Work Record Five (Beth Galton)

Work Record Five (Beth Galton):

Plans For Shoot:
My main idea is to take photographs of strange and unusual foods that I could find in my local supermarket. I will use my father's small studio setup which consists of a few lamps, card and heavy water bottles to lean the card against. I would also like to record the process of making something as I find culinary photography interesting. Once I have completed this shoot I will leave the vegetables outside long enough so they rot. Then I will take more photographs of them outside, once I'm finished I will put them in the compost. 

Research Influence:
I've investigated the work of Beth Galton. She is a professional photographer works mainly with food and has been commissioned by large companies such as Burt's Bees, Starbucks etc. She has a strong sense of light and composition which has to lead to her rise in the professional advertising business. 
Image Bank:

Contact Sheet:

Images that need improvement:

DSC_3144.JPG:
I dislike the framing of this image as the bowl isn't at the centre of the shot and so the biscuits aren't the main focus as I'd like them to be. I won't reshoot as I took a large number of photographs on the shoot and I think I have a good shot amongst those I took. 
DSC_3231.JPG:
I also dislike this framing as the vegetables aren't in the centre of the image and the lighting isn't quite in the centre and so the main focus of the image isn't highlighting the vegetables as I'd like it to. 

DSC_3310.JPG:
There is too much foreground in this image, as I was using a tripod with a macro lens it was difficult to keep the framing how I'd have liked it and still avoid camera shake. To fix this I switched the camera to live view so I'd be able to see the image on a larger view and began using a remote to stop camera shake.

My Best Images:
DSC_3172.JPG:

I wouldn't have thought to use a macro lens to take motion shots but I was experimenting with the style of shots I was taking and I like how this shot turned out. The fact that the crumbs are falling off of the spoon it implies that the person is in constant motion while cooking this cheesecake. 

DSC_3189.JPG:

AS I said before I was using a Macro lens to take these shots and this action shot of the biscuits being put into a tin is much better than I thought it would be. 

DSC_3210.JPG:

 I like this shot because of how close I was to the vegetables and so your focus is completely on them. However, this framing would have removed the depth because of how close it was so I lowered the F-stop so that the depth of field was shallower. 

DSC_3262.JPG:

I took this shot on a wooden chopping board and used a brown bowl for the nuts because it would follow along with the same colour pallet. This is something that Galton does in her photographs as it marries the different components of her images together expertly. 

DSC_3264.JPG:

 For this particular image, I wanted it to look like someone had spilt their granola breakfast onto the table, so I sprinkled oats and dried fruits on the board as well. 

DSC_3269.JPG:

I wanted to re-arrange the camera so that the angle allowed me to see the different dried fruits I'd placed on the board. I followed the same colour pallet with the dried fruits as I had with the oats and nuts to keep the viewer's attention on the whole image. If I'd have used dried apricot then they would have distracted from the other items because of their naturally bright colour. 

DSC_3288.JPG:

I like the soft lighting in this image as it highlights the rich colours of the fruit and vegetable. I wanted to take some ideas from Beth Galton so I experimented with my lighting techniques, and I like how this image came out.



Contact Sheet Two:

Images That Need Improvement:

DS7_3381.JPG:

This image is too dark as I had the F-stop relatively high as I wanted to make sure all of the vegetables were in focus.  DS7_3419.JPG:
For this image I had the F-stop too high and so the aperture wasn't high enough for the low light conditions I was in. 

My Best Images:

DS7_3355.JPG:

DS7_3365.JPG:

 DS7_3373.JPG:

 DS7_3376.JPG:

 DS7_3387.JPG:

 DS7_3415.JPG:

A03:

My favorite image of the fresh vegetables is DS7_3269.JPG as all the vegetables have been cut in half and you can see the rich colours of the different foods.My favourite image out of the rotten vegetables is DS7_3415.JPG as I had the F-stop at F/16 and so the aperture was taking in enough light as it should have for this image but I like how dark it has turned out. I would have liked to shoot this again a studio so that I'd be able to control the lighting, where I couldn't in this shoot because it was outside. 

A02:

I used my Nikon DSLR with a 18-200mm lens. In hindsight I should have used a Macro Lens and a tripod inside with the studio, with lights so that I'd be able to control the lighting and the exposure. This would mean I'd capture more light and consequently more details. I was unable to do this because of the subject I was taking photographs of; the vegetables were rotten and they smelt bad. If I was to bring them into the house to shoot them the lights I have for the studio would hot and subsequently heat up the vegetables, spreading the bad smell. I like the camera settings I used for the rotten vegetables because the lighting reflects the subject of my images, something dark and disgusting. 

A01:

My initial ideas for work record was to simply take photographs of the fresh vegetables and complete another shoot on unhealthy food. I changed my ideas to shooting fresh vegetables and rotten vegetables as this would create less waste and a deeper contrast. The two shoots highlight how we are all bound by time and how we will all eventually decay. I also like the camera settings I used for each of the shoots. The bright studio lights brought out the gorgeous colours of the fresh vegetables and granola and the camera settings I used for my later shoot are dark and miserable, much like the food that has passed it's best. 

Improving My Best Images:
I used photoshop to improve my best images.I wanted to use light to my advantage and so I used curves to change the exposure:

Then I wanted to use black and white to highlight the contrast between the two images, and then layer them over each other as double exposures:

I didn't like how the image turned out as it is difficult to distinguish the two different images apart. I then decided to use a different method of presenting my images.
I created another image with width: 6000, height: 4000 and a resolution of 300 pixels/inch. 

I then copied my other images into the new image and rearranged them using CTRL+T, which allowed me to change the size of the images. 

Here is the end result:

I like this much more as it still shows a contrast between the images, and still allows each individual image to be seen. I continued to experiment with this arrangement with my other images. 

Here are my final images:

A04:
I believe that I have logically and critically developed my ideas to meet my desired intentions. I think this because I have developed my ideas to best suit the outcome I was looking for. I wanted to show the contrast in the fresh and the mouldy. I wanted to find a visual representation of how food loses its appeal the closer it gets to being returned to the soil. 

Juxtaposition:
I used different fruit and vegetables with a fake human skull to investigate what the composition would look like with the different colours. 

I dislike the way these images have come out as the composition is too simplistic. However, I do like the plumb as the black and purple are complementary colours, meaning they look good next to each other. 

For my next shoot I would like to further investigate another food photographer and how food can be presented with skulls. I like presenting food with skulls and they're bone and no longer need the sustenance.