This is my outdoor Arnold Newman inspired photoshoot. I chose to photograph my friend Ingrid in her garden as it is a place where she spends a lot of her time during the warmer months, sunbathing and having barbecues with her family and friends.

Original photos – unedited

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This image is inspired by Newmans ‘Igor Stravinsky’. I loved his placement in the image and wanted to emulate it. I believe the placement of having Ingrid small in the left hand corner could symbolise humans subordinate size compared to nature, or Meer size of the individual on earth.

I love the contrast in this image of her light skin, hair and clothing compared to the ominous darkness of the vegetation behind her.

When I went on the Hamptonne trip, I noticed several interesting objects which stood out to me, so, naturally, I took pictures of them.

I chose this image because I like the way it is laid out, with the plant hanging from the top left of the image. I chose to make this image black and white because I wanted the shadows on the plant to be even more vivid, giving it more depth. The black and white also creates a contrast between the dark hanging plant and the light-grey background. I also decreased the images exposure slightly, which gave the background a grey-ish colour, which gets lighter the closer it is to the object, I like this effect as it makes the object stand out more. The background is fairly plain as it gives the object more of an emphasis.

I chose this image because I thought the objects and the patterns on them were interesting. I decided to give the image a low saturation because it allows the colours to stay in the image, while also giving it a older look. I like the way the colours ended up, it looks close to a black and white image, but the faint colours gives it an interesting look to me. The lighting in this image is very soft, which doesn’t allow much shadow to come through, this makes the objects slightly clearer, while the shadow that is seen gives them an interesting pattern.

I chose this as a Final Image because the objects inside the crate intrigued me. I wanted to make the pink on the artichoke stand out from the rest of the image by making it more vibrant and appear glowing, I wanted to make the rest of the image have less colour and vibrancy in order to make a more noticeable contrast. I think the shape of the artichokes gives the image an interesting look by not only giving it a lot of sharp lines and patterns, but also giving it more shadow. I lowered the exposure a fair amount in this image because I thought it was slightly too bright, I think this makes the image look more mysterious, maybe alien-like.

I chose this image because of its simplicity. I like how light is shown in this image: being at its brightest on the right and darkest to the left, the position of the light also gives the objects an interesting shadow. I think black and white goes nicely with the image as it makes the objects more vivid. I think the way the objects are almost in a line gives the image a nice composition. I decreased the exposure in this image slightly because I think it complements the black and white filter nicely, and also makes the difference in tone made by the shadow more noticeable.

I chose this as a Final Image for similar reasons as the first picture on this post: how the object is left dangling from the top of the image and how the background behind the object is plain, this allows the object to ‘breathe’ by giving it space in the photograph. Because the colour on this image is more varied and stands out more than the other similar image, I decided to emphasise that colour by increasing the contrast and exposure slightly, making the reds and greens far more noticeable. I also made the lighting ever-so-slightly warmer to make the colours appear brighter and more healthy.

I chose this as a Final Image because I like how it has a lot of colour, probably one of the most colourful images in the photoshoot. When editing, I made the colour of the grass slightly darker, I did this because I not only prefer the darker, slightly blue-ish colour, but also because it makes the apples and leaves on the floor stand out, this makes the apples in particular look almost gem-like and creates a very noticeable or sudden difference in colour.

I chose this as a Final Image because I liked the angle that it was taken, as well as how the image is split between the beam the object is hung on, and the further away parts of the image like the barrels and the wall. I decided to make the image darker because I thought that the shadows were not as clear as they could be, it also creates a bigger difference in tone between the left/centre side (the beam and the object) and the right side. I made the lighting in the image slightly colder to give the image a wintery look.

PORTRAITS

INTERIORS

I flagged all the good pictures and rejected all they were too dark or not focused enough.

I selected the best images based on how focused they are, the shadows or lack of them and whether they are overall aesthetically pleasing.

Those were my best picks which I then rated to further narrow down the selection

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Image analysis

In this shoot I photographed historic objects as the topic of the shoot is heritage. The lighting in this were two LED studio lights on both sides (bottom right and bottom left). The light were bright and quite close (around half a meter) to the objects to get rid of any shadows, positioned a bit above the objects. The camera was pretty close as well to capture as much detail as possible. The overall temperature is pretty cool as there is a lot of blue-whites and a bit of green, the red peas box really stands out and contrasts the rest of the colours so it draws in the eye, its the first thing you initially see in the photo. The objects are placed in the middle and the camera was taking pictures at eye level rather than the bottom or top. There is a mix of textures from the roughed up edges of the box to the smooth surface of the bottle, I think that makes the picture more interesting.

Cyanotypes as a science-

Cyanotypes are a form of printing that was discovered by Sir John Herschel in 1842. It was often used by engineers in the 20th century to make cheap copies of drawings, known as blueprints. When the mixture of iron compounds are exposed to UV light and then water, the paper will turn blue, giving Cyanotypes their name and signature look, and unexposed areas would be white.

Cyanotypes as an art form-

Cyanotypes can also be used as a form of art, with artists able to place interesting and beautiful compositions onto them. Anna Atkins was a British artist, collector and photographer who illustrated a book using cyanotypes, producing detailed blueprints of botanical specimens- this book was called Photographs of British Algae- Cyanotype Impressions and was released in 1843.

My Cyanotype-

On the Hamptonne trip I had the chance to make my own Cyanotype, I used various things nearby for my composition, like petals and stones. The composition is a little faint but I enjoyed the process.

During the visit to hamptonne farm, we took portrait photos of photographer Tom Kennedys wife. He spoke to us on how to only use a natural light source to take the photos, as it makes them look very effective

Using Lightroom I selected the best photos I took using the flagging system. The photos that I did not select were too dark in my opinion. I also edited certain photos to make them look more effective.

For my environment portraits I chose to shoot a moped doing donut.

Interiors from around Hamptonne, I edited them to make them brighter and warmer.

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with this image, i moved the lights to give different affects on the shadow placement.