“To take a photograph is to align the head, the eye and the heart. It’s a way of life”

Examples of some of his work in “The Decisive Moment” ^

Henri Cartier – Bresson was born in Saturday August 22, 1908, in Chanteloup, France. Here the French photographer helped to establish photojournalism as an art form. After three years he had spent travelling in the East, in 1952, he returned to Europe, to create his book. He tried to capture the meaning behind peoples outwards appearances, which can be clearly found in his book ” Images à la sauvette (1952; The Decisive Moment)”.

One of Bresson’s images in the Magnum Photo Agency is this one called “America In Passing”, this photo was taken in Boston, USA in 1947.

He has now got over 40 years of experience which allowed him to to travel so an immense amount of places around the world. Here he would often immerse himself in this environment so that he could explicitly express a desire to move slowly, to “live on proper terms” in each country.

Awards that he won over the years:

1986 Novecento Premio
1981 Grand Prix National de la Photographie
1975 Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie
1975 Culture Prize
1964 Overseas Press Club of America Award
1960 Overseas Press Club of America Award
1959 Prix de la Société Française de Photographie
1954 Overseas Press Club of America Award
1953 A.S.M.P. Award
1948 Overseas Press Club of America Award

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henri-Cartier-Bresson

https://pro.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL53ZMYN

• https://www.magnumphotos.com/photographer/henri-cartier-bresson/

Henri Carter – Bresson

Technical: The type of lighting which was used in this image is natural lighting, here this is shown as there is no glare from the street lights and where there are no buildings, light is shown on the ground. The position of the camera was held quite low down at about waist level which is shown as there is more street shown before the man than above the man, which I believe was done to shown the man’s shadow. The tonal range is widely present with the darkest point being the shadows in the building windows; and the lightest point being the suns reflection on the ground which I assume has been freshly rained on.

Visual: Here Henri Cartier – Bresson, used black and white photography, which works well due to the tonal range that has been created. Texture is shown further down in the image in the foreground, in the tarmac of the road and the bumps on the sides of the roads to help the blind. There is repetition shown in the cars showing the fact that it’s a busy day, and the man due to his reflection. The eye is being lead straight to the man and his movements, and then onto the mans reflection, here this is interesting as all though it’s the same man in the reflection due to the shadows, he looks slightly different in the image.

Contextual / Conceptual: Similar to some street photographers, Bresson tries to create images that he thinks best represents the countries he is travelling in. To do this he immerses himself in the culture that he is staying in, here he tries to become accustomed before taking his first few images.

Vivian Maier

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Henri Carter – Bresson vs. Vivian Maier

• Similarities:
  • Both use Black and White Photography in the majority of their photos, here this as there is “no colour” the critical elements of the image stand out and become more visible. This technique is quite powerful as the majority of people see the wold in colour therefore a black and white photo is instantly more eye-catching and different.
  • The pair use outdoor lighting from the natural sunlight, this helps as they don’t need to carry around heavy equipment with them all the time and can easily capture their photo instantly.
  • Tonal Range is present in both photographers works which allows a larger amount of contrast to be shown in the image.
  • Both photographers share the passion of photojournalism / photo documentation; here they try and photograph the world around them and what they find interesting.

• Differences:
  • Bresson doesn’t usually use peoples faces as he focuses more on their bodies and body language. This differs to Vivian Maier’s work as she utilises peoples facial expressions and interesting facial expressions.
  • Maier uses spot reflections, frames & windows to include in compositions whereas Bresson focuses on the people in their environments.
  • Bresson tends to take pictures at a low angle in order to capture people and what’s around them; however, Maier tends to be more creative as she takes photographs above, below, or behind the subject to capture a more interesting perspective.
  • Bresson cares a lot shadows in his images and it adds more tonal range and contrast, which is different to Maier’s work as her main focus is on the people themselves.

PLAN-

where– studio at school

when– during a free period (1 hour session)

who– one person to be the model and another person to help position the paper and the lights so that I can fully focus on the camera

how– use single point lighting for a low key, chiaroscuro effect, work with shadows on the face. use a chair and infinity curve, as well as spotlights

any other notes– use paper with holes and interesting shapes cut out to make a creative shadow on the face, have someone else hold it up to the light so that both the subject’s and my hands are free

MOODBOARD-

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SHOOT OUTCOMES-

FINAL OUTCOME-

FINAL EDITED OUTCOMES-

For this image I increased the brightness and saturation in order to maintain the bright spotlight on her face, as well as keep the highlights and the yellow tone of the whole image.

I like this image because of the position the subject is in, the single leg out closer to the camera draws the eye into the image and into the subject’s face, as well as making the image seem less boring. The spotlight had a nice chiaroscuro effect here, as one side of her face is completely obscured in shadow, while the other half is brightly lit by the light.

I edited the shadow mainly in this image, as it had a lot of wispy hairs that I felt detracted from the main focus of the image: the subject’s face. As with the rest of the images, I only did minimal editing to maintain the tone and brightness of the spotlight on the face.

With this image, I reduced the blur and increased the effect of the light on the subject, including brightness vibrancy and saturation and overall just increasing the highlighting effect on her face.

FINAL IMAGE-

This image was one of the most successful I feel, even though it is slightly blurry due to an issue with the camera I had, because it demonstrates the shadows I was using the most effectively and it is an interesting image. The position the subject’s head is in mimics the position that the Virgin Mary’s head is often in in artwork, and the pattern of the light behind also imitates the artwork and stained glass windows often found in great cathedrals. This adds some background knowledge to the image and represents for other forms of art can influence photography, not just other photographers.

EVALUATION-

Overall, I feel that this shoot was well-carried out, with attention paid to the details of the props I would need (the paper) as well as the actual pattern of holes I would need to cut out to achieve the best overall result. I researched several different possible results and used them as inspiration for my own, as well as other artwork found in places where this sort of light pattern is normally found (i.e churches and cathedrals). If I were to do this shoot again I would make sure that the issue with the camera’s focus is resolved so that all of my images are sharp and clean, and I might experiment with different colours.

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For this shoot i decided to go onto a families farm at around 5 in the evening. I decided to turn up un invited in order to capture the raw emotion of these farmers. The farmers had filthy clothes from hours of hard work. I decided to enhance the colors of the photos to add detail into there muddy clothes.

Inspiration

for my farm shoot i was inspired by Arnold Newman. newmans photography captured the raw emotion of his subjects and their surroundings. This was something I tried to convey in my photos. I wanted to capture the farmers around the potatoes however was more clutched around the idea of displaying their pride towards their crop. These farmers work tiresome hours to produce these delicacies which we take for granted. I found that using the flash on my camera helped composed the true feelings they had As it gave the subjects less time to put on a fake expression.

1 Point Lighting

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I used black background and a fluorescent lamp to create these Low-key images.

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Editing

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Using the brush tool on Photoshop, I blacked out the background completely, bringing the focus primarily on my subject’s face. I increased the exposure, red mid-tones and yellow highlights to get rid of the blueish tint caused by the lighting.

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I used the brush tool to even out the background and increased the brightness and contrast slightly to enhance the facial features of my subject.

2 Point lighting – High Key portraits

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I used two flash head lights and a white background to create an airy, more high-key image.

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I reduced the effect of the shadow and blemishes withing the background by using the brush tool on Photoshop.

Red: Very Blurry

Green: Bad Angle

To create a collection of flash portrait images, we had to ensure the studio and camera was specifically set up to create successful outcomes. Our aim was to use high-key lighting techniques to create outcomes that eliminated the shadows completely. We used a white infinity backdrop for the background of the image, two flash unit lights, placed the camera on a tripod and used a transmitter to control the flash lights when the picture is being taken. The tripod allows the camera to be steady and still, to create focused and crisp outcomes, not affected by any movement. The camera settings used were ISO 200, aperture set to F10, and shutter speed 1/100. Furthermore, the white balance was set to flash mode and the camera was adjusted using auto-focus. These specific settings allowed the image to be perfectly exposed and highlight the form and dimension of the subject by illuminating them. This set up is an example of two point lighting; consisting of two light sources, one being a key light and the other acting as a fill light. The key light is the primary source used to illuminate the subject, whilst the fill light is the secondary source that can help to control shadows. The subject is going to be front-lit due to the positioning of the light sources and we will be using hard/direct light. The chair where the subject is placed has been positioned in the center of the backdrop to ensure the subject is the main focus in the foreground, ensuring a balanced composition.

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Research

William Klein

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Photoshoot Plan