Health Campaigns

Photo Shoot One & Two - Lungs

After being inspired by the work of Oliver Toscani, I have decided to proceed with my work and take some photos. 

This is an image which was taken in the first photo shoot which I have done. I worked in the studio focusing the lighting of my work. The subject featured in the image is a 'pigs pluck'; this is the lungs of a pig. I felt these looked realistic and when edited would create a repulsive and graphic effect. I wanted to created a shiny and 'sheen' effect of the organs. This had been previously inspired by the work of Toscani. A small amount of gelatine was used and spread over the organs. This was so that when the lights triggered, this produced a nice shine to the subject. 

I feel i have captured the composition of the lungs well however, I felt they looked too healthy and colourful. The lungs were supposed to be an example of smokers lungs, or someone who had lung disease. I decided to play around with the photograph on Photoshop. 

Above shows the image after being edited on Photoshop. The background colour has been changed as I felt the photograph would work better on a black background. This means the set of images would have to take this colour background so the images are consistent and work as a set. 

The selective colour tool was used to detract any bright tones, and the vibrancy tool was used to reduce any colourful areas. Colour burning was used to darken areas of the lungs, this can be visible on the patchy dull areas on the lungs. I personally felt this worked really well. 

The image above was also taken by me, this was to accompany the image of the lungs. I wanted to include a message about smoking through the use of a 'ticking time bomb' mechanism. The lighter represents that every time a cigarette is sparked and smoked, it's a step closer to start 'alarm bells ringing'. In a literal sense, this could be due to a disease or ]condition caused by smoking. 

The original image (shown above) featured a light grey background, but I decided to change this so that this could tie in with the photograph of the lungs well. I highlighted the clock face, paying careful attention to sharpen the numbers and hands of the clock. I asked some viewers what they thought of the image, and they said it was too literal. I don't agree, as I feel it works well and is straight to the point. To make the background black I had to use the brush tool and go round every element on the photograph. This is a time consuming process but I felt it was worth the final outcome. 

Photo shoot Thee,Four & Five - Heart

The image above was taken from a test shoot I did of a pigs heart. I liked the idea and concept but after having a  VIVA with my class, it was discussed that having the organs consistently photographed in the same style and technique may work better. 

This is my third final image which has again been edited using Photoshop. This image was difficult to edit after going round the entire organ with the brush tool. Some areas were hard to carefully define but I feel I managed to improve this after going over it a few times. I like the overall effect this photo has. It appears to be very gory and would hopefully convince viewers to take actions to care about their heart more. 

This image was taken to go as a triptych alongside the heart organ. I use a black background when shooting but it obviously wasn't dark enough. Again, the consistent background was kept by using the brush tool. One of my tutors felt the images look 'cut out' and didn't look right. Personally I liked this effect and decided to do this through all of my images. 

This image shows the photograph after the post production stage. I have purposely included a shadow which goes over the legs. I wanted to do this to show 'obesity'. I also used the liquify tool to make the legs look wider and fatter. However, it was difficult to do this without making the image look very fake and edited. Only slight changes have been made with this tool. This is the fourth final image for my project.

Photoshoot Six & Seven - Liver

These two photo shoots are the ones that I struggled with most. Unedited this image was really hard to identify. When displayed with the other two organs I feel that the liver will look better and people will recognise it. Being honest, nobody really knows exactly what a liver looks like. I love the glossy effect which has been caused by gelatine being put on the organ. When the flash triggered it caught the gelatine and caused a sheen effect.

This is my least favourite image which I produced for the project. After losing my SD card, I lost some potential final images this caused me to have to do a photo shoot the night before the deadline. The background isn't consistent which I feel ruins the image. My flash gun was also playing up making the photo shoot very difficult to complete. I altered tones and the brightness and contrast of the photograph. 


Overall I feel happy with most of the images I produced. I worked very hard and spent a lot of time and effort editing all the images to a professional high standard. In retrospect I wish I would have allowed myself more time to do more photo shoots. I feel this would have improved a couple of my final images vastly. Before the exhibition I would like to re-shoot the toilet photograph as I feel it doesn't show off my best work.