Shoot One - Work Record

For this shoot, I decided I would use the studio to take my pictures rather than taking them on location. I decided this as my plan was to make heavily images with my shoot, and when I'm shooting in the studio i can control the conditions such as lighting to get a more evenly exposed image to use while editing.

For the shoot itself, i hoped to achieve well exposed portrait images of my subject that would be good for me to edit a texture over their face. However, for the edits and shoot as a whole, I hope to create a photoshopped image in which a texture has be placed over my subject's face to represent the emotions felt by somebody who is suffering from depression.

Here is the edit that came out of the shoot, which I feel is the best image to come out of the shoot overall.

I feel this image came out well and achieved what I wanted it to achieve. I used the picture I felt was best exposed and had my subject in the best suited pose and facial expression. I chose a deadpan facial expression with a hint of sadness as I felt it would portray the subject of depression very well. To make this edit, I first went onto the internet to look for textures to represent depression that I could edit over the face. At first I was looking from brain scans from people diagnosed with clinical depression, however, I couldn't find any of them that were big enough for my needs, so I decided to search for cracked ground textures instead. I ended up with a cracked mud texture, and went for a bright floral background to put the edit on, as I felt this would create a contrasting mood to the image of the face. I placed the mud texture over the face and then cut it to fit the shape of the face., Next, I changed the opacity of the layer so that the face could be seen behind it. I began to cut out some sections of the mud layer so that sections of the face poked through the texture. I did this to represent true parts of your personality still being visible through the depression, and as a representation of hope. Once this image had been made, i placed it on the background and then flattened the image, having finished the edit.

This is an image from my shoot that I feel didn't come out very well.

This is one of the few I decided to take from a mid shot perspective. I decided quickly that mid shot was not the best perspective to use for the images as I wanted detailed facial expressions. This image I feel was not very effective for a few reasons. One reason is the facial expression on my subject; I feel he looked too happy, and this facial expression wouldn't have fit with the fairly dark tone I was going for with my shoot and edit. Another reason why I feel this image is unsuccessful is because of the framing; the image has been framed in a way that the the ceiling above the background, and as at the time I wasn't sure whether I was going to be using the background provided or replacing it with something else in Photoshop, I decided the image was not usable.

For future shoots, I hope to further explore the subject of representations of mental illness, as well as expanding my ideas to include the social stigma of mental illness. For my next shoot, I would like to incorporate makeup to represent mental illness, taking a physical art approach rather than a digital  art approach.