Portraiture #3 - Evaluation

Image 1 

The two shots that I found particularly difficult to choose from were both from very different shoots. The first was from the shoot not in water in my room. 

I really liked this photo as it is more abstract and has a very romantic but darker feeling. I chose not to include the head of the model as I wanted to focus on the props and costume and how they impact the image. I wanted it to be quite dark and mysterious. This is to reflect the unknown details of her death in Hamlet; it is unclear as to how she died. Was it an accident? Or did she do it on purpose as she couldn't cope with all the grief? I also really like the vibrancy of the red flowers in the foreground and the white and greens in the back ground.                                                                                 If I could reshoot this, I would lower the f stop from f/25 to maybe f/23 to get it a little lighter. This is because when I printed this image, it was far darker than it was digitally. Maybe if I had the option of presenting it in a gallery space, I would either have it printed with a light on it to make it more visible or I would have it projected.

Image 2

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    The second image is one from the bath shoot.This close up shot was done by using the available bathroom light which had quite a yellow tint to it. I did adjust the white balance but I found that I quite liked the yellowy effect as it gave quite a dreamy, vintage style to it. I made the water cloudy and murky by using a bar of soap as I wanted it to look more like a stream and less like a bath. Furthermore, plants were placed surrounding her head to show her returning back to nature in her death. Almost a way of regaining her power that she lost to the men surrounding her in the play. She is looking beyond the photo to the top left to signify her looking in to her after life up at her journey to heaven. In addition, I let the flowers sink away to symbolise herself. But they are still visible mirroring the impact of her death that is still echoing through the other characters.

I originally was going to choose the first image above how I don't think it was technically stronger due to how dark it was when it was printed as I printed it glossy which made it darker than if I printed it matte. It would have been better on a screen as of curating it in a gallery. But I also printed the second photo which came out brighter and looked better printed. However, although it captured my concept of recreating (in my own way,) John  Evertt Millias' painting of Ophelia, I felt like it was an idea that has been done before; taking photos in a bath with things floating. Despite this, I feel very confident with both my outcomes and was very pleased with how the whole project went. I was able to experiment with shutter speed, the shutter speed, lighting and coloured lighting. Furthermore, as this was my first staged masquerade photography shoot, I found it very fun process and delved in to a whole new section of research which I hadn't before considered.