Relationship - Fire - Final

This is the photograph I have chosen for my final from my beach fire shoot.
I struggled with noise in the top half of the image where it is very dark. I had a play with some tools such as contrast and clarity to try and mask this a little. I did this because I didn't want to clone any of the image as that would change the information within in it, so I just tried to hide it slightly but overwhelming the small white dots with black with manipulation tools. Despite this problem, I still feel that this is the strongest of the 3 images and best shows relationship.


One of the reasons I chose this photograph over the 2 was that it shows is very natural. I took the image off to the side and slightly behind a dune so that the 3 friends didn't know it was being taken.

Also, the lighting shed across my subjects and the small amount coming through the grass on the right of the frame add aesthetic appeal.

Relationship - Fire - Final 3

Below are the final 3 images from the second shoot that I am far more pleased with than the shots from the first shoot.

What I really like about this first image is the closeness of the two friends, Sarah and Emily. They have had a close relationship as friends for a long time and are clearly very comfortable around each other. This is emphasized by the blanket covering them both to keep warm on a cold winters evening.

I composed this image to have the fire in the foreground because I loved the way the light lit my subjects and gradually faded as it got further up their bodies. It shows how small this pocket of light on a vast beach was and emphasizes even more the closeness of the relationship/friendship.

I had to use a graduated filter in post production in order to ensure the fire wasn’t too over exposed and that my subjects weren’t too under exposed. This was not possible to do in the camera without the use of a flash lighting up the two girls because the only light source was the fire which was in the frame.

I chose this photo for one of my final 3 because I love the backdrop. In the other two images you can see small bits of light from houses behind, whereas in this image it is completely blacked out. This means there is no distraction away from the subject and does not give any unimportant information. Also, this image shows all 3 friends comfortably sat together to show their relationship. They do not appear to notice that the photograph is being taken which means they are not posing and the image is very natural.

As before, the fire (my only light source for the shoot) is in the foreground of the image lighting up my subjects aesthetically with a yellow glow. Although the light is fairly dim on the subjects faces, it shows enough of their expressions to determine who they are. I tried to lighten them further in post production but this also increased the noise levels in the image and I decided that having a very clear shot of their faces was not the most important part of the image.



One of the main aspects of the photo I really liked is how I used the sand dune in the right of the shot to frame my image. Also, the light coming through the grass in this area adds an aesthetic feel to the photo along with the light coming off the fire.

Similar to the last shot, the friends appear to be acting very naturally as if the photograph wasn't being taken making it more realistic and informative.

I struggled with noise in the top half of the image where it is very dark. I had a play with some tools such as contrast and clarity to try and mask this a little. I did this because I didn't want to clone any of the image as that would change the information within in it, so I just tried to hide it slightly but overwhelming the small white dots with black with manipulation tools.

Relationships - Fire - Second Shoot

As explained before, I was not entirely happy with my first shoot of the friends around the fire due to poor lighting and very noisy photographs. Having said this, I still really liked the idea and composition of the photographs that I had already shot so I decided to reshoot with the same group of friends the next day at Sandbanks beach in Poole, Dorset.

This shoot went far more to plan and I got 3 images that I am pleased with. The fire shed more light over my subjects and the environment of the beach helped me emphasise the relationship between Mitchell, Sarah and Emily.

Relationships - Fire - Final 3

These 3 images were originally my 3 final 8x10 prints. After looking back at them carefully I decided that the level of noise from the low light and therefore high ISO really ruined the images for me and took away the attention from the 'relationship' in the images. Therefore, I went out again on the 02/02/2015 to shoot with the same group of friends at a different location, Sandbanks beach, Poole to try and get similar images but of better quality.


I really liked the idea behind this first image because is shows the close relationship between the two teenagers without showing any detail due to it being a silhouette. The closeness of them both shows the relationship and is aesthetically back lit by the fire.






These two images are very similar but shot from slightly different angles. The first (on the right) shows a happy a fun side of the friendship/relationship of the two people as they seem to share a joke. Both of these images also show a very nice contrast between the huge burst of light from the fire in comparison to the complete black out of the back drop. I did not use a flash in any of these images because I felt that the light from the fire gave a far better, natural and warmer feeling to the photograph and suited the brief of relationships better. I thought a relationships photograph where the subjects do not seem to know I'm present e.g. no flash or posing makes for a far more powerful and informative image.

Relationship - Fire

I did this shoot in Lytchett Matravers, a village in Dorset, where a group of friends had a fire in a private field on 01/02/2015. I found it extremely difficult to take well exposed photographs due to the lighting being extremely poor. Therefore, I was having to shoot at between 4000 and 6400 ISO meaning I lost a lot of quality and the photos generally were very grainy.

In an attempt to get around this, I only took photos when my subjects were very close to the fire and the light source was very bright. Although this helped eliminate some grain, some quality was still lost.

Relationships - Ideas

Second Semester - PEP140