Photographs Not Taken: A Collection of Photographers' Essays

http://www.daylightmagazine.org/store/photographs-not-taken

I think this would be a great investment for any of you guys who are photo majors, it's only $15 !
It seems like it would be a useful tool to help us better understand how to talk about photographs, which will help in the long-run in our careers. I know I struggle with talking about images in a well informed manner, so I just thought I would share this incase anyone is interested in this cheap resource.

Ellyce final

I have been having a very difficult time finding images that echo the aesthetic I am attempting to create.  The images that I am posting here, I have only chosen because of their spots of red, though my red will be created in the darkroom, not necessarily in the negative.

As for color, I think that I will be printing my images on the slightly cool side, but mostly just ranging from more neutral to more cool as well as from naturally saturated to very light.  I will burn in areas with the safe light and the cyan filter (to get red) as well. 

My model is wearing colors that are either primarily allied with the background or primarily complementary to the background.  In using those colors I hope to highten and lower tension throughout the piece.

I have had some difficulties in working with my model simply because of how uncomfortable she is in front of a camera, but I hope to get some good shots nevertheless.

final colors stuff

My final is going to be an investigation of sites, post-human interaction. This goes further than abandonment; the confusing, bizarre leftovers of human interaction with a place is what I wan't to focus on. I'm going to be shooting in overcast conditions or under shade. I don't want any direct, harsh light on my subjects. I'm going for a bleak, cool feel in my photographs. Very neutral in color, alot of greens and blues.

Here are some examples of inspiration for my stylistic/aesthetic approach for my project.

Alec Soth

Alec Soth

Ed Panar

Alec Soth

final project

For my final, I'm wanting to do a series of pictures that focuses on the dimension of things, and photograph them in such a way that create a very tight and chaotic composition so that the outcome is this "layered" effect. So far I've mostly been taking pictures of groupings of buildings around the city, looking for pairs that either have the same color scheme or contrast one another.
It's sort of difficult because most of the buildings are the same color and don't appear to be two separate structures once I zoom in, or I'm finding myself running out of areas to take pictures in. I think in order to complete 10 rolls of film, I might have to stray away from photographing just architecture.
I took a few pictures of the lake the other day when it had these different stripes of blue going across it, I might run with that...
Here's a few poor examples of (sort of) what I'm thinking:

FINAL PROJECT!!!... maybe...

   I still don't really know what the hell I'm doing for my final project. I've had several ideas, but I'm worried that they're all too ambitious for the amount of time we have left this semester. So, all this weekend I was dazed and confused about what to do for my final. But then all of a sudden, I remembered my horrible high school art class. It sucked. I remember one project we had to to a self portrait of ourselves inspired by a random artist, and mine was Roy Lichtenstein. I instantly remembered his "pop art." They were bright and certainly "poppy." The scenes and the women portrayed were always dramatic, and the color was just the same. I would say that most of his pictures were bright, primary colors. It made me think of doing portraits in a similar way. 

   So I went to the fabric store and bought background for my photos, yellow, red, and  blue. I figure that with each colored background, I can do a makeup look that is either allied and matching the background, or complimentary to stand out from the background. 

   I also want to create a 2D/flat look to my images so they almost look like they were drawn or painted. I was thinking, possibly, drawing lines on my photos to give a comic-like feel to them.

Roy Lichtenstein Examples

Prior to shooting film, I always test with my digital. I started with a blue background and did a makeup look in allied colors. To achieve a 2D/flat look to the photo, I used a macro ring flash, which evenly illuminates the subject, and eliminates almost all shadows (Except for the neat shadow-halo around my subject)

I played around on my computer trying to figure how to make my photo look like a cartoon/comic just to see what it could possibly look like. This photo is going in the right direction, but I was hoping to find something that would give a more illustrated effect with thick, black lines. 

...I still might change my project...

Final

I decided to switch my midterm for my final project. I’ve wanted to pursue an idea of photographing people’s shoes for a while now. Although shooting people’s feet may sound a bit unusual, I have a feeling that it has potential for some fascinating results. You can tell a lot about a person by looking at their shoes. Not only style and personality, but also the adventure of what was, where they have been, things that still linger and waiting to be re-discovered. My aim is to capture the wear and tear, the memories and the hidden story behind every step. In order to do this I will be riding the El train and shooting from one spot while aiming at the shoes directly in front of me. This way I will be allowing the people to tell the story instead of intentionally searching for it. I found a couple of examples that show the vantage point I want to shoot from as well as a photographer (Walker Evans) that captures not necessarily the point of view but the candid shots I would like to take.

Photo Final

So for my final my idea was to do a series on abandonment.  I was going to take pictures of abandon buildings, whether they are new or old, homeless people, couples, ect.  My original concept for the lighting of this series was to have really direct afternoon lighting which would give a lot of harsh shadows, thus creating more emotion in the picture.  Unfortunately I found it is not supposed to be very sunny recently, so instead I have decided to use very flat lighting, I though this might also add to the dreary emptiness I will try to portray through the pictures.  A majority of the colors that will be used will have very earthy tones, and dull colors, which the lighting will help emphasize.  Within some of these dull colored pictures I wanted to have small pops of color that will be incredibly noticeable when first glancing at the picture, the idea that less color is more.

Final

For my final I am shooting at my family farm that has been in my family for roughly 200 years. I'm working with fairly warm light, and am going to make that more expressive by printing my photos warmer. I have a couple work prints for you guys to look at in class tomorrow, but here are a couple [not great] examples of what I'm aiming for!

Final project

I decided to bring throughout my project different types of gestures or faces from people showing their natural personalities. My models are going to be posing naturally, creating very unstaged photos trying to make a very realistic scene.  The purpose of this project is to show the beauty of people by showing their natural appearance to appreciate the details of their faces and experience the depth of their emotions by looking at their eyes, wrinkles, smile, gestures or any kind of descriptive manner that can speak for them by just looking at the Photo.










                          

Final

For my final, I have chosen to photograph around my grandmother's house.  She is moving and before she packed everything up, I wanted to take some photos of all the memories and trinkets she has around the house.  I decided not to turn the project into a narrative of her move but rather a narrative of how elderly people live.  I think the style of her home and all of the antique items give it such character.  I included her in a few photos but overall they are mostly of the things in her home that make it her own.

Melissa Kaseman did a series of photos on an elderly couple and the things around their home.  Unfortunately I cannot save a photo from the website but here is a link to the site:
http://www.melissakaseman.com/

Her series called "With Wayne" featured on the site is what I hope to accomplish with my photos.

Final Project

For my final I am showing the femininity and masculinity sides of female models. I am using 4 different models, each representing 4 different looks, 2 feminine and 2 masculine. The focus of these photo shoots is about the fashion, use of color and the shape the clothes make on the models. Inspiration comes from America's Next Top Model 'Ladies Look Like Dudes' episode.

Color

My final project is about showing off your inner-child. My models will be dress in bright colors and patterns doing things most of us did when we were younger. ex: going to the playground, building a sandcastle, blowing bubbles, etc. I plan to have my photos as saturated and as bright as possible. My inspiration is Willy Wonka(the original version)

Final Project

For my final project I am going to be taking a series of photos of one model that have a dreamy feel. I am going to explore the idea of not only shooting her but also the setting I pick. Zooming in on other aspects of the shoot. I am also going to play around a lot in the dark room. I am going to experiment with intentional color casts and printing light to add to the dream like quality I want the photos to have.
Here are two examples of the feel and color cast ideas I am aiming for.

Uses of Color

For my final since I am working with portraits of mouths and I am working very closey to my subject. Color is really important for me to keep in mind because I will be working with a variety of skin tones. Since I am working with skin I plan to make the subject in the photo the main color source. Almost like black white and one color. For example, since I started my project one of my friends choose her personality as overdramatic we decided to work with blood. Since she has very far skin we worked with white makeup and had dark red blood streaming down out of her mouth and on her lips. So the subject, being the blood would also be the color in the photograph, red. Here is an example of something similar to what i’m working with. You can see the red is the expressive color which the portrait works with.

Also I am trying to keep in mind lighting. Lighting is what is going to create the all over tone and color to the portraits. I will be working with natural lighting because I feel natural lighting is the most beautiful. But not just beautiful as they are difficult. So in order to block out harsh light, I am going to have my models face away from the light. This will create a cooler feel to my photos which is a big goal of mine! For example, the girl in the red coat is a portrait I picked because she is in natural lighting and outdoors and facing away from the sun so there is a light glow on her face and not harsh sunlight.

The next examples, like the girl with the fuzzy hat is what I picture my tone to be like. Very unsaturated in the skin and clothing but the lips and neckline pop with color. My portraits will involve props to help with being expressive so I hope to have saturation but spaces where their is pops of color. I also love how the tone of this photo is super allied at the same time, I want the lighting and skin tone of my models to be unified and create allied colors like in this photograph.

Last but not least, the photo with the mouth and neck are a beautiful shade of cyan but just enough in a way to make the red in the photo to pop. This is an example of how cooler lighting makes the subject and props glow. If my photos do not turn out with this blue-ish glow, I am strongly considering adding cyan to my photos to make them have more tone, depth, and color. I feel it will add more to the skin tone like in this photo.

For my final my I will focus on taking photos of places that have a connection with my subject. My color palette will consist of warm hues with occasional pops of color.