EVALUATION OF SHOOT:

In my shoot, I took photographs in my bedroom that captured me

using my laptop. I believe I was successful in communicating the
meaning I wanted to (how easy it is to end up in a situation where you
feel vulnerable in the digital age) as not only did I represent the
vulnerability of someone, but I also went beyond that and explored
someone’s distant relationship with society and how someone can
begin to lose themselves. I used all the equipment I planned to, and it
helped me complete my shoot as I was capturing self-portraiture
photographs therefore, the tripod helped me keep my photographs
straight and I was able to enable a self-timer on my digital camera.
One successful photographic technique that I used throughout all
photographs was contrast because it provided a darker tone to all my
images which emphasised the mysterious atmosphere of the narrative
as I was pictured talking to a stranger. Also, it helped create a
juxtaposition between the bright lighting outside the window and dark
lighting inside which could suggest that the “outside world” is a lot
safer for me then being trapped with the gloomy “online world”.
Interestingly, in the last photograph of the series, the artificial lighting
and the low contrast created a vignette effect which highlighted how
my fears and worries were closing in on me. Another photographic
technique that was successful was leading lines, particular in the fifth
and last photograph of the series, as it forced the audience to not only
acknowledge the contrast of the yellow and orange, but it also helped
lead them to the main focus point therefore, they could work out the
context behind the photograph. However, I feel a photographic
technique that was least successful was shot framing as I mainly took
photographs using an over the shoulder shot which did add an element
of enigma as the audience could work out if the photographs were
being taken from another person’s perspective or not. On the other
hand, I should have tried to explore with shot framing such as a POV
shot as that would have not only communicated my perspective on the
situation to the audience, but it also would have nicely contrasted with
the over the shoulder shots as each narrative has two sides to it.
Another technique that was not successful is the variety of camera
angles used as throughout the series, I mainly used eye level angles
which did force the audience to approach the images with a non-
judgemental attitude however, I could have explored more with high
and low angles to not only keep the audience more immersed within
the narrative but also, it would contribute more perspectives to the
story. For example, a high angle would have made me look vulnerable
and potentially from the perspective of the stranger who seems to own
a lot of control over me. For this photoshoot, I was influenced mainly
by Duane Michals as I was inspired by the way he completed his
sequences and made them look like a story by using a variety of
photographic techniques such as shutter speed. I think you can
identify that I was influenced by him as I did use different shot sizes
such as an establishing shot, mid-shot and a close-up shot which is
similar to what Michals did within his own work titled “Things Are
Queer”. Another feature shared within my work and Michals’ work is
the use of shutter speed as in the last image of this series, you can see
that I ruffled my hair to make it look like I used a slow shutter speed
compared to the rest of the photograph which represented me losing
my sanity however, Michals used shutter speed in his work to
represent movement. For example, in his series titled “Death Comes
to the Old Lady”, the shutter speed intensifies as you go through the
series as it slowly
depicts the man killing the woman. Furthermore, I also completed
research about Aaron Schuman which is less evident that I was
influenced by him as, in this shoot, I have not written text to
accompany my images however, I have incorporated text within the
second, third and 4th image (more prominent in the 4th) which can be
argued that it does provide context about the images. I think most of
my drawings match up to the images as I included each aspect that I
planned. However, the last drawing does not match up to the images
as I planned to do a close up of my face to illustrate the pain in my
face after the situation happened however, I ended up shooting a mid-
shot of myself with distressed body language which I believe was
more successful as I was able to contrast shutter speeds. Moreover, I
did not use any Photoshop techniques however I did create a video
that depicted the story as a whole which included some more context
behind the 6 photographs. This was very successful as not only does it
add context to the images, but it provides a visual representation for
the narrative I want to communicate.

Overall, I believe that my use of photographic techniques such as

contrast and composition (leading lines) was very successful as they
helped highlight the dark atmosphere surrounding the narrative and
guided the audience to the main focal points whilst also depicting how
I feel on the inside and the outside through the colours of the walls.
These techniques have also been successful in making the audience
sympathise with the person in the photographs. To improve, I feel I
need to explore different camera angles and shot sizes to see if they
would enhance any of the meanings I wanted to communicate and/or
change how the audience feels. The next thing I am going to do
relating to this project, is complete another shoot based on the theme
of online predators however, I am going to focus more on a parent’s
perspective about the situation.