Grace Smeeth Exam Unit “Low Light”

GCSE Photography: Exam Project (Spring Term)

This term in GCSE Photography you will: ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖

Generate ideas through mind maps and statements of intent Justify your choice of starting point stating your reasoning for choosing this theme Develop critical understanding/photographic terminology whilst researching/analysing the work of photographers Build photographic skills through replication and reenactment of photographers processes or outcomes Understand/demonstrate intermediate levels of photo editing processes Plan and prepare photography shoots and document this in your digital portfolio Investigate appropriate references and sources connected to your chosen starting point Effectively develop initial ideas and concepts through rigorous tests and experiments Create a meaningful personal response linking to your chosen starting point Exhibit final outcome and reflect on audience impact

In your practical exam, you will have 10 hours to create a final outcome(s) responding to your chosen Starting Point.

Expressions

Face h, Hars , d l Bo n a Cle

Portraiture

Bold

Shape

Colour

My initial responses…

Com po

Tone

Portraiture

Black and White

Mist Warm, Cool

siti on

Sources I am interested in…

Dark, Light

Rule of thirds Lighting

Clear

Magazines

Formal Elements

Lighting

Focus Shadowing, Shading

Bright, Vibrant

Backstory

Off centered Harsh Outline

Enhanced shadowing

Eerie

Dramatic, Bold, Sharp.

Photographers/ Artists

“Low Light”

Gregory Crewdson

Lindsay Adler

Shaping

Edward Hopper Backstory

I will be referring back to some of the light painting shoots I did.

Key words from my exam paper… How this title links back to my previous work as a photographer…

Cloudy

Dark Grunge

Using high detailed focussing which links back to the first project I did.

Possibly outlining someone's side profile with light? I will be focussing on portraiture which links back to my most recent project.

Landscapes

Sunny Weather Conditions

Natural Artificial

Subtle

Stormy Black and White

Colour Harsh

Street Dramatic Illegal Scenes effect Light conditions Suspicious

Statement of Intent. I have selected the starting point of ‘Low Light’ because I am interested in refining my use of shutter speed and light painting, I have already had some experience of light painting from one of my previous projects earlier in my photography course, however I want to revisit this topic so I can improve my low lighting photography as well as having a new take on how I take my Images and the meaning behind them. I am also interested in exploring the use of editing more by altering light into my images to further enhance the low lighting compared to the brightness of the light.

The subjects I wish to focus on are Portraiture and People Scenes because I intend to create an image that has a narrative and tells a story to the audience, whether the story is explicitly or implicitly presented through the image. This links to some of Gregory Crewdson's images that tell a story in some way but the story is up to your own interpretation. These will link to my starting point because I will use low lighting to enhance the emotion within the image, such as sadness, loneliness and fear.

I intend to explore and refine my use of Shutter Speed and Focus I will do this because I want my images to look as though they are highly focused but also have light painting through the image, this would be achieved by utilising the Shutter speed and light off of a torch to create a low light image with artificial light in amongst and around the face/ facial features within the image.

I will revisit the work of Lindsay Adler and Gregory Crewdson because their two very different styles of photography will broaden my view on whether I will want to take images more like Crewdson’s or if I want to take portraits like Adler’s that have over exaggerated expression within the image. This will help to enrich my project because I can test and trial the different styles and incorporate them into my final piece. I intend to communicate the ideas/emotions of loneliness and sadness through my photographic final outcome as I feel that low lighting is typically the mood of the setting where someone would be if they were feeling lonely or sad. My aim for my artwork is to effectively create the illusion of someone upset within my image, this would possibly make the audience feel slightly uncomfortable and intrigued as to why the person within the image is hysterically crying. I want my artwork to connect and communicate with an audience because I feel that during Covid-19 everyone felt a sense of loneliness and that mental health became a big thing to a lot of people and some people are still heavily affected by it even 2-3 years on. The emotion I want my audience to feel is empathy for others who suffer with mental health and/ or anxiety of being around others. I anticipate my main challenge will be effectively portraying my ideas through my photography work I know this because in my previous photography work using low lightning I found it quite difficult to take images in low lighting that are focussed but also use light painting in some way. I intend to solve this by trialling different settings on my camera to determine what would be the best ISO, Shutter speed, Aperture and Resolution to use.

Lindsay Adler - Photographer Research. Who is Lindsay Adler? Lindsay Adler was born on the 17th of September in 1985. She is an American beauty and fashion photographer who specialises in portraiture photography. She is based in New York, Manhattan and has many editorials appear in magazines such as Elle, InStyle and Professional Photographer.

What her images include: Her ‘Low Light’ images include high contrast and silhouettes that create more definition to the models face. There is also a lot of use of composition with the shapes that shape the light being projected onto the models face, this creates the images to look more asymmetrical.

Why I chose to research this Photographer. I chose to research this photographer because I love the way her low light images include the formal element of shape and also high contrast between the light and dark of her images.

Photo analysis Composition The composition of this image uses the rule of thirds. The composition of the square shaped lighting is on a slanted angle so it creates that asymmetrical looking shape.

Focal point The focal point of this image is the part of the models face that is brightened by the lighting as there is a contrast that draws the attention of the audience.

Angle/ perspective The angle this photo was taken at is slightly below eye level as the models face is slightly above the centre of the image.

Formal elements The formal element within this image is shape as the lighting being projected onto the models face is in the shape of a square. However it is arguable that the formal element of this image could equally be form as it shows the form of the models features from the neck up.

Lighting The lighting in this image is very bold and harsh so you can see the silhouettes/ shadowing which further highlights certain areas of the models profile. This image also uses a very faint vignette to create a round feel to the image further highlighting the sharp square looking projection of light.

How I created the light to form a square shape.

Cut out square in cardboard.

Shine light through hole.

Adjust size of hole shape according to how much the light is projecting through.

Contact sheet

In my images I think that they don’t resemble the original image I tried to recreate, however this is something I can improve on throughout this project by making the shape much smaller so the light is much more refined.

Contact sheet 2.

My retaken images look more like the original image rather than the first set of images as the light is more prominent and projected to look somewhat more like the shape.

Photo edits 1) First I brightened the image because it was too dark in the areas that I wanted to be dark but not so dark that you couldn’t see the features in the image that are not the focal point/ not in the forefront of the image.

2) Then I converted the image to black and white through adding a filter onto the image. When converting the image to black and white I adjusted the tones in colour to make the image a more cool tone to the image.

3) Finally I digitally reduced the noise of the image as the photo looked extremely grainy and pixelated. Reducing the noise made the image look more refined and of a higher quality.

Contact sheet 3.

I found that projecting the light onto the models face with a projector made the shape of light more prominent and even more like the original image.

I also tried out different shapes as projections onto the models face to create my own spin on Lindsay Adler's style of imagery.

Photo edits

1) First I brightened the image and added contrast to make it look more high contrast once converted to black and white.

2) Then I converted the image to black and white so it would resemble Lindsay Adler’s images in some form.

Gregory Crewdson - Photographer research 2. Who is Gregory Crewdson? Gregory Crewdson is an American Photographer born on the 26th of September in 1962 in Brooklyn, New York. Many of his photographs include ‘elaborately staged scenes of small town American life’ quote from International Center of Photography. Crewdson stated the he is ‘interested in is that moment of transcendence, where one is transported into another place, into a perfect, still world.’ - This perfectly sums up what his images look like as they have a very surreal feeling to them.

What his images include. His images include staged scenes of almost unrealistic occurrences, these look quite surreal and almost creepy to the audiences viewing his imagery. His photos also include the theme of ‘Low Light’ as many of his images are taken in dim lighting to add a more of an atmosphere to them.

Why I chose to research this photographer. I chose to research this photographer as I really like how the style of his photography juxtaposes my first photographer and I can eventually combine the two styles to make an overly exaggerated portraiture image.

Photo analysis - Gregory Crewdson. Composition The composition of this image uses the rule of thirds as there is something in every third of the image. Focal Point I don't think that there is a specific focal point to the image as everything is in focus. Angle/ Perspective The angle this image is taken from is at eye level and from further away from the scene.

Formal Elements The formal element in this image is composition, this is because the image uses the rule of thirds and also has a very centered composition.

Lighting The lighting in this image is somewhat low lighting as the outside is dark however there is some areas of dim lighting creating an eerie feeling to the image.

Contact Sheet.

Photo edits 1)

First i brightened the image slightly as the lighting was so low that the image looks grainy.

2)

Then I added the flowers onto the image, however I ended up changing how they look later on.

3)

Lastly I reduced the noise of the image to deal with the problem that it looked too grainy.

Outcome.

After editing this image, I realised that the flowers were too small and needed to be much larger and higher up on the image. I added the flowers onto the image through layering Gregory Crewdson’s image onto my own then deleting the parts of the image that I had already recreated.

Artist Research 3 - Andrew Rae. Who is Andrew Rae? Andrew Rae is a well known illustrator who illustrates any ordinary scenario into a weird and wonderful one. He has worked as an art director on the award winning BBC animation Monkey Dust. He has also published many books with his illustrations in.

Why I chose to research this artist? What his images include: His images that I’ve chosen to look at include unrealistic drawings ascending out of a mobile device into a person's face, this links to the aspect of media through my project.

I chose to research this artist because his images of the different things coming out of the phones links to my statement of intent about the feeling of isolation and how social media can make someone feel more isolated.

Photo analysis/ response plan for images taken outside of school. Composition The composition of this image is centered, however there are elements to the image that make it look as though it uses the rule of odds.

Formal Elements In my opinion the formal element within this image is colour as the worms moving outward of the phone are of all different colours which contrast to the models dark clothing.

Focal Point The focal point of this image are the colourful worms coming out of the phone towards the models face.

Angle/ Perspective This image was taken at eye level to the model and has captured the waist up meaning that there is a little space at the top of the image.

Lighting This image has been taken in daylight, however in my attempt to recreate it I will be using ‘Low Light’ to link back to my chosen title.

Contact sheet. Images to edit/ respond to photo that I analysed.

Images to possibly edit face with face mask onto.

Photo Edits. 1) First I brightened the image because it was too dark in the areas that I wanted to be dark but not so dark that you couldn’t see the features in the image that are not the focal point/ not in the forefront of the image.

2) Then I reduced the noise of the image to make it look less fuzzy and overly pixelated. This means the the image looks of a higher quality and looks as though it has a high resolution.

3) Finally I added the image I analysed on one of my previous slides on top of this image and then erased the background except from the worms.

Comparison.

Lindsay Adler

Combining my photographers styles Lighting:

Lighting:

The lighting in this image is very bold and harsh so you can see the silhouettes/ shadowing which further highlights certain areas of the models profile. This image also uses a very faint vignette to create a round feel to the image further highlighting the sharp square looking projection of light.

The lighting in this image is somewhat low lighting as the outside is dark however there is some areas of dim lighting creating an eerie feeling to the image.

Gregory Crewdson

Features I would include:

Features I would include:

The features from this style of image is the bold projection of light and also the high detailed focus the image has.

The features from this style of image is the usage of props such as the flowers, I would also try to include the mood/ emotion that’s overly dramatised in this image.

Contact sheet of combining photographer 1 and 2.

Edits

This image is a combination between Gregory Crewdson and Lindsay Adler’s Work.

In this image I used the lasso tool in Pixlr to delete the background behind the model in the image. I then selected the background layer and added the image of the flowers that Gregory Crewdson used in his Image. I enlarged the image of the flowers to make them look bigger and more bold.

Lastly, I added a vignette to the image to create a shadow gradient effect to the image.

Contact sheet of combining photographer 1 and 2.

Edits

When editing this image, I carried out multiple test and trials to figure out whether I wanted to use double exposure or if I wanted to edit the image like I did in the previous combining photographers work/ styles.

In this image I almost inverted the original to create the flowers to be projected onto the model’s face. I chose this image as my favourite out of the three I had experimented with as I thought that it looked more interesting and also makes the mood of the image seem more mysterious and whimsical. This image uses a double exposure that I added to the image digitally, I then almost inverted the image to create the flower imagery to appear through the light projection onto the model’s face.

Contact Sheet of Images taken outside of school.

Edits. 1)

4)

2)

3)

6) 5)

Edits

7)

8)

I think the most successful element of this image is the use of lighting as I have purposefully chosen to use lighting that juxtaposes the light coming from the phone in the models hand. I think that the most unsuccessful element of this image is the editing, because there are some aspects of the image that don't look quite right. For example the sky in the background of this image looks as though it is a shade of green, this looks unnatural and obvious to the audience that it has been edited to a different tone. Next time, to improve I would edit the image more naturally so the sky in the background doesn’t look as surreal, I would also attempt to improve manually double exposing the flowers on top of the first image so they are brighter and more visible to the audience.

Image of model crying wearing a face mask, Edited onto screen of laptop.

One eye of model with a light projection on it, other eye has glow in dark paint dribbling down face, representing tears.

Light projection on one side of face Illuminating one eye.

Possibly edit water flooding out of laptop screen to link back to Andrew Rae.

‘Low Light’

Final outcome ideas

Use bright screen of Laptop/ IPad etc.

Low lighting with projection on face.

Link back to Lindsay Adler and Andrew Rae.

Initial Ideas for development Laptop/ Mobile device

Loneliness

Props Face Mask, Symbolises Covid Lockdown/ Isolation/ Suffocation. Glow in the dark face paint, symbolise tears/ crying.

eye level height

Link back to Statement of Intent

Mood/ emotion

Camera settings / method / perspective.

Isolation

Low Aperture, F5.6 - F7.1

Portrait

Depression

Auto ISO Shutter Speed, 1/30 - 1/130

Shoulders and head/face in frame

Sadness

T E S T S H O O T 1

T E S T S H O O T 1

T E S T S H O O T 1

1)

2)

3)

4)

Ultimately I think the most successful part of my image is the use of the light projection as it as it contrasts with the darkness of the image. I think that the most unsuccessful part of this image is the manually edited vibrance of the face mask, it looks almost too cartoonish because of how much I edited the vibrance. To make this image more successful I would probably tone down the vibrance of the face mask ever so slightly.

1)

2)

I think the most successful part of my image is how i utilised the projector to project the word “ISOLATION” onto the model’s face, this further links to my statement of intent and my chosen theme/ mood of isolation and loneliness. Ultimately I think that the most unsuccessful part of this image it the alignment of the projection, as you can not see the model’s eye and you also cannot see the full word so next time I would make the text slightly smaller and higher up.

T E S T S H O O T 1

1)

2)

3)

1)

2)

3)

Image 1

Image 2 Image 1: In this image I think that the most successful part is the contrast between the light projection and the dark image behind. Composition - off centered Formal Elements- line Lighting - double exposure

Image 2: In this image I think that the most successful part is the layering of the two images as I made sure that the eye and eyebrow were perfectly aligned so it didn't look as though there were two eyes/eyebrows on one side of the models face. Composition- off centered Focal point - not specific focal point Lighting - double exposure

T E S T S H O O T 2

T E S T S H O O T 2

1) 4)

2)

3)

5)

I think the most successful part of my image is the digitally added double exposure. This is successful as the image doesn’t look overly edited like it would have done if I were to have used the lasso tool and deleted the background of the second image (image of the model) this was evidently more time efficient also. However the most unsuccessful part of the image would be the composition as the laptop looks slightly slanted and uncentered. I would improve this by using the grid view on my camera, this would ensure that my image was perfectly centered and straightly aligned.

How to improve on image mind map.

T E S T S H O O T 3

1)

3)

2)

4)

6) 5)

Image 1

I think that the most successful part of image 1 is how I used double exposure to combine 3 separate photographs. Most successful part of image 2 is how I took a separate image of the computer and used double exposure behind it to make it look as though the light is coming from the screen. Most unsuccessful part of image 1 is the noise that is visible on the computer. Most unsuccessful part of image 2 is how the computer almost looks slightly out of place as it is a different tone/ brightness to the rest of the image.

Image 2

Final Plan for Low Light Photography My final outcome will link to my chosen starting point of Low Light through the use of a dramatic projection of light piece. Timings: Hour 1: Annotations throughout whole portfolio/ highlight key words.

from a projector with a blackout background. This will create a Low Light image that is highly contrasted and overly dramatic.

Hour 2: Organise/ prep any props, costume, settings.

My final plan links to the photographers and artists I have investigated through the dramatic lighting, overly dramatised expressions and the use of mobile devices. The dramatic lighting aspect links to Lindsay Adler’s images through the high contrasting lighting. The overly dramatic expression links to Gregory Crewdson through the dramatised aspect of his images. The use of mobile devices links to Andrew Rae as in his art work he utilises mobile devices to portray his ideas of media etc. All of these aspects combined will create a series of images that link to the theme of ‘Isolation’ which is what I’m trying to present throughout these images.

Hour 3: Take Low Light images/ portrait images to double expose. Hour 4: Upload, select and edit images. Hour 5: Take extra photographs/ further develop images.

Hour 6: Upload, select and edit images. Hour 7: Further edit images and annotate. Hour 8: Final photo upload and annotation. Hour 9: Final reflection. Hour 10: Improvements to portfolio.

Though my final outcome, my intentions that I have previously stated in my Statement of Intent will be presented by the use of lighting projecting bold lettering onto the models face, whilst the model is acting out facial expressions that could be linked with the word sadness and/or isolation. This image would then be double exposed by another image of a mobile device to make it look as though the device is projecting the words onto the model’s face. In evidence of this, hopefully I will be able to photograph and digitally edit/ manipulate a series of 3 images that effectively present my creative intent of wanting to portray the idea of isolation. I have identified through my tests and experiments that using a manually edited double exposure to add the mobile devices into the image creates the devices to be more visible in the low lighting. This is evident as without the double exposure you could not see the mobile device as the lighting was too dark. This has changed my ideas on how I am utilising the editing software and how I will frame the individual images to match before layering them, this will develop my piece further through use of composition and how I will utilise space in my images. I will construct my image through using the projector with no use of the light boxes or any other form of lighting, this will emphasise my use of Low Light through a more contrasted highly defined projection of light that is visibly stating words associated with isolation, sadness etc.

“Low Light” Final Piece Exam Unit

Set up/ Props used.

Set up:

Props:

Contact sheet.

Image I used for edits

Contact sheet.

A lot of these images came out darker than what it looked like on the camera screen, so evidently I had to brighten the images digitally so you could see the models facial features/ expresion.

Image I used for edits.

Edits. 2) 1)

When editing these images I first brightened them so you could see the expression on the models face, I then reduced the noise of the image to take away the unnecessary grainy effect the image then had after the brightness had been altered.

1)

2)

I found that trying to edit these images were quite hard as they needed to be slightly brighter to be able to see the models facial expressions, however they also needed to be dark enough to be able to see the light projection on the models face.

1)

2)

One thing I wish I had changed about this image was the tone of it as it doesn’t match the other two images in the set, I would have changed this by converting the image to black and white.

Analysis.

I think the most successful part of this set of images is the composition, as I have effectively taken centered portraiture images. However I think that the most unsuccessful part of these images are the fact that they are all slightly different tones, this has evidently happened through the lighting not being consistently the same for each image. To improve these images I would make sure that the lighting was the same tone when taking each image.

Images after editing.

Contact sheet.

I used these image for editing.

Contact sheet.

I didn’t end up using any of these images as they were too similar to the ones on the next slide.

Contact sheet.

I used this image for edits.

1)

2)

3)

First I reduced the brightness of the image and heightened the contrast to make it look more dramatised, I then realised the image still looked slightly overexposed so I then reduced the exposure. However this then made the image look flat and as though there weren’t any dimensions to it, so I edited the image by using the curves tool and trialling what I liked the look of with it. I then proceeded to do the same process with the next two photos using similar numbers for each editing stage.

1)

2)

3)

Edits. 1)

2)

Analysis.

Through this set of images I think that the most successful thing would be the editing, I think that after editing these image look a lot better as they no longer look too over exposed. I think the the most unsuccessful part of these images are the wrinkles in the backdrop curtain. In my opinion this just makes the image look slightly messy.

Images after editing.

Contact sheet.

The image I used for editing.

Edits. 1)

2)

3)

With this image I used the exact same methods to edit the image as the background and lighting were the same as the photos with the model and the face mask.

Trialling different approaches.

Trialling different approaches.

Trialling different approaches.

I then used the same process of trial and error with the next two images apart of the series, this is shown in the next two slides.

The reason I trialled different approaches for how to utilise the double exposure was to see what worked and what didn't, for example I found that making the image of the model screaming looked better with a lower opacity than the image of the model with the wording across the face. I also found that using the image of the laptop worked best as the background layer of the image as it had the most cleared space in the image to purposefully have the double exposure go on top.

Analysis.

I think the most successful part of these images are the composition as everything is centered, however the images also appear to be tilted over slightly. I think the most unsuccessful part of these images is the double exposure. I think it looks slightly odd and not aligned properly, next time I will improve by making sure the images are aligned right.

Final Outcomes -day 1

My favourite images taken in the exam.

Ultimately, I personally think that my best outcome is this particular set of images as they have a central composition, highly focussed and aren’t too over and /or underexposed. I have purposefully ordered the images in this way as I think that they gradually become more dramatic. However these images don’t necessarily link to my title of ‘Low Light’ as they have studio lighting being projected onto one side of the models face. However I chose for these photos to be double exposed onto my ‘Low Light’ images of the words being projected onto the models face.

Different editing ideas using double exposure.

In this series of I edited them in different ways but still using double exposure to present similar images but different in a way.

I printed the images in black and white so I could draw over them with acrylic paint pens to highlight certain aspects of the images.

Physical Manipulations.

Acrylic pen written over words with black out lining. Images in colour rather than black and white.

Different colour writing with white outlining each part of image. Images in black and white rather than colour.

Converted the double exposure images to black and white so they are all the same tone.

Final Outcome.

W R I T T E N R E F L E C T I O N

I chose the title of ‘Low Light’ because I was originally interested in taking images that required a slower shutter speed, however I changed my ideas of what I wanted to pursue through the project through researching into photographers such as Gregory Crewdson and Lindsay Adler. Through researching these photographers I decided I wanted to create highly defined low light images that used dramatic expression and double exposure. My ideas changed over time through rigorous testing and experimenting with different techniques and ways to edit my photography work. I attempted to use different techniques and processes through utilising the projector and projecting shapes onto a models face. This process then followed through to the 10 hour exam where I had developed my idea of shapes to letters/ wording. The use of the light projection was heavily inspired by Lindsay Adler’s work, as she took highly defined and contrasted images with very fine projections of specific shapes of light onto people's faces. The editing software I used to get the highly defined look to some of my images was Photopea. This editing software enabled me to contrast my images digitally and edit how over and/or underexposed they were. I think that I did somewhat well to record and document my photographic outcomes and to analyse/ annotate my portfolio as I spent most of my time analysing other photographers work to compare to mine, this further helped me to understand where and how I can improve on in my photography. Personally I think that the layout of my slides are clear and easy to follow; a lot of my slides have clear, well thought out annotations to read through to give a better understanding on how I created a certain image. I think that my final outcome turned out to be better than I had expected and links back to my chosen researched photographers through certain aspects of the images. For example my final outcome links back to Lindsay Adler through the highly defined images of the model where there is a phrasing projected by light onto her head. Whereas my final outcome links back to Gregory Crewdson through the use of dramatic expression on the models face in the part of the image where she is wearing a mask. In my exam unit, I am most happy with how my ideas all link back to my starting point through looking into the theme I set myself to portray the feeling of ‘Isolation’; I think that I successfully portrayed this feeling/ mood through my work using low lighting which links back to my chosen title of ‘Low Light’.