Evaluation
This shoot was a follow-up
of my previous shoot, but I wanted to try it without the gel lighting.
Therefore, this time I used dark and bright lighting to depict the mood that I
wanted my photos to express. My camera was set to ISO 250, 11F and a shutter
speed of 1/125 and I used a soft box light. For instance, I used dark lighting
for sadness, and high key lighting for happiness. I also used a black
background for the dark images, and a white background for the bright images -
which will also add to the mood. I enjoyed this shoot very much, as I think the
photos came out exactly as planned. In this shoot, I used two soft boxes
pointing towards the front of the model, and adjusted the brightness depending
on the mood of that particular image. I like the concept of using my photos to
represent a message, whether it is explicit or implicit. I think the message of
these images are very vague and unidentified, but there is substance to what
the image could be about. Whereas, for my next shoot I plan to shoot images
which express a clear, and obvious message instead, to show a comparison of the
two methods. I used this particular set up and lighting because I wanted to
express sadness with soft, but dark lighting, whereas in the 'happy' photos, I
used direct, and bright lighting to express that feeling. This is a lighting
diagram of this shoot:
This is one of the
sad/depressing shots I took. For this, used a black backdrop, and positioned my
camera to the right so that the model was placed in the left hand corner. I
then allowed enough 'dark space', which will reflect the sad, and lonely
emotion of the image, and I also asked my model to look down so that they
looked upset. I made the left hand side soft box much brighter than the right
hand soft box, so that I could create the shadow on the right side of my model,
which would blend in to the 'dark space' that I created. I then used Photoshop
to enhance this affect. I believe this photo expresses a depressing and alone
emotion for the viewers, and I have done this using lighting and
placement.
This is one of the happy
photos that I took. For this image, I used a white backdrop, and extremely
bright lighting so that the whole area around the model, and onto the model was
bright and well lit. I then asked my model to smile, and also made them smile
naturally so I could capture their natural happiness without it looking staged.
Despite there being a lot of empty space on the left hand side of the image, I
think this adds to the image as the model is looking towards the left and
despite the emptiness he is still smiling and happy. I also used Photoshop to
enhance the contrast and shadows of the image. Overall, I enjoyed shooting both
'moods' and I believe the happy photos came out a lot better with normal high
key lighting, rather than with the gels.
Progression
As mentioned before, I plan
to portray a lot more message within my images, and as I have done with this
shoot, focusing on emotions, I have decided to move onto more explicit and
obvious messages, with the inspiration of Gillian Wearing's "Signs That
Say What You Want Them To Say" project. In order to do this, I plan to use
signs as well, with clear, outlined messages written on them - like Wearing
does in this series.
A lighting diagram required here, an explanation of the type of lighting used is required e.g. soft box. whilst you have mentioned this within the blog you need to show more explanation e.g. the reason why it was used... Link this with an explanation of diffuse versus direct lighting, did you use a reflector board.. If you had a lighting diagram it would be clear. What was the light meter reading used? did you measure it? what camera setting did you use... ?
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