Studios are used in Portrait photography to capture effects and take pictures of people that photographers wouldn’t be able to capture in an uncontrolled environment, single point lighting and the Chiaroscuro effect for instance wouldn’t necessarily be an option for photographers outside the studio. Studio portraits are often quite powerful and often use shadows, props, colours and lights in ways that make the images stand out or have meaning. There are many different types/effects used in Studio Portraits that can make the subject appear differently as well as there being many different ways to shoot studio photography, with techniques such as single point/multiple point lighting, full body shot, upper body, lower body and headshots, warm or cold lighting, using props, sets or outfits, lighting effects such as Chiaroscuro, lighting patterns or light colour gels.

ONE POINT LIGHTING (FORMAL)

Here is a contact sheet for my Chiaroscuro effect, where I positioned the soft box to one side, emitting light at an angle to the subject of the photograph to create intense shadows that bring out a sharp and distinct contrast.

Chiaroscuro is Italian for “lightdark” which refers to it meaning of bold contrast between light and dark, here they usually effect the whole composition within the image. Chiaroscuro first started out in 15th century paintings in Italy and Holland; however what people perceive as “true Chiaroscuro” started in the 16th century in Mannerism and in Baroque art.

TWO POINT LIGHTING (FORMAL)

Here are my two point lighting contact sheets, where flash-heads were used by positioning them 180 degrees from each other on opposing sides of the subject in order to fulfill a completely shadow-less image .

ENVIRONMENTAL PHOTOGRAPHY (FORMAL)

Environmental photography refers to photographs of the natural environment for artistic, research, or monitoring purposes. So in order to achieve this, I captured photos of subjects in a working environment best suited to their interests in order to complete a realistic set of images.

EDITS

These are a few of my final edited photos of two-point lighting. The photo is staged and formal, two lights were and a white background was used as it was simple and light would reflect off of the white meaning that there would have been a lot of light and exposure in the photograph.

For the first edit I lowered brightness and slightly increased contrast so there would be less exposure in the image which will help bring out the skin tones. I additionally made the subjects face in the hemlmet’s visor grey so it further contrasted with the rest of the image bringing out the lighter tones of his skin and t shirt to stand out more. For the second edit I decided to use the same editing process on Photoshop and made the image darker by decreasing exposure and decreased the brightness. I then increased contrast so the jumper could stand out better as well as changing the colour of it to grey from its original colour of beige which I didn’t think looked as good and blended in too much with the subjects natural skin tone which allowed contrast with the tones and colour of the face and allows it to stand out.

Street photography is a form of candid photography, is photography conducted for art or enquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places. Typically, street photography is about candidly capturing life in public areas. And contrary to its name, street photography does not have to be done on the streets. You can do street photography anywhere.

BRUCE GILDEN

Bruce Gilden is an American street photographer. He is best known for his candid close-up photographs of people on the streets of New York City, using a flashgun. He has had various books of his work published, has received the European Publishers Award for Photography and is a Guggenheim Fellow.

Gilden was born in Brooklyn, New York. While studying sociology at Penn State, he saw Michelangelo Antonioni’s film Blowup in 1968. Influenced by the film, he purchased his first camera and began taking night classes in photography at the School of Visual Arts of New York. Fascinated with people on the street and the idea of visual spontaneity, Gilden turned to a career in photography. His work is characterized by his use of flash photography. He has worked in black and white most of his life, but he began shooting in color and digital when he was introduced to the Leica S camera as part of Magnum’s Postcards From America project. He is renowned for controversially jumping-up at people and taking photos of them while they walk through the streets, minding their own business, which makes for the surprised faces that can often be seen in his photographs .

He has photographed people on the streets of New York, Japan’s yakuza mobsters, homeless people, prostitutes, and members of bike gangs between 1995 and 2000. According to Gilden, he was fascinated by the duality and double lives of the individuals he photographed. He has also photographed rural Ireland and horse racing there, as well as voodoo rituals in Haiti.

The idea of a candid portrait is to capture people acting naturally. They should be unaware they are being photographed, as their behavior often changes once they become aware of the camera. We’ve all seen what happens when people are forced to smile for the camera, or to look at it while somebody is taking a snapshot. In one respect, candid photography is often regarded as being similar to environmental photography as both incorporate an “environment” in the photo, adding depth with a background that can help tell a story.

Candid portraiture is a form of informal portraiture, where the photo is relaxed, natural and sometimes accidental, not combining altered, effective lighting nor any “studio” conditions. However, this doesn’t have to mean unprofessional. Even if the subject is dressed in a formal manner, the end result can still be more casual. For example, a friendly, laid back businessman might wear his buttoned up suit for the portrait, but a natural, relaxed pose at his desk can make the portrait informal. All of the information collected by the artist about the subject will help determine which style is more appropriate.

An environmental portrait is a portrait executed in the subject’s usual environment, such as in their home or workplace, and typically illuminates the subject’s life and surroundings. The term is most frequently used of a genre of photography. Environmental photography is a mixture of lifestyle photography and traditional photography. With this type of portraiture the environment surrounding the person plays a key role in the photo. The environment in the photo is meant to tell you about the person and what they’re like or what they enjoy. Unlike lifestyle portraits where the location isn’t important, this type of portraiture’s environment is just as important as the person in the image and the person can pose in the photo.

Environmental photography can also be seen as a type of “formal” portrait photography where there is a posed picture of a person or a group of people. It focuses on clearly showing facial features and may be designed to highlight a certain characteristic of the subject, such as occupation or personality and is a long-standing method to capture professional-looking images. It is not however a snapshot, but a carefully arranged pose under effective lighting conditions. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean the subject must appear stiff and lifeless.

As we know, a portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. With environmental portraiture, the background often adds to this, often telling a story by providing the viewer with some context of the subjects surroundings. Additionally, by photographing a person in their natural surroundings, it is thought that you will be able to better illuminate their character, and therefore portray the essence of their personality, rather than merely a likeness of their physical features. It is also thought that by photographing a person in their natural surroundings, the subject will be more at ease, and so be more conducive to expressing themselves, as opposed to in a studio, which can be a rather intimidating and an artificial experience.

A great example of environmental portraiture is that of Arnold Newman’s photo of Alfried Krupp which I wrote an analysis on here.

A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. It can capture a person or group of people that is able to highlight the personality and characteristics of the subject whilst using effective lighting, poses and backdrops. It is regarded as an art of shooting other people, either one person or a group of people. A good portrait artist can use lighting, position and location to show the characteristics and personality of the subject. The different types of portrait photography are: Formal (Posed), Informal (Similar to Candid and Natural), Environmental, Contemporary and Traditional.

A portrait picture might be artistic, or it might be clinical, as part of a medical study. Frequently, portraits are commissioned for special occasions, such as weddings or school events. Portraits can serve many purposes, from usage on a personal Web site to display in the lobby of a business.

The invention of photography can be credited to Louis Daguerre, who first introduced the concept to the French Academy of Sciences in 1839. That same year, Robert Cornelius produced what’s considered the first photographic self-portrait.

• 

• 

Here is my interpretation of altered landscapes, where I edited these photographs of the medieval town of Krakow. I edited them using Photoshop. In the first two photos, I used the threshold tool to achieve the black and white effect. This creates the contrast, adding a cartoon vibe to the photographs, a key aspect of many altered landscape photographic styles.

The Altered Landscape is a collection of photographs representing a wide range of artists, techniques, visual styles, subjects, and ideological positions. Organized chronologically, the more than 150 images-by artists such as Andy Goldsworthy, Chris Jordan, Catherine Opie, and Edward Burtynsky-reveal the ways that individuals and industries have marked, mined, toured, tested, developed, occupied, and exploited landscapes over the last fifty years. From Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz, two of the most influential photographers to document environmental destruction in the American West, to Richard Misrach and Mark Klett, who examine abuse of natural resources, these moving images reveal the diversity of voices within the field of contemporary photography.

Keld Helmer-Petersen is a Danish photographer who is well renowned for his work with abstract colors in photography. The work he excelled at was with his ‘black light’ work which is very simple and defined, consisting of only a strong black and white, silhouetting the edited image causing it to become abstract. The images of his have been taken of, usually, “ugly” objects and eye-sores such as scaffolding or barbed wire. The images are unique in terms of the high contrast that causes abstract lines and features to become bold and eye-catching. He has also used this technique to create interesting landscape images that I have studied and tired to imitate myself.

Helmer-Petersen was born and grew up in the Østerbro quarter of Copenhagen. He started taking photographs in 1938, when he received a Leica camera as a graduation present. He was inspired by Albert Renger-Patzsch, the experiments at The Bauhaus in Germany and by Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind at the Art Institute of Chicago. He achieved fame for his colour photographs but he also published several books of black and white images that explore dramatic contrasts of tone.

In some, we are only presented with images that are black and white. All mid tones have been removed. He created and found these images, using both cameras and flat bed scanners to achieve the effects he was looking for. These books are beautifully designed and encourage us to consider the space around the image and the accompanying text as integral to the meaning of the work.

MY PHOTOGRAPHS/DESIGN PROCESS

I used Photoshop to create similar images to that of Helmer-Petersen’s work. I aimed t crop the images to create make them more abstract, however aiming to not lose quality while digitally editing.

Using the threshold tool in photoshop allowed me to create an contrasted image similar to that of Helmer-Peterson’s.

I experimented with other images, however the density of each image affected the threshold tool significantly, making the image much more abstract and difficult to comprehend, (as seen below):

Natural aspects, such as dense trees and leaves also made the process difficult, hence why natural landscapes didn’t create the right result I was looking for during the experimentation process.

Final Image

WHAT:

Urban landscapes, built up/man made areas around Jersey.

WHEN:

Anytime of day as urban landscapes seem to prosper in all kinds of conditions, however overcast afternoons allow for a grayish tone that contrasts with the foreground, ideal for new topographics.

WHERE:

Various locations around St Helier such as La Collette, Town Centre, Fort Regent and the Waterfront. Other urban areas out of the town may include building or telecommunication complexes as well as bunkers dotted around the Island.

WHY:

I am planning to capture these places as my decision was heavily influenced by famous photographers such as Robert Adams by focusing on New Topographics, as well as Kled Helmer-Petersen and his back light photography. I will try to best capture pictures in the same style as these photographers that I have studied, aiming to highlight similar meanings and attitudes through my photography.

HOW:

When in process of taking the photos for the landscape project, I will emphasize the theme of urban landscapes in my photography by venturing to built up town areas and seeking to find man-made and ideally abandoned, “ugly” structures. I will achieve this with the help of a tripod in order to help me align a suitable composition as well as preventing blur as a result of a loss of focus to occur. I will also aim to take photos during overcast weather conditions and they best imitate the photos of both Robert Adams and Keld Helmer-Petersen.

TECHNICAL

Adams in this image used a 35mm reflex camera with a normal/standard lens which he had invested in, in 1962. The photo has high light sensitivity or ISO as the image appears grainy, however has been been focused well with minimal blur. The composition of the image is 3 dimensional with an added balanced, slight symmetrical look to it with buildings either side of the image adding depth to the picture itself. The photo is also well exposed as it isn’t too bright nor too dark to lose detail within the photo.

VISUAL

As can be observed, Adam shot this image in natural daylight, possibly afternoon as the shadows as a result of the buildings hints that the sun is lower in the sky as can be seen by the lengthened shadows as a result. The colour of the clear sky looks relatively bright signifying what would be a vivid blue sky. The grey scale tint of the whole photograph helps contrast the foreground from the clear background. The image also looks grainy, which may simply be because of the era they were taken, but looking at it now it adds a sense of the time period they were taken and emphasizes the “retro” feel the saturation also brings to the image.

CONCEPTUAL

His photographs are a kind of testimony/evidence of what has been lost and what remains. However, they also ask us fundamental questions about how we live amid the contradictions and compromises of progress. For all that it carries, his work is restrained, suggestive rather than forceful, every black-and-white print at once a world in itself and part of a bigger narrative about man’s destructive relationship with nature.

CONTEXTUAL

In 1962 they moved back to Colorado, and Adams began teaching English at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. In 1963, Adams bought a 35mm reflex camera and began to take pictures mostly of nature and architecture. He soon read complete sets of Camera Work and Aperture at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. He learned photographic technique from Myron Wood, a professional photographer who lived in Colorado. While finishing his dissertation, he began to photograph in 1964. In 1967, he began to teach only part-time in order to have more time to photograph. He met John Szarkowski, then curator of photography at the Museum of Modern art, on a trip to New York City in 1969. The museum later bought four of his prints and in 1970, he began working as a full-time photographer.

Furthermore, in the late 1960s and early 1970s Robert Adams explored new housing tracts that were being built along the Colorado Front Range. Certain elements of this new landscape recur in his photographs: uniform, boxy houses, concrete, cars, and dirt plots–as well as a sense of loneliness and isolation. “People had moved to enjoy nature, but found that nature was mostly inaccessible except on weekends,” Adams wrote. “Often little of it was even visible out the window. The puzzle became how to live inside.”