Project Concept
For my project, I intend to experiment with floral photography but using light off of the visible spectrum, specifically UV and infrared. I will do this to explore the unseen world of nature that exists everywhere though our eyes are not tuned to see it. As such, this project will ultimately use an abstract, surreal feel to creatively portray this unseen world, rather than simply just show the flowers as they are. Unlike previous projects where I would artificially add UV qualities to said flowers, I plan to work entirely using flora that fluoresces naturally with UV light. For this, rather than simply use some UV lighting to take the images, I plan to use UV filters with flash to get brighter, less grainy images as well as a more even spread of light. I will need to compile and acquire a range of flora that does naturally fluoresce under UV, which will take time, meaning shooting will likely have to be done later in the project. The shooting will be done in a studio setting as it requires complete darkness and no fluorescence from the surrounding studio. Infrared photography will be done in the studio setting and outside to experiment which is more effective, requiring less precautions and equipment to produce than the UV. The images produced from this project aim to be a mixture of portrait style floral images and abstract style closer macro images as well, seeing which are more effective using this new flash technique. The standard more portrait style images are essentially practiced using this new method, with the more abstract, surreal shots. The preference over macro shots is to further the whole “unseen world” concept of the project, continuing the idea behind the project. For this project, I plan to produce a series of images, producing 6-10 final images.
Another aim for this project is as experimentation for the Final Major Project, where I plan to take this idea further by combining these techniques experimented with here with my experienced niche of wildlife photography. |