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.

Edits From Age Contrast Shoot

Rose Life and Death Edits

Review

My chosen theme is contrasts. So far I have done four shoots to show this, which were; Death (to contrast the idea of life), clash of personality and location, life and death, and age.

The aim of my first shoot was to present the ideas of death. This shoot is going to go with another shoot I am going to do portraying life. I could not really show the contrast in the shoot as the contrast is shown through the difference in the two  separate shoots being put together. I did however show the idea of contrasts through the editing. I kept this mainly quite simple and showed the contrast through colour and black and white. Once the life shoot is complete and edited, the contrast will be stronger and I also plan to create multiple image edits with the two shoots.

Another shoot I done was to show the contrast between my model and the location. To show this I got the model to dress quite girly, and come to Brick Lane. I chose this location as it is very urban and covered in street art which clashes with the girly style of the model. I am happy with how this turns out as I managed to show what I wanted which was to show the model out of her comfort zone in an environment that clashes with her personality. I showed this primarily through the shoot, but I also enhanced this in editing which worked well as I strengthened the contrasts that were already visible. I do want to explore this them a bit more. 

For the life and death shoot I wanted to portray this idea through using roses. I first took photographs of the flowers looking natural and untouched to show the ideas of life and positivity. Then to show the idea of death and negativity I gradually started picking off the petals and smashing the roses up. I am happy with how this went as the ideas i wanted to show clearly come through in the shoot. During editing I have enhanced the contrast by using colour editing and layering the separate ideas. 

For the age shoot I got an baby and my nan to be my models to show the obvious contrast between young and old. So far I have only taken the photographs and not yet edited. I managed to get the idea of age across well, and it is obvious. When editing I plan on keeping the images quite natural and realistic as the contrast will already be visible. 

Brick Lane Edits 2

Target February 15th 2013

Today my target is to do some more edits, looking at different effects. I am also planning on doing a shoot using flowers, firstly I am going to shoot them looking healthy and natural, them I am going to make them look trashy.
My personal target is too plan more before my shoot so I have more of an idea of what I am going to do during the actual shoot and produce better photographs.

Brick Lane Shoot 10th February 2013

Over the weekend I done a last minute impulse shoot at Brick Lane, London. This shoot links in with the theme of contrast as the aim was to show the contrast between the urban area covered in street art and the model who looks girly, vintage and slightly out of place. I think this contrast was clearly shown and emphasised in editing. Although I got some good photographs from this shoot, I took less than I hoped as the shoot was cut short due to the rain. Even though I got good photographs, I am classing this as sort of a 'draft' shoot due to the weather cutting it down, and I plan to go back and do another shoot the same.

This is possibly my favourite from the shoot, mainly because I love the street art shown. As I wanted to show the quote in full, yet show the model, I put her to the side looking at it. I wasn't sure if the composition would work, and make her look out of place but it actually worked. As the model is shown as much as this, making the contrast not as strong, the contrast shown mainly in this is the way the quote looks slightly out of place in the area. To make it contrast more visible, when editing, I increased the contrast a lot.

I really like how bright and almost psychedelic this image is, showing an image repeated and then that repeated even more. I chose to use this photograph for this multiple image experiment as it contrast the rest of the photographs, showing the model in a more fun way rather than so serious. The contrast is shown in this image through the editing, with the ligher brighter colours contrasting the high contrast, darker images.