Documentary Work Diary

How I Made These Images
To make these images I shot in a range of different locations and used a range of different light levels to capture different effects and emotions. I began by photographing the first model outside on a foggy day in a forest/field area to show her lonely journey.

Critical Evaluation

These two images follow the subject matter of the documentary however they didn't stand out to me as much as the previous images for many reasons. The first image I felt was too bland to clearly show the emotions that I wanted to portray and I therefore didn't use it in the overall story. The second image was very different to all of the other images and I felt it stood out for all the wrong reasons. The image showed an opposite emotion to what I wanted to portray and this made the image irrelevant to the project. I believe the image was taken in case I wanted to experiment with telling a different story. This, however, wasn't the case.

Progress
All of the images that were taken outside were unedited. I didn't want to alter them as I felt that they were as good as they were going to be when originally captured.
I personally believe that all of these images hold a powerful meaning behind them. Each image is very different and holds different connotations even though they were all taken in the same place.
As mentioned previously, the character in these images is struggling with a mental illness. This illness is depression due to loneliness. All of the upcoming images represent this in a different, yet powerful way.

This first image shows the character looking into a distant, foggy field. Her vision is clearly crowded as is the audience's. This image shows the character's journey and how long she has to go. The fog shows that she doesn't know what she is going into and doesn't know what will happen in the future with the struggle of her mental illness.

The next image shows an eerie looking forest that has a path going through it. The character is standing at the beginning of this path. This image is very similar to the previous image however this image the character can see where she is going and can see what her path is; This is both metaphorical and literal. 

This image shows the end of the previous path and the character at the end of the path looking out to another foggy field. This represents the ideas of how the character begins to believe that her path is simple and straight forward but then is faced with another challenge that she has to overcome. 

This next image is on the same character represented before holding onto a wire fence within the outskirts of the forest. The wired fence looks like and represents a prison - The character feels as if she is trapped within the state of depression as her path, showed in the previous images, is repeating itself. The path is a constant pain for her mental state.

This next image shows a bridge and the ominous forest that has been shown within all of the other images. The character is simply traveling to the bridge.

This final image shows the character standing over a bride looking into the distance. The forests trees are surrounding her. The character looking over the bridge is meant to represent her looking over the paths that she has come over. The forest trees, within all of the images, are a metaphorical prison and meant to represent how the character is feeling.

The entire forest within the images above is a metaphor for the characters mental state. She is constantly struggling and choosing to take the repetitive paths because she is desperate to escape from the torment of depression. The colours and the trees themselves represent the characters dull emotions and is also a physical representation of how she is really feeling. 

Inside Photoshoot
All of these images were edited. The reason for this is because I felt that the original images were missing something. This something was the colour scheme of the images. The black and white draws focus on the subject matter of the images and also allows there to be no distractions with connotations of colour that may appear - The black and white colouring allows you to focus on the content of the image however it also emphasises the meaning behind the images.

To edit these three images I simply decided to change them to black and white. I also altered the curves to make the lighting a little bit brighter as when the image was altered to black and white, the image turned darker and the subject wasn't visible.

This image was also edited to be black and white. I did this by using the alteration black and white tool which turned the image to black and white and allowed me to alter specific colours within the image to be darker or lighter than others. By altering the yellows within the image, I made the background a lot darker which put the focus on the model in the image.






This next image, like all of the previous images that were taken inside, was turned black and white. I altered the colours differently however, the yellows were slightly brightened so that there was a clear background within the image as when the image was turned black and white normally, the background wasn't visible and blended into the model's hair. I also darkened the blues so that her eye was significantly darker than the rest of the face. I did this to experiment and ended up liking the final outcome. The darker eye brings attention to that area of the face which is the focal point.


This next image was edited differently than the rest. I decided that I wanted the red makeup to be coloured to add more connotations to the image than if the image was just black and white. To do this I selected the red areas of the face with a selection tool and then selected inverse so everything but the red areas were selected. After this I changed the colour of the image to black and white using the adjustments feature in Photoshop. This made it so that the red makeup was in colour and the rest of the image was black and white.

I did this also so that the image would stand out over the rest. The image can be interpreted in many ways with the coloured connotation as the colour red has a lot of negative connotations alone.

Separate Story

I wanted to create two different stories within this project however I wanted them to be executed with different people. This second story was based a different issue within society other than mental illnesses. This story is based primarily upon physical appearance. I again used a female model as female are the common gender that gets attacked within social media for the way they look.

This first image is a very powerful image that shows a tape measure wrapped around a female's neck. The tape measure is used to represent a noose and how the character feels about her weight. The constant negative representation of females within the media and how they need to be slim has made this character feel suicidal. This image was meant to represent how people feel and what they result to when they compare themselves to the medias representation of women.

This next image shows the same character as before looking into the camera with her hands covering her face. The hands however can be seen through. This image was used to represent how some people don't like their appearance. The hands were used as a mask but the fact that they were transparent shows that they are only a temporary mask and that you can't hide yourself from being seen. 

The image was intended to tell the audience that you can't hide and the quicker you learn to accept yourself the happier you will be.

This image is a single image; It was not edited. To take this particular image I set the camera's shutter speed to 1 second and instructed the model to move her hand over her face once she heard the camera's lens close. This gave the camera enough time to capture her face and also part of the hands. This gave the ghostly effect on the hands of the model.

This final image shows the same character seen in the previous two images looking into a mirror whilst holding a lipstick in her hand. This image shows how people, usually females, aren't happy in their natural skin and feel empty without using makeup as a mask to cover up their imperfections. this image again was used to show the reality of the feelings that these type of people feel.

To edit all of these photos I simply adjusted them to black and white. I altered the colours depending on the image to create a balanced contrast between the black and white. The lighting within all of these images is very dull and dark which further enhances the emotion of the character. The lighting was not edited.