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Studio Still Life Shoot

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For looking at objects we went into the studio and used two different stations to produce a number of photographs. We used one with the camera directly on and the other shooting from above, using various lightings and attachments for us to be able to create our still life photographs.

The small set up uses one continuous light and two connected flash heads, this allows for a small shutter speed, aperture and ISO as we had the transmitter on the top of the camera connected to the flash heads. On the larger table set up, specifically for being able to take photographs of objects, 3D ones, we had a continuous light on, a back light and secondary (tungsten light) light source to eliminate shadows and create clearer images without grey shadows. (Set Up Pictured below)

For the shoot I planned to take photographs of the occupation archive objects that we had placed in the studio, I wanted to capture some regular ones and some with an abstract feel. After looking at Irving Penn with some of the photographs I will aim to create a sort of ‘lived in’ feel like the aspects I felt from looking at Penn’s work such as After Dinner Games – New York 1947.

Birds eye view – table set up
Continuous lights, 3D on front objects set up
Contact sheet of Photographs:

Below shows my contact sheets of the photoshoots produced in the studio, my original lot of photographs and as well my flagged, chopped set of photographs ones that I will look to go through and edit in the future and develop further in Lightroom and maybe Photoshop.

  • Original Contact Sheet
  • Cut down Contact sheet

For my editing for these set of photographs I decided to look into keeping it simple. I looked at editing contrasts and temperatures as well as looking at what Lightroom suggested for white-balances to then see what I could do further to enhance the photographs rather than change them completely, I worked into around 4 of my photographs to create as final outcomes from this photoshoot. I worked mainly in Lightroom instead of photoshop as I feel this would be better for enhancing rather than manipulating the photographs. For some of my photographs I cropped the image into a square to position the objects in the centre of the photograph as some of them were slightly to the right of the photograph or there was a slight shadow in the side and a way I found effective to remove this problem if both were involved to crop the photograph down to a square to have the clear lighting and the centred photograph.

I chose to edit four of my cut down photographs as these were the ones I felt had the best composition to look at in the photographs. I chose two of my original trials of the objects just on the table and laid out, trying the Irving Penn “lived in” style that I had taken from the research and looked into. My second two came from my experimenting with shape and placing, looking at how I can incorporate archival objects into archival teaching methods, cubes and shapes used in maths etc. Below shows some of my editing process with the cropping and enhancing of the photographs in Lightroom.

  • Editing
  • Editing
  • Editing
  • Editing

Below I have some of my outcomes from my studio photoshoots that I have produced through editing and working in Lightroom as well as working in camera. One of my favourite outcomes from this photoshoot is the one taken from above of the letters, not much editing I felt was needed for this photograph as it already is quite dark and in black and white which I feel creates a good effect for the photographs, the letters that I were taking photographs of were some personal ones as well as formal ones, sent from Bailiffs to England and vice versa at the start of the war, overall I felt taking these from above in collection with each other help to create a better more powerful image. For my other photographs I experimented with the use of other objects upright on the objects table. I experimented with incorporating unknown objects made out of wire to create some abstract photographs with some form and shape, I feel these made for interesting photographs, I tried to place the archival objects in the gaps between the wires to create lines and shapes which were interesting the eye, while in Lightroom I just experimented with editing the contrasts and brightnesses as well as exposures to enhance the photographs rather than edit them completely like I would in photoshop. For the last of my outcomes in this photoshoot I had collections of the archival objects all placed together to create what could seem like a scene or to create an idea of what was used and what life looked like during the occupied period, I found experimenting with these a little difficult due to the shadows created and getting the right lighting however I do feel that they are still good outcomes as to experiment with object photography which I had been yet to try yet.

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas

Still life: Studio Photography

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Once I was confident with my understanding of the lights and layout of the studio, I could begin taking photographs of the archival objects that were loaned from the Jersey Archives. I made use of the cameras already attached to the tripods but used my own SD card. After taking a series of images, I came out with the below series (unedited):

As some of the images were either overexposed, underexposed, or had the wrong composition, I uploaded the images into Light-room, and used the colour option to highlight which images I wanted to use, and which images I would reject. The following screenshot is the collection of all of my images after they had been colour coded:

Key:
Green: Final images
Yellow: Possible final images (need more editing)
Red: Rejected images

Out of the images I uploaded to Light-room, I only decided to edit 14 of my best (those highlighted green). The final 14 images can be seen below:

I took some of these images with the knowledge I would most likely use them in a series/pattern (for example, the final 3 images are the same object at different angles, which I took under the assumption that I would use them in series)

As a further method of rating each image, I decided to rate each of the green images /5 in order to record which images I felt would work best, and which ones I felt needed the most editing during the development stage:

The ratings of the above images ranges from 3/5 to 5/5, showing a variation of images at different levels.

I then began the development process, in which I would edit the images that I had labelled green. I used the Light-room editing software, as I find it more detailed and specific than the Photo-shop software. I found that editing the colour gradients and contrasts of my images would be the most important part of this process, along with altering the orientation of some of the images so that the objects lay parallel to the bottom of the image frame.

  • This is the layout I used for the editing process of my images

For many of the images, I increased the contrast of the colours in order to produce bolder outlines and harsher colours. I felt that this helped to make the images appear more sharp and clinical, and gave harsher outlines and contrast in the colours and shadows. I decided to do this as I feel this harsh, sharp appearance reflects the atmosphere of the occupation, as the occupation of Jersey can be seen as a harsh and cruel event that made the lives of the occupants of the island much harder.

  • This is an example of the outcome of an image that I increased the contrast on.
  • I also increased the highlights of this image in order to bring out the contrasting lighter colours, and I reduced the shadows to get rid of the darker effect to the right of the image, caused by a lack of studio light.

Furthermore, I decided to increase the clarity of some of my images. I found that by raising the clarity, the clarity of every small damaged area/detail was emphasized, making the objects of each image look more worn and used. I decided to use this on a range of occasions to emphasize the time difference between now and the occupation, and to emphasize that, although these objects represent a time man years ago, the implications of this event is no less relevant.

  • Here is an example of an image in which the clarity is heightened, and the vibrance is lowered
  • I also decided to lower the vibrance of some images, as I found that this reduced the vibrance of the colours, and therefore provided a much more bleak image (which reflects the mood of the occupation more)

I also adjusted the orientation of some of my images, as the way the tripod was set out meant that the camera took some of the images at a slight angle, meaning the lines of the objects were not parallel to the bottom lie of the image frame. I found this to be a small issue which could have reduced the viewers focus on the subject itself, as their attention may instead have been drawn to the conflicting angles at the bottom of the image. I altered this using the crop option found on the tool bar at the side of the screen, and simply rotated the image until the lines were parallel:

  • Here, I had to rotate the image so that the object did not appear to be at an angle
  • I rotated this image so that the base line of the object was parallel to the bottom of the frame

After the editing process, I was able to save the below images as my final images:

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas

Still life – Photo Shoot

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Planning:

For this photoshoot I intended to photograph objects from the war, which was given to me by the Jersey Archives. There is a mixture of objects such as Red Cross packages, Tins, Helmets, Newspaper’s, Letters and many more which symbolically represented the war. Having this many items, I used two set ups, the first for more flat objects (Birds Eye View) and one for 3-Dimensional objects (Straight on Angle). These two set ups required different lighting rigs, which is explained below. With my camera settings I put the mode to Manual, the ISO to 100 and the aperture to F16, allowing a wide depth of field to be utilised. The shutter speed for the Birds Eye View was between 1/250 – 1/200 and the straight on angle’s shutter speed was 0.5 – 0.8. The white balance for both was set onto daylight, with manual focus being used.

Birds Eye View Lighting Setup:

For the Birds eye view set up, I used two flash head lights, set on a 2.0 power output. The lights where paced either side of the table, slightly facing downwards towards the object. On my camera I used a transmitter which triggered the flash heads to operate as I captured my imagery. In addition, I also used a pilot light in order to position a and frame my composition, this was located at the back of the table (on right) and did not affect the colouring or the outcomes of my image. The camera itself was placed on a tripod looking down at the table.

Straight On Angle Lighting Set Up:

For the straight on angle set up I used a continuous light set up. I used a fill light illuminating the object, with a secondary (tungsten light) light source to reduce the shadows and clearly showcase the object. I also experimented with back lights, but felt that it was not successful and did not justify the objects, thus I stopped using the back light. The camera was on a tripod with a 50mm lens.

Edits:

First Edit – Flagged
Second Edit – Star Rating
Third Edit – Colour Rating

Straight On Angle Edits:

For my straight on angle edits, I began by cropping the photographs, to ensure that the object is in the centre of the composition. I then focused on adjusting the whites, blacks, shadows, contrast and structure in order to accurately portray the objects. This also ensured a complete white background, allowing the objects to be the main focal point within the photograph. Within each photograph, there is a sense of warmth through the artificial lighting, which presents a positive view point towards the contextual meaning of the objects.

The image above is my top photograph from this exploration of still life photography. Visually, we are presented with a light used in the mines during the occupation of Jersey in 1940-45. This object is the main focal point due to the positioning of it in the frame, and it being the only item within the frame of the photograph. The use of artificial lighting allows reflection on the metal object creating tonal contrast of the rust and decay of the object to clearly be presented. When analysing the main formal elements within the frame, we are clearly presented with a sense of space, and emptiness (showcasing the lack of purpose the item now has within today’s society) form, colour and texture. The photograph captures the object at a straight on angle which works in harmony with the plain background, allowing emphasis on the conceptual and contextual factors.

Contextually, the photograph brings viewers back to the second world war and the impact it had on Jersey. It showcases the torch and how slaves, who were taken (from places such as Russia etc) and forced to work digging out tunnels, such as the underground hospital. This conceptually remind us of the importance of this object in Jersey’s history and enriches our understanding of what life was like for the slaves who were forced to work.

Technically, the photograph uses a slow shutter speed, allowing enough light to be presented within the photograph to emphasis the object, which did not create any blur due to a tripod being utilised when capturing the photograph. The ISO was kept at 100 to ensure that no noise is presented within the frame and the aperture was set to F16 which has let a wide depth of field to be used on top of allowing enough light into the exposure of the photograph. The white balance was sunlight, allowing a clear white balance correction which complemented the warm artificial light source used (a two point lighting set up, with a tungsten light).

Birds Eye View Angle Edits:

With my birds eye view photographs, I began by cropping the photographs, to ensure that the object is in the centre of the composition. I then focused on adjusting the whites, blacks, shadows, contrast and structure in order to accurately portray the objects. After ‘correcting’ the photograph I then decided to try and make the object stand out for it’s background, almost as if it has been raised and is separated from the background. To do this I looked at further increasing the shadows and blacks, although I achieved this effect, it has meant that the background now has grey tones, which slightly distracts viewers from the focal point of the photograph

Evaluation:

To evaluate my attempt at still life photography, I believe I have been able to produce clear example of my exploration with this style of photography. From taking the photographs at different angles with different lighting set ups, to applying my artist inspiration within my work, I have successfully been able to conceptually and contextually showcase the importance of these items to Jersey’s history. The simplistic editing used within these outcomes have worked well, as it does not distract viewers from the true values of the outcomes, which showcases my aesthetic for the photo shoot. To conclude, I am happy with the outcomes I have produced due to the high quality images created, through correct camera settings, and good edits. If I was to improve this I would look at producing another photo shoot capturing more objects, singularly, at a straight on angle, allowing me then to explore with typologies as a format for displaying the objects.

AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas

Occupation objects: studio shoots

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RECORDING:

We had to present the Occupation objects from the Jersey Archives in a creative way and use a special still-life table and its translucent backdrop. I photographed the objects using different angles, both from above, side and front. I chose to either photograph each object individually or group together several objects for a more complex still life arrangement.

LIGHTING:

To photograph the Occupation objects in the studio, we experimented with different lighting set-ups, both continuous lights and flash lights. Continuous lighting has studio lights that stay on. You can power them up or down, based on what lighting you need. Flash lighting, lights up when you trigger it. You cannot see how the scene will be captured until the flash is triggered. When it is, a high intensity light will pulse for just a fraction of a section, lighting the scene.

TECHNICAL:

Continuous lights – To photograph objects three dimensionally

  • Camera setting: Manual Mode
  • ISO: 100
  • White Balance: Daylight
  • Aperture: F/16
  • Shutter: 0.5 sec to 0.8 sec
  • Lights in the room had to be switched off to avoid reflections

Flash lights – To photograph images, documents, books, newspapers, etc.

  • Camera setting: Manual Mode
  • ISO: 100
  • White Balance: Daylight
  • Aperture: F/16
  • Shutter: 1/125 – 1/200
  • Flash heads set to power output: 2.0
  • Pilot light was used for focusing
EDITING:

After photographing in the studio, I uploaded my images from the photo shoot on to Lightroom and made a rough edit of 6 images. I used the presets Desaturated Contrast, B&W Punch, Warm Contrast and Red Lift Matte. After selecting the filter, I adjusted the contrast, shadows and highlights. I also cropped unwanted areas to centre the Occupation objects in the middle of the frame.

MY RESPONSE:
FIRST PHOTO-SHOOT

To evaluate my first still life photo-shoot, I believe that I have been able to produce photographs that explore my own style of capturing Occupation objects. I have shot these images using different angles and lighting to contextually showcase the significance of these objects during World War 2. I believe that my outcomes turned out well since they capture the detail and textures of the objects. The minimal editing and central framing helps to draw the viewer’s attention, further emphasising the point that these items are of importance.

SECOND PHOTO-SHOOT

For my second photo-shoot, I decided to capture photos with a contemporary approach by using coloured backdrops which has been inspired by Rafal Milach’s work. Using his photographic style has allowed me to further develop my response to still life Occupation objects. Below are my 5 final outcomes for the colour photo-shoot that have been edited on Lightroom to enhance the saturation of backgrounds. I love how the coloured edits turned out because it makes the objects appear childish, as if it was a toy. This juxtaposes and camouflages the serious subject matter of World War 2.

To evaluate I believe that I have produced imagery which clearly conveys my own understanding of Rafal Milach’s work and my ability to apply his photomontage style into my own photographs. This new way of capturing still life Occupation objects has furthered my exploration since I am now presenting coloured outcomes which creates a strong link to Milach’s work.

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Uncategorized

Rafal Milach inspired photo shoot/montage making

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In this photo shoot I plan on taking image of the occupation objects in a slightly more artistic way. I will be using very vividly colored background as this is what Rafal did in his work, and I like how it makes the objects he’s photographing stand out more. I also like how he used geometrical patterns in order to symbolise being being enclosed or trapped, so I will be using different geometrical shapes in order to do the same thing as it symbolises how Jersey people must have felt under the occupation. I want to create a strong sense of displacement through contrasting colours, and a feeling of being trapped through the use of geometrical shapes.

Here are all the images I took, you can see the both the flagged and rejected images.
Here is an image of just my flagged images, which are my best images.
From my flagged images, I colour coded my best pictures green and my least favorite, red.

Best images

Further developing using archive images

1st montage:

Firstly, I used the patch tool to get rid of some marks that can be seen on the card as I wanted the background to appear very pristine and put together.
I then cropped the image because I wanted the object to be at the centre since it didn’t look right having a lot of clear space to the left of the image.
I then used to quick selection tool to highlight the area shown above as I wanted to place an archival image there. I then right clicked the area, and pressed layer via cut so that part of the image became a layer that I could delete at the end.
I then dragged and dropped an archival image onto my initial image and placed it just above my background. I also decided to use the quick selection tool again to get rid of the lens of the object. I then moved the archival image in the background, so that one of the figures could be seen through the lens area.
Final image.

2nd montage:

To begin, I used the quick selection tool in order to get rid of any markings on the backgrounds I used.
I then used the quick selection tool to get rid of the area of my original picture that I wanted gone.
As you can see above, I got rid of the area within the geometrical shapes as I thought this was the place where the archival image would look best.
Final image.

3rd montage:

Similarly to before, I dragged my archival background picture onto my original image.
I then selected certain areas of the picture that I wanted removed so that we could see the archive image in the background.
Final image.

4th montage:

To achieve my final montage, I used the archive image seen above. I thought an interesting part of the image was the nurse and the soldier shaking hands, and also the medical sign. I selected both of these areas using the quick selection took, so that I was then able to place them onto my image. After selecting them, I used to eraser tool to clean up the edges as I knew they would be going onto a photo with a bright background.

After placing the two sections of the archive image, onto my own, I then went on to open another archival image of a Jersey landscape as I thought this would make my montage more interesting. I selected the blue area of my montage with the quick selection tool, deleted the selected layer and dragged the archival image on. Since the lighthouse would’ve originally been covered to the my placement of the medical sign, I then flipped the image horizontally.

Final image.

Initial images vs. Final images

1st montage:

  • Original Image
  • Archive Image

2nd montage:

  • Original image
  • Archive image
I thought these images would look interesting together because it shows a medicinal side to the occupation in 2 different time periods. It almost looks like we are looking into the past through the geometrical shape, and we can also see a medical product used back then, in the present.

3rd montage:

  • Original Image
  • Archive Image
I chose to place these 2 specific pictures together because I thought they had an interesting narrative together. My original image contains an emergency ration pot, with 2 little figures of old men sitting on top. By having the picture of the 2 young soldiers as a background, it could represent the 2 people in different time periods.

4th montage:

  • Original Image
  • Archive Image
  • Archive Image
I chose to put all these specific images together as they’re all quite similar in theme. I added the nurse and the medical sign onto my original image because the original image contains bandages as my object, so I thought something medical related would be fitting. I decided to add the landscape as my background as I thought it makes it more related to Jersey under the occupation.
AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Uncategorized

Photographing Occupation objects

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First lighting setup

The light on the left is the continuous light, which is also known as a fill light as it has a diffuser of it. When photographing it should be set up to around 500 kelvin, and the dimmer can be adjusted in order to make the light brighter or darker.

The light on the right side if called a key light, which is the strongest light. It projects a very strong, clear light in for the camera to clearly be able to focus on the object.

Behind the backdrop, we also have a back light. This helps the backdrop appear slightly lighter, as it is translucent and allows minimal light through.

when photographing using this set up, you should use a slow shutter speed , which means it is a good idea to use a tripod and a cable release as it will mean the camera wont shake and make the images blurry. The white balance should be adjusted to match the type of light the continuous light is emitting. The F stop should be quite high, around 16 as this gives the image a shorter depth of field as the aperture is smaller.

This set up is effective when taking images of things with dimensions, as you can experiment with angles and lighting in order to emphasize different parts of the object. This is also useful when capturing lots of objects together, as it allows to a lot of space, and it contains a lot of different lighting set ups to effectively be able make the groups of objects look aesthetically pleasing.

Second light setup

This set up can be used to capture images from a higher angle. On the left, there is a flash head light which is triggered by the transmitter which is connected to the camera. It is also important to place a sandbag on the tripod in order for the weight to be balanced, so the camera doesn’t fall over. It is important to place the camera parallel to the 3rd leg of the tripod as this means the camera will be straight. To be able to see what is being photographed, there is a ladder placed on the right hand side, to help you be able to looking through the view finder.

This set up is highly effective when wanting to photograph things that appear 2D or almost flat, such as books, or newspapers since you may only want to be capturing these things from a front facing angle.

Photo shoot

Here are all the images i took.
I then flagged my best images.
From my flagged pictures, I colour coded my best and worst images, green being my best, and red being my worst.

Developing

To edit my image, I increased the exposure slightly in order to make the background of the image whiter. To make the object very prominent, I increased the contrast almost all the way.
I also adjusted the tone curve in order to increase the highlights in the image, as it helped the object to stand out more among the background. I also cropped the images as I thought there was too much unnecessary background space.
Final image.
In order to make my edited images fairly similar, and is if they were part of a series. I increased the exposure to make the image brighter, and increased the contrast to make the colours stand out. I didn’t increase the contrast on this image as much as I did on the previous image as the lighting on this image was slightly warmer, and if I increased it too much the tone would be too yellow. Due to the irregular tone of the picture, I had to increase the whites in order to balance the tone. Decreasing the vibrancy also helped to even out the tone, as it made the image less saturated.
I adjusted the tone curve so that the highlights were more prominent, and I cropped the picture as i didn’t like the slightly grayish parts of the outside of the image.
Final image.
To develop this image I decreased the temperature as the image looked too warm in order to match the other edited pictures. Increasing the exposure made my picture brighter, and I also increased the contrast so that the object would stand out in front of all the white space. I then adjusted the Highlights, Shadows and whites in order to get a good balance of light and darkness within the image. Increasing the vibrancy helped the object stand out, while making the background whiter.
As I mentioned before, my aim was to make the object stand out and have the background whitened. I adjusted the tone curve to further achieve this objective better.
Final image.

Initial images vs. Final images

I really like how the object in the image above stands out a lot more from the background. I also think the colours are a lot more vivid, and they stand out more as it almost appears as there is no background. I like how my final picture has more dimension to it due to the emphasized shadowing and the highlight on the objects.

The objects in this image all have their own different type of texture, which I think is brought out more in the final image. I like how you an see all the details in the parcel such as some staining, and scratches. You can also see the rusting on the emergency ration box a lot more clearly. I think this makes my image a lot more successful as it gives the photo a lot more character, and it emphasizes how there is a rich story and history behind each object, which otherwise may not have been as notable to an audience.

I like how the bicycle light looks a lot bolder and clearer in my final image, compared to my initial one. I think this makes the image far more interesting because it makes the object look slightly more mysterious, which may be intriguing to an audience. However, I think the final outcome could’ve been improved if I would’ve left the shadowing of the object on the bottom left hand side as it would help add a more dramatic effect to the picture.

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas

Photo Assignment 3: Home Sweet Home: Interior vs Exterior

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For my homework into capturing the interior and exterior of my home and the area in which I lived, I experimented with a range of different locations and places in order to best present the place in which I lived, and to best show the personalities, attitudes and lives of the people I live with/around through presenting their houses and what is included inside/outside of them. I captured a range of photographs, ranging from my street to the inside of rooms and houses, in order to encompass both the “interior” and “exterior” aspects of the project.

Below my contact sheets can be found where I have made a selection of images to bring forward to the editing process:

GREEN: box = final image, tick = possible final image, E = small issue with exposure
RED: line = rejected image, E = too over/under exposed, C = issue with the positioning of the camera/focus/technical issue
GREEN: box = final image, tick = possible final image, E = small issue with exposure, F = small focus issue, CR = requires small capping adjustment
RED: line = rejected image, E = too over/under exposed, C = issue with the positioning of the camera/focus/technical issue

After selecting the images I wanted to use, I moved onto Photoshop to experiment with the editing of the images:

For this first image of the exterior of where I live, I decided to make the initial version of the image black and white as this gave the shapes and textures of the image more emphasis. After turning the image mono-chrome, I decided to further experiment with the image by adding a small amount of colour.

I used the lasso tool to cut around the water of the image, and copied this onto a separate layer so that I could edit the water and the background separately.

After separating the 2 components of the image, I used the “selective colour” tool to increase the cyan and blue colours of the image, giving the water a heightened colour which contrasted the monochrome background.

I then went around the edges of the water layer with a soft eraser tool to soften out the edges of the water, allowing them to blend more with the edges of the background. I also used the eraser tool to erase the green plants that I had accidentally included in the layer, which meant that the only thing left in colour was the water. I feel like this gave the image a cleaner look, with the blue water looking more “natural” as opposed to simply being cut and pasted over the background.

After heightening the contrast of the whole image after I had finished editing the water, the above was my final result. I feel like experimenting with the flash of colour in the water allowed for me to compare the 2 versions of the image, and in turn I was able to decide whether I felt the pop of colour was effective at drawing attention to the image or not.

Above are the 2 possible outcomes. After comparing the 2 visually, I decided that my final image would be the purely monochrome image. I found that experimenting with colour allowed me to gain a better understanding of what worked for the image, and I concluded that the simplicity of the monochrome image allowed for more attention to be drawn to the texture, shading and shapes of the surrounding without distracting the viewer with unnecessary colour.

After editing this first image, I went on to use the same sort of process (increasing contrast, using selective colour editing or using monochrome) to edit the remaining images. Below is an example of one of the interior images I used:

In order to create this image, I increased the contrast of the image, and used the selective colour tool to increase the brightness of the white in the background:

I decided to use this blurred image, as I felt it gave an intimate view into the interior of an individuals private life. The lack of focus allows for the interior to retain some privacy, and draws attention to the fact that the viewer is looking into the most private aspect of an individuals life; their home. I feel like although this image does not stick to the norms when it comes to its visual and technical layout, the concept behind the image fits the title of the project well, and therefore I decided on it as a final image or this reason.

Final image

I then decided to edit the image which I originally decided had an issue with its perspective. I used the photograph of the bookcase which I had initially taken using a handheld camera, and thus the image came out with the bookshelf appearing uneven and lob-sided, as shown underneath:

I took the image to Photoshop, where I turned the image monochrome (as I disliked the yellow tint to the image and felt the textures could be best emphasised using black and white) and then proceeded to alter the perspective of the image using CMD-T in Photoshop:

This allowed me to better straighten the cabinet, and thus I created a much more in-line, symmetrical image.

I then had to fill in the gap at the bottom of the image, left from where the image had been lifted due to the perspective change. To fill this, I used the spot healing brush tool, and allowed the software to fill the gaps in:

I then decided to remove the table corner in the bottom right of the image which distracted from the cabinet itself, and to do this, I also made use of the spot healing brush tool:

  • Before
  • After

After this editing was complete, this was my final product:

I followed the same sort of process for the rest of my images, and developed the following as my final images:

I feel like my final images for this project reflect the meanings of both “interior” and “exterior” well, with a range of images for each criteria. I feel like my final images give a feel and understanding to the viewer of the public and intimate aspects of the lives of individuals living in the houses and areas that I photographed, and the intimacy of rooms such as the bedroom and kitchen allow for the viewer o gain an understanding of the personality of the people living inside and around these rooms. I feel like the editing process allowed me to emphasise certain aspects of the images, and downplay others, which I felt was an effective method for drawing attention to certain components of the image which helped to better convey the meaning of the image.