Elements- Fire

I went out with a dance teacher (Rachael) into the woods to try and test shoot some images using fabric. In the fabric shop I saw this gorgeous 2 toned fabric which is red and in the light it has some blue, this reminded me of a bunsen burning. I felt that the two different colours shown, when burning, was a good representation of a flame.

I chose the woods because I felt that wood helps keep the fire burning. Unfortunately it was too wet and dirty for the model to truly perform but I wanted to practice using the fabric.

My idea was to overlap the person and the fabric and I wanted Rachael to use the fabric in a vibrant energetic way. Also, fire is uncontrollable and I wanted to represent that through the image.

My only concern with this image is that the metaphor may be too obvious and may need to be more sutble. My aim is to continue working on this and try to perfect this idea and work on the other elements such as water, wind and earth.

Below are examples of work from that shoot

These images below represent flames from a fire and symbolises that the fire is taking over this person. The person herself is passionate about dance but I would like to improve these images as I like the use of slow shutter speed and how the fabric is blurry. However, with a few changes e.g. I would like the fabric (that represents fire) to be more visible all over her body so that it is easy to see the person within the fabric but that her body is covered by it. I feel that this could work.

In the images below her feet are too stiff and, as stated above, the fabric covers only the top part of her body.

The image below is more of what I would like to achieve with regards to the movement of the fabric and how it is symbolising fire. However, I find that her face is distracting and shows no emotion. This takes away the emphasis from the fabric and is something I must learn from in future shoots.

Again this image below is more of what I would like to achieve but the line where the path and woods meet is distracting. There is also a part of her body that is showing and, as with the above image, distracts too much from the fabric. The colour and atmosphere that the fabric creates is what I would like to achieve: I'd like to pursue this further and perfect the images to this end.

The image below is experimenting using the use of panoramic composition. My aim is to use this composition when capturing the elements of wind or water and have the fabric floating along the shot. The line where the path and woods meet is distracting but when next capturing I would like the use of fabric to be more spread out and not as confined as the images above.

The image below are several images overlapped in Photoshop, to symbolise the flickering flames of a fire. I feel this has not had the effect I was hoping for as there isn't as much movement and the fabric and person are in one position. Next time I will get more movement not only at the top but flickering at the bottom as well. Also, there is some movement in the woods and this needs to be more sharp.

Next time I will ask the dancer for more movement so that different angles will be created. An example of this would be so that the fabric would cover more of the lower half of her body. This will, hopefully, also make the fabric look more vibrant and reduce the contrast of the model so that she blends into the image.

Below are contact sheets of all the images I captured from that shoot

I will continue working on this shoot and aim to perfect the image so that the background isn't too distracting. I'll also try to ensure the fabric covers the dancer more and that the colours are given more emphasis.