“Specialising in keeping the skill in the camera, not just on the screen.“

Jake Hicks is a free lance photographer which has been working 10 years in the industry. He mainly works with many hair and fashion companies with a fair amount of portraiture as well. He provides them with a company image and ensures “a progressive aesthetic to any given campaign”. He focuses on maintaining and creating the best quality image “in camera” therefore not using a lot of post production photo manipulation.

He is also a lighting specialist with Bowens Lighting. Here he internationally trains people on studio lighting for one of the worlds leading photographic lighting companies. As well as regularly writing and contributing to their quarterly industry magazine ‘Litebook’.

His passion began when his tried to teach him how to use his “Olympus OM-1” which is a manually operated 35mm single-lens reflex camera. Here he taught him things like shutter speed and aperture in order to create the correct exposure. Later on he said to have been taught be various passionate photographers which helped to grow his devotion towards photography

He himself marks his work as ” very bright, bold and of course very colourful”. This is very clearly seen through his use of gel lighting as compared to other artists gel lighting creates a different and striking effect onto the photograph. Hicks also experiments with long exposures causing motion blurs which can be used effectively to show more emotion to the image or a different effect.

https://jakehicksphotography.com/about

Technical: Here Hicks uses gel lighting using both orange and blue gels, this creates a bold and striking effect onto the image. Here the camera has been placed on a tripod to keep the camera steady when taking this picture; this avoids motion blur from the photographer. Here the ISO has a low sensitivity shown through the clearness and and detail of the image . There is texture shown through the lace detail in her bodysuit and her hair. The focal point is clearly on the model as she is the sharpest point in the photograph especially focused on the models torso. This is image has both warm and cold tones due to the orange and blue colours being used, I think these two colours work well combined.

Visual: Again the colours in this image are extremely important to the photograph, I think this combined with the models pose evokes the feeling of confidence. Here the image seems clearly 3D due to he way the lights highlight and contour the model. This is shown especially in her arms as the orange, highlights the sides of her arms making them stand out and different to the background. Here the eye is first lead the models collarbones as it one of the lightest parts of the image. Rule of thirds definitely applies to this image as as the ratios seem to be highly equal.

Contextual: Jake Hicks mainly tries to focus on bold and colourful creations in his photographs; here he achieves this through the use of gel lightnings. Hicks tries ton create a different set up for each shoot creating unique outcomes every-time. At a young age he learnt how to use shutter speed and these same techniques of short and long exposure are still present in his work today.

Conceptual: Although most of his work is done for commercial use, and to try and create the best possible image for the clothes or hairstyle used and created by companies. He tries to make the models look and feel confident as that’s vital in order to help sell their business items.

What? I will be taking photographs for my Studio Photography project. I will be using Jake Hicks techniques in order to create similar outcomes; I will try and use a variety of different lighting such as 1-point and 2-point lighting in order to follow his works.

When? I will be taking my images on Wednesday 5^th December 2019.

Where? I will be taking my images in the Schools Studio, as this gives me a professional setting in help to aid me due to the suitable lighting.

How? I will be using the Cannon EOS 750D on a tripod to help my keep the camera still and at the same angle. I will also be using an add-on clicker, so that I don’t need to touch the camera when taking photos. I will also be using 2 studio LED lights with two gel covers to change the colours of the lighting.

Why? I want to try and create professional studio portraits similar to Jake Hicks work. I think that the two-toned lighting will work effectively well against the black background as it will contrast well.

Red: Bad Lighting / Blurry

For my editing I used Photoshop as I found that it was the easiest option to help me edit the background.

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Here I used these tools to help my crush the background colours^^

Here I wanted to experiment with long exposures (therefore creating motion blurs) and the coloured gels together, which is parallel to Hicks work.

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Examples of Long Exposed photos taken by Jake Hicks^

These were my favourite images from my Studio Project. In this photoshoot I used two point lighting. In the first image I used Red and Blue gels on top of the LED lights and in the second photo I used Black and Red gels. To make the colours more vivid I layered multiple gels of the same colour or similar colours together, to create a stronger final colour, this worked effectively as I needed a strong gel to work with the black background. Here I used long exposures as I kept the camera steady on a tripod and used a clicker to take the photos so that I wouldn’t need to physically touch the camera and effect the sharpness of the image.

I think these images relate to Hicks work due to the bold colours used which makes the image look vivid and more interesting; I also tried to evoke confidence onto the models in a similar to Hicks work; I experimented with long exposures to make the photographs look more extraordinary and tried to create the best quality image “in camera” so that I wouldn’t have to edit and manipulate much when finishing the photoshoot.

I quite like the first image due to the outcome looking very professional and at a high standard. I ended up changing the colour of the background from black to navy as I thought that the black contrasting against the model was too harsh and made the image look more manipulated and fake. I think this image worked well as the model looks confident and professional which helps to create a more high quality photograph.

With the second image I love the effect created by the motion blur (which was created due to using long exposures), I think it adds power to the model; making her therefore looking more powerful. The red creates a “devil” illusion which makes the model look attractive. Here I was quite happy with the ratios of the image itself as it fits faultlessly with the rule of thirds concept.

Street photography, which is sometimes called candid photography, is mainly about capturing random incidents and unmediated encounters in public places. It is often seen as a way of observing the streets.

Here, Street Photography tends to focus on peoples behaviours in public, therefore seen as a way of documenting how society behaved in that time period.Many people such as photojournalists and social documentary photographer, work in a similar way to street photographers, here they all try and capture news worthy events where people are visibly in the public domain. There have been many problems with ethics over the years, over consent and laws of privacy which can be difficult for people trying to take pictures in the streets.

Street photography dates back the the original invention of photography itself, in the early 20th century. Here the first few were taken in the street, showing that street photography started at the same time.

Many people are scared of the idea of street photography due to the fear of being “caught”, here many people suggest using heavily populated zones and cities as then people are more aware that their photo might be taken. After a while of staying in that spot photographers tend to feel more confident and get better shots.

Well known photographers tend top try and shown the emotion and thought process that that person mkay be going through in that particular moment. Here this can be shown though the facial expression of even just the eyes.

History of Photography: http://www.erickimphotography.com/Downloads/Blog/History-of-Street-Photography/Timeless%20insights%20you%20can%20learn%20from%20history%20of%20street%20photography.pdf

https://petapixel.com/2016/07/27/3-common-misconceptions-street-photography/

“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/