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Homework 2- Street Photography

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I selected the images from my photo shoot that I thought have a clear subject and a good angle at which the photo was taken and displayed them below. I have highlighted the photos I definitely want to use in red and highlighted them in yellow if they need editing.

I have chosen these photos and have cropped them to make the overall photo more aesthetically pleasing and so you can see the person more clearly and distinctly. The photograph was candid as i took it at an angle in which the subject did not know they were being photographed, making it more natural. My favourite photo out of the two is the first one as it is more interesting as she is looking for something and is not just walking down the street.

I chose another three images which I liked out of my photo shoot and experimented with the colours and tones. This process allows me to see my photographs next to one another and compare them with each other so i can effectively chose my final images. My favorite image from the first row is the 3rd image as i set the white balance to fluorescent light in order to create a blue tint. This creates the effect that the photo was taken in the evening. I also like the colours in the background as i think it gives the photo more atmosphere.

These are my final two images from the photoshoot.

The first image i like as the subject is completely natural which makes the photo candid. I also managed to capture the photo the moment in which he realised he was being photographed which is why his face is confused. I edited the photo in black and white to emphasise the the contrasts in colour and so the subject and the street are in similar tones. I like the background in the photograph and i think it portrays a street well, the fencing and the traffic cone create a sense of the loud atmosphere when the photograph was taken.

I chose this as my second final image as the atmosphere of the photograph contrasts a lot with the first image. The first being loud and busy, and this photo being more calm and relaxed due to the colours in the background of the photo. I edited the photo to emphasise the pastel light pink wall in the background and the railings behind her. The composition of the photograph is good as it is split up my straight lines showing the rule of thirds. The photo is also candid and natural as the subject is unaware that the photo is being taken making it ideal for street photography.

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Environmental Portraiture Homework

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Arnold Newman

Image result for Arnold Newman

 

Image result for Arnold Newman

Arnold Newman was born in 1918 and is acknowledged as the pioneer of the environmental portrait, he is also known for his still life and abstract photography. The reason I was intrigued  by Newman’s images is because not only does he show people in their natural workplaces like the typical environmental portrait photos, but he also captures images which further communicate a lifestyle choice chosen by the person in the photo in a more in-depth sense than just their workplace. I feel that this approach creates a stronger connection between the person in the photo and the audience because it allows them to feel as if they know the person being photographed. He released many books throughout his life and is an important contributor of portraits to publications such as life and vanity fair.

Photo Analysis

Image result for Arnold Newman

I am inspired by this photo and visually appreciate it due to the simplicity yet great effect it has. The simplicity comes through the use of only three real colours, thus being white, black and grey which strongly contrast each other. This strong contrast helps the viewer identify the key elements to the photo which is the piano and the pianist. This photo comes under the category of environmental portraiture due to the fact that we can understand something about the mans life due to what is shown in the photograph. In this case we know he is a piano player and perhaps lives a simple life due to the way in which the photo has very little detail.

Planning

Task – Take 150-250 formal portrait photos that show an understanding of environmental portraits.

Location – Sporting locations such as football pitch and skate park.

Subjects – My friends with their sporting equipment on in the related location.

Camera settings – 1/250 sec, f/4, ISO 100 (most likely will be adjusted slightly up and downwards)

Props – Model, football boots, football, helmet, bike/skateboard.

Lighting – Natural lighting, artificial for the night shots.

Concept – To photograph images in the style of Arnold Newman

Photoshoot

My Response

 

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Environmental Portraits

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In this shoot I focused on environmental portraits. I wanted to capture the calmness of a person's facial expression, in order to make an impact within the picture itself. When taking the shoot I tried to make sure that the subjects facial expression was expressionless, so that it could make the viewer interpret more about the person's personality themselves. I used a variety of subjects to really explore the different expression of different people, and which ones would impact the most from them all.
Once I had completed the shoot, I decided to try to limit the images down into my top ten photographs, from there it would allow me to decide which picture I found the most effective from the overall shoot. I chose the image that I thought had the biggest impact of all, so took into account the rule of thirds, symmetry and lighting. These were my results:
Once again I then decided to limit my top ten photographs into a top five. From these it would make it easier for me to figure out what I thought was the best image out of the entire shoot, by using software like Adobe Lightroom to edit my pictures and make each one stand out against the rest. These were my final results:

I chose this image because I loved how the subject was exactly on the middle line of the road. From this it created a look of symmetry within the picture, and with the trees and paths in the backdrop with the same composition, it to me made the picture aesthetically pleasing. What I also liked about the image was how the blue house in the background, in a way neutralized the image, and to me made it easy to look upon.
I chose this picture because I liked the expressionless face of the subject against a white plain backdrop. This to me created effect within, as the backdrop broke up to a messy brick wall on the right hand side, allows for more focus on the subject rather than what is around them, due to how the contrast on their face stands out from the exposed wall.
The reason I chose this image was because I loved the contrast between the overly exposed background and the darkness of the subjects clothes. This creates a dramatic effect, whilst highlighting the points I wished for the viewer to look upon, like the head up. I found that the character being centered slightly to the middle of the picture made it an overall aesthetically pleasing piece.
Finally I chose this image because I found that it captured the calmness and thoughtfulness, of the subjects face at a significant time in their life. This makes the image aesthetically pleasing because of how there is symmetry between the subjects face, and that of the birthday balloon, which cancel each other out making the picture very balanced. 
The reason I chose this image was because I really liked the contrast between the darkness of the backdrop of a bush, and the brightly colored outfit of the subject. This instantly draws the viewer's eye to the subject due to the clear definition between her clothes and the bush, whilst making it visually pleasing to the eye as the pattern of the bush behind is broken up.

FINAL IMAGE 

I chose this image as my final photograph, because I loved the look of thought upon the subjects face, and found that it told a lot about their past and personality. I found that the balloon and the subject's face being on either side of the image, in a way cancelled each other out, making the overall piece aesthetically pleasing to the eye. The fact that the subject was not centered in the middle of the screen, and made more way to the backdrop behind her, allowed the viewer a bit more of an insight into the life of the subject as a whole. Finally what I thought made the image most effective was that the birthday balloon allows a bit of an view into what the subject may be thinking about in their previous years, and everything they have seen, creating a perspective which is joyful, yet saddens the viewer.

 

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Homework Assignment – Street Photography

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Planning

Task – Take 100-250 photos in an urban environment with people as the focus.

 Models/Props – A group of friends.

Camera Settings – I will use a quick shutter speed of about 1/100-1/500 depending on how fast the subjects are moving as I plan on photographing them whilst they naturally move around. I will use a low ISO as the area I will take photos in will be well lit with street lighting.

Lighting – Mostly my lighting will be natural daylight but in some images I will use the flash to light up the features of the subjects.

Location – In random streets and back-lanes.

Context – I will be photographing a group of friends as they casually do what they would be doing normally in order to capture natural looking images.

Concept – To capture street photographs in the style of Vivian Maier and Robert Frank.

Vivian Maier

Image result for vivian maier

 

Image result for vivian maier

Vivian Maier (1926-2009) was an American street photographer born in New York City. A her work was unknown and unpublished during her lifetime. In 2007,  collectors found some of her prints and negatives in boxes. Her images were first published on the internet in 2008. Her work has now been exhibited in North America, Europe, Asia and South America. A lot of details about Maier’s life remains unknown.

Vivian Maier Favourite Photo

Image result for vivian maier

In this photograph it appears that natural daylight was used to capture it as the tones in the subjects face and clothing look natural and not over-exposed to light. It appears that a low aperture/shallow depth of field was used for this image as the subject in the foreground is in focus whilst the corners of the image in the background are blurred in almost a vignette style.  A quick shutter speed of 1/60 – 1/200 appears to have been used as the image is sharp and not accidentally blurred. A low ISO also appears to have been used as the image does not have much noise in it. The black and white filter provides a cold colour cast over the image.

There is a lack of colour as the image is black and white and the subject has a sad facial expression – this contrasts with the idea that clowns are meant to be colourful and happy all of the time. There is a mostly dark colour range in the image to match the mood of the subject – the tone doesn’t get any lighter than the white makeup on his lips. There is a slight 3D effect in the image as the subject is clearly closer to the camera than the truck behind him – this is further supported by the blurred effect in the background. The image has not been composed to follow the rule of thirds but the subject has been placed slightly off the centre of the image – this could be to show that something is slightly off with the subjects life.

The image actually shows a man called Emmett Kelly as the clown figure “Weary Willie”. Kelly was an American circus performer who created the clown figure based on the hobos of the depression era. At the time, Kelly’s routine was revolutionary as it wasn’t the clown that people expected to see. Maier took this photo out of context as not everybody will know who Weary Willie is.

The fact that Maier took this photo out of context leaves the image open for people to see what they want. Some people will see the famous clown ‘Weary Willie’ whilst others will see a street performer struggling to get by. This makes the image much more interesting as it is left up to the viewer to decide what it is trying to show.

Robert Frank

Image result for robert frank

Image result for robert frank

Robert Frank was a Swiss-American photographer and documentary filmmaker. His most famous work is his book “The Americans” in which he shows an outsiders view of American society in the 1950’s. His book consisted of 83 photographs.

Robert Frank Favourite Photo

Image result for robert frank the americans trolley

In this image, Robert Frank uses different techniques to create the photo that he wants. A fast shutter speed seems to be used due to the sharpness of the possibly moving trolley. Frank also uses a low ISO to create a darker image. The natural lighting of the sun also helps to create a natural looking image that captures Americas society in the middle of their day. A deep depth of field is used as well to keep the image sharp and focused. This image has lots of different settings working well together but the image is cleverly structured by Frank to use the rule of thirds. The bottom and top of the window run along the horizontal lines whilst the old lady and the coloured man are placed at the vertical lines. This makes the image seem instantly appealing and interesting to the human eye.

In the photograph a high contrast is used in the black and white image to create a more dramatic image. The contrast comes from the white bars which cleverly break up the image into different sections because of the natural frames. This influences the viewer to view the photograph in more detail. The wide variety of tones between the black man and the white people adds even more contrast and drama in the image.

This photograph was taken in the 1950’s in New Orleans. It shows how the American society travels and the slight division of the whites and the blacks. As you can see, the white people are sat at the front and the black people are sat at the back, at this point in time the blacks did not have as equal rights as they do today so this documents the slow changes that have happened throughout history.

Racial segregation is shown in Frank’s photograph. There appears to be a social hierarchy from left to right. The white frames in the image segregate old people, white people, children and black people. On the left of the image you can see a white man partially hidden by a window; his separation and cover from the photograph represents how the whites were protected by society but the blacks weren’t.

My Response

My Edits

My Favourite Photo

In this photograph flash was used to emphasise the shadows in the image and to create contrast along with the sun in the background adding exposure to the photo. A short field of depth was used to create a 3D effect and to blur out the background so that the focus was purely on the subject. A shutter speed of 1/200 was used to capture a sharp image as the subject was moving when I captured this photograph of him off-guard. An ISO of 400 was used as there was plenty of light in the area and to produce the minimum amount of noise in the photo.

I reduced the colour in this image to create a slightly washed tone to go with the background. There is not a major tonal range in this image as it only ranges from the black of the subjects jacket to the grey of the background. A rough texture has been created in this image by the worn background. The image has a 3D effect due to the shadows created by the flash and the blurred background. There is no pattern or repetition in this image to reflect that this was not a planned photograph. The subject is placed along the third vertical line of the rule of thirds to create an appealing photograph.

This image was taken in a back alley where the sun was directly in front of the camera and was flooding the camera with light. I used this to my advantage and created a washed tone whilst managing to catch the subject off-guard and not camera ready. This resulted in this image which I like due to the fact it was not staged like it was supposed to be.

For this set of photographs I tried to take inspiration from Vivian Maier and Robert Frank by taking photos of subjects mostly aware that the camera was there. I tried to capture how someone would behave whilst they are trying to pose for a camera and whilst they are not ready for the camera. This photograph shows that I was successful with this.

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Homework 1- Environmental

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For this homework I photographed 4 different environments and displayed them in a contact sheet where I have identified key features which helped me make selections for the images i want to use and edit.

For this photo shoot i visited my dad at his work and photographed him doing what he would normally do. I chose this image as one of my final images as the environment clearly portrays him as a carpenter. The wooden poles, the ladder and the way he is dressed also indicate this. I also like the higher angle I took the photo at as it gives another perspective of the environment. I turned the photo black and white to emphasise the shadows gradually getting darker towards the corner of the room. It shows a varied range of tones, the lightest point being the window and the darkest being the floor and shadows that are created.

For this photo shoot I chose my Grandad to photograph and selected this image as my final image for that shoot. I think it clearly shows his face using natural light which is better compared to the other photos I took indoors with artificial lighting. Although the environment he is surrounded by does not clearly represent him as a person I like the bold, strong lines which I think represent his character and what it was like being born in 1939, the year in which World War II began and what it was like growing up.

I also chose this photograph as one of my final images as i like the angle and the natural lighting that is used. This photo does not display the environment as effectively as the other photographs as although she is standing outside her house, the surroundings do not indicate much about her character. I experimented with this photo adjusting the colours to try and make the photograph more effective.

I have selected these 4 images to represent this homework as I think they show the varied environments which I photographed as they are all completely different.

Homework Assignment

Arnold Newman

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Who is Arnold Newman?

Arnold Newman was an American photographer who was noted for his environmental portraits of artists and politicians. He was also known for his carefully composed abstract still life images.

Examples of Arnold’s work found on Google

Image result for Arnold Newman

Image result for Arnold Newman

Image result for Arnold Newman

Analysis of one of Arnolds pieces

Image result for Arnold Newman

I really like this image as it shows a real sense of depth throughout this image, the shadows help create depth as it helps show the distance of the arches on the left hand side of the image. This black and white environmental portrait conveys a number of stories around the scientist on the right hand side of the image. The soft natural lighting from the sun creates a more dramatic but also natural looking image. Furthermore, the position of the light source creates a shadow on the side of the mans face which helps increase the dramatic atmosphere. In this photograph a high contrast is used in this black and white image which allows the man to stand out more in his white lab coat.  The contrast comes from the the black shadows on the left side of the image and then the grey walls and the white lab coat on the right side of the image. This influences the viewer to see the photograph in more detail.

My responses

Contact sheets

How I edited my images in the style of Arnold Newman’s work

Original image

Firstly, I changed the brightness and contrast so I could enhance the colours within the photograph.

Once I was happy with the brightness and contrast, I then changed the photograph into black and white where I also altered the colours again.

I then used the levels adjustment to enhance the black and white even more until I was eventually happy with it.

This was my final image.

This was my favorite image from my shoot and out of my selected edits as it was the most direct image out of the shoot as the character in the image was looking at the camera whereas in the other images the characters in the photographs weren’t looking at the camera.

 

 

 

Homework Assignment

Homework 5 – Colour

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Franco Fontana

  • Franco Fontana is an Italian photographer born in Modena, on December, 9th, 1933. He is best known for his abstract colour landscapes. He is known as the inventor of the photographic line referred to as concept of line.
  • Franco Fontana is interested in the interplay of colours and he had based his own vibrant and original language on that. He explored different subjects: urban landscape, portraiture, fashion, still-life and the nude.
  • He worked with 35 mm cameras, mostly on location claiming that his studio was the world.
  • He began working as an amateur photographer in 1961. His first personal exhibitions took place in 1963 in Vienna, in 1965 in Turin and in 1968 in Modena. Since then he has participated in more than 400 exhibitions – collective and personal – and his work is in approximately 60 museum collections all over the world.
  • Fontana doesn’t restrict himself to just the image, he transforms it to something else, probably curious about other people’s life.

I liked Fontana’s use of vibrant colours on normal objects to emphasize their abstraction. The colours bring out the detail and textures in a subject.

Tamara Lorenz

  • German artist Tamara Lorenz creates various constructions which she then photographs to exploit their abstract properties. The addition of strong planes of colour provide another source of contrast in addition to those of line, shape, tone and texture.
  • Rather than photographs of things, each image seems to create its own reality. Consequently, the viewer is unable to recognise a conventional subject and is occupied with the business of looking.
  • Perspective, distances and proportions and weight — the layouts  convey a merging of different layers with unclear allusions that is not verifiable in reality. The photograph generates its own media-based reality analogous to the paradox of objectivity.

Tamara’s use of simple objects to bring out dimensions based on perspective inspired me to consider  the same techniques when taking my photographs.

Image Analysis

Fontana uses natural lighting in this image to show off the vibrance of the warm colours in the walls and the cold colours in the sky.

Franco Fontana uses a hyperfocal distance which allows for everything to be in focus, this makes the buildings and the sky become part of the same layer so that everything feels 2D and flat. It allows for him to present the textures in the grey buildings and the rooftop in the bottom left corner.

The image does not fit into a rule of thirds which increases the feel of the images abstraction because the vibrant and colourful shapes are in random locations.

Fontana had long found as much inspiration in the city as in the countryside. He saw in our built worlds more than buildings, surfaces, objects and colors. Through his camera he captured the moments when shadow and light appeared as solid as stone.

My Work

When taking the portraits, I painted face in different warm and cold colours to emphasize the details and textures. I placed glass blocks and prisms in front of the lens to sometimes distort the image so that it became more abstract.

 

I placed the prism next to a light beam so that it would split into the different colours.

I took these photos from my phone of the outside of the school building. I liked the shapes and repetition of the different roofs. On the day, the sky was a yellow colour due to abnormal weather so I felt it would be perfect to take photos of and see what it looked like after editing.

For these final images, I simply took photographs of different coloured paper layered over one another for dimension.  I found a 3D metal shape next to it so I added this into the picture for abstraction.

My Edits

I adjusted the levels of dark to light in this image to show of the spectrum of vibrant colours in the middle. I also increased the contrast to emphasize this. When taking the image, I used a narrow depth of field to put the focus on the colour in the fore and midground so the image had dimension.

For the above images, I increased the saturation to make the paper’s colour more vibrant.

I used the quick selection tool to select the sky and I changed the hue colour to a light teal colour. I did the quick selection tool again to choose the building, this time making it a redish colour to stand out. I then increased the contrast of the whole image.

I wanted to see what the image would look like if I inverted the colours.

First I took one of my paper images and used it as an overlay for the sky in this image. I liked it as it added texture and tone. I quick selected the 3 different sections of this image ; the sky, building and the ground and made them each a different colour that stood out against one another.

I took this close-up image and cropped it so that the face was the main focus. The natural lighting on the right of the image gives the cling film wrap (that I put on the face) shine and texture. By having each section of the face a different colour, I feel it shows the abstraction that I wanted.

 

Processed with VSCO with c1 preset
Processed with VSCO with hb2 preset

I used filters from ‘VSCO’ for these images to bring out the colours in the prisms and glass blocks. The brightly coloured faces stand out through the glass but with a subtle flare over them giving it its abstraction.

Processed with VSCO with p5 preset

I took these two images and in one I applied a filter, the other I increased the saturation and highlights to make the colours pop out. This also makes smaller details like the blue eye colour more noticeable.