Media Production One- Photography- Object. Bonnie Bray U

The Ideas I Had-

Idea 1- The Pine Cone For my first idea for the project I would have liked to use the techniques of having black and white images with spot colour. I had inspiration for the idea from my research photographer Kingyousy, of having hands holding an object. I would have had the background black and white while the object and/or the hands being in colour. I would have done this by using the technique spot colour in post production, editing the image on photo shop. This is similar to my chosen photographer Kingyousy. I had an idea of using a pine cone as my object. This is because of its unusual shape, pattern and texture. I also like the brown colour of the pine cone as I feel the tone of it will not distract the viewer’s attention when viewing the image. This is because I wanted the hands to be a focus point of the image too. This is different from the photo I chose by Kingyousy because within his image he has used a marble which is very bright and is the first thing you see when looking at the photo.

Idea 2- The Wedding Ring (My Final Idea) Whilst trying to create a story about pine cones, I discovered it was harder than I first anticipated. However, I have come up with a new idea. Sticking to my previous idea about my pictures being abstract, and using the technique of being black and white with the use of spot colour, I will change my idea to show the life span of a wedding ring. I will still use my chosen photographer as inspiration by showing the wedding ring on a hand. I will use the spot colour to keep the ring in colour and make everything else black and white. This will keep the ring the central topic of the images, even when it could be one of the smallest parts. I will not only show the life span of the wedding ring, but also the life span of a stereotypical married women, by adding a twist and showing how she, herself, can be a object too. My new idea isn’t really showing how the wedding ring is an object, it’s showing how it can be used as a symbol of possession. Some more ideas for individual images within my five image sequence; – A close up of the ring in a box. – The ring being placed on a young hand – Having a middle aged hand with the ring on doing house work; such as holding a mop/broom/hoover, doing the washing up, dusting, doing the washing and many more household chores. – Hand with ring on over face to show the women is crying. – A hand wrapped around the woman’s neck to show possession and violence towards her. – Elderly hands with the ring on crossed over chest to represent death. There are many more possibility to go along with this idea.

My Final Choice Of Idea- Why? I wanted to do something to show how marriage can be beautiful but can also be dark and abusive. The media often portrays marriage as a happy thing but for some it can be dark and difficult so I wanted to show that anything could happen in life and that every possibility should be thought through.

Project Summery In the project, we had to produce 5 images showing a story around an object. So within my project I decided to portray how a ring can not only be an object in itself but can be a symbol of how a person can be an object and treated like an object. This ties in with my theme of it being abstract as it is not one of the first things that come to mind when a marriage is mentioned, so I think the meaning behind my project it also abstract. We needed to make our images black and white and could use spot colour. Our first image has to be a close up of the object we want to use.

Form, Style and Technique

Pre Production During pre production I thought about the task that was being asked of me. I needed to take a series of 5 photos of a object that crates a story or conveys a message. First of all I thought about what could be a object or what could be treated as a object. I thought that people could be treated as objects and especially within marriage. After thinking into this I thought that It would be a good idea to use a ring as a object to be a symbol of ownership over a person. I then wondered how I could create a story with 5 photos that expressed the meaning that I wanted them to. So I made notes of what situations I could recreate when taking the photos.

Production During production I wanted to make sure I had as many photos to work with as possible to make sure I had the best chance of getting the best set of 5 photos during post production. I took the photos in order of how I wanted them to lay out within their set. So I started with the close up of the ring as this had to be the first photo and then went on to show how things could change from there within marriage. I also took photos of more than five situation so that if I did not like the out come of one I had another choice during post production. Camera angles- I thought about my camera angles very carefully because I wanted to represent the power balance through them. When I wanted the wearer of the ring to have more power then I used a high angle to show they have power and that things are looking up for them. But when I wanted to show they didn’t have power I used a low angle to make it look as thing things are down and are not so good because they are being controlled. landscape I chose to use landscape because I wanted to tell a story. I thought landscape told a story in its own right because you can see a wider frame of image so you can fit a lot more of your surroundings in. so this best fit into my project because I want to tell a story with my images.

Post Production During post production I created a contact sheet of all the photos I had taken then used that to tick of the good and usable ones. I then created a second contact sheet of the chosen ones and created a series of 5 photos that I am using and that also creates a story when put in a certain order and gives of a message about abuse and ownership. Within this project we were expected to make our images black and white and we were allowed to use spot colour. I liked the idea because I thought within my idea I'm focusing on how people can be treated like a object within marriage. So black and white will, in my opinion, go very well within the theme I am trying to portray. I used red as my spot colour within two of my five images as I thought it was a appropriate colour to choose because I think it portrays the right themes that I want to portray. Within marriage there is a lot of love and passion which can be represented by red. But in some marriages there's a lot of violence and anger which can also be portrayed by red. So as you can see this is the perfect colour for my project. I found a quote for my first which relates to my idea perfectly. “OBJECT- A person or thing to which a specified action or feeling is directed.” This is because I want the object to be used as a symbol of objectification towards the person wearing it.

Post production- Photo Shop While in the editing process I used photo shop. I started with my starting image and edited each photo one at a time in the order they went to make sure I keep them at all the same level and to also keep we organised so I know what order they go in and how many I have done. I used the levels tool on photo shop on all my images. This is because I wanted the blacks within the image to be very dark and the whites really white. I thought this showed the difference of how a marriage is portrayed to be and how some relationships can be. I also used the burn tool to shaded some areas to make them darker too.

Abstract Techniques Abstract- “relating to or denoting art that does not attempt to represent external reality, but rather seeks to achieve its effect using shapes, colours, and textures.” – Google Define. Within my project i wanted my work to be abstract. This is so my viewers can take their own meanings and inspiration from my images. I tried to use close ups and angles to make my images abstract within the production process. I also used focus and blur to make them abstract too. I tried to do this during the production and post- production process. By doing this I changed the focus point within the image and attracted the viewers eye away from the center of the image. This also creates a new view, layer and depth to the image. I also used photo shop to do this just to give it that extra boost what I couldn’t with just a camera. By deciding to make my images abstract I feel I have given my self a lot more freedom within this project because I was able to push the boundary's a lot more. I didn’t have to keep the images clear and in focus. Although focusing is important to me it is not always necessary to me when trying to capture a image. Because you may not want to main focus of the image to be in focus because the surroundings may be more important at the time. I feel abstract is more my style of photography because I think its important to push your creativity as far as you can and I feel abstract photography gives you the freedom to do so.

Audiences I feel my images can be viewed by everyone but not understood by everyone. I feel that young adults+ can understand my images because they will be aware of the things like domestic abuse are going on. I also feel that my images are intended for charity organizations that help people who are experiencing this. Such as- Refuge Womensaid Advanceadvocacyproject standingtogether

Influences MARBLES ARE COOL II BY KINGYOUSY Here is an image by the photographer Kingyousy, which he decided to call ‘Marbles are cool II’. I have chosen this photo and photographer as an inspiration towards this module as I like the use of his techniques, such as hue and saturation, spot colour and focusing. His composition allows the close up of the marble to be emphasised alongside the blur of the background, whilst using the rule of thirds to make the marble the full focus of the image. I feel that we can come up with many meanings to this photo. Where has the marble come from? Why is this person holding the marble? What could the marble mean? My own meanings of this photo- It could represent the Earth. This is because the marble is blue and the background is in black and white. This shows the earth has life and is in the middle of the darkness of space where there might not be life. Me might be alone in the middle of space. This might be why the marble is in the middle of the photo. This image could also have a religious meaning. This is because of the hand holding the marble. The marble could once again represent the Earth and the hand could represent a God like figure and the Earths fate is in their hands. Cool-II Marbles are Cool II by kingyousy To see more photos by kingyousy go to

Evaluation I am happy with my final five images as they do what I want them to do. They show a life span of a wedding ring. The ring always stays the same but the situations around it change. The ring is a object but it is also a symbol of how someone can be treated as an object. If I were to redo this project again I would of taken a few more days to shoot my images so I could of taken my time more and thought about my shots more. This would have given me the best chance of capturing the perfect images and would of gave me more time for planning. Having more time to take the photos would of meant I would of had more time to edit them too. This would of also meant that I would be able to spend more time on each photo its self and would have had more time to change more things on them and to correct any errors. I would of also had more time to look into a wider range of editing skills so that I could of learnt how to do more to the images and learnt more on photo shop than what I already knew how to do.

The Five images-

Why I chose them? I chose these five images because I thought they were the best five I had and they best fit together to create a story. I liked their framing and their style and they didn’t need much work during the post production so this saved me a lot of time and hard work.

How I chose them? I used a short listing technique to choose my images by creating contact sheets of all my photos then selecting the usable ones and creating another contact sheet. Then selecting my chosen five images out of that. When choosing my images I made sure they fit together to tell a story and where also up to a good standard so I could use them. I looked at the focusing, framing and rule of thirds.

Any Questions?