After collecting inspiration from several areas such as Pinterest, previous work from this project and work from existing artists. I decided I wanted to go with a fairytale theme. A personal favourite of mine is Alice in Wonderland. I chose to capture my interpretation of Alice in Wonderland as my final idea. My narrative is based around Alice herself in a mad hatters tea party style set.
I researched a few artists, my main influence was Joel Robinson. He creates fairytale style images with subtle editing. I like his use of depth of field, it creates lots of texture and definition to the photographs.
I knew I wanted a forest location in my final images. I found the perfect backdrop in my local area, Hurn forest in Dorset. In order for me to practice photography here. I decided to do a Red Riding Hood shoot with one model, using it as a test shoot to assess wether I would need a Ranger pack lighting kit. On evaluation of the photos I decided I did not need to use studio lighting my final imagery as I liked the way the ambient light was naturally diffused.
When preparing for my final shoot I chose to experiment with a range of techniques such as scanner art and lomography. I really enjoyed scanner art and it is something I have used in my final images. I also loved trying lomography, the idea of simple camera controls and being able to let your creativity flow made a nice change. I used a fisheye camera with distorts the image, capturing a wide angle.
I have expanded my photoshop skill set and knowledge by incorporating illustration, both hand drawn and digital, into my work. I have built my confidence by using various photoshop layers and experimented with blending and painting modes. Scanner art is something I really liked the appearance of and have used a lot in my final prints. As well as the scanner art I learnt about layer masks like reveal all and used a combination of the paintbrush and eraser tools to “paste” my model into the book. In another image I have added liquid to a teacup and changed the texture by using the plastic wrap filter. I have also built on basic skills such as changing hues, saturation and clarity to add to the surreal feel of my photography.
For my final shoot I decided to make my main image a self portrait. Self portraits are something I had never attempted before but really wanted to try and perfect. As I was both the model and photographer I had two assistants, one to help with styling and positioning and one to assist with the technical side such as checking I was in focus, composition of the shots and to make sure the shutter fired. My final shoot took place in the same location as my test shoot, Hurn forest, so I knew the location well and did not take too long to set up the shoot. I sourced all the props for the shoot myself and stayed within budget. It was strange modelling and slightly stressful at times but I enjoyed learning how to do self portrait shoots and working with assistants for the first time.
I encountered very few technical difficulties. My main issue was sending my images to print. I flattened, sized and changed the colour profile ready for print with vary little difficulty. However when I collected my images from the print lab they appeared to have been squashed and stretched. I wanted to rectify this and re print them to appear the same as they did on my computer screen. We think the issue may have occurred because I hadn't flattened all of the images in Photoshop. I found the original photoshop files, flattened them, resized them and saved them ready to print. Unfortunately I could not find one of the files which meant I had to start editing the image again from scratch. Although this was not ideal I think it helped as a got to practice one of the most complicated edits I have done. I checked all my images were the same size (12x8) and printed them again and I am now happy with how they have come out.
I am very happy with the images I have produced and I think they fit my concept and theme well. I have improved my photoshop skills greatly and am very pleased with myself. Surrealism and heavy manipulation is something that is very out of my comfort zone and completely different to my usual style but i think i have adapted well. If I were to do anything differently I would explore more initial ideas before narrowing down for my final shoot. Overall I am very pleased with my ideas, images and project in general and have enjoyed expanding my editing knowledge.