Developing Work

This is my first piece of development work towards my final piece. I asked the model to stand in front of the window and took many different experimental photographs of her. I asked the model to pose in different ways e.g. praying etc. I was disappointed with the outcome because of the blinds behind the model and the window border around it. So I could definitely improve it. I used Photoshop to fill the shape of the person with fragments of stained glass. I really like
this idea of making my own stained glass window. The photographs I took of stained glass windows were all in Christian churches. I am keen to portray images relating to Islam but using stained glass. I like the notion of religion and storytelling that a stained glass window can convey.

In this set of photographs, I asked the model to pose in front of a wall. I did not use flash as I wanted the background to be defined but the shape of the person to be in shadow. Once again I used Photoshop to cover the shape of the girl with fragments of the photographs of stained glass windows that I had taken earlier.
















I continued to develop and improve my work over several photo-shoots. I took photographs in the studio with a black background. I found this better than using the white background because it makes the window brighter and attraction. I directed the model to make different gestures such as putting their hand in the air, praying, showing the side of the face, making a heart shape with their hands. I used Photoshop to cut out the outline of the person then made the window the shape of a person.

In Photoshop I experimented with different ideas such as making the window in a human shape and using a different patterned stained glass window in the background. I prefer the black background as it really makes the model’s shape stand out.



I was very disappointed with this image. I love the pattern of stained glass but, as you can see, there is a big line of the window frame in the middle of the person. This causes a distraction and spoils the shape of the pose and makes the meaning much less clear. This is something I can improve fairly easily but choosing a different section of stained glass.

This image is not eye-catching! That's because the stonework between the windows causes too much black space, making it very difficult to see what shape the ‘window’ is.

I had tried using a white background in the photography studio. The model made the heart shape with their hands. I prefer the black background because the window shape of the person stands out more and is definitely more eye-catching on the black background. It quickly draws your attention to the main shape of the window. I do however like  different bright patterns of colours in these windows. I feel it makes you  calm and joyful.

I took photographs of the side of the model's  face because it shows you the shape of the human profile. I put a lot of different details of the windows into the human's face on this photograph.

I was disappointed because the background wasn't very black and it's looks rather dirty. I like the solid black lines but they do distract from the overall shape, so once again I can improve on this.