Website

I already built my website in second year an d so when I get some money next term I intend to buy a domain name and a hosting space.
I've already looked at domain names and found that www.tomlloydphoto.co.uk is free, so I will purchase it next term.



From this screen shot I think it's clear that it needs updating to look a little more modern and with the times. Also I want to make the site bigger and include more sections for each series of work that I have done.

Portfolio review

As part of Unit 303 I have had my portfolio reviewed by professional photographer Dinu Li. He and I had a one on one tutorial in which we looked through my ongoing digital portfolio and then discussed the work I was doing at the time (Vermeer brief).

We first looked at some of the work I had in my portfolio, which was a short series from my second year.

He commented on how the images need to flow more as a series, that firstly they needed to be all the same size within the portfolio so as to have consistency, and secondly that they should have a common theme running through them, so as not to look like a random set of photographs. I agree that they should all be the same size, and initially I thought that they did have a common theme running through them, with the woman in the gown, however on further reflection I now agree with Dinu, as they don’t seem to go anywhere as a series, and there isn’t really a narrative within them. I have since chosen to take them out of my portfolio.

From there we moved on to looking at the Vermeer brief which I was working on at the time, and discussed two of my images from it.

Looking at them he stated that they had some potential and that my idea of showing part of a greater narrative was interesting, however I needed to expand on this idea, and improve my technical skills such as my lighting. I think that this is a fair point on the images, and I agree that the lighting isn’t quite correct, but I am slightly unsure as to what he meant by expanding on my ideas.

What was interesting is that he seemed more fascinated with some other images for the Vermeer brief that I had chosen not to use.

He told me that he particularly liked the composition within these images, and that the use of negative space worked very well. He thought that I could really go somewhere with them if I simply thought a little more about what was going on in the frame. He picked up on that I was trying to show a bizarre situation, something that was part of a bigger narrative, and he offered suggestions such as having boxes piled as high as the roof, and having the person looking around bewildered.

Even though I was still planning not to go on with those images, it was really useful to get some constructive and positive criticism back from Dinu. Just to know that my ideas were interesting and that I had used composition and negative space to good effect was very reassuring.

Conclusion/Evaluation

After a long haul, and a lot of deliberation and changes I have finally reached the conclusion of my project. I have really struggled with this brief, and initially I found it very difficult to find a theme that I could base my work on. I had a lot of loose ideas to begin with, and when i finally got to shooting it really helped and I was able to progress with my ideas and develop.

When it came to shooting, I liked doing the earlier images I did of the silhouettes and the trees, as it was quite challenging to set everything up, find the right location and get what I wanted. Even when my ideas changed to what they are now, the spotlighting images, I actually really enjoyed doing them. It was quite challenging to figure out ways in which to get the lighting, composition and exposures right, and it was very rewarding when I finally got the outcomes I wanted.

There are certain aspects to the work I would change if I could go back, and I would certainly get shooting a lot earlier in the brief. Instead of deliberating over loose idea for a few week, I should have just jumped straight in.
I think that this could be a good starting point for a much bigger project, and I could perhaps move it on to look at people's reactions in more varied situations, not just a dark room.

Final image choices

So finally, after a lot of shooting and a lot of changing of ideas I have edited down to my fianl selection of six images. It was a quite a difficult process to decide which ones I wanted to include, and I spent a good few hours looking through them all to see which ones worked best. As I sated previously I thought it was going to be difficult to make them flow cohesivley as a series, due to the fact the positioning of the model was different in every frame. However I managed to overcome this, because as the background was black I could cut around the head and shoulders and move it to anywhere in the frame I wanted, then simply fill in the void that I had moved them from. I did this so the series had a constant flowing throughout, and I chose to have three of the people on the left hand side looking to the right, and the other three vise-versa. I think this works quite well, and when I saw the print outs of them all together, it really helped to just focus on the persons face and their reaction.








I like that the light changes slightly throughout the series, as it gives each person and their emotional reaction a distinctive look and feel. Also when editing these six images in their RAW formats, I chose to lower the temperature of them slightly, making them appear more blue and more cold. I did this as way to make the audience feel unnerved by the images.





I think that even though most of the people's reactions to the darkness are the same, there a subtle differences in them that really help them stand out. Some of them appear more scared, while others are more curious to what is happening, and some even appear confident of the situation.





All in all I am pleased with the outcome of the series as a whole, and I think that they flow really nicely and really capture the reactions of the people to the darkness.

Shoot nine

For my ninth shoot I managed to get hold of three models for the time that I had the fashion studio, whic was quite lucky. I arranged for them to all come at ten minute intervals, which left me enough time to get the images I wanted



This was the first model I used didn't seem to be too uncomfortable with the situation he was in. However I quite liked this, and the way he seemed confident with his surroundings. It should work well in the series, as it shows variation on the reactions.




The second model I used, helped me produce possibly my faourite image so far. Just look at the image below, and his reaction to hs situation; he looks really uncomfortable and worried.






I managed to get quite a lot of shots of my third model which was useful, because it will give me more options when I come to edit down my final selection.


Although with the photograph below, his coat is in the shot I will be able to darken it up to compensate. It was an error by me and I should have intstructed him to wear a dark top, but that could be interfering too much with the situation.

Shoot eight

I did my eighth shoot today, and got hold of two models for this one, and it went to plan I feel.
It was difficult while shooting because a lot of the time the model moves, and as my shutter speed needed to be on 1 second, only a small selection of the images are sharp enough and useable. However the ones that are work well, and can be used.



I quite like the positioning of his below, as he seems bewildered by something up high and to the side. It is interesting, but I think I still prefer the image below that one.





These images are of another model, one that I again origianlly used and liked the look of.




I think that there is a genuine fear and apprehension on his face which I really like. It is realistic in saying that he is uncomfortable with his dark surroundings.



I have thought that when I am putting my final images into a series, I need to make them flow nicely. A problem is that the people I have photographed so far are positioned in all different places within the frames, and there is not much consistency. I will have to give this some more thought when I have shot everything and see them all together.

Shoot seven

For my next shoot, I wanted to go back and use a model that I had used previously, because I liked the results I was getting with her.
Again I set the shoot up the same in the fashion studio, and I was shooting on a D200 on f4.0 at 1 second.




My model kept fairly still whilst I was shooting, but this worked well for me as I liked the position she was in within the frame.
The only directon that I gave to her was to not look into the light, which was also where the camera was, so as to have the reaction of her looking into the darkness.





I think that either one of these two images can work as a final in my series, and they will just need some editing in photoshop. For example on the image below the pink bra wwill need to be cloned out, as it is too distracting. Also on both of them the spotlight will need to be taken out, and turned to black so that the foucs is entirley of the reaction and facial expressions.

Sixth shoot

This shoot is the first attempt with my new ideas in mind.
The shoot itself really didn't go well, and due to a combination of me not being focused, and the model not looking right for what I wanted, the images have failed.


I couldn't manage to get any of the images sharp, and I am going to have to try again with new models.
Hoever something good to take from it is that I was managing to get a good amount of light on the face which came from me having the torch beam more in frame as you can see below. The blue spotlight can be edited out in post production later.

Refining my ideas and technical approach

After doing my last two shoots, the group crits and look at Warhol, I have defined my ideas somewhat more.
I've realized that when I have been shooting, I have been directing my models too much, and the images are too contrived and do not have enough realism. On taking influence from Warhol I am going to simply observe people's reactions to things, which in the case of my work is the dark. So instead of positioning the person in front of the camera, telling them how to look and then photographing them I will change my approach. I am going to use the fashion studio so that only I have full access to the room, and then make it pitch black. From there I am going to lead my models in one by one, stand them in front of the camera and proceed to shine the torch and photograph them. By doing this I will get their honest reaction to the situation, whether that be fear, anxiety, confusion or anything else.

Technically this is going to be difficult to do, and so I have made some changes from the last time I shot. I have bought a new and more powerful torch, which I will attatch to a tripod to keep it steadier than it would be in my hand. I've also realized than I will need the brightest part of the torch in the frame to give enough light to my model. In the past I was worried that the glare from it would look bad, but I am now just going to edit it out in photoshop.

Andy Warhol

I recently remembered the work of Andy Warhol. and his film 'Sleep', where he filmed a man sleeping for 6 hours. That is all the film consists of, it simply observes the man as he sleeps, his facial and body expressions.
I find this fascinating, and I can certainly relate to it with my work in the way my photographs observe people's fears and anxieties when confronted with darkness.





I am really quite captivated with this films, and I find it quite interesting to just observe what the people's facial expressions are.




Again Warhol did something simlar in another film, but this time he filmed for 35 minutes the reaction of a man receiving oral sex, which is seen in the still below.

Here, Warhol has really invaded a private space, and observed someone at a very intimate time. By doing this he is clearly able to get the raw reaction from the man, it is honest and completley open.




The still below is of a film where a man is eating for 45 minutes.



It is the honesty in Warhol's images that I particualrly like. The way he simply observes peoples reactions to various things that they are doing.
This is certainly something that I want to experiment with.

Second group crits

In the second group crit that I had earlier today, I took in my latest work of the illuminated faces. I showed everyone a selection of about ten images from across the two shoots and I was given feedback.
There seemed to be a general liking to my idea. and particularly with a couple of the images, people said that they sensed the fear and discomfort of the model in the shot. This seemed good, and gave me confidence that I was going in the right direction.
One of the things that Dave and Sarah picked up on were that the technical aspects to the images were not quite right. They told me that the images were too dark, and that I needed to get my exposures better. I tend to agree with them on this, and even though I want the images to be quite dark in appearence, I should shoot them at the correct exposure initially and edit them later in photoshop. I will certainly have to get a more powerful torch now so that I can have more light in my images.

Fifth shoot

For my next shoot I again used the exact same set up as before, in the still life studio, photographed on a D200 and set at f4.0 at 1.5 seconds.



One of the problems I found with this shoot and with the last was that keeping my images fully sharp was difficult. I didn't want to increase my ISO because it would make the images too grainy and noisy, and so I needed my model to keep really still, which at times was difficult.

Once again I tried a variety of positions and angles of both the camera and of the torch, and I feel that overall these images look a little better than the ones previous.






The photograph in particular I really like. I think the right amount of body has been left in shot; just the top of the neck. This was aided by that fact he was wearing a dark t-shirt, which is something to bear in mind for the future.
Again it is the same for the image below, but this time the facial expression works very well. There is a clear show of fear on his face and a real sense that he is looking around in the dark for something that has caught his attention.



Something that I need to consider is getting a more powerful torch so that I can better expose the faces of my models. However I will need to look carefully for one that has a blue tint like the one already have, as the blue gives a really great cold look, that I think adds to the feeling of the images.

Fourth shoot

I finally got round to doing my new shoot the other day, and I got some really interesting results.
I chose to set up in the still life studio in college, so that I had a large amount of room to work with, and I cleared a big section so that all the camera was pointing at was the black wall. I set up my camera a few feet away from the wall and did a few test shots, to get my exposures right before my model arrived.

I was shooting on f4.0 at 1.5 seconds.




I shot a multitude of images, and by just moving my camera around slightly I could position my models face is different places in the frame. I also got her to look around in different directions, whilst I told her to look uncomfortable and anxious.
In some of the images she looks more exposed that others, and that's because the epicentre of the torch was more directly on her face.





I think the images certainly have a spooky feel to them, and you can see the expression on her face is one of discomfort. I think it would leave the viewer wondering what she is looking at.



With this one above I chose to crop her out of the frame almost entirely, and just to have her eyes in shot and looking upwards to create tension within the image.



I don't like this one so much as the light surrounding her is too distracting and it draws you away from what I wanted to focus on; the facial expression.
I suppose that in post production on photoshop I could get rid of this and darken the background.



Although this photograph isn't what I'm looking for due the face being out of view, I still quite like how the shoulders are in shot, as it seems to make the person seem more real.



Although there are some issues with these shots, I think that they are a very good starting for me. I need to experiment a little more, and perhaps look to see how I can get more out of my model, more reaction and expression. I am going to try and shoot again in a few days with a new model, so I will see how it goes then.

Experimenting

I got hold of a small torch and last night I quickly had a play around with lighting things and photographing them.
It was surprisingly difficult and was very hard to see what I was shooting. For most of the time I had to just rely on luck and see what I got.



I did a few just lighting up objects at first, but I then moved on and used a test model.



I was shooting on about f4.0 with a shutter speed of 2 or 3 seconds and I was barley getting any light. When I was photographing with a model I had to avoid directly pointing the torch at them as it gave a really bright glare, and instead I had to have the bright spot of the torch just out of the frame, and the outer rim of light illuminating the person.



Although the images are dark I do really like the way they look; quite scary and yet mysterious.
These are just some little test shots, but they have given me an insight into how to proceed when I do my next shoot, and I need to figure out how to get more light and how to direct it better.