Best Image From Photoshoot 06-05-21
In figure one, my best image from the photoshoot (06-05-21), a woman is holding up her clenched hands in a manner that strongly suggests frustration while her face is surrounded by her hair, evoking a suffocating mood. I like this image best because it portrays my mother’s frustration in a unique way that shows that her state of vexation is not unjustified and spontaneous. Her anger has always looked like it was unnecessary from the perspective of her child who was significantly unaware of her past and current situations. I particularly liked that you can see that blonde despite the model being intentionally overexposed as it reminded me of my mother’s hair which was something I used to fixate on as a child since I wanted to be blonde so I could be more similar to my mother as I always viewed her as my hero. I initially didn’t particularly appreciate one detail when capturing this image was seeing the model’s shadow behind her. Still, after editing the photo, I have grown to like it as I feel it represents the shadow of my mother’s former self that passively accepted what people perceived her as.
In figure two, I created the red effect through Lightroom. First, I started by selecting the brush tool. I chose the midsection of the model’s overexposed body as it had not been correctly overexposed, and they’re still some visible details of the clothing. Then I increased the highlights, contrast and whites while lowering the clarity and dehaze to ensure that the viewer could see no more details on the model’s midsection. Afterwards, I selected the brush tool again. I selected the entire background and the model’s hair to slightly lower the shadows, clarity, highlights and shadows in the image to bring out the details within the flowering shrubbery.
Lastly, I changed the shadows and highlight to red with a saturation of 100 while leaving the mid-tones alone, refer to figure three. To heighten the red effect, I lowered the tint of the overall image to -34 and increased the vibrancy to +7, refer to figure four. Hence, there was a stark difference between the model and the background, then emoted through the image of how encompassing frustration and anger can be for anyone.
My mother said this is one of her favourite images compared to the other images I had captured during this project, as it portrays how she felt when she was first sectioned, trapped, and unable to breathe. She said that she loved how she looked like the model was on fire as that is sometimes how she feels when she’s overwhelmed with her emotions, whether they are good or bad emotions. Yet despite all of this, my mother said this image illustrates the beauty within her frustration and symbolises that she’s alive.
