Week 9 Exercise - HDR Image

Contact Sheet 2

Open publication - Free publishing - More light

In this shoot, I was experimenting with the possible expressions I could show through light, bearing in mind that I was going to plan the times for these properly when I knew exactly what shot I wanted for what emotion. At this point, I was looking at contrasting emotions and trying to find two emotions to play off against each other with different light. This wasn't greatly successful, so in a final refinement of my idea I decided to have a story linking my images that ran through from light to dark, showing the progression of emotions, as enhanced by the environmental light.

Week 8 Exercise - Light drawing

Research/Inspiration Project 3

As my idea is to use lighting to reflect and enhance the emotion portrayed in an image, I have done some research into images which do this. The first image utilises high contrast and bright lighting to invoke a feeling of happiness in the viewer, which is the emotion being shown by the model in this image. The second image I think is really interesting in that it has faded colours and a tint that represents  the sad emotion shown by the model. This is a definite possibility for the style I want to explore in my series. The third image is showing sadness through darkness and a close up shot, however, the high contrast still in this image is something I want to address as I don't want the darker images of my series to be quite this bold. I like how you can't see the background in this image because of the dim lighting however - it works nicely to make the face the focal point of the image, which draws the viewer in and takes the negative feelings shown in this image to a new level. The fourth image is something I want to explore in my series also. I like the way some of the background is lit, but fades out quickly to black - this could potentially be a transition to a photo modelled on the previous image which has a completely black background.

Link to site

Link to site

Link to site

Link to site

Shoot 1 Favourite Images

I like the first image because it has a really nice contrast which makes the image eye-catching. The focus is drawn to the figure in the centre who is looking straight up at the camera. The expression fits well with the image and although I don't think this particular image will fit in my series, I like this aesthetic - a location with high potential for my shoot. The second image expresses emotion really well, but I don't think it's using light so well, so I will be pursuing the possibilities for development that exist in the first image.

Contact Sheet 1 - Test Shoot

Open publication - Free publishing - More light

In this shoot, I was testing out many different locations and possibilities for my 'light' sequence. I wanted to see how different backgrounds could represent different emotions and so ventured in search of contrasting backgrounds. At each location, I asked my model to pose for a different emotion. The problem with this, I found, was that the emphasis was more on the environment than the lighting, so I decided to refine my concept to just one constant aesthetic for the background.

Proposal - Light

Lighting is one of the biggest factors in dictating how we read an image. Whether an image is brightly lit, dimly lit, has shadows, has highlights, is saturated, or is desaturated determine our feelings towards what we see. Ominous, scary images will be darker and more sinister, more of the image concealed in ominous shadows, whereas happy images will be well-lit, warm and inviting. I want to explore the very fundamental roots of feelings through photography by breaking it down to key emotions and choosing the best lighting to portray this.

I will be using a model consistently throughout the series, to link and portray the feelings through facial and body expressions, which will be reiterated through the lighting.

After having done a first test shoot, I have decided to use a plain, urban, industrial looking background. Why? Because it’s simple enough that it can be manipulated to imply a multitude of different emotions, yet interesting enough to be of contribution to the images.

The times of my photoshoots will differ, as I plan to use different natural lighting as a base for my light study. This will be enhanced with flash lighting in the darker scenes, for highlighting and casting shadows in different parts of each image. 

Proposal/Reflection (as on final presentation)

My intention was to show the development through a child’s life as a girl grows from babyhood through to teenhood. My images are thematically linked by a bow that is incorporated into all the photos. This is a reflection on the change a female child undergoes as she grows from a baby to a teen. We are so absorbed with commercialised objects today that I wanted to explore how, over time, girls change from unaffected infants into teens who are shaped to fit with today’s standards of society. Time here gives rise to the continued process of change as we observe the child at different points in her life.

At 6 months, the girl simply sucks on the bow, as with all other objects at this age – it has equal importance to all other objects that she explores with her mouth.

At 2 years, she has it clipped onto her ragdoll as she plays with it over the edge of her cot – she recognizes it as pretty and begins to use it as an accessory, but for her doll.

At 5 years, she has it clipped onto her schoolbag as she gets ready for her first day of school – not yet interested in fancy hairdos, she treasures the bow but uses it as a bag tag instead.

At 8 years, she uses it as part of her outfit, clipped to her dress as she reads in the corner – starting to explore fashion, she focuses on completing and coordinating outfits.

At 10 years, she begins to explore putting it in her hair as she matures and wants to make herself look pretty.

And finally, at 13 years, as she hits puberty and the start of womanhood, the hairpiece is used for its intended purpose, as the child becomes absorbed in the world of cosmetics and beauty.

Final Photos

What is 'Time'?

So the concept for this project is Time. But what is Time? I did some research into it earlier into the project and omitted to include it in my blog. When you get down to it, 'time' is a really hard concept to describe...


To get a background on 'time', I searched it in Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time, and dictionary.com, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/time, and on Google, and came up with a few interesting definitions:
"the system of those sequential relations that any event hasto any other, as past, present, or future; indefinite and continuous duration regarded as that in which events succeed one another."
and
Noun: The indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole.


Going on the last definition, if I chose my 'whole' to be a child, then the continued progress is the child growing up, being shaped by their surroundings. Therefore 'time' is the focal point of the series, being the catalyst for change in the child's life.


Since my last progress post, I altered my concept to include a hair bow which links the images together. This bow represents the change going on in the personality of the child and shows how the girl portrayed in my images is changing as she grows from a baby to a teen. We are so absorbed with commercialised objects today that I wanted to explore how a girl is affected over time by this as she grows from an unaffected baby into a teen who is shaped to fit in.