this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2023
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hello! i’m a senior in high school and i’m preparing for my ap portfolio.

one of my ideas include using a scatterings of fake blood in a bathtub + on the tile floors and walls. i’ve tried looking for washable fake blood props, and most fake blood i’ve found is permanent.

i can’t stain my bathtub with fake blood. my parents will murder me and the fake blood will turn into real blood.

any ideas?

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[–] ApatheticAbsurdist@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago (6 children)

Food coloring and glycerin works.

That said, just some general advice as someone who's spent a lot of times in critiques from high school students, to community college, to big art schools:

People early in their careers (and no disrespect to your age, but if you're in high school I'm guessing you haven't been doing photography for 30 years) sometimes will lean into images with blood, guns, knives, etc. to create striking images and convey emotions. However those symbols and images can be a pretty blunt instrument without much nuance. They're "edgy" but don't drive the viewer to think much more. I don't know what images you are planning on creating but 9 times out of 10 when I've seen someone go to those visuals, the images they create often are "one layer" images without as much depth. If you have time, I'd suggest maybe writing a little bit about what ideas you want to convey and the visuals you want to get across. Perhaps you can hint at things, create a few layers so the viewer has to spend a little more time with the image and think about what's going on... things like that help elevate a photo to the next level. Spend as much time on the "why" and what you want the viewer to think as you are about the how you're going to photograph it.

Again, I don't know what you're planning and I'm not specifically saying whatever you're planning is bad, but from what I've seen over the past 30 years of doing this I'm just going off of spidey-sense.

[–] Conscious-Coconut-16@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This is excellent advice for photographers at any stage of their artistic journey. It is very difficult to find the right balance between hitting your viewer over the head with an image concept versus the image saying nothing at all. Having said that, the fake blood could still be effective, depending on what you want to say, this is key, make sure you have something to say. Work on your artist statement, perhaps even running the statement through ChatGPT to help clarify your artistic intentions. In the film industry they use corn syrup and food colouring, just make sure the food colouring doesn’t stain, it would be wise to test it first.

[–] oh_dear_now_what@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago
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