Picasso made this painting right after the death of his close friend in 1903. This painting shows an old, blind, tired man with bare clothes on his shoulder. Playing in the streets of Barcelona with his guitar. He made many paintings which illustrated the hardship of the poor, the ill and those cast out of society. The blue hue to the painting brings a melancholy mood to it, adding to the sadness of the man in the image. I have decided to recreate this image as a part of my tableau portrait photography study.
PHOTOSHOOT PLAN:
WHO
I will be photographing my friend Aimee, and she will mimic the subject in Picasso’s painting,
WHAT
I will photograph the model holding a guitar, similarly in position wise to resemble the old man holding his guitar in Picasso’s painting.
WHERE
I will be completing the photoshoot in the school studio as I will be able to create adequate lighting that mimics the painting, through the use of led panels and other lighting and camera equipment available.
WHEN
my photoshoot will take place during a photography lesson during the first week of December.
WHY
I think that this is an interesting painting to create a tableaux vivant from, as the painting shows lot of emotion. I also enjoy the composition of the painting and think that it the models position with the guitar will be challenging to mimic.
HOW
I will be able to replicate the blue hue of the painting by using a blue gel filter on the led lights. I will also use a one point lighting system ( coming from the left hand side of the model) the to illuminate the model and the guitar. I will use ISO 200 to take the image, an exposure time of 1/8 and a shutter speed of f/4.
CONTACTS:
EDITING AND MANIPULATION PROCESS OF FINAL IMAGE:
Taking the chosen photograph to photoshop, I firstly started by cropping the image, with a boarder of space between the model and the edge of the photograph, as well as mimicking Picasso’s composition. I secondly altered the colour balance of the image, allowing for the midtones to be altered to warmer shades of red and yellow (as shown by the image above). This gave the image more depth and contrast between colours.
After this, I altered the brightness/ contrast of t. as the contrast of the picture was already very contrasted from initially taking the photograph, I decided to decrease the contrast to -35. Then I manipulated the brightness to -58. I found this helped the highlights become more muted as the initial image had very bright whited from the models shirt and reflection of light off of the guitar.
FINAL IMAGE:
EVALUATION:
From looking at my final photograph, I can see that I have completed what I intended to achieve. I think that the lighting I set up to take the photoshoot, resembles my idea of how I wanted it to look. I also think that the backdrop of black, created contrast to the model. The emotion in the face of the model is solemn and calm, reflecting the subject in Picasso’s piece. However, I think that it could be improved using a two point lighting system instead of one, with one key light ( containing a blue filter), and a second white fill light to allow the subject to be illuminated more, as the image is very dark.