Evaluation

For this assignment I was set the task of exploring three different studio techniques, High Key, Low Key and Still Life. While carrying out these techniques I was also set the task of conveying identity through the images. 

I needed to have shown indepth research and practice in all techniques but only need to present two at the end. These images had to be printed A3 or larger. 

My aim way to document an artist. I wanted to get an artist into the studio and document them producing a whole piece of work from scratch. I was unsure on the artist that I wanted to document, I weighed up the positives and negatives of different artistic mediums and the ways in which their work could be captured. At first I was very keen to document a graffiti artist, I thought the idea of the artist producing their work directly onto the white backdrop would be really interesting and new. I hadn't seen anyone do this before. 
After weighing up all the different art forms I decided to just see who wanted to be photographed. I sent out a few facebook statuses on various student facebook pages to attract some attention. I received a varied array of artist, painters, illustrators etc. but then I got a text from a friend asking if I wanted to document here producing a henna piece. 
I instantly knew that was the right art form and that it would be really interesting to photograph and to view. I really thought that Henna would be a good choice as it not only looks interesting but it holds meaning which would tie in my identity really well. Henna relates to identity is many different ways. Firstly looking at the body modification aspect where people are altering their appearance with another's artwork, secondly looking at the artist who is expressing themselves and producing a body of work and finally looking at the identity henna holds.  

At first I was sure that I wanted to do Low Key and Still Life as my two final images. I was totally against High Key but then as my research developed I realised that once the henna piece had been done it would be silly to photograph it in High Key as the work on 'Joy of Henna' proved. High Key, especially once desaturated is the perfect way of really drawing out all of the tiny details within the piece and quieting down everything else in the image, forcing the viewer to really focus on the artwork. 

I still experimented and researched into still life, actually using inspiration that I found in 16th century still lifes while considering what sort of lighting I wanted for my Low Key images. I really loved the rich, deep, moody lighting that was used in this period and I thought it would resonate well with the contours of the materials and their colour pallet.

I had a strong idea of what I wanted my Low key image to look like, I lay down three bright and busy throws to bring relevance to the artwork and also to complement the artist clothing. I had done two practice shoots and the lighting had worked out perfectly but upon the actual shoot things didn't go exactly to plan. The angles I had wanted to take wouldn't work in the way I wanted them to. The images I had been taking didn't take into account the work and the artists arm. So I had to improvise, I started producing work from a bird's eye view using a ladder to get above the model and artist. These images came out really well and were actually better than my initial ideas for the shoot. 

After producing the Low Key images I them produced the High Key. I had earlier that week done a practice shoot so I was quite proficient with the set up and light settings meaning there were very still mistakes.

For my final Low Key image I chose one of the images I had taken from a bird's eye view. I really enjoyed these shots as they gave you a brilliant visual of not only the artwork but the contrasting throws that I had laid down. This shot also fits the two models in perfectly. I then heightened the vibrancy and saturation to bright out the beautiful tones in the throws and the artist clothing, but kept the lighting relatively low to stick with the technique.

For my final High Key image I used a strong full body shot of the model just after the henna had been finished. The image featured no shadow and had equal amounts of space on both sides. I then desaturated the shot and raised the contrast to give the artwork a real punch. 

Overall I am happy with the outcome of this assignment but I think I could have managed my time better. I spent too much time focusing on a different assignment and let the work load pile up from this one. Although I am happy with the theme and the images that I have produced I think they could have been better and more thoroughly thought out if I had managed my time better. 

I will learn from this assignment and will not let things like this happen again.