Contact sheet for my photoshoot inspired by Walker Evans, I have highlighted my favourite photos in green.

For this photoshoot, I experimented using more than one of the same objects. Overall, I thought this created an interesting photograph when captured at different angles because it gives a 3 dimensional view, rather than photographing from a birds eye view which gives a 2 dimensional effect – this was what William Eggleston did. He captured his photographs from one angle as this was done to get your direct focus solely on the object, however I wanted to achieve this from different angles and with a few objects. This overall effect created a really interesting photo to look at, as it created a unique look. For each photo below, the first ones I haven’t edited whereas the second ones I have. I thought they didn’t need much editing as I had experimented using different light, which gave the right warmth and contrast of tones that I wanted. However, I still edited most as I wanted to make them more clearer and highlight each individual object making them bolder. This also enhanced the detail on the brushes making a bolder look.

I didn’t edit this photo as I already preferred the look it gave. I thought the way I positioned the objects made it a really effective photo as creates an interesting look leading your eye into different parts of the photo, as it draws you in, in from many angles.

Here I have highlighted my favourite and best photos in green as I thought these images showed a clear photograph of the object. Inspired by Walker Evans, I turned each of the photos in black and white which are shown on the left I showed the before and after photos so you could see the different effects.

Overall, I thought these photographs were really effective, as I thought having only one object really made you focus on the photo. Some of the photographs where I left in colour showed more shadows which showed more of a contrast, so using light-room I lightened them up to create more brighter images. Like Walker Evans, I kept some negative space around my object, but I also wanted the closer look of the object so you would have a clearer view of the object.

The photos I used:

Firstly, I used this photograph in the genre (still life) so I included all genres we have covered so far. I used this image as it has a warm tone, landscape and therefore differs from the other images I used. It also has outstanding and unique objects in a special arrangement so in my opinion, without this image the gallery may look dull and boring to look at. However, in order for not all the attention and eye catching features to draw the eye to the one image I attempted to balance it out by using another still life photograph shown below.

Although this photograph has a dull tone, it is still eye catching by the correct amount with the amount of depth to the shadow, increased highlights and exposure. It also has unique qualities from the objects and the arrangement. Since I have used 2 landscape still life photos. I then added 3 portrait formalism images to break up the pattern of still life and landscape.

Formalism images I used:

I have chosen these images as they are a wide variation of formalism. The first photo includes a daily and useful object which relates to Evan’s work since his purpose is to value and celebrate the man-made objects. The singular object symbolizes the importance of the image and eye catching with a plain background. I then used a paintbrush behind a plain white background which is similar to the first. To create a variation I added an image with 4 other objects to make it differ. Another quality that contrasts with the other images is that I included a knife in the image. This could possibly signify that although we do not think about it. Cutlery is a daily and necessary object in our lives. This relates to Evans work just simply in more of a hidden way.

I could improve my gallery by making my formalism photographs black and white so it relates to Evan’s and Regan’s work and also differs from my still life photographs on the side to create a variation and contrast in my gallery.

In these photos, I increased the exposure to make it more clear meanwhile decreasing the contrast to create more vivid detail. Lastly, I decreased the shadows to create more interesting features to make the objects look as if they are levitating so they are similar to Evan and Regan’s work and increased the highlights.

Three important components in camera handling:

• Aperture (f/x)
• ISO (100, 200, 400, 800 etc.)
• Shutter Speed (1/X)

Aperture

Aperture controls the size of the lens opening which allows light into your camera.

Opening the lens more or having a low f-stop number (e.g. f/1.4) blurs the background/foreground around your subject. This is known as a shallow depth of field.

Keeping the lens more closed or having a high f-stop number (e.g. f/16) keeps the photo sharp throughout. This is known as a wide depth of field.

Shutter Speed

Shutter Speed is the amount of time the shutter is open to expose the image sensor to light.

Slow shutter speeds expose more light to the image sensor so still objects will have more detail and moving objects will appear to have more motion/be blurry.

Faster shutter speeds means less light is exposed to the image sensor and moving objects appear more still.

ISO

The ISO of a camera selects how much light the image sensor detects.

Too much light on a sunny day can cause overexposed shots so a lower ISO would be preferred.

Too little light in a shady room or day can cause grainy images.

The general rule is to use the lowest ISO possible to get the most detail possible.

Exposure Meter

 The Exposure Meter is your final check before you snap a shot. It shows you how well your aperture, ISO and shutter speed are working together.

It is used as a guide to show exposure.

White Balance

White balance is the ratio of blue light to red light in an image which refers to the concept of colour temperature.

White balance is measured is Kelvin(K). Higher values of Kelvin contain more blue light whereas lower values of Kelvin contain more red light.

Here is a table of Kelvin which shows the colour temperature of possible subjects. You can see that a cameras electronic flash is similar to sunlight.

Below is an example of an image in a warm lighting that has the correct white balance next to a copy with too high a Kelvin value. The image is more yellowish because it is expecting excessive blue light but the image is only being lit with reddish lights.

Here in this image the camera is set to a low Kelvin value (which tells the camera to absorb more red light) in sunlight. This results in a bluish image.

https://pages.mtu.edu/~shene/DigiCam/User-Guide/white-balance/wb-concept.html#:~:text=The%20unit%20for%20measuring%20this,i.e.%2C%20smaller%20Kelvin%20value).

the set up i used for this individual project, over head lighting using a ladder to get proper Birdseye view photos.

the photos above i attempted to take in the style of walker Evans

above i used the photos i took in the style of walker evens and used photoshop too edit them inspired by darren Harvey

For my project on objects, I first conducted some research on still life. I looked at a variety of different examples and learnt about objects and their symbolisms. From this research, I then created a photoshoot inspired by it. I used a variety of different objects from school and my own personal objects that gave me a sense of nostalgia. I experimented with different layouts of the objects and having only two objects then some with a group of objects together. These are some of my final images from my photoshoot:

When choosing which images to edit on Lightroom, I first imported all of my photographs into Lightroom and then gave them either a white flag (if I liked it) or a black flag (if I didn’t like it). Then I gave the photos with a white flag a rating out of 5 (5 being the best). Finally, I gave each of my images a colour eg green, yellow or red (green being the best of my images). From this, I then turned on filters and looked at images only with a 4 star rating or above and green, then edited those images. I then experimented with different exposure levels, highlights, shadows, clarities and textures until I had an image that I liked.

Overall, I like how this photoshoot came out as I got to experiment with different lighting types and camera settings. My favourite image is the one of the teddy as I like the warm tone of it and the reflection from the infinity curve. I feel this tone helps portray the theme of nostalgia as the objects are associated with warm memories which is reflected by the lighting. However, if I were to do this photoshoot again, I would try and take some pictures which a more cold and darker background as that was a common theme in the still life images I researched.

The next photoshoot I did was Inspired by Walker Evans and Darren Harvey-Regan. For this photoshoot, I took pictures of tools found in the studio, using a stool in order to get a birds eye view. I made sure to have a white, plain background as seen in the original artists. I also experimented with taking pictures of just singular objects and with multiple objects. Here are my final images:

In order to edit my photographs, I used Lightroom. I altered the exposure, shadows, whites, texture and clarity. I tried to minimise the harshness of the shadows cast by the objects as Walker Evan’s has no/ minimal shadows in his work. I also used the setting colour and altered the hue/ saturation of certain colours in order to enhance them and bring my images more to life and less dull.

Overall, I found this photoshoot to be successful as I feel it closely replicates the work of Walker Evans and Darren Harvey-Regan (which is what I was trying to accomplish). Additionally, I like the clarity and simplicity of my photographs. On the other hand, if I were to do this photoshoot again, I would add tape to the bottom of the tools in order to prop them up slightly and get rid of any shadows cast by them, as in Walker Evan’s work there are no visible shadows.

In this virtual gallery, I used my favourite ‘still life images’. I like this layout because the smooth and textured photos contrast really well together. I like the way that the two photos that are opposite to each other include similar objects but are photographed with two different tones, cool and warm. Both of these images have a smooth textured background, and the photo that is centred has a rough textured background which creates a contrast between all of these photographs.

Photo #1

Within the technical aspect of this photo, I would say it has a dimmer type of lighting, the flash on the camera makes it seem as if the room was dimly lit but the flash lights up the objects I am taking photos of. I think its tonal range is quite different, it seems to have many variations, there is a big difference between the photos light parts such as the glare you can see on the plastic, compared to its dark points like the black box the objects are in. Within the visual elements of this photo, its colours are very beige and just dull in general. You can see the glare on the plastic which reflects too its texture. These are all clearly 3D objects/shapes. Some context behind this photo, would be that these are all the objects other people were taking still life photos of, so rather then being the same as all of them and propping these objects up someone where in a neat order I instead have shown them how they really were. You can see the everyday wear to theses objects in my photo and I think that’s what makes it really special as you can see these objects are really helping students produce the work they are wanting too.

Photo #2

This image is very brightly lit, you can see the florescent lighting in the celling lighting up the drum kit and the glare of the lighting really shows the rings on the cylinder which show the texture. You can see that this image is more zoomed in then how the human eye would see it and I did this because i really wanted the pure texture and the dirt on the drum kit really proves life, it proves how many songs have been played on this drum set, how many people have persuade there passion and just purely how many people this drum kit has made happy.

Photo #3

I think that this is my personal favourite photo, it may not be your typical still life photo but I personally love the contrast of the lighting within this photo. The sharp harsh flash on the camera provides a shine on the step ladder but then there is a dim area between the doors and the ladder, the dimly lit room could contain anything. The light within the door and the corridor is florescent lit my average school lights, but these lights have lit up so many people, so many different lives, lives that have gone onto so many different things, proving that everyone may come from the same place but not everyone is the same.

Photo #4

This photo has very key elements of white, the photos colour contrast makes you really focus on the blue caravan as the background is white and the other objects are white discarding the sunglasses. The light coming up through the bottom aims more focus onto the objects and really makes them clear in your point of view. The tone of this image, the clear light bottom compare too the darker background really makes you focus onto the shadows of the image, showing the size of the items I am taking photos of. The white bottle has a glare on it of the light reflecting which portrays its smooth ceramic texture. This image has a sort of repetition pattern, there are two larger objects, then two smaller objects placed in front of them, this yet again portrays the effect of size, which is part of the composition.

Photo #4

This photo has very dim lighting, some may say this photo isn’t “useable” due to how unlit it seems, but I personally like the dullness of this photo, I fell like it leaves a sense of mystery and just darkness in general, almost as if its portraying a season, the season of winter, the dull morning and the dull nights, and i feel like the emptiness of the photo which is helped with the objects composition represents the coldness. This image is a bit under exposed, leaving a little bit of a blur in the photo and a mysteriousness of what the objects of the right actually is because its so dimly lit. The image has a 3D form, you can clearly see that these are real life 3D objects, objects that are useable and grabbable. This photo mainly lead the eye to the foreground the objects which are right in the centre, but it also leads the eye to the massive white sheet in the background purely due to its vast emptiness. almost like a blackhole. I feel like the emptiness of this image has a deeper meaning, the big spaces between the objects, compared with the how far away the camera is leaving spare on the left and on the right of the objects.

I used art steps to create my virtual gallery, I have each step a pin point so that they could be fully run through when you use the program. Here is the link too my virtual gallery: https://www.artsteps.com/view/652cf5b0d9dec541009e626f