WEEK 8

SHOOT 2 :

Here are the photos from my second photo shoot. I am still in the testing process so these aren't perfect and I still have things to improve on. For example the composition in a lot of them is quite off and as it's against as brick wall it can be quite obvious. This is something I can fix in Photoshop though. Another thing is the focus, which I did manually but as it was quite bright it was hard for me to see if it was in focus or not.

I also think the problem that occurred here was that the photos were taken of my close friends, which made it difficult to take serious photos of them and they weren't really concentrating. 

I tried to get something out of these photos and edited some by manipulating the backgrounds:

LAURA STEVENS:

Laura Stevens created a series about the stages of a heartbreak and came out with some touching photographs which show 'loss and renewal'. I think these are incredible ways of portraying emotions and personal feelings. I also like how she uses colour as a subtle theme throughout this series which brings life into them. 

The way she uses the models as the main subject is more of what I think I should be doing in my work for this project. She poses them in a way that tells a story and I think to portray personality and individuality I need to get my models to be more of themselves in the shoot. The first shoot I did worked well because I had my friend behind the camera talking to the model which put her at ease (and the fact she modelled when she was younger helped a lot too!). 

READING:

ANALOG TO DIGITAL: THE INDEXICAL FUNCTION OF PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGES -

• Marshall McLuhan, philosopher, 'the medium is the message', talking about media such as print, photographs and telephones. "for the 'message' of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs." 
• Digital technology is easier for editing because its all now essentially just data changing. Editing process of film however, is scanning , printing and displaying.
• 'just because a photograph is created or distributed with digital technology does not negate its indexical function as many theorists have suggested. Focusing only on the theoretical lack of indexicality in digital images ignores the social uses of analog photography that are now performed by digital images.' 
• Overall, I really liked the reading as it gave a wide, detailed insight into the difference between analog and digital photography. I personally do prefer the authentic feel to film cameras and having the photos unedited through Photoshop on the computer but I also agree that you can get a interesting look to digitally edited photographs. The way coding works really intrigues me and is fascinating process and unlike another ways can make a photograph one in a million.