Shoot Six - Work Record

Plans for this shoot-  For this shoot I plan to photograph a subject doing their gardening, I want to do this shoot in order to explore how different people maintain, and keep their home looking presentable, or don't. By exploring how people look after their homes this links to my shoot numbers one and three, whereby I photographed individual's outside of their homes, and the objects inside creating links between their homes and how they present themselves; within this shoot I would like to carry this theme on and explore it in more detail. 

For this shoot I will be using a tripod, a camera, my lens, one subject, and lastly flowers/pots. 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 flowers and pots will be used for the individual to be doing their gardening, which I will then be able to photograph.  

I have also decided to photograph the individual painting their shed, as this will show how there's different types of garden maintenance which individual's may complete. By painting over the old, to make the shed look new again, this may link to the individual's feelings about themselves that if they cover up any damage, they may wo

Inspiration- August Sander is the inspiration for this shoot as his portrait images of individuals working during world war two influenced me to photograph my images in the same structure, with the individual's holding their respective tools for the job (e.g. in this shoot this would be the compost and flowers.) Moreover the deadpan expression which many of Sander's subjects hold influenced me to try this within my shoot. 

Best image from this shoot-

The above image is my best from this shoot as the framing is effective in portraying my inspiration from August Sander, as the individual is starring deadpan into the image, whilst holding their tools they are using to complete their work. Within this photograph it makes it clear what the individual is doing, as the viewer can see what the individual is about to do, moreover the gloves on the individuals hands also correspond this. The bright colours of this image are different to Sander's photographs as he only used black and white, I chose to include colour as the subject is gardening, which is bright and colourful therefore I wanted to portray this within my images. By focusing on how individual's maintain their homes I wanted to attempt and create a link between the subject, and their home likewise to my previous shoot numbers one and three. 

Worst image from this shoot-

In this image the framing is ineffective as there's lots of objects cluttering the background of the image which take the focus away from the subject, and onto the cluttered and colourful background.  Moreover, the angle which this image is photographed is poor, as the subject's leg is in the centre of this photograph, also this then detracts attention away from the individual's hands and what they are doing. 

I believe a narrower depth of field would have been more effective in this image, as this then would have brought the viewers focus back on to the subject, and not the background as this would be blurred. In order to have obtained a narrower depth of field I should have made my aperture setting lower, causing the background to become blurred. The aperture setting being lower would have then made my image brighter, therefore it may have become overexposed, therefore to counter balance this I could have lowered my ISO, or decreased my shutter speed. 

The Future: If I could reshoot this shoot I would include images of other individual's doing their gardening, in order to create comparisons for the viewer- I didn't do this in this shoot as I didn't have time to due to the deadline being close. Furthermore, I could have photographed individual's maintaining (or not maintaining) their garden, whilst then photographing inside their house in order to create links  between the individual and their home this way.