February 15th 2013 Rose Life and Death Shoot What I Achieved

Preparation; 

For this shoot I am planning on using some roses, and shoot them looking nice, and then mess them up. This will show a contrast. This in a way will be showing different emotions through the way the roses are shown and presented. The contrast will be shown through the different ways the roses are set out and during editing I will make some high contrast.

 

To prepare I need to; 

• Get some roses
• Book the studio
• Plan out if I need any other props 
• Decide on angles and composition

What I hope to achieve;

During this shoot I hope to achieve a still life shoot which shows the contrast in different emotions and trashy and nice.

What I achieved; 
I am really happy with how my shoot went as I achieved what I wanted which was to show life and death contrast ideas through the roses. The shoot also shows emotions as well, with the normal bright roses showing happier and positive emotions, while the destructed dead looking roses representing anger. This shoot was quite easy to create. I used the bright blue background as it makes the yellow roses stand out also showing a contrast of the two colours. I ended took the photographs showing life before I trashed the roses so I could gradually destroy them. I also ended up using props which was a last minute idea. I used a small glass bottle/container to the roses in, and a photo frame to make the roses stand out. For this first half of the shoot I used both lights so it was bright and vibrant, but to contrast that i only used one light for some of the second half therefore making it darker and showing more shadow.

This is my favourite edit from the shoot. This image is representing the idea of death and negative emotion. I like how this rose is not fully destroyed and torn apart as it shows a gradual transition. I like how the angle is looking down on the rose and makes it seem weak. I also like how the rose fills the composition, cutting across it. During editing I experimented with colour and saturation. I changed the yellow petals to pink which makes the image stand out against the rest. I also made the green slightly darker and more vivid. Once I done the colour editing I added some noise, initially just to break up the colour but it gave it a grungy style as well which I think looks really effective.

This image also was an experiment that worked well. During the actual shoot I wanted to get a photo of petals falling but it did not work. So once I edited the colour I added a petal from another image to create the look of it falling. This was quite easy to do once I found another image with a suitable petal and cut it out. Other than adding the petal I kept this edit quite natural and realistic. I like how the bright colours show contrast within this image on its own. I also like the composition as the rose is to the left of the image with the blue space to the right.

I like this edit as it shows two of the different ideas together in one image. I chose to put these two together as the compositions are similar with the roses coming into the composition from the left corners. The bottom image representing death shows the angle looking down on the roses therefore showing more detail of the rose being destroyed. I also like how its high contrast showing sharper detail. The fact it is slightly desaturated gives it a dirtier, darker feel.
I really like the angle of the top photograph with the camera looking side onto them and it at their level. When editing i kept this bright and vivid so that the contrast between the two images is strong and clear.







What I am going to do next; 
I am really happy with how this shoot turned out and I think the contrast between life and death is clear and the use of the roses to represent it is effective and simple.  Due to the fact I am happy with the results I am going to move onto the idea of age contrast.