LO2 - Treatment

TREATMENT

Sheffield - The Green City

We were asked to create a series of five images based on the theme identity. We have to use a range of photographic techniques and genres to take 10 photographs that I will manipulate to create the final five pieces. These five pieces will be presented for viewing in a presentation method of our own choosing.

My idea is to represent the identity of the city of Sheffield through the idea that it is the greenest city in the country. I will combine landscape, nature and macro photography to manipulate into the five final pieces. Some specific ideas I have include:

• Taking a macro picture of a leaf and superimposing a cityscape photograph of Sheffield onto the shape of the leaf.
• Imposing a picture of a cityscape onto the top of a branch on a tree
• Wildlife that I could find in the city e.g. birds, and blend a background of the city and a woodland behind it
• A reflection of a landscape of fields/woodland reflected in a city window
• A picture of trees blended into a cityscape picture (like double exposure)

Photography techniques I might use include long-exposure photography. I could use this to photograph running water or a scene in the city where the long exposure of car lights would make long trails of light. I could also use a high aperture and fast shutter speed to freeze movement but get a high-key image, for example taking pictures of trees in windy conditions. I would use a fast shutter speed to avoid motion blur and a high aperture to make sure the photograph isn’t under-exposed.

My target audience would mainly be people who care about the environment, and people who live in Sheffield. They would be adults, mainly female, in the ABC1 demographic. They would be a mixture of ethnicities, as it doesn’t matter as long as they live in Sheffield.

1. Planning – Friday 17^th April
2. Taking photographs – Friday 8^th May
3. Editing photographs – Friday 22^nd May
4. Draft launch – Friday 5^th June
5. Actual launch – Friday 12^th June

The equipment I will need includes:

• A standard kit lens - 18-55mm; good at creating wide and close-up shots: 18 wide, 55 close-up
• A tripod – for long-exposure shots, a tripod will make sure there is no unwanted motion blur on the photograph
• A DSLR camera – to take photographs and control the settings of how they are taken
• A telephoto lens – as I’m using nature photography, it will be hard to get very close to animals without scaring them. A telephoto lens would allow me to zoom in to get a good photograph of them.

I won’t need to use any models because I am doing no portrait photography.

I’m not using any props as none of the ideas and themes I have use any props.

I need to formally gain permission from the owners of any buildings for me to be able to use them in any of my photographs.
I will need to fill out recce forms for all the locations I am thinking of taking photographs at. These judge if the location is safe enough to use to take photographs at.

I will need to fill out risk assessments for every location I want to photograph. This is important because it shows and tells me what I need to do in case of an emergency.

People protect things which are rightfully theirs under copyright laws. I wouldn’t be able to use anything protected under copyright without the owner’s express permission. I would need to either research any company names which accidentally appear in the city photographs and contact them asking for permission, or try to avoid catching any copyrighted material in my photographs.

If I was using models, they would have to read and sign a model release giving their permission for me to use them in my photographs.

When I take a picture in the city, I will have to be careful not to include faces of people by accident. If I did this it would have to be someone who had filled in a model release. Because I don’t need any models, I need to be careful not to include any people’s faces in my final pieces.

I don’t want Sheffield to get the wrong representation from my pieces, so I need to make sure my images are giving off the right idea. For example, I would have to make sure my images wouldn’t be interpreted as meaning Sheffield is ruining nature by taking photographs on a dull day; it’s supposed to highlight how Sheffield actually embraces nature.

I found a window that would look good in one of my pieces on the window of the Halifax bank on Norfolk Street. I went to ask for formal permission to use it, and I was told that since it's only the architecture I'm photographing - no actual copyrighted material - I don't need any formal permissions. There will be no copyrighted material that belongs to Halifax because they said that many people take pictures of the architecture, and because it's not copyrighted they don't need permission. It's also located on a public right of way, not private land, so permission isn't needed.

If I can’t find anywhere in the city that will allow me to use their window in my photograph, I’ll use my own house instead. It won’t be as good a result, but will still represent the city. If the whole idea doesn't work, i.e. I can't find anywhere to take a cityscape from, I can't find a usable window, etc. then backup ideas I have include:

• An introvert's identity - Images that describe the world from an introvert's point of view. This could include images like a long exposure image with people walking past motion blurred, with the subject - the model - stood still in the middle so they aren't motion blurred.
• Technological identity - the idea that people are starting to have a different identity online and digitally than in real life. Could include images like photographs of young people playing video games, many people social networking or an edit-based photograph featuring two sides of a person: the real side and the digital side.