Shoot 2 Work Record

Date: 18th April 2016.
My aim for this shoot… 
For this shoot, I intend to capture the atmosphere of "creepy" by the use of my lighting- for example use the flash on the camera to purposely form that red-eye effect, or using a red gels on my lights to symbolise death/blood. I also aim to position my subject in a way that it makes the audience feel drawn in but scared to be so drawn in- for example her having a tilted head with a fixed gaze of the camera- holding the eye contact.

What I achieved…

For this image, I used an extended shutter speed and then got my subject to swing. As when I took the picture I used the flash, it meant the first thing I shot if more dominate- her standing. Although as she swung throughout the time of the shutter speed, it meant parts of her appear faded- her face blends in with the background light of the houses behind. I really like this effect of forming the creepy atmosphere because it appears scary. Also the way I told my subject to stand with her head tilted, makes that sinister effect. People should look at this and feel like it's a tiny bit creepy. I really like this image and believe it has worked very well in what I wanted to achieve. The camera settings I used for this image were…
Shutter speed: 8 F-stop: 4.5 and ISO: 400.
This image holds the denotation of someone just getting ready to swing and the light has interfered with the image.
However this image also holds the connotation of a sinister scene in a horror film- it's as if this is a ghost, she was once there but died so now haunts the playground.

I included this image in my straight images post although I also wanted to use it as an example of my work in this post because I feel like it is a very good way in creating that creepy atmosphere which I had originally intended for. This is because the extended shutter speed of 12 was used. This meant when I took the image, I was holding the camera for quite a while. Like the image above, I used flash, this meant that part of my image would be more dominant than the rest. This has therefore help this final result. I like this image because it's almost as if she is leaving her own body- she is mental decaying behind these bars- Or an evil is entering her body. The reason I believe this image is creepy is because it is almost as if my subject is part of a mental alyssum- trapped behind these bars. I think think this holds a creepy atmosphere because stereotypically, those who are in a place with "mental" people are normally to be seen as quite creepy- for example "American Horror Story" in season 2. The camera settings I used for this image were:

Shutter speed:12 F-stop: 4.5 and ISO:400.
This image holds the denotation of someone sat in a park holding on to the gate and the person who took the photo moved a bit.
However the connotation I intended to achieve was a creepy person lock behind bars as a safety barrier for everyone else around her.

My idea for this image was to make it seem like someone is hiding away- something if you were to look out your kitchen window to see would creep you out and force you to have to double look to double check if what you seen was real. However, I do not think this image worked as well as I had wish it to. This is because the flash from my camera covered most of the window and then in the foreground it is covered with rubbish and gardening objects which take away this creepy atmosphere and just replace it with the thought of why is this person just standing in a shed? As I would like my audience it be engaged into a creepy atmosphere, I do not believe this image does this. Therefore I do not like it. If I were to reshoot this, I would use a tripod- so I wouldn't rely on the flash and could therefore extend my shutter speed without showing too much movement. I would also make sure the foreground was emptier. The camera settings I used for this image were:

Shutter speed: 1/6 F-stop: 4.0 and ISO: 400

When my subject was in the shed, I thought it would be a good idea to show her creepy through the slit in the door- as if "She's watching you", although this is an example from this shoot which didn't work. I do not like how her whole face is seen. To me this decreases the creepiness. Even though it is still quite creepy, it isn't as creepy as my other images which I got with my subject in the shed. Another factor I don't think worked with this image was the positioning, as she was crouching down, her head was in the middle of the screen. Although for me this is too "precise" because it looks like i intended her face to be central, which I didn't. Personally, my images of her in the shed looked much better when her face was off centre much more than this. An example from this part of the shoot which I do like is also shown here. The reason I prefer this one is because it is unclear on what her whole face really looks like. I also like the shadowing which has been casted on her face because even though the door is open wider, her other half of her face is blacked out and you just can't see what she looks likes. The camera settings used for these photos were…
Shutter speed: 1/6 F-stop: 4.0 and ISO: 400.

Overall…

Overall I believe this shoot worked really well because the atmosphere of creepy is really clear in the majority of my images. These are two more examples I wanted to include in this work diary because I also think these two show how my work in this shoot shows creepy. I believe I positioned my subject/s really well in order to convey creepy. I asked them to stand straight, yet tilt their head. I really like the position in a way of creating creepy because it is the position animals such as dogs do when they are confused on what to do- these subjects may be doing this because they are supernatural and don't know what to do- other than kill- stereotypically one of the creepiest things someone feels.

Shoot 1 Work Record

Date: 18th April 2016.
 My aim for this shoot: 
For this shoot I intend to capture different ways which people encounter depression. The way I shall do this is to edit them in a way to form this mood. I also hope my use of lighting will be clear in this shoot. I will manipulate it to help build my mood, for example I hope to use a variety of gels (colours) to make my raw images appear as if they've been edited.

What I actually achieved…

I believe this image clearly shows my aim for this shoot. I have used a blue gel to manipulate the lighting and have also clearly positioned my subject in a way that her shadow can clearly be seen. My reason behind this was because shadows are emotionless, yet the subject herself is clearly showing a depressed mood. On my subject I was able through the use of manipulating makeup, to show her tear marks, yet no way would I be able to make this shadow here appear sad. I thought this was a good symbolic way of showing depression because it shows how when people are depressed, they may only show their shadowed self, not how they are actually feeling. The use of the blue colour gives it the connotation of depression because blue lighting is stereotypically used in media products to show sadness. However the denotation of this image is just someone sitting there with her shadow painted on the wall beside her. The camera setting which I used were…
1/6 shutter speed, 5.6 f-stop, ISO 1600. The reason for this is because as I were display mood, I didn't want to form that depth of field look to my images, so I had a lower f-stop. Additionally, my shutter speed was quite low because I wanted it to be quite dark, to be symbolic of the stereotypical depression, If I had a higher shutter speed it would be way too dark, if I had a lower shutter speed, due to me not having a tripod, it would have resulted in being very blurry and showing motion, which for this image, I did not want. Overall, I like this image because even though there is blue lighting, there is still natural lighting in the far back, my resin for this was to show a transition of mood, the blue (stereotypically sadden colour) is domain, although there is still some highlight in the far right, showing there is still some happiness there, it's just depression is much more dominant. This effect was achieved by only covering 3/4 of my light with the gel, leaving the rest exposed.

Much like the image above, I used the lighting to show a change, yet this time, I put my gel half over the light, I then positioned my subject so her face had the line across it- with the blue light symbolising the depression thoughts, and the white light symbolising the non-depression thoughts. This forms a half and half connotation of emotion sufferers feel through depression even though the denotation is just an image of someone with half a blue face and half a white face. I wanted this to show a use of tone in my shoot. Tone with lighting is where you can see a transition across the face, half the face highlighted, the other half shadowed, then across is the transition area. This is symbolic in the use of depression because it suggests there is conflict between herself. Half her body says one thing and the other says something else. With my subject looking crammed in the middle helped this conflicting between herself is clearer. Using the rule of thirds, I held my camera so she was as much in the middle as possible, leaving the top third blank. This is because the top bit is all blue- in this image symbolising the depressive thoughts. As this third is empty it appears the depressive thoughts are pushing down on her, she is trapped within herself and the depressive thoughts at this point is winning. My camera setting for this image; The shutter speed- 1/6, the f-stop- 5.6 and the ISO 1600. This image has the same camera settings as the one above. This is for the same reason, I wanted it to be dark but not so dark you cannot see my subject and not light enough to show lots of movement. If you focus on this image, it appears a little blurry, this is due to me hand holding my camera, although for this image I wanted a small bit of movement, this is because I believe it helps show that conflicting battle. Overall I like this image because I believe it helps show the mood of depression through the use of lighting really well.

For this image I wanted the blue on her face to be lighter than the  rest of the image, this is because otherwise I felt it would have washed out my subjects face and her crying wouldn't have been as clear. This image holds the nostalgic side of depression. It shows how people who suffer from depression can hold on to things from the past- wishing they had that back, instead of enjoying the life they are living at this time. I positioned my subject so she had her hand on the collage of images, a sign of pain- giving the connotation that she is trying to re-grab those memories. I don't really like this image compared to the rest of my photos because I believe the darkness of the blue washes out the nostalgic depression which I had aim for, this is because it is almost unclear what she is looking at. Although I wanted the blue to be this dominant to symbolise the depressive mood- it just didn't work here. I would defiantly reshoot this image by changing it so my focus is on both my subject and the photos, to me there is too much going on- too many photos, this may have worked better if she was looking at a scatter of polaroid images. My camera settings were the same for this image as well,  I just don't think it worked well in showing my purpose.

 This is a similar photo to one I had got from my test shoots, which I really liked. Although I do not think this one worked as well as it had before. This is because as my room is quite small I had to be close to her and I couldn't show that pain of depression. Here it just looks like I took a photo of my subject between shots. Depression isn't clear here. Therefore this is why I do not like this image. If I could I would reshoot this image the way I done it in my practice shoot because it worked much better then, this would mean going to my friends house. The camera setting are also the same here than there were before and much like the image above, I do not believe they worked well here. This is because this image is too dark, to solve this I would have to lower my shutter speed, but because I don't have a tripod, it would be much blurrier.

Overall...
 
Overall I believe this was a very successful shoot. I am really happy with my outcome images because I believe they show depression really well. I also believe I carefully positioned my subject so the mood which I intended was clearly conveyed. Alongside this, I think my use of lighting helped further show depression as a mood, this is because the colour blue- stereotypically used to show sadness- came across clearly in the conflicting mood people suffer with when they have the mental illness of depression. I also believe this shows my research really well. When preparing for my exam, I came across various photographers who have used the mood of depression in their work manipulating lighting and carefully positioning their subjects. For example Christian Sampson shows bipolar depression, which is where I stimulated my ideas from about showing the different sides of depression- it isn't always just sadness, lots of factors come together to form depression- nostalgia, conflict and also the hardest thing, happiness, some people with depression can also show happiness, just going from one extreme to the other.