Thursday 3 April 2014

Task 1 workshop


Before:



After:


I decreased the brightness in this picture and increased the contrast because I felt like everybody in the photo looked too pale and lacking skin features. Now everyone looks more alive and healthy.


Before:


After:

I increased the vibrance and contrast in this photo, I wanted to give it a surreal feel. It now looks like I have been exposed to radiation on my face.

Before:

After:


I changed the colour balance to completely red, like the picture above I wanted to stick with the surreal and radiation feel. Thats why I changed the colour, it also resembles hell on earth.






Wednesday 2 April 2014

task 4: edits to 4 photos

This is my first photo in the narrative, it shows the character being given his first drink.













And this is the photo after I have edited it, I started to take the colour out of the photo by decreasing the saturation, I plan on doing this for each of the four photos until the final one is completely black and white. I am doing this because the further the character falls into addiction the more colour will be drained to represent his life spiralling out of control.






This is the second photo in the narrative, it shows the character after he has had a couple of drinks reflecting on his life.











And this is the photo after I have edited it, I started to take the colour out of the photo by decreasing the saturation, I plan on doing this for each of the four photos until the final one is completely black and white. I am doing this because the further the character falls into addiction the more colour will be drained to represent his life spiralling out of control.






This is the third photo in the narrative, it shows the character in a heated argument about his recent behaviour with alcohol.









And this is the photo after I have edited it, I started to take the colour out of the photo by decreasing the saturation, I plan on doing this for each of the four photos until the final one is completely black and white. I am doing this because the further the character falls into addiction the more colour will be drained to represent his life spiralling out of control.






This is the final photo in the narrative, it shows the character drinking on the street alone after the heated argument.












And this is the photo after I have edited it, I started to take the colour out of the photo by decreasing the saturation, I plan on doing this for each of the four photos until the final one is completely black and white. I am doing this because the further the character falls into addiction the more colour will be drained to represent his life spiralling out of control.




Wednesday 19 March 2014

Task 3- Photo Proposal


The Proposal:

Learner Name: Jamie Heron
Unit & LO: U57 LO3
Tutor: Richard Evans
Title: The plummet into addiction. 



Background:

When I first read the brief for this unit I knew that I wanted to take it into a personal route, so I thought about something personal which I could translate into 3 or 4 photographs and create a story with, that's how I chose alcohol. I have friends and family members who regularly drink alcohol and I remembered a funny story of one of my friends first time drinking. So I decided to take that story and evolve it into a darker story of how someones first drink led them into addiction. These photos will fall into the docu-drama style because I am re-enacting a past experience from my life.  Once I decided that I wanted to shoot documentary styled photos I went through ideas until I remembered the story above, I knew that if I shot the photos right that I could tie in different elements with the narrative and create a thought provoking piece of work, it's also an easy story to tell within 3-4 photos because it is not over-complicated. I am going to use real alcohol to capture the tone of the story but this is also a risk because I do not want my subjects getting intoxicated to the point that they cannot continue with the shoot. 



Scenario: 

The narrative I intend to tell starts with a photo of a young teenage boy pressured into having a drink with a few friends, the next photo finds the same boy passed out drunk on the floor surrounded by empty bottles and vomit. The third photo shows the boy arguing with a relative/close friend about his latest behavior. Finally the fourth photo shows the boy on a street corner homeless and drinking. Once the photos are taken I plan on taking away colour from the photos, in the first photo the lighting will be bright but as the photos and story progresses the light will be replaced by darkness until the final photo where everything will be black and white to fully show the fall into addiction and the overall mood of the characters. 



What is the intended objective/goal:

I am hoping for my photographs to create social awareness about drinking, obviously this doesn't happen everyday but it does happen, some people just fall into an addiction and it is a sad fact about life. I incorporated this into my idea because I wanted to do something documentary related and I chose the theme time and this story goes along well with time because it tells the story of someone's fall into addiction. If I didn't consider these facts then I could risk offending people and also not capturing the right mood with my photographs. The outcome that I am hoping for is to raise awareness of how people fall into addiction and the consequences for the people involved. 



Target Audience:

The target audience for my project varies from young adults all the way to senior adults, anyone at any time can get addicted to something such as drugs or alcohol. This fact could generate the most with the young audience, so this is why I will use them in my photos. By targeting my audience I can bring more attention to my work from people who will actually find it interesting. I could ensure that I reach my target audience by advertising my work in community's where young people hang out or even post it on social media websites. The characters involved with my story is a young teenage boy called Mark and his father David, he comes from a broken home and is surrounded by bad influences. I feel like the target audience I am trying to reach can relate to this because it is common in this area. 



Schedule and Budget:

Deadlines are really important in keeping you focused, if you know a piece of work has to be handed in on a certain day you feel more inclined to complete it, without deadlines you could just let all your work build up and never hand it in. To break down my idea into a time-frame I would decide one day where I would take all of my photos and make sure it is before the deadline that way if anything goes wrong I still have time to correct the mistakes. Some of the challenges I could face include people being unable to make the shoot and faulty equipment. I have created a mood board to show my vision and the mood that I am aiming for with the photos, I have also created a risk assessment to outline any potential risks when shooting and also a schedule for all the people involved so they know when they are needed. I took test shots so I have a clear vision of what it is I am aiming for, so that once the day comes when I shoot I know exactly what I need instead of struggling and taking random shots.






Mission Statement:

I am hoping for my photographs to create social awareness about drinking, obviously this doesn't happen everyday but it does happen, some people just fall into an addiction and it is a sad fact about life. The narrative I intend to tell starts with a photo of a young teenage boy pressured into having a drink with a few friends, the next photo finds the same boy passed out drunk on the floor surrounded by empty bottles and vomit. The third photo shows the boy arguing with a relative/close friend about his latest behavior. Finally the fourth photo shows the boy on a street corner homeless and drinking. It is important to the brief because the way I will shoot the photos will be a documentary style and the theme for them will be time. This story is personal to me because I know people close to me who have fallen into addiction and it has effected their lives in one way or another. I want my photos and story to feel authentic and real, not fake and uninspired.





 
 
Risk Assessment – Check List
 
Distribution
Production Company
Jamie’s Photography
Type of Production
Photography
Title of Production
Decay into addiction
Date or period this Risk Assessment covers
Fr:20/3/14
To:3/4/14
Producer(s)
Jamie Heron
Location address and Contact No.

6 Alkine Walk


 
 




HAZARD

HAZARD

Access

Machinery

Animals

Manual handling (attach specific assessment)

Audience / General Public
Y
Mines / excavations / caves/ tunnels/ quarries

Communication Failure

Noise (attach specific assessment)

Gas / Compressed gas

Person with special needs / vulnerable persons

Confined space

Physical exertion

Derelict buildings / dangerous fixtures
 
Radiation

Electricity / Power

Speed

Fire / Flammable materials

Cleanliness

Slips, Trips, Falls

Vehicles / off road driving

Broken Glass

Violence / Public disorder/ Protest

Hazard substances/chemicals

Water e.g. lake, pool, etc
 
Extreme heat / cold

Weather

Hostile environment

Working patterns / working hours

Inexperienced performer or children
N.B. for children, risk assessment must be provided to parents or guardian

Working at heights

Lifting appliances / machinery

Public Spaces

Traffic



Other (specify)




Details of Activity
Hazards Identified and Risk Arising

One of the photos needs to be taken outside in a public area.

Members of the public could walk past the shot and ruin it
Risk Assessment and Proposed Precautions 



Take the photo when there is not a lot of people around, if there is someone else in the photo get a release form signed

I have read the above and am satisfied that:
·       It constitutes a proper and adequate risk assessment in respect of the programme activity and that the precautions identified above are sufficient to control the risks.
Adequate arrangements are in place to communicate the risk assessment findings and to co-ordinate the safety arrangements of all those affected, e.g. site owners, engineers, contractors, freelances, resource, etc

Signature of Producer(s) J Heron   Name (Printed) Jamie Heron
Date: 21/3/14

Signature of Tutor ……………………………………  Name (Printed) …………………….

Date …………………………………
A Safety brief will be given every morning when shooting to ensure the safety of the crew and actors

 
 


Thursday 27 February 2014

Unit 57 Task 2 Primary Research


Before and after images

Below are some of the photos which were taken in the studio, I have opened this photos and altered them in various ways in Photoshop. Below I will explain what changes I have made and why I did them.



Photo 1:



This is a portrait image of me in the studio, but I think the photo is too dark and that it could use more saturation so this is why I chose to edit this photo. I also wanted more of my facial features to stand out so that it would give the impression that I was on a stage and the spotlight was shining down on me.




The first thing I did was increase the brightness of the photo and decrease the contrast using the Brightness and Contrast tool. This was the first step that I took to enhance the brightness of the photo. I did this because the original photo was too dark and with the corrections it makes the photo more brighter and in a way the light shines a spotlight on me which is what I intended.

The next step was to increase the exposure, offset, gamma correction, vibrance and color balance. These tools helped bring out the colors in my cheeks and also the color of my hair, this was done to give the impression that I am wearing makeup. After using all of these tools on my photo I used the Burn tool to bring out more detail in my right eye because it was lacking any color and I wanted both of my eyes to match.



Photo 2:



I thought this picture had a frozen motion feel to it, we was changing the camera settings while this photo was taken. I would say this is similar to a behind the scenes photo from a old movie shoot and most of them was shot in black and white, so this was my main goal in changing this photo. 



The first step I did was changing the brightness and contrast to make the photo black and white. I made this decision because I feel like the black and white effect suits the mood of the photo well. I then used the vibrance tool to bring out more of the features in our face. I did this because I feel like it brings the photo more alive 


Photo 3:


In this photo I wanted to capture the struggle between blood and flesh (god made) versus an object which was man made and see which one would come out victorious, the unstoppable force against the immovable object. I chose the theme Heavy for this particular photo and I wanted it to resemble caveman times when moving heavy objects around was common.



When editing this photo I first used the Quick Select tool to highlight the immovable object and the two characters in the photo and created a new layer once the objects were highlighted, I did this to protect them from the next step. Next I used the Smudge tool on everything which was not highlighted, I did this to make the focus of the photo on what is going on in the middle and also to highlight that the only thought on their mind at this time was to move the object, everything else ceased to matter at that moment in time.


Photo 4:



This photo represents the theme Reflection, the story behind the photo is that the person got lost while looking at his reflection in a window. This window allowed him to reflect on his life so far, all the mistakes he has made and also allowed him to envision his future. 



When editing the photo, I tried to add a surreal effect along with it. I did this by using the Smudge tool on the background and increasing the brightness and contrast. I think the blue tint that the photo has suits the theme perfectly. 



Test Shots


This is one of my test shots for my photos, I was aiming to capture the characters urge to drink by having him stand in the background but have the center of attention in the photo be the bottle. I really like this shot but I don't think it would fit into my overall story. Maybe if I hadn't exceeded the limit (4 photos) I could have added it into the narrative.








This is another one of my test shots, I intended this to be my second photo in the narrative but after taking all of my photos I decided to go with another photo instead. This photo shows the character passing out after having too many drinks.





This is the photo that I went with instead of the one above, I feel like this photo fits more into the narrative because it captures the character after having a couple of drinks and in deep thought about his life and what he has gotten himself into.





This test shot was supposed to be my first photo in the narrative, it shows the character having his first drink. But after considering how each of the photos are connected I decided to not use this photo because it does not explain why the character is drinking, it just jumps right into it.





This is the photo that I decided would suit best for my first photo, unlike the one above you can get a sense of why the character is drinking because he is being peer pressured into it by somebody off screen.