This will be the final piece of the Final Project that I will be submitting.
Title – Surviving the Jungle
Precarious obstacles. Hidden perils. Hunters and the hunted. Dangers at every corner. You could probably draw many similarities between an “urban” jungle and an actual jungle. Anyone who has worked in such environments can definitely relate. These set of photographs put these 2 ”jungles” together, with the lives of 3 individuals, defining the survival of those who choose this path of chasing the dream instead of living it.
Developmental Report
Step 1: Concept Planning
The idea first started out when I received a book from a friend called “Surviving the Corporate Jungle”. In fact you will see this book in the first shot of each model. I liked the idea of putting actual office workers in a jungle or forest environment, which of course Singapore has no shortage of.
Step 2: Photoshoot Planning
Firstly, I went about thinking about the models that I could ask to help me out with this photoshoot and I immediately thought about one particular close friend. The reason I thought about her was because she was a contemporary dancer and I figured I could use dance positions or moves to give the photographs more visual appeal. For the shots to work, the model would have to be dressed exactly how an office lady would in an actual office environment. Other than the model, I also started deciding on photoshoot locations. Singapore definitely had no lack of parks and nature reserves. In the end, I chose Fort Canning, West Coast Park and Kent Ridge Park.
Step 3: The “Test” Photoshoot
With my model, Sabrina, we went down to Fort Canning to try out the location. This task was made difficult because of the rain just before and even during the shoot. This made the sky overcast, which is not too ideal not just because blue skies look nicer but it also significantly reduced the shutter speed and needed the requirement for a higher ISO at times. Also because of the rain, the ground was muddy, making it uncomfortable for the model to do certain dance positions. And that is on top of the fact that she was dressed in office attire. We managed to get 3 good shots, which you can see in a previous post. It was good that this “test” photoshoot was done, as I managed to get valuable feedback from classmates and Jing. For example, to help portray more strongly the office feel by adding props that you would find in the office into the shot.
After this, I managed to enlist the help of another 2 friends who were also contemporary dancers to help me out with this photoshoot. With different models, I could show diverse people and dance positions to help portray how different the office could be to different individuals.
Step 4: The Actual Photoshoot
After working out a schedule with the 3 models, we headed to the respective locations where I experimented with an off-camera flash setting (Nikon SB800) to be able to light up different areas of the model instead of using direct flash. Flash was placed on a tripod and positioned to the left of right of the camera. I took almost 100 photographs in total and each time I tried to play with different compositions to be able to give emphasis not just to the model but also to the environment that she is in too. A variety of props were used from telephones to newspapers to books to files and more. I asked the model to take the prop to play around with and test out different dance positions. Once I see something that I am satisfied with, I will take a couple of shots.
Step 5: Post Production
Having taking the photos in RAW really helped a lot as even though the overcast and rainy weather and played havoc with the photographs, I was still able to adjust the colour and levels. At times it did get a bit difficult though as because I decided to use 3 photos for each of the model, I had to do my best to get all 9 photographs to have at least the similar skin tone for each model. This is particularly difficult because the green in each photograph is very strong and made adjusting each of their different skin tone difficult. Lastly there were also some photographs that were taken at a higher ISO level thus making the photo quite grainy. Using a noise remover filter then made some of the photographs a little bit too soft. Other than that, the photos turned out very close to what I had envisioned the concept to be.
