This is my favourite photo by Bruce Gilden; mainly because of the genuine expressions on the women’s faces. The photo also captures textures and motion really well. It being black and white helps focus attention on the facial expressions instead of the background.This is a photo of what Bruce Gilden looks like.
Bruce Gilden is a street photographer who is most known for his up-close photographs of people. He was born in Brooklyn in 1946 and has received many awards including the ‘European publishers award for photography’. The main reason for him starting photography is the film ‘blowup’. Being influenced by this movie, he went and bought his first camera and started attending night school photography classes.
He doesn’t try to be discrete at all when taking photos. He prefers to approach people and take photos of their initial reaction. He also aims to take photos of people who either stand out, or people he can portray as different.
Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35 mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as capturing a decisive moment. He was also one of the founding members of Magnum Photos in 1947.
This idea of capturing the decisive moment can definitely be seen in this photo; if the photo was taken a fraction of a second later the person in the foreground would have stepped in the standing water, which would have caused ripples and ruined the clarity of the reflection on the water.
These two photographers are very different but they have one thing in common, they both focus on the decisive moment. For Henri Carter that is the whole frame (like described in the photo above), and for Bruce Gilden it’s the moment people react to him taking a photo of them.
WHO – for this photo shoot, I selected two models for my shoot which I thought would be suitable to photograph, people who are quite photogenic in nature.
WHAT – the main objective of this photo shoot was to try out different lighting techniques. Fill lighting, 2 point lighting, 3 point lighting and even four point lighting.
WHEN – the images were taken during school time, regardless of the time of day, artificial lighting lit the photo shoot.
WHERE -the images were captured in the school studio, specially designed for taking photographs.
WHY – to understand the different effects that studio lighting provides and the subtle differences between them.
HOW – I used my regular DSLR camera for this photo shoot, using the artificial lighting provided.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF LIGHTING:
TWO – POINT – LIGHTING:
A two point lighting set up can produce highlights in the eyes and some shadow. The secondary source of light is used to eliminate shadows that are created by the key light, it will soften contrasts and make more of the subject visible by enhancing the illumination of the face from the key light.
THREE – POINT – LIGHTING:
Three-point lighting is a standard method used in visual media such as theater, video, film, still photography and computer-generated imagery. By using three separate positions, the photographer can illuminate the shot’s subject (such as a person) however desired, while also controlling (or eliminating entirely) the shading and shadows produced by direct lighting.
A photo using three point lighting
FILL – LIGHTING:
In television, film, stage, or photographic lighting, a fill light may be used to reduce the contrast of a scene to match the dynamic range of the recording media and record the same amount of detail typically seen by eye in average lighting and considered normal.
CHIAROSCURO LIGHTING:
Chiaroscuro is an Italian term which means light and dark and basically refers to the high contrast light/dark style used in Renaissance painting and later in cinema.
an example of chiaroscuro lighting from a previous photo shoot.
REMBRANDT LIGHTING:
Rembrandt lighting is a lighting technique that is used in studio portrait photography. It can be achieved using one light and a reflector, or two lights, and is popular because it is capable of producing images which appear both natural and compelling with a minimum of equipment.
RING LIGHTING:
A ring light is a handy multi-use tool for all types of shoots, from a sharp music video to a portrait of a ladybug. They provide uniform light coming straight from the camera’s point of view, which is great for even light, and helps eliminate shadows.
We used a dim ring light in order to create this image.
REFLECTORS:
In flat lighting, a reflector can add interest or drama to the shot. Some photographers use reflectors as hair lights outdoors. Many reflectors have a black side that can be used to block out light instead of to reflect it. Reflectors are also great for bouncing a flash when there’s nothing around to bounce off of.
CONTACT SHEETS:
One of the main issues that came up during this photo shoot was overexpose. When using 3 point lighting, the ISO of the camera has to be set very low in order to avoid overexposure. The red heads and soft box provides light which is very powerful.
You will be completing the PORTRAIT UNIT during a day of CONTROLLED CONDITIONS (exam rules apply) at the end of January.
The preparation period begins NOW and continues through the month of January.
Your stimulus is IDENTITY AND PLACE.
We will be exploring tableaux vivants, composite / cut-n-paste / collage portraits, self -portraiture and more over the coming weeks to ensure that you have successful final images ready for your exam.
Exam Arrangements
Periods 1-5 | Breaks as normal | Exam Starts at 9am each day
Group 12 C | Wednesday 30th January | Photography 1
Group 12B | Wednesday 30th January | ICT- MEDIA
Group 12E | Thursday 31st January | Photography 1
Group 12A | Thursday 31stst January | ICT-MEDIA
What do you do in the exam itself…?
Select your final images
Edit and manipulate your final images
Add your final images to the print folder
Show the above process clearly in your blog, including screen-shots of your editing AND annotations
PRINTING : choose at least 1 x outcome for each of the following…
response to “identity and place”
response to photo-montage
response to tableau / staged reality
response to studio lighting
response to street portraits
response to environmental portraits
Print size images = 4000 pixels on LONG EDGE
BLOG SIZE images = 1000 pixels on LONG EDGE
Ensure you have enough evidence of…
moodboards
mindmaps
case studies (artist references)
photo-shoot action plans / specifications
photoshoots + contact sheets (annotated)
appropriate image selection and editing techniques
presentation of final ideas and personal responses
Street photography is photography conducted for art or enquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places. Most street photography does not necessitate the presence of a street or even the urban environment. Though people usually feature directly, street photography might be absent of people and can be an object of environment where the image projects a decidedly human character.
MOOD BOARD..
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Bresson was a French photographer, who thought of photography as a way of capturing a decisive moment. Bresson’s passion of photography came at an early age when he used to capture moments of his family holidays. Due to this small hobby developing he has made it into a career and has also made a large contribution towards photography.
Emotional response
The children in this image draw us in a cause us to develop an emotional attachment to them due to it looking like their homes have been destroyed because of the wreckage behind them. The facial expressions on the children also draw us in due to there expressions not being happy which leads us to wonder what else is wrong and realise that something isn’t right.
Technical response
This edited black and white image shows the destruction in the image in more detail (eg. the detail of the hole in the wall), as well as the children’s moody faces. The hole in the wall sort of acts like a frame and is a large subject of the image. The children being outside this wall as well as in it ( the boy on the right hand side) suggests that they don’t have much to play with which is shown by the boy of the right hand side smiling while climbing the unsafe wall. The formal elements of this image is shown through the use of the children in the location. The whole pictures is in focus, however the background is slightly less out of focus which gives the image a large depth of field. There was a quick shutter speed used due to the non existent blurring, as well as the image being taken in natural lighting in the children’s natural environment.
Conceptual Response
Not looking at the context before hand- I think that this image was taken to show children who have to live in poverty due to countries being at war. And the hold in the wall acts as the subject matter of the image as the hole shows how war has effected the children.
Contextual Response
This image was taken in 1933 right before the Spanish civil war which is sad due to the children playing in the last wars wreckage and now they will have to experience another war.
Planning my photo shoot
I will be capturing my ‘ Street Photography’ images in town during the late afternoon. I will be walking around looking for interesting characteristics. The lighting will be natural and i will keep my camera setting on a manual focus due to wanting to have a quick shutter speed so i can take many images. I plan to be very discrete so i can capture people unaware and just doing the tasks they would normally carry out. I will also do this same plan in the passenger seat of a car.
Contact sheets
Best outcomes
Technical analysis
In this street photography experiment, i used a Canon EOS 1300 D and the image was taken in Manual Focus. Using Manual focus allowed me to change the white balance to cloudy as this image was taken in natural light, as well as being able to change the shutter speed to 1/250 and experiment with the zoom lens.
Visual analysis
Visually we can see that the man seems to be waiting for something as he has his hands in his pockets. He also seems a little annoyed that he see’s a camera pointing at him which we can tell by his frowned face.
