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Class lighting tasks
We did multiple workshops with speedlights, LED lights and the gemini lighting in class. We also tried out some light painting in the studio as well.
These were really helpful in order for us to learn new techniques so we can use them in our own images.
Final Images/Half Page Rationale.
I have named this series of images “Eden” which is inspired by the song “B” performed by Jaden Smith, featuring Willow Smith and Pia Mia from his 2017 album “Syre”. In this song, we firstly hear amazingly soft vocals and mentions of the garden of eden/bible references, then halfway through this song it does a full 180 switch into some dark, heavy rap music. I have compiled six images in this series, three showing the soft side to this song and three contrasting images that show the heavier side to the song.
I completed this series by using an array of lighting techniques that mostly stem from choosing the time of day. In the day images I used a speed light on the top of my camera to grab all of the detail in the scene and in the night images I was using the technique of light painting, using flash and also torch light to capture the differing forms in the scene. This shift in light and techniques helped me to create two juxtaposing worlds that play off of eachother based on the song I have chosen.
In the first three images on the left, they are representative of the soft beginning of this song. I took the two nature images using mid afternoon light along with a speed light and I took the image of Anna in the leaves using mid morning light while also using a speed light, this helped me to capture the delicate softness that a human/nature relationship can convey. The softness in these images were heavily inspired by techniques used by Rinko Kawauchi and Petra Collins and how they can also capture the beauty in the relationships nature have with people. This simple on location lighting really helped me to grasp the delicate, dream like beginning of this song while also bringing in the notions of the Garden of Eden and Eve.
In the second three images on the right, they are representative of the harsh switch up this song conveys. I took all of these images as soon as it got dark out and also with the help of the full moonlight on the clouds giving me the red looking sky. I also used the techniques of light painting and flash to achieve these images. These lighting techniques along with the long exposures definitely have captured this heavy part of the song and how a simple change in lighting techniques can immediately switch up the reading of an image. When I say simple, it definitely took me a while to get used to light painting and was a tough challenge for me but in the end I eventually got images that I am very happy with that impart the message of this song.
Overall, these images could work by themselves but I think that when they are all put together they communicate the softness and harshness of the song “B” by Jaden Smith well. I really enjoyed the challenge of learning new lighting techniques and I think that this challenge paid off as it helped me to create these juxtaposing images which further created their own dream like/nightmarish world. I trust that the utilisation of these different techniques have helped me to create a visual that represents the song that I have chosen strongly.
Tacita Dean
Throughout this project I became very interested in Tacita Dean’s photographs of these magnificent trees located in the South East of England. In these works, Dean has taken these images of the oak trees then proceeded to use the technique of overpainting with white gouache to isolate the branches of these trees. This process then accentuates the structure and form of the tree.
I feel that this process that Dean uses relates to the technique of light painting in photography. With the technique of light painting you are also isolating one part of a scene using light, therefore also accentuating the structure and form of the subject.
I really enjoy these works of Deans and have taken inspiration from them so I can also show the structure and form of a tree in my images, this then emphasises the simplicity of a tree and how complex they can actually be.
Rinko Kawauchi
Rinko Kawauchi takes photos that show the idea of the serenity in the ordinary moments that we come across in our lives, which create very soft, poetic looking images. The intimacy between the light and the subject in Kawauchi’s images gives the sense of a dream like quality which in turn builds on the softness in her images.
Kawauchi shoots whatever catches her eye, I sort of went through this process when I was shooting my day images, I was walking through the bush finding areas to shoot and also finding areas where a model would work also then just shooting while experimenting with different angles etc. I really took inspiration from Kawauchi’s work as I love the soft quality and the meaning behind her works.
Here are some mood boards for the two contrasting looks that I want to portray in my series of images. These are the images that come to mind when I am listening to this song that I have chosen ( ‘B’ By Jaden Smith.) In the first we see some soft looking forest photography and in the second it shows the sort of dark forest/light painting vibe that I am going to try out.
I am excited to see how these contrasting techniques of photography work out for me in a series and how I can take images that reflect these ones that I see when I hear the song.
These are the two final layout options that I showed to people and asked which one they liked better. These two layouts differ quite a lot even though it is only one image that has been changed around.
When I sent these two layouts to my friends it was an overwhelming positive response to the layout on the left, this was because the image of anna on the left is interacting with the one on the right by sort of looking in the direction of the other Anna. Then from this the image of Anna during the night is looking straight down the lens, interacting with the viewer.
Even though I absolutely love the image of Anna during the day in the second layout I feel as if it doesn’t fit in as well as the image of Anna during the day in the first layout. The flow of the leaves and trees throughout the images in the first layout gives it a good continuity and can be easily read whereas with the second layout I think the image of Anna during the day makes the viewer stop the flow of the read. I also feel that in the layout on the left really relates to the song that I have chosen better than the one on the right
These are some of the layouts that I was trying out with different photos/placements. Throughout this assignment I have taken quite a few photos and I liked lots of them so it was hard to just choose 6 images, I had sort of already made up my mind about the night photos but it was just the day ones I was tossing up between. I had made quite a few options for myself so it was hard to make up my mind as I was looking at them for a long period of time, so I had to get some second opinions.
I have chosen to lay the images out like this as I feel that it shows the contrast between these images well which relates back to the very sudden switch up of tone in the song that I have chosen. The softness is being read firstly on the left then the heavier side is being read on the right, having the same flow as the song.
I did one more shoot with Anna during the day to try out the vaseline technique to soften out the image and I think that it has worked really well. This soft grainy look goes well with the song that I have chosen but I am still deciding if it goes with the other images that I have chosen to have in my sequence. I will have to put them side by side or even print them out so I can have a proper look at them in order to decide
I also really like how in this image the green of the bush has somewhat taken over the image making it look even softer. I wanted to do one more shoot with Anna to get some more images to choose from for the final sequence but now I have to make a decision of what image I like better so I have made it a bit harder for myself but I am glad I went out again for some more photos.
