Distorted Reflections

Final Pieces

Electronic Portfolio

Overall Project Evaluation

During my topic, I chose the starting point of Evidence. Initially, I chose to look at weather. The reason I thought of doing weather was because I figured there would be endless possibilities as to what I could do in my project. I thought that I could associate anything with weather. Then, with careful consideration, I figured that actually the weather starting point would not have been the best idea for me. This is because; weather is the only starting point out of the 5 which I was not able to control. Reflecting on the topic as a whole now, I understand that I made the right choice in not doing weather as through most of the project, we were faced with gloomy grey days. Although it can be seen as ironic that on the day of the exam, we had one of the nicest days weather of the year. Next, I looked at starting on creative use of light. I thought that this would have been the best topic for me to start on as I feel like I am a creative person and I could've done a lot with light. As I have my own camera and tripod, I wouldn't have been restricted on doing work at college and I could've shot at home at different times of the day. Again, I rethought about my ideas and felt like I didn't want to do enough with light for it to be my starting point. I did want to include light in my project, along with the weather, and figured the only way I could choose a range of topics was by choosing Evidence. Now, after completing my projects and doing over 10 shoots from the Evidence starting point, I know that this was definitely the right choice for me. I was not ever restricted as to where I could go and I incorporated a lot of different themes in my work. 

Following on from the practice shoots that I did, I had already taken pictures of weather and nature. Therefore, I had the knowledge and the reflection on what I could do. I then had chosen Evidence, and decided to look at evidence of light. This involved me going out to a wooded area on a sunny day and capturing the effect that light had on buildings, reflections and nature. I took several images from the shoot that I like including one in which there are a number of shadows from the trees over a classmate. I like this image as the shadows are clearly from the trees. I already had the knowledge from the first unit and I was able to apply different techniques in Photoshop, which I had learned, from the first topic. I also took another image from that shoot which involved a strong reflection being present on one of the buildings around my college. This brought me on to my next shot where I decided to move on and look at the different buildings and manmade objects. This shoot involved me focusing more on the reflections of different buildings and looked at buildings and architecture. 

In the third shoot, I decided to base my work on the formal element of reflection. I chose to do this as I had looked partly at reflections from the other images that I had previously taken. This was a formal element that I had enjoyed from unit 1 and therefore I wanted to explore it in further detail. Reflection was one of my favourite parts of photography as you can do so much with them. Reflections are found on nearly anything, and can be easily manipulated. In this shoot, I decided to look at natural reflections to widen my understanding before I made my own. This shoot also went well as one of my favourite images from the units was where the reflection showed more than the real version did. In the fourth shoot, I looked at manipulating and distorting my own reflections. I feel as though this was one of my most creative images, as I placed my model in front of the mirror and altered the reflection. For example, in the mirror, we can see her pushing up her hair and posing. However, in the real image she is applying lipstick. I did this with several people, however it did not always go to plan as sometimes the model would cover the mirror and therefore it was near on impossible for me to alter the reflection in it. 

After doing my shoot with Megan, I wanted to adapt reflection to try and get it to fit into light. I looked at the different ways in which I could make this possible, and one was by looking at reflections in a different way, and placing it into a different context. I looked at how reflections could be associated with the reflection in eyes, and researched how other photographers had embarked on eyes in their work. As I also wanted to look at light, I decided to take pictures of glow sticks. Initially, I wasn't sure if it was going to work. Then, I came up with the idea of placing them in the centre of people’s eyes. I took several images of eyes, controlling the light each time to ensure it was visible and there was no shadows. Initially, it was hard as I didn't follow the shape of the eye and just took pictures of glow sticks. Then, I realised that to make it fit it would be best for me to make these glow sticks circular to follow the layout of the eye. Now that I had included light into my topic, I thought that I would have some fun with it. I had already studied a photographer who focused on light writing, and wanted to make my work look like herself. Therefore in the next shoot, it was easy for me to include this into my work. In this shoot, I took images of people and then slowed down the shutter speed so that I could go behind them and write their name. 

During the seventh shoot, I took glow sticks and placed them into bottles of water. The reason I did this was because I wanted to explore more of the light topic and I had seen images on the Internet. One thing that differed for me was the way that I had to use smaller glow sticks as appose to the larger ones, which were commonly used on the Internet. However, to combat this I used a lot smaller ones, which emitted the same amount of light. I like this shoot as I used a black background and I feel like my images came out well. After this, to progress, I looked at other things that I could do with water. One of these was by dropping ink or food colouring into them; I captured these on a high-speed camera in which I held down the shutter to get these images of the impact they had on the water. This shoot was by far my favourite out of the unit because it was the most fun and I feel like the images I got out of it were the best. 

Finally, in my last two shoots I decided to go back to the reflection aspect of my unit and went to two different cities. In the first, I went to London at night and looked at the way that the city lit up. I thought this shoot was successful, and I got some great photographs from it. However, I feel like I didn't explore the architecture as much as I could have and therefore decided to return in my exam. My 5-hour exam was also successful for me, as I took over 200 images and had enough time to edit my favourites. I made a photo joiner with the experience I had from the first unit for the Gherkin, which I also think was successful. I was also lucky enough to go to Paris in the Easter holidays, and therefore used this experience to take a number of different images of iconic landmarks and experience a new culture. Overall, I feel as though my unit was a success as all of my shoots followed on from one another and I learned a lot of new techniques, including how to transform buildings and follow the inspiration of other photographers I have studied. 

Connecting Essay 5

The first image is one that I found from the internet when looking at ways I could show reflection in my photography. I bought a range of different ideas I had together and found images after that were similar to mine. Selective colour in the eye stands out to me as the rest of the image is in black and white. They have brightened the outside of the eye, while the top corner is nearly in complete darkness. This draws the audiences attention to the pupil of the eye. The reflection in the pupil has been edited so that ita ppears as though there is a person crawling inside and trying to escape. This may convey many different meanings and emotions to the audience. Each viewer may interpret the inside of the eye differently, and leads them to ask there own questions as to what it means. The way that they have performed it makes it appear as if they are inside the eye and are pressed against it trying to escape. There is a lot of tone and texture in the image, although it is also clear that the other parts of the eye have been softened so that the pupil is the main focus. Although everything is still in focus, the hairs of the eyelashes stand out. The colour in the pupil is also not very strong, conforming to the dark emotions that are emitted from the image.

Internet Image

In my own image, I merged two different pictures together on photoshop. I took one image from my light shoot, in which the sun is seen shining through the trees. Then, when in the studio I came up with the idea of putting different scenes into pupils of peoples eyes. Initially, it took along time until I got the right image as many didn't look realistic and took the effect of the eye away. In the below image, I think it stands out to me as the sun inside the eye shines through directly in the centre, reenacting a pupil. I chose not to put the rest of the image in black and white as although I feel it would make the pupil stand out, I like the use of colour as I am not trying to convey a negative emotion. The image would have a different feeling should it be in black and white, however, I wish I did put one image in black and white to see how they contrasted from one another. I also didn't use soft focus in my image, I felt like the eye was beautiful and therefore it wouldn't have been as sharp should it have been in soft focus. I chose to zoom in and make the eye close up, from straight on, as it meant that it was looking directly into the audience who was looking at it. 

Own Image 

In both the internet image and my image, the main connection is the theme explored. I came up with this idea with no inspiration from the internet, I took two different ideas and placed them together. Both of my image and the internet image also contrast in different ways. The internet image has kept its colour in the eye, placing the hands over the top and blurring out the background. I chose not to do this, but to get rid of all the colour in the eye and replace it with the setting. The use of placing the image in black and white means that there is a deeper tone and makes the image suit the hand crawling outside of the eye. If the image was in colour, it would not have made the pupil of the eye stand out as much. There is a selective colour in the Internet image, to enhance it. However, I didn't choose to do this in my image and now looking at it, I wish I edited it so that the pupil stood out more as a result of this.

Connecting Essay 4

In this first image that I found online, we can see a clear distorted reflection. The first thing that the viewers eyes are drawn too is the eaten apple core. We see this through the use of composition and lighting. There was a strong light presence on the apple core, and it is much brighter than the other parts of the frame. The lighting is shown through the lightest parts on the mahogany and on the light apple. In contrast to this, the audience is then drawn to the reflection in the mirror. As we can see from this image, there is a huge contrast between the eaten apple in the image, and the full apple in the mirror. I feel like this image was extremely creative and I have looked at other images like this, but that featured a range of different ideas. One of the reasons I like this image so much is through the juxtaposition between the two images, which perfectly display a distorted reflection. There is a big light source, which creates shadows and highlights the two main objects in the image. 

Internet Image

In my own image, I had the previous knowledge of distorted reflections which were natural. However, it was then time for me to create my own distorted reflections which were manmade. I did this by placing Megan in front of a mirror, I then got her too pull a variety of different poses. Some of them were very similar and therefore it was much harder for me to make it clear to the viewer that the pose she is pulling differs from real life to the reflection. In the final set of images, I had Megan applying makeup such as putting on mascara and pushing up her hair. However, the hardest challenge for me was ensuring that the mirror was never covered by Megan's body. The image below in which Megan is looking into the mirror, took a lot of thought and consideration as I needed to make it clear that there was a juxtaposition. I chose two poses, which were not at all the same. The first, you can clearly see her applying lipstick, with both of her hands down. Secondly, when in the mirror, she is pushing up her hair and not applying anything to her face. The lighting and composition in the room was also a big part of the image as we needed to make sure that she was positioned enough to see her both fully and see a clear juxtaposition.

Own Image

 The key connection in both of my image and the internet image is the difference in the real life state and the reflection. Although the composition of the images is different and the subject, they are both based on the same topic, which is to show how a reflection can be altered. Both of the images were done through editing software, which involves placing an altered reflection in the mirror while keeping the real image the same. I chose to do my image differently to the one involving the apple which placed the real image on the image. I think this worked better in mine due to the layout of the room that I was shooting in and the angles in which my model was posing. In the first image, there is also more directional light which encourages the viewer to look directly at the apple and highlights through the image in the reflection. To conclude, the main connection between the images is that the theme is the same which explores the idea that reflections can be manipulated and each person has there own idea as to what they see in the mirror. 

Connecting Essay 3

In this image, the photographer used a technique to show the movement formal element. The technique the photographer used is called motion blur, in which the streaking of fast moving objects is shown in the image. This is done through putting the camera on a tripod so it is completely still, then, when an object moves, you can capture the streaks of light. In this image, the photographer used two iconic landmarks to exhibit the location of the photograph. By using a telephone box and a London bus, it is clear that the photograph was taken in London. This is key as it allows the audience to relate to the picture as they can see where it is set. The strongest formal element used is movement, as we can see the bus moving quickly along the road through the blurred image and opacity. The composition and angle of this image is strong in this image, as the telephone box is situated in front of the bus therefore it can be seen in its entirety. This is helpful as if it was taken on the other side of the road then you wouldn't have got the telephone box in the side of the photograph. I also think that the lighting and the time in which this photograph was taken plays a big part in the impact it has. It would not have been the same effect if it was light outside, as it wouldn't have had the bright coloured lights. 

Internet Image

In contrast, the following image is one that I took when I went to London. In this image, it is clear that I also used the technique of motion blurring, in order to capture the formal element movement. The use of the London Bus was a lot clearer in this image than in other ones which I took. I thought it would be better if I used a larger object, as appose to light streaks from cars. The reason I like this image so much is because I left it on a much longer timer than in others, therefore you still get the streaks of light from other cars that went past. I took this image at night, however, there was a lot of light pollution around where I took this image therefore it doesn't appear as dark. This is because I took the image outside Piccadilly Circus, in which the lights are so powerful that the sky doesn't appear black. The composition of this image was done so that we could see the background was still, this ensured that there was a clear contrast as to what the movement was.

Own Image

There is a connection between my image and the internet image through the use of the technique 'motion blur'. This technique occurs when the photographers places the camera on a tripod or any other steady fixture, and placing the camera into a longer shutter speed. This means that the moving objects are able to blur, cause light streaks if they're cars, and pursue the impression of it moving. The best way to do this, is to show the background which will remain still and in focus. I feel like both our images differ in a number of ways too, for example. The first image in which I found online shows off the London Telephone Box which is an iconic association that people would make with the city. This then sets off the location of the photograph and will allow people to relate it to the city. In my image, there is a strong presence of the colour red as it takes up most of the frame. However, other than the red bus, there is nothing which instigates that this is set in London. This is an approach which I would hope to make more clear if I was to go back and reenact this photograph.