Technical
You can use either, Flash Lighting:
Camera settings (flash lighting)
Tripod: optional
Use transmitter on hotshoe
White balance: daylight (5000K)
ISO: 100
Exposure: Manual 1/125 shutter-speed > f/16 aperture
– check settings before shooting
Focal length: 105mm portrait lens
Continuous Lighting:
Camera settings (continuous lighting)
Tripod: recommended to avoid camera shake
Manual exposure mode
White balance: tungsten light (3200K)
ISO: 400-1600 – depending on how many light sources
Exposure: Manual 1/60-1/125 shutter-speed > f/4-f/8 aperture
– check settings before shooting
Focal length: 50mm portrait lens
The deadpan aesthetic
The origins of the word “Deadpan” can be traced to 1927 when Vanity Fair Magazine compounded the words dead and pan, a slang word for a face, and used it as a noun. In 1928 the New York Times used it as adjective to describe the work of Buster Keaton.
In summary Deadpan photography is a cool, detached, and unemotional presentation and, when used in a series, usually follows a pre-defined set of compositional and lighting rules.
The deadpan aesthetics is considered a technically perfect photograph which depicts a landscape, still life or a person by a direct centred composition. The photographs usually have a single central theme (a mining tower, face, mound of clay, etc.), the background is usually unimportant (which does not apply for more sociologically oriented concepts), ignored or is neutral and sterile.
Passport Photos
The UK government has a specific list on what passports must include, this can be found on the UK government website.
FACE:
- eyes must be open and clearly visible, with no flash reflections and no ‘red eye’
- facial expression must be neutral (neither frowning nor smiling), with the mouth closed
- photos must show both edges of the face clearly
- photos must show a full front view of face and shoulders, squared to the camera
- the face and shoulder image must be centred in the photo; the subject must not be looking over one shoulder (portrait style), or tilting their head to one side or backwards or forwards
- there must be no hair across the eyes
- hats or head coverings are not permitted except when worn for religious reasons and only if the full facial features are clearly visible
- photos with shadows on the face are unacceptable
- photos must reflect/represent natural skin tone
BACKGROUND:
Photos must have a background which:
- has no shadows
- has uniform lighting, with no shadows or flash reflection on the face and head
- shows a plain, uniform, light grey or cream background (5% to 10% grey is recommended)
Typologies
the study and interpretation of types and became associated with photography through the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher, whose photographs taken over the course of 50 years of industrial structures; water towers, grain elevators, blast furnaces etc can be considered conceptual art. The Becher’s were influenced by the work of earlier German photographers linked to the New Objectivity movement of the 1920s such as August Sander, Karl Blossfeldt and Albert-Renger-Patzsch.
Upclose
BRUCE GILDEN: FACE: Bruce Gilden is renowned for his confrontational style and getting up close to his subject. Between 2012-14 Gilden travelled in America, Great Britain, and Colombia and created a series called FACE. In addition to focusing on details of the face try and isolate body parts, gestures, clothing and physical features, such as hands, elbows, shoulders, neck, torso, hip, knees, feet. Your understanding of abstraction in photography; focusing on shapes, colours, light and shadows, textures and repetition is crucial here.