Surrealism shoot 3

Equipment:

• Canon 600D
• Tripod
• Model
• Black Backdrop
• Adobe Photoshop
• Standard Light

Step 1-Camera and lighting setting

The lighting set up is very simple. I had a single standard light directly above my subject, the light generated was enough to light my subject but also create a spot light on the backdrop. My camera settings I adjusted so that my image was well exposed and in focused. My camera settings were; ISO 100 for quality and detail, Aperture f’4.5 for shallow depth of field and for exposure and my shutter speed was 1/25, this was enough for the light to hit the cameras sensor and expose the image.

Step 2- Mood and Model direction 

The mood for my photograph was in the same style as my previous surrealism shoots, I wanted to keep to this style because of the mini series I was creating in my surrealism in the studio. My model direction was for subject to be completely still and stood up straight  I didn’t want my subjects body being the main focus of this shoot instead It would be the television on the subjects head, with this it meant that my subject didn’t need to express any emotion in my shoot as his head wouldn’t be in the final photograph.

Step 3-Editing

 

My editing was to create the black and white effect that Ive had in my previous shoots, to so this I decreased the vibrance and Saturation to have the image as a black and white. I then Increased the contrasted and the clarity to really enhance the black and white, I added more detail in the image so that it creates a more realism for the viewer and more quality to the image.

To create the effect of the tv on the head, I used a found image of a television and dragged the image on to the image of my model. I had to edit the television with the same edit as the model image so that it would look  like the television was photographed on the same shoot. I then placed the television over my models head to create the effect of surrealism.

Final Image

Surrealism minimalistic idea/shoot

Following my previous work, I had an idea that I wanted to test working with my old images and creating new surreal images. I wanted to include a raining cloud in the studio with just the one light shining on it. I want to test this because if it works out ill be able to create a series out of surrealism in the studio with a more minimalistic process.

I start with this photograph of a empty studio space with just the one overhead light. I then take this into post-production to begin the surreal creation of the image.

To create the cloud in photoshop I acquired a brush template that generates clouds.

For the rain, I did the same process but with a different brush template.

I then added in rain splashing on the studio floor. I used a found image to this effect because it would be a safety risk to pour water of the flood in the studio.

I placed the splashing rain on the bottom half of the image where the floor is in the image. I then set it to overlay so that it blends into the black backdrop creating a realistic effect.

This is the final outcome. For me, this is a sleeker and more professional take on surrealism in photoshop. Its minimalistic and creates an illusion for the viewer, which ive always wanted for my images. With this success I want to create a mini-series from this type of work in the studio but instead of a cloud using different props/images to create these minimalistic surrealism images.

 

Surrealism Shoot

Equipment:

• Canon 600D
• Tripod
• Studio
• White backdrop
• Stool
• Adobe Photoshop

 

Step 1- Lighting and camera setting

I wanted to start off by photographing myself in the studio with the lighting being as bright as possible. I wanted this because I wanted it to be easier to be able to crop myself out of the image, and with the lighting and white backdrop, it makes the process easier. I used normal fitted lights in the studio as this provided enough exposure on the subject. My camera settings are the same throughout the shoot. My iso was 100 for more detail, my shutter speed was set to 1/60 so that the exposure wasn’t over or underexposed. Lastly, my aperture was set to f.5.6, this allowed my image to be in focus because of the shallow depth of field and it opened up the aperture to allow enough light into the sensor.

Step 2- Mood and Model direction 

The mood for the photograph was for the subject to be expressionless so that the viewer couldn’t determine what the subject was feeling. I wanted this effect because of the fact that the photograph its self isn’t about the subject but the idea of surrealism and dream-like reality. The model direction changed as I had a few ideas for the shoot. I had the model sit on a stool so that I could photoshop the model so it looked like he was sitting on something. Secondly, I had the model pretend to be asleep and the other to appear to be floating. This was for the idea of showing the reality of lucid dreaming in photographic form.

Step 3-Editing.

The editing process was the main process in this shoot. It was here that I was able to create the surreal world I had imagined. I used found Images to create the background and props for the shoot.

Ive placed the screenshot in order so that its show what I did step by step. The post-production process was a lengthy task but the end image came out better than I expected it.

Final Image

The meaning behind this image was to show that people have control over their dreams via the ‘Brain’ and I tried to portray this in my image. I used the sea to show that the brain was ‘flying’ as a visual aid to show that people can control their dreams. The model lighting wasn’t what I wanted in the end as in the image the viewer can blatantly see that It is photoshopped.

The end result was what I was expecting because I was able to create a surreal image showing the meaning of controlling dreams.

The concept of space in the studio shoot

Equipment:

• Canon 600D
• Tripod
• Softbox
• Standard lighting
• Stool
• Table
• Back backdrop
• Mirror

Step 1- Lighting and camera setting

As said previously in my planning, I went into this shoot with just a base idea of using the ‘space’ around the image to start with. With my lighting, I decided to start with a softbox, but later ran into the problem that the light flooded the image, but I only wanted the lighting to be direct to one place. I then switched to the standard lighting head, this allowed for me to create a more direct light. For my camera settings, I used 100 iso so that I could get more quality and information in my image. I used an aperture of f5.6 I used this because I needed to match the lighting along with wanting more light in the image. I tested several shutter speeds but ultimately settled for a shutter speed of 1/50.

Step 2- Mood and model direction. 

The mood I wanted for this shoot was a dark, sinister feel to the photographs, but also I wanted a selection of images to have colour to be able to show the viewer the behind the scenes of the shoot. To create the mood, in post-production I edited my images and converted them into black and white, to create the dark, sinister feel. The model direction was simple as I only had a few images with a model. I wanted the model to just be seen as an object of the sort, to not show emotion, which then adds to the sinister feel of the images. 

 

Step 3-Editing

For the post-production, I wanted to add the dark and sinister feel of the images to life by creating a black and white image. I desaturated the image and added high contrasted to really emphasise the difference between the black and whites and so that there aren’t any greys to avoid the image to look flat. I also increased the whites, this really was vital because the image didn’t have much white and it was too dark so I increased the whites to make the lighting a vital subject to it would draw the viewers gaze towards it. I kept this post-production the same for all of my images except the colour images, which I didn’t edit.

For one of my images, I created the illusion that the stool was floating. To do this I took two photographs, one was of the background, the second was the stool on a table. I took these images into post-production and started with the image of the background. I then opened the image of the stool on the table and layered it over the background image. I then used the eraser tool to erase the table leaving only the table. Thanks to the background image being behind the stool image, it created the illusion that the stool was floating.

Final Images

Abstract Portrait- shoot

Equipment:

• Canon 600D
• 50mm Canon portrait lens 1.8mm
• Tripod
• Softbox
• Studio
• Adobe Photoshop

Step 1-Lighting and camera settings

The first part of my shoot was focusing on getting the correct lighting and camera settings. I started by setting up a softbox just above my camera so the light was directly facing the subject. This allowed all parts of the subjects face to be exposed, with few harsh shadows. I chose a softbox because I wanted to expose the whole face and I wanted soft light instead of a harsh light. For my camera settings, I set my iso to 100 because I wanted the best quality for my images. My shutter speed was set to 1/30, I did test shots to figure out which shutter speed was best suited and 1/30 was the one I needed. My aperture was set to f2.8. I wanted a shallow depth of field, shallow enough for the eyes to be in focus and shallow enough so that the nose was in focus as well.

Step 2-Mood and model direction

I wanted the mood of my subject to be expressionless. To create my abstract portrait I needed a deadpan expression without emotion so that It would be a serious portrait. I wanted the subject to look directly at the lens so that when the viewer looks at the images it would seem the subject will be looking at them too, creating a connection between them.

Step 3-Editing

With most of my photographs, I wanted to create a harsh contrast portrait. To get this I opened my images into Adobe Photoshop and Desaturated and took the vibrancy out of the image, this gave the black and white effect. I also needed to increase the contrast. I increased the clarity to increase the difference between the blacks and whites. I slightly increased the exposure because It was slightly underexposed. I also wanted my portraits to have crisp detail in them. For this, I increased the detail slides to really emphasise the detail of the image.

I then took sections from my images such as; nose, lips, eyes, head and ears and merged them to create an abstract image made from different portraits.

Final Images

For my final images, I created different kinds of abstract portraits so that I have a variety of images from this shoot. I distorted one of my final images so that it because less of a portrait and makes the viewer question the image.  The final images produced was what I wanted from this shoot, however, If I was to do this shoot again I would have different models and create a range of different abstract portraits, instead of just the one subject. I would also use a different lighting so that the subject would be more exposed to a harsher lighting, this would then not make my images as flat. The post-production was a vital part of my shoot because it really allowed me to play around and create this abstract images and give detail to them, it also vastly enhanced the contrast of the portraits.