shoot 3

shoot 3

For this shoot, I am going to create images in the style of Fred Eerdekens. To do this I am going to bend wire into the shape of different words and then photograph them against a backdrop. I will most likely use a torch to project their shadow onto the card, which should then reveal the word in the wire. I aim to create around 4-6 different words.

Research influence

For this shoot, my artist was Fred Eerdekens. He is a visual artist born in 1951, who studied sculpture and graphic art at provincial higher institute of art and architecture in Hasselt. He later became a professor at the MAD Academy, but then suffered a serious injury in a car accident which stopped his career for four years. He now continues to work as an artist and creates interesting pieces in various different galleries around the world.

Below are some examples of his work

In this photo, the piece of wire says ‘a question you never asked yourself’. This piece was probably made to provoke thought in the viewer of what their question could be. This could also be to make people look at things from a different perspective and think about what they could be missing. The way that this is presented in the shape of the wire could be an example of when you look at somethings shadow instead of the object itself, the different perspective could show you something you may have missed.

In this photo, the wire says, ‘everything in life is a metaphor for everything else’. This is a very blunt and disillusioned way of looking at the world. It gives the impression that things in life are not what they appear to be. This could be describing what people say or thing. What people say, could just be a metaphor for what they actually mean, but don’t say. I like this because it highlights societies view on saying what you really think feel and how people rarely do it.

contact sheets

images that require improvement

I chose this photo because the photo itself is blurred and out of focus. The composition is also an issue as you cant see the rest of the wire on the word ‘cloaks’. If I were to retake this photo, I would change the framing of the camera and try to include the whole words. I would also make sure the camera is in focus and completely still.

refining my photos

When editing the photos for this shoot, I wanted to erase the blue tack I used to support the wire. To do this I firstly used the eye dropper tool to find the right colour, and then used the paint brush tool to cover the blue tack. I then used the spot healing brush to return some of the texture from the background and blend in the painted area. I then used the eye dropper tool and brush again to fill in the shadow that was lost so that the editing was less noticeable. I then increased the brightness and contrast so that the shadow stood out more than the wire.

final outcomes

Evaluation

Things that went well in this shoot were, the wire was easy to bend and shape into words. The editing wasn’t as easy but after trying different things like using different layers and tools, I found an effective way to edit out a certain part of a photo and minimise the changes made to the rest of the photo. This helped me develop my Photoshop skills, which should help with shoots in the future.

During this shoot, the light was difficult to use because it had a very narrow beam, which meant I had to concentrate on holding the torch in exactly the right position, otherwise you would be able to see a curve in the light where the edge of the beam shows. This meant that some of the photos were blurred or framed poorly because my attention was more on the position of the light rather than the camera.

However, if I were to do this shoot again, I would use colour more, as it adds warmth to the photo. I could experiment with different coloured backgrounds and words, maybe find quotes that relate to my theme more or possibly make different shapes of objects with the wire. Id also like to try a different light source, such as a lamp, as it has a more yellow light instead of the harsh white light from a torch.

Progression

  For my next shoot, I would like to look at another artist called Tomas Maly. he changed the shadow of a knight from a chess board, into a rearing horse. This is something id like to experiment with because I really like the idea and would like to use the editing skills I learned from previous shoots to create interesting pieces.