My Object Shoot

For my first and main idea, I chose to use a Union flag in the background without making it a focus point. I felt by having a flag in the background it would link more to my subject and theme, and give my photo more character.
I chose to use my Uncle's medals and ornament as a part of my image as he himself was in the Army, so I felt this really supported my visual aspect of my opinionated project.
I used a white candle within my image as I read whilst researching that it represents spiritualiy. This linking to the lives lost during the War.
I shot this image without lighting the candle as I have not yet tried photographing a naked flame. If I was to do this shoot again, I would definately research into what a lit candle represents and how to photograph it.
The meat links to my personal opinion, that the British soldiers (linking to the flag) should not be out fighting in Afghanistan. And at the beginning of this war, they were sent out there, or thrown, like peices of meat.
The splashes that looks like blood was actually meat marinade which my local butcher was kind enough to give me.

I wanted this image to be quite dark and have a soft spotlight, concentrating entirely on my objects.
So to do this shoot, I used a black felt material as a base for my objects to absorb any light.
I used the black side of a foam board on the right of my image whilst a broncolour light on the left.
To help achieve this soft spotlight effect I also used a 'honeycomb' on the light.

The camera I used was a Horseman 5x4, loaded with large-format, colour film with an ISO of 160. I also used a 120mm lens.

First Idea;

To achieve the first shot, I used an aperture of f16.5, but only because I accidently nudged it whilst cocking the shutter. The QuickDisc said to allow 0.7, so I upped the broncolour to 8.3.

I now made the second exposure (Bottom image above) keeping everything the same but making sure the aperture was on f16.

After carefully looking at my negatives I decided that the image looked a little flat. So I used an aperture of f32, but also changed the lens plane (focus) and film plane (perspective) of the camera;

Second lot of images: The only problem I had with this, was that I accidently moved the t-shirt and knocked the badges off, so I had to carefully and precisely recreate a part of my set-up again.

I was rather pleased with the results of these shots, so as I had another darkslide left which was loaded, I decided to try two other of my ideas;

For this image I used a 'United Nations' t-shirt as the background and made it look blood stained, whilst having the meat and more of the blood-like substance in the foreground.
By using the skull infront of the t-shirt, I played around trying to capture all of the highlights and midtones.

For this image, I kept the t-shirt in the background as I felt it gave a good effect. I then threw the meat onto the flag to give some more colour, whilst throwing more blood-like fluid across it. The meat and the marinade started to dry and darken with colour by this time, so I wanted to see whether when printed it would give a different effect.

I also wanted to capture the 'Quality assured England' on the skin of the meat, as a humorous point, but still linking to my theme.