Reflections Photography - Traces Experimental Shoot 1 (Canteen)

For my last traces experiment I went to the canteen t see if I could get pictures of peoples left over food and lunches. It was slightly more difficult then I thought because a lot of people cleared up there left overs and also I went just after lunch so it wasn't as busy as I had hoped it would be. Here are my contacts from the shoot:

There was varying rates of success when trying to capture images in the canteen but here are some of my edits. I have deliberately over saturated a lot of the colours to make it vibrant like a lot of the photographers I researched did:

Canteen Traces 1-

 I really like this image because I found one single can on the floor as soon as I walked in to the canteen and it made an instant visual impact  and I assumed it cant have been there for long. My only problem was that it was in quite a dark section of the canteen and so I had to do a lot to it in post production to make it look this vibrant and bright. I am worried that all this editing in post production has caused the quality of the image to be worse. However I am liking this image because of the contrast between the really dark floor and the right coloured can.


Canteen Traces 2-

 I like this image because of the golden colours which attract your eyes in to the cup of beer and the empty wrapper. These are both very vibrant and then you ave them sitting on this white table with white chairs behind which is making them stand out even more from the background. I also feel like this image has a lot of character because it is two very distinctive items that have been left there so simply. All I am worried about with this image is that it is slightly out of focus on the empty wrapper but I think this is because I was rushing to take the photo so quickly before any one moved it.


Canteen Traces 3-

 This image I found also had a lot of character because again it was a rather strange selection of products to be left in such a way on the table. I like the fact that there is three balls of tin foil next to three crisps which seems like a really nice coincidence. I also think the bold colours again work really well against the white table but this time there is a black wall behind which again actually fits the scene really well because the red of the cup still stands out. I have chosen a low angle to take this image at which I think works well to make a nice composition here.


Canteen Traces 4-

 I was lucky enough to find a very messy seating area at the back where a lot of different litter and left overs had been left. I decided to start by taking a long shot of the main area to see if it worked. I think it does in some way for example I really like the way it looks across the two tables from a low angle with a shallow depth of field so everything in the background is blurring. However it is a very busy image with a lot going on in it.


Canteen traces 5-

 I chose to take a close up of this section of the messy table because I like the primary colours of red and blue both being in the same place and also the texture created by these scrunched up balls. I think the colours look even better now that I have saturated them to make it even more vibrant in post production. I also think by putting the contrast up I have made the texture even more visible on the paper too. My problem however with this image is I am not sure if it has much personality to it especially to an  outside audience who wont necessarily recognize this food packaging from our canteen.


Canteen Traces 6-

I really like this image and I am glad that I managed to take such a close up of the leftovers on this plate because this is what I originally intended to be photographing in the canteen. I think that editing it in post production to have really bold vibrant colours was a good idea because now the food stands out well and really contrasts with the bright white of the plate and the napkin. I feel a little bit of personality is injected into this image by the fact that there is a lollipop stick on the plate as well as the napkin. If I were to capture more of these image though I would be able to try out many different shots and angles however I think this shot works for this plate.

Overall I found that I managed to capture some really successful images with a lot of personality in the canteen despite the fact that it wasn't very busy. I think if I went back at a busier time I could find a lot more to take pictures of.