What were some key discoveries in this module in terms of your creative process? (It may be useful to break this down into the different phases of creative inspirations, pre-production planning and organization, the actual shoot, and post-production and presentation)
This assignment has helped me discover how I can be creative without needing to spend so much money to achieve stylistic results and how important it is to change the environment of photography shoots to get a different perspective of the same set-up. For my inspiration, the photographer I chose is Oswaldo Cepeda who shares emotions through euphoric, dreamlike environments in his photography. He highly specializes in lighting as his focal feature when pre-producing his work. His ability to share radiant emotion through highlighting his portraits is what inspires me, and why I chose him to stylistically imitate for my assignment. His work is difficult to master as it involves a lot of darkness to be able to emit a dramatic flow of light. As well as the hazy undertone he applies to make his photos euphoric, he uses a smoke machine which is something a little out of range for me to produce a copy of. However, his style has inspired me to try and imitate to the best of my ability.
Figure 1 Figure 2
What is most important to me is that Oswaldo Cepeda doesn’t necessarily go for an all-out technological dystopian look, and instead is elegant yet moody. I enjoy the pleasant feeling his models have when they are surrounded by warm glows and romantic objects. I also enjoy the opposite when his models are air-like and drift into a cold sea of blue and cooler-toned colours
Figure 3 Figure 4
During the Pre-production stage, I planned sketches of ideas for what I wanted my sets to look like as a guide. They aren’t exactly artistic sketches, more so a way for me to figure out what lighting colour I wanted to use and where set objects would rest. I ended up following through with 3 ideas and changing the rest. Planning the look of the sets helped me be cost-effective when purchasing props and realising what I could use from my belongings at home.
(Figure is Author illustration photograph)
Planning the set, I have an empty corner of my room that I set the props up in. I planned an elegant fairy light fort for the first idea. I used pillows, fairy lights and a mirror. The second set was a party with confetti on the floor and tinsel on the wall. Setting up was simple. For lighting, I mainly used my desk lamp and my sunset lamp. The fairy lights add a wonderful glow to the lit-up colours of the wall. We did the shoot at night since my room is pretty light and has lots of windows.
(Figures are Author photographs)
Beginning the shoot, I made sure to reflect on previous learning when it came to the exercises that we did during weeks 1 and 2. I wanted to create a layout that fits my sister (who is my model) for the shoot. I brainstormed what fits her personality and what characteristically speaks her name. My sister loves the colour blue, so that was an important feature of the lighting hues that I used. My sister’s features are also a factor in what colours I used. She has dirty blonde hair and light skin, so I did some shoots on lighter colour tones and focused on her modern fashion features. During the shoot, I moved the lighting around a lot to try and apply a high contrast to the highlights and shadows. I wanted the extra lighting such as the fairy lights to really stand out as well and act as stars and glowing objects. This is a prominent feature in Oswaldo Cepeda’s work as he enjoys applying a blur effect to his extra lighting objects when he shoots portraits. Sometimes certain ideas did not play out how I expected, which is another reason why the prepared sketches didn’t all make the cut. I had to improvise and come up with solutions that could represent Oswaldo Cepeda’s style in my work to the best of my ability. Some solutions were to change the sunset hue colour, steering away from yellow and light blues as they don’t provide a dramatic effect. I also changed the distance between my sister and my camera to try and amplify the quality of her portrait rather than expand to the environment. Overall during the shoot, I learnt a lot about model position and how lighting really plays a role in highlighting the features I want to portray of my sister.
Photos from shoot
(examples not final) (Figures are Author photographs)
During post-production, I ended up focusing on furthering the depth of the highlights compared to the shadows to really display a dramatic line between figure and ground. I wanted to alter things that my iPhone camera couldn’t connect to what my eyes could see. In Adobe Lightroom, I usually only focused on changing the contrast which would apply to the shadows and highlights. The only other feature that really stood out was the colour mixer where I could focus on the colour hue on the images and brighten or darken their tone.
These are the final 5 that I chose for my Assignment, I was most pleased with these and felt that they mimicked the style of Oswaldo Cepeda the best. (Figures are Author photographs)
Ultimately, working on this assignment has helped me learn the importance of experimentation and to challenge myself in replicated stylistic features I enjoy from a starting point. I learnt that creating artistic photography is about the desire to photograph, to sense meaning through colour, figures and objects. How they can share a story and give a sense of environment. Working through this experimentation has also ensured me the ability to create photography through manual adjustments to the iPhone camera. The editing post-production process has allowed me to enhance the quality of my work through distinct functions that I can enhance all differently, and how one image can become many others based on how I filter and adjust its components. I really enjoyed challenging myself to shoot photography in my room, as if it were a once-off studio. It made me imagine how much you can create in a small space. The first few weeks of Uses of Photography have helped me learn more about the social meaning towards photography and why we take photos as part of our everyday lives. I will continue to learn and grow, and experiment with other styles in my future works, with new practices and mindsets.
IMAGE SOURCES
Figure 1 – Cepeda O, MoodyDarkRoom (February 8th 2023) Like you less, Instagram website, Accessed August 4th 2023, URL: https://www.instagram.com/p/CoXkzAIpn9k/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Figure 2 – Cepeda O, MoodyDarkRoom (January 18 2023) Into the light, Instagram website, Accessed August 4th 2023, URL: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cnhca_XpvVg/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Figure 3 – Cepeda O, MoodyDarkRoom (May 2022) Blue Fashion Photos, Instagram website, Accessed August 4th 2023, URL: https://www.instagram.com/p/CsNFuSwpDYI/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Figure 4 – Cepeda O, MoodyDarkRoom (April 5th 2022) Dancing in the dark, Instagram website, Accessed August 4th 2023, URL: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cb88oK0FWu1/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==