I know that we were supposed to select a minimum of six images and ideally I would have liked to pick six to ten images for this part of the assignment but I found it quite hard to narrow down my selection. I ended up asking a few people who's opinions I valued to select their favourites. This managed to trim my selection quite a bit. I'm quite happy with the final selection.
The above picture was always intended to be my opener. I wanted to get a photograph of my soldier reading about the war before heading off into conflict. It took me a while to get an image I was happy with as the lighting and composition proved slightly awkward. Looking back, I feel I could have probably produced a better image by using the studio lighting for this shot. Unfortunately, the studio is not in my house so I had to make do with whatever lighting I had available.
My only problem with the above picture is the fact that it's colour. It doesn't look right in black and white as I feel it loses something in translation. For my book though, I feel that this image will look good on the back cover which is why I have selected it.
The above and below pictures kind of give the feel that our soldier hasn't been in the battlefield for very long. When I have arranged my images for my book I hope to convey a sense of the trauma the soldier is going through.
Using my favourite photoshop tools (the trusty dodge and burn) I think I managed to create a nice portrait. I love the way the shadows fall on the soldiers face and I think that I managed to keep his eyes nice and sharp.
The 'panoramic' shot, I admit, was a cheat. Thanks to some nifty cropping I managed to create a nice picture which, in its original format, wasn't that great. It goes to show that cropping can be an excellent tool if used properly.
Whilst on my shoot in the woods I came across some really nice little pieces of scenery. The bricks and woodland give a bit more of a world war type feel to the picture. It looks as though the soldiers are fighting in some kind of ruins.
I love the above portrait picture. I feel the soft focus worked great in this instance. Also, my soldier friend looks a little dazed but you kind of get the feeling that he hasn't fully experienced the horrors of war yet.
I had many variations of the soldier leaning on the wall. This is my brothers favourite of those photo's so I decided to include it. I managed to give this picture a very dated look. It's even more dated than some of the other pictures.
In the above photograph, you can kind of see that the soldier has been through quite a lot since arriving in the battlefield. The expression on his face and his weary eyes tell their own story. He looks in quite a worse state than the previous portrait. It's very Don McCullin.
I felt like I had to include some images of the bad guys otherwise it's just some guy running around in a field. I managed to find a nice spot for this shot of the German taking aim. This took a few attempts as the wind was starting to pick up. This became a factor due to the trees being blown about, creating all kinds of unwanted shadows from the sunlight.
I had this little picture story going on in which my soldier friend gets jumped by a German. Now im not sure if I like the sequence but I kind of like this image. I decided not to include the next few frames but below is the aftermath. I feel the image makes you feel like the German soldier is having a moment of reflection or perhaps self doubt over the taking of someones life.
The above shot is one of my favourites. I think I got the composition spot on and even managed to capture the breath of the German soldier in the cold environment. It's like the German is off on the hunt for more prey.
I tried this 'surrender' shot in different ways. My first instinct was to go for a landscape shot but I think it works better as a portrait picture. There's no large empty spaces either side of the soldiers so it's a fairly compact photo.
I have quite a few close up shots but I feel like they are all very different. With the above shot I did have to use the clone tool on the helmet's strap. In the original picture you can see that it's twisted. I also used the burn tool just to bring out the shadows a little more.
I feel that most of these pictures have a nice flow about them. They all look like they were taken under the same conditions and fit nicely together. Like I said, when arranged into a certain order I feel that these pictures will tell a nice little story.
So there you have it. My final images for Unit 101-105.
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