The main reasoning behind this set of images was to experiment with night time car photography. I have used the old skate location, The Buszy, in central Milton Keynes. The thought behind this was to take a gritty street location and match that with the sinister/menacing looks of the car in focus. The night time setting enabled me to use the cars headlights to their full extent, a feature which emphasises the dark, sporty look of he car.
Two examples of the same rough shot, but with different areas of focus. Although the car is out of focus in the first image, I feel that this helps soften some of the detail in the background that becomes distracting to the eye. Overall, this creates a more rounded and pleasing image to look at, providing a rest bite from taking in the saturated detail of the text.
Two different profiles of the rear half of the car. These two images in particular highlight the differences between a more brightly exposed image and one that has shadows that dominate the frame. One style needs to be committed to in order to implement a consistent theme throughout the spread. I like the first image most because it highlights the finer details of the car, especially the condensation that has built up along the side panels. After all, you are reading the article to find out more details on the car.
As part of the photoshoot I tried to take images of the surrounding environment, in addition to the car itself. I feel that this is an integral way of developing the theme behind the shoot as a whole. Having images that follow a specific theme, style and location all contribute to the narrative of the shoot as a whole by tying everything together. This makes for a more immersive spread for the reader.
This particular image really embodies the idea behind the shoot - emphasising the sinister nature of the styling. I have tried to achieve this by focusing directly on the cars headlight, which has a unique arrangement of lighting elements. Additionally, I have tried to achieve strong contrast within the image, using black and white to compliment this intention.
As part of this shoot I have tried to incorporate areas of deadspace in various images that will allow for titles, quotes or extracts to be placed over the image as part of the article spread. This is ideal for a large scale image, maybe something that takes up a whole page - this ensures that there is still enough focus on the car. Additionally, if text is being used, it needs to be big enough to stand out in comparison to the main body.
Going forward I will need to push this idea of incorporating the environment into the images used for the spread. A way of doing this will be to make the most of the dead space to be used as an area for overlaying text, like I have experimented with here. For future development I need to work on photographing the interior of the car, bearing in mind the theme and style of the images taken as a whole. Although not the most dynamic visual many cars have to offer, this area is almost 50% of the car itself, so is very important to detail in the spread.