Initial Shoots
F5.6 1/100 ISO 400
For this initial shoot, I had the thought to do a very simple studio shoot with natural lighting and a pop up screen, in order to layer and edit another image on top. This will represent the mindset of the individual and perhaps the personality of that person. I took the oppurtunity to shoot some of these images in monochrome, as well as in colour, as I feel it may add a darker tone to theimage, wiht perhaps one image being in colour and the model being in monochrome. This could lead to a deeper meaning to be portrayed, as the it will show the possible depression or sadness, throughout the picture, reflecting on the models expression.
I have taken these photos across several landscape shoots both locally and when I have been away, in order to give myself a wide ranging choice as to which ones I can manipulate to fit the reponse to Adam Lumptons work. I have chosen these photos in particular, as they seem most fitting to represent an indivduals personality of living amonst nature and in different situations. The acitecture of Nibley Monument and Edinbough castle also represents how man made things are of outstanding beauty, and fit in to the element of a natural enviroment, due to their aged wear.
Photoshop Devlopments
In order to create these manually double exposed images, I used photoshop throughout to enable the same effect as done with the camera to be produced. By using the Multipy effect once the initial image was cut out and selected, it enabed a fade to be created as if a light waspointing at his face and this enabled a shadow to be formed at the back of the head. Once this was done, I added the picture along with an adjustment filter to match the colour of his clothing, in preperation for blending htem together.
I then went on to changing the opacity of the top layer, in order to position it in the exact place that would enable me to merge the two images together, to create a in depth image. Using the paint tool with a layer mask, I erased and added in parts of each image that I wanted the photo to keep, whilst ensuring it complimented the photo of the model. In doing this, it meant the two images created an effect even better than the camera would do in an automatic shot, as it stopped the image from becoming translucent, and only had the elements neeed in each picture wihtout overlap. I went on to crop and adjust the overall all image, as well as add a white background, so that the overall picture had an overall symetrical presentation.
Final Response
Developments
In order to expand my ideas, I have used the idea of how Dan Mountford merged the two images on top of each other, siloetting the shape rather than merging and cutting out the shape to blend them together. In doing this, I have created an image which reflects the life of an individual how it looks on both the inside and outside. The use of desaturating parts of the image enable a certain depth to be felt about the image, as it represents the warmth on the inside of the indiviual, as well as how one may blend into the background in society, if not seen in the correct light.
i am not very impressed with how this image turned out, as I feel it does not portray the message intended. My intensions were to have the models face, masked and partcially pearing through the trees, in order to represnt the idea that one is alwasy surrounded by nature. This piece however, was unsuccessful in doing so, as when I cut the tree out of the origonial landscape photo, it was too detailed to pick up every baranch, which therefore means the individual is not covered up enough, As well as this, I would have prefered the model to be facing the camera, as it would have made a greater impact in dispaying the message that I was intending to depict.
This image has been modified to represent the lack of indivulaism that people are restricted to show due to the pressures of what society expects them to be. The left side with the face slightly darkened gives the impression that the individual may not be as happy on the inside, with outside influences in how he is trapped under societies expectations. This is shown by the way hhis face is masked by the industrial building work. The white background on the right represents the purity and innocence of the individual, which contrasts with the left side, showing how society and the enviroment that we live in can corrupt us.