MY PHOTOGRAPHY - ALICIA THE BUTTERFLY
For the photography side of this project I chose not to use stills from the film, but instead to take photographs that complement the film and the meaning behind it. I have chosen to take photographs of my daughter Alicia, dressed as a butterfly. This combines the beginning of the film which symbolises childhood, to the end of the film which alongside symbolising gaining a sense of purpose, also symbolises the final stage of the butterfly. Childhood is the first of a three-part phases in emotional development connected to the third of the metaphysical development of the butterfly.
I took some inspiration from man Ray’s fashion photographs in his use of light shadow and dramatic posture, I think these photographs are a nice addition to the theme of my film.
I made the costume myself using crêpe paper, different coloured tapes, card, Sellotape and masking tape. I also used a pair of pink gloves and stripey tights from her changing bag which complemented the costume well.
1. This photograph is perhaps the best example of inspiration taken from man Ray’s fashion photography, I took this taken care to capture the light and shadow in a way that would amplify the dramatic positioning of my daughter dressed as a butterfly. An interesting effect is that one wing is dark and one is light and in the dark wing a light hand and in the light wing a dark hand. This could symbolise yin and yang, as their film is about the emotional development of someone on their path to find their own specific purpose in life, yin and yang also used to describe the challenges people face and the way we categorise people that we come across.
2. For this photograph I pointed the spotlight directly toward my daughter tilting slightly up word, to create this dramatic bright effect, it also makes a nice little dense shadow along the top line which I think adds a good dramatic quality to the image. I chose to take the photo in this way to highlight as much as possible my daughter is a butterfly as the main image and to draw the viewer’s eye in towards her. I also thought in doing this I would be able to darken the shadow around the edges to make it look so that the light is emanating from her not around her, I think this works well. I then used a photo editing program to warm up to the tones and deepen the shadows even further think this creates a nice effect and is an improvement on the original image.
3.This image is of the veil over my daughters face, this is because in the film at the beginning you can actually see my daughters face just see the back of her head popping out of the costume. This can also symbolise the childhood part of the film being unaware of the final butterfly part, a sense of not knowing what’s to come. I edited the photograph by feeding out the edges and white and using sappy tone with softened shadow and a slight reduction in light exposure, I think this works well but I also like the original image and the colours in it
4. This is my favourite image because I like the positioning of my daughter and the way she is looking up word, I also like the way the costume for the round her and the way the Vale is elevated at the sides creating an effect that looks a bit like antennas that you would see on a butterfly. Although I like the edited image I have enhanced the pink tones and removed a lot of the shadow, I think the maybe original image is the best because you can see the collaboration in her face and you can almost make out the lovely blue colour of her eyes.
5. I don’t think this photograph needs any editing, because it would take away from the natural beauty and her face. I love his smile on this photograph you can tell she’s really enjoying her little photo shoot. This is probably the best photo showing the costume as it is all seen here clearly this is standing upright and looking outward.
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6. This photo was taken In the corridor didn’t plan to take it at first but looking at her walking down the long plain white clean corridor, made a nice contrast to her as a this little pink butterfly with an energetic smile, she brings so much light and colour to the corridor. To edit this I turned the brightness right up and whited out the edges, this however made a weird effect on her eyes which turned bright yellow. To correct this I used photo shop and just coloured the yellow areas black.
7. This photo was taken from an upward direction pointing downwards, I really like this that looks like she’s ascending up words and also looks like she’s on the ceiling with the positioning of the photograph. The lighting suggests that she is on the ceiling appointed the light directly at her from a height with a slight diagonal downwards left perspective, this creates a shadow that suggests she is almost touching the ceiling not completely attached. I really like this photo even without editing like the way it highlights her eyes, and I like the way it emerges the costume together with her body so she really looks like a butterfly.
8. This is the edited version of the previous photograph, I enhanced the blue tones and added a blue filter to it to enhance the colouring in her eyes and to contrast the pink and lilac costume. I’m really pleased with this photograph I think it works really well I cropped off the edges of the long wing span so that she was central to the photograph and to bring more focus onto her face and eyes, and really pleased with the editing of this photograph I think it is the best edited photograph of the ones I have taken.
