Work Record 2: Normal Touch and Temperature

Plans for shoot

In this shoot, I will be focusing on capturing sensory experiences relating to the physical sense of touch and the sensation of feeling a temperature change. When planning the compositions of the images I have tried to think of situations and experiences to capture that have a strong connection with these senses. This will then heighten the intensity of any associated experiences the viewer has with the image and so connect more strongly with the perception of touch or temperature.

For the images associated with temperature I plan on using the two extremes very hot and really cold. I think it is better to focus on strong changes rather than mild ones. This is because any associated memories of the experience will be much more intense and so be more readily remembered and recalled. For the images connected with high temperatures, I will use the flame from a candle or a lighter. The sight of a naked flame should immediately connect with viewers as a source of danger and of being so hot it burns you. This will make it easier for the imagined sensation of being hot to be evoked.

For the opposite end of the temperature scale, I will use ice as a prop. I had thought of using snow as it has been snowing recently but it is unlikely that it will snow again so I may not be able to make any adjustments or improvements by retaking the images. Ice is something that everyone will have experience of feeling against their skin or their tongue so with it being a universal experience then almost everyone should be able to evoke memories of the sensations involved.

For the images involving the sensory experience of touch I will initially evoke experiences of running your fingers over or through something soft or silky. I plan on using the soft delicate feel of the petals of flowers as props as well as the fur from a fluffy cat or dog. For the opposite end of the spectrum, I will use a branch from a tree or bush that has thorns on it. I will capture images of someone's hand reaching towards or holding the branch. This should evoke the anticipation of a sharp object touching your skin, and the pain this could give.


The props I have arranged for this shoot include candles, a lighter and matches. I also have bought a bag of ice and a bunch of flowers. I have access to my pets for taking images involving stroking their fur and can obtain a branch from some of the thorny bushes in my garden.  I have also arranged for a model to be available as I will need their hands in my shots.

The techniques I plan on using are a narrow depth of field and close-cropped images that fill the frame. By using these techniques I will be better able to focus on the sensations involved in the images and direct the viewer's attention there. I will also enhance the intensity of the perceived sensations by filling the frame with the subject.


Research influence

In my research for this project, I have been influenced and inspired by the images from Ashvini Ray’s ‘The Untitled Series 2010’ in which she captures close up images of structural elements of the human form. Her images have an abstract quality and using her unusual perspectives to disguise her objects she allows viewers to focus on the tactile elements of her images, such as the soft round textures and the taut sculptured forms. Then by presenting her images in black and white, she enables the viewers to focus more on these elements by removing the distraction of colour. She encourages us to feel the physical landscape of our skin by capturing the beauty and intricate patterns and tactile aspects of our body and stimulates our physical perception of it, particularly how our skin feels to the touch and to look at. In doing this she makes us contemplate about the different sensations and textures of our skin and how this can vary and be adapted and so takes us on a sensory experience with our own skin.

This close-up image from her series of the folded skin on the sole of a foot creates interest in the image. The undulating appearance of the skin creating a rippling effect across the entire length of the skin shown and makes you feel as though you could just reach out a finger and feel the rise and falls of the peaks and troughs of skin. Also, the large swirls of fingerprint patterns that cover the skin on the base of the foot make the image more realistic and alive and make it more personal and individual. These patterns draw attention to the fact that this is a natural material that is living and is part of us and enables us to feel the wonder and beauty in such a flexible detailed surface.

The tactile nature of Ray's images has encouraged and influenced me to try to capture such a quality in my own images. I want viewers to feel they could reach out and touch the subjects and feel the textures there. I want them to be able to imagine it is their hands that are holding the ice or the flowers, feeling the warmth of heat from a candle. This will require close up cropped images to make the experience more personal and intense. It will also require me to choose objects that have an expected texture so that the viewers will be able to easily recall memories of it. This is why I have chosen a heat source like a candle, and a cold sensation like ice as everyone knows the feeling of heat and cold on their skin.  Similarly, I have chosen soft silky textures too for their recognizable feel.    
  

Contact sheet

Image Bank

This image focuses on the sensory experience of feeling the heat coming from the flame of a candle. The model is moving her hand towards the flame so that the palm of her hand is lit up with the light from the flame. I took the image using depth of field focused on the hand then on the candle.

To enhance the perception of heat I introduced an element of danger as the match burns down towards the model's fingers. This will create the anticipation of the sudden sharp intense heat on their fingers as the match burns down.

For the images involving the opposite end of the temperature range, I captured my model holding a handful of ice chunks.

I used a sharp thorny branch on a hawthorn tree in my garden to capture the sensory experience of touching something sharp.

  

For the tactile sensory experiences of soft and silky, I captured images of hands touching the soft delicate petals of a rose and other pretty flowers.

 I also captured close up images of someone's fingers running through the fur on a dogs back and a finger gently stroking a snakes skin. During the shoot, my dog Dante started to lick my hand so I captured images of this too.

My Best images

Images that require improvement

 

I have captured too much of the floor background in this image so that it takes attention away from the experience being shown of the flowers being held in the person's hands by the heads of the flowers rather than by the stalks. I had wanted the greenery of the plant which had placed on the floor to serve as a general green blurry background. However, the image needs to be more highly cropped and focused on the flowers and hands. The flowers are not positioned in the right place in the image to demand attention, I could have used the rule of thirds to correct this.

While I think I have composed this image well by using the line of the snake's tongue and its head and neck as a leading line to direct the viewer onto the finger touching and feeling the texture of the snakes smooth skin. As well as having also captured the image in enough close up to emphasise the detail in the scales and their pattern on the snake. However, as the snake was moving about so much I have not been able to focus sharply around the area where the finger is to draw attention there. Instead the snakes head is in sharp focus and the finger a little blurred. I will have to retake this image to correct this.


AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.

In this shoot, I am capturing images of sensory experiences relating to the physical sense of touch and the sensation of feeling a temperature change. I will focus on using situations and experiences that have a strong connection with these senses. This will then heighten the intensity of any associated memories the viewer has with the image and so connect more strongly with the perception of touch or temperature.

For the images associated with temperature, I will use the extremes of very hot or very cold so that the memories evoked are with strong changes that will be more readily recalled rather than mild ones. I will use the hot flame from a candle or a lighter as this has immediate visual connections with danger and a hot temperature.  For the opposite end of the temperature scale, I will use ice cubes to evoke the sensory experience of touching something really cold. By using these extremes of temperature it will make it easier for the sensory experiences to be evoked as the memories will be more intense.

For the images involving the sensory experience of touch, I will initially evoke experiences of running your fingers over or through soft or silky materials such as the petals of flowers or the fluffy fur of a pet dog or cats fur. Flower petals are generally associated with feeling soft and gentle to the touch and with being delicate so that you handle them with care. I will make use of this feeling that you are handling something fragile to create an association in the mind about the gentleness with which you should be taking and the softness of the delicate petals, while a pet cat or dogs fur is comforting to stroke and makes you feel relaxed. Therefore, an image showing a hand gently stroking their pet should evoke memories of how their own pet's fur feels to the touch and the positive association of this relaxing soft feel.

Then as an extreme alternative, I will use a branch from a tree that has thorns on it and capture images of someone's hand reaching towards it or holding it tightly. This should evoke the anticipation of a sharp object touching your skin, and the pain this could give.

For all the images I will take them in close-up to focus on the detail in the shot and to make the visual experience more intense and personal. I will also try to fill the frame with the subject and use cropped images to emphasise and focus on the specific subject. In this way, I will capture a more intimate and intense experience for the viewers which will aid them in feeling involved in it.

In this image, the model has grasped the flowers by their heads using both hands rather than by the stalks as you usually would. This allows her to feel the soft and silky textures of the delicate flowers petals as she runs her fingers over them. This action will evoke memories of how soft petals feel to the touch when people view the image. In images, it is usually the feeling of texture that makes people want to reach out and touch it themselves and this is what I aim to achieve in this image. By almost completely filling the frame with the flowers heads and the detail in their delicate petals I hope to make the image more intense and so encourage their imagination into believing that they too can run their finger over the flowers and experience this soft sensation.

I can think of a few changes I could make to this image to enhance the sensory experience evoked. Firstly I could crop the image a bit more so that the flower heads completely fill the frame, this would enhance the size of the flower heads and should impact the intensity of the image. I could also have the hands positioned in more prominent positions, the positions I used were to try to keep an authentic feel to the image and I did not want to obscure the flowers heads too much to keep the soft silky texture in a prominent position. But I think placing one of the hands in a more prominent position would enhance the effect. Particularly so that the pads of the fingers can be seen in contact with the petals.

This image shows someone reaching the palm of their hand towards the flame of a lit candle. The light from the candle's flame accentuates the heat that will be coming from the flame and highlights that the model will be feeling this warmth on her skin as it is so close to the flame. I used a narrow depth of field to focus attention onto the hand and slightly blur the image of the candle, and in so doing focused viewer's attention onto the hand and the way it was being high-lit by the flame.



To improve this image I would like to have positioned the model's hand in a slightly higher position so that more of the palm was in view in the image and so more of an area would be high lit and so occupy and dominate more of the frame. This would enhance the perception of heat.  It would also have been more effective if there was a stronger source of flame. So that when compared to the rest of the frame, which is more shadowed, the eye will be drawn to the high-lit palm area and this will add to the perception of heat. Or alternatively, I would like there to have been a sharper contrast between the two areas which could have been achieved by darkening the shadowed area. It may, however, be possible to make some of these adjustments in photoshop. 

AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.

The camera I used is my Nikon D5300 DSLR, and I have set it up on my tripod to take the shots in as many images as was possible.    For the camera settings, I set the ISO as low as possible in order to prevent noise and in order to capture specific details in sharp focus I chose a smaller aperture and a wider depth of field setting.

I used a model in the images and directed her hand movements to where I wanted. Choreographing the exact actions I wanted to highlight the particular experience. These include the movement of the hands around the candle, the striking of the match, use of the lighter, holding of the ice and the prickly branch and the running of her hand through a dogs fur.


I arranged the availability of various props including the candles, lighter, and flowers. I purchased a bag of ice and kept it frozen in the freezer until required on the day of the shoot.

The main location I used was at my home using a number of rooms including the kitchen, bedroom and the garden.

This image I have taken simply shows a lit red candle. I had taken it for the previous shoot which focused on smell as it is a scented candle. However I was unhappy about the lack of connection the image has with evoking a sense of smell, other props would have to be added to suggest this. I have therefore decided to move it to this shoot as it fits better with associations with touch and temperature, and I have also taken other images of candles to develop this theme in this shoot, so it fits better here with the connection with the heat energy being given off from the burning frame. 

I have placed the candle along a line of thirds to add interest to the image. The sharp contrast between the black background and the light coloured flame adds drama to the image and focuses the viewer’s attention onto the high-lit area that of the candle's flame. This contrast is very dominant and immediately draws the eye to the glowing white light of the flame. The red colour of the candle also adds energy to the image and the way the top of the candle's wax has melted enhances the perception of heat coming from it. Hot enough to turn a solid into a liquid. The simplicity of this image by focusing intently on the flame through close cropping draws attention to the way both heat and light comes from the candle and aids viewers in experiencing a sense of warmth that comes from the glow of the flame. Looking at the image my mind is telling me not to reach out and touch the beautiful candle as I will get burnt, even though it knows that its an image, the visual perception triggers memories associated with a flickering flame that's really hot.

To illustrate an aspect of how I have experimented with images to allow them to better convey the meaning I want them to is shown below.

In this image, I have used the technique of a narrow depth of field to focus attention on a particular part of the frame. By using a narrow depth of field and focusing it on the hand in the first image and the candle in the second I have drawn the viewer’s attention to each in turn. In the first image, it is the hand that draws attention first, as the candle is slightly blurred and this encourages the viewer to look at the hand being warmed by the candles glowing flame. In the second image, the eye is drawn to the candle first as it is sharply in focus and this encourages anticipation and evokes memories of the heat you would feel from it. Only then is attention directed to the less in focus hand behind the candle being warmed by its heat. By experimenting with this technique I can direct the viewer’s attention to the image in order to maximise its effect. There are a few adjustments I would have liked to make in these images though. Firstly as mentioned above I would have liked to have illuminated the hand more to accentuate the effect of the heat from the frame and this would have made the image more effective at conveying the sense of warmth from the flame. I would also have like to capture more of the palm of the hand being lit up by the warmth and light from the flame by having it placed higher up the frame. It would also have liked to experiment with a narrower candle to see if I could use it to create a leading line to draw the viewer's eye up towards the flame and the hand being warmed by its heat.

 

AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

The photographer who I have taken inspiration from for some of the aspects and planning for a number of images from this shoot is Ashvini Ray and particularly the images in her 'The Untitled Series'. In these images, she has captured a tactile element of her subject, human skin. She takes the viewer on a journey over the physical landscape of our skin and body capturing the beauty and intricate patterns and sculptured elements there. By focusing so intently on her subject in close up images and by carefully disguising the particular part of the body she is photographing by using unusual perspectives she ensures the viewer carefully studies the images for clues. Her ability to capture form in the image and to make this appear so three dimensional that you feel you could reach out and feel the different textures, folds and structures present. Her image of the palm of a hand was particularly effective in evoking feelings of its tactile nature. The palm was completely covered with the delicate swirling pattern of fingerprint lines then these were intersected with numerous crisscrossed line crevices and in the centre of the image a shaded valley has been formed by elevating the thumb and this adds compositional depth to the image making you feel that you could reach out and touch it.

Ray's images have inspired my thinking to use really close up images of hands together with the sensation they are feeling. Such as the sensation of; the feel of soft delicate petals of flowers, the warm relaxing softness of a dogs fur, the sharp points of a prickly branch, the hot heat from a candles flame or the ice cold numbness of handfuls of ice. Just as Ray has done I have focused intently using close up images that have been closely cropped to intensify the sensation being shown and allow the viewer to focus on the physical aspects of what they are being shown. By just capturing a person's hands in the image I hope that the viewers can associate their own hands in such situations experiencing the sensations that the model's hands are experiencing.

To convey the physical experiences of temperature in the limited time I have available I felt it was best to focus on the extremes of the range using a very hot and a very cold sensation being experienced by the model. I chose to use hands again for this to associate these experiences with the others above where I had also used hands, this keeps the theme constant and allows the viewer to focus more on what they are being shown and consider the sensations involved.

In order to convey the sensory experience of the substance being touched it is important to visually capture it in as realistic and three dimensional way as possible. It is difficult to image the experience if you cannot comprehend the texture or temperatures involved. Then to enhance the intensity of the experience it is important to focus intently on it and fill the frame with it.   

This image captures a person's hand holding a bunch of ice cubes. It can be seen that the skin on the person's hand has wrinkled as the cubes are so cold against their skin. Also, the person's wrist looks taught and strained as if they are struggling to hold onto it for much longer as it feels so cold. By using a darker background this focuses attention on the light coloured ice, as the eye is always drawn to high-lit areas in an image, and I have also positioned it dominantly in the centre of the frame. I have also used the natural side lighting to create a sharper transition from shadow to light and so add drama to the image. This also adds the perception of form and depth in the image making it feel more realistic and helping the viewer to feel they could reach out and touch it. By focusing so closely on the image the shiny wet surfaces of the lumps of ice are revealed more easily as are the texture of wrinkles on the person's skin which is caused by the cold temperature. These details add to the intensity of the experience being shown and the anonymous nature of the hand allows viewers to better connect with it and imagine that it could be their hand and so share in the experience more easily.

AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements. 

In this shoot, my intention was to capture the sensory experiences relating to the physical sense of touch and the sensation of feeling a temperature change. I believe I have achieved what I have set out to do and have done this using a range of different materials that have very different textures. These include:

• ice
• heat from a candle/lighter
• flowers
• a snake's skin
• a dog fur
• a dog's tongue lick on skin
• a thorn on a branch

In my images, I have included objects which are associated with extremes of temperature, from ice cold to the intense heat of a flame. By visually displaying images that are immediately associated with a temperature, this will aid viewers in connecting with any stored memories of experiences with such temperatures. This will help bring alive the sensations involved more for them when they look at the image.

I have also used materials with a range of textures such as delicate, soft, smooth, furry, moist, rough and sharp.

By using the technique of focusing so closely on the objects and the hand in the image that is feeling its tactile quality, I hope to encourage the viewer to feel that it could be their hand that is feeling the texture of the object. In this way, they can connect more with the visual image by having associations of the touch and feel of the subject to add to their experience. It is important that I have good lighting in these images so that I capture form in the objects so that they look as realistic as possible as this will make the viewers feel as though they could reach out and touch them themselves.

In addition to using the technique of up-close photography, with close cropping and filling the frame to really emphasise the tactile quality of the image and emphasise the experience. I have also made use of a narrow depth of field in some images this was to focus attention onto the specific part of the image where the touch experience was most intense. This is illustrated below:

In this image, my model is reaching with her hand to grab a small branch on this hawthorn tree. However, there is a very sharp thorn on the branch that is about to stab her on the pad of her index finger if she moves her hand any closer to it. I have used a narrow depth of field focused on this thorn and the top of the finger so that it is in sharp focus. The rest of the image including the rest of the hand in the front of the image and the rest of the tree behind the thorn and slightly blurred. This technique forces the attention onto the part of the frame where the experience is being felt and so emphasises its impact.  I took this image on a bright day so that I could visually capture the form and detail in the thorn and branch and so enhance the perception of its texture and the feelings associated with it when it is being touched.



Progression:

In my next shoot, I will be focusing on the normal sensory experiences related to sight and hearing. I am particularly looking forward to this shoot as I have many props relating to hearing that I think will be effective. These include musical instruments such as an electric guitar and amplifier a well as a flute. I have some ideas about how to compose the images using leading lines and perspective to focus in on and emphasise the sensory experience of hearing which is being shown.

I also have a captivating animated gif in mind for conveying the loudness of an alarm clock. This should be an effective image as it will incorporate motion and help to connect the visual element with the anticipated sounds.

  

Update.

I was not completely happy with the images I had taken of the hand touching the dog's fur. I felt that the skin of the hand was very pale next to the dog's black fur. I, therefore, took some additional images using another dog with lighter coloured fur and in this way, the image does not look as if it is black and white and so removes the unintentional sombre mood the image was evoking.

The new images have a much better mood associated with them due to the more positive less sombre colour associations. They also capture the soft texture of the individual strands of the fur and the way the fingers dislodge the way the fur is lying. This makes the image feel more 3 dimensional and real and will aid the viewer in feeling that they could reach out their hand and feel the softness of the fur by running their fingers through it. I have also again used close cropping of the image to intensify any memories or feelings it evokes.