Reshooting
Contact sheet of dng's from shoot.
Edited in camera raw
Going into Photoshop
This is the final edited version. I'm really happy with it, and I think it matches the series much better than the first version of this image.
Re-editing
I needed to fill up a bit of wall space in this photo, and I decided to go with a green hill as the whole composition was feeling a little cold and man-made. I think the addition of nature and warmth into the photo helps to tie all the components and colours together.
Sourced Images
I used unsplash to source all of the images I added into my photos as I find that it is easy to credit the creators, they are usually high quality and of course, the site is free. They also have a wide range of images, so it is a rare moment when they don't have an image of the thing I want.
Draft Statement
The topic I am exploring with this series is social perfectionism within the lens of social media. I am attempting to expose the images that we see on social media as unrealistic, half-truths. To believe the things we view online can be damaging and harmful to our own self-worth, as we think that we need to be more than we already are to be accepted and loved by society. The audience to which I am primarily targeting is social media users, ranging from teenagers to young adults. I have chosen to present my work on Instagram as I believe that the people who need to see it the most are living on social media, not in the real world.
I am utilising digital manipulation to take my images completely over the top of truth and realism. Exaggeration is the employed tactic, to provide a sense of satire and light-heartedness within a very real topic. I asked each of my subjects to think about what their ‘perfect selfie’ would look like, and then I added these objects/things into the image to show the person taking a photo with the added items. The setting was important as I wanted to show the realness in each of these people’s lives, which is juxtaposed to the impossibility of the manipulated aspects. The realness is portrayed by the mess, or general lived-in-ness of the lounge and the couches where each of these photographs take place. It shows that behind the screens we are all just ordinary people trying to live our lives the best we can.
One on One Feedback
Caroline said that the reshoot photo as well as the accompanying edits were good, and she agreed with me that they match the rest of the series. She also liked the addition of the hill into the other image just to fill a bit more of that white space.
Her critique's about my draft statement are:
- write about how the way I have manipulated is not intended to be realistic, this is the method
- discuss the blue screen
- discuss the sourced imagery used, it is a mix of famous objects and stock imagery which speaks about advertising
- explain choices made
Instagram Presentation
I showed Caroline my newly made instagram account with the series on it, in several different layouts. The first layout was just one post with all four photos in it, but before clicking on it you can only see the top image, and you have to swipe through. The second layout was grouping the 4 photos into a square, with two white squares to make up the 6 panels (seeing as instagram only has 3 photos in a row). I had another version of this layout, but where the white squares were in the middle and there were two columns of photos on the right and left. The last layout was where all the photos were in a column on the left hand side with the remaining squares filled in as white.
The order of my series goes:
There is no strong reasoning for my decision to have the series in this order, apart from the fact that I think the first and last images are the strongest and so need to be the 'book-ends' for the weaker two in the middle. I think they are the strongest because the last one tells a bit of a narrative as it looks like she put her bag down, had a bowl of cereal then plonked down on the couch to take a selfie. The first one is from a different angle which is interesting, and I like how we can see the clothes horses on the right hand side as well as the heater and wall sockets.
Feedback
Caroline preferred the long column (the last layout). It was good that she had an opinion on it because I was really stuck between this one and the square one. She also said I could do something instead of having white squares; her suggestion was to pick two colours from each image and make two solid coloured squares to go next to each image.
This would represent the paint swatches and colour palettes people look at when they are shopping for a new home/a better life.
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