Initial Contact Sheet

For this Photoshoot, I walked around St Helier looking for vibrant colours, this was heavily inspired by the work of William Eggleston. Eggleston`s use of colour and how he captures the ordinary life inspired how I went about this shoot. My target with this photoshoot was to capture the bold colours within the streets, urban setting which goes unnoticed, bringing attention to these aspects. However, my time was limited because once I had started capturing photographs, the sun had already started setting meaning I had a short period of time with the optimal lighting. During this photoshoot i used a tripod and a shutter release and I decided to use different exposures taking 3 images at a time to then when editing, use photo merge / HDR to make them stand out more. I took advantage of the lighting whilst it was there and, in the end, captured 67 images, each focusing on colour within the urban settings. 

Final Selection Of Images

After looking through all 67 photographs, I only selected 4 images. I chose these four photographs as I think they are the best representation of what my vision was for this photoshoot. Separately, these images stand out for their unique display of colour, composition and generally how it captures the urban environment during the sunlight or daytime. Three of these four images also have motion within them, this is an aspect I really like and fits perfectly with the theme I am exploring as it shows how during the day there is movement and life which strongly contrasts my other photoshoots taken during the night. 

Development Of Final Images – Before Editng & After Editing

Above is a series of screenshots showing off my final selected images before and after editing, showing how little adjustments can impact the whole image and mood. In all of these photographs the most noticeable edits is the increase in colour saturation this links to Eggleston, he is known for his strong use of colour and he is known for capturing the ordinary in extraordinary ways. To get the same effect that he does I intensified the colour hues and the highlights to make the sky and the colourful buildings more dynamic and interesting. In some of the original photos the lighting is not quite right and looks odd and in order to fix that I adjusted the highlights and exposure.

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As a whole, I am happy with how the final photos came out. The photos really emphasize the difference between the day and night, the bold, vibrant colours seen throughout all 4 images is what reinforces the contrast between the day and night. Inspired by William Eggleston, this photoshoot was focused on capturing the everyday life, using strong colours and compositions. During this photoshoot I also captured a great amount of motion blur, reinforcing the idea that the day brings life, energy and movement, I think this aspect makes the images tie in perfectly with the theme of my personal study. I think that once the final edits were made, I successfully created compositions which reflect the quality of the daytime, making a strong contrast to the night time focused photoshoots taken for my project.

Favourite Image From Photoshoot

From the four final edited photos, this one is my favourite. What makes this photo stand out to me is the composition, within one frame I captured the urban buildings, the mural and motion blur from the moving car. The mural strongly contrasts with the softer tones of the sky and buildings creating different layers to this image. The image has 3 layers which is the mural, the mural is bold and filled with colour making it a the main focal point of the image, the sky and the buildings in the background create a contrast, making the mural stand out even more and the motion blur made by the moving car adds another layer making the image feel more immersive instead of 2d. The motion blur captured in this photograph adds the element of life, and energy, emphasising the aspects of the day. Overall, I believe that this photograph perfectly links to my day theme, capturing a moment in a colourful urban setting. 

My best images:

Overall, I think my fourth photoshoot was very successful, despite the limitations of only having 2 main subjects and I don’t want the shoot to appear boring or unappealing. A disadvantage of this shoot would be that there is no specific artist inspiration, which may leave the viewer confused on what my main focus is. However, despite this disadvantage I believe this photoshoot was executed well due to the use of the photographic gaze that me and my other model carried out. This links to Ramona Wang as she photographs females portraying the female gaze to conform to traditional stereotypes of women being objectified for male desire, and I have resembled similar facial expressions to show this.

What I think went well:

• The tones within the images – creates a successful contrast between shadows
• The lighting – differs from my previous photoshoots as it was shot in the dark – creates drastic

What I think I could improve:

• Limited range of different images – most look the same due to only having one other model

Contact Sheet:

For my fourth photoshoot on my personal study, I focused on myself and one other subject to photograph. This shoot was not inspired by any artist specifically, so it was a chance for me to evoke a more personal theme through my images, where I can include my own ideas, lighting, settings etc. For this shoot, me and my subject went to a field behind St Martin’s school during the evening to create a more dramatic effect, which successfully contrasts my other shoots as they have opposing elements within them. I wanted this shoot to tie in with my themes of youth and femininity through the element of loneliness, which I think relates well to my themes as it is something many young people suffer with. The dominant dark lighting in all of the images help create a sense of drama, and they emphasise how we are sat by ourselves in the dark. This works well because we are wearing vibrant colours such as white and red, which contrast greatly with the colour black. Due to the time of day we took the shoot, it therefore allowed me to experiment with using the flash when photographing,

Editing:

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Initial Contact Sheet

Above is a image showcasing the initial photographs that I took for this photoshoot, this photoshoot was pretty short, only capturing 36 images in total. I chose this particular location for this photoshoot because of the artificial lighting and the overall mood, the lights at Elizabeth Marina are flood lights meaning that the light scatters across a certain distance, this worked well with the slight amount of mist that was present during this photoshoot. This photoshoot almost replicates my third photoshoot, emphasizing the interplay of the fog and artificial lighting, creating a surreal and dreamlike scenery. For this photoshoot I used my DSLR camera along side a tripod and shutter release to ensure the frame is as stable as possible, similarly to my third photoshoot I used a relatively high ISO of 6400, this was a mistake of mine and the ISO should have been set to a smaller number like ISO 100 to capture as much detail as possible. Even though I used a high ISO, I still like the overall photoshoot and I think the outcomes are great, grain is seen in all of the images in this photoshoot due to the use of the high ISO but I believe that the grain improves and highlights the overall mood I am aiming for. The main target with this photoshoot, just like the rest of the photoshoots taken at night and at low light was to capture the sense of solitude, mystery and isolation.

Final Selection Of Images

Once I had put my 36 photographs, the next step was to look over each photo cautiously, to then choose the final best images. From the 36 photos I selected 3 final images which I believe best fits the mood I was aiming for with the project as a whole. The reason as to why there is a little final selection of 3 photos, is because the majority of the 36 photographs are almost identical angles and placement, I took various photos from one point as every photo from that point would capture some differences. These final images blend in beautifully with the rest of my photobook, contrasting with images taken throughout the day and tying in with other photos taken at night.

Before And After Editing

Similarly to other photoshoots, when editing these images I only made slight, subtle changes to them. I did not want to completely alter the unedited images as they are great images as a whole, capturing the isolation and the interplay between the artificial light and the low light. As you can see in the screenshots above for each image I reduced the shadows, increased the whites and decreased the blacks, this was done to reduce as much grain from the image as possible and to also emphasize the time of day. Reducing the shadows and decreasing the blacks meant that my image became darker overall this was done to really show the difference between the day and the night, where the daytime photographs are lit up, detailed and filled with life and the low light photographs are dark, mysterious and lack detail. Another process which I went through was using the Spot Removal tool to get rid of any glare from the lights which hit the lens away from the image, removing this glare.

Final Images

Overall after editing these final images, I believe that this photoshoot was a great success. These 3 final photos will play a part in my final photobook to efficiently show the contrast between the atmosphere during the day and the night. These 3 images clearly resemble what the night, low light does to a setting, these photos I think convey a strong feeling of abandonment.