Connecting Essay 2

Following on from my previous shoot, I decided to look at light writing and how I could be creative but follow the same style in other photographers I have researched. The following photograph from Lani Young, is one in a portfolio she took where she would use torches, lighters and glowsticks outside to show off the creativity of light. I feel as though in this image she did that well, she simply got her model to sit on a bench in the middle of a dark location and kept a long exposure on the image. After pressing the shutter, she then went and wrote his name behind him. There is a number of reasons why I like this image and why it stood out for me than the others. Firstly, this image features a model. Many of the images that I have looked for in light writing is just the writing in an unimaginable location. Although this is only a park bench, I feel like it makes the photo more intriguing by simply placing someone in the centre. I also like the composition, the model doesn't take up too much of the frame and therefore there is enough space for his name to be wrote. Finally, I also like the idea as a whole. Many of the other images was just writing, or drawing with a number of illuminable products. However, this photograph has meaning, and is so simple, yet effective.

Internet - Lani Young

The following image I took comes from a range of different images of my classmates. When I was researching different ideas from light writing and what I could do with my images, I saw a photograph in which there was a variety of buildings and locations. On these images, the photographer had wrote using a torch the name of the location summarised. In my image, I decided to get my class mates to sit on a stall in the studio. By using my camera on a tripod, I did a long exposure. To begin with, the flash went off and I then had the image of my person. I then had 15 seconds to go round the back of the model and write there name back to front. The reason I decided to do it all in one image as appose to taking the image of my model and then placing the text over the top was too improve my camera skills. Before researching, I didn't know I could previously do this on my camera. It also means that I can see on the spot whether it would work, instead of going back onto photoshop and trying to place the text behind the model. I made sure that all of my images looked similar, while making my model duck down so that it looked like the text was appearing over their face.

Own Image

There is a strong connection between my image and the internet image that I have found. The biggest one, is the layout, in which we both feature a model and then text above it highlighting their name. The composition is similar in both of the images, however, my image is closer up to the model and the writing was smaller. There is also a big difference between both of our images, the first is that the internet image by Lani Young was taken on location. This meant that the on location image had more going on in it as the background contrasted the model and the writing. The lighting in my image was also more focused on the model, whereas in the location image it has been focused on both the light and the background to show where they are. I chose to make my image in the studio as I didn't have access to many resources should I have done it on location. I would have had to perform it at night which would have been a lot harder, whereas the studio was dark enough anyways.