Shoot Plans

At this point in time, I am not sure what order my shoots will be in, I intend to do several shoots on the same day- for example when going to London I hope to do more than one shoot.

1. On the train. For this shoot, I hope to take photos of my friends, as candids, showing the non-stereotypical youth subculture, yet in a place where people may assume teenagers to be troublesome. My  looking train station is the beginning of the line so the carriages normally start off very empty, which is when I hope to take these images because then it will not be a protection hazard as other people will not be in my photos, Then the same shoot, I hope to capture my friends in hoodies on the train and looking "troublesome" this could include being spread out taking up lots of space, having their feet up- walking throughout the carriage, this shoot would be on the way back from London so I hope this part to be darker than the original shots.

2. Leake street. This is where documentary photography will come into my shoots because I will, alongside getting photographs of my friends with the graffiti around them, I will also try and take as many photos as I can of passersby who look around the youth age of hold the appearance, this is because I think this could work really well in this location- many people find graffiti as vandalism, which is what I want to display here.

3. South bank skate park- using techniques such as GIFs, I hope to document teenagers skateboarding with graffiti in the background, I think this is the perfect location for this shoot. Alongside getting GIFS of people skateboarding, I also hope to get Wide angle images, forming a distorted fish eye look of the whole skate-park part, but also including the outside- with passers by- symbolizing how teenagers, when left alone, aren't troublesome.

4. Brick Lane- this will be of my friends just walking down alleys with graffiti- thus showing one of the main parts of these shoots is vandalism.

5. Drinking- for this shoot, I hope to get my friends to appear like they are drinking within a park, this will include having looks of beer bottles-non of which will have actual alcohol in, using different techniques such as depth of field with the bottles in the foreground and the group in the background- out of focus. Furthermore, within this shoot, I intend for my friends not to have their faces on show- they will merely be silhouettes which will hopefully reveal a fear factor of the unknown.

6. Fire- I hope to gather different images from different angles with the fire as the main focus, this will mean most of these shoots will have the fire in the center and in the foreground with my friend surrounding it, also using manual focus, I will make it so my friends/subjects are out of focus and therefore much like the previous shoot, silhouettes.

7. Smoking. For this shoot I will use techniques such as blur  These images will be taken within Harlow, as none of my friends smoke, I will have to use documentary styled street photography to capture this aspect/ factor. Shots I hope to included whilst using blur are people who smoke outside the college where everyone walks past- I captured a similar image to this in my trial of the blur technique and I really like it and hope to recreate it, to extend this, I hope to do this a couple times- maybe once everyday for a week- to show the different people doing it- showing its a wide youth culture activity to do.

8.Furthermore for smoking, I hope to use the technique of GIFs, if I get permission to take photos of people smoking  I hope to make GIFS- people breathing out the smoke- into the camera, I would also like to use my research within my project proposal, of an image I found of someone smoking, whilst drinking out of a mug, which is a photo I really like.

Multiple Flash Work Diary

During the lesson on the 27th September 2016 we were given the technique of Multiple Flash. To create that technique, we used a tripod, A snoot- this meant we could direct the light onto our subjects, we used the light meter- this meant we could measure the light so we knew the camera settings to put on our camera.
My group experimented different ways to display this technique, this included having the subject in 3 different positions or just having her move around a lot.

My favourite image from this shoot:

This is my favourite image from this shoot because its very similar to my research and shows how the images from my techniques post has help inspire my shoot. Additionally, this image is really intriguing because it shows 3 different standing positions. To achieve the photo I got my subject to move, and every time she was at a new position, I got the person on the light to flash it, this meant that the movement between the positions wouldn't be as dominant as this was when the light flashed. This image shows by progression of this technique because it shows how my research had helped me take these photos. For example the image on my image bank has a female with three different stages- her looking to the left then looking forward and then looking to the right, therefore showing my work was influenced through this photographer.

My least favourite image from this shoot:

This is my least favourite image because this was my first image that I took and my subject was just going to move her arms a bit and then move around a little, however as shown in this image, there was too much exposure on my subject because she stayed in the same place for too long whilst the flash was going. Furthermore I do not think this shows my intentions of this techniques because this isn't clear movement/ positions.

Using this technique?

When I come to taking photos for my independent project I do not think I will be using this technique because it doesn't work well with my idea. It could be argued that I could use this with shoot ideas such as skateboarding, however, actually getting the equipment would be rather difficult and very expensive- another reason why I shall not be using this technique.

Multiple Flash Straight Images

The camera settings used for all these images were...

Shutter Speed: 6"

F.stop: 16

ISO: 200

Multiple Flash Image Bank

This image is really intriguing because it almost tells a story, a woman is suffering within herself, she is feeling rushed and stressed, with all the different parts of her, show how struggle she is going through. This image may have been take by every time there was a flash, it was the subject who moved as such, it was mainly the zoom of the camera- other than the subject turning around, for this reason, I think this is quite a good idea/ concept of this technique.

This image again shows the mental struggling the subject may be feeling- with the face smiling on the left, this may be the face that everyone else sees, the one on the right shows the pain of her screams- her struggles, with the middle one showing a scared and upset emotion. Both this image and the image above are really interesting and I do hope to recreate this later on in this lesson as they do look really intriguing.

This is a very similar image to the one in my techniques/ definition post with the same subject, yet this image shows a more empowering emotion to it, instead of showing evil. I really like the editing of this image, I believe the black and white makes it really nice to look at, but also the vignette effect appears the photographer either used a snoot over the light, or edited it this way, but either way, I think it works really well. 

This is another image which is really symbolic. The photographer has capture 4 different positioned- this would have been with four different flashes in the studio. Also I find it really interesting how the subject on the right is more "life" colours, whereas the right ones look more washed out, the photographer may have done this because having a gel over the lighting during two on the parts- giving this effect.

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This image is quite a humorous one which I think is a really good way of displaying this technique. This is because the full frame is filled with the subject, there isn't that much space in between each part of this image. I also find the lighting a key part of this image. It looks like the subject has a torch faced on him but also with an vignette around the frame which may imply the subject is lost- it looks like he is in a cave- giving a strange context in this image. 

This is an image which I do believe displays the technique very well. This is because even though you can see some distortion from movement in the face, there isn't a complete distortion so the audience can she the subject's body has stayed still. But at the same time, her arms have moved, it looks really intriguing as if a mythical god.

Multiple Flash Techniques

Equipment needed...
Tripod
lots of batteries
Simple set
Soft box above the subject
Definition of Multiple Flash: Having a long exposure joined by having lots of flashes, to captures the movement.

Shutter speed 6"
F 22 (have a high f.stop)
ISO 200

This is a really intriguing image displaying multiple flash because it shows the "See no evil, Speak no evil, Hear no evil". This image is really intriguing due to the spacing of the subject, she is all the same consistency and the photographer as managed to capture her do all the actions/ stages and then "releasing her demons" through shouting at the end of this.

Multiple Exposure Work Diary

At the beginning of today's lesson, we watched a short clip on youtube on how to form a multiple exposure shot. There are two ways of doing this effect and that is actually doing it in the raw form through the camera, however, as my camera doesn't have this setting to do so, I have learnt how to do it via photoshop. To achieve this technique, you can two photos, one of a landscape (or an object it is up to you as a photographer) and then one of a subject. The most important part about taking these images, is that the background has to be over exposed. The way I achieved this was to shoot upwards so that the only thing in the background, was the sky- this made it easier to over expose it. Additionally, the change of camera settings was important because if you had the same camera settings for both the subject and the object/ landscape, the final products may result in being too over exposed which isn't what you want. 

The equipment I used for this techniques was simply subjects from my class, the surroundings I had and then my camera. The reason I didn't use a tripod within this technique was simply because I didn't think it was necessary, because I had a fast shutter speed and I wasn't trying to capture something in the same place- for example like I did in the sequencing technique, I didn't need one.

My favorite image from this shoot:

I really like this image because certain parts of the raw image of the subject are still really visible, yet certain parts are of the tree- mainly her coat. This is really interesting because it's as if my subject is "wearing nature". The only negative of this image which I don't like is the over exposure- I can actually improve by editing it in photoshop. However, I do like how her glasses and her camera strap is still really clear (due to the dark colouring) as this helps shape my subject- the viewer can follow these lines and still tell it's a person- not just a tree. 

My photograph shown above, resembles this image taken by the photographer "Christoffer Relander", in his series of photos called "Contemporary photography", Relander has taken many different multiple exposure photos, however I chose this one to relate to my work. This is because like my photo, this photo is mainly green because of the leaves of the trees. Even though the leaves take up the majority of the subjects in mine and Relanders photos, our subjects are still visible to the audience.

My least favorite image from this shoot: 

I do like how the flowers are shown in this image however I feel like this technique wasn't displayed very well within the image as I believe the flowers over take my subject which isn't what I wanted. Also, as the flowers and leaves are at the bottom of the frame, as the portrait of my subject gets to the face, there isn't really anything there to display her- the only dominate part of her face is her eye and eyebrow within the flower, which personally I do not like. I think this image would have been better if I would have made it so the flowers and leaves were further up the frame, but not all the way around it- this way my subject wouldn't have been swallowed from the plants. Finally, I also do not like how the only part of my subject which is really clear is the Nikon sign on her camera strap, because even though some may argue this to be a punctum, I believe it is almost as if I am advertising this brand as it is the only clear part of my subject, which I weren't trying to do and therefore, this image is my least favorite image from this shoot.

Using this technique?

When I come to shooting my independent project, I do not think I will be using this technique because I do not think it ties in my the effect that I want. I want a "gritty" and "slum-like" atmosphere formed in my images so I don't think combining this technique would work. However, it may be worth me experimenting with this technique any way because, I could do it with out flowers and do scenery such as the graffiti tunnel along with a skateboarder.  So I might try it for one image, but I will not be dedicating a whole shoot on this technique.

Multiple Exposure Straight Images

Camera settings for portrait:
Shutter speed:1/400
F.stop: 8
ISO: 400
Camera settings for flowers:
Shutter speed:1/400
F.stop: 16
ISO:400

Camera Setting for portrait
Shutter speed: 1/250
F.stop: 8
ISO: 400
Camera Setting for flowers
Shutter speed: 1/125
F.stop: 8
ISO: 400

Camera Setting for portrait
Shutter speed: 1/400
F.stop: 8
ISO: 400
Camera settings for flower:
Shutter speed: 1/320
F.stop: 8
ISO:400

Camera settings for portrait:
Shutter speed:1/400
F.stop: 8
ISO: 400
Camera speed for plant
Shutter speed: 1/25
F.stop: 8
ISO: 400

Camera settings for portrait:
Shutter speed: 1/320
F.stop: 8
ISO: 400
Camera settings for plant:
Shutter speed: 1/125
F.stop:8
ISO: 400

Multiple Exposure Image Bank

This image is really intriguing because the landscape image doesn't take up place in her whole face- its blended out so her head slowly fades into trees and telephone lines. This is a really interesting approach to this technique because the way we were shown in the beginning of the lesson, was to make the whole face in a landscape- although I prefer this effect because personally it looks more aesthetically pleasing because it's a if this subject feels like she is slowly fading into the background.  

Much like the image above, this photographer has also take a similar approach by making the face of the subject dominate but as the body progresses, the street landscape becomes easier to see. There is slight irony in this image due to the punctum which is the flower crown. This is because a flower crown suggests someone "at one with nature", however, her body is over taken by buildings and a man made settings- showing what has destroyed nature. 

This image is really beautiful because of the smooth edges on this portrait. You can see the pose of the subject really clearly and the landscape doesn't make the subject "disappear". To get the effect, I think the photographer would have use photoshop and then use the "history rubber" around the face and body to form this effect. The way this is black and white is really interesting as well because if it was in colour, the subject may have been wiped out and not as clear. 

This is also a different approach to this technique because the majority of the work I found was either face on are side portraits of a subject, here the photographer has used the back of her head. This photographer has also made it really interesting because the landscape in fitted around her hair and then back- you can see where the hair line stops and then the trees on her shoulders act as clothes. 

The aspect of this image is really interesting because its almost a battle within the subjects body. The battle of nature vs. buildings. This could be symbolic of the subjects battling within himself. This is really intriguing because with just trees it would have worked, and it would have worked with just buildings although as this photographer has chosen to combine the two, it makes it a really intriguing image to look at.  

Finally, due to the photographer positioning the building roof in the center of the subjects head, it makes it symbolic. As the birds appear to be flying out of her head, it's as if she it s at her own freedom- she has reached her calming point and feels a sense of serenity. 

Multiple Exposure Techniques

3"-4" Exposure.

Equipment needed...
Tripod
lots of batteries
Simple set
Soft box above the subject

Definition: In photography and cinematography, a multiple exposure is the superimposition of two or more exposures to create a single image, and double exposure has a corresponding meaning in respect of two images. The exposure values may or may not be identical to each other. (googles meaning)

My definition: getting two images, one of a subject, then one of a landscape and merging them together.

This is an example of multiple exposure. It shows how editing is a key for this technique. This photographer would have taken an image of the cat and then taken the image of the road then when coming to editing, they would have combined them- putting the image of the road only within the cat- the surrounding stays the same of the image with the cat. 

To take it on the camera:

Menu system- multiple exposure- auto gain off (to make them brighter) - number of shoots 2 click on,

High key- put camera in spot metering  mode (this will focus on the face of the subject and not the background, making the background over exposed/ "maxed out white"- nothing else is visible, no other detail) - aperture priority mode, put focus point in the centre. make the exposure +2.
The face would have to be 0 exposure.

Photoshop: 

Take/ open the two photos
drag it onto the same canvas
(having to layer) Click "normal" and change it to screen.

Slow Sync Work Diary

During the lesson of the 20th September, alongside the technique of blur, we were given the technique of slow technique to shot afterwards within the studio. Overall I am quite happy with this shot because I believe I did end up achieving the technique quite well.
The equipment I used for this technique was, a tripod, a Light meter (to work out the camera settings of the studio lights), Studio lights, a subject and a couple props to play around with.
As I had already experimented with this technique last year, I was familiar with it, however I feel like this technique works better for a "creepy" shoot rather than my proposed shoot for this year.

My favourite photo from this shoot:

To take this image I got my subjects to stand still at the back of the studio, after the flash went, I got them to walk towards the camera. I done this a couple of times and I believe this one came out the best because it could be very symbolic as if their "souls were coming out of their bodies", even though all they done was walk forward. 

My photo resembles this image above which is taken for a pre-wedding photo shoot by photographer Sham Hussian. These two photographs resembles each other because you can see the subject in the first state but then see the movement of them moving forward towards the camera.

My least favourite photo from this shoot:

This was the first image I took. Due to the camera being too far back, it shows the surround of the studio- including the pink background at the top. Additionally, I took this image without informing my subject I was about to take it so he wasn't looking at the camera but over at the people behind me. Furthermore, I do not think this image shows slow sync as well as it could have. 

Using this technique?

When it comes to be taking my photos for my shoot, I do not think I will be using this technique, this is because half of my shoots will be documentary and therefore I wouldn't really be able to capture it very well as it would best be in the studio. Additionally, I do not think this technique would work well with the theme I want to do- youth subculture.

Slow Sync Straight Images

Camera Settings...
Shutter speed was at 1 second because if I had a faster shutter speed the movement wouldn't have been picked up, if I would have used a slower shutter speed I think the photo would have been blurred out by the movement.
The F.stop was 5.6 and the ISO was 200

To form this technique I set up the lights, then using the light measure I was able to have the correct camera settings, then with a long Shutter speed- around 1" myself and people I was working with experimented different ways to show the slow sync technique, as I went last to take the images, I found that my subjects were no longer interested- we were in the studio for around 20 minutes.

Slow Sync Image Bank

This image shows slow sync because the photographer would have taken the first image with the knife through the apple but then as the shutter speed was slow we then see the motion of the knife being brought up. The movement is also helped something by the hand on the side of the image. This image would have been interesting even if it was a knife, but because there is an apple, this acts as a Punctum leading to this prop becoming the studium- the reason this image is intriguing.

This image shows how this technique can be used in documentary photography because you are able to capture a certain period of time. In this case it shows a lady playing pool. The flash would have been when the balls were in the middle and the lady getting ready to shoot, but at the shot continue the balls then separated and moved apart.

This image is an example of slow sync within a studio- which later on in this lesson I will be doing. This is a good example of slow sync forming a connotation, the audience may see this a read into it, thinking this person is fighting with herself, she feel split. One side of her (the side looking into the camera) may be the side that she reveals to people, although the side where the camera is closer shows pain as she glances away, this may be how she is really feeling inside. Whereas the denotation of this image would be that the photographer zoomed in after the camera clicked and flashed for the first image, so we see a different image throughout the frame.

This is another image which would be replicated within a studio. This is also a very common example which I found when researching this technique. Although this image is very intriguing because it is suggested the shot starts (where the flash is taken) when the woman is leaping, however the rest of the movement is behind her, as if she had already moved to this place. However this may be because the subject spun around this shot was take as we can see two legs faintly in the movement and it shows the foot slowly turning around. 

This is an example of a fashion type photography style in the slow sync technique. This would have been tarn in a studio as well and the lighting would have changed mid shot. In this picture we see two phases, the bold stage where the subject is facing towards the camera, then the second stage where she is facing away. The only other movement we see is the change in arm position. 

This image is a really intriguing example of slow sync because we see a very clear movement between the first stage, when the image was taken, to the end. The movement of the card is show very clearly in a very straight movement around the screen.

Slow Sync Techniques post

What is slow sync flash?
Slow sync flash is just a fancy term for using your flash with a slow shutter speed. It helps you keep your subject sharp while capturing motion or a dark background.
When you originally take an image, your subject will be lit up from the lighting but as you have a slow shutter speed, it captures the movement as well.

Equipment:
A light source (in a studio), A Tripod, A Subject, A light meter, A dark background, A snoot, Reflector, Modelling light

Last year I discovered this technique by a mistake and I used it for form a "creepy" atmosphere.

This technique is a really good way to capture movement but at the same time having a still aspect of the subject.
In class we got shown a variety of images as examples.

This was one of the example we were given to us in class. It shows slow sync because you can see the clear subject in the foreground, but then can see him moving. As you can see from the example, the subject is very bright- this is due to the flash when the image is first taken and then it gets darker due to the movement and the lack of lighting in the rest of the image- if there was a long flash, it wouldn't have the same effect because everything would be as bright as the subject in their original state. 

Blur Work Diary

During the lesson on the 20th September 2016, our task was to take images of the technique of blur through the inspiration of the photographer Klein (whose images were shown to us at the beginning of the lesson and one is shown in my techniques post). When I started this lesson and first saw this technique, I didn't really like it because I felt like it was really messy and crammed with too much going on, however, after going out and taking images, I have actually changed my mind about this technique because I do think in some cases it works really well.

Within most of my photos, I used a tripod- this is where I wanted the surrounding to be clear and sharp. However I wanted to experiment different types and I did actually take some images off the tripod, and personally I think some of these shots worked just as well.

My favorite image of this shoot: 

This is the raw image which I really like, the edited one is shown on my straight images which I also really like. This image was taken on an off chance of it working, as my project is of the teenage subculture, as we were walking back to college, I remember this is where everyone who goes to college normally smokes, therefore quickly got my camera out to try and capture and I am quite happy with the results. This is the example I took without the tripod because I think this way, none of my subjects are in focus and can be identified, whereas if I had a tripod, they weren't really moving that much so they would have been recognised and they may have not wanted to be in the image.

This photograph taken by Seoul, Korea, naming the photo- "Crossed Hopes", I thought this one relates to my photo as shown above in this blog post because of the grittiness of the image. Even though I decided to add the unedited version of my photo in this post, the use of the blur technique still shows grittiness duet the subjects within the frame- the teenagers on the side smoking especially. This links with this image I have found because this one is taken in the underground- a place which isn't a place which people would called nice and high maintenance, in actually a place which is grimy and very dirty.

My least favorite image of this shoot: 

This was one of my first images I got where I got someone in my class to move around to try and capture blur instead of using other people, however I do not think this image worked at all, personally I believe this is because I got someone to move around un-naturally and it ended up like this. Another reason this image has turned out this is due to a too long shutter speed, it meant my subject was lost more than I had wanted.

Using this technique?

When I come to taking my photos for my independent project, I think this technique is a good one to try and include. Additionally, I will take what I have learnt from this shoot onto my project, certain shoots I believe documentary will work so much better and I believe one shoot which I do choose to be documentary (perhaps the smoking or skateboarding one) I will use this technique because it would mean people I take photos of wouldn't be clearly shown on my work. 

Blur Straight Images

These are a few of the images I took during this shoot and think this technique ended up working really well and am quite happy with the results. My favorite is the top image, I also like the 2nd image because I got someone from my class to stand still whilst people around him was moving, resulting in the blur across him.