For this shoot, I decided to take pictures of fairy lights with books. I decided to do this because I found that it made the photos seem more like magic coming out of the books and demonstrate how books can transport you to somewhere else.
Research Artist
For this shoot, I was inspired by Suren Manvelyan because I liked the way he would lights to add an extra element of interest and draw the viewer in more. Also, I like how he made his photos seem slightly more magical by adding them into the background.
Contact Sheet
Best Images
I like this photo because the fairy lights are coming out of the book equally making the photo seem more symmetrical and balanced. Also, I like this affect because this seems like all of the words in the book are magical and coming out of the page instead of only a few. I like how the there are a lot of lights in this photo because this helps draw the viewer in more and follow the circular pattern they have created through the image.
I like this photo because it shows how I experimented with the lights by having a longer shutter speed and moving the lights which created a blurred light affect. I like this affect because it makes the photo seem more interesting because the light is practically bursting out of the page making the book seem that it has powerful and magical words. Additionally I like how I was able to experiment with this shoot because I was able to portray a variety of photos that looked interesting in different ways.
I like this photo because the lights are coming out towards the camera creating another layer to the image and filling up negative space. Also, the line that the fairy lights are on creates multiple leading lines towards the book and where majority of the lights are, therefore, dragging the viewers' eye through the whole image. This affect helps make the overall photo seem as if the magic is spilling out of the book and touching everything that is close to the book.
I like this photo because once again, the fairy lights create the affect that the lights are spilling out of the book continuously and spreading out into the world. Therefore, this could be interpretative to how the magic in books could make someones life more magical by the power of the story and where they transport the reader. This message in emphasised because this book is filled with fairy tales in far off kingdoms and contains a lot of magical elements, which could spread into the reader.
Wort Images
I don't like this photo because I didn't have the correct exposure, therefore the whole picture is dark. This spoils the magical affect because you are not able to clearly see the book or the lights clearly, therefore you are not able to see the same level of magic that the other photos do.
I don't like this photo because it is blurry, when taking this photo I accidentally knocked over my tripod. This doesn't help the magical affect because the viewer would not be focused on the lights coming out of the book, more of the fact that the photo is blurry and that has caused the photo to also look slightly overly exposed.
I don't like this photo because I tried to experiment with a different affect of only moving half of the lights and try to leave the other remainder still. In my opinion, this makes the photo look too busy and unpleasant to the eye because there is too much going on and you cannot focus on anything, therefore spoiling the magical affect.
AO1 - Suren Manvelyan was the photographer that helped influence my work because I liked the way he would use fairy lights and lights similar to make the most impact in his photos. His work inspired me to think about the positioning of the fairy lights in my photos to make the most impact. I was able to do this by laying the lights across the book and leading up towards the lens, this helps draw the viewer in more and makes the photo seem magical.
AO2 - For this shoot, I used my Canon 600D and set my ISO to 400 but for some of the photos where there was more light I changed the ISO to 200. Throughout this shoot, I set my aperture to f5.6 because I wanted as little as possible of additional light coming into the lens. For majority of this shoot, I set my shutter speed to 1/100 because I found that gave me the correct exposure for my work, and for the photos where I was moving the fairy lights around, I set my shutter speed to 1/4 so I could still see steaks of light and they didn't blur all together like one big light. I decided to use a tripod for this shoot because I knew my hands wouldn't of been steady enough to get a clear photo, also by using the tripod it allowed me to move around more freely to change the lights around.
AO3 - My idea for recording Artificial Light was to use fairy lights and place them on top of a fairy tale book to create a magical atmosphere. In my opinion, this shoot helped me produce more ideas for later shoot which made me more focused on my work instead of having a lot of different ideas that didn't really connect together. For this shoot, I wanted to capture how books can hold a lot of magic in them that can transport people into far off places. I feel like I was able to capture this idea in the photo where the fairy lights were equally distributed across the whole book (Best Image 1) because this shows how every single word holds power and magic. Also, I feel like this message has been emphasised in the photo where I experimented with the lights by moving them up and down (Best Image 2) because it seems as if the magic of the words are bursting out of the page, showing how powerful that can be.
AO4 - I feel as if I have produced a strong series of images because I have clearly shown Artificial Light and how to use it in different ways to produce a variety of photos that seem interesting. By doing this, I am able to show the viewer that I am able to manipulate and expand my way of thinking from my original idea and develop it to something new. Also, I feel like these images could be personal towards anyone by thinking back to their favourite book and how that transported them to a different place that they could control. However, these photos are personal to me because I enjoy reading and feel that more people should read to help them escape and I enjoy writing my own stories that could do the same for others that books I read does for me.
Manipulating My Images
For this project, I didn't want to heavily edit my photos because I wanted the main focus to be on the artificial lighting. Therefore I used settings such as vibrance, curves, contrast and levels to help emphasise the lighting more to make them stand out further to the viewer and drawing them in more. Also, I used burn and dodging in some areas of the photos to exaggerate some highlighted and shadowed areas so it would create more of a contrast and an extra element of interest.
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