Street photography is a common form of candid photography in which photos are taken in a street and the subjects are unaware of the photo being taken which creates a more natural look. These photos can be used to document historic events as well as showcase the differences in cultures as exhibited in Moriyama Daido’s Japanese photography.
SHOOT PLAN
WHERE
WHO
WHY
WHEN
Main street in town
Random people in town
To find interesting features in people walking around
After school 19/11/20
CONTACT SHEET FOR SHOOT
These photos turned out horribly as the street was not busy due to many people avoiding crowded streets because of COVID so I couldn’t get the crowded kind of photos I wanted. I also l felt really uncomfortable taking these photos as I felt very morally dubious taking photos without consent so stopped very early on. With the photos I do have I am going to put in black and white to replicate Moriyama Daido’s.
On Photoshop, I cropped the images to make them focus more on individuals and then made them back and white to thew setting of maximum black. This made the photos look more dramatic and unsettling and I really liked how they turned out.
Here are my two favourite images. I like how the black and white tonal has given the photos a gloominess that effectively conveys the atmosphere at this current time period where not only is the weather cold and grim but also everything else is as coronavirus has shut everything down
Overall I fell that my first initial thought of this project was that it was going to be something in which I would not be interested in however as I slowly started to develop ideas for photo-shoots as well as understanding multiple different artists perspectives of their photographs relating to identify; I started to create more of an interest to this project. One of the most interesting discoveries I made while working on this project is that Claude Cahun’s photography is very different to others as its very original. There were several challenges in which I faced while creating this project. For example putting the photo shoots together took a lot of planning as I needed to find models willing to go out of their comfort zone to put on feminine items. The most important thing I learned is that you have to experiment with different lighting and backgrounds before you come out with the best result in which you can.I came up with my final solution by analyzing each photo I took and decided which one had better features. During this project I had to other come several objects such as understanding other artists opinions as well as understand and develop new ideas of my own. If I was to redo this project I would maybe take a closer look at place as in the majority of my photos its more focused on the models identity rather than the place which could of reflected their identity. I feel like I could improve on my planning skills as although I planned some photo-shoots I could of thought to include place.
The photograph above is by an unknown photographer. The subject in the image is very central, and the background is symmetrical. However where you notice the double exposure, its a lot less symmetrical. It has high contrast and is in black and white.
Using photoshop and the same images used for my diamond cameo, I placed one image on top of the other- I then lowered the opacity giving my view of the image underneath and erased unwanted parts of the image.
To make my photograph more relatable to the multi exposure image I found, I increased contrast, as well as opacity slightly. I made he image black and white.
My first thought are mostly positive since I’m also very content of my work I like my artist research. However I had a lot of stress in the moment, I was very scared when expressing myself and being self-critical since that’s not my strong point. But after all that it went well. I have more positive thoughts because I like how it turned out and of course the relief to have finished just in time. The most interesting discoveries that I could meet in this project were the colors in Photoshop, I learned more about Frida Kahlo that I do not know and the work of Andy Warhol. For me the biggest challenge I had to face was to develop my idea and try to pass my message on my identity. I learned to organize myself more and to manage my time. I also learned photoshop technique and I know I’ll use them again. What helped me progress was asking for help when I didn’t need to have my ideas clearer and it really helped me motivate me. I think my biggest strengths is at the level of creativite and with this project I improved to this level. If it was to be done again I will focus more on small details because in presenting my work I have several ideas for the photos that I took and unfortunately I did not have the time to infiltrate these small details.
After completing this project, my first thoughts overall are positive due to my thorough artist research, display of photography techniques and development of ideas. While working on this project, I discovered the relevance of saving family memories and the importance of communication during photoshoots. At several points at the time of my shoots, I found it difficult to get across my ideas to my grandparents which resulted in the beginning of these photoshoots producing images with little use. To overcome this, I showed my grandparents examples of the photographer’s work I was inspired by so they had an idea of what I was attempting to capture. One of the most important things I learnt personally was the impact of family in my life and the effect photography has to portray individual messages. I would say the biggest obstacle I overcame was definitely my overthinking at the start of this project. It was important for me to make a decision on my theme and initial ideas early on in the process so that I had a clear plan to stick to throughout. I am very pleased that I made this early decision as it definitely benefitted my time management and allowed me to research photographers promptly. I would say my greatest strength in this project was my ability to form storylines with groups of images, I believe I successfully connoted feelings of warmth and family love with my different sequences. In the future I hope to, again, stick to a set plan and idea from the start of the project and to have confidence in my initial ideas.
Deadpan simply is described as a portrait of the shoulders up. The face central, eyes directly looking into the camera, and background plain and empty. No shadow just either a white, grey or plain colour to fill the image. The words dead and pan is a slang word for a face. Deadpan photography is a cool, detached, and unemotional presentation and, when used in a series, usually follows a pre-defined set of compositional and lighting rules. Its another image word to use for a passport image. Passport images have a lot of rules compared to a lot of portraits. But some deadpan images will be allowed to use if the right size and colour.
Examples
My Experiments of deadpan images and passport images
Evaluation-
These two images are a good example of a deadpan image as for the dead facial expression and how central the face and shoulders are to the camera. The white background clearly outstands the portrait itself. The image on the right has a better background as all of it is white and no shadow or greyness is seen. The shadow created on the left side of the faces in both images by the spot light in front creates a cool, natural portrait. But this would not be acceptable for a passport photo or a successful perfect deadpan photo. If I was to do this photoshoot again I would direct the light either straight in front of the model, or place another spotlight/main light on the shadow side of the face to cancel out the shadow formed.
Satoshi is a photographer and artist based in Berlin. The portraiture she bases her work on mostly is up close images of human faces. These images are taken as street photography, with the models not knowing that they are being photographed. Some examples are seen below…
Images by Satoshi
My experiments
These images i tried to get as close up as I could to the face but my camera would not focus if too close. There are two colorful images as for Satoshi’s work seems to have a lot of color to it. These images are not street photography images but have similarities to Satoshi’s work in the sense that the portrait taken is up close and cuts out the edges of the face. If i was to do this shoot again i would take some photos in town that way i could capture people in the moment and get some better images that linked to Satoshi’s work.
For this image i used two images and one of those i duplicated to create a double exposure image. With the smaller portrait in the corner i simply used the lasue tool to cut around the head and copied the head on top the main image. Using the magic wand tool i cropped out any white or standing out parts of the cut and paste image to make the image merge together better. One of the images of the duplicated image i changed into black and white to create a more contrasting and interesting image to look at. This montage is simple and diverse. It has a sense of darkness to it as for the red glow effect on the face and the black background. This black background fades in with the right side of the face. This makes the contrast between the left side of the face being red and the right side being black strong and effective to the overall image.
By selecting two images of the same portrait, i have merged them together by changing the opacity of the image that is on top of the original image to make a double exposure portrait. This portraits are interesting to look at as your eyes try and focus on tow portraits at the same time. To get the best outcome for each image, I have chosen two portraits, the first one of a face facing the camera and then the other face facing s different way. This way we can still see both images. These photographs were taken in the studio using a spot light for a main light and the same light directing on the wall behind the model to get rid of the shadow. This creates a white background.
My first thoughts about the overall project are mainly positive as I believe I worked hard to achieve my final grade and am happy with my final images that I produced during this time. During this project I discovered how I am able to make my photography capture a deeper meaning and make it more personal to me. Although, I also found this aspect the most challenging out of the overall project as I found it difficult to focus in on one idea and theme of identity. The most important thing I learned personally is how photography can be used in countless expressive ways to get a certain message across. I think that I got in the way of my progress during the start of the project due to over thinking on how I could approach it. This, I think is one of the obstacles I must overcome to achieve a higher grade, through my research, development and analysis, which should make it easier for me in approaching the task. If I were to approach the problem again, I believe that by researching a wider range of photographers and artist to help me with ideas. In addition, I think I could also manage my time better during the controlled conditions by making a plan of how much time I would spend on each step, allowing me to finish everything and go back over my work and add to it. In the future I also want to be able to make my project even more personal to myself, which I think would improve my work, and spend more time on the photo-shoots allowing for higher quality images.
RFF0015.jpg&usqp=CAU)
,%2BThomas%2BRuff,%2BGerman,%2Bb.%2BZell%2Bam%2BHarmersbach,%2B1958,%2B1987%2B.jpg&usqp=CAU)
