For this shoot I wanted to focus on a visually striking technique that will analyse the thoughts of people and their desire to embark/remember journeys. To communicate this message I opted to focus on multiple exposure. This technique is often utilised by many photographers such as Andre de Frietas who uses it as a means to explore the mind of the subject. I used his images as a crucial influence for visual style of my shoot. I used the same technique within one of my Unit 3 shoots. I wanted to develop my use of the technique, using my experience with the technique in order to create a more professional result. I will focus on elements of journey from a want to travel, and a sense of emotional journey. I will reflect this from photographing areas which are not common within everyday life and key moments in a person's life such as a football cup final. For studio shoots, I only needed to keep a simple two light set-up with two soft boxes. I needed to ensure that the portraits were well lit to capture details of the face within the editing process. I had a shutter speed of 1/125, an ISO of 200 and an f stop of 8. These settings would allow me to capture well lit and detailed portraits. For the two images bellow, I captured the New York images at night. I was taking photographs in Southend on a sunny day. In order to avoid having images that were over exposed, I used a shutter speed of 1/320, an f stop of 13 and an ISO of 400. This would ensure that my images would be well balanced with detail remaining in the frame.
Andre de Freitas influence:
My Images:
This image features a persons face combined with a football match. On their own, each image would not communicate the message that I am attempting to achieve but combined they have the ability to communicate journey on a very personal level. The image is attempting to show a person reflecting on a journey that they have been on within their life. In this case the memory being shown is a cup final match. This is shown as the position of the person looks up and to his left, this is gives the impression that he is reminiscing on this past event proudly. Meanwhile the event that he remembers is taking place within his head. This reflects journey on an emotional level and a journey of the team to victory.
I used a similar effect for all of these images. I made sure to adjust the levels within the portrait image in order to make the background a more solid white colour. I then used the magic wand tool in order to create a selection. I then inverted the selection in order to create a selection of the person. I created a new layer with the selection by using cmd and j. I created a new layer and placed it behind the selection layer. I then filled the new background layer with the colour white. This ensures a crisp image while allowing the effect to independently affect the selection compared to the background. I added a black and white filter and added a clipping mask to the selection.
I then proceeded to copy and paste the background which I wanted to use. I lowered the opacity of the image and used free transform to achieve the composition I wanted. I added a black and white filter with a clipping mask to the new image. I adjusted the blue colours within the black and white filter in order to make the sky of the image white and blend into the background of the image. I then made a selection of the portrait layer and added a layer mask in the shape of the face to the second image. I changed the blend mode of the second image to lighten.
I returned to the white background layer and filled it with the same colour as the image. I then created a new layer and used a brush tool with 0% hardness and began to blend the background and the portrait together, creating a more seamless effect.
This image features a person who is featured with another image of a sunny location. This image is a attempting to reflect a desire to embark on a journey. This is reflected within the posture of the person. Their head is faced towards the floor with their eyes shut. This implies that the person is currently sad within their mundane, everyday life. This dull tone is emphasised with a clouded grey background which offers connotations to dullness. This is contrasted with a vast environment in his head that appears sunny. This thought process is shown through the use of composition too. The left of the frame is shown through emptiness while the person occupies the right of the frame. This is done to suggest that the left side represents his desire for journey, however as we venture to closer to the right on the frame, the person begins to take more of a physical form, implying that he has to face his dull everyday life.
Progression:
It is clear that I have taken onboard criticisms that I had from my other attempt at multiple exposure and have used my experience with the technique to improve the quality of my images and produce something that is similar to the photography of Andre de Frietas. If I were to develop this shoot further, I would incorporate elements of selective colour into the effect, heightening contrasts within the image. For my next shoot, I want to imply journey through the use of practical photography in order to create some variation from my use of Photoshop within my previous shoots.
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