Disconnected
Disconnected is the name of week seven’s photograph for Trusting the Process! I named the photograph this because I started to feel disconnected from my concept during the process. The photo also resembled that disconnectedness in my mind and so it really came together conceptually. Check out the process for Disconnected below!
Kaila Hicks, Disconnected, 2021
THE SET-UP
This is what the set-up looked like in the beginning. A lemon backdrop from the dollar store with several props laid out on the floor. I had the idea of creating a vintage-themed photoshoot, but didn’t know exactly how to set it up.
So, I played around with vintage props found in my basement and took a diverse set of images. The photograph that I picked was from one of the first set-ups I created. I had the studio lights on both sides for even light.
EDITING
I first edited the photo in Lightroom for editing that I don’t know how to do in Photoshop quite yet. This includes increasing the background’s exposure with the adjustment brush. I did this to hide the creases in the backdrop.
I also brushed on the TV stand to clean it up and also add more of a saturated green to make it “stand” out more. See what I did there? Anyways, I adjusted the colors in the photo so they’d pop out and then that was all of the editing in Lightroom.
I then exported the image to Photoshop to do the in-depth editing. I looked up TV static online so that I could composite it into the TV in the photo. Once I did this, I clicked on “filter” in Photoshop and then hit “liquify” to distort the static.
Once I was done with the TV, I played around with color more. I used the channel mixer in Photoshop and took the time to find the right combination of colors. After that, Disconnected was officially born!
Kaila Hicks, Disconnected before and after, 2021