Interim Feedback and Evaluation
In my interim presentation, I displayed all the work I have created so far and my ideas and plans for the next step of the project. At first I suggested that I would move outside with my studio images, trying to connect the people to the landscape. This was due to my previous project focusing on landscape images and has made me realise how interested I am in location portraiture and the connection between the subject and place they are shot in. However, this may not have been the right comment and way forward for this project as the studio images are actually quite successful. Shawn suggested that I would have to really consider location, framing, depth of field and if there was too much in the frame on location then it would distract from the hair as the focus. This I agree with, and for the reason that I do not want to distract away from the hair, I will continue to stay in the studio shooting these images.
In terms of the studio lighting, what was suggested was that the lighting felt a little too harsh, and maybe that was why I wasn't feeling it to be successful. I agree with this comment too, as it feels as though the dark background gives a sombre effect to the images, and I don't want this emotion to be connected to the images, they are not supposed to provoke sadness, but more be quite structured, standardised images that show an index/study of hair and hairstyles. From this feedback, I am going to continue using studio lighting as the control of the light allows more room for creativity with these images, and allows me to compose these images, but I will look into using neutral backgrounds and less harsh light, playing around a little more with my studio skills until I find the correct lighting style. I felt this after my final previous shoots and am glad I have used this time to try out one style, using chiaroscuro lighting and now I will move onto another, exploring a different way of lighting.
Regarding a different lighting style, both Shawn and Nick stated that the work was looking quite advertising-like in composition and suggested that I look into using this lighting to my advantage, using advertising lighting to light the still life images, along with the portraits. The idea behind this comes from a comment that I made, stating that when people see the still life images of hair, they look and say "wow that is so gross yet so beautiful". An interesting comment that relates back to my initial idea that once hair is off ones head it is seen as disgusting and dirty, however in my images, I have made it into something beautiful, using studio lighting and composition. I think I am going to use this to my advantage, and start to use advertising lighting as if to sell this hair, just like adverts selling hair products, but I am going to make the hair look beautiful, even once off the head, as a bit of irony within the work. I'm also going to use this advertising lighting style to shoot still lives of the products we use to construct our hair, looking at AJM, Amber Morghan, whose work looks at quite playful advertising lighting, trying to sell the objects within the images in a quirky way. For these images I will have to be very meticulous in constructing, positioning and framing. This may be something quite difficult for me to do as, even though I am quite an organised person, I am not great with considering every single tiny detail. However, I have time to look into this and can continue it on for the next project if the initial shoots are successful.
For the portrait images, I will use the same lighting style as the still life ones, so they all work together, but as suggested in the interim feedback session, I need to consider the images as 'standardised samples'. I commented saying that I wanted to create the portraits so they all looked the same, however both tutors commented on the fact that each person was wearing different clothes, was framed differently and was even looking in different directions. After seeing this myself, I realised that I needed to be more meticulous for these images too, looking at composition and clothing to create them all the same, as if the only thing that changed from image to image was the hair. To do this, I am going to get the exact lighting style perfected and then dress each person I shoot in the same shirt, probably white or a very neutral colour, so that they all look the same. I am going to look into Bettina Von Zwehl's work too as it looks at standardised portraits, where she models wearing the same thing in the same surroundings over and over to create a body of work thats all very similar, expect for one thing changing constantly in the frame.
Overall, the work created so far has been really successful, but more of testing and playing around with different ideas, rather than creating final perfect images. This second half of the project should be where I create more composed and thought out images, and I will probably continue this throughout next term due to timing and how large this project really could be.
In terms of the studio lighting, what was suggested was that the lighting felt a little too harsh, and maybe that was why I wasn't feeling it to be successful. I agree with this comment too, as it feels as though the dark background gives a sombre effect to the images, and I don't want this emotion to be connected to the images, they are not supposed to provoke sadness, but more be quite structured, standardised images that show an index/study of hair and hairstyles. From this feedback, I am going to continue using studio lighting as the control of the light allows more room for creativity with these images, and allows me to compose these images, but I will look into using neutral backgrounds and less harsh light, playing around a little more with my studio skills until I find the correct lighting style. I felt this after my final previous shoots and am glad I have used this time to try out one style, using chiaroscuro lighting and now I will move onto another, exploring a different way of lighting.
Regarding a different lighting style, both Shawn and Nick stated that the work was looking quite advertising-like in composition and suggested that I look into using this lighting to my advantage, using advertising lighting to light the still life images, along with the portraits. The idea behind this comes from a comment that I made, stating that when people see the still life images of hair, they look and say "wow that is so gross yet so beautiful". An interesting comment that relates back to my initial idea that once hair is off ones head it is seen as disgusting and dirty, however in my images, I have made it into something beautiful, using studio lighting and composition. I think I am going to use this to my advantage, and start to use advertising lighting as if to sell this hair, just like adverts selling hair products, but I am going to make the hair look beautiful, even once off the head, as a bit of irony within the work. I'm also going to use this advertising lighting style to shoot still lives of the products we use to construct our hair, looking at AJM, Amber Morghan, whose work looks at quite playful advertising lighting, trying to sell the objects within the images in a quirky way. For these images I will have to be very meticulous in constructing, positioning and framing. This may be something quite difficult for me to do as, even though I am quite an organised person, I am not great with considering every single tiny detail. However, I have time to look into this and can continue it on for the next project if the initial shoots are successful.
For the portrait images, I will use the same lighting style as the still life ones, so they all work together, but as suggested in the interim feedback session, I need to consider the images as 'standardised samples'. I commented saying that I wanted to create the portraits so they all looked the same, however both tutors commented on the fact that each person was wearing different clothes, was framed differently and was even looking in different directions. After seeing this myself, I realised that I needed to be more meticulous for these images too, looking at composition and clothing to create them all the same, as if the only thing that changed from image to image was the hair. To do this, I am going to get the exact lighting style perfected and then dress each person I shoot in the same shirt, probably white or a very neutral colour, so that they all look the same. I am going to look into Bettina Von Zwehl's work too as it looks at standardised portraits, where she models wearing the same thing in the same surroundings over and over to create a body of work thats all very similar, expect for one thing changing constantly in the frame.
Overall, the work created so far has been really successful, but more of testing and playing around with different ideas, rather than creating final perfect images. This second half of the project should be where I create more composed and thought out images, and I will probably continue this throughout next term due to timing and how large this project really could be.