Week 6 Blog Entry: w/c 26th October 2020 - Creative Enterprise

This week, I started taking more photos for my final outcomes. I want to end up with a large range of techniques that I can use when it comes to finally making my cards. This week's shoot focused on bokeh, macro and camera shake. I used tinsel, fairly lights and a small Christmas tree decoration.

For the bokeh shot, I used some fairy lights. I moved in quite close to them and turned my shutter speed down low and my aperture up high. This didn't really effect the steadiness of the image, so I didn't need to use a tripod. I then zoomed the lens so that the lights were out-of-focus. This created the bokeh effect. I really liked this technique, as the effect removes the obvious signs of the cable from the lights, so they just look like small circles of light floating in the air. I also think that the mixture of colours works really well and fits into the pop-art trend, rather than just being the standard blue, green, yellow and red colours. The second image is one created using camera shake. This required a much slower shutter speed. When I come to actually creating my final outcomes, I might try having the shutter speed even lower, so I have time to draw some sort of festive shape out of the lights.

The image above are created using the out-of-focus and bokeh technique. I think if I tried this shoot again, I might need to decrease the aperture slightly to bring out more detailing in the camera shake images, simply because you can't see the tinsel that is supposed to be in that image.

My favourite effect from this shoot was the tinsel I used to make a Christmas tree. At first, I thought about lying it all on the floor, but when I came to actually take the photo, I couldn't fit it all in the frame. Instead, I used safety pins and masking tape to pin and stick the tinsel to the black background. This worked much better and I could fit the tinsel in the frame. I used a single softbox off on the right-hand side of the subject. This produced enough light for the subject and because the tinsel is shiny, it reflected the light off it enough that I could create light trails with it. I then used camera shake to create different outcomes. You can still see the outline of a Christmas tree in each of the photos, but I think this adds a bit more creativity to it, rather than it just being a standard Christmas tree. I think if I do this shoot again, I'm definitely going to try using different coloured tinsel on either side. I think this will fit into the pop-art trend, with the bright colours.

The image on the left is one of the effects I managed to achieve with the camera shake. I particularly like this one because the length of each light trail is perfect for the outline of the tree. I think if they had been any shorter they wouldn't have been as effective and if they were longer, the outline of the tree wouldn't have been as obvious. I think it fills out more of the black blank space without being too overbearing. During editing, I will make the colours a lot brighter and I might add a star or some festive decorations to it.

The last thing I tried was some shots of a Christmas tree decoration I had. I experimented with some light trails and different, interesting angles. I wasn't as happy with the outcomes for this one. I think it was becuase I couldn't really find an angle that was different or that hadn't been done before. I will try editing a few next week to see if I can make anything of them. I did like the lighting in some of them however, as I only used lighting on the right-hand side of the subject and it did make a nice atmospheric photo. I'm just not sure it fits in with the festive theme.

Based on some feedback I received from my lecturer, I decided to try something a little bit different for my final pieces - stitching thread into the card. To do this, I think stitching text into the card will be easier and less messy than trying to stitch an image. With my abstract already looking quite complex, I don't want to overdo it with the stitching. To do this, I picked out a number of different fonts and typed "Merry Christmas" into Word. I did this a number of times and then changed each one to a font that I though best represented Christmas. I printed off the words onto card rather then paper, so that I'd have something more substantial to sew through. I then poked numerous holes along the shape of each letter and using the techniques shown on https://www.threadandwhisk.com/embroidered-stitch-card, I started sewing the outline of each letter. This was quite difficult for me, as I don't feel as though I have a very steady hand or an eye for sewing. I did really enjoy trying to find out which font would be the most suitable for my Christmas cards, as I needed something that wasn't too over the top and clashed with the abstract image.

I started laying out my research folder this week, so that I know exactly what I've researched. I have decided that I'm going to number the pages of and catagorise all of my reseach and write the page number of my research next to my analysis of it. This will allow me to collect all of my thoughts together and help me to clarify where I am and what needs doing next. I have started printing out some contact sheets for all of the shoots that I've done, so I can see which images I'm likely to use or recreate again.

Next week, I will start looking into actually creating my final pieces. Everything that I've done over half-term has helped me to decide exactly what I want to do for my final pieces. Photography-wise, I'm going to focus on creating my abstract Christmas tree, bokeh Christmas lights and perhaps one of the little tree decoration. I might do more with the latter to see what other effects I can create that are new and interesting. I really want to try using different coloured tinsel for my Christmas trees and I could even use the different colours as seperate designs. At least then, this'll give my customers a choice on what colours they would prefer. I would then be something that I could consider for every year.