Final Thoughts.

Now that my project is pretty much complete I wanted to evaluate what I've done and how I feel about the project.

I feel my photo shoot went really well considering have I only studied photography on one other project before I came to university.

I think the final 5 photos I have chosen to represent my interpretation of the brief work really well together. As a collective they're pretty effective in the way of making the viewer look at relationships and as I stated in a previous blog - however cheesy it may sound - they make you smile when you see the bonds the people share in the photos - and this automatically makes me feel as though I've achieved something.

Although I'm on is a Fashion course I decided to take the project as it came to me, and rather than making it obviously about fashion, with it being a photography brief and about the theme "What 'Heart' means to you," I decided to really interpret what 'Heart' actually meant to me and, in the way of emotions, covering different types of relationships and what they mean to people, I think does this. However I believe featuring the quote from Audrey Hepburn adds a really subtle Fashion edge to the project.
In terms of answering the brief set by the British Heart Foundation I think I've answered it rather successfully and I'm really proud of what I've created with the basic photography knowledge that I had.
Also being able to edit the photos and work on Photoshop allowed me to work on the skills I've been learning in my CAD sessions and develop them.

If I was to do the project again, or be given a smiliar project, I would maybe take a different approach and look at making the shoot entirely fashion related, or look at the other side of what 'Heart' meant to me in the way of the actual organ etc. Both of these I think would be effective. I would also maybe look at editing the pictures in a different way to expand on the techniques I used e.g. edit each photograph different - so maybe learn how to blend some images, or edit some in colour or different tones instead of just black & white too add variety to the photos.

However overall I'm pleased with how my project has turned out, I've enjoyed working on the brief and creating a photo shoot by myself for the first time. I've also really enjoyed working on a blog as a change to sketchbooks and I'm really happy with how the photographs have turned out!

100 words.

To accompany my photographs I have to write 100 words explaining and describing the project. The 100 words I wrote are as follows:

“The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.”                                                                                                                                                       - Audrey Hepburn

In response to the British Heart Foundations “What does ‘Heart’ mean to you?” competition I have set-up, photographed and edited a series of images.
My photographs show the different types of relationships people share.
To photograph these images I used the ‘backlight’ setting on my digital camera as it produced the most professional photographs. I then edited them on Photoshop, changing the images to black & white, and increasing the saturation and lightness, on the heart, to make the redness stand out.
During the brief I was inspired by street photographer Matt Stuart and his approach to his art.

The final mounted up piece:

I decided to keep the presentation of the 100 word statement simple as to follow the theme of how I presented the photographs. However there are subtleties to the statement to make it slightly unique:
I bought some special paper to print the words onto - it's thin and cream with gold and silver flecks throughout, as it reminded me of the texture of bark - and there's lots of trees pictures in my photographs so it links together.
I also featured 3 hearts - one having a layered 3D effect to it - again to make the statement slightly different and it also links to the theme of the project without looking too obvious I feel. 
Finally I put the title of the statement in red as a subtle reference to the theme 'red for heart' that the British Heart Foundation set and make it stand out.

I think teamed with the photographs the statement looks effective and they work together perfectly. I'm really happy with how both have turned out!!

Presentation Ideas.

As part of the project is marked on the presentation of our work I decided to try out a few different layouts of how I could present the 5 photographs I've taken to see what looks best. I've brought some A3 black mounting board (as i feel the photographs will stand out best against black rather than white - it will make the people featured in the images stand out rather than blend in) to mount the photos on but to practice I just laid them on some A3 white card I had so to not mess up the mounting board.

Here are my best 4 layout ideas which I then chose from:

Out of these 4 layout ideas I have picked the last one as the way I wanted to mount up my photographs. I think it works best as it's clean and simple, it doesn't look messy or as though the images are overlapped.
I chose to have all five images on one sheet of mounting board as I feel they work best as a collective; the images join together to almost tell a story and are stronger as one than by themselves.
I feel they look really effective together and I'm really pleased with how they have turned out in the black and white tone, and also the red heart in the background really stands out how I wanted it to.
I think the photos evoke emotions in the viewer and make you smile as you see the strong relationships these people have and that I am really pleased with - I think a photograph should always leave an effect on the person viewing it.   

This is the overall mounted up project:

I'm really happy with how it has turned out!

'Heart' Title.

To go alongside the 5 images I have picked from my photo shoot I need to present 100 words and a title explaining about my photographs. To make my work slightly more unique I feel having a quote as the title would work quite well.
Here are the most suitable quotes I've found whilst researching into this idea:

"For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it." - http://thinkexist.com/quotations/heart/3.html

"Great is the man who has not lost his childlike heart." -
http://www.great-inspirational-quotes.com/heart-quotes.html

"The best thing to hold onto in life is each other." -
Audrey Hepburn - off one of the cards I was inspired by featured earlier in my blog.

"A memory is a photograph taken by the heart." -
http://www.midnightangel308.com/heart_quote.htm


I feel for this project the Audrey Hepburn quote goes the best with what I'm trying to say through my images so I think this is the one which will feature as the title for my project.

Edited Photographs.

After selecting the best photographs from the photo shoot, I have edited them using Photoshop on the computers in the MAC suite of our building, and selected the final 5 I want to submit for this project. 
I decided to edit the photographs and put them in black and white as I felt it adds extra depth to the images; lowering the saturation of each photograph - putting them in black and white, adds a certain emotion to the images; it seems to create a more nostalgic, warming feel to the photos and I feel it defiantly works well for the mood I wanted to create with my images. The word 'Heart' in the emotional sense is very strong as I looked at in my first blog post and I think the mood I've created by using black and white represents this.

To ensure I had something in each image red - to fore fill the British Heart Foundation's brief - I kept the material heart I made - which was stuck to the bark of a tree - red. I also edited the heart on Photoshop to make it stand out more; I increased the saturation and lightness of the heart on each image, after outlining it using the 'pen' tool, to make the red stronger.

Here are the final 5 photographs I have chosen to represent my project:

To ensure some of the images were different, so when I selected my 5 they weren't all the same and a story is told through the images, I cropped some of the photographs on Photoshop to make them close up, made others into a portrait setting and cropped them too whilst others still are on a landscape setting and in their original state.
This adds a variety to the best photographs I chose and will enable further interest into the images as as a collective they all appear different yet similar in their photographic style.

Shoot.

After showing the best photographs from my photo shoot on the previous blog entry I've decided to look at areas where my shoot went slightly wrong on this entry, just to highlight areas I can work on next time I produce a shoot in a natural setting.

Firstly was working with children; throughout the majority of the shoot it was easier than expected working with the two children on the shoot, however at some points they got slightly distracted and it was a challenge getting them back into an environment where they were acting naturally as they would if i weren't there. Some examples:

Secondly was working in windy conditions; whilst the lighting and dry conditions on the shoot were perfect for the image I wanted to create in each photograph - I was really lucky in that sense - the wind was really strong on this particular day and with the women especially it created a few problems; their hair was being blown in their faces, meaning some of the shots just didn't look as professional as I wanted them to be.

Thirdly was the strength of the sun; as the shoot progressed the sun was obviously moving and at some points, as it fell between the trees, the sun was too strong and took away from the image:

However ... 

These problems only caused minor issues on the photo shoot and I was able to work around them, meaning the majority of the photographs I was really happy with!!

If i was to produce another photo shoot in this type of environment then i would maybe look at using a dark reflector when then sun became to harsh just to dull the models down slightly so it wasn't taking away from the image. Stopping the wind from being so strong isn't something I would be able to control as them conditions are natural, however it didn't create too much of a problem and working with children was, as i said a lot easier than anticipated, I would just maybe break up the time I shot them during the shoot to hopefully enable their full attention to be on the photo shoot.

I felt the shoot went really well and although these problems did occur there was no major issue during the shoot! I'm really excited to see how the best photographs I chose will turn out once I've edited them!

Photo Shoot!!

Over the weekend whilst I was at home I produced my photo shoot for this project!!

I think the photo shoot went successful! I captured 198 photographs of different relationships people have using the park bench setting I featured earlier in my blog.

I photographed 9 different relationships;
Best friends x3 - children at the age of 5, teenage girls at the age of 19 and women at the age of 45 and 46,
Lovers x2 - my grandparents aged 71 and 75 and my mother / step father aged 45 and 36,
Siblings aged 5 and 21,
Mother and Daughter, 
Father and Daughter,
Mother, Father and Daughter.
I feel I covered a wide spectrum of different types of relationships and different age ranges, giving me a vast set of photographs to choose from to represent the brief the best.

Here are the best photographs that I selected from the shoot:

I've selected these photographs from the shoot as I feel they best represent the relationships I was trying to portray in each image. They were also the most natural of the collection I shot - which was the aim of the shoot; to represent different relationships in their natural state.
I'm really pleased with how the photographs have turned out and I also like the subtle heart I have featured in each shot; being inspired by the photograph photographer Matt Stuart took I used the red heart I made (featured earlier in my blog) and attached it to the bark of a tree behind the bench - I think this works really well.

What to do now?  Now I have taken and selected the best photographs, from the photo shoot, I need to edit them on Photoshop to ensure each photograph looks as professional and effective as possible.
I also want to try and experiment with putting each image into Black and White, and then feature the material heart in red, as i think this will look effective and create more of a mood to each photograph.

Garance Dore.

After browsing through one of my favourite Fashion street photographers, Garance Dore's, online blog, I came across this photograph which she had taken in Italy on Friday. I felt it just works with my whole idea that I'm creating in this project:



Below this photograph Garance has put "Italy in Autumn, is happiness" and goes on to talk about Italy at this time of year but also how the two women in her photograph are her friends and how she gets to have fun with them on her projects.
To me this photograph represents friendship and the happiness it can give people - Garance has managed to caputure the closeness these two women share and this is what I want my photographs to capture; the close bonds that people share.

Heart.

After being inspired by the photographer Matt Stuart's image of a material heart in the middle of a street, I decided to feature some thing similar in my photo shoot, so I made a heart out of an old red jumper that I found:

I wanted the heart to feature in the background of the shoot - behind the models, to add more depth to the shoot and almost make a statement for the photographs of what the pictures are about. The heart also represents the something red in the photo shoot from the brief that the British Heart Foundation set and I feel a red heart is fitting to the theme.

Setting.

After considering the setting for my photo shoot in depth I've decided to have the shoot take place on a park bench; I feel the setting links with my idea better of portraying relationships and people in their natural states within each relationship, and the natural lighting will be easier to work with, rather than having to manipulate it if I had the shoot take place on a sofa. I just feel the setting will look less fake if in a park as the aim of my shoot is for each photograph to be natural.

After arriving home for the weekend yesterday I went out to a local park I had in mind to use for the photo shoot and took pictures. I got to experiment with different settings on my camera, to see how the park bench idea would work and which camera setting looked best:

Landscape setting: Normal / Black and white

Close up setting - Normal / Black and White / Sepia:

Backlight setting - Normal / Soft:

After looking at some of the photographs I've taken and experimented with (some examples are above) I think the 'backlight' setting works best; the pictures are a lot clearer than the other two settings I tried out and the lighting looks the best / would work with the models more so than the others - it just generally looks a lot more effective.

I also am really happy with the setting I've chosen for the photo shoot, if the weather is similar to how it was in these pictures that I took yesterday then the shoot will work really well. The bench with it's surroundings matches the natural look I want to achieve. I feel the photographs will look really effective and I'm feeling inspired / excited for the shoot!!



Imagery.

Some images I've found whilst researching on 'Google' that are inspiring my idea:

Each of the photographs illustrate different relationships people have with each other - the idea I want to achieve in my shoot, whilst all in a similar setting - a park bench which at the minute I'm considering strongly for my shoot. The images are helping me to gain further inspiration for my shoot.

People and Portrait Photography Tips.

http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-tips/portrait-photography-tips/#page=1 

Here I've found another website with some useful photography tips that I read through.

Websites like this are helpful as they have made me think of parts of the photo shoot that I hadn't really considered before hand, such as anticipating the behaviour of the models I'm using - especially as i want the shots to be as natural as possible, and predicting how the people in the relationships I'm using are going to act to ensure I capture the shot I want.

Matt Stuart.

After researching on Google for photographers who shoot people in a natural state I found a photographer named Matt Stuart. Below is a caption from his website of how he describes himself and his photography style,

"I am not sure which came first, being nosey or an interest in ‘street photography’, but a fascination with people and the way they live their lives is why I enjoy the business so much.
I can’t hide behind lights and technology, I am reliant on a small Leica camera, patience and lots of optimism. But what I get in return is the chance to make an honest picture which people know immediately is a genuine moment and which hopefully burrows deep into their memories."

Above are some images I found on his website, I've featured these particular three as i feel they fit with my theme; photographing people in their natural state, where they're comfortable. Although they don't particularly feature relationships they capture the natural element I want to achieve in my photographs and I wanted to show an example of this. Again I really like the black and white effect on the first two photographs and I feel I may use this in my photographs.

Above is another photograph taken by Matt Stuart which is featured on his website. I've chosen to feature this one as it fits perfectly with the brief; to have something red in the photograph which in turn represents what heart means to me. I just think the whole feeling to the photograph is really effective and I really like the idea of having a not so obvious heart - in red - featured in the photo. This is an image I'm really inspired by and I'm thinking of maybe incorporating something similar into my photo shoot. 

The link to Matt Stuart's website:

http://www.mattstuart.com/