I took a small selection of images when experimenting with studio lighting, and from the ones I took there were definitely some missed attempts, which I have marked in red on the contact sheet above. The two final images have been marked in green, edited, and shown below:

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These two images I felt best showed how studio lighting can produce the chiaroscuro effect which is why I chose them.

If I were to say how my first attempts at creating the chiaroscuro effect could be improved, I would say I have to create a greater contrast between the light and the darkness, as well as focus on making the background all blend together and disappear into a single block colour, perhaps using an infinity curve or have some people hold it tighter so it does not fold over and leave clear marks.

There are two main different types of light one can use as a photographer: natural and artificial. Natural light can be found outside or literally anywhere with access to the sky. Artificial light is best used in a closed and specialised environment, like a photography studio.

This way, the photographer can adjust the size and shape of the light, the hardness or softness and the angle of the light, as well as adding backdrops or infinity curves to smooth out the background of the image, or using soft-boxes, spotlights or flood lights.

One particular reason for using studio lighting is the possibility it gives for a chiaroscuro effect or Rembrandt lighting. The chiaroscuro technique is when part of the subject’s face is in shadow and completely obscured by darkness, and the other part is in bright light. This is not just a term used in photography, as this effect has been used in paintings and art for hundreds of years.

Both of these are strong examples of the chiarascuro effect, where part of a person’s face is obscured in darkness. The second painting, of the young woman, presents the Rembrandt lighting technique, where half of the subject’s face is lit and the other is not, except for a small triangle shape beneath the eye on the dark side.

In photography, this lighting style is achieved by using a strong key light directly at the person, as well as a reflector on the opposite side to achieve the triangle shape desired.

I only edited this set of images very slightly and subtly to keep the integrity of the original images and the true essence of each working environment.

With this image I decided to make it black and white, to tone down the cluttered effect of all the different colours and also to reduce the yellow tone of the lighting. I then edited the brightness and contrast slightly, as well as the vibrancy and tone of certain colours, for example I lowered the vibrancy of the colours used in the pins on the desk wall in order to make them darker and have them stand out against the white papers.

For the second image, I ended up having a slightly chiaroscuro effect, as half of my subject’s face is in shadow, but it is subtle enough as not to obscure the whole image. I had the subject stare directly down the lens to create a posed effect, as well as arranging the magazines to display some of the products that are sold and places they could be sold to. I chose to have the subject wear her glasses to add more structure to the face and tie in with the dark colour of the jumper.

The black and white images above mirror the style of iconic environmental photographer Arnold Newman, so as to show how I used his work as inspiration for my own photoshoots.

For this image I increased the magenta and red saturation and vibrancy to bring into focus the meat in the foreground and the woman’s apron. This emphasised her job as a butcher and made the image more pleasing to look at. I felt that the reflections of the glass worked nicely to add some highlights to contrast the (unfortunately) dark background of the image, which I was not able to change without drastically changing the colour palette of the photo.

This image is mainly white, so when editing, I made the bright colours stand out, mainly to try and get the pink of the fish in more detail but also to enhance to vibrancy of the various backgrounds objects scattered around that show that this is a workplace. I like the composition of this image, as the fishmonger looking directly into the lens without a posed expression makes the image interesting, and the geometrical feature of all three workers in the same section of the image helps to brings attention to the main worker’s eyes and face.

I edited this image in much the same way as the last one, except now I made the fish the man is cutting brighter and the most vibrant part of the photo. This drew attention to his knife and his actual job as a fishmonger, which is obviously the main focus of the image.

I edited this final image the least, as I felt that the cluttered effect created by the large amount of background objects helped to bring the subject out as the focus of the image, as it is the only vaguely clear part of the photo. I made the colours more vibrant and saturated, however I felt that the flowers were already bright enough so as not to need much editing. I tweaked the levels and contrast slightly also, in order to have the beam of light from above brighter and focus more of the person, as I saw that during the shoot and felt it would make for a good image.

Overall, I feel that I was successful in presenting a range of images of people in various occupations, posed in a manner that reflects their jobs and the way that they work, as well as sometimes adding a more candid feel to certain images by using different angles and capturing natural facial expressions. If I were to do this project again, I would have a selection of more clearly posed images alongside some natural, candid images for each person.

I took these images in Laval, France, during the Christmas period where there were many families and couples out on the town, looking at all the Christmas lights, which are quite well-known in that area.

The red crosses are photos that are blurry or badly-framed, the orange circles are to indicate possibilities for the final selection, and the green dot represents my actual final selection.

FINAL SELECTION-

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I chose these images because I feel like they showcase the best technical skills as well as the fact that they are the most visually pleasing.

I only edited this image slightly because I already liked it enough as it is, so I just enhanced the vibrancy of the colours in the background, which I like because they (blue and yellow) are contrasting colours. I also really liked the mood of the image, as it seems like it was captured in the middle of a moment of pure joy, and I especially liked how the light from the background comes from behind to illuminate the girl in the foreground, almost like a halo effect.

I made this image black and white to emulate the street photography style of Henri Cartier-Bresson, and because I felt that the colours were so monotone already the image would benefit from more focus on the subjects than the colours. I increased the contrast and brightness in order to make the light from the van’s headlamp shine brighter, and to provide more tonal range to the image.

This is another image I edited into black and white to follow the style of Henri Cartier-Bresson, and I feel that this was the right choice as it lets the eye focus more on the child as the main focal point of the image instead of the distracting colours of the background. I also like how the background of the image is blurred slightly, as it adds a sense of movement and creates a feeling of a single moment captured in time, much like Henri Cartier-Bresson’s attitude.

I really like this image because of the man in the foreground, the way he is slightly blurry but his facial expression is still clear. I feel as though this image carries a feeling that you are invading someone’s personal space, namely the old man, and this tone of invasion of privacy adds intrigue to the image. To edit, I simply made it black and white and changed the contrast and brightness levels in order to make the festive lights stand out more.

This is another of my favourite images as it really portrays the spirit of Christmas, and the lights glowing on the small child’s face help to carry this tone throughout the image. I feel that when doing street photography, children are often best to photograph as they show all of their emotions very freely, and this is why I really like this image, because of the sense of wonder clearly shown on her face. I barely edited this image at all; I felt as though it was good enough as it was, but i did increase the saturation to really emphasise the Christmas lights’ brightness.

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer and pioneer in candid and street photography. Born in 1908, he took up photography in the 1930s and saw the art of photography as a way of capturing a “decisive moment” in time and preserving it forever.

In 1947, Cartier-Bresson, along with Robert Capa, David Seymour, William Vandivert and George Rodger founded Magnum Photos; a picture agency owned by its members. The founders split assignments up between each other and went off to different parts of the world. Cartier-Bresson went to India and China and gained international renown for his images of Gandhi’s funeral (1948), as well as the Chinese Civil War (1949).

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Cartier-Bresson published his book in 1952, called “Images à la sauvette”, meaning images taken hastily. The English translation was “The Decisive Moment” and it included 126 pictures from his travels over the world. The cover was drawn by Henri Matisse, who met Cartier-Bresson when he escaped a German work camp in 1943.

IMAGE ANALYSIS-

TECHNICAL– The image was taken in natural light, during the day, and the shutter speed ensures that the exposure is enough to almost complete white out the sky and make the figures of the children stand out as the main focus of the image, as they are wearing dark clothing.

VISUAL– This image is in black and white, which shows its age, and it had some 3D elements to it, through the use of the hole in the wall in the very forefront and the children at staggered positions through to the background; the picture being taken with the camera lens pointing through the hole itself.

CONCEPTUAL– The image of young children with smiles on their faces, playing happily in what appears to be a war zone is highly contrasting and almost unnerving to look at. Cartier-Bresson maybe intended to angle this shot through the hole in the wall, framing the image within the damaged wall, to make the viewer feel more like an outsider and increase this sense of unease.

CONTEXTUAL– This image was taken in Seville, in Spain, near the beginning of Cartier-Bresson’s career as a photographer. It depicts some young boys playing in what appears to be the ruins of a war or conflict of some sorts, but in fact this image was taken before the Spanish Civil War had even begun (taken in 1933). When we know this, the image becomes significantly more interesting, as it almost serves as a warning or a sign of the conflict to come, and it leaves the viewer to reflect on the political state of Spain as well as on the well-being of the young children.

Cartier-Bresson VS Vivian Maier

Henri Cartier-Bresson –

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Vivian Maier –

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The most obvious difference between Cartier-Bresson’s work and Maier’s would be how Maier focused much more on people and using people to tell their story, whilst Cartier-Bresson’s work featured many more historical events and used those environments to tell a story. His work often needs context to fully understand and appreciate the significance of each image, whereas Maier’s work can be appreciated simply by looking at the image, as it focuses on a single person’s life in that one moment.

Both used colour but mainly worked in black and white, and both intended to capture what Cartier-Bresson called the “decisive moment”, a singular point in time captured by a camera and preserved forever. Bresson used this mindset to go out and photograph historical events with Magnum Photo Agency, and Maier used this to capture everyday people in otherwise non-interesting moments on the streets of urban cities.

Maier’s work is often more zoomed in to the subject’s face and focusing on their candid facial expressions at that singular point, and while Cartier-Bresson did make a lot of images like that, he also generally left the background very much in view, as this added to his overall image in the end. Both photographers’ images are mainly all in focus, suggesting a lower aperture.

definition: photography that features unplanned chance encounters and random incidents in public places. Street photography doesn’t need to be in a street or even in an urban environment.

Street photography captures and records everyday life in a public place, and this public and open setting allows photographers to take pictures of strangers without their knowledge; perfect for the candid nature of street photography.

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The first known street photographer, or at least person to use photography with the same techniques and mindset as street photographers do, was Charles Nègre, who photographed workers, shopkeepers, travelers and salespeople in Paris in the 1850s.

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In general, street photography can capture real people in the middle of their everyday lives, and the results can be used in the future to show how people actually lived and the sorts of lifestyles they had. They can reveal how political climates affected the average citizen of a certain country, and can reflect on more widespread issues such as poverty, homelessness or even fashion trends.

Here is a link to an article that explains the origins of street photography, its ideals, past and future: https://www.britannica.com/art/street-photography

For the first shoot, I went into an office workspace for a dancewear company, which explains the dance-related items in the background. This shoot featured artificial lighting from the lightbulbs above.

I then went into the central market for my next shoot and photographed several different people in different working environments. This was to try and capture different lighting as well as colour palettes and most likely different moods as well, although they are all tied together through the theme of a working environment.

The red crosses are to show images that I have completely discounted, the yellow dot is for images that are a possibility, and the green circle is for images that are a definite yes.

These are my final images, taken from a variety of working environments.

I am happy with my final set of images as I feel like they all portray different working environments but still display the same elements of people hard at work. Some feature the subjects staring directly down the lens and some do not, but they all demonstrate the environmental portraiture style. If I were to do the shoots again, I would attempt to take more fully posed images, with the people looking directly down the lens and in a position that I have chosen myself.

Who you are photographing? 

People doing their job, strangers working in the market and such 

When you are conducting the shoot? 

I’ll be conducting the shoot in my free time, probably during the daytime to get good natural lighting 

Where you are working/ location? 

In an office for one shoot and probably in the central market or in shops in the town area 

Why you are designing the shoot in this way? 

To achieve a portrait that shows the subject in their working environment and so that I can capture a range of different environments and people. 

FORMAL-

Environmental portraits are an example of formal portraits, because they have been pre-prepared and are posed. Environmental portraits can also be commissioned by the subject of the portrait as well, so they are even more planned out beforehand. Environmental images are of people in their work or home environment, or simply somewhere that defines them as a person.

For example, a butcher would be photographed in their shop, possibly wearing their uniform or in the process of handling the meat. Influential environmental photographers include Arnold Newman and Anthony Kurtz, both who became known for their strong portraits of people in their “natural” environments.

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As can be seen from above, environmental portraits do have have to be specifically in either black and white or colour, as both are just as good as each other. They are often half-body or three quarter length shots, but they environmental portraits can be simply head-shots as well, it would just be more difficult to fully show the environment. Most environmental portraits feature the person looking directly down the lens of the camera, but this is not always necessary. They all, however, feature a person or group of people in an environment that defines them, either that they work or live in.

INFORMAL-

An example of informal portrait photography would be street photography, which is mostly comprised of candid images. Candid images are taken mostly without the knowledge of the person in the picture, and this unawareness is a large part of much of street photography.

Candid photography is unplanned and not posed at all, often there is no relationship between the photographer and the person in the image whatsoever, and candid images simply show the real day-to-day life of people in whichever time period the image was taken.

Two influential street-candid photographers are Henri Cartier-Bresson and Vivian Maier. They both took many candid images in black and white, but I added some of Maier’s colour photos to show how there is no need to stay in black and white with street photography, and to reveal how she used colour very well.

There are many photographic techniques that can be applied to portrait photography, all of which give a create a different meaning, and overall mood of the image. Certain techniques are only used in certain environments, like a professional setting, whereas some more general techniques, like the use of colour, can be applied anywhere.

Informal/Candid– a photograph captured naturally, without creating a posed appearance. often the subject is unaware that the photograph has been taken.

Formal/Posed- a planned and posed image of a person of group of people such as a wedding photograph or photos of people for business purposes.

Head shot / Half body / Three quarter length / Full body- this relates to how much of the subject’s body is visible. A head shot is often used by people working in the entertainment industry like actors, whereas a three-quarter length shot is often more casual.

High angle / Low angle / Canted (or Dutch) angle- this is referring to the positioning of the camera when the photo is taken. A canted angle image is one where the horizon and any straight lines is at an angle to the bottom of the image, which adds drama and a possible sense of tension or psychological unease.

Archival / Historic- images of a famous historical or political figure, perhaps during a defining moment in time or else as a posed, formal image

High key / Low key- high key images are bright, light, and airy and contain little to no shadow. Low key images are mainly blackness or shadows and have an emphasis of natural or artificial light only in certain parts of the frame.