Reflections in the mirror

My theme for this project is the reflection in the mirror. Therefore I have decided to do a research about it and see what other people have to say about it. I also wanted to research any kinds of techniques while doing reflection in the mirror, as well as the best setting on the camera that I would be able to use.Mirror reflection is the main technique you can use when doing reflections photography. Using mirror to capture reflection can produce some really interesting as well as creative images.

The most important tip to follow when using mirror reflection in our photos is to make sure that the mirror is clean. We don't really want a nice photo with dirty mirror, because that would definitely ruin the effect of the whole image. The image can also loose a quality. Another really good tip that I have found is not to use filters when working with reflections in the mirror. The filter would distort the image and make it look dull when working with mirrors. When choosing an object to place in front of a mirror, you can use almost anything. People are great for reflection photography. It is also important to use the best focal point when using mirrors. You can either focus on the mirror or the subject. From what I have been doing already I prefer to focusing on the mirror instead of the subject, especially in this project as the theme is glass. Because when focusing on the reflection, especially if I want to use people, is a great way to draw the attention to the mirror. But each focal point has its own benefit. When using flash, we need to pay an extra attention. It's often the best way not to use flash because it can produce some unwanted bright spots in the image. But if we choose to use a flash we need to make sure that we don't stand directly in front of the mirror. Another thing that we need to be careful about is any other light sources in the place that we're in. That's why I prefer to do my mirror reflection photos with the natural light. 

Research Task - 10 digital pictures

These are my digital pictures with no editing. Some of them are internal, and the others are external glass photos. Some of them have been done in the night time, and some of them during the day.

Internal glass photos

This is my first photo, that have been done during evening time through the window. The weather wasn't very good, as we can see the rain drops on the window, but when I was trying to take the photo, I really liked how the lamp post outside, outlined the rain drops on the window and I really think this looks quite interesting.

This is my second photo, that has been done during the day. I have decided to also use a model, and take some photos in the reflection of the mirror. I have quickly thought about the style, and the easiest one, that I could think of was a girl getting ready to go out, this is why we can see dresses all around as well as in the reflection of the mirror, and the make up all over the table as well as shoes that she's holding. I have decided to focus the image on the reflection in the mirror, and by focusing the camera on the mirror and I have also done another one where I have focused it on the person in front of the mirror, I personally think that this one looks a lot better, 

This is my next photo of glass from indoor. I have decided to do it at night time, so that I can use the candles inside. I really like the idea, but I think it would look a lot better if I would have used more candles. The photo is also not very straight, but because we can't use Photoshop in this task to edit them, I have picked one which is the closest one to being straight.

This is my next photo, also done during the evening, when it was dark. I have used one of my final ideas. I have found two beer bottles, which has nice texture on them, so I have decided to use a table lamp to get really nice reflections from the bottle. I really like the final outcome of these photos. I think it looks really interesting, but I should have used a white background as well. I don't think it would work with plain bottles, but because of the texture of these ones I got really interesting effects.

This is my final internal glass photo. I got a nice steam on the mirror, from bringing it in from cold to very warm place.I had to do it quickly, so I have asked my sister to stand it front of it and wipe a little bit of it so that I can get her face reflection of the mirror in the frame of my photo. I think it's also an interesting idea, but I should have had thought a little bit more about the background of the photo.

This is my next photo of glass. This time I have decided to take a photo of a window with a nice view behind it, which is a little bit unseen because of the blinds on the window. I quite like this picture as it's symmetrical, and I also really like the expose as well as composition and focus of the photo which has been done straight away, with no editing. I think this photo is a really good example to show that a good photo can be done without any editing. 

This is one of my favourite photo. In one of our college buildings, during lunch I have found some really nice and colourful windows, and because there was a little bit of sun shinning, we can see the colours from the windows of the wall as well as floor. I have also asked my friend to sit on the stairs to make this picture look a little bit more interesting. 

External glass photos

This is my first external glass photo. I was lucky enough to still take some photos in snow. I have decided to place my model in front of the mirror, and take few shot with her looking into the mirror. I like this picture, especially the colours but I think it would look a lot better if I would crop the top part of the photo out as we deconcentrate on the model because if the messy background. 

This is my next outdoor photo of a glass. I have decided to take some photos of buildings, as some of them have very interesting glass structure and we can usually gt some nice reflection. This is just a simple photo of one of the building in town, where I got reflections that make the photo look really messy, and sometimes I think it's a good and interesting idea because it makes us think what's happening in the photo.

This is my next photo, also of some reflections in the windows from one of the jewelry shops in town. I really like this photo as there's a lot happening, but I think it would look a lot more better if I would have only framed the window and not the person walking in the background.

This is my next, definitely favorite one from this task. I really like the colours of this building, which match very nicely with the windows. I just really like the photo in general, and how it loots from he bottom while looking to the top.

This is my last photo of glass for this task. Once again it's another photo of reflection in the window from one of the shops in town. I like this photo as it matches with the theme of the project, as well as I was able to try out something that I want to do for this project, which is reflections and another thing that I like is the double reflection in this window.

Task 1B - ideas for my theme

I have decided that my main theme for this project is going to be reflections in the glass. I will mainly use mirror and get peoples reflection in it. My first idea is to do a lot of different kinds of styles, with different people. I am planning to take photos of children, young adults as well as grown ups, both male and female, and pick a style to match them. I am planning to take these photos in black and white film. For this style I will use artificial light, as well as day light.

I will also do some still life photos, for the first practice. I am planning to do still life mainly at night, using different kinds of light techniques. I want to use flash, reflecting it on glass in different ways, from different directions, I'm going to use some candles as well. Also I'm planning to use liquid from glow sticks in jars as well as sparklers. These photos, I'm planning to do in colour film.

Risk assessment

Assessment  Reference:	Glass photography	Activity Description:	Photo shoot
Date:	15 February 2015
Student	Marcelina Skrzypczynska	Review Date:	16 - 18 February 2015
Assessment Team Members:		Overall Potential Risk Factor:	5
Course Details:	ED Photography
	Level 3	No. of  People Exposed:	1
	Year 2	Names of People Exposed:	Zuzanna Skrzypczynska
Building-Place & Exact Location	Living room & Kitchen	Is This An Acceptable Risk?

Hazard	Persons At Risk and How	Existing Control Measures	Prob	Sev	Risk Level	Additional Control Measures	Prob	Sev	Risk Level
Glass	me and my model - glass can break	be careful, as we can get cut if we break the glass	2	2	2	make sure my model is not touching the glass	2	1	2

Task 1A - historical and contemporary photographers

Historical photographers

Susan Derges, born in 1955. Susan, who is a historical photographer has many exhibitions all over Europe, America as well as Japan. She has mainly worked in darkroom over her photography career. She has started her work by studying in Chelsea College of art and design, and then she turned to photography, exploring in early photographic techniques of camera less photography, exposing images directly onto photographic paper, in the darkroom. The photos that I have picked from Susan's gallery are photos of reflection in the river. They are reflections of moon and tree branches. I really like these photos, and I also like the idea of using different format of a photo, it's not standard portrait, but it has been cropped out and it became a lot longer, which looks really interesting. 

Bian Duffy, is an English photographer best known for his work shooting fashion in the 1960's and 1970's. He was born in 1933 in United Kingdom and stayed here all of his life. During the World War in UK, Duffy took the opportunity to brake into abandoned houses and take some amazing photos.In 1955, Duffy began working wit models as a fashion photographer. I really like his photos, because we can see how he combined both, architectural skills as well as fashion together. We can see in a lot of his photos that models stand behind the windows of shops, coffee shops as well as their houses. He always use weird compositions of his photos, they're not straight but they're very effective. I really like looking through is gallery.

Brassai, is a well known photographer born in 1899 in Hungary. He has spent most of his live in Paris, where we took a lot of street photos in his carrier. He never had plans for his photos, all he did was went out, placed his small camera on a tripod, opened the shutter speed when ready and fired the flashbulb. Brassai, worked as a journalist for couple of years, for famous Bulgarian magazines. What really caught my eye in his photographs, is the reflections in the mirrors. His work is a great inspiration for this project. I also really like, how he always used nice a big mirrors, with beautiful vintage frames. I really find his work inspiring and will look at it before I am planning t do my photos, because you can learn a lot from him in case of compositions and how to capture the reflection of a person in a mirror. 

 Contemporary Photographers

Robert and Shana Parke Harrison, are one of contemporary photographers, who decided to shoot in black and white film. Robert and Shana are a married couple, best known in the area of fine art photography. Their photos have a really strong meaning as they all show stories of loss as well as human struggle and many more. I have picked these two photographers for this project because I have realised that they always use windows in their photos. Whatever photo they take they always use windows as the background of the photos. They're one of few contemporary photographers who still use film photography now. 

Daniel Klaas, is a portrait photographer based in Australia who still shoot with film camera. His work has been displayed in many exhibitions all over Europe and Australia in many galleries. I have found his work very inspiring, for this project. He does a lot of photos with models, and most of them are in an indoor location, near windows. We can find really nice windows in his photos, where models either look out of them or they just stand near to the windows and get a nice natural light shinning on them because he as a photographer really likes the natural look. I have also found really nice photo of a model standing near a window and Daniel has taken a photo of her in the reflection of the mirror. I really like his work, and I think the photos look amazing even though they have been done with a film camera. 

Cass Bird, is a really good, in my onion, photographer who still shoot with film camera but her photos are in really good quality that you can't even tell until you zoom into the picture and realise that they're a little bit blurry, if we talk about movement photos. I have found two photos of advertising jeans, and they are both done in a movement of braking the glass, and I think it looks really interesting and I know it's very hard to do it, therefore I think she did a really good job. She also has done few photo shoot of fashion, where the main object was the glass, for example different coloured pieces of glass stuck onto high boots. I think this, also looks very interesting.