Oliver Doran had come to show us and teach us how to get the best lighting and angles for taking a portrait, he also showed us how to make the subjects feel comfortable by interacting with them before he took their portrait. Oliver demonstrated how to use 1,2 and 3 point lighting to create portraits that made the model look best, along with putting the images in black and white. Furthermore, he showed us how to angle models to suit their facial features and how light can create shapes on the face such as the butterfly effect, which is when shadows are created under the nose.
Rineke Dijkstra
Rineke Dijkstra is a contemporary Dutch photographer. Known for her single portraits, usually working in series, she often focuses on particular groups and communities of people, such as mothers, adolescent and teenage boys and girls, soldiers, etc., with an emphasis on capturing the vulnerable side of her subjects.
Dijkstra is particularly concerned with the representation of youth and the transition to adulthood. Her portraits bear witness to the social pressures made visible on the bodies and faces of her subjects. Dijkstra often works in series, building upon the accumulation of detail and careful attention to minute differences in pictures taken months or years apart
Dijkstra’s seminal series, Beach Portraits (1992–1994), is composed of life-sized colour photographs of young teenagers in bathing suits taken on both American and European beaches.
Dijkstra also did another series called Olivier (2000–03), which consists of seven formal portraits that follow a young man from the day he joins the French Foreign Legion to the day he graduates. Dijkstra had initially conceived the series to focus on a group of new recruits, but as they began to drop out of the project she decided to focus on Silva alone, who ‘stood out because he was so young and because the changes in him were so visible’
21st July, 2000
21st July, 2000
1st November, 2000
30th Novermber, 2000
18th June, 2001
2nd June, 2002
13th July, 2003
“With young people, everything is much more on the surface—all the emotions,” the artist observed. “When you get older you know how to hide things.”
Rineke Dijkstra has also been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, including “Rinkeke Dijkstra: A Retrospective,” which was shown at both the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2012. She currently lives and works in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Today, her works are held in the collections of the Tate Gallery in London, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Goetz Collection in Munich, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, among others.
In Rineke Dijkstra Oliver series which consisted of her following a young boy from the start of his journey in the French Foreign Legion to the day he graduates. In these 7 photos you can see how much he has changed and grown into his surroundings from 2000-2003. I like how she pictures him in his different uniforms showing the different parts of the job he would be having to do. In the 3rd photo it looks like he has either dirt or paint on his facing which could mean he has just come back from training giving the impression that they are not scheduled photos that he gets cleaned and dressed up for.
My Portraits
I have attempted to portraits after Oliver Doran had showed us how to used the correct lighting and angles so that we could get different shadows or no shadows at all. In the photos above I like how they have shadowing on the face but none on the background. I think it helps the viewer to focus more of the person and less on what’s around them. Also in all the images there are darker elements which contrast with the lighter background making the photos ‘pop’.
One-point lighting creates a very natural, sometimes dramatic look that will draw people’s attention to the single lighted person or surface. It is coming from one source and can be placed anywhere around the studio or camera. One-point lighting can also create harsh shadows if the angle is right which can completely cover one half of the face if that’s what the photographer wants.
Chiaroscuro– is an Italian term that refers to the intense contrast of light (chiar) and dark (oscuro) in art, famously used in the paintings of Rembrandt or Caravaggio to create a strong and dramatic mood. Chiaroscuro is also a good example of one-point lighting as it has harsh and intense shadowing.
For still life or food photography, it can be used to add shadow to make an object rise off the page, or side lighting to create a painterly effect. For landscape, it can create a sense of foreboding or danger. Use broken sunlight through clouds to add a sense of mystery or brooding. And for portraiture, it can add intrigue and mystery, enhance beauty, highlight and sculpt, or even add characteristics such as untrustworthiness.
My examples of one-point lighting
I have picked three of the portraits that show me using one-point lighting, as you can see in each photo they all have strong shadowing on one side of the face. I like that the shadowing covers the face but doesn’t completely block out all the features of the face. I also like how the dark black contrasts with the lighter background and with the highlighted sides of the faces.
Two-point lighting
Two-point lighting is when there are two sources of light that point directly towards each other and the subject is placed between the two. On plan, there is a straight line between light source 1, the subject and light source 2.
In two-point lighting, they use a fill light so that the shadows are behind the person and not to one side of them. Fill light is responsible for exposing the details of a subject that fall in the shadows of the key light and to fill in shadows around the subject.
My examples of two-point lighting
I have picked three of my portraits that show two-point lighting, in each of the images you can either see no shadow like the left phot or you can see a very soft and minimal shadow on one side of the background. This could have been due to the strength and brightness of the two different lights or the angle of the camera. I really like how two-point lighting highlights that whole face and shows all the features making and more captivating image.
High-key lighting
High key photography is a style of photography that uses unusually bright lighting to reduce or completely blow out dark shadows in the image. High key shots usually lack dark tones and the high key look is generally thought of as positive and upbeat. High-key lighting also reduces the lighting ratio in the scene, meaning there’s less contrast between the darker tones and the brighter areas.
High-key lighting is often used in commercials for food and beauty products. The brightly lit scenes often suggest an upbeat mood and positive message. This look can also imply truth and openness, making it effective for video interviews or training videos.
Portraiture is a very old art form going back at least to ancient Egypt, where it flourished from about 5,000 years ago. Before the invention of photography, a painted, sculpted, or drawn portrait was the only way to record the appearance of someone.
Portrait photography, or portraiture, is a type of photography aimed toward capturing the personality of a person or group of people by using effective lighting, backdrops and poses.
Julia Margaret Cameron
Julia Margaret Cameron was a British photographer who is considered one of the most important portraitists of the 19th century. She is known for her soft-focus close-ups of famous Victorian men and for illustrative images depicting characters from mythology, Christianity, and literature. She also produced sensitive portraits of women and children.
Cameron’s work was contentious in her own time. Critics lambasted her softly focused and unrefined images and considered her illustrative photographs amateurish and hammy. However, her portraits of respected men (such as Henry Taylor, Charles Darwin and Sir John Herschel) have been consistently praised, both in her own life and in reviews of her work since. Her images have been described as “extraordinarily powerful” and “wholly original”, and she has been credited with producing the first close-ups in the history of the medium.
Cameron’s compositions and use of light have been connected to Raphael, Rembrandt and Titian.
John Herschel, who relayed to Cameron the news of the inventions of photography by Talbot and Daguerre, was an important influence on technique and the practicalities of the medium, as indicated in a letter Cameron wrote to the astronomer, “You were my first teacher and to you, I owe all the first experience and insights.”
The most important photographer to influence Cameron’s work was David Wilkie Wynfield. Cameron’s style of close-up portraits resembling Titian may well have been learned from Wynfield since she took a lesson from him and later wrote “I consult him in correspondence whenever I am in difficulty”. The press compared their photographic work and noted the similarities in style and their consideration of the medium as fine art. She later wrote that “to my feeling about his beautiful photography I owed all my attempts and indeed consequently all my success”.
David Wilkie Wynfield
Julia Margaret Cameron
Oliver Doran
Oliver is a commercial, editorial and portrait photographer who often finds himself at a crossroads of cinematic and theatrical explorations of human conditions, as he photographs some of the most recognisable faces on the planet.
Oliver creates vibrant, cinematic images using both flash, natural light and a mixture of both. He is comfortable in and out of the studio with complex lighting setups as well as working with ambient light in any location; day or night.
Celebrating personality and amplifying uniqueness while always striving to be real and relatable is Oliver’s calling card. Being a strong advocate of organic creativity, he has quite the reputation for his skilful use of light and mood to create striking visual breakthroughs that also strike the right chords and achieve diverse briefs and business goals.
Exploring Technique/Lighting
Natural Light: In most cases, we can make use ofnatural or available light but we must be aware of different kinds of natural light and learn how to exploit it thoughtfully and creatively. Natural light photography uses the sun as a light source. The available light from the sun varies with the time of day, shortly after sunrise and before sunset is known as ‘golden hour’ due to the warm light which is different from the sun at midday which is a harsh light. While using natural light we have to think about different things such as the intensity and direction of the light or if we need to use a reflector (silver or gold). There’s also the temperature of the light and if we have to change the white balance on the camera.
High key and low key lighting can also be used, high key lighting is when the photo is overexposed, low contrast, shadowless, ambient and soft, whereas low key lighting is high contrast, dark, harsh and direct.
Studio Lighting: It is essential to most photographers and helps them create natural lighting effects in many situations. There are also many different types of studio lighting with many different accessories to help photographers get the perfect shot. For example strobe and continuous lighting, strobe lighting is more commonly known as flash lighting, as the light will ‘flash’ each time the camera is fired, and then recycle its power and continuous lighting is light that’s on all the time, so it doesn’t flash.
Using Flash: Flash units offer a range of possibilities in both low and high lighting scenarios, for example, flash bouncing fill-in flash, speedlight flash, etc. A major purpose of a flash is to illuminate a dark scene. Other uses are capturing quickly moving objects or changing the quality of light. In many professional studios, they will have big flash units that are synchronized with the camera.
Why do we use studio lighting?
Studio lighting is essential to photographers, it helps them create different types of lighting and lets them move shadows to where ever they would like.
Studio Lighting
I have chosen three of my portraits which were taken in the studio with different lighting, for example 1 and 2 point lighting. The first photo on the left and the last photo is an example on 1 point lighting and you can see this by the shadowing on their faces, where as the photo in the middle is an example of 2 point lighting which is where 2 lights were used while taking the photo.
I have picked this photo of Noel Flood from my environmental portraits to be one of my final images because I think it shows what he does and what type of place he worked in. I have turned this photo to black and white because I wanted Noel to be the main focus and I thought that the powerful colours of the bottles behind him would take that away. I like the harsher and darker blacks in it and how the brighter whites contrast with them, I also like how you can see all the bottles in the background with noel still being in the centre of the photo.
This is one of my environmental portraits of the owner of the Quayside cafe down by the harbour. I like how the background has a yellow tint which contrasts nicely with the blue in the foreground from the reflection on the screen. I also like how you can see many of the products that they sell on the shelves behind her. The lady is also in the middle of the image so it makes her the main focal point even though there are many other elements to the photo.
This is one of my still life images and I have chosen it to be one of my final images because I think that it is eyecatching and has nice shadowing behind the objects. I also think the bright white sits nicely on top of the darker metal of the candle holder. I wanted the shadows and the reflection to be prominent without taking away from the main object, so I haven’t made the shadows too dark, as well as cut off most of the reflection beneath the objects.
This is one of my experimentations, I have put together my coloured image of the white bottle and the candle holder and the three yoghurt pots stacked on top of each other. I did this photoshop and like how they look together, I also like how they lined up together to make it look like one object altogether.
I have picked this from my Hamptonne objects because I like how it shows how people use to live and what they used or wore. I also like how the hat has vibrant reds next to two darker objects because it allows the hat to be the focus of the image but it still doesn’t take all of the attention away from the lantern or the knitted bag. The darker brown in the wooden hangers also contrasts nicely with the bolder reds as well as the greys and greens in the other objects.
This is another one of my Hamptonne objects and I have chosen this to be one of my final images because I like how it is a bright photo with no dark tones, I also really like how both the brown in the shoes and the wood complement the creamy white of the wall. In the is the image you can also see the ageing of the floorboards which tells the story of those who used to live there.
I have chosen this to be a part of my final images because I like how the foreground is blurry and highlights the different antique plates and tea sets. While editing I wanted to give it a more vintage feel to the photo so the blues and red on the plates and teacups are less bright but are still the main focus of the photo. Also, I like how the gold of the cadel holder is shiny and highlighted which is a big difference from the dull and worn out lock on the cabinet.
This is one of my portraits from Hamptonne and I have chosen it to be one of my final images because I think that it has good lighting which shows the Goodwyfs features and what she would have worn during that time. I like how that she isn’t looked into the camera because it draws our attention to her surroundings and the shadows that are created from the window in front of her.
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).
Photomontage was also used to great effect by various Pop Artists in the mid 20th Century Pop art was a reaction to abstract expressionism and was similar to DADA in some ways. Many Pop Art images and constructions tackled popular consumerism, advertising, branding and marketing techniques. Pop art also explored political concerns such as war, and gender roles too
John Stezaker
John Stezaker is a contemporary British Conceptual artist best known for his collages of found images taken from postcards, film stills, and commercial photographs. Stezaker’s work resembles early-Surrealist and Dada collages made by artists like Kurt Schwitters, Hannah Hoch and Man Rey
John Stezaker Untitled XXII, 2007
Art historian Julian Stallabrass said, “The contrast at the heart of these works [by Stezaker] is not between represented and real, but between the unknowing primitives of popular culture, and the conscious, ironic artist and viewer of post-modern images.” Through Stezaker’s elegant juxtapositions, he adopts the content and contexts of the original images to convey his own witty and poignant meanings
John Stezaker Marriage IV, 2006
“My ideal is to do very little to the images, maybe just one cut: the smallest change or the most minimal mutilation,” he stated of his work. “What I do is destructive, but also an act of deliberate passivity.”
In his Marriage series, Stezaker focuses on the concept of portraiture, both as art historical genre and public identity. Using publicity shots of classic film stars, Stezaker splices and overlaps famous faces, creating hybrid ‘icons’ that dissociate the familiar to create sensations of the uncanny. Coupling male and female identity into unified characters, Stezaker points to a disjointed harmony, where the irreconciliation of difference both complements and detracts from the whole. Using stylistic images from Hollywood’s golden era, Stezaker both temporally and conceptually engages with his interest in Surrealism. Placed in a contemporary context, his portraits retain their aura of glamour, whilst simultaneously operating as exotic ‘artefacts’ of an obsolete culture. Similar to the photos of ‘primitivism’ published in George Bataille’s Documents, Stezaker’s portraits celebrate the grotesque, rendering the romance with modernism equally compelling and perverse.
Handmade Experiments
These are some of the photomontages that I made by cutting out different pieces from my Hamptonne portraits or still life objects and placing them together.
In the top right I have places a cut out of a violin and another cut out of a hat on top of one of my portraits from Hamptonne. Having the different shapes helps frame her face and bring the attention to the portrait. In the bottom photo I have used a cut out of the good wife and a quote from another photo I took at Hamptonne. I have placed these onto one of the courtyard’s. I like how you can see the texture of ripping the paper instead of cutting it, it gives the montage a more rustic look.
In this montage i have used two portraits of the good wife and placed them onto a background with apples and leaves, the green in them standout because there’s not as many bright colours. I like how you can see two different views of the goodwife and with different poses and lighting.
Photoshop Experiments
We have also done different experiments in photoshop this allowed me to have more freedom and be more creative with what I chose to do. The middle photo I did a Walker Evans inspired edited, which is where I have halved to different images and put them together. On the right I have used one of my photos from Hamptonne as a background and but black dots around the shoes to make it look like the photo has been hole punched.
Throughout its long history, still life has taken many forms, from the decorative frescoes of antiquity to the high art of the Renaissance. Traditionally, a still life is a collection of inanimate objects arranged as the subject of a composition. Nowadays, a still life can be anything from your latest Instagram latte art to a vase of tulips styled like a Dutch Golden Age painting.
Walker Evans
“The Beauty of the Common Tool”
Walker Evans was an American photographer best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting workers and architecture in the South-eastern states. In 1936 he travelled with the writer James Agee to illustrate an article on tenant farm families for Fortune magazine; the book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men came out of this collaboration.
Walker Evans took up photography in 1928 around the time he was living in Ossining, New York. He was mainly influenced by Eugene Atget and August Sander. Atget was French photography who was known for being a pioneer of documentary photography, even though most of his work was published after his death he was still an inspiration to many photographers. Sander was a German portrait and documentary photographer
Darren Harvey-Regan
In 1955, Fortune magazine published, ‘Beauties of the Common Tool’, a portfolio by Walker Evans featuring pictures of ordinary hand-made tools, such as a ratchet wrench and a pair of scissors. After seeing this Harvey-Regan constructed a montage of Evans’s images to make new forms. He sourced matching tools, cut them in half and re-joined various halves together, with the resulting physical objects being photographed to create his final work. The montaged tools become both beautiful and bizarre objects, in which a ratchet wrench is combined with a pair of pliers and Mason’s trowel joined with a pair of scissors.
“It’s a means of transposing material into other material, adding new meaning or thoughts in the process. I think photographing materials is a way to consider the means of creating meaning, and it’s a tactile process with which I feel involved. Touching and moving and making is my engagement with the world and my art”.
“The Beauty of the Common Tool”
Walker Evans influenced Darren Harvey-Regan after he saw Evans portfolio in Fortune magazine. Harvey-Regan took inspiration from Evans and made mortgages of his simple tools. Most of Darren’s photos had white or light grey backgrounds which contrasted with the rusted dark greys of the tools, whereas Walker had a range of dark and light backgrounds in his work, the darker backgrounds could have been used in some of the tools had more of a shine to them that others so that a harsh white background didn’t clash.
Both Walker Evans and Darren Harvey-Regan photographed their tools with little to no shadows, this allows views to have all their focus on the tools and nothing distracting in the background.
Studio Work
We had gone into the studio to take photos of different Jersey heritage items and some from Hamptonne. We had one station that had a camera that was positioned at the birds-eye view, another with a plain white background and one with a pink a yellow background. While at each station we adjusted the ISO and shutter speed so that we could get different lighting, we also would change if the main light was on or off while in the studio. We would also change our spotlights, we would turn one of them off so that we could get a more proponent shadow.
Editing
These are some of the photos from the studio in contact sheets, we took photos of different items with different lighting so that we could figure out what would look best on each of the stations. The photos with the plain white background with blue/greyish tint whereas the one with the birds-eye view had a more yellow tint to them. The photos with the yellow and pink background came out more dull than the other two and with no bright colours. The white background photos came out looking more sophisticated and aesthetic than the others because the lighting was better and the background didn’t distract or take away from the objects. If the camera angle was right you could see the reflection of the objects which made it more interesting and it seemed like it was on the water.
The photo below had a blue tint before editing due to ISO, we changed it so we could see the different effects it had on the photos. Some came out more blue and purple while others came out with a yellow tint. In the photo underneath I have decreased the exposure and contrast as well as increased the highlights and shadows. I wanted the chipped paint and rusted metal on the box to be bolder so I also increased the texture.
In this second photo, I have changed it to black and white as I thought the objects would look better than if they were in colour, I think the really bright white sits nicely on top of the darker metal. I wanted the shadows to be prominent so I increased the shadows and increased the contest so that the hey would be darker against the light grey background.
Final Photos
Below I have put six of my final images as I think that they all are aesthetic and is cohesive, the editing also compliments the objects in each photo. In the top right photo, I like the dark pink tint that the photo has, I also really like how the white bottle and the two boxes are framed with the metal box behind it. I also really like how you can see the different textures of the metal box and the different shadings from the positioning of the box. In the bottom left photo, I like how the darker violin contrasts with the lighter background which makes it pop and stand out. Another thing that stands out is the marks on the violin, due to the different shading in the wood gives the photo a more rustic look.
An environmental portrait is taken of someone who is in their natural environments such as their workplace or home. It could also be in an environment that they are associated with like a sport or another hobby. A good environmental portrait tells the story of the person and the surroundings will show their personality through the photo.
Mood-Board
Arnold Newman
Newman was an American photographer who was well known for his ‘environmental portraits’ of artists and politicians. He is often credited for being the photographer who articulated and consistently used the genre of environmental portraiture. Arnold Newman normally captured his subjects in their most familiar surroundings with representative visual elements showing their professions and personalities.
“I didn’t just want to make a photograph with some things in the background,” Newman told American Photo magazine in an interview. “The surroundings had to add to the composition and the understanding of the person. No matter who the subject was, it had to be an interesting photograph. Just to simply do a portrait of a famous person doesn’t mean a thing.”
Agnes de Mille, dancer and choreographer. New York, 1955.
“There are many things that are very false about photography when it is accepted without question,” he once explained. “You must recognize and interpret it as you would any other art form, and then maybe it is a little more than real.”
One of the things I like about Arnold Newman’s work was that he was able to capture peoples personalities in his photos even without them being in colour. I also like that his work is minimalistic with only photographing the key objects which show who the person is. For example, Agnes de Mille, who was a dancer and choreographer in the 40s and 50s, Newman photographed her in one of the dance studios which she might have taught at and Igor Stravinsky who was a composer, Newman photographed him next to his grand piano and a plain white background so that the harsh black can stand out against it.
Igor Stravinsky, composer. New York, 1946.
Newman was best known for his black and white portraits but he often used colour, one of his most signature images in black and white was of Igor Stravinsky who was a composer in New York sat next to a grand piano.
Some of Newman’s well-known subjects include Max Ernst, Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe, Marilyn Monroe, Alfried Krupp, Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau. Newman published many of his portraits in magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar, Time, Look, and Life.
Max Ernst, painter. New York, 1942.
Arnold Newman photographed a lot of celebrities from different industries such as Max Ernst, Piet Mondrian, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Francis Bacon and David Hockney. Some of the people he got to photograph only allowed very few artists to do so, for example, Henri Cartier-Bresson was another photographer known for being camera shy.
Plan
1st Photoshoot (Outside)- I will ask a family friend who is a dog walker, I will try and get a photo with both her and some of the dogs that she works with.
2nd Photoshoot (Inside)- I am going to a family friends bar and will try and get so photos of them standing behind the bar and getting portraits of the waist up.
3rd Photoshoot – Because I wasn’t able to photograph two or more people I have chosen to photograph one of the workers at a food truck down by the harbour. I would like to get photos of them behind the counter, having them in front of their drinks or some food.
Homework
Contact Sheets:
These are the contact sheets from my three different photoshoots, in these, I have got different lighting, shading and angles of the different subjects. I have chosen to do a dog walker, pub owner and food truck worker. These show a range of different occupations and working environments which has made me have to adapt to different scenarios when taking pictures.
1st photoshoot
2nd photoshoot
3rd photoshoot
1st Photoshoot
For my first photo shoot, I chose to do Vanessa Heath who is a dog walker, I have photographed her on a rock on St Clements because it is the main place she walks the dogs. I have tried to have the dogs sitting around her in order to make her the main object of the image. In most of the photos, only one or two dogs were looking towards the camera and it was hard to try and keep them sitting down but I think it gives a better representation of her job and gives the photo a more fun and relaxed environment. I had photographed Vanessa in the morning around 11 o’clock, but it was a cloudy day so the images came out darker and duller.
Editing:
I have edited my photos in Adobe Lightroom, I have increased the exposure and contrast I’m most of my photos so that Vanessa and the dogs can be seen more clearly, it also helped that background look less dull and gloomy.
In the top photo, I have only increased the exposure and contrast slightly, for this photo I wanted the blacks of the rocks to be harsh and the grey/white sky to be brighter, I decreased the highlights and increased whites to get this effect.
In this edit, I increased the exposure and decreased the contrast, as well as tweaking the highlights and temperature. This brightened the image and corrected the slight underexposure in the image.
Final Images:
I have chosen these as my final photos because I feel these each have qualities that show Vanessa working environment. Each of these photos also has the best compositions as Vanessa is sitting in or near the middle which allows the focus to be mainly on her and the dogs. The top left photo is not as saturated and is more washed out than the others which it didn’t find as aesthetic. The bottom photo is my favourite out of the four because I think is the most vibrant and saturated which I like, it also represents the fun environment that you can see in the photo. I also really like how the blues and purples in Vanessa clothes stand out against the grey rocks and the beige sand. Even though the dogs are not looking at the camera and running around it gives the photo life and excitement but also shows the busy atmosphere that comes with being a dog walker.
2nd Photoshoot
For my second photoshoot, I decide to do one of my Dads friends, Noel Flood, he is the owner of the troubadour in St Helier. I have photographed Noel behind the bar so that you can see all the bottles and the beer pumps which are all key parts of his job. I like how in the coloured photos that the bottles behind Noel are bright and eye-catching even though they are in the background.
Editing:
Most of my photos were very dark due to the lighting in the bar so in those photos I have increased exposure and decreased the contrast so that Noel can be seen more clearly. I have also slightly increased the saturation so that the colours are bolder and stand out against that darker green on the shelves.
In the photo above I have had to adjust the texture and clarity because it had come out grainy after moving around the photo. I have also slightly increased the tint which is also helping the colours to become brighter.
In this edit, I have turned it black and white as well as increased exposure, whites and shadows. I have also decreased the highlights so that some parts of the photo comes out darker.
Final Images:
I have chosen these as my final images because each of them have Noel standing in the middle making him the main focal point. Also in all the photos except the top left and bottom right, Noel is looking into the camera which is also helping him be the main focus. Even though in the two other photos Noel isn’t looking at the camera they are still captivating, it also makes the photo stand out more because they are slightly different to the other photos I have taken. I have turned the two of the bottom black and white, with the bottom right being of my favourites, I really like the harsher and darker blacks in it and how the brighter whites contrast with them. In the coloured photos the I like the dim lighting because it is not as harsh and gives off a glowy look around the bar.
3rd Photoshoot
For my third photoshoot, I chose to do the owner of Quayside cafe down by the harbour. I have taken two sets of photos one with the lady standing behind the screen and one with the camera inside the kiosk so that there is no screen blocking the lady’s face. I like how the screens give off a neon effect due to the blue tint and the ‘pizza’ sign just above the lady. I also like the photos without the screen because you can get a better view inside the kiosk and shows a bigger picture of the owners everyday working environment.
Editing:
One of the main issues with this shoot was caused by covid, most places now have screens protecting both the customer and the worker. In the photos with the screen, it was difficult to see that lady’s face due to the lighting and reflection so in most of them I have decreased exposure and increased contrast to make it clearer.
In the top photo, I have also decreased highlights and increased whites, this editing has given the final edit a neon look. I really like how it brings more colour to the photo as well as makes the owners face easier to see.
In the photo above I have changed the photo to black and white, I have increased the contrast slightly to make the photo darker, I have also decreased the highlights, shadows and blacks. I wanted this edit of black and white to be darker and have the blacks stand out more than the lighter shades.
Final Images:
I have selected these as my final images because they show the owner and her day to day working environment clearly. They also have the lady standing in the middle which is making her the main focal point. In the coloured photos, I like that they all have a blue tint which is interesting to look at and is eye-catching. I also like how two of the screen photos has a yellow tint to the background which contrast nicely with the blue in the foreground. In the two black and white photos you have a better view of the inside of the kiosk and there is no reflection which was interfering with the view of the lady. I think that the landscape photo is better because it has less black space at the bottom of the photo and gives a wider look at the environment. Another thing that I like about the black and white photos is how the harsher and more prominent black of the apron sits nicely on top of the grey hoodie.
During our visit to Hamptonne we got the chance to explore around the farm to look at all the buildings and the animals that they kept. There are a range of photos from around that farm like the apple orchard and cider house. It was interesting to walk around and photography different parts of nature and wildlife.
Editing
I have edited my photos in Lightroom and I have split the screen so that I can see the before and aft6er of my photos which helps to edit and adjust them. It allows me to see if I should decrease the exposure of change the contrast levels. In some of my edits I have made the photo darker to give them a more rustic look. Some of the exterior photos were to bright so I have lowered the exposure so that the houses can be seen more clearly.
Final Photos
I have chosen these as my final photos because they each show apart of Hamptonne and its history. I have tried to make each of the photos have a vintage and rustic look to them, I have also had to lower the exposure because they had come out too bright due to the sun. My favourite photo would be the first one because the warmer tones of the wood stand out more due to the sun hitting it.
At Hamptonne we got the chance to explore around the different farm houses that people would have lived in. They had been set up with the different items that people in that time would have used. For example their were shoes and hats at the front door and the table had food on it ready for the people to eat.
Editing
For my edits I have turned some of my photos black and white and I have kept some in colour but have increased the saturation or exposure to make them brighter and to give it a more vintage look. I have also made the black in some of my images more bold so that contrasts to some of the dull backgrounds.
Final Objects
I have picked these as my final photos because they each capture different aspects of the houses, how people use to live and what they used or wore. I like how the first image has vibrant reds next to two darker objects because it allows the hat to be the focus of the image but it still doesn’t take all of the attention away from the lantern or the knitted bag. I also like the fourth photo because the bold blacks sit nicely on top of the lighter grey tones from the book.
While at Hamptonne we got to photograph the Living History characters, which included the Goodwyf and the Wool Spinners. We aske the characters to move around and hold different objects so that we could get a wider range of photos. We also got the chance to work with Tom Kennedy, who help us to get different lighting throughout the shoot.
Editing
I have edited my favourite portraits in Lightroom and because most of them were taken inside and at at different angles toward the light, so were darker so I had to adjust the exposure so that Goodwyfs face can be seen more clearly. I have also changed that contrast in my portraits to make them brighter and seem like they were taken in a space with more lighting.
Final Portraits
I have picked these as my final portraits because I think that they have good lighting which shows the Goodwyfs features and what they would have wore during that time. In Lightroom, I have edited a couple so that they are in black and white and have adjusted different settings so that they photo can be seen more clearly. My favourite photo would be the first one when the Goodwyf is looking into the distance away from the camera, they light is on the front of her but it also hits some of the objects hanging from the ceiling.
