1. Experimental Photography Hannah Richards1

2. Image 1:Development Part of the development of this final photograph came from when I was experimenting with my pets and experimenting with the tools on the camera, I used a slow shutter speed to capture the movement of my dog playing on the floor and I like the effect it made as it looked as if there were duplicates of her body and some of the movement that was captured had faded giving the image the ghostly spirit effect which I thought tied in with the possession theme really well. After seeing these results I then attempted to take the photographs of myself and look at the results. 3. Image 1:Development This photograph didn't include much development because I wasnt intending on using an image like this, I achieved this photograph through experimenting with the camera until I realised that the photograph gave an interesting effect and my first shot was exactly what I was aiming to achieve through this project.The only development I can state is the lighting change I made to the photograph because when I originally shot it, it was taken with my bedroom lighting and I wanted to make it look more dark and sinister so I edited it a little on photoshop by changing the brightness and the contrast until I was happy with my result. 4. For this photograph I wanted to depict the most common sign of an exorsism or possetion which is rapid movement of the body, to do this I used a slow shutter speed in order to capture the movement of my head but allow the camera to capture a blurry movement image to fully show the fast and rapid movements. I also wanted to capture movement by using props such as my hair, in the final image I have captured the movement of my hair by wearing it down which allowed it to move around whilst I shook my head creating a better effect, another effective aspect of the photograph is the position of my facial features because I shook my head so fast and the camera was on a slow shutter speed I was able to capture my facial features in different positions.Image 1: 5. Image 2:DevelopmentWhen writing down my initial idea I knew that my photographs would go through a lot of development and editing, as I began to take the photographs I noticed that some ideas didn't work so I developed them in order to produce what I was aiming for, these are some examples of the different ideas I tried, some of which were developed into the final piece whereas some ideas were not used but helped me to develop my final ideas ad final work into something I was happy with. 6. Image 2:DevelopmentThis is an example of one of the ideas that didn't work well, there were many issues that I encountered and were unable to overcome whilst trying to create this floating image, because my aim was to recreate a scene from the exorcist when Regan is lifted off the bed I attempted to do it with the little equipment I had which during the shot included my parents bed, my sister and a set of pillows. The first attempt of this photograph worked well in most aspects because the lighting was right and the way I had positioned myself and my sister enabled me to edit the image easily but it didn't recreate the scene in the way I wanted it to because my legs were on the bed, we tried multiple times to raise my legs without any props but balance became an issue so I decided to use pillows which would cause a hassle in editing but it would help me to create the photograph. I was happy with the photograph I had produced using the pillows but when this image came to editing it was much too difficult because of where my sister was and where my body was it began to look too fake when edited, in the end I decide that this image would not be used as my final photograph because it was too difficult to edit and also it did not fit the brief criteria very well. 7. Image 2:DevelopmentThis photograph was not part of my initial ideas, this idea was developed during research into other forms of experimental photography, I had developed this idea from wanting to recreate the exorcist scene when I saw a few images a female photographer had done with her friend who had lifted her up and had been edited out to create a higher floating effect. I knew that my family would be willing to help in the production of this photograph so it was easy to do without any model release forms or timings. For this photograph I initially wanted my whole body to be reflected into the mirror but it became a challenge to position myself and my dad in the right way so overcame this obstacle by attempting to just capture my face in the reflection, this I think worked really well because we had such a wide space in which to do it although we had to take several photographs to get the lighting and the position right, in the end I managed to get the photographs I was aiming for. A big issue occurred whilst trying to edit the photographs in photoshop as I realised that the way my dad had stood had blocked of parts of my body from the mirror so I was unable to reflect most of my body, to overcome this I cropped the image a little and flipped my body to the other side so that my reflection looked real, I then added a hollow eye effect to the reflected image to create the possession theme. 8. This photograph was developed from one of my initial ideas of having a floating body, I wanted to create the scene from the exorcist when Regan is lifted off the bed into the air, to di this I knew that a lot of editing was going to be done to the photograph so I knew I had to take a photograph that would be easy to edit. To create this final photograph I involved my whole family by asking my dad to hold me up in the air and my mum and sister to make sure the photographs were taken in the exact same place so that they were easy to edit, I then edited out my dads body and moved my body around to allow my reflection to show in the mirror. I think this photograph worked well after editing even though it was a long process to get to this stage including a lot of development.Image 2: 9. Image 3:DevelopmentThese two images are the first attempts it took at trying to create the woodland scene photograph, although I was happy with these photographs in the end because they were blurred and they looked more realistic as if someone had quickly taken the photograph I was disappointed when it came to editing. Due to the distance I was away from the camera and the lighting outside it caused the photograph to blur a bit too much so when I came to edit these images I noticed that my body looked too thin and unrealistic which also took away the aspect of the faulty camera I was aiming for because I was unable to see my body any more whilst I edited it again because of the distance. Another issue with these photographs is the lighting and the quality, the lighting was an issue because I took the photographs outside and the lighting kept changing quickly, also I noticed that the trees were moving which also blocked some of the needed lighting. The quality was an issue because in order to produce the image I needed to take one photograph of the scene without the subject and one with the subject but both photographs came out more blurry than the ones without the subject again making it look more unrealistic. I would have liked to use these images for my final piece but they helped me to develop my ideas and the way I was taking and editing the photograph. 10. Image 3:DevelopmentAfter developing my ideas from the first photographs I managed to capture a photograph first time that I was happy with. For this photograph I made sure that I was closer to the camera so that it could pick up the detail in the photograph and so that it would look realistic after editing, the first shot I took was of the scene which is in my back garden, I wanted to include the branches at the side in order to keep the idea of somebody taking the photograph after witnessing the floating body, I ten took a photograph of the same scene but with me in laid on the chair as if I were being lifted into the air. I was happy with this first photograph so I didn't take any more, I think it would have been better to take more in order to develop my ideas and maybe get a better result, the only issue I came to was during the editing process when I noticed my dress had been pressed up by the chair when I wanted it hanging down, to overcome this I cloned the top part of my dress and added it to the bottom which in the end looked very realistic, I also made the photograph black and white and used the smudge tool to create an old VHS type effect and also selected parts of the image and moved them slightly as if the camera was glitched, finally I added images of static which was inspired by the film The Poltergeist. 11. I think that this photograph is my favourite out of all of my final pieces because I took most of my time on it and I think it fits the brief criteria more than the other two photographs and it also fits in well with the theme. For this image I intended to create a photograph that looked as if somebody had witnessed and exorcism or possession in a woodland area and attempted to capture a photograph of it but due to the conditions and the situation something was interfering with the camera they were using. I also think this one is the best because of the different techniques I have used and the editing tools I have used on it.Image 3: 12. Overall Evaluation: I think I could have improved my work by using a different method of editing ass all of my photographs have been edited in the same way, I think the photographs would have looked more interesting if they had been edited using mixed media with materials such as paint or ink pens. I could undertake further experiments such as mixed media or using other techniques such as double exposure to make my photographs look more interesting and also to keep the exorcist effect. I think my images match the discovery and exorcism theme very well because each one shows a different aspect of the theme and each image consists of different techniques such as lighting, shutter speed and editing, I also think that each image is different because they have all been set in different scenes and places. I think all of the final photographs are experimental because they fit in with the photographers and photographs that I researched at the beginning of the project such as the photographs created by Natalie Dybisz who also used the slow shutter speed technique to capture movement. Overall I am happy with the photographs that I have produced and I think that I have achieved what I was aiming for with my final ideas and I also think that my final photographs are similar to the ideas I had wrote down at the start of the project.15