Criteria 5

Be able to review final images

5.1 - Evaluate final images

Looking at my twelve images I would say that the first thing that I feel have made the images effective were the use of the smoke bombs. The brought colour, style and uniqueness to the images I created. They added something different, made the images stand out and really added to the gothic style of the gothic photographs. I also felt that the set up and style of the gothic images was created really well, all the different aspects added together created the gothic atmosphere I had planned out. I feel that the model as perfect for the shoot with her dark make up, tattoos and big hair, she fit in very well with the style. I thought that the woods were the perfect place to photograph the shoot, on both days it had been muddy but the shelter from the trees meant that the ground was dry; it was remote enough so that the model felt comfortable and relaxed because there weren’t any passers by watching her. It was large enough that I could move around freely and I didn’t feel confined. I left a thirty minute window either side of what I expected the shoot to take; this was perfect as the model was very nervous when she turned up so I spent a small amount of time talking to her and making her feel more relaxed. I also thought that the clothing that the model wore was perfect for the shoot, it fit in a matched the style and image that I wanted to create, the clothing was all very different too so none of the clothes being modelled in the images looked too much like each other.

When looking at my twelve images I would say that the first thing that I feel was unsuccessful was that the lighting in the woods that I chosen was just too dark, this was probably due to it being winter and it being a really gloomy day on both of the days I took the photographs. This has caused me to have to put my ISO up which has in turn caused the images to look quite grainy. Some people use graininess to their advantage and use it to help create a certain style with the images but I prefer images to look clean and smooth with as little noise as possible. The second thing I feel that was unsuccessful about the images was the clothing choice of the second model. The theme I had chosen was a festival style, light and fairylike. Unfortunately my original model had cancelled on me twice and this gave me very little time, it also meant that I had to do the shoot later than planned and the weather had got very cold so the model had to wrap up warm. This definitely did not fit in with the atmosphere I was trying to create at all. Another part of the shoot that I felt was unsuccessful was the throwing powder, it was nowhere near as intense as I thought it would be, the colour was dull and it was extremely difficult to throw in the right direction and get it to turn into a cloud rather than just falling on the floor. This meant that it was very time consuming to take the images as they needed to be repeated a few times to catch the powder on the images. I also feel that the noisiness caused the images to be less effective, they aren’t overly grainy but it is something that I did not want and I feel the images have lost a small amount of clarity because of it which again I feel makes the images less effective. The last thing that I feel affected the quality of my images is the sky, in both shoots the days I had chosen were very gloomy and dark, and this affected the warmth of the images. This didn’t look to bad in the gothic images but in the festival themed images it made them look drab and dull which was not the style I was going for at all, if not the complete opposite.

If I was to recreate the twelve images that I have taken the first thing I would do differently is I would have chosen a better day to photograph on. The light and the sky was awful on the day so I would have chosen a day where the sun was shining a little more, maybe at midday rather than early in the morning or later on in the afternoon. This would have given me a warmer lighting on the subject and warmed up the images that I captured. I would have also chosen different clothing for the model in the festival style images, her clothes were wintery and didn’t give off the impression of festival in the slightest, and this was due to the first model cancelling on me twice. I would have also picked a model better suited to the style I was trying to create. I would also have not used the throwing powder and just used the smoke bombs for all twelve of the images as the throwing powder didn’t add anything to the images other than a distraction and they looked weak. Whereas the smoke bombs were powerful and added lots of colour and uniqueness to the images created. If I was to recreate these images I because of how dull the day was I would have taken some sort of external lighting with me, I could have taken my external flash or if I had access to a battery pack I could have taken my soft boxes with me. I would have preferred to use my soft boxes as they are what I am most comfortable with using. They would have added extra lighting so that I could have lowered my ISO; this would have stopped the images from being as grainy, would have added clarity and also would have brightened them up.

The last thing that I can think of that I would have changed about both the photo shoots that I carried out is I would have preferred another assistant. I always usually have an assistant with me on shoots to hold equipment like reflectors or to help with swapping lenses or getting equipment out of my bag. In these shoots because I had used the smoke bombs and throwing powder that I had not used before, it meant that my assistant needed to stand behind the subject to take control of using them. This meant I had no help with sorting out and swapping my equipment, so the shoot took a little longer and I had no one to hold reflectors so that I could change and direct the lighting onto the subject.

5.2 - Review technical and creative processes

Even though I took the photographs on two separate days I still used the exact same techniques as the time of day, the weather and the location were all the same. I used a slightly fast shutter speed for all the photos as it was quite cold outside and I didn’t have any gloves so I didn’t want to catch any camera shakes in my images. I used a wide aperture firstly because I didn’t want too much definition to the smoke or powder, but mainly because of it being a dark day I wanted to get my ISO down a far as I possibly could. My ISO was up further than I usually would have it because the lighting was so gloomy with it being winter and I chose to use completely natural lighting, this caused the pictures to be very grainy. I feel that if I had have had external lighting that this would have given me more light to be able to lower my ISO and therefore the images would have been less grainy. 

I feel that I wasn’t very adventurous with my composition or with the camera techniques in my images as I didn’t really step out of my comfort zone or try anything new in that area, but I feel this was because my concentration was on the smoke bombs and throwing powder which I had not used before. The throwing powder wasn’t very effective at all as you can see from my images the intensity was very weak and it didn’t add much at all. It was difficult to use, I had to get my assistant to spend time on the throwing powder when he could have been using a reflector to give me more light which would have been more effective for the images. The smoke bombs worked really well and added a real grungy gothic vibe to the photos, I felt the intensity was perfect and they were very easy to use and move around to get the smoke to go in the right direction. I would definitely use the smoke bombs again.

I feel I was very basic with the compositions that I used, I didn’t put much thought into my composition which I feel has show in my photos. This was because I spent so much energy into make sure the smoke looked perfect I didn’t spend anytime focused on the compositional factor of the photographs, I feel this is something that this is something that has help the images back. I did however spend more thought on the props, which I used the smoke bombs which took a lot of research and time to understand how to use them, I feel that they worked really well. 

I edited my photographs in lightroom for manipulation, for example contrast, highlights, shadows, clarity etc. I then put the images into photoshop and I edit them further with dodge and burn, liquifing and correcting areas, changing colour and adding colour. I feel that because the light on both days ways so dull I really struggled when I was editing the colour and the feel of the photographs. I wanted them to look warm but when I added yellow tones they just looked dull and yellow, this was because the sky was so grey and dull, next time I would have chosen a better day or I could have used a orange reflector to colour the light like it would have been if it had been a bright warm day.

With my first set of images, the gothic ones, I think I that the image as a whole works really well. The woods add into the gothic style as the trees are dark and the deep greens of the leaves add to the vibe, the models style was perfect from her choice of clothing to her tattoos I felt that it all tied in perfectly with the gothic theme I was going for. All this combined with the smoke bombs I felt really set the scene and told the story of what I was trying to create very well. The second set of images didn’t work as well at all. I had the perfect model with the perfect set of clothing but she cancelled the shoot on me twice so I had to get another model to take her place for me. The throwing powder had such little intensity that it didn’t add the vibrate colour that I wanted it to, the models clothing didn’t really match the style I was going for but with such little time and the other model cancelling I didn’t have much choice. The gloominess of the photos didn’t add to the style of image that I was trying to create either, I want to create a hippy light and airy style to the photos but it just didn’t work out the way I wanted it to. If I was to recreate these images again, I would wait for a better day, give myself more time to play around with them in Photoshop as I feel I could have done more with them to create the right vibe through editing and use smoke bombs rather than the throwing powder.