Shoot in inspiration from Simon Fitz

Shoot plan-

The idea behind this shoot is to work in inspiration from Simon Fitz with his use of lighting and compositions to explore emotion in his monochromatic images. I feel inspired by the way Simon has portrayed the theme of surfing in a different way and atmosphere. Surfing is usually perceived and documented as a happy, bright and colourful sport however he has captured in a unique duller atmosphere which is really effective in capturing emotion. This is an effect I would like to try and capture in my own work- to try and make my images emit strong emotion. I also feel inspired by his placement of images together as a set as he explores different subjects however they all match similar atmospheres. The techniques I would like to explore are to capture a set of monochromatic images which emit strong emotion. I will be using natural lighting on a duller day to create a similar effect as his work and similar lighting. I would also like to try and use similar photoshop techniques in layering images and experimenting with opacity to create unique images. This would add more of a variety to my photos. This shoot relates to my theme following surf and skate culture and also previous shoots I have conducted in inspiration from Woody Gooch and Hiroshi Sugimoto who both explored emotion through lighting. I intend to create a variety of compositions when at the beach. I will focus on capturing figures on the beach in an abstract way. I have decided to shoot at Godrevy, Cornwall because they have reflective sand so the reflections are really effective, the waves are consistent there so there will be lots of surfers and figures which I can shoot. I will explore the rule of thirds in my images to try and position the subject in different areas of the frame. I will be using my canon 7d and 75-300mm lens to get close images in good quality. This shoot should take an hour of two to walk around the beach capturing different angles and find unique compositions. Equipment list: Camera, battery and SD card. The weather needs to be dull to get the mid-tones in the images, however I cannot shoot in rain as it will effect my camera. 

Thumbnail sketches-

Contact sheet-

Final Images-

Editing-

To edit these images I first turned them into black and white. I then decreased the brightness slightly and increased the contrast to enhance the shadows against the highlights. I then played around with highlights and darkness to create further contrast. I am very pleased with the enhancement of these images as they made them much more effective.

Settings used- ISO 100, 205mm zoom, f/5.0, 1/250 seconds

Evaluation-

The starting points of this shoot was to work in inspiration from Simon Fitz. I felt inspired by his unique black and white compositions and his creative photoshop techniques. I didn't have time to explore using his overlapping photoshop techniques because I focused on the shoot to get the selection of images so In my next one I will explore that. Through this project I have learnt that lighting is key to portray different atmospheres. This is because the bright/ more direct the light the more contrasted the image and therefore the more detail and bright hues-  this would create a happier, bolder emotion. however using duller natural light enhances the mid-tones as shapes are not as sharp this makes the image smoother and portray a calmer more sad emotion in some cases- depending on other factors swell such as body language. I found shooting a cloudy day made the atmosphere in these images more melancholic- this was the effect I was going for similar to Simon Fitz's work. I enjoyed focusing on the figure and the interesting shapes it makes instead of surfing as it adds a variety to my images and makes me focus on a different subject. I also focused on using the surfboard fin as a subject due to the interesting shape and shadows created from the light on it. Simon incinerates different objects which explore shape and line this is why I used a fin because of the abstract shape. The technique of shooting using a monochromatic colour scheme was very interesting and different for me- I really enjoyed using it and contrast it created in my images is really effective. The less successful techniques were using a slower shutter speed in this shoot as it distorted and blurred the images too much- however this did create quite a cool abstract effect it wouldn't be something I would do in my shoot when focusing on a subject. I am very pleased with the variety of images which came out of this shoot as they all explore different subjects however still work as a set. The one thing that doesn't match is the lighting in one of the images which is lighter as it was taken earlier in the day. This kinda disrupts the images when looking at them as a three. However I am very pleased with the overall compositions I have created. In the future I would like to develop using monochrome in my work as it creates a variety and sometime work effectively when placed next to images in colour. I find it really enjoyable to explore differnt colour schemes through photography and is something I would like to experiment with when creating a magazine. If I did this project again I would shoot using a third different subject so there are 3 different compositions instead of 2 which are quite similar just to add more of a variety. Another improvement was I think I got a bit carried away when editing and created too much of a contrast between the highlights and shadows which went away from the objective of this shoot to explore mid-tones in creating emotion.