Surreal Images

Today I photographed two dancers in the studio today, Megan and David. I wanted to keep the to theme of keeping the dancer moves and stretched and to give them a surreal affect. Working alongside the dancers I asked them to stretch out as I captured their movements. I used a black background as I wanted to go a bit darker than my previous work. I asked the dancer to wear a black leotard so that the blacks blend in with each other so it leaves the different body parts giving it a surreal feel to it. Below are a selection of some of the images I chose to show my tutor. 

The image above was of Megan. She was lead on her back, with her legs in the air and she spread them out and put her hands out in front on her. I then flipped the image in lightroom so it made you look closer at the image as her hands are flat like they she is pushing on them but because they are at the top it makes you look closer at the image. I like the image but could like to be more surreal with the image and have the hands in different positions or the legs

I like the image above and it highlights the body and the arms and you can just make out the feet so it give again a surreal affect to it. I like how the arms are stretched out making them look longer than they are and the muscles on his back. The only thing I don't like about the image is his fingers/hands are not equal and instead of looking at his back and the structure of his body you start to look at the fingers instead. Next time I will try something similar but make the arms not symmetrical. I will also brighten the image more to bring out the highlights of his back

The image above has a very surreal affect it to as it reminds me lets rather than arms. Again like the previous images I like the image the dancers back creates but my eyes are drawn to the hands and the arms and whether they are in line with each other. I will be capturing some more images of David the dancer and will try to capture his back but will try think more about where his arms lie.

The image above has a different feel to it has he is stretching out to you so although I like the use of different levels of the hands I don't feel it fit with the series of images

The perception of the image belows remind myself of a female. The shape of the shoulder blades give the impression of females breast but the arms make you look closer. The image is too low key and needs the highlights bringing out more and the position of the hands need to made more equal or to position them in an alternative place other than the back

The image above reminds me of Dali Salvador work. The shoulder blades meeting in the middle. I rotated the image in post production so it makes you look closer at the images and again give it a surreal feel to it. 

The above image is one of my favourites. Throughout the shoot I would show David the images I captured so he could understand what I was trying to achieve. We got towards the end of the shoot and I asked him to do a few stretches so I could capture him. As he did this stretch his black leotard blended in to the background and did not have the same effect. After discussion David felt comfortable to take his leotard off so I was able to capture the images showing the muscles within his legs and back. I feel this image works because he looks venerable because of the muscles in his body and because the image is not symmetrical you focus more of the shape of the body not whether everything was in line with each other. There was a lot of black empty space above David so I decided to square format the image so it was cropped more and it drew into the dancers figure.

I showed my tutor my images and he thought the one above was the best because of the lighting, it bought out the highlights more than the others and he felt the other images were too dark. He also mentioned about the image being too symmetrical. He said the image above you focus more of the shape of the body than whether the fingers are matching etc... I have taken his feedback into consideration and arranged another shoot to work on some more images.

When capturing the dancers I did think how I wanted to try more close-ups but as I was capturing I decided to capture more than I needed so I could crop but also I would go close up on the legs or arms and I found them to be too obvious and it just looked like what they are and did not have a surreal feel to them, but I will try more close up images next time when shooting to try more close-ups and try alternative ways of capturing the close-ups and how they possition their bodies.

Below are contact sheet from the shoot with Megan and David

Overall I am happy with the shoot, it was very inspirational and gave me some more ideas. Next time I will increase the lighting more so it brings out the highlights on the dancers body. I spoke with my tutor and he recommended that I add treatment to my images which I can be shown soon by Andy and the images are too symmetrical. Therefore, when looking at the images you start to nip pick at them such as are the elbows level, are the fingers equal. Whereas, the last image where the dancer David is bend over to one side, one arm and one leg you focus more of the structure of the body not whether everything is level or not. 

Next time I will increase the light and bring out the highlights more and I try be less symmetrical with the dancers figure. Also, I will try capturing close-ups in different ways to see whether they have the same effectas my previous images.