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Portraiture: Mood-board

November 6, 2018 Kristiana A Leave a comment

1. TRADITIONAL PORTRAIT.

Traditional or Classical portraiture would refer to an image where face is the predominant element. The purpose of the photograph is to depict visual representation of that person. Subject is expected to be looking directly at the camera. With what is described as a head-shot, two thirds or full body framing can be used

2. ENVIRONMENTAL PORTRAIT.

The term Environmental Portrait refers to an image where the subject is photographed in person’s natural environment. For example, a worker photographed at the construction zone, teacher in the classroom, sculptor in a sculpture studio and so on. Surroundings are used to compliment the subject and to emphasize his character. Subject and setting are chosen by the photographer.

4. CANDID PORTRAIT.

A candid portrait is taken without a subject expecting or acknowledging the photographer. This style used in photo journalism, travel photography, street photography and event photography. As opposed to an environmental portrait this image is captured at the moment rather than set up.

5. GLAMOR PORTRAIT.

The term Glamor Portrait refers to portraits where emphasis is given to highlight the sexy romantic appeal of the subject. see : 5 ELEGANT LIGHTING SETUPS FOR MODEL PHOTOGRAPHY

6. LIFESTYLE PORTRAIT

The term Lifestyle Portrait refers to portraits where emphasis is given to suggest the “style of living” of the individuals depicted. Technically it is a combination of environmental portrait and candid portrait. More weight is given to communicate the feeling of life experience of the subject. Style has numerous implications in commercial and fine art photography. Editorial, fashion, pharmaceutical, and food industries often use lifestyle images to evoke emotions in viewers by depiction of desired life styles. It is common to see this style used in wedding and family portrait photography as well.

7. SURREAL PORTRAIT.

Surreal Portraits are created to emphasize the other reality. A depiction of a person’s interpreted subconscious mind. Surrealism is an art movement started in the early 1920‘s and still alive and well. In photography tricks and special effects are used to achieve a surreal look.

8. CONCEPTUAL PORTRAIT.

Conceptual Portrait refers to images where concept adds a fourth dimension. The hidden meaning of the concept will leave the viewer guessing as it is often open for interpretation. Conceptual artists generally get offended when asked what did they mean in their photograph. It is the job of the viewer to decide. Conceptual Portraits are often used in advertising photography but concepts are much easier to understand.

9. ABSTRACT PORTRAIT.

Abstract portraits are created with a purpose of creating art and not based on realistic representation of a person. Collage or digital manipulation is often used.

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Environmental Portrait Experimentation

November 4, 2018 Francesca S Leave a comment

ENVIRONMENTAL PORTRAITS

It is a portrait where the subject is photographed within an environment that they are usually in, it could be a profession or a hobby. This type of portrait allows the photographer to show what type of person the subject it depending on their environment and it illuminates the their character. By the subject looking directly into the camera, it allows the viewer to feel a connection between the two sources. The environment is always used as a background and it can range from large and busy to small and simple, the background isn’t the main part of the image, its the subject themselves as they draw most of the attention towards themselves as they are telling the story behind the image.

EXPERIMENTATION

These are images I took when experimenting with environmental portraits. In some of these images I used flash to create a dramatic lighting effect. I also regularly changed the shutter speed which was dependent on how dark or light the background was. Some of my images where too exposed this is because my shutter speed was too slow and ISO was to high, which meant the camera was sensitive to the amount of light I was letting into the image, with the image being over exposed it made the image become more white than it was. My images have a wider range of variety, as I went to different environments in a school so this helped with me adjusting the manual settings on the camera. The meaning behind these images it to show the students and teachers in their everyday environment doing their work and where they are mostly seen. With these subject being put in their everyday environment it is easier for the viewer to make a connection and an understanding as the environment it relatable especially for sutdents.

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Environmental portraits

November 3, 2018 Jazmin G Leave a comment

Arnold Newman

Arnold Newman was an American photographer, mostly known to be the one who flourished ‘environmental portraiture’, in which the photographer places the subject in a carefully controlled setting to capture the essence of the individual’s life and work. Newman normally captured his subjects in their most familiar surroundings with representative visual elements showing their professions and personalities. Even without knowing who the subject is, a viewer can identify the artist in his studio, or a musician at the keyboard, or a president at his desk. Newman’s best-known images were in black and white, although he often photographed in colour. His portraits ranged from celebrities, artists to politicians. Newman insisted that a picture of a celebrity or politician by himself wouldn’t be as meaningful as one taken in the subject’s workplace. The viewers can tell that his portraits are planned because of the carefully composed environment and the posed subject.

His style

Although his style evolved, backgrounds always played a leading role in his photographs. Through his environmental painters’ portraits you can see how he carefully chooses backgrounds to fit with the style of painting these painters created. Most of Newman’s personal works were the result of long social interaction with the subject. After getting to know the subject in a broad way, the photographs began to happen. Newman captured images that he had in mind from the beginning, which was the essence of his photographic style. In all his environmental portraits, Newman included representative elements of the subject’s profession. Sometimes Newman’s photographs have different compositional approach in which the subjects is close to the corners of the frame. This was probably a reflection of the great care he took to show as much as possible of the subject’s surroundings.

My response

To respond to Arnold Newman’s photography work, I captured images of people in their familiar surroundings or their workplace. Since Newman is best known for his black and white images I decided to edit the final outcomes on photoshop by applying the black and white filter and slightly adjusting the contrast and brightness. A large amount of background can be seen through my images as this was an important aspect in his photographs to show the viewers the subjects representative elements. I think these images replicate Arnold Newman’s photographic style since they are black and white environmental portraits which have been captured using his techniques. However, to improve I could have photographed more people in their working environments and taken pictures of subjects that I’m not familiar with.

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation

Arnold Newman

November 3, 2018 Francesca S Leave a comment

ARNOLD NEWMAN

He was born on March 3rd, 1918 and died June 6th, 2006. He was an american photographer who was noted for his environmental portraits of artists and politicians. He studied painting and drawing at the University of Miami, but he was unable to continue after 2 years as he couldn’t afford it, so he moved to Philadelphia to work for a studio making portraits. In 1945 he opened his own business in Miami Beach but in 1946 he relocated his business in New York and also worked as a freelance photographer. Newman photographed places in essence of an individual’s life. He captured the subjects in their most familiar places to represent them and show their profession and personality. Newman said “the surroundings had to add to the composition and the understanding of the person. No matter who the subject was, it was going to be an interesting photograph.”

These 3 images are some of my favourites by Newman because they are simple but speak very loudly. As they are showing what the subject loves to do, you can get to know and understand what the people are like by having access to the hobbies/jobs to get an idea what sort of person they are. The images are very simple but it makes your eyes attract towards the main subject of the photo first to see their facial expressions and then you move onto the surroundings as your mind is trying to figure out why they look like that? why they are set in these surroundings? Such a simple image having many of questions and query makes it interesting for the viewer as they are constantly trying to figure out what the meaning of the image is.

EXPERIMENTING

In this series of photos I have photographed the subject in his working environment. These photos are representing the type of work Newman produced, images showing different people’s personalities and passions. With the subject looking directly into the camera with a neutral face it allows the viewer to make a connection between them and the image, as the subject is looking directly at you in some sorts. As I was shooting outside I had to use a faster shutter speed so that less light would be let in and my photo wouldn’t become over exposed, I also used a manual setting so I could adjust what was in and out of focus. When editing these images I did very little as I didn’t want the editing to over power the reasoning behind these images, so I put them into black and white and this really helped show the facial expression on the subject and their passions, as the viewer had very little to engage with, which is good as they can focus in on the main subject and the meaning behind the images, but due to the simplicity of my images it doesn’t make them interesting to look at. Overall I feel this shoot was a learning experience, due to the simple images I have produced. Also the quality of my images aren’t great due to the poor focusing caused by me either moving the camera as I was taking the photo or the focus not being sharp enough.

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas

Environmental Portrait Mood Board

November 3, 2018 Francesca S Leave a comment

AO3 Record Ideas

Rule Of Thirds

November 1, 2018 Lillie M Leave a comment

For some of my environmental portraits some were more successful than others and I can show this with the way that they fit into the rule of thirds.

Below shows one of my more successful images for environmental portraits you can see that the figure is towards the left-centre segments this fits well with the rule of thirds.

Below again shows one of my less successful images, the subject is directly in the centre of the photograph which isn’t as successful in the terms of the rule of thirds. The below image can be still seen as successful as an environmental portrait however it is let down in its strength with the rule of thirds.

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation, Homework, Unit 2 Portrait

Environmental Portraits

November 1, 2018 Lillie M Leave a comment

Environmental Portraits

An environmental portrait is a portrait executed in the subject’s usual environment, such as in their home or workplace, and typically illuminates the subject’s life and surroundings. The term is most frequently used of a genre of photography.

The surroundings or background is a key element in environmental portraiture, and is used to convey further information about the person being photographed. The details that convey the message from the surroundings can often be quite small and still be significant. The key seems to be in the symbolism expressed by various elements in the background; for instance, a baseball cap may not tell you much about your subject (unless he or she is a baseball player), but a chef’s hat gives you a lot more detail about who he is and what he does.

Jim Cornfield – ‘Telling a Story with Environmental Portraits’ – https://www.digitalphotopro.com/technique/camera-technique/telling-a-story-with-environmental-portraiture/

Arnold Newman

“There are many things that are very false about photography when it is accepted without question. You must recognize and interpret it as you would any other art form, and then maybe it is a little more than real.” – Arnold Newman

Arnold Newman (1918-2006) was an American photographer known for his environmental portraits or artists and politicians. He was also known for his carefully composed abstract still life photographs.

Newman is often credited with being the first photographer to use so-called environmental portraiture, in which the photographer places the subject in a carefully controlled setting to capture the essence of the individual’s life and work. Newman normally captured his subjects in their most familiar surroundings with representative visual elements showing their professions and personalities. A musician for instance might be photographed in their recording studio or on stage, a Senator or other politician in their office or a representative building. Using a large-format camera and tripod, he worked to record every detail of a scene.

The photograph below shows one of Arnold Newman’s works, we can see he has his subject clearly engaging with the camera and how they are surrounded by something that represents them and it has been clearly composed of how they are sitting and where they have been placed in the frame which is something I will aim to do in my own photoshoot with inspiration from Arnold Newman.

My Own Responses

For these photoshoots I went out and captured people in their working environments, this enabled me to have them surrounded by things that may represent their life and their work such as Arnold Newman did.

These are two contact sheet of my own experiments and photographs I have taken under the name of environmental portraits. I went out and photographed people in their work place or their environments, I had some people posed more naturally by having them carry on with what they were doing but also having them try look towards the camera slightly to engage with it there and some more unnatural by having them fully engage with the camera by getting them to look directly at the lens. Some photographs came out better than others as some are too over-exposed or under-exposed and others are not completely in focus however there were some photographs which I feel turned out successful and some which I feel would be good to experiment with with turning them black and white from being influenced by people such as Mary-Ellen Mark and Arnold Newman.

This shows how I began to sort through and pick out which photographs would work for experiments with things such as placing into black and white and as good photographs and which would not be so successful or useful.

Edits and Outcomes

For the editing of the photographs I kept it simple by only adjusting the photos into black and white or maybe adjusting the brightness to help with the transition into black and white such as Arnold Newman’s photographs were. I have chosen what I feel to be my 5 best outcomes of this photoshoot as it shows my subjects engaging with the camera and the photographs are clear and work well. Below is the edited and unedited versions of my photographs.

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation, Unit 2 Portrait

Environmental Portrait – Arnold Newman

October 31, 2018 Nathan H Leave a comment

Environmental Photography Definition – “An environmental portrait is a portrait executed in the subject’s usual environment, such as in their home or workplace, and typically illuminates the subject’s life and surroundings. The term is most frequently used of a genre of photography”

Arnold Newman was born in New York in 1918. At university Newman studied art, due to the fact he was granted a scholoship at the university of Miami. Newman started his careers as a photographer in 1938, where he started to explore abstract and documentary photography. In 1941 his work was ‘discovered’ and he was given a exhibition in the Museum of Modern Art. It is said around this time Newman pioneered environmental photograph, which presents a new idea/concept to other photographers at this time. During his career as a photographer he has gained multiple awards including nine honorary doctorates.

In this photograph which Newman has captured we can see an old man located in the centre of the frame. He looks as if he is standing in-front of an easel, suggesting that he is a painter and a very creative man. The main focus point of the image is the man (the subject) who is directly looking straight at the lens of the camera, which is implying that he may be proud of his job. In addition the facial expression on the mans face is plain and his body posture is slouched, which can inform us that he could be bored. My eyes are first lead to the subject of the image, they then move around to the different objects in the room. The frame of this photograph is not busy making it easier on the eye, and allows us to gain a better understanding of what life was like for this man. The image is taken at a straight on angle and only shows half of the mans body. The background shows a plain wall with a painting on it, in the top right, which may be showcasing work he has previously done, thus he could be in his place of work. The formal elements found in this image is value and light, which is shown through the different tonal areas due to the picture being presented in black and white, and there is a sense of depth due to a large depth of field being used. It also stands to reason that the aperture is low, which also allows the whole frame to be in focus. The shutter speed seems to be very quick as no ‘intended’ blur can be seen. Moreover, the ISO is low as there is no noise, because of lighting, in this photograph. The lighting which is used in this image is likely to be artificial lighting as the man is located in doors, inside a room or a studio. The lighting is quite cold which makes us grasp a better understanding of the type of environment the man is in. The fact the image is black and white and the photographer was alive during the 1900’s suggests that it was at a time when the men had to work and provide for their partner, thus presenting his gender role. However, the fact he is an artist implies that he was a higher class otherwise he would be working in a factory. Multiple ideas can be drawn upon from this image, making Newman’s attempt at environmental photography successful.

Planning

In these photographs I will be using two models in their natural environment, their home. I will capture them doing normal tasks that they would do. However, in order to show gender roles, like Newman did, I will be making stereotypical judgements of having the woman model do the cooking and knitting and my male model working in an office, with his car and cleaning a fire place. The photographs will be taken during the morning and I will be using natural lighting with an occasional use of artificial lighting. In order to make the final outcomes successful I will be editing them black and white. I will be use a manual camera setting allowing me to have full control of the focus, shutter speed, ISO and white balance.

Contact Sheets

Edits

For these edits I decided to keep things simple, like Newman did. I wanted to be able to show a clear contrast of tonal regions in the photograph and make the images seem like they have been taken at the same time period as Newman’s images. I simply levelled all the images and adjusted the curves until I was pleased with the outcome. I then desaturated my images, turning them black and white giving them this effect.

I am very happy with my final outcomes from this photoshoot. It clearly shows environmental photography as it meets the criteria of: having the model looking directly into the camera lens, having a neutral expression on their face and having something in the background to show the context of the image. These photographs also clearly show gender role stereotypes through the activities my subjects are doing. To further expand this shoot I would look at capturing the youth to show how times have changes, breaking the gender role stereotypes. I would also look at presenting some of these images in colour.