Tag Archives: surface and colour

Independent, Task

candid and street portraits

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The phrase ‘candid portrait’ is often used to refer to the type of portrait taken when the subject is unaware of the photographer. This is usually seen in the genre of street photography. 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. Street photography can focus on people and their behavior in public, therefore also recording people’s history. This involves having to also navigate or negotiate the changing expectations and laws of privacy, security and property. In this sense the street photographer is somewhat similar to a social documentary photographer or a photojournalist. 

  • William Klein
  • William Klein
  • Gordon Parks
  • Robert Doisneau
  • Robert Doisneau
  • Brassai
  • Tony Ray – Jones
  • William Klein
  • Weegee

Independent, Task

Surface and Colour

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Saul Leiter

Saul Leiter (1923-2013) was an American photographer who focussed on street photography and abstract expressionism. He started out as a painter so was heavily influenced by colour, shape and using his camera to create his abstract vision of reality. Leiter was well-known for his black and white work, however in around the 1990’s his personal colour photography was discovered, it still has an impact and inspires people today.

Leiter’s work holds lots of warm saturated colours which usually come from the artificial light of cars and shop windows. Additionally, he uses a range of focal lengths to show depth in his images. I really like his style of photography and the way he captures vibrant images in low light situations, it suggests he uses a high ISO so his lens is more sensitive to light. Furthermore, Leiter’s work differs in texture in each image, for example the image in the top right holds a sharp texture as the focal point is on the rain in the foreground. However, if we look at the bottom left image Leiter has created a softer texture by blurring the photograph, possibly using a shorter aperture.

Photo shoot Plan

Who – For one of my shoots I plan on capturing images of my mum with an umbrella, taken through the car window.

What – I have an idea to photograph vivid colours from street lights, shop windows, a red umbrella and neon signs. Also, I wish to capture raindrops as the fall down my car window.

Where – For the location of my photo shoot I plan on driving around St Helier to photograph the streets of town at night. This will hopefully reflect Leiter’s street photography with the vibrant colours reflecting from shop windows and signs.

When – I plan to do this photo shoot on Monday 5th October once the sun has set. It is due to rain that evening which will allow me to capture the raindrops on my car windows and on the street pavements.

Why – The reason for my shoot is to experiment with ISO and White Balance to see how it effects the colour of images. My photographs will be inspired by Saul Leiter’s work, capturing rain on windows and people with vibrant umbrellas.

My Response – Contact Sheets

Edited Images

I edited these images on Photoshop and focused on enhancing the bold colours and high contrast. I used the ‘Vibrance’ tool to heighten the saturation of my images in order to reflect the work of Saul Leiter. Additionally, I experimented with the ‘Brightness/Contrast’ tool so I could explore different ways of drawing the observer’s attention towards my chosen focal point, using bright highlights and very dark shadows to catch their eye.

Final Images

I have chosen these 5 final images as I believe their vivid colours complement each other well. Additionally, I really like the vibrant pink tones in the first image as I believe they provide a warm temperature to the image which reflects Leiter’s work. I enhanced this by increasing the saturation and contrast of the image to allow the bold fuchsia colours to stand out more against the black shadowed pavement. My first image also holds lots of artificial light from a neon shop sign. This bold lighting reflects off the puddles and creates an abstract composition with two beams of light forming leading lines down the image. Also, I like the way this image has an unbalanced rigid texture because of the irregular dips in the pavement. My second image reflects Leiter’s ‘Red Umbrella’ work. I really like the way the image has two obscure focal points, one being the clearly focused raindrops on the window, and the other being the bold red umbrella that is blurred in the centre. I used a shorter aperture to capture this image and have payed attention to the rule of thirds in my composition as the photo could be split into 3 separate sections.

In my third and fourth images I have been inspired by Leiter’s work where he captures rain on windows. I experimented with the white balance of these images when taking them because the abstract artificial lights behind the rain made it easier to explore the different settings. The first ‘rain on window’ image has a clear focal point just below centre, which is created by the strong leading lines of water flowing down the glass. Furthermore, the warm orange and pink tones blurred behind the rain create a shallow depth of field. In the second image, the blue hues that dominate the photo produce a cold icy temperature which contrasts to Leiter’s warm cosy work. I wanted to create this contrast to experiment with different colour temperatures to see how they added or took away from my images. I really like the repetition in this image with the four fluorescent circles of light as I believe they contrast with the dark blue shadows in the image. These two images also seem have a bumpy uneven texture as the raindrops create strange 3D-like effect. I have chosen the fifth photo as one of my final images because of its obscure out of focus nature and the warm colours which are reminiscent of Leiter’s work. I really like the soft texture this image holds because of its blurred effect, I created this by switching my camera to manual focus in order to capture an unfocused photograph. I also think the clear focal point of the red umbrella draws the observer’s attention to the centre of the image, allowing them to take in every warm colour surrounding the subject.

Independent, Task

SURFACE AND COLOUR

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Luigi Ghirri

Luigi Ghirri: Impossible Landscapes at Matthew Marks Gallery - Center for Italian Modern Art
Exhibition: Photographer Luigi Ghirri and Sculptor Paolo Icaro at Fondazione Querini Stampalia - Where Venice

Luigi Ghirri was a Italian photagrapher born the 5 January 1943 at  Scandiano in Italy . His work was most of the time made in Europe, and most of it focused on a small area of northern Italy . He prefersr to photograph this themes: maps, landscapes, windows, still lifes, interiors, fog, the seaside

Julian Schulze

Julian Schulze Photography
Synergy Effects (Part 3) on Behance

Julian Schulze born 1986 in Hannover . He’s art is focused on geometric abstraction and minimalistic compositions. All of his images were taken in Berlin and Munich. He uses colours and the composition of geometric patterns .He also loves bold colours and colour combinations “I like the simple things in everyday life” He says .

Their Ideas but in my own Style

I chose to inspire me from the two artists . What like of the images of Julian Schulze is the colors he uses and his images look like they taken from a polaroid . I enjoy Luigi Ghirri because his pictures look like vacation photos they are calm and mysterious  and I think it could be really fun to try to mixt them together in my own style .

What I did

I cut three colore paper and put it above the sand on the beach to make it look like in a vacation . I wanted squares because it remind me Julian Schulze’s pictures.

My pictures

My favourite picture

I really like the shadows on the paper it creates a nice contrast. And I really like the hole on my orange paper because it looks like in way freedom.

Independent, Reading, Task

Surface and Colour

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For this project I will be exploring the different ways I can capture varying textures and colour schemes in an expressionistic consuetude. I will also be focusing on using ISO and white balance in an unconventional and creative manner.

Surface and Texture Mood Board

Luigi Ghirri

Luigi was an Italian photographer born 1943. He was a pioneer in his field and he focused on the contrast between fiction and reality.

He creates minimalist compositions which focus on a consistent colour temperature and texture. The unique attitude in his work consists of very interesting textures created by a flat contrast. He experiments with the light sensitivity of his film which creates a fine grain on his images which also adds to the unique unprecedented texture of his compositions. He shoots untarnished, condensed backgrounds to accentuate the surface texture of the image. The flat contrast adds a faded look to his images.

In the above image we can see Luigi also experiments with reflective surfaces to further the idea of the unprecedented surface texture present in his images. In the above image Luigi uses a specific white balance to create a cold colour temperature in the image. This temperature, combined with the puddle which is associated with rain, gives the image a bleak feeling. He also uses a flat contrast to add a faded look and texture to the image. He uses the puddle to create depth in his image and add a unique perspective to how we view the world and its textures. He also experiments with ISO to great a grain in the image to again boost the idea of unconventional surface textures. He uses natural lighting which is not too harsh to maintain the flat contrast in his works.

Aaron Siskind and the Boyle Family

Aaron Siskind was an American photographer born 1903. Looking at Aarons work in the context of Texture and colour, his pieces relate very well. He creates compositions that focus on the detail of things and he brings their texture into light. and creating

Aaron siskind – volcano

The Boyle family is a group of collaborative artists based in London who where popular in the 60s for their minimalistic macro photography. They created work with the focus point of flat surface texture based images.

Photo Shoot Plan

Shoot puddles, road imperfections/markings and minimal style objects around my countryside neighbourhood and in urban built-up areas. Use ISO in a creative way – use extremely high ISO to give my images grainy texture. Use white-balance creatively – give the images gloomy cold tonal temperature. Focus on surface texture.

Contact Sheets

My Compositions Focused on Surface Texture and Flat Tonal Range/Colour Schemes

Taking inspiration from Luigi, when shooting my images I focused on using ISO in an unconventional way to create a grainy surface texture. I also used white balance to create a flat colour contrast.

I also took inspiration from my second reference and created detailed compositions highlighting texture in our world and creating a sense that one could rub their hand over my images and feel the road imperfections.