PHOTOSHOOT ONE

My research into Henri Cartier-Bresson’s concept of the “Decisive Moment” – a picture masterly composed to seize the essence of an impromptu event, saw an undoubted relation to the genre of sports photography. Taking Bresson’s ideas of The Decisive Moment and it’s links to Sports Photography inspired me to undergo a photoshoot with a focus on the practice of surfing. My approach saw me produce a series of images in an attempt to preserve the human body and it’s surrounding elements in motion. The constant change in conditions when undergoing this photoshoot saw the capture of a well composed and visually compelling image a difficulty. Although, A Fast Shutter Speed, Auto-focus and the use of the ”Burst Mode” enabled me to overcome the difficult shooting conditions. The Waterproof housing provided by the JEP saw the opportunity to produce images from the viewpoint of a surfer, allowing for unique often unseen of outcomes due to the pricey equipment necessary. Areas of improvement have been identified from analysis of my outcomes, allowing for an improved response in future photoshoots. Due to the fish eye effect of the dome housing provided, the need to position myself a close distance from the subject was crucial. My affected mobility in the water saw my distance in specific images a necessary area of improvement. Although my past experience in the ocean aided my response, my recent knowledge on certain camera related tricks, such as the removal of water droplets from the lens with saliva, will undoubtedly aid me in future shoots. Physical and Environmental aspects of this in water shoot also affected my response, having already been in the water for hours prior to the photoshoot my levels of fitness and body temperature were seen to be a problem. Overall, I believe this photoshoot was a success and has provided me with the necessary experience to produce outcomes of higher quality in shoots 2/3/4/5.

Favoured Outcomes

I have begun to make selections across my photoshoots to find the ones that are worth editing, as I have nearly 2,000 images and cannot possibly edit them all.

Using the ‘Flag as picked’ and ‘Flag as rejected’ tools in Lightroom, I am able to pick out the images I would like to edit, which I can then filter later on. I am choosing the best images based on their aesthetic quality and their relevance to my overall intentions.

For Amsterdam, I picked a total of 54 images for editing.

For Athens, I picked a total of 80 images for editing.

For Edinburgh, I picked a total of 21 images for editing.

For London, I picked a total of 16 images for editing.

For New York, I picked a total of 59 images for editing.

For Paris, I picked a total of 32 images for editing.

From the plane journeys, I picked a total of 24 images for editing.

For St Malo, I picked a total of 43 images for editing.

For York, I picked a total of 30 images for editing.

That makes a total of 347 images.

Where:

Plan:

• What– The objects I will photograph are swampy areas therefore I couldn’t help to capture water in these swamps, with leaves, algae, water plants etc.
• Who- My main goal is to capture frogs, therefore although I might include pictures of the surrounding habitat as well as documenting the trip, I plan to produce images mostly of frogs.
• Where– Near Wayne, there are natural ponds, where I have been honoured to join on a documentary trip, with my friends dad who needs to look after them as they are endangered.
• When– We would have to go when it gets quite dark to see them better but to also skip the crowd. in the dark, when using a torch it is easier to see underneath the water, and that is what we will need to do.
• How– using the digital camera I will have to use flash as it will be very dark and except from a camera flash we have a limited amounts of torches.
• Why– It will be a great adventure and will get me out of my comfort zone, as I never had to do something like this before, I also think that the outcomes will be quite discovery photographs, which link to my main idea of adventure and travel.

I didn’t like this image cropped or the blue in the background. I filled the space by selecting areas, clicking delete, then OK. This fills the space to create more of the area around it.

I also experimented with AI generative fill, and it created a more realistic look.

I still don’t know if I am going to use more black and white or colour, so I have edited some with both options

I have also experimented cropping this image because I feel like there is too much in one image, however I will see once it is laid out with all the other images.

Colour vs black and white

This is the image I attempted to create, replicating Alec Soth’s. It was difficult to make sure the reflection was in the right place, and not get myself in the frame. I can’t decide if I prefer colour, or black and white.

I have experimented with AI generative fill in photoshop again with this image because I didn’t like the background and wanted to see if it could create a better composition.

Overall, I am happy with my editing for this first shoot. I will take more photos and retake others after learning where I went wrong. Editing these has also inspired me to take photos outside the house, where my grandfather loved, as well as possibly remaking old family photos.

Overall very happy with these images, I think they capture the best perspectives of buildings and people, combined with the multiple colours and patterns in the evening sky. The edited ones are even better with exaggerated colours and vibrancy. Some of these photoshoots came out a little too dark or a little too bright, so I had to be careful in choosing and editing them to have just the right lighting, which I think I managed very well at doing. These all hit the boxes for me and most turned out just the way I wanted.

For my first photoshoot I was inspired by Andreas Varro, This is due to his use of artificial lighting and dystopian feel that his images produce

For this photoshoot I decided to do it after the sun went down, I did this to eliminate all natural lighting that could intrude into my pictures, I did this photoshoot in a bedroom at my house to create a natural setting. I used my 2 models including a male and a female and took various images of them including them together and them individually. For my first set of images I decided to take photos of them together laying in a bed while ignoring each others presence while all of there attention is on their mobile phones.

For my next set of images I took single images of the male model on his laptop working on his trading business with the artifical light from the laptop highlighting his facial features to create the feel of him being oblivious to the outside world and all of his attention in on the pixilated screen.

For my final set of images I took pictures of the Female model on her phone listening to music though a wireless Bluetooth earbud, Again only having her attention on her mobile phone while the light from her phone illuminates her face.

In conclusion I feel that this photoshoot really portrays the dystopian reality of todays consumption of technology from an outside point of view. I am very happy with how the images turned out.

Final edits

I used Lightroom classic to edit all of my images

all of these where up there with my best images taken in an office mainly, some in a car park, petrol garage, and a church, which all have an essence of familiarity but isn’t noticed by many people because it is used in every day life, and mostly during the day, never commonly used in the night.

To choose my final images, I flagged all of the images I liked to put them into one place. I then colour coded the images to grade the to highlight my best images. Green being my favourite/best, and yellow being close to the best.

FINAL IMAGES:

IMAGE COMPARISON:

EVALUATION:

I believe that my photoshoots have gone well. However, I could have benefited from taking more images which would allow me to have a larger variety of images. I think that I have stuck with the theme as well as my artist reference Nancy Honey. My next photoshoots will be more focused on my other artist which I have studied Cindy Sherman.