A photo montage is a combination of several photographs joined together for artistic effect or to show more of the subject than can be shown in a single photograph.
What makes a good photo montage?
Photomontages are similar to cubism. There are no bounds of perspective or time. You can create a single artwork using several images of the same or many subjects. Doing this in a cohesive manner gives exciting results.
Example of a photo montage
My photo montage edit:
For my photo montage I created two layers of the model and put one behind the other, then cut out the outline. After that, I decided to use an orange newspaper because I think it works very well on a blue background. Next, I got an image of a sketched face and cut out the eyes. I placed the sketched eyes over the models and was surprised that it worked well.
Double exposure photography is a technique that layers two different exposures on a single image, combining two photographs into one. Double exposure creates a surreal feeling for your photos and the two photographs can work together to convey deep meaning or symbolism. A similar technique, called a “multiple exposure,” is when you combine more than two exposures in a single image.
Examples of double exposure in photography.
For my double and multiple exposure photos, I used the ones we took in the studio and stacked them on top of each other. I used both the coloured photos and the regular lighting photos to blend them and give two different perspectives.
Compared to the other photo, in this one I stacked three photos and lowered the opacity of each one, compared to the other photo, where the opacity stayed the same.The three photos that I used to create first double exposure.Double exposure photography is a technique that layers two different exposures on a single image, combining two photographs into one.Two original photos I combined.For this photo i chose to focus on one part of it – the eyes. I put an orange background photo in and combined it with the studio lighting.Two photos I used to create the double exposure, for this I stacked the orange coloured photo over the plain one so that the two colours wouldn’t clash.
A sequence/grid in photography can be described as a group of photos, which can be similar or all completely different, which are lined up next to each other against a background of any solid colour. Therefore it then helps to create the idea of a storyboard, but with pictures whereas most storyboards are drawn and is used when telling/creating stories.
A storyboard –
Experimenting
These are the 6 photos which I will use:
Photos which I will use to create my sequence/grid, I haven’t edited them as I like how the lighting/filter falls onto the photo already.
Then I loaded my pictures into PowerPoint and organised them in the way I wanted them to be presented on the storyboard sequence. This is because they have a good range of organisational ways to present photos in the way in which I would like, this is shown on the right hand side.
Final outcomes –
For my final outcomes, I really liked how they both turned out as they represent the idea of a sequence/grid well which links into a storyboard. Firstly, I began with experimenting with the different options of how to organise them through PowerPoint. I decided that these two were my favourite ways because they show 2 fluid ways of how a storyboard should flow with its design to create a visual story without having to say any words, which leaves it to the viewers imagination to understand and create their own version of what is happening.
Objective = Finalise images, print and and display…
For the 2 x weeks leading up to the Year 12 PHOTOGRAPHYCONTROLLED CONDITIONS you will need to refer to this resource pack for ideas and inspiration…
“SELF -PORTRAIT and IDENTITY JAC PDF”
(to find it just copy and paste the link below into the top bar of the folder icon on your screen)
M:\Departments\Photography\Students\Resources\Portraiture\TO DO
We have included a mini-unit to help you explore opportunities with self portraiture in photography as this may become essential to your project outcomes. We will spend 1 x lesson looking closely at this and discussing ideas for you…
Remember…your stimulus for the month of January is
Your Personal Heritage
TASKS OVER CHRISTMAS PERIOD
Over the festive holidays we would like to you start thinking about your personal heritage. What’s your story? Who are you? What are your origins? etc.
Therefore, what better time to discuss this with your family.
Find out about family stories, grandparents memories, their favourite places, family heirlooms/objects and documents etc.
TASK 1
Collect or find if your family members have any old passports, identification documents, postcards, letters, stamps, objects, jewellery, toys, photographs, diaries, medals, cultural objects etc.
All these can be collected kept safe and photographed on your return to school as part of YOUR PERSONAL HERITAGE – YOUR IDENTITY.
Aim to collect at least three.
TASK 2
In addition, take some portrait photographs of family members – mum, dads, aunties, uncles, siblings, grandparents, great grandparents. Perhaps during a Christmas gathering.
Think about lighting! Use natural lighting, pull an armchair into the window – think about the Hamptonne workshop using natural light. Use artificial lighting – whatever is to hand, main lights, table lamps, fire light, candlelight, or even TV light can be effective.
Aim to take +50 images.
These images can be a starting point for you. Responding to YOUR PERSONAL HERITAGE – who you are etc.
Now watch this and discuss the way in which artists tackle identity…
Blog Posts to make :
define “identity” and explain how identity can be influenced by “place”, or belonging, your environment or upbringing /gender identity /cultural identity /social identity / geographical identity /political identity /lack of / loss of identity / stereotypes / prejudices etc
2. Add a mindmap and moodboard of ideas and trigger points
Choose a range of photographers that you feel explore identity as a theme and create a CASE STUDY (detailed analysis and interpretation) on Claude Cahun and then compare Cahun to a chosen artist (that will have an influence on your final outcomes re : MOCK EXAM)
Here is a link to blog post where you can find out more about Claude Cahun and also Identity Politics.
Clare Rae from Melbourne, Australia visited Jersey as part of the Archisle international artist-in-residence programme last year. Clare has been researching the Claude Cahun archive, shooting new photography and film in Jersey and contributing to the educational programme. Clare Rae produces photographs and moving image works that interrogate representations of the female body via an exploration of the physical environment.
from the series Magdalen. These images engage with the site of the Magdalen Asylum, where girls and women were housed at the Abbotsford Convent, whilst working in the laundries downstairs. The asylum was in operation for approximately 100 years until it was decommissioned in the 1970’s. These rooms are laden with history, and provided a dense and loaded environment within which to make artwork. Using this history as a starting point, I attempted to activate these spaces using my body, gently testing the physical environment.
Stages is a collaborative project by Clare Rae and Simone Hine. Both artists follow in the tradition of feminist art practices, using their own body to examine broader ideas related to the conditions of feminine representation. Stages takes the Rosina Auditorium at the Abbotsford Convent as a catalyst for the production of new work. Both artists will bring their own aesthetic and line of questioning to this very particular space. Together, Rae and Hine present works that are defined by the space, whilst also contributing to a redefinition of the space.
Untitled (NGV). 2013 This project engages with the public and private spaces of the National Gallery of Victoria (International), in particular the photography and print store rooms.
Monash Commission 2016. The series of 10 photographs investigate institutional spaces around the Monash University Clayton Campus, mostly engaging with buildings within the Science faculty, but also including iconic modernist architecture such as Robert Blackwood Hall, the Law Library and the former site of the Monash University Museum of Art.
Clare gave a artist talk contextualising her practice, covering recent projects that have engaged with notions of architecture and the body, and the role of performative photography in her work. Clare will discuss her research on these areas, specifically her interest in artists such as Claude Cahun, Francesca Woodman and Australian performance artist Jill Orr. Clare will also discuss her photographic methodologies and practices, giving an analysis of her image making techniques, and final outcomes.
Homework: Here is the task that she asked participants to respond to in a workshop. This could be a good starting point to for photographic exploration.
1. Produce a self-portrait, in any style you like. Consider the history of self-portraiture, and try to create an image that alludes to, (or evades?) your identity.
2. Produce a performative photograph, considering the ideas presented on liveness, performance documentation and Cartier-Bresson’s decisive moment. ‘Captured’ vs. pre-meditated?
3. Produce a photograph that engages the body with the physical environment. Think of architecture, light, texture, and composition to create your image.
For further context lets consider some of these artists’ influences on Clare’s practice.
Claude Cahun, born Lucy Schwob was a French photographer, sculptor, and writer. She is best known for her self-portraits in which she assumes a variety of personas, including dandy, weight lifter, aviator, and doll.
In this image, Cahun has shaved her head and is dressed in men’s clothing. She once explained: “Under this mask, another mask; I will never finish removing all these faces.”1 (Claude Cahun, Disavowals, London 2007, p.183)
Cahun was friends with many Surrealist artists and writers; André Breton once called her “one of the most curious spirits of our time.”2(See Guardian article below by Gavin James Bower, “Claude Cahun: Finding a Lost Great,)
While many male Surrealists depicted women as objects of male desire, Cahun staged images of herself that challenge the idea of the politics of gender. Cahun was championing the idea of gender fluidity way before the hashtags of today. She was exploring her identity, not defining it. Her self-portraits often interrogates space, such as domestic interiors and Jersey landscapes using rock crevasses and granite gate posts.
I Extend My Arms 1931 or 1932 Claude Cahun 1894-1954 Purchased 2007 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/P79319
The Jersey Heritage Trust collection represents the largest repository of the artistic work of Cahun who moved to the Jersey in 1937 with her stepsister and lover Marcel Moore. She was imprisoned and sentenced to death in 1944 for activities in the resistance during the Occupation. However, Cahun survived and she was almost forgotten until the late 1980s, and much of her and Moore’s work was destroyed by the Nazis, who requisitioned their home. CaHun died in 1954 of ill health (some contribute this to her time in German captivity) and Moore killed herself in 1972. They are both buried together in St Brelade’s churchyard.
For further feminist theory and context read the following essay:
Amelia Jones: The “Eternal Return”: Self-Portrait Photography as Technology of Embodiment – pdf Jones_Eternal Return
Last year the National Portrait Gallery in London brings the work of Claude Cahun and Gillian Wearing together for the first time. Slipping between genders and personae in their photographic self-images, Wearing and Cahun become others while inventing themselves. “We were born in different times, we have different concerns, and we come from different backgrounds. She didn’t know me, yet I know her,” Wearing says, paying homage to Cahun and acknowledging her presence. The bigger question the exhibition might ask is less how we construct identities for ourselves than what is this thing called presence?
Behind a mask, Wearing is being Cahun. Previously she has re-enacted photographs of Andy Warhol in drag, the young Diane Arbus with a camera, Robert Mapplethorpe with a skull-topped cane, hard-bitten New York crime photographer Weegee wreathed in cigar-smoke. Among these doubles, you know Wearing is in the frame somewhere, under the silicon mask and the prosthetics, the wigs and makeup and the lighting. Going through her own family albums, she has become her own mother and her father. It is a surprise she has never got lost in this hall of time-slipping mirrors, among her own self-images and the faces she has adopted. Wearing has got others to play her game, too – substituting their own adult voices with those of a child, putting on disguises while confessing their secrets on video.
Cindy Sherman, A selection of images from her film stills
Masquerading as a myriad of characters, Cindy Sherman (American, born 1954) invents personas and tableaus that examine the construction of identity, the nature of representation, and the artifice of photography. To create her images, she assumes the multiple roles of photographer, model, makeup artist, hairdresser, and stylist. Whether portraying a career girl, a blond bombshell, a fashion victim, a clown, or a society lady of a certain age, for over thirty-five years this relentlessly adventurous artist has created an eloquent and provocative body of work that resonates deeply in our visual culture.
For an overview of Sherman’s incredible oeuvre see Museum Of Modern Art’s dedicated site made at a major survey exhibition of her work in 2012.
This exhibition surveys Sherman’s career, from her early experiments as a student in Buffalo in the mid-1970s to a recent large-scale photographic mural, presented here for the first time in the United States. Included are some of the artist’s groundbreaking works—the complete “Untitled Film Stills” (1977–80) and centerfolds (1981), plus the celebrated history portraits (1988–90)—and examples from her most important series, from her fashion work of the early 1980s to the break-through sex pictures of 1992 to her monumental 2008 society portraits.
Some of her latest images using digital montages
Sherman works in series, and each of her bodies of work is self-contained and internally coherent; yet there are themes that have recurred throughout her career. The exhibition showcases the artist’s individual series and also presents works grouped thematically around such common threads as cinema and performance; horror and the grotesque; myth, carnival, and fairy tales; and gender and class identity.
Here is link to Shannon’s blog showing all her research, analysis, recordings, experimentation and evaluations
Watch her film below about feminism, her mother and her role in the family. This film was the starting point for her photographs above by re-staging herself as a domisticated female
Another site of influence to Clare Rae is Francesca Woodman. At the age of thirteen Francesca Woodman took her first self-portrait. From then, up until her untimely death in 1981, aged just 22, she produced an extraordinary body of work. Comprising some 800 photographs, Woodman’s oeuvre is acclaimed for its singularity of style and range of innovative techniques. From the beginning, her body was both the subject and object in her work.
The very first photograph taken by Woodman, Self-portrait at Thirteen, 1972, shows the artist sitting at the end of a sofa in an un-indentified space, wearing an oversized jumper and jeans, arm loosely hanging on the armrest, her face obscured by a curtain of hair and the foreground blurred by sudden movement, one hand holding a cable linked to the camera. In this first image the main characteristics at the core of Woodman’s short career are clearly visible, her focus on the relationship with her body as both the object of the gaze and the acting subject behind the camera.
Woodman tested the boundaries of bodily experience in her work and her work often suggests a sense of self-displacement. Often nude except for individual body parts covered with props, sometimes wearing vintage clothing, the artist is typically sited in empty or sparsely furnished, dilapidated rooms, characterised by rough surfaces, shattered mirrors and old furniture. In some images Woodman quite literally becomes one with her surroundings, with the contours of her form blurred by movement, or blending into the background, wallpaper or floor, revealing the lack of distinction of both – between figure and ground, self and world. In others she uses her physical body literally as a framework in which to create and alter her material identity. For instance, holding a sheet of glass against her flesh, squeezing her body parts against the glass and smashing her face, breasts, hips, buttocks and stomach onto the surface from various angles, Woodman distorts her physical features making them appear grotesque.
Through fragmenting her body by hiding behind furniture, using reflective surfaces such as mirrors to conceal herself, or by simply cropping the image, she dissects the human figure emphasising isolated body parts. In her photographs Woodman reveals the body simultaneously as insistently there, yet somehow absent. This game of presence and absence argues for a kind of work that values disappearance as its very condition.
Since 1986, Woodman’s work has been exhibited widely and has been the subject of extensive critical study in the United States and Europe. Woodman is often situated alongside her contemporaries of the late 1970s such as Ana Mendieta and Hannah Wilke, yet her work also foreshadows artists such as Cindy Sherman, Sarah Lucas, Nan Goldin and Karen Finley in their subsequent dialogues with the self and reinterpretations of the female body.
For those interested in exploring identities, stereotypes, gender, alter-egos through self-portraiture using varies techniques such slow shutters-speeds, use of dressing up, make-up, props, masks, locations (mine-en-scene) Often these images are questioning ideas around truth, fantasy or fiction an involve artists making images in both interior and exterior environments
3. Organise and carry out your photo-shoots !!! You MUST complete a minimum of 2 PHOTO-SHOOTS in readiness for the mock exam itself
Decide whether or not YOU will become a feature of your work…will you point the camera at yourself? (how important is self-portrait to “identity”?)
4. Show your experiments and outcomes as a response to chosen artists over the next few weeks…and begin to plan how to finalise and display your ideas.
Some suggestions for you to look at…
Carole Benitah…memories of childhood, loss and belonging
Jessa Fairbrother…mother and daughter relationship
Phillip Toledano…loss, death, memory, grief
Laia Abril…loss and memory, eating disorders and body image
Diana Markosian…cultural, geographical and political identity
Rita Puig Serra Da Costa…death, grief, loss and family identity
Yoshikatsu fuji…relationship breakdown
Nancy Borowick…relationships and support
Julian Germain… people as individuals vs community
The daily grind can be a test of endurance. In Tokyo Compression, Michael Wolf recorded the extreme discomfort of Japanese commuters pressed up against windows dripping with condensation on their journeys to and from work.
In Harlem Trolley Bus, Robert Frank showed the divisions within American society in the mid-20th century. Dryden Goodwin took pictures of exhausted travellers on London night buses and wove a protective cocoon of blood capillaries around them.
Connections with film making…
The idea for this project comes from Luke Fowler‘s series of half-frame photographs recently published in the book ‘Two-Frame Films‘. The project is intended to encourage students to concentrate on the editorial aspect of photography, the selection and juxtaposition of photographic images and how this might affect the ways in which a viewer engages with the work. Fowler is better known for his work in film but has used a half-frame camera as part of his practice. This work explores the relationship between two juxtaposed images. A half frame camera exposes two shots on each 35mm frame. A roll of 36 exposures therefore produces 72 images in pairs. The resulting diptychs are still images but reference the theory of montage, first articulated by Russian film makers in the 1920s, specifically Sergei Eisenstein
An example of two frames from Sergei Eisenstein’s film ‘Battleship Potemkin’, 1925
Making a Virtual Gallery in Photoshop
Download an empty gallery file…then insert your images and palce them on the walls. Adjust the persepctive, size and shape using CTRL T (free transform) You can also add things like a drop shadow to make the image look more realistic…
CONTROLLED CONDITIONS : Essentials
You will have 15 hours to complete this unit…focus on selecting and editing your final images / set of images
Remember to label each JPEG in the print folder with your name
Minimum 1 x file per A3, A4, A5
Ensure that your final images are a direct response to your chosen photographer (s) and show a clear visual link
Print size images = ADD YOUR a4, a3, a5 MEASUREMENT TO SHORT EDGE in Lightroom / Photoshop
BLOG SIZE images = 1000 pixels on SHORT EDGE
Always ensure you have enough evidence of…
moodboards (use influential images)
mindmap of ideas and links
case studies (artist references-show your knowledge and understanding)
A photomontage is a collage constructed from photographs.
Historically, the technique has been used to make political statements and gained popularity in the early 20th century (World War 1-World War 2)
Artists such as Raoul Haussman , Hannah Hoch, John Heartfield employed cut-n-paste techniques as a form of propaganda…as did Soviet artists like Aleksander Rodchenko and El Lissitsky
Photomontage has its roots in Dadaism…which is closely related to Surrrealism
Hannah Hoch – art as a form of protestRaoul Haussman
John Heartfield
Grete Stern
El Lissitsky
Aleksander Rodchenko
Pop Art developments (USA and UK 1950s-)
Photomontage was also used to great effect by various Pop Artists in the mid 20th Century
In her artist statement Montana based artist Sarah Eisenlohr explains that her collages use places of existence to create fictional ones in an effort to demonstrate the ways in which humans have transformed the earth. These scenes often carry undertones of spirituality and faith. “I consider the figures’ desire for shelter, warmth, and something stronger than themselves as symbols of serenity that I seek through spirituality, while the use of sublime in my work points to a relationship with the divine,”
Eugenia Loli
California based artist Eugenia Loli draws inspiration for her surreal art collages from vintage magazine images. Loli intends for her images to serve as a snap shot from a surreal movie from which the viewer can create his or her own narrative.
Task 1
Create a blog post that includes a clear understanding of the history and background of photo-montage.
Include a moodboard / mindmap
Add examples of Early – late 20th Century Photomontage eg Hannah Hoch
Task 2
Choose a specific photo-montage artist and write/create a CASE STUDY
This must include a detailed analysis of 1 x key image by the artist
Create a set of 3-5 photo-montages using a mixture of your own imagery and “found” imagery….(this could be archival imagery) either using Adobe Photoshop methods or traditional cut-n-paste methods
TAKE 100-200 NEW PHOTOS TO CREATE MATERIAL FOR YOUR EXPERIMENTS — based on STEREOTYPES
Show your process clearly…remember to add screen shots etc
Evaluate your process…describe and explain what you have done, why, how etc
KEY COMPONENTS AND DISTINGUISHING FEATURES of PHOTO-MONTAGE
A NARRATIVE, CONCEPT OR THEME (A MESSAGE OR A COMMENT)
ARCHIVAL / VINTAGE IMAGERY COMBINED WITH OWN IMAGERY
SUBVERSION OF MEANING—-POSTMODERNISM
SOURCE MATERIAL YOU CAN USE
NEWSPAPERS
MAGAZINES
ORIGINAL IMAGERY (from studio, tableau, other portraits etc)
INTERNET-SOURCED IMAGERY
BOOKS
TECHNIQUES
MANUAL CUT-N-PASTE (SCISSORS, SCALPEL AND GLUE)
PHOTOSHOP –
selection tools (to cut and move elements of images)
free transform (CTRL T)– to move, re-size and shape elements
layers and layer masks
opacity tool
blending options
distortion
proportion
scale
Ensure you have enough evidence of…
Mood-board, definition and introduction (AO1)
Mind-map of ideas (AO1)
Artist References / Case Study (must include image analysis) (AO1)
The Patent Diamond Cameo photograph was registered by F.R. Window of London in 1864. Four small oval portraits (1″ x 3/4“) were placed on a carte de visite in the shape of a diamond, each portrait being of the same person photographed in a different position. A special camera made by Dallmeyer was used in which the one glass negative was moved to a new position in the back of camera after each portrait had been taken, and when the paper print had been pasted on the card a special press was used to punch the four portraits up into a convex cameo shape.
In film photography, a double exposure is a combination of two exposures in one image to produce evocative results. In this easy-to-follow tutorial, learn how graphic artist Erica Larson uses Adobe Photoshop to combine two photos, creating a seamless double exposure effect. Some of the first double exposure photos emerged during the 1860s as another source of revenue for photographers. To give their business a boost, they discovered how to make a portrait subject appear twice in a frame, as if they had an identical twin. In each of the pictures, the person was striking a different pose.
Multiple exposure photography was one of the earliest instances of special effects in photos. It was an opportunity to create something that couldn’t be seen with the naked human eye. People today are accustomed to altered images, so that novelty has worn off. But double exposures still offer an opportunity to push your creative limits and craft unique and meaningful images
With digital photography and editing software, multiple exposures are easier to achieve. “You can execute a shot so much more effectively now than when you were trying to double expose in the camera,” experienced photographer Carli Davidson says, “especially with images that are taken at different times or in different spaces.”
While some digital cameras have double exposure settings, the settings and tools vary depending on the brand and may not be in older cameras at all. The flexibility of editing software is where photographers and artists can really push the creative limits of double exposures. Ingersoll notes that you can “take two digital photos and lay them on top of each other. Through blending modes, transparencies, and masking you can create a double exposed image.”
Advantages of double/ multi exposures include; they’re easy for beginners to produce and two or more images can be made into a piece of art. This means that colours can be blended and shapes can create new illusions in these pieces of work, showing that photograph is a great form or artwork.
Another good thing about these types of edits is that they can be made on Adobe Photoshoot, but can also be created on cameras, as they can be created by taking a series of photos that are automatically composed together, or alternatively can be created on the most modern models of iPhones.
Man Ray
Man Ray was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal. He produced major works in a variety of media but considered himself a painter above all. Soon after graduating from high school in 1908, Ray was offered a scholarship to study architecture but decided to pursue a career in arts. While his parents were unhappy with his decision, they supported his love for the arts. Ray stayed for 4 years working towards being a professional painter, while also earning some cash as a technical illustrator and commercial artist at various Manhattan companies.
Encouraged by Marcel Duchamp, Ray relocated to Paris in 1912, he spent the whole of his life in France. During his time in France, Ray continued to be part of artistic avant garde, coming into contact with renowned figure such as Gertrude Stein. Man Ray started working in several mediums including sculpture, painting, film, and photography. His earliest artistic works were relatively static, influenced mostly by cubism and expressionism.
Self portrait of Ray
While in France, he produced brilliant art works which are today known as Rayogrammes – images created on a piece of photographic paper without a camera; the subject is placed directly on a piece of paper, light is exposed then the image is produced. The shadow of the object is what produces the image, which emphasises the influence of the light and shadow instead of the importance of the picture itself.
In his final years, Ray continued his finest art works, with exhibits in London, New York, Paris and other popular cities before his death. He died in his studio in his beloved city of Paris on November 18, 1976. He was 86 years of age. His works can be found in a number of museums around the globe.
I like how Man Ray’s work relates to our work as he mostly uses 2 portraits blended together, or alternatively a portrait then a random image which links into the portrait. Furthermore, the middle image is significant as the use of portraits juxtaposing each other at opposite angles a difference between the two individuals.
In addition, the juxtaposition of black and white palms in the third photograph creates a difference between the two pictures, we can interpret that this could be to show expectations vs reality or other themes such as life vs death. Alternatively, the first image may be the merging or a portrait and objects that link to this lady, this helps inspire my work as I could incorporate this into my project.
Contact Sheets
My examples
To create my own multiple exposure pieces, we went into the studio to take portraits at different angles, we created a plan to use a variety of coloured sheets over the lights, meaning that if we kept the original images in colour, the multi-exposures would be a blend of colours, hoping to create more aesthetic work. In addition, initially I thought the idea of blending two image, one with someone looking to the left, and one image with the individual looking to the right, would create a cohesive piece.
Process– Below, I have created a gallery with my first attempts at some multiple exposure, using Photoshop and my images from the media drive, I overlapped my two selected images and turned down the opacity. The reveals the image underneath whilst dulling down the image on top, this creates a blended effect and therefore the multiple exposure edit. Additionally, cropping of the images after editing puts more focus onto the model and not the background.
I particularly like this image of Lottie, as the warm yellow tones that we created by using transparent coloured sheets with blue, orange, purple and green tones. This made for more exciting images to select from, as images with different coloured tones can be mixed together. Furthermore, the use of two images, from from the front and one from her left side means that her eyes get lost in the image and the whole thing is almost too blurry, meaning it could be interpreted as not a success.
In my opinion the most successful aspects of these images is the shadows that are created and juxtaposed with the use of the monochromatic setting that was put into place when we were originally taking the photos. Furthermore, I prefer the idea of only creating these edits with two images of the same person, as the facial featured are similar, and it can create the effect of two versions of the same individual.
I really like the multiple exposure effect, especially when working with models and portraits as it allows us to cover up certain “imperfections”. For example, if the lighting under the chin was the weak point of the image, this could be covered and blended with anther image to create the multi exposure effect. This also applies if models don’t like certain angles/ elements of the image or how they may look in our photos, these factors can be eliminated thought this type of editing.
Close-up photography refers to a tightly cropped shot that shows a subject (or object) up close and with significantly more detail than the human eye usually perceives.
Tips for creating a better close-up include using a higher aperture for a soft-focus, and using a zoom lens in order to really create that close-up effect, whilst keeping clarity. Also, a lot of photographers experiment with creative cropping techniques to create an extreme close-up effect. I plan to experiment with this in my editing after my photoshoot.
A mood board of up-close portraits
Satoshi Fujiwara
Satoshi Fujiwara
Satoshi Fujiwara is a Berlin-based artist and photographer. He initiates a pressing and critical action on the gazer, through the focal length set from portrayed subjects and the heterogeneous definition of his photographs, diverting from the standards of photo-journalism and an exclusively documentary dimension, thus producing a new emerging lexicon.
Mood board of Satoshi Fujiwara’s images
It was through a career in advertising, working as a graphic designer and planner, that Satoshi Fujiwara, born in Japan and now living in Berlin, became interested in how visual information and photographic images influence people and society, and how he could attempt to redefine photography to make cross-sectional inquiry within his artistic practice. Since 2015 his work has been exhibited internationally at institutions such as Fondazione Prada, Milan; La Boverie, Liege; 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, Tokyo; and Deutsche Oper, Berlin.
Satoshi’s Code Unknown series takes its cue from the film of the same title directed by Michael Haneke, whom Fujiwara admires. In this series, Fujiwara surreptitiously photographed subway passengers and limited the “codes” for reading the resulting images by framing and digitally processing them and making the subjects’ identities nearly illegible. Fujiwara’s bold series is also an attempt to resolve the contemporary photographic problem of “portrait rights.”
Satoshi’s work for Balenciaga
Satoshi Fujiwara’s work for Issey Miyake
He has also participated in several art and photography fairs, art festivals, and biennials such as Biennale de l’Image Possible, Liège; Photo London, London; Paris Photo, Paris; Unseen Photo Fair, Amsterdam. In parallel to those projects, the artist has also done several collaborations such as Issey Miyake and Deutsche Oper Berlin, as well as Balenciaga. Satoshi has also published several books, including: Code Unknown, published by IMA photobooks, 2015; 5K CONFINEMENT, Luigi Alberto Cippini, published by la Fondazione Prada, 2017; HORSES, Satoshi Fujiwara & Yngve Holen, published by Walther König, 2018.
This image is part of Satoshi’s Code Unkown collection. The light in this image is natural due to the photo being taken unknown to the subject. The light comes from the left, creating a brighter side of the subject’s face. On the right side of the subject’s face, there is a soft shadow, which creates gentle contrast in the image. This shadow bleeds over to the left eye, and slightly into the deep parts of the left side of the face. The subject’s white hair contrasts with the black background, which creates a natural focal point. The fact this image was taken without the subject knowing could have been done to show the real versions of people, without posing or editing. This concept creates an authentic image, which shows a sense of vulnerability. – this is seen throughout Satoshi’s “Code Unknown” series.
My up-close images – photoshoot plan
Genre
Location
Props
Lighting
Subjects
Shot types and modes on the camera
Identity – portraits
Studio
Camera, tripod, and lights
Artificial – flashlight
People – my friends
Extreme close-ups – manual focus, macro, and portrait mode
Contact sheets
After taking my pictures, I put them into lightroom classic. I created a collection titled Up Close for them to go in, then flagging by best and worst images using the P and X tool. I then refined my selection even more using colour coding for my final images. After this, I edited my images using lightroom Classic also. I wanted to keep my editing natural, in the style of my artist above.
In this shoot, we had a bit of trouble with lighting – we found that a lot of our images were under or over-exposed at first. After tweaking camera settings and moving lights, as well as turning them down and sometimes up.
One of my contact sheets – we had quite an orange lighting at first, but turning the temperature of the lights down and increasing their intensity helped this. I was experimenting with different zooms and models here too.
Another one of my contact sheets – using P and X to find my favourites, and removing those with over/underexposure. Also removing pictures with too high temperature or blurry images. We had an issue with blurriness at first, so we used a tripod to combat this as the photo shoot went on.
Best Images
Editing
For my editing, I used lightroom classic in develop mode.
A screenshot of my editing process
My final edit – I like how my use of cropping in this image makes the composition more abstract, focusing on an unusual angle that isn’t seen in my other images. My editing increased the brightness effectively I think, which was needed to help the initial underexposure.
Screenshot of my editing process
Final edit
I think this is my most successful edit – I cropped it a lot which added depth and more interest to the image. I love the way the light falls on the right of the subject’s face, with the left strongly highlighted. I think my edit was quite successful, which added needed brightness to the tones in the image, which was originally quite dark and underexposed.
Final edit
In this edit, I firstly cropped the image, then added contrast, highlights, and blacks into the image. Cropping the image created the more close-up effect I was looking for, and my editing techniques added depth.
Final edit
In this edit I wanted to keep it quite natural – I liked the shadow to the right and wanted to keep that. In my editing, I brightened the image by turning the exposure up, turning highlights up, and increasing clarity.
Final edit
Again in this image, I liked the shadow to the right – however, the image was a little dark, to begin with, so I brightened it and added saturation and grain to bring out the subject’s eyes.
Final edit
In this final edit, I wanted to increase light tones and highlight my subject’s hair and eyes. I did this by increasing whites, exposure, and highlights, and adding grain and a little saturation.
Overall, I think this shoot could be improved. I think our pictures are all quite similar which is quite difficult to edit, but with cropping, this was easier. – to combat this, in the future I will use different angles and move around my subject quicker when taking images to produce more varied images.
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