Shoot in inspiration from Woody Gooch pt2

Inspiration from Woody Gooch- (artist research further down blog)

Shoot plan-

In this shoot I am planning to work in inspiration from Woody Gooch and his minimalistic compositions. After researching into his work I noticed he uses a lot of negative space and usually positions the focus of the image in the bottom third of the composition. In inspiration to this i am intending to create some very minimal compositions using the rule of the thirds to compose this image using the lower thirds so there is lots of negative space around the subject (similar to Woody's work). Woody Gooch's work really inspires me his compositions emit such emotion and are really effective in capturing surfing in a creative and unique way. I would like to try and do this in my own work as I enjoy trying new techniques to make my work less repetitive. Using the rule of thirds technique will be really effective to compose this image swell as working in woody's style. I would like the outcomes of this shoot to look effective with minimal colours (I will experiment with colour and black and white). I would like these images to go well with my past images as I am creating a magazine with my images all together to explore Cornwalls surf scene, so it would be effective if they went with my previous images ( similar colour schemes). I have already conducted a shoot based off Woody Gooch work, however I decided to conduct another one as all his images are so unique I can do multiple responses to his work while focusing on different things each time. In my previous shoot in inspiration from him I focused on his use of reflection and emotion in compositions- this shoot was very effective. However, to develop my ideas and style I decided to do another shoot which focuses more on composition. Now that my techniques and styles have developed I thought it would be interesting to see how the outcomes differ from my previous shoot. I will not be using lighting or a tripod as I intend to walk around and get the perfect angle. I will be shooting at Gwithian beach as it has consistent swells and is very good for shooting on the cliffs looking down at the surfers. This shoot should take around 2 hrs to explore different angles and positions along the cliff, set up time will not take long I will just need to adjust the manual settings to fit the lighting on the day. Equipment list: Canon 7d, Battery and SD card. I will be shooting a mate who I know will surf good and understands the type of shot I want to get so he can be in the right position. I will have to wait till the right swell conditions for this shoot swell as moderate lighting, I cannot shoot in rain and the sunnier the better as bright lighting looks very effective so enhance the colours. 

Thumbnail sketches-

Contact sheet-

Favourite images-

Editing- To edit I used Lightroom, I adjusted the brightness and contrast swell as altering the dark and light areas to increase the contrast between the highlights and shadows. I then decided to try a new technique which I have not tried before, blending the horizon into the image so it looks as if its foggy and adds a nice gradient to the image. I experimented with hue and saturation to enhance the blues in the image- this helped bring out the colours of the waves. Overall I am really pleased with the editing as it has enhanced the image and made it look really effective. Also during the editing process I removed surfers in the background so the attention of the viewer goes straight to the surfer. This worked really effectively to create a plain background to add to the minimalistic theme. 

Settings used- ISO 100, zoom 135mm, f 4.5, 1/400 sec

Evaluation-

The starting points of this shoot was to find a new way to capture surfing to avoid my work become too repetitive. There fore I reached into artists who inspired me and decided to do a second shoot to my artists search on Woody Gooch. Therefore, this shoot was to work in inspiration from Woody Gooch. After looking at his work I decided I wanted to shoot in inspiration from his minimal compositions and unique way of capturing surfing. A common theme in Woody's work in using the bottom third of the image to have the main focus leaving lots of negative space. I decided to incorporate this idea into my own work and it came out really effectively. During this shoot I have learnt how to incorporate the rule of the thirds into my work in a more creative way. I really enjoyed the shoot as it was an easy way to make surfing look interesting and experiment with different compositions. The editing techniques were really effective in enhancing the image, especially using the blend tool to make the horizon blend into the sea and the remover tool to get rid of other surfers so it looks like an empty line up. In my opinion there weren't any unsuccessful areas of this shoot as the outcomes were really successful. I am really pleased with The outcome of this shoot I managed to capture the perfect composition I was intending to capture (as shown in my thumbnail sketches) and the conditions and lighting were perfect for shooting. I managed to find the perfect spot to shoot from on the cliff which meant I got the right angle to shoot from creating negative space- if I shot from the beach I wouldn't see the horizon and background as prominently. I would like to develop my skills suing manual in the future so that I won't have to rely on editing as much to change the brightness of the image. Overall I am really happy with this shoot and the minimalistic compositions I managed to capture and i think  it will fit in perfectly with my other images in the magazine. 

Favourite final image-

This is my favourite image because it explores a similar style to Woody Gooch. The overall outcome of the image is very effective because of the unique composition and minimalistic foreground. The use of negative space has worked really well to make the focus on the surfer more. I am very pleased with the outcome of this image and the editing used to further enhance it.