Photomontage is where you create this new piece of work by (if you are doing it by hand) cutting and sticking different images onto a photo or (if you are doing it digitally) editing different photos on top of anotherto make a whole new image.
some famous photographers who have used photomontage before would be Hannah Höch who was said to be one of the origninal creators of this style, man ray who is well known for his hand photo with eyes in the center and raoul hausmann who was well known for using writen work underneath his images.
Photomonatge is often used to show and express peoples minds and how they think without words and it doesnt always have to make sense or be logical.It was most used and popular during the 1970’s and 80’s during the postmodernist era.
I think one of my favorite photographers who has done work on double exposure would be Christoffer Relander. He was best known for his series called “We Are Nature”. He layers the original portrait photo and layers a blurred nature image on top which is known as double exposure.
Emotional aspects-
I really like these photos they feel very tranquil and calming because all the colours are quite dull and muted but the way it’s blended makes it work
Visual aspects-
I think this image really works I like the fact it is in colour and you have the rich greens showing through unlike some of his other images.
I also really like how you can still see the model’s face very clearly underneath the nature/trees and the trees are almost being used as her hair i think that looks really successful.
technical aspects-
if you use the rule of thirds you can tell they have all the darker parts of the image where the hair would be in the collum on the right and the middle collum seems to be the most bright and colourful. The side on the left is probably the dullest it doesn’t have much it other than the model’s face.
conceptual aspects-
I get the impression from his work that Relander is trying to show us the beauty the calming effect of nature I would love to recreate his work I think it’s so interesting and beautiful and would be a great one to recreate.
contextual aspects-
This style of work is from his “We Are Nature” collection. Christoffer Relander is a Finnish photographer who liked the idea of pairing up each subject/model with different geographical/natural elements.
Double exposure is when you have two images layered on top of each other and you’ll change the blending options of the opacity of the images. Double exposure tends to create this dream like effect sometimes making the image look scary and give off a strange vibe but sometimes the photos can look very happy and sometimes nostalgic.
This style I believe comes from when Bernd and Hilla Becher who took photos of buildings then layered them together to create this creepy almost fantasy looking image.
I think the idea behind doing those kinds of photos is to create that kind of surreal effect for the image. Often photographers use double exposure to be able to add lots of deep and almost hidden meaning within their photos.
Butterfly lighting is where there is a small shadow usually under the model’s nose. It was first used by Marlene Dietrich who at the time was a German silent film actress in the 1920s and 30s and her director von Sternberg started to use the technique as it seemed to extenuate her strong features. The main reason butterfly lighting is used is because it makes for a very flattering portrait your features tend to stand out more and the lighting tends to be softer.
Here is an example of how to actually set up your lighting to create a butterfly effect
You want your light source to be quite light up and centered above the model’s face
you will need to be below the light source and slightly higher than central to the model face so maybe forehead level level
and then having a reflector underneath the model will help
Chiaroscuro lighting is said to be the contrast between light and dark so any type of lighting skill could be classed as chiaroscuro. It’s inspired by films usually Hollywood crime with German expressionists. However, I will be focusing on split lighting where you light up half of the model’s face and have a shadow on the other half. This tends to add an intense feeling to the photo.
Here is an example of the setup that would been needed to achieve split lighting
have the camera directly infront of your model
have the light source at a 90° angle to your model
then depeding on how harsh you want yout lighting/split effect to be more the light closer or further away
This is what spilt lighting can be
This is more Chiaroscuro lighting which the Hollywood films feel to them
The image on the left is the unedited version and the right is the edited picture there isn’t any apparent change between the two however I did darken the shadows slightly to add a bit more contrast to the image. I think overall this picture turned out really good the split in the model’s face is very defined and sharp which is what I wanted.
This technique worked really well for me I think I managed to have a pretty successful image with sharp lines through the shadow down the model’s face the darker image at the bottom I really liked because I also feel they had more of the Hollywood film feel to them like Chiaroscuro lighting was originally inspired by.
I think the images below could have been better if the show was more dramatic and darker although they are still visible they don’t seem to have the same intense feel to them as some of the others do which I think is to do with the shadows being so light.
The editing for these photos really didn’t take much is was mainly changing the contrast slightly just so the difference between the light and dark was that little bit more dramatic and then some of the images I cropped so they were a lot closer to the models face as they seemed to look more effective that way.
This is one of the common techniques used its inspired by the way Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (a famous Dutch painter) created his work he would seem to create the same lighting effect on his paintings where he would have an upside down triangle appear under the eyes of the model.
Just like this
Here is an example of how to create Rembrandt lighting it is easy enough to set up. What you need to do is
have your light source at 40-45 degrees higher than your model
try have just the models head and shoulders in the shot
There are many advantages to using this style of lighting the main being that it will draw attention to the models eyes which creates quite a captivating shot if that is what you are wanting from it. This is because the shapes seem to create these leading lines towards the models eyes.
Overall I think the photos have turned out good i think on all of these images I picked you are able to see a very clear shadow triangle underneath the eye and next to the nose which is the premise of Rembrandt images. I think it would have been better if I could have gotten more of these with the model in different poses.
For this image I didn’t have too much editing o do I knew I wanted to crop the image so it was more even on both sides as the was a lot of blank space on the left side than on the right which I wanted to fix. I also tried to lighten to image slightly as I did feel like it was a little bit too dark.
Studio lighting is referring to when a person/photographer uses an ‘artificial’ light course instead of just natural lighting as with artificial lighting you can create the shapes and shadows a lot easier and everything is to your control unlike natural as if its natural lighting from outside then t really depends on your environment and the nature around you at that time and if its indoors and just a room lighting then you really don’t get any variation within that room.
There are three main/common types of studio lighting techniques which all create their own different effects. These are Rembrandt lighting, butterfly lighting and Chiarscuro.
When taking these photos we had a basic set up of having a stool for the model to sit on and then later if necessary changing the chair to be higher or lower if needed.
I mainly used the white backdrop and then I had the light which I could move around and then to help we used the reflector to reflect some of the light back onto the models face.
I found using the back background worked best for when using the Chiarscuro technique as I found the models face stood out better and the darkness kind of surrounded the model which looked very interesting
Here is the contact sheet for all of the photos I have taken.
Arnold Newman was an incredible Jewish photographer who mainly took environmental portraits his work is above. You can see in all of these images he tries to tell a story show something about each persons life. The image on the bottom left corner the fact the piano is so big and in the middle with none of it cut out can show to the viewer that maybe music takes over his life and he isn’t the main focus the piano and music are.
Emotional aspects-
this image makes me feel bad for the guy the room seems really bare and there isn’t much in it making him look lonely. However it has quite a serious feel to it because of how he is staring at the camera.
Visual aspects-
the contrast between the size of the piano and the man emphasis how much music takes over his life and can symbolise how small he feels in life. The lighting in the image seems to be quite harsh but also the room is quite bright as there are any shadows of wither the man or the piano.
technical aspects-
I really like how in this image if you are using rule of thirds he is put into the bottom corner of the picture almost ,making is seem as if he has been moved aside and forgotten about as he is only in in 1 square.
The image seems to have a long depth of field as both the piano and the wall behind seem to look quite sharp and not blurred at all.
conceptual aspects-
I think Arnold Newman was trying to show how music is his whole life its his passion his hobby and his job. His music is so well known his music is probably more well known than him himself so I think he was trying to show that.
contextual aspects-
This mans like I believe was quite well portrayed through his photo as he is Igor Stravinsky a Russian composer ,director and pianist he was sad to be one of the most influential composers of the 20th century.
Emotional aspects-
I think this picture gives off quite an uneasy and creepy feeling when looking at the image. It’s almost quite an intimidating photo due to him looking straight at the camera with this dark lighting and having his face illuminated slightly.
Visual aspects-
Some visual aspects of this photos could be the fact their are lots of dark colours creating the eerie feeling. There are two pillars next to the man which are almost framing him. The place seems quite dirty with the steam you can see coming off the train and the writing on the walls.
technical aspects-
I think some of the technical aspects would be the lighting was done in a specific way as it is coming from the sides to not aluminate his face but to make shadows. the perspectives of him up close and clear background see far down but not clear.
conceptual aspects-
For this photoshoot for Arnold Newman really wanted the idea to be that Alfred Krupp was a horrible evil man who did bad things and hurt others. So he showed that through his photos he made it so the lighting seemed quite sinister and the naturally had that pose so it worked perfectly for the concept.
contextual aspects-
The content behind this image is that Alfred Krupp was a German man who helped provide the Nazi’s bombs and access through his railways during the war. And he was a big fan of Arnold Newman’s work but he was unaware he was a Jewish man. So Arnold Newman used this as a ay of revue apparently so he made Alfred Krupp look as evil ad possible.
Environmental portraiture is photos/portraits of someone in their environment so either someone is their work or maybe a hobby that they do a lot you want something that shows an aspect of who that person is.
You want your photos to tell a story the story behind the person in it. Try and revel/show parts of their lives. You’re not just telling the story through the background though you want your model to show parts of themselves like if the model looks sad it can show that they live a sad life in their eyes or aren’t happy with where they are in life
This is how I decided to display some of my favourite images from this topic. Although I do have other photos that I liked I choose to do these ones together because I thought the colour tones were quite similar so they worked really well together.
