Butterfly lighting, also known as paramount or glamour lighting, is a common type of lighting used in a studio for portraits. It is called butterfly lighting because of the shadow that forms on the nose looks like a butterflies wings. The lighting comes from above the camera.

Butterfly lighting is was to photograph classic Hollywood stars. It highlights cheekbones and neck and creates shadows below them which makes the model look thinner.

You can use flash light connected to the camera or you can use a continuous light. It can be natural or artificial, soft or hard it depends on the result you would like.

You can also use reflectors to bounce the light back up and soften the shadows.

This is a photoshoot I did in school based around environmental portraits. Then, I edited them in Lightroom.

An environmental portrait is portrait of an individual or individuals that captures them in their natural surroundings/ work environment rather than a studio or artificial set up. An environmental portrait can reveal a lot about a person and can equally conceal. I think an environmental portrait can send a message to the audience about the subjects story as they come across quite cinematic and raw.

Analysis

This is a digital photograph by Arnold Newman in 1963. The mise en scene presents Alfred Krupp in Essen, Germany. He is a German Jew surrounded by an industrial setting; pillars, trains, vehicle parts, tracks, metal.

The lighting appears to be natural in the background, coming through windows and holes in the structure. However, in the foreground, the lighting on the man appears artificial. This is interesting as the man himself is the only natural thing in the image apart from the sunlight. This can convey ideas of factories overloading the world with unnecessary products, controlled by humans.

The aperture is around f/4 as the foreground is crisp and in focus however the background is blurred. The shutter speed is fast. The ISO seems to be very high and the textures of the foreground are very crisp.

In the background, the colours are simple and subdued, however, in the foreground, the colours of the man are harsh and contrasting. This presents the man as important, however the shadows around him and on his face also present him as sinister.

The image follows the rule of thirds very well as shown:

The rule is accentuated by his hand placement and the pillars. The pillars create a frame within a frame effect which is very clever.

Personally, I don’t like this image, it seems sinister and evil. However, it is very well framed and interesting photo of the subject. I would like to recreate some photos like this, using a frame within a frame effect.

plan

I am going to take photos at the market of the workers such as fruit shop, cake shop ,the chocolate shop, the flower shops

I will go take photographs in my frees today

David Hockney

About David Hockney

David Hockney was born in Bradford, United Kingdom on July 9th in 1937. Hockney was preoccupied with art from a young age and attended Bradford College of Art from 1953-1957. Following this, he attended the Royal College of Art London 1959-1962, where he achieved a gold medal in the graduate competition.

Hockney is an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s and is considered one of the most influential British artist of the 20th century. Hockney, although a talented photographer, is most famous for his paintings, here are some examples:

He has won many impressive awards such as the Independent Publisher Book Award for Fine Art and the Shakespeare Prize.

His work has sold for millions at auction, for example, his 1972 piece Pool with Two Figures sold at auction for over £70 million in 2018.

This is an upcoming David Hockney exhibit at the Lightroom in Kings Cross from the 22nd of Feb to the 4th of June. There will be an incredible sound system and it allows the audience to experience the world through Hockney’s eyes.

Analysis

This is a collage of digital photographs by David Hockney of Pearl Blossom Highway in 1986. The mise en scene presents a road with several road signs, rubbish on the floor and surrounded by a barren desert, the sky is a serene blue. This image has been created by hundreds of separate images that have been collaged together. The image seems very saturated and warm. There are some wide images and some close up, but all are in focus. The shutter speed is very fast due to the crisp images. It does follow the rule of thirds however, there are many leading lines that lead us to the end of the road, as shown.

David Hockney states: “The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent.”

Opinions

Personally, I really like Hockney’s photography, it is so interesting and creative. I especially like all the vibrant colour he uses. I would love to recreate some of these images possibly in town. I think it would look great around the aqua splash and cinema with the water slides.

It also could look good in liberation square.

This is Le Gray’s most dramatic of his seascape photos. It combines his technical skills with the incredible seascape and mysterious prison-like building. At the horizon, the clouds are cut off, this points out the join between two negatives.

Many photographer found it difficult to photograph good exposure for the sky and the sea in a photograph as it is often seen as over exposed. Le Gray merged these two photos one of the sea and one of the sky and combined them onto one sheet.

This incredible collage consists of staged landscapes made of colour negatives shot at different locations.

Questions

Both could be described as landscape pictures. What kinds of landscapes do they describe?

The Dafna Talmor one appears to be more serene and beautiful. The collages allude to an imaginary place, which is an idealised view of the sea as there are many dangers and problems there

The Gustave Le Gray one looks like a cloudy and negative seascape. The building in the middle of the sea looks prison-like as it is surrounded by nothing but sea. This enforces negative views of the ocean as it looks violent and dangerous.

What similarities do you notice about these two pictures?

They are similar in the sense that they are both seascapes and show the seas incredible textures. Both images are more than one photo combined.

What differences do you notice?

I notice that the Dafna Talmor is more of a collage, it is obvious that the image she has put together is more than one at different times of day or different area of the sea. However with the other it looks like the same image, the weather seems very over exaggerated it almost looks burnt between images to distinguish between them.

Also, I notice that Le Gray’s photo is monochrome and Dafna Talmors is in vibrant colour.

What words/phrases best describe each of these landscapes?

The Great Wave- dangerous, gloomy, lonely

Constructed Landscapes II- vibrant, serene, enticing

For my idea, I am going to combine new topography with Anthropocene. On Sunday, I am planning to go around the island taking new topographic style photos of man-made structures and I will collect the rubbish around it. I am planning to go to St. Ouens bay, Town.

My Ideas are to take some far back photos of buildings but also some close-ups of things such as the metal showers at the beach and metal fences.

Following taking the photos, I am going to edit them in Lightroom and put them into monochrome. Next, I have 2 ideas of what I could do with the rubbish:

Idea 1: I could take photos of the rubbish I have collected and arrange it in the style of Mandy Barker and take photos of it.

The contrast of the vibrant rubbish to the monochrome new topographic photos could look great.

Idea 2: I could, mount the new topographic photography and below it, possibly on paper or drift wood or something I can arrange and put the rubbish below the photo to give the piece a 3D element.

Photoshoot Plan

Contact Sheet: Town

Personally, I am not sure these photos are right for my final piece exam. Although it did help me decide and organise my final piece to help me see what I was looking for.

Contact Sheet: El Tico

I really like how this photoshoot has turned out and it will be perfect for my Anthropocene edits.

Refining Ideas

I really like the ideas of doing a compilation of several images onto an A3 sheet. I will use the man made structures and rubbish and edit them. Then I will cut them into circles to make a few A3 sheets.

My edits on light room

My editing process

Example:

The final result

Comparison to Angie McMonigal

Evaluation and Critique

The lighting I used was natural as my photos were taken outside. I have used monochrome colours to really accentuate the contrast between the black and white. The images have a wide depth of field as most of the image is in focus and a fast shutter speed. The circular shape creates the idea of the idea of the damage humans have done and how the infinitive shape creates how long it would take to clear up and fix.

To conclude , I really like how my final edits have turned out. It gives the Anthropocene ambience which I was trying to do. The dull colours support this. I made sure to take my photos at around 3 o’clock when the sun started to go down and the dense clouds engulfed the sun, which symbolise burden and obstacle; the obstacle being climate change and littering.

Next time, I would like to use a variety of locations to take my images as a lot of these are very simple and more new topography style rather than Anthropocene. I would like to focus more on objects with interesting textures such as the surfboards and wheels rather than the buildings. I would photograph things such as ropes and buoys. Also I would have liked to have made a bigger image on A2 paper, however that is not currently available.

Virtual Gallery

Gif

This is a gif I made on ezgif.

What does Anthropocene mean? Anthropocene is the current world period, seen as the period where human activity has affected the climate and environment.

Anthropocene photography is the idea of capturing how humans have affecting the natural environment, often for the worse. This style has become prominent with the current climate crisis.

With climate change and excess waste, the green house gasses emitted damages the ozone layer which means less heat goes into space and heats up the earth.

This therefore, destroys causes more extreme weather and also causes icebergs to collapse. Due to this, water levels in countries are rising, leaving many people homeless.

Not only has the sea levels risen but it has also caused more frequent and violent wildfires. Not only does this displace people from their homes, it destroys animals habitats and kills.

In addition, the over fishing crisis and the increase in temperature in the world has caused Earths oceans to heat, causing coral to die. Corals support 25% of sea life.

Not only is the pollution harmful to the environment, it is also severely damaging to peoples health. There is significant evidence showing that air pollution contributes to cancers such as lung cancer. In 2010 there were 223,000 lung cancer deaths linked to air pollution.

Excess waste and plastics are flooding the earth currently. Plastics can take 20 to 500 years to break down. Therefore the excess waste of mostly single use plastics such as plastic bags and water bottles are everywhere, in our oceans, in animal habitats and in dumping grounds.

Anthropocene photography is not to be admired, it is to raise awareness of the damage we as humans have created to the previous near perfect earth. It is made to shock and to create a reality of how much damage we has humans have done to the earth and how we need to stop before it is too late.

Vilde Rolfsen

Vilde Rolfsen is a photographer born in Oslo, Norway. She attended Kingston University with a first degree Bachelor in Fine Art Photography and currently attends Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Rolfsen uses plastic bags and different lighting to produce these beautiful images. She does this to raise awareness about single-use plastics and throwaway culture. She was very successful in these photographs and sells prints on her website from £8000-£65000.

Analysis

This is a digital photograph by Vilde Rolfsen taken with a Canon eos D60 camera. The mise en scene presents an abstract photograph it presents a plastic bag and the interesting patterns of it using different lighting. It almost looks like a flowers petals of a rose. Rose petals love which sparks joy to the audience. There is a wide depth of field as most of the photograph is in focus, it shows the crisp patterns of the bag, the random patterns are similar to rock formations. The image feels like it is descending, which creates the idea of a alien void which we as the audience are exploring through this photograph. The edges are blurred which leads me to believe it has an f/stop of around f/11. The shutter speed is very fast due to the crisp image. It does not follow the rule of thirds however, there are many leading lines that lead us to the centre, as shown, further accentuating the void.

Vilde Rolfsen states

“I’ve had people come up to me and say: “I’ve seen your work and I’ll never look at a plastic bag the same way again.” I want people to stop and think about the plastic cups lying around and blowing away. No one cares, because it’s normal. I don’t want to make this political statement with my images, I just want to create awareness around the issue, making people aware of it. Using a plastic bag is so stupid when you can just bring your own or use a backpack, it’s so simple.”

Opinions

Personally, I really like these images by Vilde Rolfsen and I have studied them in the past. I think the story behind them is interesting, powerful and communicates this message really well. I am going to recreate these images using a plastic bag and different coloured lighting.

Mandy Barker

Mandy Barker, born in 1964, is a British artist who is renowned for her photographs marine debris. Barker graduated from De Montfort University in England with a masters degree in photography. She works with scientists to raise awareness of the vast amount of plastic in the ocean. In the ocean there is 5.25 trillion macro and micro pieces of plastic in our ocean which weighs up to 269,000 tonnes. Every day, there are 8 million pieces of plastic that end up into the ocean. The plastic debris injures and kills fish, seabirds and other ocean inhabitants. Plastic pollution in the ocean has impacted 267 species worldwide. Barker has had many exhibitions and awards through her career such as the Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society in 2019. She even received a handwritten letter from Sir David Attenborough himself, he said “I hope your work does its job in raising an awareness of the cause we both care so much about.”

Mandy Barker states:
“The aim of my work is to engage with and stimulate an emotional response in the viewer by combining a contradiction between initial aesthetic attraction along with the subsequent message of awareness. The research process is a vital part of my development as the images I make are based on scientific fact, essential to the integrity of my work. The impact of marine plastic is an area I have documented for more than 10 years and am committed to pursuing through visual interpretation, and in collaboration with science I hope it will ultimately lead to positive action in tackling this increasing environmental problem, which is currently of global concern”. 

Opinions

I think that Barkers work is not only amazing to look at but also the message behind it is so important. Her images represent the abyss of the world and how we have filled it with rubbish. I definitely inspired by this to create my final piece. Especially this one:

I am going to add in litter and also human hands to show how we have damaged the earth.

Photoshoot

This is my first photoshoot of the lighters.

Angie McGonigal

I really like Angie McMonigal’s work. The patterns and the interesting building shapes really interest me. I would really like to include this in my final piece.

Bernd and Hilla Becher were two German photographers born in the early 1930s. They are renowned for their straightforward monochrome photos of industrial buildings which they did for almost 50 years! These photographs were a way of remembering as many of these buildings have been knocked down since their photographing.

Bernd studied painting and lithography at the Staatliche Kunst Akademie from 1953 to 1956. He then proceeded to study typography from 1957 to 1961. Bernd was very interested in functional buildings of industry and began photographing those which he had seen around his hometown. Hilla studied photography in Potsdam. Briefly, she also worked as and aerial photographer in Hamburg. Hilla moved to Düsseldorf in 1959 where she met Bernd. They began collaborating on their photos and married in 1961.

Bernd and Hilla Becher photographed industrial structures in Germany. Especially in the Ruhr. They also took photos all through Europe and North America.

Together the Bechers established a photography department in 1976 the school which Bernd attended (Staatliche Kunstakademie) and Bernd became its first professor. Their styles were so distinctive and their careers so successful that they came to be known as the Düsseldorf School of Photography.

The Bechers won awards for their photography such as the Hasselblad Award in 2004 and the Erasmus Prize in 2002.

Personally, I really like Bernd and Hilla Bechers work. I really think it is so interesting and I really love the style of photography how they found beauty in the strangest things as industrial buildings. and I would really like to use ideas from their work with mine on photoshoots.

New topographics was a term created by William Jenkins in 1975 to describe a group of American photographers; for example Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz, whose photography had a similar banal style. The photos were (mostly) monochrome and formal of the urban landscape. Many of the photographers associated with new topographics were inspired by the man-made buildings and adaptions. Carparks, suburban housing and warehouses were all portrayed with a beautiful stark austerity.

Robert Adams

Robert Adams is an American photographer born May 8th 1937 in New Jersey. He focused his work on the changing American West landscape. His work became popular, due to his books for example, The New West and his exhibitions.

Analysis

This is a digital monochrome photograph from an exhibition titled The New West by Robert Adams in the 1970s. The mise en scene presents a rectangular house with an window revealing a silhouette of a woman. The repetition of rectangles suggests peacefulness and security. The focal point of the image is the silhouette of the woman this is because silhouettes attract and remove distractions of details such as smiles and imperfections.

The aperture is around f/16 due to the dark exposure and wide depth of field. The shutter speed is very fast and the lighting is natural sun lighting. The photograph follows the rule of thirds as shown with the orange lines.

To conclude, personally I really like this image and I think the silhouette is so powerful in contrast to the rectangular shapes. I would love to recreate something similar to this. For example, at Plemont there are old ruins of a building which I could use:

Robert Adams states:

“I think if you placed me almost anywhere and gave me a camera you could return the next day to find me photographing. It helps me, more than anything I know, to find home.”

New Topography Photoshoot Ideas

El Tico

Harve Des Pas and La Collette