Taking inspiration from Sakir Gökçebag, I decided to experiment with photographing fruit for the Everyday Geometry assignment. I decided it would be best to use lemons, limes and kiwis, as these fruits are already quite round in shape, and I find that circles are a pleasing and calming shape as there are no sharp corners; they also have intriguing natural shapes inside them when they are sliced, such as triangles and the unusual shapes and seeds inside a kiwi fruit are particularly unique. Next, I bought a few different coloured pieces of card that I thought would contrast well against the chosen fruits, in colours such as yellow, green and orange. I tested out the most successful colour combinations between background and subject, and found that the green of the kiwis contrasted very effectively against the bright orange card. I also inverted the colours between the lemons and limes, using yellow card for the limes, and green card for the lemons. I sliced the fruit into circular slices and arranged them in various different compositions to find the most effective ones. At the end of my shoot, I found cutting these slices in half and forming triangular shapes was also effective, although I think I prefer the impact of the larger round slices.

Here is a slideshow of the original shots from this shoot:

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Next, I chose the most successful images and edited them in Camera Raw to enable Lens Corrections which removed any slight curving at the edges, adjusted the exposure as the images were quite dark and underexposed, and used Photoshop to remove some of the markings on the card or slight imperfections in the fruit. This was the result:

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UPDATE: 23/11/18

Today, we had an informal tutorial to present and discuss our images with our peers. I was given positive and constructive criticism from both my tutor and peers, such as: the simpler compositions such as “DSC_0156.tif” prompted a smile and created a calming, pleasurable effect as the round shapes and arranging the fruit in a line gives a sense of order. As fruit is organic matter, no two pieces of fruit are shaped exactly identically, therefore some imperfections and differences can be seen in the images, and I was told this takes away from the idea of “perfection and accuracy” in geometry; similarly, arranging the subjects freehand gave imperfect compositions and therefore I was advised to be more accurate when reshooting the images, such as drawing markings on the card and using a ruler to create identical spaces between objects. Then, I communicated my troubles with inconsistent lighting and shadows, and was advised to stand the subjects on bottle top lids to lift them further away from the card and reduce the shadows. Lastly, I was advised when choosing the colour for the card in the background, to look at the colour wheel and use complementary colours to show thought and consideration for the choice of background.

From this feedback, I have decided to do another shoot but this time using biscuits and sweets, as these are mass produced using machinery and will hopefully provide more identical subjects; I will also use rulers to more accurately place the items when composing the images, and hopefully both of these things will help produce more accurate and “perfect” geometrical images. I will also look at the colour wheel when choosing the right background, using opposite colours every time, showing my understanding of this important concept in art and design.