Shoot 3

This shoot was just for me to get a feel of taking photographs of hands as that's currently what I'm looking at working towards for my final piece. I wasn't overly bothered about what I was actually photographing just as long as it was hands. I wanted to find out best ways for positioning, editing and to clear up any rough ideas I had and straightened out what I would actually be looking for when taking potential final imagery. I only took a few images as I have been made aware that the post-production can be ever so crucial when working with hands as they can contain such fine details. After downloading my images I chose the best one to experiment with in Photoshop. My final image from this shoot is below.

Even though this image isn't very bold or great photographically the shoot and more importantly the post-production of this shoot was very informative and a big learning curve for me. Things I've learnt for next time:

• Lighting is key, you need to have a secure, bold light to make the image create a statement. Lighting can create the most beautiful image as it adds depth to the shadows and highlights. It also creates a better finish which isn't so loud or grainy.

• The composition of a piece needs to be striking as it can literally make or break a photo. It has to either follow the rule of thirds or be bold and outgoing.

• As I'm going to be doing at least a couple of shoots, I wanted a way of connecting them all in some way. I thought the best way in doing that would be through the use of black and white imagery instead of colour which could potentially get out of hand and uncoordinated.

• When photographing hands you need to use a good camera and lens which is able to pick up every last detail in one way or another. You need to have the ability to clarify every last imperfection on the subjects hand which makes them different.

As shoots go I'm pretty happy with this one. As I said before, it wasn't about getting the best photograph at the end of it but just learning tricks and tips when photographing hands. This image in itself could do with a lot more work to make the sharpness more bold and the image less loud but it worked as a good experimental piece.