Category Archives: Unit 2 Portrait

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AO1 Develop Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation, Unit 2 Portrait

Street Photography – Action Plan

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Who: I will be photographing any interesting townspeople of Jersey.

What: I will be taking candid photos of people throughout town as well as trying to capture the idea of movement and excitement in the town. I will likely stage a few photographs for more aesthetically pleasing shots in areas however the majority of the photos will be candid.

Where: I will be taking photos along king street as well as some of some of the outskirts of the town for some slightly grittier images.

Why: I believe that the best street photography are candid images since they effectively capture the subjects personality and mannerisms.

AO2 Explore Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation, Unit 2 Portrait

Street Photography – Introduction

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Street Photography is a form of photography that involves,  as the name suggests, photographing interesting scenes in the streets. Photographers such as Bruce Gilden heavily explored street photography with Bruce in particular becoming a very prominent figure in photography due to his work with him becoming a member of an elite group of photographers known as Magnum Photographers. They often employed a more objective approach to their work while still taking artistic liberties. When successfully executed these photos can very effectively portray socio-economic status and can really say a lot about someone as they often capture a candid moment which can show the facade that people will apply when in public in order to not expose any insecurities or appear vulnerable.

Image result for bruce gilden street photographyImage result for bruce gilden street photographyImage result for street photographyImage result for street photography

While street photography is often considered a form of portrait, not all portraiture necessarily needs to feature a human subject in the frame and there are various examples of creative examples of portraiture of still life subjects with either no human presence or minimal presence in order to push a particular message.

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AO4 Present Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation, Unit 2 Portrait

Paul M Smith artist study – Tableaux

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Smith originally studied Fine Art, between 1991 and 1995 at Coventry University and as part of his course he undertook a research project into contemporary art which included living on an Aboriginal reserve for four months. After completing his degree at Coventry he completed a master’s degree in Photography at the Royal College of Art. During this time he examined the meaning and construction of masculinity, concentrating on the cultural and visual creation of various alpha male identities. He has subjected various forms of heroic behaviour to incredible scrutiny. Smith has travelled from ‘Soldier’ via ‘Action Hero’ to arrive in his current body of work, the forensic vision of death presented as a new series called ‘Impact’.      -Wikipedia

AO4 Present Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Final Photography: Studio Portraiture

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As the final 3 choices for my studio portraiture experimentation, I have decided on the following 3 images:

For the above image, I experimented more with contrasting color and camera angles. I feel like the contrast between the bold blue of the flower and the bold red of the subjects clothing helps to draw more attention to the image, and allows for the viewer to have their eye drawn around the image, rather than focusing on just one section. The contrast between the bold colors of the subject and the background also helps to separate the background and the subject in the foreground, which in turn adds more depth to the image. In addition to the colors, I feel that this image makes use of the contrast between the shaded and light areas of the subjects face, which mimics the chiaroscuro effect often found in grey-scale photographs. I feel that this contrast also adds depth to the image, and allows the viewer to see the image as more 3D rather than 2D.

The above image makes use of more abstract shadows, created by holding torn paper in front of the key light in the studio. I feel like the effect that this caused created an interesting pattern of shadows, which in turn will draw the attention of the viewer. With this image, I attempted to experiment more with shadows, and so i neglected to use the filler light to soften the shadows, which allowed for the shadows of the subjects to remain prominent in the image. I feel like this adds to the contrasting tones and colors within the image, and overall I feel like it draws the attention of the viewer to the different contrasting areas of the image.

I feel like the above image is the best example I produced of creating a chiaroscuro effect using lighting and camera angles. A key light was used on one side of the subjects face to create this effect, and I feel like the contrast in tones between the left and right side of the face helps to show more depth in the subject. I feel that this image is the best example of me attempting to create a contrast between the light and dark portion of a subjects face. In addition, I feel like the positioning of the camera in this particular image, allows for the viewer eyes to be led directly to the face of the subject, as it is positioned straight ahead of them. I feel that this allows for the viewer to feel more personally involved with the image, and allows them to relate more to the subject and in turn, the photograph itself.

AO2 Explore Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Portraiture: Natural Lighting

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Natural lighting is often used in photography, as it often gives the environment and the subject a more natural look, and can be much more cost effective than using artificial lighting, as this requires specialist lights. Natural lighting can provide light to places where light would naturally occur anyway, and the same with shade, and so by using natural lighting, a photographer does not have to manipulate artificial lights to make the lighting match the effect they are attempting to show.

The products of my experience with using natural lighting with head shots (close ups). The lighting used in my experimentation came through a glass door, which the subject was positioned next to:

A negative of using natural lighting is that it can not be manipulated by the photographer to produce the best outcome. This means that when natural lighting is not available (it is overcast or there are no windows) the photograph will not have the right lighting.

The above 2 images are examples of what happens to the lighting when the sun is obstructed from coming straight through the window. These images appear more flat, and are too dark to allow the viewer to make out certain details. This damages the overall eye-catching effect of the images, and is something that cant be controlled when dealing wit natural lighting.

Natural lighting, in some cases, allowed for the subjects face to appear brighter and softer, which is an effect that may have been missed if harsher studio lights had been used. Using natural lighting with close-ups of subjects can, however, mean that some of the detail within the facial features of the subject is lost, and the positioning of the lighting and its intensity cannot be manipulated.

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

Studio photography

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Lately we’ve been experimenting with lights and shadows and how we can transform a portrait into something interesting and unique. For this we’ve been using the studio and have been playing around with the different types of lights in there.  We use studios in photography to control the amount of light we expose in a picture, and to guarantee an outcome that we want.

Pictures taken:

For most of these photos, I used the large soft light to create soft shadows. For others i used the spot light to clearly highlight the model, and used coloured sheets of plastic to cast a certain colour onto her.

Chosen pictures:

ISO 400 Shutter speed 1/125
ISO 400 Shutter speed 1/125
ISO 800 Shutter speed 1/1000

I took these pictures with the intention of casting half of her face in shadow, or making the surroundings dark enough to illuminate her face. I had her faced sideways of the light, or faces towards it. I played around with angles, ISO, shutter speed, aperture, and lighting, and came out with three final images that I am pleased with.

 

 

AO2 Explore Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Questions about Studio Portraits Techniques.

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Why do we use studio lighting?

we use studio lighting for several reasons, for example we use it to control and manipulate how the light is being used also it helps to create a successful image. Also we use light so that if an image is too dark then we can use the light to brighten the image.

What is the difference between 1-2-3 point lighting and what does each technique provide/solve?

One point lighting is where you use only use one light source in the image, this would mean that only one part of the image is illuminated, it provides shadows.  This is the set up of the one point lighting.

Two point lighting uses two light sources – fill and key,  They are usually next to each other on opposite ends They both illuminate the object, this is good because if you don’t want any shadows they both eliminate them, here is the set up for two point lighting:

Three point light uses 3 light sources just like two point lighting however they use a back light this is usually positioned behind the object in the corner this is to illuminate the back of the object, this technique can also solve the issue of shadows as they all work together to eliminate them. Here is the setup for three point lighting:

 

 What is fill lighting?

Fill light is form of supplementary light mainly used to lighten shadows in an image. Fill light is often used in portrait photography to create a contrast between the image subject and image background.

What is spill lighting?

They use a reflector to spill the light from one of the light source on to the object this way they have more control over the lighting. The term “spill fill” refers to fill light which results from the footprint of light sources bouncing off surfaces in the shooting environment.

What is Chiarascuro ?

The treatment of light and shade in drawing and painting.  is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achieve a sense of volume in modelling three-dimensional objects and figures. Here is an example of this:

AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Street photography — Artist comparison

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I think that the portrait photo that I produced is very similar to the style of Winogrand because it has the main features of his work, i.e. the main subject in the fore-ground and shows the street and the surrounding area to.

The other two images have elements of Winogrand in them, they are inspired by his work, but instead of having a person as the front point and main focus one has a shoe and shows the background and the setting of the street, and the other shows the opposite to the others with the background being out of focus and the main feature, being the bin, being thrown far out of focus.

To get all of the shots that I needed for this I did use a film camera like I talked about but I didn’t have the ability to get some black and white film of the grade I wanted in time and it would have taken too long to get developed.