In this shoot, I will be taking photographs of berries and leaves that show the seasons changing. I will also document how the leaves and berries change over time after they are removed from their environment.
Image Bank:
Photographer's Research:
John Berry
John Berry is a professional photographer from Madison County, Virginia. He mainly shoot senior yearbook photographs or sports images but like any photographer he has experimented with different styles of photography including areal, landscape, portrait and macro. It is his macro work I was inspired by as he has an excellent talent at finding the best focal point for his shots which he has probably developed by through out his career.
John Berry has an amazing sense of focus and often pairs this with an extremely low f/stop which enhances the subjects he takes shots of and bring them away from the background.
http://johnberryphotography.com/category/macro/The above image is of a leaf covered in water droplets. John Berry has used such a shallow depth of field the leafs cellular structure is visible; the small lines or 'veins' on the leafs surface are actually different water ways that the plant absorbs water and nutrients from the soil. John Berry had to use a very low f-stop to take a picture with this depth of field and so the edges of the shot are slightly blurry, he has also used a blur vignette to direct the viewers attention onto the leaf like a heat-seeking missile.
Contact Sheets:
Images that need improvement:
DS7_8836.JPG:
This image is completely black as it was one of the first in my shoot and I as still perfecting the camera settings and so it is under-exposed. To fix this I tried to change the camera settings but they were still too dark and so will most likely change the exposure in Photoshop.
DS7_8845.JPG:
This image has too much negative space in it and should have had a smaller f-stop but unfortunately this was the lowest that my camera settings would go. I also dislike the lighting as it has created a very 2D image that doesn't draw the viewer in. To fix this issue I will have to reshoot and shoot the berries in a more flattering light, or I will could use Photoshop but this would be more of a struggle and I would have to crop some of the negative space out and lose part of the image.
A03: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intention, reflecting critically on work and progress.
My main idea for this shoot was to focus my camera settings on getting as low of an f-stop that I could with my camera and still have visible images. I did this by taking the leaves into the studio and using a tripod and a directional light from a snoot. This would give me harsh shadow but enough light to drop the f-stop as low as possible.
My favourite image from this shoot was the brightly lit golden leaf where only the front of the leaf is visible because, using the same technique as John Berry I was able to photograph the texture but also the faintest hint of green left on the leaf that still hints to a summer just gone by. The effect of this is that it makes the viewer look along the stem of the leaf which is symbolic of the past summer before the leaves began to fall.
From this shoot I also learnt the importance of knowing and configuring all camera settings by hand to that the desired images can be taken. For example, my last image is at a slightly canted angle which makes the viewer intrigued and yet it doesn't grab the imagination because of the poor lighting and the slightly chaotic background that has multiple leaves sprouting from everywhere.
If I was to shoot this idea again I would like to have a larger control of the lighting as in this shoot it had a fixed position and because of the intensity it left large shadows in my images. To solves this I would like to use a torch that is diffused off of a piece of card or to use in the same manner as the snoot but move it around over the subject during a long exposure to reduce the shadows.
A02:Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.
For this shoot I used a Nikon D7200 with a macro lens in the studio with a snoot on one of the lights. I disliked using this setup as it is vastly different from the setup I use at home to take photographs in the past. The lighting was particularly difficult because of my camera settings which made for a difficult shoot.
While I was shooting I noticed that all of the leaves I had collected were partially green and brown/amber and so I wanted to look more closely at the changes as they were happening on the leaves and as they were going from orange to brown what were some of the parts of the leaves that changed first.
To experiment I tried different ways of shooting the leaves but eventually settled on shooting along the leaf's spine.
I also used some water from a bottle that I had taken with me so that I could lightly flick the water onto the leaf and replicate the water droplets from John Berry's work. My research into his photography style has helped me understand how he approaches his shoots and what camera settings he will use so that I can experiment with both his and my style and see if I like the combination.
Improving my Images:
To improve my image I opened them directly into Photoshop as I was shooting in JPEG. I normally like to shoot in RAW format and so opened a filter that would allow me to edit my images in the same manner as if they were RAW files. To do this I went onto FILTER, then CAMERA RAW FILTER.
After I had opened the filter I was able to use the sliders to alter the image in a similar way to altering RAW files.
I wanted to change the exposure as the natural colour of the berries was reflecting the light and making the image slightly overexposed.
Later while I was editing my images and improving the brightness I notice that I had a small fibre on my lens when I was shooting and so I had to use the clone tool to correct the images and remove the small fibre.
Final Images:
A04:Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements.
I feel that I have responded appropriately to my photographers research into John Berry as I have focused my shoot on using the smallest f-stop I could to try and achieve the amazing depth of field that he has in his work. I wanted to look at berries and leaves as they change between the seasons and yet we are too wrapped up in our own lives to notice the subtle difference. Consequently, I wanted to complete this shoot to look into how the berries mould and how the colours start changing in the leaves.
In a future shoot I would like to take a series of photographs of a green leaf that slowly turns brown and document the leafs journey to get there.
No comments:
Post a Comment