Finally onto shooting, This is the first project that I've gone into knowing exactly what I want to shoot and im very happy with that. I tried to plan as much as I could with this shoot before hand to make sure it went smoothly. I wanted to take pictures against a white background with my models looking melancholy and vacant. I also booked out a Nikon D-90, medium sized tripod, trigger, light meter, and a Large Beauty Dish. I bought red wool as a prop, scissors just in case, and changes of clothes for models. I asked for help from my classmates with this shoot to be models, I posted in our groups facebook page and got lots of responses and this was fantastic as I wanted to use as many different kinds of people as I could. This was because different models always do different poses and act differently than the last so I wanted to get as many varied pictures as I could so I could see what worked the best for my vision. When it came to shooting day only 2 people turned up which was a bit of a pain but I still got alot of fantastic pictures.
The second hurdle that I faced was when I was setting up I realised that I was going to manipulating the images quite alot so I thought I should use green screen rather than using white like I originally planned. In the end this worked out relatively well for the test shoot. I split the shoot into 2 sections, the first being with George and the second with Nina.
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| Shot of George from Portraits Shoot 1 by Joe Palmer |
The first half of the shoot went overall well, I think i did a good job at directing George, I tried to give example poses for him and explain how he should be feeling although I did make him laugh a bit which was slightly counter productive but I still have fun in this half of the shoot. I started with Just george by himself and I felt he hefl uncomfortable so I added in the wool to give him something to do and I wanted the wool to act almost as if there was a second subject in the frame not only to ease the subject but to make a more interesting image. As for model direction I gave George a pale shirt to fit the aesthetic I was looking for and tied his hair back as best I could to give the image a sharper feel.
The above image is by far my favourite picture from the first half of the shoot. For me I really like how it has almost a deer in headlights feel too it how George is staring into the huge square soft box. I wrapped the red wool around George becuase I wanted there to be a feeling of entrapment as well as him being 'caught up' in the relationship.
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| Shot of George from Portraits Shoot 1 by Joe Palmer |
During the shoot I decided to drape all the red wool around the frame on chairs and the back of the set etc. I did this becuase I wanted to create more of a set and to increase the feels that I mentioned in the previous image I like this development I took but It did become cumbersome trying to reframe to get more varied pics but still have the draped strings in shot. So I took it down and focused on the subject. This was also a good development as trying to remove the greenscreen on these images was nearly impossible and it really left the images look too cluttered for the aesthetic I'm going for in this series. Also George being the very positive person he is was having some trouble with the sadness I wanted him to express.
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| Shot of George from Portraits Shoot 1 by Joe Palmer |
This shot was improvised by George where he held the wool in front of his mouth to replicate a smile. I really like this as it goes back to my my initial thoughts of how different models act differently and you wont get the same pictures with different models. I also quickly changed framing for this picture as I wanted it to be faceless. I really liked this composition and continued it throughout the rest of Georges half of the shoot. Im slightly unsure about the composition change for the images as they do go against my initial vision but I thought I'd experiment in this test shoot.
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| Shot of George from Portraits Shoot 1 by Joe Palmer |
I really like this image. I feel it has great potential but I could easily just swap out the backgrounds and it was still be effective. I think my favourite part of this image is how the focal point in on the chest where the heart is. It gets alittle literal but I feel that fine, maybe I can edit the image to be more obscure.
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| Shot of Nina from Portraits Shoot 1 by Joe Palmer |
Next I moved onto the Nina half of the shoot. This half did go a little smoother than Georges because Nina immediately new what to do and was very comfortable behind the camera. I started this half just how I started with George by just getting some solo pictures with Nina and no wool, And for this half I didn't wrap the string around nina as I tried that technique with George, Instead I gave Nina a Lump of wool to play with and manipulate to symbolise the struggle in relationships. Although the wool playing left me some really interesting images they become very difficult to edit so I only ended up editing with the simpler images from Ninas half.
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| Shot of Nina from Portraits Shoot 1 by Joe Palmer |
The above image is one of the first of Nina and I really like it I think its a great pose that is reminiscent of The Eureka Project by Gem Fletcher and I really feel I can develop this picture further with editing, currently I'd like to run with the Eureka project theme and maybe involve flowers. Just to see if I can develop my images without the wool and see if it gives the same message. to vary up my images. the only aspects of this image I dont like is how the light isnt hitting her face right but that was my fault for not directing the hair out of her face.
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| Shot of Nina from Portraits Shoot 1 by Joe Palmer |
This image is actually the final image of the shoot becuase my camera filled up, as it normally does, and I ended up taking around 400 pictures. Even with that I still really like this picture I think it's very different from what im going for but there's something about it that draws me in, I think it's possibly a very accurate way to portray how I'm feeling in this situation. I also really like how the wool is covering the face like how the ink splatters do in Ink by Mads Perch.
Editing
I then moved onto editing my pictures I wasn't quite sure where to start so I just kind of dove right in and started with the last picture of the shoot. Overall the editing process was really eye opening as I ended up realising that I kind of wanted to edit my images less then originally thought. |
| Edited Shot of Nina from Portraits Shoot 1 by Joe Palmer |
I started my editing journey with this, overall I think its an interesting image but in reality the glitch effect has nothing to do with what I'm trying to do and kind of moves to far away from the original concept. This image to me is more of a comment on technology which I think is a little overdone. This doesn't help by the border I chose for this image I do still think it has some connotations towards my idea, like how the static could relate to the confusion and struggle that happens at the end of a relationship. There is still the wool visible all all its connotations but I feel like it's eaten up by the glitch and has become more of an afterthought which is not what I want at all.
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| Edited Shot of Nina from Portraits Shoot 1 by Joe Palmer |
So from the last image I decided to play around with the editing style in the eureka effect. I took inspiration from the most abstract from that project by Gem Fletcher. It was easy to make as I simply cut out the face and enlarged it, then i added a drop shadow, this was done to create an illusion of distance and perspective. In the eureka effect inside the face was plants to represent sprouting ideas so for mine I took the symbol of red wool and placed it behind the face. In general i think is look relatively cool but doesn't have the same effect as the eureka effect images. Mine came off more like she's obsessed with wool and knitting rather than the turmoil of a relationship.
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| Edited Shot of Nina from Portraits Shoot 1 by Joe Palmer |
I then moved to a more inspired rather than copied method of editing with these two images. I loveeeeeee this picture I think its inspired but also has its own meaning, I feel it strays a little from my original concept but I still like it. For me I feel it represents a skewed view of love. The flowers are a very romantic image and represent love and then I cut out and dragged Nina's eyes away from it to relay the message. A message that I relate too. I do really like this image and I'm considering adjusting my idea to fit this message instead my only problem is that I can't currently think of any other way but this way of editing to represent this message.
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| Edited Shot of Nina from Portraits Shoot 1 by Joe Palmer |
This image is my attempt on developing the previous concept aannddddd, I'm not quite sure about it. I feel like it feels like its been over worked but thats purely becuase I wanted to make it different enough from the last image It still has the same visual message in the flower but because I couldnt find a way to incorporate the eye piece I took it out and now it feels more like that this image is saying that she's blinded by love to me. I think overall as much as i love the previous image I have stronger thoughts and ideas towards my original idea and will be able to move forward that idea easier.
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| Edited Shot of George from Portraits Shoot 1 by Joe Palmer |
Next I moved onto editing some pics of George. For this one I took my favourite Image and straight away I wanted to highlight what I like about it, his eyes, So i simply cut them out and brightened them along with increasing their saturation. I did this becuase while I was looking at this image the square light in his eyes felt very unnatural almost robotic like tiny screens so I wanted to make his eyes seem more un-human. I felt like I wanted to edit this image slightly more though so i cut out his mouth and ear and replaced it with a flower as it resembles almost a gag, like george is incapacitated by love.
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| Edited Shots of George from Portraits Shoot 1 by Joe Palmer |
Overall I think this shoot and editing session went very well and its helped me focus my vision more. The main problem with the shoot was the green screen, Initially I thought it was a good idea to use a green screen as it would be easier to manipulate the images which it was but all the subjects have a green glow around then where ever there hair, and the wool does too as it's so thin. So moving forward I think im going to have a white background and see how that goes.
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