shoot 3

Landscapes and Writing - Charlie Waite and Nancy Hellebrand

Waite's work:

Charlie Waite's work features natural elements such as trees, mountains and the sky. His works are usually quite vibrant in colour but the colours are more soft than harsh, this could be due to the natural light he uses in his works. The nature theme could be linked with empowerment, beauty or growth.

In his photographs, there is a common theme of having a colour gradient. This refers to the different colours that join one another in a photograph. For example, this picture shows a colour gradient of yellow, orange, green and pink. 

This photo seems as if it represents growth. The size scale represented by the trees could refer to life, growth and change. This would be relevant as everything in nature grows, and his main theme is naturalistic elements.

I have been inspired by Charlie Waite's work as I think that naturalistic photos such as his images would tie smoothly with writing photography styles such as Nancy Hellebrand's. They both have themes of life and development, and there are many creative ways to combine the two photography styles. As some of Waite's images are difficult to capture, such as mountains, I will focus mostly on trees or plants for my images.

Image Bank:

I intend to create photos that will be similar to this, featuring inspiration from Charlie Waite and Nancy Hellebrand. The naturalistic elements of Waite's work combines with the personal tones writing of Hellebrand's photos will create a detailed image of layered photographs. I also intend to explore a different writing style such as using digitally printed words or stamped words.

Contact Sheet:

Photos to use:

These pictures of the writing I created will work best for these edits as they are very clear. The flash used enabled this writing to be more defined against the paper, therefore making it easier to edit the pictures to then layer and finally adjust. These shots are framed the best for me to progress to crop, as they are taken at the straightest angle.

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These images of trees are the ones I will use for my final edits as they are the most in focus and well framed photos. Whilst Waite's images are more zoomed out than mine, I wanted mine to be slightly further in to match with the close up writing. The lighting in these images is soft and shaded, similar to Waite's images. To edit these pictures I will slightly brighten them and increase the contrast, but ultimately keep the softness of the colours.

Photos that didn't turn out well:

             

I won't use these photos in my final edits. The main reason that these photos are not successful is due to them being too close up. Close up images doesn't represent Waite's style, and it would clash with the writing due to the lack of negative space. As well as this, there are unwanted features in the frames, such as a person and a wall. Lastly, the photos are not fully in focus, and therefore the final edits would be slightly blurry.

Editing Process:

I firstly edited the photos of the trees. This was relatively simple, starting with increasing the brightness and contrast slightly whilst still keeping the colours soft. I then slightly increased the vibrance and saturation to define the photo. Next, I very slightly increased the lightness of the photo as it was still slightly dull and moody. Lastly, I just corrected the exposure by putting it up slightly. This created a soft effect to the image and making it ready for further layering.

 

  

Once the first picture is edited, I then move on to editing the writing image. This is started by cropping the image down to the desired frame where only the writing you want on the final image is left. Next, if the ink is not black then the picture should be converted into black and white. Once the image is in black and white I edit the brightness and contrast by putting them all the way up. This creates clear definition between the white paper and the black ink. After this, I change the exposure to define the ink shapes. To finish the edit I will slightly adjust the vibrance to check there are no other colours in the image. Once they are edited I dragged and layered the two edits. I selected to "Multiply" and "Divide" my layers to get the writing in black and in white. 

  

  

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Final Images:

Final Analysis:

I think that this shoot was very successful. The final edits show different creativities and skills as well as heavily reflecting the themes of Hellebrand and Waite. The soft colours contrasted with heavy ink create an interesting photograph and makes the personal tones from the handwriting stand out rather than being lost by bold colours and harsh lighting. I believe that these pictures reflect the research carried out prior to my shoots. If I were to re-attempt this shoot, I would try taking my pictures from further away as Charlie Waite does. I would also explore even more writing styles. In this shoot I used writing with pens and with ink and stamps. In the future i could write digitally or use paint. To develop the idea of combining writing photography with other photography styles, I could explore portraiture.