VICKY WHICKER

Photography

[vickywhickerwesthc]

Evaluation

Firstly the ideas that I had for my final major project were thought out well and had thorough idea generation forming the idea. I had a various amount of ideas which I thought was a better idea then having only one idea as I could experiment more as I shot and planned but also because I would result in having more experience shooting in different areas and aspects of this genre. I had ideas that included taking images of silhouettes which were lit from an outside light e.g. a sunset, which I didn’t end up using as it was winter and I was dependant on the weather which was a bad idea. I then had the idea to shoot in the studio creating silhouettes by using a light e.g. a snoot to light the background and having my model stood quite far away from the background, creating the black silhouette of themselves, I used this within experiments several times with models and still life which I thought went rather well. When shooting in the studio I had the idea to shoot rim lighting as rim lighting connects to the idea of silhouettes, I started trying to test shoot, at first it wasn’t going right but as I continued to do multiple shoots in the studio trying to get this rim lighting technique right it finally went to plan and was resulting in the way I hoped, seeing the models outline, I did also try to do this within still life, using flowers but that was difficult and I couldn’t figure it out. The other idea I had was to shoot on location and capture double exposure images, which I also thought was a great chance to experiment and see if these could be used for my final images, but they resulted in just being test shoots.

I settled on taking rim lighting images and silhouettes images in the studio with still life and models in the end, which I chose for my final images. Using the studio was a good idea for this project, I could control the lighting I was using and where the lighting was so I had more control which was great in my circumstances as I wouldn’t have a lot of time shooting silhouettes with a sunset as it isn’t going to be there for long and I cannot stop it from moving. The outcome of silhouettes and rim lighting in the studio was surprisingly achieved, I didn’t think it could be that difficult at first as they’re quite simple techniques but as I tried them and I found out they weren’t so simple, I got it wrong and worked on it and finally got it right, it made me feel as if I had achieved this goal I had set myself out to do with my final major project which made me proud of my images. I thought that my images look quite successful and effective as I added colour which added emotion and personality to the images which I thought made the images more honest, eye catching and attractive.

For improvements with this project I would have definitely got my film developed in time as I couldn’t get them processed in time, which isn’t a massive loss but still some work was missing from experimenting. I would probably choose a different area of photography all together, some people might think that my idea was too simple and boring, I don’t think this, I think it was very experimental as I had never done this kind of photography before, I was starting from scratch, experimenting and working things out for myself, teaching myself along the way to correct my mistakes and improve myself constantly. I thought that my idea was intriguing but I did have other ideas e.g. portraits and shooting on 120 film that I would have liked to pursue. For improvements upon the silhouette ideas that I decided to do, I would have improved the planning and had more ideas of where to shoot, what to shoot, lighting, backgrounds, what models would do when I was taking images of them etc. I would have also liked to do more experimenting with each of the ideas I had so that my final images would have been made up more of a variety of images and not the same idea over and over e.g. having silhouettes in the studio of still life and models, rim lighting of models, double exposure within the studio with models and still life and location double exposure images, and I would have liked to have more ideas to build up more final images.

I am proud of my images outcomes I think they’re all effective and have a meaning behind them, showing personality and meaning as well as simplicity and subtleness. I used Photoshop to manipulate my images, I didn’t use Photoshop excessively, I only used the contrast and levels layers to made the images contents e.g. the model/still life darker, making the images look more like silhouettes and better rim lighting images. I also used colour balance layers within the majority of my final images because I wanted to add colour to the images to make the images more eye catching and show meaning.

[vickywhickerwesthc]

Manipulation

Firstly i added a colour balance layer and made the image pinky purple which i thought was quite effective because it makes the image look more eye catching and attractive as well as giving personality and emotion to the image.

Then i added a brightness/contrast layer and increased the brightness of the image slightly and then decreased the contrast of the image so that the colours would be brighter and the hair looked brighter which made this image stand out more because it’s rim lighting and the edge was getting lighter, making the image look bolder.

[vickywhickerwesthc]

Manipulation

Firstly i added a colour balance layer to the image and increased the colour of red to the image, i wanted to make the background to this image red because in the photo the model is pouting her lips as if she is asking for a kiss and kisses relate  to love and love is symbolised by the colour red.

Then i added a levels layer, i only very slightly adjusted this by increasing the dark side so that the image turned slightly darker than it already was.

[vickywhickerwesthc]

Manipulation

The only manipulation i did for this image was adding a colour balance layer to the image  and made the colour purple which was a background image which i thought made the image look really nice as it gives a bit more personality and emotion to the image with colour.

[vickywhickerwesthc]

Manipulation Firstly i had to add a layer of brightness and contrast, i increased the contrast of the image completely which made the contents of the image completely black which is what i wanted to do because i wanted the contents of the image to look like silhouettes. Without increasing the contrast of the image completely it was a silhouette but i wanted to increased the contrast of the image completely because this makes it more attractive in the criteria of a silhouette which i wanted.

I then added a black and white layer, i thought that it would be effective to use black and white for this image because it makes the foreground of the flowers the main attraction with no colour for the background.

[vickywhickerwesthc]

Manipulation for final image of silhouetting flowers.

Firstly i increased the contrast completely to 100% and increased the brightness of the image slightly to 32%. By increasing the contrast in the image completely i made everything in the image much darker which i wanted as some parts of the flowers weren’t already completely black but after applying the full amount of contrast to the image, the flowers are completely blacked out making them look more like silhouettes. 

I then added a ‘hue/saturation’ layer to this image and put the hue to +93 which made the image green and then increased the saturation of the green in the image so that the green would be brighter and bolder instead of it being light and discrete i have made it darker which makes the image bolder, more eye catching and more attractive.

I then added the last layer of ‘levels’ to the image and increased the dark level so that the image as a whole would become darker, which portrays more of the silhouette in the image which is explaining my concept of the image so it worked out pretty well.

[vickywhickerwesthc]

Shooting silhouettes with still life in the studio

This was some more of my images from my final shoot, i did some of portraiture and some of still life, i used flowers to make a silhouette in the studio by using a tungsten light on the floor facing towards the background, creating a ring circle of light, making the foreground of the flowers darker and a silhouette.

I like these images of still life because they’re simple images that look beautiful.

[vickywhickerwesthc]

This was part of the test shoot with the manikin, i used a snoot to light the background and placed the manikin onto a table slightly forward of the lighting to create the silhouette image within the studio. I thought this image came out effectively as this was my last chance to practise silhouettes and i did it right so when it came to doing the final shoot i had all the settings of what i needed and knew where i had to place the lights to achieve these images.

[vickywhickerwesthc]

This is part of my final shoot, i did rim lighting with a boy this time as i wanted to mix up genders to see if i could get any different shots which i think i did, i really like this image, it’s unique, i had my model looking over his shadow at the window which was to the side of me, this was to see the outline of his facial features which i thought worked really well. I then went into Photoshop and used the hue/saturation layer to add colours onto the image, i experimented with different colours but then decided on this pink/blue/purple colour within this image. The lighting underneath my models chin had more lighting than anywhere else in the image, which i thought gave a focal point which is directly in the middle of the image which i thought worked well for the image.

I like how i’ve caught the small hairs on the models face, clothes and neck as it makes the final outcome look more defined, detailed and gripping. I think i have successfully achieved these images especially this image, this will be one of my final image that i use within my book for the final outcome of this final major project outcome.

[vickywhickerwesthc]

Test shooting

Using a manikin to practise lighting in the studio for my final shoot, the images don’t have a full rim lighting around the edges of the manikin and it’s not part of a silhouette although the way i was lighting these images from the back to try and get rim lighting, i created half body shadows over the body and slight rim lighting on the edges of the manikin, so i thought this shoot was successful but probably not with this project as i wanted rim lighting and silhouettes to be more obvious and having the whole of the subject being lit creating a proper rim light or silhouette.

[vickywhickerwesthc]

These are some images from my final shoot, i used the studio for my final shoot as i could produce silhouette image just like this that i found quite appealing and attractive and i had done test shoots before and i liked the outcome so i wanted to do this for my final shoot which i am happy with. I did rim lighting and silhouette images, these are the silhouette images within the studio, i used a snoot to light the background and had my model standing in front of the snoot but still in front of the background. I tried to mix the images up a bit and try different things within the studio e.g. the positions my model was in and what she was doing with her hands etc.

My favourite image from these above would be the image with the red background that i had added to the image via Photoshop. I decided not to use gels in the studio, i used colour balance, hue/saturation in Photoshop to change the colour within the images above. i thought that the image i turned red was quite meaningful and personal as she is pouting her lips as if she is ready for a kiss and red symbolises love, obviously kissing is part of love within a couple so there are links within my images between even simple thing e.g. colour.

[vickywhickerwesthc]

These are some images from my final shoot, i used the studio for my final shoot as i thought it was the most creative images i had produced before hand within the studio and i liked the way i was creating these images in the studio. These specific images have been manipulated and they’re all rim lighting. I thought about using gels but then thought against it because i could just use Photoshop to add colour and using gels i didn’t have enough people to hold it over the lights and have models also. I thought these images came out rather well, i am pleased with this work i have produced, i definitely think the colour i have added in Photoshop has had an impact on my images because they make the images look more appealing, more eye catching and more interesting.

My favourite image within these 4 would be the last image with the colour pink being added to the image. This makes the image look more girly as well as soft. I had my model facing slightly to the side as for this particular image i wanted to see the models eye lashes as well as her hair, nose and face outline as usual. I honestly think by seeing more outline in this last image makes this image look more intriguing. By seeing more definition of the models facial parts, it’s including more personality and gives the image emotion.

[vickywhickerwesthc]

May’s calendar plan

[vickywhickerwesthc]

This is the process i went through to create my inverted silhouette from my final images of my FMP. Firstly i inverted the image to make it white instead of black and then i added a brightness/ contrast layer and decreased the contrast of the image.

[vickywhickerwesthc]

This was a silhouette image taken from my final shoot, i inverted the image so that instead of the model being completely black, she is now completely white. For my planning from the lesson where every one in the class gave an input to what we should include in our ideas for our FMP, someone wrote that i could invert the images i take as this is a different and new technique that could look good which i honestly think is true. i think that this technique is attractive as it’s eye catching as it’s unique, no one else has tried this technique that i know and by doing this i am experimenting to see if i would like this to be the technique i use for some or all of my final images.

I think this is an interesting technique to use as it’s different, i might use this technique within my final images in the book i am making, i may include one but i don’t think i would add any more than one image of this technique as i want the main focus to be on rim lighting and original silhouettes that i have taken in the studio (where the model is completely blacked out).

[vickywhickerwesthc]

Final shoot for my Silhouette images in the studio.

I decided to shoot in the studio for my final images because i could control the lighting and from my first shoot in the studio, i found the imagery to be unique, interesting and new, i had never done the subject of silhouettes before now so this is trying something new and mastering the imagery which i think i have successfully done. I quite like both silhouettes and rim lighting, they’re both new to me and they’re both techniques which are impressive. 

This final shoot resulted very well, they came out the way i wanted them too, i found the settings i used from the first shoot and used them in the final shoot, these shoots compared to the second shoot were incredible, the second shoot was horrific and i couldn’t produce the imagery i wanted, the settings were the problem with this shoot and where i placed the light as these things were not the same as what i used for the first and final shoot.

I will manipulate some of these images by making it darker so that the rim lighting stands out more and that the silhouette is darker and looks bolder. I also want to add colour to the images e.g. by using the colour balance layer or the hue/saturation layer, i think that colour will add more life to the imagery and make the images more eye catching as a bright colour will be bold enough to catch attention.

[vickywhickerwesthc]

Half term report