final prints

I’m pretty happy with the way my prints turned out. I managed to resolve the darkness issue with the ones I mentioned earlier, and I managed to print another one. For the last print I chose the press up photo because the contrasty look matches the others well and I was struggling to get the right framing with the resting phase photos. I decided on 14 photos because having an odd number would have meant that I would have had a photo on its own on a page which wouldn’t look balanced.

I chose the photos I’ve presented because I think they show an all-round view of the gym and the range of body shots and close ups make it more personal, as well as portraying the seriousness of the atmosphere during a session. I think this seriousness is best represented in the photos of Jonny doing the bench press and the deadlift. To improve this feeling I could have taken some photos of people using the punch bag because it would have added to the range of photos and visually complemented the others.

My favourite photo is of Garry doing the preacher curl because the light has really softened his arm but still provided a decent amount of definition. I also really like the shine on the dumbbell which was vital to balance the tones within the photo. I think I have shown through my photographs that I have researched this area of portraiture photography and that I have applied what I have learnt into producing the photos. The most influential bit of research was of Yousuf Karsh which benefited my photos and this one in particular which I explained earlier, but also the Karl Shaw visit which really gave me a greater understanding of the ways the lights can be used.

One of the things I wished I’d done was to stick with the 6x4.5 format rather than go to 7.5x8.5 which I thought would been the better option. Although I think the photos do look better in the 7.5x8.5 it did leave me with fewer options and left me unable to do some of the photos I wanted to do.