Photoshoot

Exposure

Starting to look at exposure and certain uses of lighting, I decided to use a candle to give a more natural coloured light rather than a sharp white, this worked well as it looks mysterious and contrasting with the other areas which didn’t pick up on light as they are heavily shadowed. I edited this on Photoshop by selecting only the face and lowered the saturation as it did come out a bit yellowy/orange, then selecting the eyes and increasing the midtone so they stand out more this enhanced the glisten of the light in the eye. Finally I decided the replicate a candle light/fire to move as they aren’t still, so I selected each light and layered it on top and moved them about and had a play with the opacity of each one to have this overall effect. I used the manual setting on this so I could alter to have no flash and keep the image looking sharp and detailed for how I wanted, this also helped as I was using a tripod to steady the image whilst it took to picture.

This image was a more central image to get the collar bones, neck and a part of the shoulders also in the image for a more dramatic feel with exaggerated shadows on the collar bones, the piece of clothing and on the background. To enhance the shadows even more I used the 'Burn' tool on a low opacity to really pick up and contrast the highlights with the shadows. I liked how it turned out but decided I would layer the face over and over, I did this by just selecting the face and pressing copy new layer, I then changed the angles they were on and opacity so it looks as if the head is moving franticly, this effect really worked and to show the mood of the image with the spooky candle light.

This was one of the more sharp and detailed image of my photo-shoot, with the strong shadows and highlights along with the still and spooky face and hair, which created dramatic shadows on the background. I decided to keep the candles in the image rather than just a light source to get a stronger lighting right in front but to also be a part of the story as candles are seen to be spooky and in some ways dangerous. On this image I used the 'Burn' tool to make the shadows really stand out on the figure. I lowered the saturation on this image also as the candle light did make it slightly orange. These 3 images were shot in a dark room with no lighting except the candle lighting used in the images to really emphasises and make the shadows stand out.