Rosie's Photo Essay

For my photo essay I wanted to capture the theme of loneliness and sadness. I wanted to portray the use of the indecisive moment and the decisive moment. To do this, I manipulated my work by staging the shot to make it look like that it was an indecisive moment. My work is an example of the Observational mode of documentary. I chose an area of photographer that interested me, and this was fashion photographer but with meaning. 

My first image is a close up shot of my subject that conveys my desired emotion. Shutter speed 1/400 and aperture F5.0. I changed the exposure to +2.25, turned the brightness to -21, the contrast to +56 and blacks to +14.  I wanted this image to remain natural with only some editing to define the intended emotion. 

My second image is a medium close up shot. Shutter speed 1/400 and aperture is F5.0. The main focus is primarily on my subjects. I experimented with the temperature, 3350. Changed the blue saturation to -70. Thus making the image look cold and isolated. 

 My third image is a mid shot of my subject with two other people. I used a shutter speed of 1/400 and an aperture of F5.6. I changed the exposure to 2.25, sharpen the image, turned the gain to +70 to make my composition look like it was a memory or that my subject was thinking of one. I wanted to make this image look slightly more unrealistic. 

My fourth image is a long shot that uses long exposure while using flash. I used a shutter speed of 0"3 and an aperture of F4.0, to create a blur effect on my subject and the background. 

My fifth image was an experiment with "breaking the edge" by concealing the subjects head. I feel that i could have captured another subject in the background or created a tighter shot to convey "breaking the edge".  I used a shutter speed of 0"3 and an aperture of F9.0.

For my sixth image I took a high angle shot overlooking part of Southampton city center. The blurry deserted streets conveyed the idea of loneliness and disillusion. I used a shutter speed of 0"3 and an aperture of F9.0. 

For my seventh image I experimented with the temperature, 2230, extracted all of the blue saturation, sharpened the image to +70 and turned the magentas saturation to +100. I only kept the colour pink because it was juxtaposition with the idea of loneliness, where pink is considered to be a bright happy colour. I used a shutter speed of 1/500 and an aperture of F5.0.

For my eight image I used greyscale and sharpened the radius to 2.1. The main focus is on the two female subjects, your eyes are first drawn to them, where my main subject is in the background and looks to be faded out and not apart of the world. I used a shutter speed of 1/125 and an aperture of F4.0.  

For my ninth image is staged indecisive moment. I wanted my subject to be separated form everyone else with their heads cut off from the shot. I changed the exposure to +0.55. The blacks to -70 and changed the tone curve, the input to 85 and the output to 173 to create a bright effect and also a dark one. Making a juxtaposition within the image. I used a shutter speed of 1/500 and an aperture of F5.0.  

For my tenth image I wanted my subject to be distanced from everyone else again. My subject being in the foreground and the others in the background. I intensified the use of the orange saturation to convey the mood of happiness. I used a shutter speed of 1/30 and an aperture of F14.  

For my eleventh image, which is like the tenth, I did not intensify the orange saturation  but made the image darker so that my subject fades into the darkness and is barely recognisable. I used a shutter speed of 1/1000 and an aperture of F4.0. 

For my final image it is like the first but in differs in the placement, and the fact that her eyes are closed, as to say that this the end. I used only greyscale to make a black and white image. The shutter speed I used was 1/80 and an aperture of F5.0.