Shoot Four - Work Record

Plans for this shoot- In this shoot I want to explore the way people eat, I want to photograph my mum and dad in the garden eating fish and chips, as this is a stereotypical British food. The reason why I want to explore food is due to the fact it's involved in everyone's lives everyday, no matter how rich or poor you may be, therefore this shoot will be relatable to everyone. 

I will aim photograph my images outside, as there will be less household clutter in the background of the images therefore taking the viewer's focus back to the main subject within the image. In addition, the subjects will have pictures taken eating their food and also starring into the camera, I believe this would help me develop my portraiture photographic skills. 

For this shoot I will need a tripod, a camera, my lens, two subjects, a chair, and lastly the food which will be fish and chips. I have chosen to use a tripod in order to make my images more sharp and focused, reducing any shake which may occur. The camera and lens will help me take the images, and obtain effective images as a whole. The chair will be used for the subjects to sit on, and the food for them to consume. 

Inspiration- Martin Parr will be the inspiration behind this shoot, as his images of the British sea side specifically influenced me to include the fish and chips within this shoot. Parr uses bright, eye-catching colours within his images which grab the viewers attention, and maintain this attention I would like to mirror this within my shoot, as I believe photographing my images in a bright colourful garden will also mirror this. 

Best image from this shoot-

The above image I believe is the best photograph from my shoot, as the subject is mid-eating whilst starring down the camera lens, this creates a personal link between the viewer and the subject as the viewer makes contact with the subjects eyes, which are considered 'the window to the soul.' The fact that the viewer is also looking into the subject's eyes whilst they're eating may also make them feel slightly uncomfortable, as people often don't like others to watch them eating. 

I chose to photograph this image portrait as I believe this includes the most detail, as the viewer can easily see the individual's face, as well as their food and how they're sitting. Moreover, the individual wearing all black allows the focus to primarily be on the food itself, as this stands out against the black clothing. 

I photographed this image on the camera settings of ISO 400, F 4.8 and a shutter speed of 1/80; the low aperture means that a lot of light would have been being let into the lens, in order to not make the image too dark, meanwhile an ISO of 400 would have aided this too, as the higher the ISO he more light is let into the photograph. A wide depth of field is used in this image, as the background and subject are both in focus 

Worst image from this shoot-

This image is my worst from this shoot, as the subject is pulling an awful facial expression where they are eating their food, I believe this ruins the image as I would have preferred to have the subject looking directly down the camera lens to create a more personal feel to the image with the viewer. Despite this, I like the framing of the image as the viewer can see the location of the shoot ,whilst also easily being able to see the subject and what they are doing. I also like the position of the subjects hand whereby he is holding an item of the food, as this shows his intentions- to eat the food. 

The background within this image appears slightly overexposed, by making my ISO lower, or having a higher aperture setting this would have made the background darker, and not overexposed, however this would have also made the subject darker, which I didn't want.  A wide depth of field is exhibited in this image, as the back ground and subject are in focus, however the subject is slightly more in focus in comparison to the garden in the background, this is due to the aperture setting of 7.1, as the higher the aperture setting the wider the depth of field (e.g. if my aperture was F22, then there would have been an extreme wide depth of field, whereas if it was F4 then a narrow depth of field would be shown.)

The Future: If I was to reshoot this shoot I would include more images of different people eating different foods, in order to allow the viewer to compare and contrast these differences; for example, I could have included images of people eating up the table with cutlery, not their fingers- this would differ from this shoot whereby the subjects are in the garden eating with their hands. Moreover, I would have possibly experimented with a narrower depth of field in order to make the viewer focus on the subject more, and not be distracted by the background at all.