The Flowering
The project that I decided to pursue was of flowers, this meant that I took pictures of all different winter flowers showing contrast between the dead flowers and the blossomed ones. I took theses images while walking around the Cator estate in Blackheath as this is where I live so it was easy access to me, and I knew that there was a variety of flowers on display there. These images were inspired by Edward Weston and Karl Blossfeldt with their images of flowers, I wanted to add in the contrast of life and death as I felt like it would create and interesting image for people to look at. These photographs below were taken on a Canon 700d.
My Photographs
Edited Images
I then decided to edit the images to make them black and white, I done this is Photoshop CC by going to Image - Adjustments and then selecting black and white. This then brings up a menu which let's you change the intensity of the colours, there are also presets which you can select so the colours are changed for you. However I experimented with these and chose what I thought worked best.
Presentation Ideas
As I originally had a large amount of images I wanted them all to be presented so people could see all of them, I then decided that I could group them all together so they were all mounted together however I then had a few favorites. From here I thought I could pick out my favorite images and have these images on their own separated from each other. This means that when looking at the images you aren't distracting at all of the different images and you only focus on the one. I also wanted to put it in a slideshow and have that projected on the walls of the room so you can almost feel the picture.
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Evaluation
To conclude, I think that my final outcome worked out okay, there were a few images that I was happy with however many others had to be deleted. I also didn't stick to my idea of taking images of flowers to show life and death, many of my images went off topic and don't have any contrast in them at all. When taking my pictures it was windy meaning that it was hard to take a perfect picture, they came out blurry which meant that I had to delete a large amount of them. This was a big downside to my project as I didn't want to use pictures that were not as of a higher quality than the others. I then took some more pictures the day after when the wind wasn’t so heavy keeping the flowers still and in focus meaning I could get images I liked. Despite the wind issue, I was able to get images that I was happy with and had clear contrast between life and death. Overall I had a decent amount of images that were able to fulfill the effect I wanted.
If I was to do this again I would make sure that I stayed on task, this was a major flaw in my work as it meant that I was taking images that aren’t related to my idea. I think that I could of also taken multiple images of the same asset on different days and at different times. This would ensure that I can get different lighting and could get a picture that manipulated it to look different.
Before taking my main images I went to a variety of local places which had flowers beds and decided what area could get the most interesting shoot. I then decided that the Cator estate fulfilled this because there was a diversity of different flowers and some hadn’t been cared for and therefore died. This was really helpful for me as it meant that I had a rough idea of what I wanted to take before I actually got out and took these images. I found it rather stressful finding the right spot to take the image as they were planted into the ground meaning if I wanted to get a front on shot I would need to be on the ground with the flower. As some of these plants were by roads or pathways I had to wait so I wasn’t in peoples way, and so I didn’t have my legs dangling in the road.
In a lot of my images I decided to objectively blur the background and keep the flower in focus, this is because when looking at Karl Blossfeld and Edward Westons images of flowers they both have a blurred monochrome background. I wasn’t able to do the same as it would mean I would have to either edit the images or remove the flowers that I didn’t own to put them in front of a background. As I couldn’t do this the only way round this was to blur them to try to create the same effect. I feel like this was rather successful however it meant that by accident I blurred the flower as well as the background which meant I spent a while retaking the same image. This was the only way around this problem, I couldn’t find a solution to this issue, however I could use the touchscreen feature on the camera to select the main focus on the image which meant I had less control on what was in focus.
After uploading my images onto the computer I was able to see them on a bigger screen and at a better quality. From here I compared my images to the photographers that I was inspired by and decided if you could see the inspiration come out clear and take an effect in my image. I felt that for some of my images you could clearly see how i’ve attempted to take an image in the style of some of photographers I have research.
If I was to do this again I would make sure that I stayed on task, this was a major flaw in my work as it meant that I was taking images that aren’t related to my idea. I think that I could of also taken multiple images of the same asset on different days and at different times. This would ensure that I can get different lighting and could get a picture that manipulated it to look different.
Before taking my main images I went to a variety of local places which had flowers beds and decided what area could get the most interesting shoot. I then decided that the Cator estate fulfilled this because there was a diversity of different flowers and some hadn’t been cared for and therefore died. This was really helpful for me as it meant that I had a rough idea of what I wanted to take before I actually got out and took these images. I found it rather stressful finding the right spot to take the image as they were planted into the ground meaning if I wanted to get a front on shot I would need to be on the ground with the flower. As some of these plants were by roads or pathways I had to wait so I wasn’t in peoples way, and so I didn’t have my legs dangling in the road.
In a lot of my images I decided to objectively blur the background and keep the flower in focus, this is because when looking at Karl Blossfeld and Edward Westons images of flowers they both have a blurred monochrome background. I wasn’t able to do the same as it would mean I would have to either edit the images or remove the flowers that I didn’t own to put them in front of a background. As I couldn’t do this the only way round this was to blur them to try to create the same effect. I feel like this was rather successful however it meant that by accident I blurred the flower as well as the background which meant I spent a while retaking the same image. This was the only way around this problem, I couldn’t find a solution to this issue, however I could use the touchscreen feature on the camera to select the main focus on the image which meant I had less control on what was in focus.
After uploading my images onto the computer I was able to see them on a bigger screen and at a better quality. From here I compared my images to the photographers that I was inspired by and decided if you could see the inspiration come out clear and take an effect in my image. I felt that for some of my images you could clearly see how i’ve attempted to take an image in the style of some of photographers I have research.