Review final image

Final

Personally I think that the images go together quite well with regard to telling the story of adopting a dog and how emotional is for the dog and for the child. I have taken about 40 images and successfully selected 3 out of them that work really well together. During the selection I first took out the ones that were blurred and out of focus, then I was focusing on which way they were looking at and chose the ones where the dog was more likely turned toward the camera. After I took out the unnecessary ones I left with only a few when I was closely concentrating on the expressions that they both made and chose the ones that gives a clearer idea to the viewer. 

As you can see, my initial idea didn't change at all as I was quite confident from the beginning that it would be a successful project due to the strong theme. I was inspired to attempt a shoot that I was interested in and passionate about. The result from this shooting was absolutely positive, however I would still change a few things. 

As looking back at the images I'm not that happy about the automatic focus because the camera has failed to focus on the point where I loved to, so next time if I exactly know where I want the image to be in focus I will change the setting from automatic focus to manual central focus. The other thing, that should of helped me show through the dog's feeling better if I took a middle close-up that includes the full body of the dog with the tail which is one of the easiest way to read the dog's mood. So the last image would be much effective if the viewer could of see the tail waggling. However I think the close-up images are still quite effective and helping the viewer determine the story and the emotions behind this event. 

Also, I feel that I was able to successfully set up the camera settings and produce well exposed images by working with the amount of light that I had coming through the window during that time of the day shooting indoor. Fortunately my attempt was successful and nothing forced me to change the idea. I'm satisfied as the results of the shooting exactly portrayed what I intended to convey.  Obviously the child was aware of that I'm taking pictures however I managed to capture images where she doesn't looked forced, so her reactions look natural. 

I'm also happy about the angle I was shooting from and I remembered to level up with the subject and shot from eye level. On the day when I did the shooting the lighting conditions were fine and I managed to avoid distracting shadows and not blocking the light. Considering the compositions, I think the implied lines (eyes, pointed finger) really help directing the viewers' eyes to the main points. There is also contrast between the dog fur and the cage plus furniture colours which really helped to separate and emphasize the main subject from the background. 

All in all, in my opinion my project was successful despite some small problems that can be easily overlooked. I will continue to consistently plan all of my shoots and prepare before each shooting so if any problems may rise I would more likely to solve the problems immediately.

Proposal

Idea for narrative image making

To come up with an idea under, I was a little bit inspired by the American photographer, Jane Evelyn Atwood, who has been exploring the dark side of humanity. My project can also be related to one of the present cultural issues, the growing number of dogs on the streets and in dog homes. People seem to ignore the responsibilities they should take to care for another living being.

In this proposal I intend to present my idea for the given task which is to produce narrative image/s for an editorial magazine that I choose myself. The editorial magazine that I have chose to produce images for is 'your dog' Britain's best selling dog magazine. The magazine frequently includes documentary style photographs, so I have chosen to use documentary style for my narrative. Obviously the magazine involves images about dogs and owners and you can find articles about puppies, dog kennels, trainings, dog shows etc.

My initial and current idea in this topic is to produce a series of images documenting a dog adoption in order to convey the event (that is going to bring huge changes into the two lives) and the dog's mood changes. I plan on taking three consecutive images of the dog 1. in the cage, 2. taking out of the cage, 3. holding in the owner's arm. I'm going to apply the object, action, effect technique, which I hope it would successfully and simply get the story across to the viewer. I believe that this story fits into the general theme of the chosen editorial magazine. I hope my images will effectively portray the dog's mood changes with a start, middle and end for the narrative.

I will try to accomplish this efficiently by ensuring that the pictures are quite close-up to portray the certain feelings in a close enough aspect. I intend to shoot these images digitally with my Canon EOS 1100D on location using natural light. After shooting is completed, I intend to edit these images in the exact style as Richard Vantielcke. The three images would be in one frame separated by edges and placed horizontally next to each other. I will also edit them into black and white as I think it would work better and make a bigger impact on the viewer.

Test run

Idea: Cheating on her...


As part of our narrative image making unit, we were asked to create a narrative image of our choice. In a group of four we were required to create a story, come up with and idea for an image that has a narrative and shoot an image that relays that story to the viewer. We eventually settled upon an idea that based on cheating in relationships. So the story is that, boyfriend and girlfriend are meeting up, the boy has a bought his girlfriend flowers however she found out that he's been cheating on her. So she has a bigger surprise. She has a knife that already has blood on, which implies to the viewer that she's already killed someone. Maybe the person he's been cheating with...but it is still left to the viewer how they determine the story that is being told. 

Considering how to tell the story...

• Tell the story within a single image
• The characters would be a male and a female
• The props would be a kitchen knife and a bunch of flowers
• Mysterious smile on the female face and cheeky smile on the male face
• The characters would be stand straight in front of each other hiding the props behind their back.
• The image would be shot in landscape format using natural light
• The viewpoint would be levelled up with the subjects  and shot from beside them.

Here is the original image:

I had to do a bit of Photshop work with it to make it look like it's a scenery from a theatre drama scene. Actually, what I had to do is find a theatre stage image online with the right resolution so it wouldn't effect the size and the quality of our image. Also I had to download an image of a bloody kitchen knife and a bunch of flowers.

Here are the images from online:

Then, open Photoshop -> open new file -> select the four images -> Select the characters with 'quick selection tool' -> press cmnd C -> open a new layer and press cmnd V -> select the drag tool and pull the two selected characters over the theatre image -> select free transformation and arrange the size of the characters correctly to the size of the stage -> select the knife and the bunch of flower too and copy them too -> the props layers had to be under the characters layers......and finally select all of the layers and flatten the image and save

So here is the edited final version:

Although the image doesn't really look real, I think that the image has succeeded in portraying the message that it was intended to portray.