Contact Sheets

Concept: The plan for this photoshoot was to create portraits mostly inspired by Matthew Finn, as I would like to create his ‘Uncle’ project, but with my brother instead. I really would like to attempt this idea as I think that it will highlight the importance or me and my brother relationship.

Overview of Photoshoot: I think that this photoshoot turned out well, this is because the lighting in the first images with my brother is good. They capture his happiness, however, I think that as the lighting changed towards the end of the photoshoot, my images became slightly worst as the sun was going down.

Image Selection

Below I have included a screenshot of me rating some of my best images, this helps me decide which images are the best for my project, and which contain the least imperfections, such as blurry spots and incorrect exposure. Overall, I think I have lots of successful images from this photoshoot, and this will help with the next stage of my image refinement.

• Purple- Better images that are more relevant to my project
• Blue- Images that still have potential are still good quality

These image above have been split into purple and blue categories, this means that when in lightroom, I am quickly able to tell which images need more attention when it comes to cropping/ editing. I think that placing colour labels on my images is also good as after rating the images with stars, I am, able to be definitely sure that they are the best images throughout my selections.

Best Images Before Editing

Below I have included a gallery which demonstrates my best images before they have been edited/ cropped, this shows that overall the exposure and composition of my original images has potential. Alternatively, the second picture of my dog needs to be edited as the exposure is too high, this is most likely a result of the shutter speed being too high. Whereas, the seventh image of my brother does not require as much editing in my opinion, this is because the exposure is a lot better and other features such as the saturation of the photograph, is correct.

Editing

I think that this photoshoot did not provide a lot of opportunities to showcase good editing, this is because many of the image turned out better in colour, and the exposure didn’t need much editing. Despite this, I have shown some of my editing to demonstrate that these images are more aesthetically pleasing in colour.

The first image at the top looks too hard with this editing, in my opinion this is because there is a large shadow coming from the right side of the image, as this is less apparent in the colour images. Alternatively, I think the image of my dogs paws below looks better in black and white as it increases the texture of his fur and the shadows that are present within this image.

With this last image, I decided that it was a good idea to crop the image before looking at its settings, this was because I thought the background distracting and didn’t add any value to the image itself.

Final Images and Evaluation/ Critique

I have selected this as my first final image as I believe that it has a lot of relevance to my project, as I will be attempting to explore the relationship I have created with my brother in our teenager years, like Matthew Finn does throughout his ‘Mother’ and ‘Uncle’ projects. This reflects the premise of ‘Simple or Complex’ as the relationship between brother and sister can be viewed as very simple, or one with challenges, increasing its complexity. It’s important for me to reflect throughout my project that out relationship used to be very complex, but the peacefulness of simple within the brother and sister bond has made us welcome the simple relationship we have now, as we are more like friends. This image is important as it demonstrates how simple my brother can present himself, and hides all of the complicate things that come with having a close relationship with your siblings.

This will be another one of my final images, taken at my mums house, it reflects the simplicity of décor in our home and how my mum values nature and has always been a flower of flowers. I like that the light coming from the back of the window almost highlights the flowers and makes them the colourful focal point of this image. Furthermore, I have decided not the crop the wall in the right side of the photograph out, and this is because I think it adds a nice simplistic part of the image, with the string adding a nice touch. This image could be seen as one of my worst, this is because the lighting isn’t the best throughout the whole image, as the left side is a bit too light and the right side is a bit too hard.

This photograph is probably my favourite from all of my shoots, this is because it captures the happiness that my family share, but within only two members, this is important for my project as it shows that some parts of family life are simple; and this is a simple moment in time. Overall, I think the lighting of the image is consistent and and the fact that the face of my brother are dog and slightly lighter than the background helps highlight their significance to my life. To improve this image I should have increased the aperture when doing this photoshoot as the right side of the image is more blurry than my brother’s face, as this decreases the quality of the photograph.

I really like this image as the composition is quite interesting in my opinion, I like how my dog is lying in this image, as it means that he is not in the middle of this image but he is still the focal point. In my opinion, this image is one of my best because it was not staged but it looks like it was. The natural lighting within this whole photoshoot meant the I came across some challenges, this was because the lighting was constantly changing and I have to adapt the camera settings (mostly the exposure and aperture) to try and maintain the overall look of the photoshoot. To make this photograph better I would of had to get multiple different angles of my dog sitting in this way, like one from a ground view.