This work is inspired by Henry Mullins, a photographer from Jersey who photographed nearly 9000 people between 21 years.(1852-1873)
His portrait were printed on a carte de visite as a small albumen print, (the first commercial photographic print produced using egg whites to bind the photographic chemicals to the paper) which was a thin paper photograph mounted on a thicker paper card.
Set Up of the studio
Contact sheet
Diamond Cameo
I went into Photoshop and used the elliptical marquee tool which cropped my images into ovals which meant all I needed to do was drag each image and put them into a diamond formation.
I put one of the images in black and white so that it would look like Mullins’ pictures as there was no colour photography during that time.
The purpose of a head shot is to get a professional image of the persons head, where the focus is only of them. They are often used to convey professionalism.
They are mainly used for politics and people of status, or more commonly Instagram and the social media profile pictures.
Henry Mullins
Henry Mullins is one of the most famous photographers represented in the Societe Jersiase Photo-Archive, producing over 9,000 portraits of islanders from 1852 to 1873 at a time when the population was around 55.000.
Mullins was famous for his “Diamond Cameo” he would print a Diamond shape cameo on his Carte de visite to show four different angles of a person, with almost one different card.
My Diamond Cameo
In photoshop I made 4 ovals and put them into the form of a diamond. then I dragged the 4 images on top of the ovals, then made them a clipping mask so that they went into the oval. Then a found a vintage background on Google and made it the background and also put a copy on top. The copy on top I changed the layer style and made the opacity 50 so that the pattern would be on top of the images as well.
Double / Muti Exposures
Double or multiple exposures are an illusion created by layering images (or parts of images) over the top of each other. This can be achieved in the camera settings, or on Adobe Photoshop by creating layers and then using blending options and opacity control. Artist have used these techniques to explore unique ideas and evoke dream-like imagery, or imagery that explores time / time lapse.
Alexander Rodchenko
Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko was a Russian artist, sculptor, photographer and Graphic Designer.
He was one of the founders of constructivism and Russian design; he was married to the artist Varvara Stepanova.
This is his work in the style of double exposure. He used 2 photos the create the effect. the layer on top is slightly transparent so that you can see the layer behind it.
My Attempt
I edited this image with Photoshop, and used several photo which I took in the studio.
I used multiple photos and layered them over each other making the eyes the main point where I aligned them, this made a blur effect for everything else.
This worked out well, and is in the style of Alexander Rodchenko, it created a unique effect where it messes with the viewers perception of the image as there isn’t a plain, simple face, unless you squint your eyes.
Left Image:
I love how the colours mix giving off a haze of lighter tones in the background.
It uses 2 different images, both use 2 point lighting, using a red light and a white light to create a half and half coloured image.
I used one of the eyes to line them up and put the top image on a 50% opacity to see through to the background image.
Overall, i think that the white light, create a nice highlight which bring out the details on the face. This is also where the main overlay is, so it put a bigger emphasis on the multi-exposure aspect.
Studio lighting is an essential addition to most photographers’ arsenal. It allows us to create natural lighting effects in a variety of situations, and is far more controllable than a flash. It also adds mood and atmosphere.
3-Point Lighting
It is used in photography, cinematography, and 3D visualizations, it is used to properly illuminate a subject in an effective and pleasing way by simply using three separate lights.
Fill Light
It is a supplementary light mainly used to lighten shadows in an image. Fill light is often used in portrait photography to create a contrast between the image subject and image background giving the scene a sense of depth
Chiaroscuro
technical term used by artists to describe their drawings or paintings that showed bold contrast and distinct areas of light and darkness.
Lighting Test
Because I was at home and had no one the photograph I used Blender and the lights in that program to experiment with lights.
Natural Light
Natural light is anything that produces light by itself. Natural sources of light include the sun, stars, fire, and electricity in storms.
Light intensity refers to the strength or amount of light produced by a specific lamp source.
The direction of the lamp determines the shadows and highlights
Light temperature, determines if the image has a blue tint or a orange tint. If it is balanced then it will appear normal and the white tones will appear white.
Golden hour is the first hour after sunrise and the last hour of light before sunset that produces a warm natural light. That window of time is determined by where you are geographically, as well as the season.
A reflector is a tool that helps a photographer to manipulate the light by providing another surface for the light to bounce off of.
My Photos
Final Photo 1
I like this photo as there is not direct eye contact in the photo, although it is still set up. I used 1 light to get the face highlighted and the background darker, this make it so that you focus more on the face. The background is also plain which attracts more attention to the subject. To edit it, I boosted the contrast and the saturation the add more pink to the face.
Experimenting with colours
I used some coloured filters on the lights, which created a coloured glow.
It made unique contrasts and clashes between the light different lights.
Final Images
I like this image as the white light is softly projected on the face, which highlights his facial features. The red draws attention to the image, and draws anyone in that looks at it. Also, the subject is centered, which is a nice touch.
I like how the images appears to merge out of the darkness, with the red glow, which gives off an evil glow.
Brassai (1899-1984) was a Hungarian-French photographer who rose to international fame in France in the 20th century. He is widely celebrated for his signature photographs of Parisian night life and his book ‘Paris By Night.’ Brassai wanted to ‘immobilize movement’ rather than capturing the hustle of the city, he took his images in unfamiliar places to capture the overlooked and forgotten. Brassai stated “most of the time, I was inspired by my everyday life. I believe it is the most sincere and humble depiction of reality, of the most trivial, that leads to the fantastic.” I really enjoy how Brassai captures his street photography in darkness as it creates a mysterious and eerie atmosphere in his images. I also like how he only photographs a minimal amount of subjects in the images as I believe this adds to the desolate, abandoned settings where he captures his photos.
Photoshoot Plan
Who – My aim is to photograph a range strangers with different ethnicities, clothing styles and moods. I hope to capture people with mid-shots, long-shots and some from behind to mirror Brassai’s street photography work.
What – I hope to capture people walking around town with shopping bags, phones, handbags and any other items that could tell the observer more about their personality and life.
Where – I am going to do this photoshoot in St Helier, in the main high-street in town, due to the fact that many people will be walking around there so I will have a range of different people to capture images of.
When – My plan is to complete this photoshoot on Saturday 21st and Thursday 26th of November as during Saturday afternoon’s many people are usually in town and on Thursday night its the beginning of ‘late night shopping’ so I will be able to take night-time photos similar to Brassai.
Why – I aim to take photos of people in their natural state with no posing or pre-discussed settings, I am doing this in order to capture raw moments in time and be aware of my surroundings.
How – I plan on walking through town with my camera in different positions to capture people from abstract angles. Additionally, I am going to act as though I’m taking photos of the Christmas lights, so not to draw attention and make people act differently being on camera.
Contact Sheets
Final Edited Images
Final Images
I have chosen these two images as my final selection as I believe they successfully mirror Brassai’s work while also linking to each other in terms of connotations and meaning. Firstly, I edited my images with a black & white filter to create a mysterious dull atmosphere. This monochrome filter also allows the observer to make judgments on the images without the influence of specific colours symbolising different meanings. Additionally, both photos have a high contrast of highlights and shadows; image one has the dominant tone of white whereas image two has more dark shadows surrounding the subject. In addition, the composition of my images reflect each other greatly as both subjects are stood facing side-on, away from the camera, in the foreground of the photographs. Furthermore, my final images have quite a shallow depth of field as limited landscape and space can be seen in the background. Nevertheless, the minimal space I have captured in the background of my images vastly helps allude to their meaning. In both photographs you can see an elderly man in the foreground and some sort of connotation to youth in the background- image one with a pram and image two with athletic modern clothing. This creates an impression of growth and memory as it shows the juxtaposition of young and old.
Firstly I got Anya to sit facing 8 different directions with a neutral face where I took a photos of her. After that I opened a blank photo shop file and 4 out of the 8 images that I thought we best to use for the cameo. I then cut an oval shape with her face in the centre of the oval, with a new photoshop tab open I copied across all 4 ovals to then layer the old yellow letter making the image look old. yet there was a problem; when I put the yellow letter on the images one of them was brighter than the others so I had to go back to the ovals on the original image and make the background darker so the yellow would turn out similar to the others. After messing around with the light control making the image darker I recut the image and put it on the new tab. With the old fashioned newspaper over the top of the image, I had to experiment with the intensity of the yellow colour making it stand out but not drain the image out.
