First experimentation with colour lighting

I took these photos in the studio and used the technique Chiaroscuro using one point lighting as well as adding the coloured filter so I can relate the photos to the photographer Mads Perch, as he use various colours in his photography as well as creating dramatic contrasts with shadows. I set the ISO at a lower setting to make the image less grainy to make the photo look as sharp as Mads Perch’s images. In the foreground there is a lot of shaded areas that look under exposed in comparison to the light on the model. The lighting reflects off the models skin which allows there to be some tonal range and the lighting also brightens the back drop behind her. I changed the aperture as wells depth of field in the photos are quite shallow to make the most sharpened part of the image is the model, again like Mads Perch’s photography.

Contact sheets

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Best Photos

I have chosen my best photos from the contact sheets above. They are the sharpest and most successful out of the photos above although I have cropped some them so they are more symmetrical. I have also chosen these images as the models poses are the most dramatic and most similar to Mads Perch’s work/photography. I haven’t chosen more as I wanted to display quality of quantity.

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Editing My Best Image

On photoshop I adjusted the brightness to allow you to see the mode more clearly as the image came out quite dark. Although I brightened the photo I still tried to have a good contrast of the the darker and lighter tones to get the final image I wanted. As well as this I changed the intensity of the shadows and highlights to ensure certain points were more exposed to the viewer as well as drawing their attention to it particular parts of the photo. I also cropped this image on photoshop to allow the model to be in the centre of the photo.

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Final Outcome

A tableau vivant , French for ‘living picture’, is a static scene containing one or more actors or models. They are stationary and silent, usually in costume, carefully posed, with props and/or scenery, and may be theatrically lit. A tableau may either be ‘performed’ live, or depicted in  painting, photography and sculpture.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, tableaux sometimes featured poses plastiques (‘flexible poses’) by virtually nude models, providing a form of erotic entertainment, both on stage and in print. Tableaux continue to the present day in the form of living statues, street performers who busk by posing in costume.

Jean-François Chevrier was the first to use the term tableau in relation to a form of art photography, which began in the 1970’s and 1980’s in an essay titled “The Adventures of the Picture Form in the History of Photography” in 1989.

It shows us three teenage girls posed formally in a dining room. In the center of this photograph, a clock face is on top of a dark marble fireplace. Above the clock hangs a nineteenth century portrait of an old man mounted in a heavy gilt frame. On either side of the painting, framed prints of men hunting on horseback hang on the wall. However this isn’t what catches the attention the image is dominated by the colour of the wall behind, rich blue that screams royalty. The polished surface of the dining table cuts across the picture horizontally and the table’s surface is highly reflective, creating a mirror effect and almost like symmetry as it reflects the silver platter and an ornate ceramic tureen. A dark-haired girl stands to the center right of the image, holding onto the back of a chair pulled out behind the table. She stares directly, at the viewer. Two girls sit at the table, on either side of its centerpiece.

On the right, a girl wearing a blue shirt is gazing at the table center piece. One hand rests lightly on the table, while the other, half hidden behind a cascade of hair, supports her face as she leans her elbow on the table almost looking bored of being there.

On the left, a girl in an orange shirt is folded over her arms, her face hidden and her blonde hair flowing onto the table. The table’s surface is highly reflective mirroring the girls. The dark space underneath it constitutes the foreground of the image and has a significant effect to the visual power of the image and adds a sinister undertone their environment. The girls wear make-up and are well groomed, echoing the room’s extremely clean and well-ordered appearance.

Diana Markosian is an American and Russian photographer, of Armenian descent, but I am only going to focus on one piece of her work for this project, which is the photographs she took when in Cuba, all about the tradition of quinceaneras.

A quinceanera is a lavish and grand celebration of a girl’s 15th birthday, where she wears an (often elaborate) princess-style dress and has a big procession to celebrate her journey into womanhood. It is a big part of Cuban and Latino culture, which is why I chose to use it for my case study.

The images below are from Diana Markosian’s trip to Cuba, and I like them because of their vivid colours and the clear sense of cultural pride that they portray, and when researching them, I found that these quinceaneras are very much a part of the Latino shared cultural identity.

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TECHNICAL- This image uses natural light and a warm tone as it was taken during the day. It has a high saturation and is very vibrant, which helps to provide a contrast between the red and white of the seat and the girl’s leg in the centre foreground of the image. There is no motion blur, which shows how it was taken with a fast shutter speed to capture a single moment in time.

VISUAL- The image has a good composition; the main focal point is the foot, which is in the centre of the image to lead the eye directly there. The texture of the image is smooth, shown by the reflection in the back of the seat, which demonstrates how the material of the seat is smooth.

CONTEXTUAL- This image was taken as part of a series of images to demonstrate the significance of quinceaneras, which can be seen through the extravagance of the car (a vintage Chevrolet) and the shoe: glitter, heels, gems. However, the image also shows how Cuba is a relatively poor country, as the ground in the bottom left segment of the image is dirty and scuffed, showing the contrast between this one ceremony and the rest of these Cubans lives.

I want to focus on cultural and geographical identity, and how someone’s origins and nationality can affect their sense of identity. Jersey is a very multicultural island due to the many waves of immigration from all over Europe, which can be seen simply by walking through town, and I want to use this to my advantage to gather a range of different cultural experiences and identities for this project.

Reference artists-

Diana Markosian, specifically her work on quinceañeras in Cuba. I love how the colours are bright and vibrant and how the main subject of the photo is in the centre of the image, and how the images are not too posed, but not completely candid either. I am going to use this almost natural but slightly posed method of shooting to capture my subjects to keep their liveliness in the image.

Hassan Hajjaj is a Moroccan photographer who lived much of his life in London, and his work mimics this by blending London’s hip-hop and street-style into Morocco’s vibrancy and intense colours. His images show the vivid personalities of each subject, as well as a sense of strong cultural pride. He uses the pop-art style as well, with each image having a frame of everyday objects around it, which I am going to use in my own images.

Plan-

I am going to take pictures of my friends wearing the clothes that they would normally wear (modern, vibrant) in typical Jersey locations where the tone is different (rural, different colour palette) to show how people’s backgrounds differ from where they live, and specifically how Jersey as an island has a very multicultural population.