work record 2

shoot 2- dancing shadows

for this shoot, i asked a friend to pose in front of a white background. i used a halogen bulb with a reflector as lighting for this shoot as i needed a strong light to cast a visible shadow on the backdrop behind her. i aimed to get around 4-5 good photos from this shoot.

research influence

the inspiration behind this shoot was Russ and Reyn. these are two photographers who have been working together since 2007 and have produced work used in the fashion and creative industry. their work consists of the use of shadows in clever ways to create different scenes.



in this photo there is a lady who looks as though she is cowering/running shadow hand looming over her. the hand in this photo could represent the modern patriarchy or something she fears. the way that the hand is looming over her could be a metaphor for the way that women have been oppressed and treated as objects rather than people in the past.

similar to the photo above, when taking this photo, the photographer probably used a halogen bulb attached to a reflector. the hand in this photo would have been projected by holding the hand i front of the light source and far away from the backdrop.

in this photo, there is a woman who looks as though she is holding onto a shadow hand. this hand could represent many different things, including a person, feeling, object etc. however, this hand could also just be a giant hand with no alternative meaning. it depends on how the viewer interprets it. i like this image because it is a simple concept. but is highly effective as a unique and interesting image.

to produce this photo, it is likely that the photographers used a strong light source such as a halogen bulb with a reflector to create a wider spread of light. to project the giant hand, they would've held the hand close to the light source and far from the backdrop to make it appear larger. the create the illusion of the lady holding onto it, she probably jumped as the photo was being taken so that it captured her in mid air.

contact sheets

For this shoot, I had originally chosen to take photos of the shadow when Sam was in different still poses. This included using props such as a wine glass and a bowler hat. As the shoot went on, we were listening to upbeat music, and Sam started dancing. The shapes that the shadow created were quite interesting so I decided to include Sam in motion as well as posing with various props in the shoot.

Photos that require improvement

This photo requires improvement because the shadow behind Sam isn’t visible, which defeats the objective of the shoot, which was to capture the shadow of Sam. To improve this photo if I were to take it again, I would make sure that the shadow is clearly visible. This could be by changing the angle I take it from or positioning the light differently so that Sam's shadow is projected on the backdrop behind her.

This photo requires improvement because the room isn’t dark enough for the shadow to show, causing it to be too faint. Also, because of the light coming from multiple angles, there are two shadows overlapping each other which makes the outline less distinct. If I were to take this photo again, I would make the room completely dark, and then set up a modelling light and reflector which would give me a strong and wide beam of light.

best images from the shoot

I chose these photos because the shadows in them are clear and they give the impression of who’s casting them. The ones that stand out most from the shoot are the photos where she is dancing because they show her in motion and they reflect the different moves she is making in each frame at different points. I think the choice to show someone in motion made the shoot more interesting as it gives the photos a sense of movement that draws in the eye of the viewer.

refining my images

When editing these photos, I wanted to make the shadow stand out more, and darken the features of sam so that the viewer focused more on the shadow. To start, I opened the raw file and erased the dust particles that had shown up from the lens. Then I converted the file to black and white to enhance the dark shadow on a light background. Then I flattened the image and used the burn tool to darken sam and the shadow. I did the same for all of my edits because it achieved the image that I wanted to create.

final images

Evaluation

overall, I think the shoot went well, I achieved my plans that I had for this shoot and I am please with my final images. One of the things that went especially well with this shoot was the capture of movement when Sam was dancing to the music in the background. The angle that some of the photos were taken at meant that Sam and her shadow look like they're in different poses. I like this because it looks like they're dancing together instead of Sam dancing on her own.

 If I were to change anything about this shoot, I would probably want to try it with a stronger light source so that the shadow is even bolder and clearer. I would also want to try and find a way to link the shoot more to the research influence. This could be by using two models and asking one to interact with the shadow of the other, similar to how Russ and Reyn showed a model interacting with a giant shadow hand.

Progression

For my next shoot, id like to look at another artist that experiments with shadows and investigate the techniques they use in their work. Id like to look at Fred Erdekens, who uses wire to create words that show in the shadow when a light is shone on it at a specific angle.