on. The set ups will require different lighting points. The overall camera settings I have used is my camera is to be put to Manual focus, the ISO to 100, as well as the aperture to F16. These settings will allow me to adjust the depth of field, giving me more freedom with my photography. The white balance for both will be on the daylight setting to allow more light in, as well as the shutter speed for the 3D shoot being 0.6 and the birds eye being 0.5.

Straight on Angle Lighting Set Up

For this set up I used a fill light illuminating object with an extra tungsten light in order to reduce shadowing and to show the object clearly. I also used a continuous light set up which helped all the elements work together. I used a tripod also with a 50mm lens.

Birds Eye View Lighting Set Up

For the birds eye view set up, I placed two box lights on either side of the table, facing slightly towards where the objects would be sitting and used these as two flash headlights with a 2.0 power output. I used a transmitter on the camera which triggered the flash in the box lights to illuminate the object and capture my image. I was advised to use a pilot light to position my frame and cannot be seen in the image as it is hiding behind one of the box lights, and is located at the back of the table. This didn’t effect the colour of the image. I also used a tripod to hold the camera which I adjusted when needed.

Process of Elimination

Planning Editing Process

Through my editing process, i going to try to make as little edits as possible in order to ensure the pictures don’t look overally edited and still looks realistic. Therefore the edits i used were simple such as editing the contrast, highlights, cropping the photos etc.

Editing my Images

Best Finished Edited Images

Technical Analysis (X3 Images)- I used a Canon Camera on a Manual Focus, the ISO to 100, as well as the aperture to F16. These settings will allow me to adjust the depth of field, giving me more freedom with my photography. The white balance was on the daylight setting to allow more light in, as well as the shutter speed for the shoot being 0.6. The camera was also connected to a transmitter which set off a flash when i pressed the camera setting, allowing the objects to retain light.

Visual Analysis- Visually we can see that the objects photographed have been positioned into the middle of the photograph with the help of the cropping tool on Lightroom. There has been a plain white background used, helping the objects to stand out, and this works well with the flash of the soft box lights as it helped to create an aesthetically pleasing image.

Edits- When editing the images I ensured that the images still looked as if they were real objects and weren’t overly edited. This meant that I kept editing on a low and only cropped the image and changed simple elements such as the Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, and Shadows.

Comparing Unedited and Edited Photos

comparison

Green and red are complimenting and I wanted their to be as much red as possible to symbolize blood and death. The tin is red which is a metaphor for the how the bandage is going to eventually turn red due to covering up a bloody wound. I made sort the ration of red to green was bigger as the green is meant to look like it is being consumed by the red. The rate of death everyday kept increasing during the war, the green symbolizes life’s left and its gradually becoming less and less. The green also represents nature and how it was being destroyed by bombs, stomping, trenches and deserted rotting bodies.

Purple and yellow card was used as my background colours as they are complimentary to each other. The bright colours create contrast between the beige box and book. On the contrary I purposely made the box to look at of place because I wanted it to be the focal point as a Red Cross Box held so much importance to those who received them. Although the outside is plain and uninteresting the contents were the opposite these boxes held the power of life or death for some people.

This image was originally from my first shoot, the occupation diary and the radio tower is from an archive image. I went through the process of trimming and cropping the radio tower out of its initial background and placing it on top of the diary to create this montage. The photo highlights the importance of documenting the past through the use of writing and photographing. The radio tower symbolizes the significance of historical documents and how they recreate the past and educate us. Without narrative from the time of the occupation we wouldn’t have a story behind Jersey’s bunkers.

For this image I used miniature people, a green and yellow card background and triangular metal poles. Even though it doesn’t feature any literal occupation objects it has a historical concept. The miniature people symbolize the people of Jersey and the poles are the change made by the occupation for instance bunkers. This image displays how locals had to cope with such drastic changes to their daily life with curfews, their loved ones leaving and rationing. Although this disruption was going on, people had to get on with their lives and stay strong for their remaining families. From another perspective the poles represent mental trauma that was left with some many people after the war.

This time in the studio I decided to photograph objects from the occupation of jersey, I photographed a German Helmet, Ration Box, A Crystal radio Set and a Bike Lamp.

Here is my Edits from shoot:

Second Edit:

Third Edit:

For my zine I decided to use a simple design with just a 16 page a5 layout.

The title image was chosen carefully because because it has a large block of the green at the top and the main focus of the image, the bandage, is far away from where the title is. I have done this so that the title doesn’t look like it is cluttering the page and drawing focus away form the image.

I have done the layout so that there are mostly the set of images from the still life table, the reason for this is because I drastically prefer the outcomes.

Most of the images I took were in landscape orientation with the image filled, this meant that there was a large number of double page spreads.

Still life photography is a genre of photography where the subject of the photos are typically small groups of object. Still life originates from the middle ages and Ancient Greek/Roman art, and genre gives the artists creating paintings and photographs more leeway in the arrangement of the design elements within a composition compared to other photographic genres, such as landscape or portrait photography. Lighting and framing are important aspects of still life photography composition. The most popular subjects in still life images include groups of flowers, food, desk space, and many others. Normally still life images are taken close up to the subject but it also isn’t too far away, but instead taken at a medium distance from the subject.

Image Analysis:

This image was taken by Claesz, who was one of the most important Dutch still life painters in the 1600’s. Everything om the table, from the fluted glass and goblet to the lobster and crab, all look very life like. Claesz has captured all these objects together as during the 17th century the Dutch would proudly present these expensive status objects in their homes to show their wealth and remind them of the better things in life. Fish was very expensive and hard to get hold of during the 17th century, so having fish on the table would show wealth. The Dutch would also have bread and wine on the table to add a touch of Christian symbolism, and if it was white bread that would also symbolise wealth as the less fortunate, such as the poor, would either eat rye bread or porridge.

The Shoot

We set up the studio with two stations, one where you take photos from a eye-level angle, and one where you take images from a birds-eye view.

For these photos, I selected objects that were lended to us from the Jersey Archives that are actual objects from WW2. I chose to photographs both images of just one singular object, but I also selected multiple objects to create a narrative.

Selection

In Adobe Lightroom Classic cc, I used the color rating system to select the images that I thought were the best and I wanted to edit them. First I made them all yellow, meaning a maybe and then after manipulating my images I rated the best photographs as a green. 

The Yellow Rated Photos

I rated these images as yellow as I believe they are of a better standard of the majority of the photographs, however, there are some technical difficulties that can't be completely fixed in Lightroom such as lighting differences or some focusing problems. I decided to show these photos to display my selection process and to acknowledge my mistakes in order to learn from them. What I would change next time is where the lights are situated and make sure they hit both the object and background in order to ensure that there aren't patches in the background that are darker than others.

The Green Rated Photos

These are what I think are my best images. The focus is crisp and the objects are interesting. I particularly enjoyed photographing multiple objects together to create a scenario. For example, placing the bandage pots and soap bar in front of the First Aid box creates the concept that those items might've been included in the box. I also liked filling up the bag with multiple items that the islanders or soldiers may want to have on them all the time. I also liked taking the birds-eye-view image of the German Occupation of Jersey book. Although I overall preferred taking the images from eye-level, I enjoyed the learning process behind taking the images from the birds-eye-view. I also like the mirror-like effect that the objects reflect onto the surface. It adds more depth into the images and overall make the images more eye-catching. To improve next time, again, I would focus on rearranging the lighting more. I want the images to be a bit brighter and I don't like the blueish/grey effect the background has. I tried to adjust this on Lightroom, but there is only so much adjusting I was able to do.

Composition

On thing I really learnt from this shoot is the composition of the objects can make or break the image. Here is an example:

The image on the left is unedited. I wanted to photograph this radio and headphone set but I wasn't happy with how it was turning out. I kept trying to move the wire and headphones into different placed and angles but I just knew something was missing. After trying to make the image work, I decided to see if introducing another object would make the scenario look better. I then found the mini crystal radio set that islanders made and used to find out the news. By linking these already similar objects together added a lot more depth to the image and made it overall more interesting. The similarities between the top of the crystal radio and the headphones are eye catching and the different shapes of the crystal radio adds depth to the photo.