At the beginning of this project I got given the page of the possible questions that I could choose to do my second unit on. The choices were: story telling, freezing motion, reflections, the natural world and personal comment. To decide what question to pick I created a mind map for each question brain storming the ideas for each one and possible shoots that I could do for my project. After I had completed this I chose the question 'Personal comment' this was because I had the most ideas and planned shoots out of all the questions. As well as having further explanations for each idea. Once I had fully decided that I'm doing personal comment to get more of an idea on my question I chose. I completed a definition page and image bank to explore further into the project of personal comment by annotating photographs that reflect personal comment to get some inspiration for my own work. Also by defining the word to get a better understanding before I shot my own photographs. I also completed a research log with photographers who have been and are in the photography industry to comment on their work and to make sure my photographs are obvious to the consumers what my message is by using elements that they have used for example black and white to show a negative comment on domestic abuse. Also for part of my research I discussed each topic I am going to shoot for my overall project of personal comment. This was very beneficial as it made me more organised and well planned for when I came to shooting because I had further ideas on the emotions to show, the locations and the props needed to show my personal comment on each topic. Lastly to make sure that my photographs weren't taken with no inspiration I anaylsed 5 photographers of my own choice that I thought would have the most impact on my own project the photographers I picked were: Banksy who is an artist, Vasil Germanov, Ann Leb, Justin Grant and Andrew Stawicki. These all relate to my project of personal comment and hugely influenced me with my own work as I used their ideas for particular photographs that appealed to me however adding my own ideas to individualise my work.
My first shoot that I did was a poverty shoot which was taken in the studio. The props I used were a table to allow my model to sit down with her body in tight to show her fear of being in poverty. As well as taking close ups to see the weakness in her eyes. I also used the prop of a blanket in my photographs to show her being cold and needing warmth as poverty is on the streets. To improve these photograph's I could of taken these photographs on location in streets around well known places to show more of a personal comment on the negative topic of poverty. In my photographs the lighting wasn't showing clearly on the camera therefore the photographs came out very dark and not sharp enough. This made my photographs not as affective as I wanted them to be and it was a struggle to edit them.
I took two shoots for the theme of domestic abuse for my personal comment project and was a topic that I had lots of ideas for. The lighting I used was the spot light and a black back drop for both shoots this was chosen because it was a very sinister and haunting light and only shone on the face of my model making the cuts,bruises and swollen injuries stand out in the editing process. This made my personal comment of how domestic abuse damaged not just the mental side of a female but also her physical appearance. The photographs I chose to edit were edited very graphic and were very obvious that they were domestic abuse. The tools I used to create the injuries on my model were the burn and dodge tool to start as a base for the black eyes and swollen lips. After this I then added colour using the paint tool and blurring the colour as well as changing the opacity to show a hint of blood and purple in the bruises to make it look as realistic as possible. My second shoot for domestic abuse was edited the same however I used signs in the photographs to express what females are un able to say because of fear.
My fashion shoots were organised and planned to make sure my photographs looked as close to the photography fashion industry as possible .The model I used was Demi Norris who was the model for each fashion era I captured. My idea for fashion photography was to show the change and individuality of the following 60's 70's 80's and 90's fashion. The first two era's I had shot was 80's and 90's. The 80's I researched and discovered that the fashion was very bright and vibrant with mainly tight leggings and luminous leg warmers to give a fitness look. Therefore I used each of these items of clothing in my photographs. As well as styling my models hair in a high side pony tail curled with a bright green scrunchy and black chunky wedges. In order to know how to position my model I had to do further research on fashion photographers to see how the models are standing and different positions to do. This research was very helpful for all my fashion shoots this is because it made my photo shoots much easier and flow better as I knew how to direct my model while giving her the confidence to do each position. These photographs were taken using a white background to allow all the focus to be on the clothing and style for each era. The next shoot I did immediately following this was the 90's. The style for this was a tight off the shoulder black top with washed out denim shorts and a checkered shirt tied around her waist with ankle boots. This style was very popular and an edgy look. Which is why I directed my model to stand in very strong positions and express a very mysterious expressions. The other two era's which are the 60's and 70's were shot on a different day. Both these studio shoots also went very well. The fashion for the 60's was a very classy look which involved mainly head shots and were edited using black and white or hue and saturation to give the photographs a vintage look to them. The last era of fashion I shot was the 70's this was a very casual shoot with the main fashion item of baggy 'mom' jeans this shoot I found the hardest because it didn't have any personality to the clothing therefore I struggled with the positions the model should stand in. However the photographs I took were very obvious that it was the 70's which was my aim of the shoot.
I captured two nature shoots and the aim of the first shoot was to show the difference between the beauty of nature and nature dying. The photo joiner I created on Adobe elements showed the personal comment on how nature has a life cycle and this was shown through half of the photo joiner being the beauty of nature and the other half the opposite of this. To make a photo joiner I took a huge amount of photographs of half of each flower bush. Then I changed the image size to all of them to make them smaller and finally dragged them to a new canvas to form a whole picture. This shoot was taken on location and the sun was shining for both nature shoots which made my photographs outcome good. The second nature shoot I did was a very spontaneous one and anything I saw that I thought would make a good photographs I took. The photographs from this shoots are my favourite I've taken. This is because of the detail of the flowers shown in the photographs and how vibrant the colours are.
Another location shoot I did was a combination of fitness and steroetpyes. In this shoot once my photographs were taken I found that my stereotype photographs were much more affective and best fit my project of personal comment. Therefore I decided to edit them and use them as my final outcome for this specific shoot. The stereotype I expressed in this shoot was 'Teenagers' I found this easy to understand as I am a teenager myself. I used the location of a graffiti wall and the main stereotype for teenagers which is a 'Hoodie'. These photographs were edited in a very creative way and stood out a the colours on the graffiti wall were very bright. I feel that these photographs showed my personal comment very well and were inspired by the unknown artist Banksy.
My last shoot was a fairy tale shoot. The message I wanted these photographs to show was the personal comment on how there are two sides to a fairy tale. The first being very innocent, beautiful and postive. The other side being very dark and sinister. To show this I used a puffy dress which was similar to a alice in wonderland dress. For the good side of fairy tales I used bright lighting and natural makeup. As well as directing my model to act very graceful and happy to express a very delightful atmosphere. Where as the evil side of fairy tales contained very dark lighting with dark makeup. This shoot was a studio shoot and showed the contrast between good v evil.
Overall I feel that as my personal comment project furthered my photographs and ideas improved as I gained more of an understanding on how to show personal comment in my work. I feel that my most successful shoots were the domestic abuse shoots. This was the photographs I feel that were captured and framed very well and the dark and intense lighting allowed the reality of abuse show. I also think that my editing skills were shown in these photographs as I gained the most inspiration from other photographers and spent the most time on these.
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