QUICK DIGITAL SHOOT

After the last meeting with my supervisor I decided to do a quick portrait digital shoot of my sister to experiment with how I can use Lightroom to edit my photos to mimic the disposable feel with my photos.

These are the raw photos taken with my Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with a EF 240-70mm f/2.8 lens. I took these photos in-front of a large window in my house so my model's face was exposed properly and adjusted my shutter speed and aperture accordingly.

Even though these are only test photos I wanted to experiment a bit with movement in relation to the shutter speed and capture a motion blur, like disposable images do. Therefore I asked my model to move slightly when taking the photos so aspects of her body are blurred and/or captured in motion to mimic the sort of images we usually get on disposable cameras.

I then brought these images into Lightroom to give them more of a disposable/vintage feel, I didn't want to use any of the vintage presets in Lightroom as I think they appear extremely fake and looked strange on my photos, perhaps they would work better with more landscape/less close up images.

In terms of editing, I wanted to bring out the green hues of disposable images so used the tint and curve tools to help with this. I also manipulated the shadows, highlights, blacks and whites to create a more contrasted image with very bright whites and very dark shadows, much like disposable images do. Because I didn't use the flash, I struggled to adjust the light of image the replicate that of a flash on a disposable image, maybe this is something that I will explore further. I also added a grain and vignette to each photo to emphasise the amateur look and these are the results.

I think this experiment was a success as the images came out really moody and grungy and do emulate the look of disposable photographs without looking overly edited. I especially like the shots that look less staged, with the movement and closed eyes because they look like a more authentic capture of the moment, like disposables do.

I will also use these raw images in the workshop later on when editing in Lightroom as they are bigger and better quality than any of the actual disposable images I have taken.