My final thoughts on this project, I enjoyed trying different things and it taught me a lot on how to compose a shot as well as how to use a different camera than I’m used to. I enjoyed using ‘props’ however I also liked using my own items likes the tie and stock as this felt more personal and linked it to the idea of nostalgia. When editing I played around with different tonal options and black and white or in some shots I chose to keep a softer background than a bright white. I also used photoshop to remove small details like scuffs and marks that made the shot look busier or unfinished. Over all I liked the project and found it very useful to get used to new things while producing high quality work.
This is my virtual gallery for my still life project. It is a selection of my best, after editing photos from this project. I mainly used the ones from my second shoot as I ended up much preferring them over the first shoot. I used a variety of different shots, some landscape, some portrait and some one black and white. I think viewing the photos in a virtual gallery allows me to see how well the final photos actually came out. I chose not to add frames to the final photos as I think it would take away from the simplicity within still life shots.
I started by looking at how different presets effect the photo. Presets are pre made sets of edits almost like a filter. Using them can be very beneficial as it allows for many edits to be put on one photo very quickly, it also allows for similar lighting and style of editing on a set of images or a singular shot. I used pre made presets as I hadn’t yet tried editing the shot myself, if I had I could have made my edits into a custom preset.
I then wanted to remove the small scuffs and marks from the background. To do this I used the spot heal tool on Lightroom and if something didn’t look right I would then correct it by moving the selection replace patch.
The final edit (as pictured above) doesn’t have a huge contrast in look than the before (the left picture above) but as you start to look at the shot in detail you can notice the small improvements like: there is no longer scuffs distracting and leading the view away from the objects, there is less yellowing on the icing set highlighting the details in the box while keeping the used look, the bottle is a brighter cream colour, truer to real life.
I was then curious as to how a black and white version might look as it is a great way of making photos feel more nostalgic and feel older. I used the black and white option in Lightroom and then compared the original shot and the black and white version. While I like the black and white version I then felt some of the lighting and colouring needed changing. To do this I increased the contrast to add to the definition of objects, I then furthered this by using the sharpening tool as well. By decreasing the highlights and increasing the shadows it allowed for more tone in the image making a successful black and white image.
The next step was to remove all the scuffs on the violin as well as the yellowing sticker on the neck of the violin. I did this by using the spot heal tool to camouflage the replaced part with the actual parts of the photo.
This is the before and after of the finished edit, I noticed the black parts of the background showing though takes away from the overall appearance of the photo as it quite distracting to the eye and takes the focus away from the subject in the photo.
To amend the previously mentioned background showing I used the spot heal tool to attempt to cover up the black sections without cutting the box out of the photo as I think it adds depth and great lines in the shot. However it didn’t quite work as the spot healed background didn’t completely match the rest of the shot making the photo look messy.
Photoshop Editing of the same shot
Although I have already edited this shot in Lightroom I felt photoshop could have a better effect on redoing the background.
I started by selecting the edge of the box and moving it towards the mug. This allows me to remove additional blank space while still keeping the different depths in the photo.
I then chose to crop the image, keeping the edge of the box in so it still added to the photo, drawing the viewers eye into the image with an additional leading line from an object that isn’t in direct, front on view in the shot. I also chose to crop the height and the side of the shot to keep it equal and make the shot feel more personal. This helps tell a story within the photo as it’s not just emphasising the objects as if it was it wouldn’t be over lapping or have some of the object cut out of the frame.
Before
After
My last couple of alterations for this shot included, using the spot heal and clone tools to fill in scuff and remove marks on the image overall particularly on the violin. The editing actually made this photo look complete as before it looked very unfinished. I love how the shadows are only enhanced by editing adding, to the tone of the image. As this is a still life image, I focused on composing a story within the photo, to benefit this during the editing I fixed the background and left little room to be distracted when looking at the photo. Shape plays a big part in this image, making sure I used different shapes, some with smooth curving lines that lead around the image making it feel soft and almost safe like nostalgia does. To harsher more abrupt lines pointing to other elements in the photo. In general there is a smooth appearance to the objects, after editing and removing the scuffs, as our memory tends to manipulate smaller factors and seeing how scuffed something really is can make the photo look unappealing and take away from the image as a whole. Warm colours are focused on as the image as a whole and by using the ‘hue’ slider within photoshop I very slightly warmed the image while keeping the cool toned things like the metal tankard looking realistic. Depth within the image is always important during still life photos, to make sure the image didn’t appear flat I staggered the objects, I also took into consideration the size of each object putting the smaller ones at the front pulling the viewer to the back of the photo.
For this shot I felt it was rather flat as an image on the whole. before editing. To improve this I adjusted the hue to balance the image before then changing the image to black and white.
After making then image black and white I noticed that the bottle on the left had beleneded intot he background, to alter this I used the dodge and burn tool
Before After
For this last shot I chose to turn the shot black and white to add different tonal elements and by also removing some of the blemishes on the sheet of paper used as a background adds a smoothness to the overall look of the final photo. I did this editing in Lightroom as I didn’t feel it needed further editing in photoshop and instead I wanted to look at the colouring and lighting of the shot which Lightroom is great for.
I used Lightroom classic to go through all my photos and started by colour labelling my photos to make a rough idea of which photos are better than the others, this then allowed me to make a best shots unedited folder. I used the idea of green for the best shots and red for the shots that I don’t like.
First Shot
I then started to edit the best shots, I started by using the spot heal tool to remove any thigs I felt took away from the overall image liked the price tag on the hat and flecks of dust on the background.
After that I started to adjust the colouring on each image, as I used neutral lighting on most of my shots it made it easier to edit and manipulate the image to how I wanted it to look.
Second Shot
This image needed cropping so I used the cropped grid tool to centre the subject.
These were the settings for this shot. At the time these worked well on the actual taking of the photos. However with flash box lighting the image looked slightly washed out so I then went onto edit the saturation and exposure.
As seen above I increased the saturation by +40 which while leading to a purple tint on the upper half of the photo, when I then decreased the highlights to -100 it made the colours of the tie, stock and red in the rosette brighter and a more accurate representation of the actual colours. I also think this makes the photo have a more nostalgic feel as the bright colours remind me of my childhood and the excitement of winning.
I then felt the purple tint was too much so I then used the colour selections to change the purple levels in the photo drawing the image back to the original lighting with no purple tint but with the more prominent colours in the tie and stock.
I then felt the image edges were very soft and I wanted the details of the ribbon and the lines in the stock to be sharp against the background.
This is my final image, overall I the editing has greatly improved the image. The composition of the original shot was already well composed, however I felt the lighting needed work. This could also have been done while taking the photo via flash lighting set up I used however I also felt I could benefit the image with editing. Vibrancy is a common connection between nostalgia and the things/ photos that create it, so I felt not only did the editing help the general photo but also gave the photo a further nostalgic feel.
The next step I had was to add different objects to the shoot to create a story slightly less personal to me and instead working on what I have researched. By using ‘old fashioned’ objects I think it gives a great story and insight into history. I looked at the lines created, the patterns and following the rules that an odd number of objects always looks better than an even.
First Shot
The first editing step was to cropping this image, I wanted to centre the objects as while taking the shot I made sure the violin was in the middle of the shot as it has height, leading the viewer around the shots composition.
The temperature of the image is cooler now I have adjusted it downwards, this is to benefit the lighting as it quite neutral before hand so the cooler tint brings out the colour and shadows.
The before and after (starting from after cropping was done) Overall the editing has greatly improved the image, looking at the the artists I have looked at I noted the cool tones and textured images, so to recreate this through photography I added texture on the texture sliders.
Second Shot
Again I started by cropping the photo down as it was on an angle as I needed to use a bigger field in my photo to start with to allow the lighting to be in the photo.
This set of images shows my process within editing the photos, I start by changing the highlights, once a lot higher and once a lot lower. Now comparing the images I much prefer the highlights being higher as the clarity and definition of the shapes within the photo is immensely better. Saying this I do like the idea of having a grey toned background as I think it adds to the overall image.
Following on from my previous edited image, I chose to increase the texture allowing things like the wood grain in the violin to be seen. By choosing not to adjust the vibrancy or the saturation I kept the image fairly true to life within its colouring, showing I used my lighting correctly and set up my camera well.
Third Shot
Again I started by cropping the photo to make sure the subjects were centred well. This is particularly important in still life works as it is all about the composition of shot.
Choosing to next adjust the exposure to bring out the colours and level out the image slightly. I will probably go onto change it again but it is a great starting point for this shot.
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This is the image after adjusting the rest of the tone and presence sliders. I chose lift the orange tones in the shot, pulling both ends of the photo together. Texture is something I also increased as I like how the age can be seen in the tankard and icing set.
This is a before and after (without cropping) of the final image. The obvious differences are that the background is darker, this nicely complements the increased texture. The objects stand out more with their more true to life colourings brought out by the reduced highlights and increased black depth. The photo appears more intriguing to the viewer as the textures and better detail can be seen in the image, which is vital with a small depth of field and non contextual background.
These sheets are my first attempt at using analysis techniques to look at a photo and in depth elements of the photo. Each different colour of writing looks at a different elements of photo analysis. The green looks at visual elements, and the blue looks at technical elements. Then looking more at concepts and contexts in blue and black pen. The photo itself appears quite basic however looking at the context to the photo, a photographer comparing old and his photos, looking at how land changes. Then using the different elements to look at the smaller details of the photo helps me explore different ideas and start to develop my thinking when it comes to technicalities of photos, for example how they were taken and what settings were used.
Before using the studio and camera set up I used the camera simulator to try different things and learnt about different settings. I started in aperture priority settings before moving to full manual.
From the comments given by the simulator it guided the next shot I took testing different suggestions and learning what effects the photo and how. For example in this one the exposure is good as the iso is automatic on aperture priority.
Using what I had learnt I then took the photo above with a wide depth of field, capturing everything in the frame in focus. After this shot I felt comfortable enough to try the full manual mode which is what I will use on the actual cameras.
This was my first attempt in which the aperture is too low for the iso resulting in a very unbalanced exposure meter so the photo is extremely over exposed.
For this shot, which is by far my best one of all of them I focused on making sure the exposure meter is balanced, by adjusting the shutter speed to capture the propellers as well as make sure that the photo is not too over exposed with the low aperture this also meant I needed to increase the iso to get a well exposed photo and keep the exposure meter balanced.
-a sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past
This project is a collection of photography work exploring the open theme of nostalgia. Nostalgia has many different meanings and effects I aim to capture different, unique images based on case studies and my own creative dynamics.
