Techniques: Blur: Work Diary Evaluation -

Blur - 

Equipment Used: 
Canon EOS 450D, standard lens, tripod, Photoshop CC 2014. 

Settings: 
Indoor Studio: (TV) 1.3", ISO 100
Outdoor: (TV) 13", ISO 100

Lighting: 
Indoor Studio: No lighting except for torch.
Outdoor: Natural outdoor lighting.

Theory: 
The first series is about mental illness and the mental state of many young people; I wanted my blur photography to stand as a reminder of the position of youth in modern society. 

My second series is about the position of youth generally in society and how they identify; the youth of today are often shaped by their music hence the Arctic Monkeys and The Neighbourhood inspired album art alongside the flatlining heart monitor to show the journey we go on whilst transitioning from children to adults. 

Favourite Image/ Series:

(Duality)

(Confusion/ Anxiety)

(Metamorphosis)

This small series was the better of the two attempts as it more accurately exemplifies the technique of blur as the oxford dictionary defines it. Additionally, a favourite photographic style of mine is long exposure photography of people. This blur technique fits my ideas of long exposure more so than the below series which was an experimentation with shutter speed. Furthermore, the combination of long exposure with portraiture creates an eerie ghost like style to the photographic series. I wanted my technique practice to have a conceptual theory behind it in that it became a study of mental health rather than just being an image depicting blur. In photoshop I selected the outline of the subjects' clothing and changed it to black and white to remove some of the vibrancy and saturation and to further link the final outcome to my idea of a ghost-like state. However, if I was to re-take this shoot I would plan ahead and ask my subject to dress according to the theme to make the post-production editing more simple thus resulting in a more powerful outcome. Although, another reason that this series was successful was the employment of a tripod which significantly reduced the background blurring and allowed the blur to remain solely on the foreground. 

Least Favourite Image/ Series:

(Mentality/ Music/ Arctic Monkeys)

(Flatlining)

(Neighbourhood/ Home)

This series was the lesser of my favourites for a few reasons. Firstly, the series does not fit the brief as directly for the images were created using a long exposure but do not necessarily display blur in the same respect as the above photographs. Secondly, the shapes that I wanted to create were more difficult than expected and the subject had issues producing them as neatly as hoped for. Moreover, I accidentally achieved lens glare which was to be expected in a darkened studio alongside the use of singular bright white light but this was not the crisp appearance of line I was aiming for. However, a positive about this shoot was that the symbolic semiotic signs link well to the theory that was behind the shoot. Additionally, the lines of light did achieve some blurring in certain situations; specifically, a the end of a line on each photograph which fits somewhat with the technique brief. In the post-production process I edited the image using Photoshop CC 2014 where I increased the brightness of the lines, increased the contrast between the light and dark regions and finally turned the images black and white to eliminate the yellowing/ tungsten tone of the lighting. After the outlined editing I felt that the image began to fit my aspirational aesthetic but did not quite as much as the favourite series. 

Evaluation and Development - 

I find this shoot to be of varying degrees of success. For instance, the technique of blur is very similar to that of multiple flash or slow sync flash and as such is a technique that I have admired and was looking forward to explore. These two mini series are successful for various reasons; some being the ability to create a photograph that does not exist for the purpose of being aesthetically pleasing but instead to infer a meaning or to project an iconic or symbolic sign. As a result, the anti-norm nature of a deliberately blurred photograph makes it a good subject for exploring the theme of surrealism. 

I will not be using this technique in reference to fashion as the clothing would need to be in focus. Although, I could employ this technique in reference to the more surreal nature of my project due to the unusual element of movement in a photograph. For instance, my plan for my final shoot is to capture a series inspired by movement in a still frame and the idea of using mental health as a theme is one that I believe I could explore further possibly in my final photographic shoot.