TEST SHOOT NO.3

THE TRUTH BEHIND THE SELFIE

When posting a selfie, sometimes I am misleading. I can be in the worst place mentally, yet still post a picture on social media where I am smiling from ear to ear. I feel as though I need to keep up a charade and a false persona that I am always ok so that my viewers do not think I am weak minded. I wanted to show this through the layering of images, in a ‘stages of a selfie’ way. At first I am all smiles but after the picture the smiles then fades away. This idea is quite literal and self explanatory unlike some of the other ideas I have produced within this project, however I think that it works well to have a variety of outcomes.

Unfortunately the outcomes that came from this test shot, weren't very successful. Due to the studios being fully booked and only one hour periods being available to use at such short notice, the photoshoot felt very rushed, meaning the lighting couldn't be experimented with enough and not enough images were produced for me to feel accomplished. The photographer used was a new contact that I had made within university, so I also felt extremely uncomfortable posing for pictures. I tried very hard to shake this feeling off, as I knew that this whole project only benefits myself and my own achievements, however I just didn't feel at ease at all and couldn't wait for the time to be over, which can be seen within a lot of the images as my posture and facial expressions look tense. I know that I should continue to push my boundaries so that I can overcome issues and continue to grow within the product, but for the foreseeable future I will return to using photographers that I feel comfortable around, so that the outcomes can continue to be of an outstanding quality as not to jeopardise the finalisation of the product.

I still used the few images produced to test out the post-production technique of layering two images and then altering the opacity. I think the concept works, however there needs to be improvements made so that it looks professional. I’m unsure how to move forward with this, so will need to seek out advice - either from other students, IT technicians or through online tutorials.