DSLR Photography | ISO 3200 | FStop 7.1 | Shutter Speed 1/200
Macro Photography
This week is the final week for the One Image Per Day Project. For this week we were tasked to do macro photography, to create small worlds with whatever we brought or could find. I brought a small container full of goodies and using those my group and I created the scenes in this project. I cannot say that the scene creation was entirely mine, it was a group effort, I'd create a scene then my group members would make a suggestion or modify the scene slightly.
In the image above the materials used are matches, plastic animal figures, shell pasta, river stones, hair clips, chalk, a found flower and the material that looks like sand is actually a type of coffee that I dislike.
Other materials that I had brought, which may be seen in the following images are; a branch of parsley, a steampunk-ish pocket watch, gummi bears and rice. The dinosaurs were brought over by Imogen, provided by the tutor, Imogen was also the person who found the flower seen on the rock in the background of the image above.
As for the reasoning for setting up and taking a photo of this scene, to put simply it was interesting. Our group didn't really plan any of the scenes, we just sort of put them together and created a story. In this image we have a dinosaur caught in a gummi bear-trap, being sacrificed. The matchsticks are torches, the chanter is the yellow cat in the background wearing a shell pasta hat and further in the background is the location or scenery for this sacrifice, along with other characters residing in this landscape. Another subtle aspect of this photo is the little red dust seen near the dinosaur towards the right of the image. This dust is actually residue from the chalk I brought after rubbing it on a piece of paper. This dust in this image is the sacrifices blood.
To explian how we came to this scene the following photos show the steps of scenes we created to come to this resolved scene.
Gummi Mischeif
To elaborate on the images above a little; All of these photos I edited in lightroom, adjusting temperature, exposure, contrast, vibrance and sharpness. Depending on what was going on in the image I set the temperatures a little differently. For example, if the scene was a malicious one, like the cat stalking the bears, then I would lower the temperature to reflect the maliciousness. On the other hand, if the scene was a somewhat innocent one then I'd increase the temperature like with the gummi bears and their food.
DSLR Photography | ISO 3200 | FStop 7.1 | Shutter Speed 1/200
Pink Dust
So while we were messing around with gummi bears, Madison suggested rubbing some chalk on paper. So I did, and this was the lovely macro effect I got when I took photos. Team effort!
Madison submitted an image of the chalk during the tutorial, as per instruction. Discussion about the image mentioned that the chalk could look like makeup, and that reminded me I had thought of bringing make up to take photos of, but I had forgotten.
I edited this photo in Lightroom, adjusting exposure, contrast, vibrance and sharpness to create the vivid image you see here.
Sacrifice and Death
So towards the end here we made a short story for our dinosaur, even if he ended up dead. All the images were edited in Lightroom, the same way as the first set of images, this maintaining continuity throughout the project, thus keeping everything nice and organised-looking. The image titled 'Funeral' I had to edit further in Photoshop, because the edge of the table could be seen and it detracted from the atmosphere of the photo.
The Outside World
After taking the photos indoors we decided to go outside to take some photos. We didn't stay out too long though, for fear it would rain. When we went outside Imogen spotted a vine hanging from a tree and decided to try hanging the cat from it. Technically this isn't my scene, so I won't take credit for it, but I will take credit for the photography. Although I really liked where she was heading with that so I stuck one of the dinosaurs on one of the thicker vines. So that was a scene inspired by Imogen, can I take credit for that?
I really liked how these photos turned out, I'm especially intrigued with the bokeh effect that's happening in the background. I adjusted these images in Lightroom just as I had adjusted all the rest in this project.
