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.