Final Images & Evaluation

Final Images & Evaluation 

Overall in this project I set out to develop from my first ever brief on this course showing and experimenting with everything learnt throughout the year. Including camera techniques, photographer language, and photoshop editing skills. Showing improvements and positive development throughout. 
My plan changed and evolved throughout the project in many different ways. My plan was always to use more than one model in more than one of my shoots however in shoot 2 I faced the difficulties that the light wasn't strong enough to light up two people models let alone more than 2. If I was going to improve this I would have bought a stronger UV light that would be able to give off the same affect with the vibrant colors as mine did with one model. I secondly faced the problem that the project was set over a half term which meant that booking the studio faced problems. My model then cancelled meaning that my time in the studio was cancelled meaning I had to improvise to get the work done if I was going to get it done before the deadline, luckily i did find a solution. Lastly when planning the project I had initially never planned on taking images of still life/objects in this brief, However I decided that It would good to show experimentation in the difference with how difficult it was taking pictures of a moving model compared to the easier to task of taking images of still life. This is because the slight movement of the model caused the image to be blurred and the objects just stayed still. 
id like to think I have met my initial intentions because comparing this brief compared to the first ever studio brief i did the whole content has improved massively not only in that there is a lot more work but in how I speak much more confidently about my work and how much more confident I am speaking about the camera settings and photoshop edits I used. My evaluation are a lot fuller including a lot more information and detailed information sticking to the point rather than not being precise.
I chose my final images which are shown below for different reasons. I have chosen the second one because its not the ordinary depth of field which is channeling perspectives its shallow depth of field with the front part of the image being blurry and the back part being in complete focus. This is challenging perspectives because its not the normal I have made my work unique, work that is not expected too the viewer. 
I chose the first image because its my strongest image and demonstrates my intentions for the project the best. I love the image because its sharp the eyes are in complete focus and the main focus of the image. The colors of the paint have contrasted well with each other when splattered on the face and the white paint on the lips has worked really well with the more vibrant colors also splattered onto the lips. 
I am very pleased with my effort and commitment to this project as I found the project difficult and faced difficulties along the way with the settings and also with a lot of the images being blurry but I have learnt a lot from the project about camera settings in such dark surroundings, always having a back up in case a model cancels and also how in these circumstances how it was easier to get a sharper image taking of still life objects rather than moving models because of the darkness of the location the camera finds it extremely difficult to focus and with slight movement it makes it worse. Lastly throughout this whole project I have learnt the importance of photographer and genre research for inspiration but also to make it not a copy of the photographers work but to make it unique to your self. 

Presenting My Final Images

How I will Present my final Images 

I have researched into a recommended site DS COLOUR LAB Ltd. Where I have researched different printing styles. There was so many different options which I would be able to choose from and I didnt know which would be best. I decided to ring up the company and ask which they think would be best i explained to them what I was doing and how I wanted my colors to really stand out. They then suggested two ways which i took into consideration and one of the techniques I have decided to go with. 

Below is the option I have gone with and ordered with a medium size frame. The image has not come but when it arrives I  will be able to do an evaluation of how successful the print is. Below are images of how the acrylic panel works.  

 

Shoot 4 & Evaluation

Shoot 4 & Evaluation 
Contact Sheets 

For this final shoot it was all about experimentation, showing the difference between shooting moving things and shooting still life objects. The aim to work out how much easier it was to shoot objects that don't move.
In order to help reduce camera shake - used the self timer on the camera.   Meant that at the time of taking the shot, not in contact with the camera, less chance of any vibration causing a lack of sharpness.I didn’t want to use this with the “live” model (Lauren or Alice), because the the delay wouldn’t have been acceptable, they would have got bored waiting, and the spontaneity would have been lost.Because I wasn’t as worried about having a longer exposure - the still life wasn’t moving, and the camera wasn’t being touched - I lowered the ISO from the previous ISO of 3200 , to 2000 in order to improve quality.Shot from above - meant it gave a better perspective, and was easier to ensure the background was completely black.  This time, it was easier to drape a black cloth over the back of the chair, and sit the items on black paper.  Apart from where paint had rubbed off on to the paper , this was very effective. Previously, I had sat the model in a darkened porch in order to limit reflected light, but it had proven difficult. Tried lamp at varying distances in order to optimize the UV effect, and then at different angles (above, side, below the camera lens) in order to achieve different result.Painted 2 glass bottles, 2 plant pots, a leaf and a plant foliage to see which gave best results.  Problem with the glass bottles - couldn’t see the outline.  Same with the foliage Plant pots were tried lying down and upright.   Showed better definition than the glass bottles, and partly helped by painting the top rim. Leaf showed good results when photographed from the side which had the leaf veins painted, and it was more obvious from the finished picture, that it was a leaf.  Not quite as obvious what everything else was - other than some pretty colors.

Third Shoot & Evaluation

Overall I am pleased with how the final images came out in this shoot, as i wasn't that confident about how the shoot would come out as the shoot wasn't in the studio. This was because my model cancelled so I wasn't able to complete my shoot in the studio. I then had to compromise and had to think outside the box as to how i would get this shoot done in time for the deadline. I came up with the idea to do the pictures at home use my house as the studio in a pitch black room with no light but the UV light however you can see from this first images on the contact sheets that  this didnt work. This was because the light ended up lighting up the walls and the door behind the model. I then decided to put a black suite case against the door so that hopefully the light wouldn't light up the suite case and would block the light reflecting of the door. This then made me really unmotivated and i decided to stop for the night to give me time to improvise with an other idea.
I then had the inspiration to using an extension lead from my open garage to go out when its completely dark at night and take the images. This proved successful because the only thing being lit up with the UV light was the model because there was nothing around to be lit up because it was complete darkness.

Overall I am pleased with how I went about this brief really going out of my way to find a solution with my model canceling which in the end after a few experiments i found the right way which I could go about the brief. Some of my images were blurry however because I am now shooting everything in raw i was able to change the exposure brightness without creating the image to look over edited. So if however my images were a little dark I was able to change the exposure to get the correct exposure easily. 

Shoot 4 Plan

Shoot 4 

For this shoot I intend for it to be the most experimental of all my shoots for this brief. I will be painting objects such as medicine bottles and the outline of plants to show the difference between having a life model and having still life objects. The difference between how much easier the focussing will be with still life images and how the sharpness might be different (better) because the objects won't be moving. I intend to experiment with different objects and also moving around the light from different sides of the objects, the light shining from above and also the light shining from below to experiment with which position of the light works best. 
I will be experimenting with the self timer in this shoot to see if not aging to touch the camera when the images is being taken- meaning that there will be less vibration and less camera shake seeing if the images become sharper. 

Below is an example of the UV paint on a car which is an extreme object i will be using more household objects to demonstrate with: 

Third Shoot Plan

Third shoot plan. 

For my third shoot I am going to go back to just using one model as the light wasn't strong enough to light up two people with the same affect. Due to this shoot being in half term I had scheduled with my model to do the shoot early afternoon on the tuesday of half term however due to personal circumstances my model had to cancel which therefore meant i was put back in time. As this was the only day in half term where i could use the studio I had to think of another way to do the shoot. My initial idea was to do it n a dark room at home (a bathroom) that has no natural light being let into it however when experimenting with this I found that the UV light was lighting up the walls doors and reflecting light of the mirrors resulting in the images not being completely dark. Having trailed this in different areas of the house i was facing the same problem everywhere I went with me not having a black walled room at home. This led to me having to gibe up on the idea of being able to get a shoot done over half term. However having done some more thinking I thought of the idea to go outside when its completely dark outside and try there. 

I plan on using the same technique as in spraying the model with the paint rather than putting it on in a pattern style as I think this made the images more vibrant. I plan on getting my model to look in different directions left and right and shoot so I get more side profile shots. This is because I really liked from my first shoot my image of the models side of the face having the affect of depth of field. I will be expanding on this in this third shoot if the lighting works doing it at night outside. 

I really am inspired by the work of stolen memories photography because when researching into there work I found that its not always about how much paint to use on the body but also little amounts concentrating on the position and expression of the model. Below are images I particularly like from this work: 

Poster Exhibition

Example Poster

The layout for this poster that I have chosen is that the portrait picture of the Queen is the main aspect of the poster, with the text being on-top of the image however not distracting the eye from the main portrait. The color scheme used for this poster is a nude natural colors which is what you expect when the image is off the Queen because it represents class, wealth, cultured and royalty all in a upper class way. You wouldn't expect a poster of someone royal to be with vibrant colors as this would be classed as tacky. The connotations that you expect when looking at the royal family is natural rich colours such as purple which is related to wealth. The design of the exhibition represents the theme as the image is off the Queen with the picture looking like it could be a painting this relates to the title "the Queen art and image" because the Queen is shown as the main portrait, art is shown in the way the image could be a painting. 
The title being in the largest boldest font works well as after the main image the title is what the eye is drawn into with the website address being smaller font the price and date being in even smaller fonts at different sides of the image. The fonts used are plain and simple and don't make the poster look busy the poster remains looking classy. The title is a heavier weight of font than the subheading this is so the title stands out more. 

Experimentation With Posters

Experimentation with Photoshop



I found this task having challenging with rewarding aspects learning a lot about fonts and which fonts are legible and which aren't. I learnt that it is a key aspect when creating something for the public eye for example a poster or advertisements as the it must be legible for the viewer. For this reason most advertisements or posters anything that needs to be read by the public will usually be in sans serif which makes it easily visible where as serif uses flicks ect which is harder to be read. 

Experimentation

Experimentation with Edits In Photoshop 

Black and White

I experimented with using black and white edit on photoshop with adding the blue and green saturation to the image as well. I don't think the black and white affect shows off the image to the best ability as the main aspect of UV photography is the vibrant colors. 

Gradient Adding 

Adding a gradient is using the gradient tool in photoshop changing the foreground and background color by clicking the blue part of the eye lids and then the pink area of the hands it created a purple gradient. Then add a new layer drag a line across the image and changing the opacity down to 20% which has changed the background color instead of the black its now a purple color. I don't like this as much as the black as the colors stand out more against the black background. 


Hue and Saturation

I have changed the hue and saturation which has added a green affect to the image making it look characteristic. 

Health & Safety

Health and Safety

Using UV lights, paint and the studio being in complete darkness causes some health and safety issues which I need to address. 

Using a UV light meant that I needed to research the affects of the light and what damage could be done and what precautions need to be put in place:

Short term affects: burns, skin dryness and itching, eye irritation

Long term affects: Cancer, Cataracts, ageing of the skin

 

The model will be kept at safe distance from the light an warned to only touch the plastic casing around the uv light to be kept from the risk of burns. I will warn all my models to moisturise thoroughly before and after the shoot so that in case of dry skin and itching it will be resolved. Lastly in the short term affects the model will be advised not to look straight into the light and also the light won't be shone directly into the models eyes. 

When buying the paint i made sure that it was suitable to be applied to skin without side affects i also made sure that i asked my model before the shoot if she was allergic to face paints or has sensitive skin which may react to the paint luckily my models didn't, If however they did then I would have changed models. I also made sure that i brought along make up wipes which removed the paint automatically. Lastly i made sure when buying the paint that if it so happened to get onto clothes it would wash out. 

Finally because the UV light only works when all the lights are off except the UV light and no natural light allowed into the room the hazard is tripping on wires, chairs or on the back drop. I made sure that the models sat down before the house lights went out and didn't allow people to move until the lights were back on this preventing people tripping or falling. 

Final Images Shoot 2 & Evaluation

Final Images Shoot 2 

The 11 images below are my final images I have chosen from shoot 2 that i chose to edit in photoshop. For this shoot i also shot in raw therefore again i edited them in the on page that appears when dragging a raw file into photoshop, boosting the exposure and changing the clarity however looking back i need to more careful with this as I learnt its easy to go to far with this and increase the clarity too much. Looking back i think i had the ISO to high as I think the images are a lot grainier than in shoot 1. 

I have learnt a lot from this shoot especially in terms of the UV light and the technical considerations of boosting the ISO to high. I faced many difficulties while shooting this second shoot which i didn't forecast. The main one being that the light wasn't powerful enough to light up my two models as well as it did with one model in my previous shoot. This meaning that if i was going to carry out another shoot with more than one model I would need to get another UV light a stronger bulb light this time rather than a bar. I also need to make sure that when painting the neck both models had the same amount of paint on the neck as each other otherwise as I found i had to stop and add more paint to one of my models meaning that my focus and camera setting needed to be changed again taking up vital time. 

I have chosen the images below because they are my favourites showing the two models touching and also looking in different directions which was my desired outcome. They also show development throughout with some of images being very graining and further down showing how this has improved also the development of applying more paint to the models to make it equal. I think due to the fact of how close I was to the models I am pleased with the end outcomes and the sharpness of the images and i certainly know what and how if i decided to do another shoot with more than one model how i would do things differently. 

Both my models were in this shoot from the same ethnic background ad blue and the darkest pink colours worked best with there skin tone. This is different from shoot 1 was green was one of the best colours that worked on my model however using green in this shoot meant a lot of over exposing in photoshop to make the green stand out and also adding an extra layer of the green coloured paint. 

The camera settings I used for this shoot were ISO 4000 aperture 2.6 and shutter speed 1/20th these drastic settings meant that any movement and the images would become blurry and the camera would loose focus.  

 

 

 

 

 

Second Shoot & Evaluation

Contact Sheets Shoot 2 

Overall evaluation of Shoot 2 

Once again I felt prepared going into shoot 2 having an image in my head of what I wanted to achieve and an understanding of how i wanted to achieve it. Having my camera on a tripod to cause as little vibration as possible with my models on two chairs with the intentions to in some of my images having the models sat on each other however having trialled this in the end it didn't work because of the camera wouldn't focus properly with one model at a different height than the other. I decided to paint the models face each using two colours only different colours on each of my models this proved to be a success and failure the success being it enabled me to see which colours looked best on the chosen ethnic background compared to shoot 1. The outcome of this is that in shoot 1 green really stood out on my mixed race model however in shoot 2 with a model from a different ethnic background the green didn't work as well as shown below in some of my first images. Which meant before I continued I had to add more paint to make it stand out, and also to act as more light for the camera to focus on. The camera faced more difficulties in that it had two people to try and focus on which meant I found it hard to know what to set the camera to focus on in the end i set the camera to focus on the left hand side models inner eye as this seemed to work best. 

Getting the models to do different poses which I had planned to do getting them to look in different directions proved to be successful also having the models having there heads together touching also worked well specially when i got really close to them the only problem with this was that the eyes couldn't be focus for the camera as they couldn't be seen as well, so for this pose i decided to change the focus point to the lips which worked well as the camera liked the focusing on the boldest colour in the image. 

The main problem which I faced in this shoot was that the UV light wasn't strong enough to light up both models which made the images a lot darker than Id hoped which meant i had to change the exposure in photoshop to allow the images to be light enough. Looking forward to if I choose to do two models again I will instead of buying a UV bar light i would buy a stronger UV lamp which would allow the images to be lighter and light up the models more. If this wasn't a possibility I could buy another of the UV bars and this would be enough as one would light up one model and one would light up the other. Lastly I would have allowed more time in which to take the images because my models only had a certain time frame and i didn't appreciate how long the paint took to do on two models which limited me on how many pictures I could take. 

Overall I am pleased with the final images which I have chosen and edited i think that the viewer would be able to relate them to my intentions. I have learnt a lot of techniques and practical considerations which i will defiantly plan for next time if i decide to use more than one model. 

Below are all of my images in contact sheets separately will be my final images from this shoot edited and evaluated. (for this shoot i took around 250 pictures in raw)

Second Shoot Plan

Shoot 2 Project Plan 

For my second shoot I will be using models of the same ethnic background as each other to compare and contrast if the paint reacts differently with people of the same ethnic background or stands out more on either one of my models more than the other. The obvious difference between my shoot 1 and shoot 2 is that there will be two models, I will also be contracting not only on the face but also on the neck as well also bringing forward what I learnt from shoot 1 to paint the hand as well and also the eyes to have them as a focus point for the camera. I will be getting my models very close together in some of the images touching with some of them the eyes of the models looking different directions making this a mystery for the viewer as to what they are each looking at and as to why they are looking different ways. 

Below are my inspirational images which I would like my final images to be similar too I love the poses reflecting desperation, sadness and that the models are scared. I like how the paint doesn't just cover the face but also the neck and hands which is what I learnt to do in my shoot 1 this shows development. 

My shoot will be again be in the studio using two chairs for each model to sit on to enable them to be as still as possible however i also am going to try the models sat on one an other to also add different framing to my images not just having two models in the centre of the images with black background either side. 

This shoot I will be doing on the 13th of May and because I will again be shooting in raw like for my first shoot. I will be using a different memory card to be certain that all my images will fit on, rather than taking the images on the same memory card as shoot 1 which could get filled because of how big raw images are. This would one look unprofessional and secondly to change the memory card i would have to move the camera which could affect the focus which is hard to get in the first place in such a dark location.