Work Diary - Shoot 1

Evaluation:
This was my first shoot that is related to my personal project, that being horror. For the initial section of it I have decided to have a bit of fantasy within the shoot. This is because by allowing this I could then experiment with costumes and different types of ways to take photos. The main object of this shoot was to explore different ways in which I could use lighting to add to the affect of the photos. the main affect the lighting had on the photos was it added and defined a lot of the shadows that would have been hidden from the basic lights I had. For this shoot I used a snook and for most of the shoot I kept in under the camera facing swards my face. This then lit up my face adding shadows to the mask and allowed for there to be lots of definition on the mask which I was aiming for. In some of the photos the light casted a shadow of myself on the background which created an interesting photo and allowed for there to be more detail on the background of the image. This created an interesting horror affect because  due to the costume it created a rather menacing effect. Most of the photos worked well in black and white because it made it look more like the person was emerging from the shadows of the photo due to the black suit and the black background. There were a few photos that worked well with colour because of the shadow on the background which I previously stated but the majority of the photos worked better in black and white. The photos below were shot in the studio in dark conditions using just a modeling light to set up the shot from the single Bowens Gemini GM500R studio flash.  This was placed low and to the front right as I wanted moody shadows. I used manual mode for all these shots and set the camera to 160th second at f4.0 The ISO was set to 100.

The main thing that worked well in this  photo was the shadow around the eye. This was because it makes the model look very menacing especially with the knife that is shrouded in the shows of the image. In this image I had the snook off the left of the camera because it created more intense shadows on the models right side shrouding the knife in a shadow which makes it seem concealed. One happy accident that happened during shoot was when I changed it to black and white I noticed that the eye had also become black with a with just the white of my eye able to see. This created an almost demonic feel to the photo allowing me to create an eerie atmosphere that shrouds the photo.

This was another photo in which I felt it looked better in black and white. Before I decided to do anymore editing on it the photo was fairly plain and basic. The only interesting point in the photo was the position of the hand and head and the reflection of the light on the clean white hair, but to get this most of the other facial features had very little shadow because the snook was directed more towards true face of the model. To fix the problem of the shadows I decide to go back into Photoshop and used the burn tool to try and create more shadow which it did but also in the process it made the models face and hands look like they were covered in black dirt. This then allowed for a contrast between the extreme white in section of the hair and the black grub on the hands. I think that this creates a very strong image because white is normally related to purity and cleanliness whereas to juxtapose this we have the black grubby hands of a murderer. This photo creates an interesting contrast between the two polar opposites and also shows the viewer that even the purist of things can become corrupted. The studio flash in this shot was moved to the left.

Progression:
For my next shoot I have decide to take photos of an abandoned building in which I will take photos of eerie places within the area of the building. For the shoot I would like to try and capture the atmosphere of the place and try to capture the essence of the building. I would also like to use a flash to make the area seem more lit up and I would also like to experiment with using an off camera flash because this creates interesting shadows from a separate perspective to the camera.

Here we see an example on not an off camera flags but an off camera light where most of the rest of the room is covered in shadows but there is a main central light in which highlights the wheel chair in the centre of the room. This is a prime example of something that I would like to tryout for one of my photos in my next shoot.

This photo is another example of an image that I would like to try and re-create. The fact that this area is flooded added s to the effect the image has and adds to the character of the area. I have a place in mind where I can actually take an image like this in which the area is abandoned and also is flooded like in the photo. So this is a prime example of the type of photo I could capture and would like to have in my next shoot.