Date: Saturday 19th March 2016
Camera: Canon EOS 450D
Editing Software: Photoshop CC 2014
Settings: F/5.6, ISO 400, 1/60
Plans For Shoot: My plan for today's photoshoot is to experiment with photography not in the studio. I want to juxtapose two images directly side by side representing ideas about masculinity and femininity to challenge societies ideologies.
What I Hope to Achieve: My first idea about what I want to achieve today is that I create a small series of juxtaposed photographs that portray the imbalanced stereotypes of socially constructed gender rather than biological sex.
I also hope to use appropriate settings that create the moody atmosphere that I am looking for; this may be more challenging than usual as I will not have the aid of studio lighting and light metres but will instead have to rely on my current skill and knowledge of my camera.
I would like to ensure that the composition in each two part final outcome is similar enough to still look aesthetically pleasing to an audiences eye and for the implicit meanings to be understood.
Another hope of mine is that I will achieve at least four edited final outcomes composed of eight individual photographs. A small series will provide a hopefully insightful look into the reinforcement of gender construction and stereotypes within a prejudiced society.
What I Actually Achieved: I believe that my use of the same background and similar composition within my photographs provided an apt subject series for challenging the similarities and differences between masculinity and femininity. The hand positions in each two part final outcome are very similar and allow an audience to make an immediate assumption that the two images are to be compared and contrasted which was one of my key aims; I believe that the composition was explicit enough that the outcomes do not rely too heavily on pragmatics but do also allow for audience individual interpretation.
Additionally, the settings that I used, as featured above, allowed my subjects to be the central focal point in each photograph due to the extreme difference between the high contrasted subject and background and my employment of colours and shades. However, I could improve this further in editing and I will expand upon this in the progression section.
I was able to compose the images closely enough in the two part photographs as I kept returning to the previous photograph between each subject change to ensure it was as close as possible. I could again have improved this more by using more available tools on my camera.
I was however fully successful in creating four final outcomes. I can conclude that when displaying them to peers they picked up on the juxtaposition/ oxymoron in the final outcomes and thought that each side represented masculinity and femininity.
What I Am Going To Do Next/ Progression: To improve, if I wanted my images to be more striking than they currently are then I could rely on my Photoshop CC 2014 skills. For instance, I could use the 'Hue/ Saturation' tool to up the saturation of the colours which could also be aesthetically enhanced by using the 'Brightness/ Contrast' tool to darken the black background.
To advance even more, I could have changed the camera's focus point settings so that when I looked through my viewfinder I had the dots to outline my composition. Although, for a practice photoshoot I did not think this was a complete necessity.
Additionally, In the final outcomes I was able to notice a slight difference in the darkness of the background which I would amend in editing in the future by adjusting the brightness and contrast if this was my final exam piece. This was part of the difficulty to shoot in a non-studio setting.
Most likely the next photoshoots that I will completing will be as part of the real exam rather than preparation for it. My idea has fluctuated and developed a lot in a few photoshoots but I believe that it has all been to improve upon my original idea for my final pieces. I look forward to brining in ideas from all photoshoots, even if not explicitly similar, such as compositions, experimenting in studios and different scenery and finally editing techniques.
Least and Favourite Image Evaluation -
Least Favourite:
Favourite:
The reason the above pictures are my favourite and least favourite are for a variety of reasons.
My least favourite is so because whilst I did manage to position my hands the same the images are slightly misaligned and the colour of the background, possibly due to the use of flash, is different. The images do not softly merge with one another. If I was improve upon this final outcome then I would experiment on the different layers with adjustments in Photoshop such as 'Brightness/ Contrast' and other such tools including 'Levels'. I would then also implement the use of a tool such as layer blending or a simpler process of using the 'Clone Stamp' or 'Spot Healing' tool to blend out the line.
The second photograph is my favourite as the hands are almost positioned exactly the same with the objects being of similar colours. The use of the symbolic red, I believe, draw viewers eyes in. Whilst the left of the merged image is more zoomed in the background colour on both images is extremely similar and the photographs aligned very well in Photoshop.
Meaning -
Denotation: Contrasts, colour, objects of varying obscurity.
Connotation: Juxtapositions of symbolic items for masculinity and femininity, gender role allocation through everyday items and marketing, challenging gender associations.
Context: I wanted an audience to understand that a side-by-side comparison of objects can show how trivial some perceptions of gender can be, objects are inanimate and cannot be assigned to genders, there are similarities and difference between all genders and these must be understood, respected and celebrated rather than ridiculed especially those who do not conform to wider societies understanding of the norm.
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