Photoshoot 1: Gender: All: Work Record

Work Record –

Date: 19th April 2016
Camera: Canon EOS 450D
Editing Software: Photoshop CC 2014
Settings: F/11, ISO 200, 1/125

Plans for Shoot: My plan for the first instalment of the exam time is to complete a photoshoot where I combine all of my prior research into gender photographers and artists towards an inspired and developed final outcome.

What I Hope to Achieve: The first hope of mine is that I am able to finalise my plan for the photoshoot from the rough sketches that I made post the conclusion of the preparatory blog and prior to this blog.

I also hope that I have gathered all appropriate props and costumes that I will employ within my shoot.

Another hope of mine is that I am able to set-up the studio in a way that will create a good final outcome. This process will involve setting up the soft box lights, lowering the backdrop and configuring the camera to the appropriate settings to fire the lights.

Additionally, I would like to create a selection of campaign photographs, challenging people’s personal opinions on gender, through three small series shoots within the wider first photoshoot.

Furthermore, I hope that within the constraints of a time frame that I do not disregard all of my compositional techniques and instead implement them to create an aesthetically pleasing final outcome.

My final hope is that the white backdrop will not appear tonally variant and patchy or over exposed within the images; this has happened in prior practice shoots and can be difficult to fix in Photoshop using tools such as dodge and burn.

What I Actually Achieved: I was able to develop my initial response sketches into a real studio environment which may have only been an issue due to costumes and props although, fortunately enough I prepared all of this in advance.

I did have all needed props and costumes to be used by the subjects within my photographs which allowed the photoshoot to develop without any difficulties.

Moreover, I did set up the studio without many difficulties apart from a minor one. I am used to setting the studio up un-aided and thus this was not a difficulty for me. The slight mishap involved the light meter giving a reading with an unusually quick shutter speed; this lead to a black blur at the side of the image but I addressed this issue by adjusting the shutter speed from the suggested 1/250 to 1/125.

Despite a tight time frame I did dedicate enough time to complete three small photoshoots within the first studio time session. This will hopefully lead to three final pieces compiled of six fully edited photographs.

Looking back on photographs that I have taken earlier I am pleased with the overall appearance of the outcomes. If I was to be critical of my work, the ‘housewife’ shoot could have been framed adhering to compositional techniques such as the grid method which I attempted to employ in the other two photoshoots.

The white background available in the studio does often cause a few issue due to various marks. However, the marks did not appear on the parts of the backdrop that I used although this could be edited using the ‘Spot Healing Brush’ or ‘Clone Stamp Tool’ if they did. The white background did not vary extremely in tone although the brightness was slightly gradient due to the position of the light and to amend this I have used the ‘Dodge’ tool.

What I Am Going to do Next: The next step in my progression towards a finished final series is to expand from the documentation of stereotypically feminine roles to stereotypically masculine roles.

What I Am Going to do Next: The next step in my progression towards a finished final series is to expand from the documentation of stereotypically feminine roles to stereotypically masculine roles.

This photoshoot focused on the ‘Housewife’, ‘Beautician’ and ‘Florist’ whilst the next photoshoot will revolve around the roles of ‘Doctor’, ‘CEO’ and ‘Builder’.

To improve, I shall adjust the prior placement of the soft box lights so that they equally dispense the light and so that all sections of the backdrop are exposed correctly leaving no gradients of tone.

After the photoshoot is complete I shall focus the remaining time on editing the images towards their final piece stage. To do this, as is my current plan, I will employ my knowledge of Photoshop to add a layer of text possibly in the same style of a magazine masthead. This text will be layered across two joined image with a statement such as “Same role, same respect?” and the reasoning behind this is because the intended destination for these outcomes would be as a double-page spread in a magazine such as ‘Cosmopolitan’ or ‘Q’.   

Least and Favourite Image Evaluation –

Least:

Favourite:

There are a few different reasons why the above photographs are my least favourite and my favourite although this is difficult because I completed three smaller photoshoots within one larger photoshoot.

My least favourite is so because the composition of the table is slightly off centre and the cropped section did not remove the bottom segment of the table. Also, the subjects face is half-covered and for a portrait photograph the face is so important. Additionally, the backdrop had a tonal gradient and appeared darker at the bottom which I attempted to amend in editing but this did not work exactly as I had hoped. The section at the top is somewhat over-exposed in my attempt to brighten the bottom.

However, the second photograph is my favourite for a multitude of reasons. The composition of the image adhered to the grid method with the both the baby’s face and the subject’s face appearing at a cross-section. In addition to this, a comical effect is achieved as the image is moody like those of sport portraits but instead of a ball, of some sort, it is a baby. Also this image was one of the least problematic in editing due to the tonal gradient being miniscule. The eye contact with the camera is exaggerated through the precise focus on the eyes achieved through manual focus.

Meaning – 

Denotation: Men and women, positions.

Connotation: Males, females and other genders should be treated equally, gender role allocation restricts people and ridicules those who do not conform, gender equality has advanced but is still not fair, equality is about the freedom for choice.

Context: I want my images to appear like that of a professional personal opinions campaign into gender. The context for this series is that two images featuring a male and a female would be placed side-by-side on a double page spread in a magazine with an almost masthead style text overlaid with a statement such as “Same job, same pay?”, “Same role, same respect?” and “Same training, same treatment?”.