In this photoshoot, I wanted to add an under-exposed aesthetic to my images as I have began thinking about the sequencing of my photobook as this is a key aspect in making sure the narrative is consistent. These images are related to those I took during my second photoshoot, however they are taken at differing times of day and weather.

My intentions with these photos is to sequence them with relevant archived family images which I have experimented with in Photoshop, for example pairing the images relevant to football with images of my brother from when he was younger.

I wanted to use a darker tone in my images this time through the use of the time of day and weather type because it will enable me to show the other side of reminiscing on childhood memories – this being the more negative side where I reflect on the implications my brother has faced due to his diagnosis and add a tone of solitude into the images instead of a happier composition where it connotes ideas of remembrance and hope.

I took this photoshoot at FB football fields as this is where my brothers passion and talent for football began and where I used to go and watch him play matches to support him. Since he became unwell, he hasn’t really continued with his football as he hasn’t really had the motivation to go, so in this photoshoot I wanted to represent how he gave up his love for football, alongside the idea of having childhood memories stuck here.

During my editing, I wanted to ensure that the image was still kept dark to represent emotions of grief, however I wanted to highlight the objects in the image to show small hints of my brothers memory. I did this by using the object masking tool and increasing the highlights or exposure of that particular item to make it stand out from the background and prevent it from blending in.

I also added a vignette to a majority of my best images just to reinforce the idea of seclusion and solitude as it darkens the edges so that not only the overall image appears sombre, but because it will create a more dramatic effect where the objects can be highlighted. This means that the viewer can really reflect on the comparison of the family image compared to these images as they become binary opposites being happy to sad.

Final Images:

For this image, I shot with a low exposure in order to create this dark contrast. As it wasn’t great weather, the different tones of grey in the storm cloud can be seen to once again represent that fluidity of emotion that I as aiming to show in order to keep the narrative consistent on the various differing emotions surrounding my brothers mental health. I shot this from a low angle so that I could get the net of the goal to look similar to a cross-hatching pattern which I think has worked really well because this allows me to take images of sections of the landscape using formalism. Also, the more distinct straight lines add structure to the image in a more dramatic way which can connote feelings of seriousness and solemnity. The lock on the goal could be interpreted as if my brothers illness has locked away his passion and these certain memories that he may struggle to reflect on, restricting him from becoming the person he once was or growing from these experiences. The image didn’t require much editing as the natural sunlight was concealed by a cloud which meant that I could add a gloomy effect to really represent the morose tone in the atmosphere.

In this image, I placed down an image of me, my brother and my cousin from when we were in the UK at a photobooth. I noticed that the pitches had marks on them from the groundskeeper, so I used this as leading lines central to the image to symbolise how my brothers illness caused him to walk away from football. I wanted to add the image in as if he had left himself behind when his illness didn’t allow him to play football anymore because I thought that this would add a stronger emotive factor. I added a vignette because this helped me reinforce the feelings of desolation as it makes the edges of the image darker which denotes negative feelings. I took this image at a relatively low angle and pointed in diagonally so that the background of the image appeared smaller than the foreground. I feel that this enabled me to portray feelings of isolation and loneliness as there is nothing else in the image so that the viewer solely focuses on the concept behind the image rather than the technical aspects, making it more ambiguous. Also, the alternating directions and shades of the grass make the image look more chaotic as it adds movement and texture, which could be linked to the contradicting feelings that my brother feels about his ending of football.

With these two images, I wanted to show the football left in the goal, untouched, as if it was representing the last time my brother played football. Instead of using a normal sized football, I used a smaller one as I wanted to show how young my brother started playing football and how this ended so abruptly when he reached the age of around 17 years old. I used a really small ball to add irony to the image through the dramatic difference in size between the ball and goal itself to make a implicit comparison to now, where the goal is now larger to resonate with how my brother has grown up, however the ball still remains small as his passion for football did not continue, hence why it has not increased in size.

In this image, I used the same angle as I did before however I bent down closer to the ground so I could get a more detailed image. I feel that there is a high contrast between the grass and the bar of the goal due to the vibrancy that works really well when using a low exposure because it adds drama to the image as the line is so defined. The way that the white of the bar is off-coloured, I feel that this could represent how my brothers main concern at the time was how well he played in a football match, something so innocent and pure, whereas now his priority is trying to get better from his bipolar which is a more difficult process, hence all of the marks on the goal. I used a vignette on this image to emphasize the dark tonal range which then meant that the ball looked brighter and would contribute to it being the focal point of the image. I used an angle that was diagonal to the goal which has created a straight line across the image to section it which adds structure and a more formatted aesthetic. The goal net itself does this too, however the curves of the lines create movement and shape.

I used a similar approach in the image, however I put the camera on its side just about touching the grass which has meant that a lot of pieces are blurred in the foreground and look enlarged. I feel that this image looks like a combination of the previous images as this incorporates the stormy weather in the background to evoke feelings of gloom and despair, however this image uses a lot of lines such as the grass spiking up against the goal which may symbolise spikes in my brothers mental health in critical periods. The image was quite bright due to the weather being a large part of the image so I used a vignette on this image too as it allows me to darken the edges of the image, however I wanted to do this to emphasize the shadows made by the grass in the foreground as darkness evokes negativity which is relevant to my brothers emotions about this topic.

In my photobook, I am going to pair these images together as I feel the sequencing of them will be really effective. I took this image outside of the football changing rooms where I would always wait for my brother after his football matches as I was very young and would be ecstatic to congratulate him. For the first image, I stood quite far back and zoomed out the camera so that the objects looked far away, but could still be seen. I then moved closer, zoomed back in and bent down at a lower angle so that I could centralise the objects and take an image that was specifically looking into what they were. In my editing, I put the images side by side so that I could ensure both images had the same tonal range and looked as if they were exactly the same. I also used the object masking tool in order to brighten and highlight just the toys in a subtle way without altering the overall lighting because this meant that the objects wouldn’t disappear and blend into the background when they are the main focal point. I set them up on this bench as if they were waiting for somebody to collect them, as if they had been lost, in order to represent how I would sit and wait for my brother. I also think that this is effective due to the way the changing rooms look so dull and lifeless when paired with the muted greenery as the entire image looks depressing and lonely due to it being so empty. I think that this has portrayed how segments of both mine and my brothers childhood is left here as if it is left unsolved or unfinished as times changed so quickly once my brother became unwell.