Hi all
Finally made it to the assignment for part 2! I’m so relieved honestly to finally be able to get this post up and live. This project was such a process and definitely one of trial and error (as the brief described). This assignment, to be honest has brought me a lot of stress and can say I have lost a bit of sleep over it. I found this such a tricky one to figure out, so I’m glad I feel like I’ve finally figured it out.
Simply put, the aim of the assignment is to shoot a model in pitch black, taking long exposure shots, lighting them with nothing but a torch and tube of black paper taped to the end as a make shift snoot. Seeing as its increasingly getting lighter and lighter outside, I had to wait until 9/10pm before I could even being to shoot. But in fairness it did give me time to prepare my back drop and black out the window properly.
To get the shots I finally felt happy with, it took me 3 different trial shoots before finally hitting it on the forth shoot. So, if you’re reading this looking for how to do this assignment, I hope this helps. Also, please don’t feel discouraged or disheartened if it takes a while or a lot of attempts. I too, lost it a few times with this assignment. I think in future I plan on sticking to shooting in light, whether they be artificial, natural or dim/tungsten. Light is better than no light.
One thing that struck me with this assignment, was what message or feeling do I want my set of photos to convey. Once I figured that out, I was able to begin to plan, what I wanted to capture and how to display them. Seeing as this assignment was shot in the darkness, I wanted to use that darkness to my favour. I felt this sad feeling about shooting a subject in the dark. It portrays this feeling of cold, dark, sadness, isolation. So that is what I wanted to capture, A lonely night.
I started by brainstorming with my model things that we do on our loneliest nights and that is what I tried to capture. Motion blur within the shots was of course hard to avoid, but I feel it works quite well, it adds this ghostly feel to the photos that, I feel corresponds with the feeling of A lonely night, feeling lost, vulnerable, a shell of who you are.
When it came to editing, I wanted to think about how else I could further portray the message or feeling I’m trying to convey. I did a little dodging and burning to add to the contrast between the light and dark, however, I also used the temperature slider to tint the images with a blue hue. I wanted to emphasise that feeling of cold, dark, loneliness.
Display/presentation
When it came to displaying these images, I decided to display them in a downward v shape layout. I chose to display them like this as I felt it helped to display the low feeling of loneliness and the downward fall that sadness can suck us into.
Thanks for reading, feedback is greatly appreciated as always and keep an eye out for the rework, after my tutors feedback and comments.
Georgia
GPowell OCA Photography 