DIARY
Recording: Capturing the Mood
My next photoshoot was aimed at demonstrating the difference editing can make to a photograph. There are key elements that alter the mood of an image such as its saturation, exposure, warmth and shadows. This is shown and explained in my photographs below.
In these two images, increasing the clarity had a massive effect as it darkened the surroundings of the window and decreased the saturation of the contents outside the window. It also sharpened the clouds and sky so their outline was clearer making them more intimidating.
To create an even stronger contrast between the two photos I could have decreased the vibrancy of the yellow fields in the distance. This adds a slightly happy mood to the photograph (right), especially as yellow is often associated with happiness/hope/enthusiasm.
With the two photographs above I wanted to prove that it was not the saturation of an image that changed the mood of it from happy and optimistic to negative or miserable. Even though the saturation has been eradicated from the photo on the right, I increased the highlights which brought out all the city lights, showing how bright and alive it was at night and keeping the warm, positive mood visible in the original photo (left). I have done something similar in the photos below - the one on the left shows a happy b&w photograph and the one on the right a rather depressing and worn b&w photograph. In the photograph on the left, the buildings are well defined and the clouds very light and bright due to increased highlight and brightness, however in the photo on the left the edges have been blurred, the border vignetted and the highlight and brightness decreased making the buildings look run down and dull. This made the image very depressing compared to the positivity it first possessed.
Above is another demonstration of the effect editing can have on a photograph. In the image on the left, I increased the brightness, saturation, warmth and vibrancy. All these elements combined gave the photograph a very lively and optimistic mood. The photo on the right was the complete opposite to this with a very pessimistic and depressing mood. By decreasing all the editing aspects that I increased on the other photograph, I managed to create quite a mysterious and disturbing. The clouds became very heavy looking which made them rather intimidating and the buildings became dark and dirty, making the city seem like a scary and dangerous place instead of the bright, cheerful place it seems in the first edit.
This next photograph's mood was altered in a different way from my previous photos. Instead of editing it differently, I added another photo to my original image. Using Superimpose, I cropped and overlayed the picture of the girl into the middle of the wand.
I thought this suited my topic, 'diary', very well as it seemed like another way to capture a memory, like the moment of blowing bubbles was captured and stowed safely within the wand.
The lack of colour in the background of the image and slight pink/purple tint of the image of the girl took the image even further away from being real and normal to becoming a dreamy and happy memory.
My last experiment of this topic was to see how different temperature/warmth/tint changes and fades can alter a photo. Both these photos come across to me as rather happy, illuminating the city lights and adding to the life it holds at night. I think the one above gives me a warmer brighter ambience than the one to the left, but that the one on the left gives off a very calming and soothing vibe, added to by the reflection of the lights off the water.