This week I completed my individual interview task. I chose to interview my mother because of the very different way she completed her education – through night school while also working full time at the department of social security. Not only did I feel this would be an interesting subject to compare with my own studies, but I also wanted to know more about what the experience itself was like for her as well.
The password is Hello!459
While I was really pleased with the overall look of the shot, the framing, lighting and compositional choices I made, I also did this at a compromise. I was adamant at doing this interview task outdoors, so this created a great strain on my audio. Not only was there echoing construction noise, but tour groups came into the area consistently, as well as low wind noise occasionally. I do not usually sacrifice audio for the sake of a shot, but I did for this exercise, especially since there were limited options that were aesthetically pleasing to me on location on the day, and there were time constraints, as my mum had to leave soon. On top of this, however, due to my under the weather state, I did not take the time to check most of the details that I should have. I will admit that I did not check the gain, and worst of all, I did not check the focus.
While I could sit here all night explaining how that major mis-step occurred, I could also talk about why I think it happened and yet again, why it won’t happen next time I shoot. When I looked in the lense in my sleep-deprived state, it seemed to be in focus, or at least, good enough. But, when I zoomed in later on and when I looked at the image in post production, I noticed that my mother was slightly fuzzy and the plane of focus was actually on the wall just behind her, making her look as though she were a movie star from the golden age of cinema. While this shot is still useable as you can still see the detail on her face, the sharpness isn’t there and that just would have made the shot much easier to read and, well, focus on.
After seeing the over exposed areas in my last camera practice I learnt to always go under half a stop if you are unsure if it is exposed correctly. After this exercise I have learnt to always check the focus and to not play so fast and loose with such important settings.
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