My final Images.

I had difficulty deciding what to do for my final images. I kept changing my mind and fluctuating from images of forests/woodlands to juxtaposing my american images with those taken in Britain. I've had many outings taking pictures of forests and landscapes but still was no nearer to deciding. It was only when researching various photographers that I came across the work of Josh Sommers and Helen Sears. I loved their work and felt really inspired. Although they had similar themes i.e. faces superimposed upon pictures or vice versa, the effects were quite different. Helen Sears' work is more ethereal and delicate whereas Josh Sommers' work uses stronger colours and is bolder. Most of Helen Sears work shows the back of people heads as though they are looking towards the view and as though you, the viewer is looking towards the view. I decided that I would like to use them both as my muse and was lucky that I had two people willing to sit for portraits. I wanted the faces to be almost incidental to the background, a case of the viewer being viewed.

Having collected both sets of images I experimented with layering one on top of the other and altering the opacity so that both pictures could be seen. I also used the overlay effect and also played around with the colours and contrasts. I cropped all the images to square format as this is the shape I envisioned for my presentation. I duplicated the six images into black and white and then altered the tones. So altogether I have twelve images. I did this because it alters the mood and gives it a softer look similar to Helen Sears.

Here are the original photos of trees I used:

Shutter Speed: 1.3 Sec F/10 ISO: 100

Shutter Speed: 10 Sec F/22 ISO: 100

Shutter Speed: 1/125 Sec F/7.1 ISO: 400

( I used this image twice, but cropped a different section on the second photo )

Shutter Speed: 1.3 Sec F/5.3 ISO:400

Shutter Speed: 1/60 F/5.6 ISO: 100

Here are the Portraits that I used:

Here are the trees and portraits combined in colour:

Here are the pictures converted into black and white:

You can see from the above pictures how the work has evolved and how the images created become more mysterious and tranquil. I enjoy the effect of all the photos, coloured and black and white although the coloured ones are my favourites because I like the mood that they inspire.