All posts by Hannah Bridle

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Environmental portraiture

15 November 2023 Hannah Bridle Leave a comment

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

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Virtual Gallery

11 October 2023 Hannah Bridle Leave a comment

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.

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Walker Evans inspired photoshoot

8 October 2023 Hannah Bridle Leave a comment

Walker Evans

These are from his work called Beauties From The Common Tool. Which he created in 1955.

However Evans was most well know for his work about documenting the farm security administration from the effects of the great depression.

His preferred style of work seems to be documentary photography. Although those wont be the work I will be focusing on from him.

I really like this work its all very similar and uniform all from a birds eye view with no colour the image seems really dull and no vibrancy too it which I think really works for the image.

I like how all the shapes in these photos are very sharp angular I think it really works. The texture in the images is another thing I think works really well because the objects look quite rough and almost dirty.

One thing I really like about Walker Evan’s work is that he makes all of this image look quite old ands vintage looking which is something Darren Harvey-Regan doesn’t do so that really sets them apart

Darren Harvey-Regan

This work is his version of the “beauties of the common tool” which he did in 2013.

Darren Harvey is most known and appreciated for his melding photography and sculptures though which he started in 1974.

His work is also very similar to Walker Evan’s the photographer above. Evan’s Darren Harvey-Regan seems to take most of his photos on a very plain and clean.

The white background which contrasts from the tools which have connotations of being really dirty. Although the images themselves look quite clean and sleek even. similarly his photos have this really dull and blank feel to them although there is something in the image it feels quite empty. This could be because lots of photography at the moment seems to have so many different objects and have lots going on so this is quite different to that.

I really like his work I think it really unique with using the everyday objects and yet he makes them seem very interesting and cool like things we don’t see very often. Although the tool is the only thing in the image it feel as if he still tries extra things like the rule of thirds, having it directly the middle, to make it stand out.

He also does these image of rocks which I really like they contain lots of sharp lines and geometrical shapes which I think works really well.

MY OWN PHOTOSHOOT

For this photoshoot I tried to recreated Walker Evans work I did this slightly with my still life photoshoot by having the camera coming from a birds eye view however for this photoshoot I’ll be doing the same but also trying to use singular objects are create the negative space like he has in his images.

Like these:

My Work:

This is my original image on the right .

Now the edited one is underneath although here isn’t a major difference I feel the quality is so much better.

The centering on the edited image is a lot better as it was too far over to the right before leaving lots of negative space on the left-hand side which didn’t work for the image.

I think this photo shoot was really effective and you can see/tell that I used Walker Evans as inspiration for this photoshoot. I think my favorite image from this photoshoot would be the paintbrush I think that one worked really well the brush is very straight (which I realised some of the others weren’t so if I was able to fix it I would) and looks quite crisp and the details of the brush bristles look really good contrasting against the clean white background.

These are some of the original photos-

These photos have a really easy but effective editing style all I had to do for these were change them to black and white even if the photo already didn’t have any colour too it. Changing to black and white seemed to add more texture and dimension.

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still life photoshoot

4 October 2023 Hannah Bridle 1 Comment

for these photoshoots I was trying to focus on only having a couple objects in the image and trying to focus more on shadows and depth.

Original picture on the right ->

For the image I had the shutter speed set at 1/80 secs and I had the aperture set at f/5.6

For the editing all I did was change the hue slightly, changed the highlands and shadows and crop the image so it was more even with negative space surrounding it.

Overall I think its a good image I think the slight reflective shadows from the cutlery looks really interesting as it gives the image lots of depth. However I do think it would have been to try and get some more photos with lots more different and harsher shadows if possible.

I do quite like this photo I think there is a lot of interest texture and depth due to the boxes and the sheet underneath the cutlery adding these new dimensions into the image. However because of the material the objects where on and the lighting it means there aren’t any shadows which was I what I was wanting for the photoshoot.

For this photo I had the setting set at 1/80 secs for the shutter speed and f/5.6 for the aperture.

Once again there wasn’t much editing needed for this photo I changed the shadow and highlights slightly cropped the image and for this was I changed the clarity by a very small amount because it gave more detail to the photo which I though looked really good.

I really like these photos I think they work really well especially compared to Walker Evans work with the classic white background with the seemingly quite basic everyday object.

I think for these the birds eye view shot I got works the best as it would be hard to photograph then from eye level as they are flat and cant be stood up.

For these i had the shutter speed set up at 1/100 secs and the aperture was at f/6.3. For these I had two ring lights on either side for the lighting was even and I had the lights on cool toned because it felt like it worked better based on the inspiration. However I did also take some with coloured gel sheets in font of the lights which did end up looking really interesting.

I think the photos I took of the colouring pencils although don’t fit the inspiration artist Walker Evans like I was originally planning they seem more nostalgic. This is because of the bright and vivid colours were something I liked a lot as a child.

For these images I used a tri-pod to stand up the camera so I could take the photo from that point of view and so that the photos would be extremely still. I used two spot lights either side of the object to illuminate the objects. I think the two photos contrast together from the one on the left being so uniform and organised compared to the one on the right which is very chaotic and messy.

This photoshoot was a different way to interpret and represent still life and i took more inspiration from Vanitas style photos where they often tried to represent and have themes of death in their photos. I tried to recreate that why having the skull to show a quite literal idea of death but then I also used a book for more of an abstract idea of it suggesting the story of your life.

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formalism

1 October 2023 Hannah Bridle Leave a comment

What is formalism?

Formalism is said to be “the design, composition and Lighting are dominant over Subject Matter. The photographer becomes a visual designer whenever a frame is captured”.

There are said to be 7 basic elements in photography which are:

1)Line-

lines are everywhere they connect shapes they draw you attention to objects in images

2)Shape-

there are multiple definitions of the word shape “the visible makeup characteristic of a particular item or kind of item” is one I like best. shapes are all around in your images you will have loads of shapes.

3)Form-

form is very similar to shape however shape is 2 dimensional and form is 3 so you have that added depth to the image which shape doesn’t have. There are 2 main types of form which are organic and geometric organic is more natural and nature based shapes and geometric are usually harsher manmade shapes.

4)Texture-

texture is said to be the physically appearance of an object. You can have lots of different types of texture like matte glossy bumpy smooth and rough etc… texture is something you can feel. Texture can also change depending on different situations like the lighting.

5)Colour-

colour is said to be “a phenomenon of light (such as red, brown, pink, or grey) or visual perception that enables one to differentiate otherwise identical objects“. colour has three properties which are hue (description of the colour) value (brightness/darkness) and saturation (intensity of the colour).

6)Size-

size is often described as “physical magnitude, extent, or bulk: relative or proportionate dimensions’. Size in images can be seen either as an illusion or relative. The most used size options are small, medium, and large. There is something called overlap which is when you have multiple objects and their size causes them to block off the other objects.

7)Depth-

Depth can be described as “the direct linear measurement from front to back“. Depth is thinking about the size of the object but also the space around it. The only time you won’t have any depth in your image is if you have a white blank background.

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Nostalgia Still Life Photos

28 September 2023 Hannah Bridle 1 Comment

I used colours to label and categorise the photos I used green for the images I really liked and definitely wanted to use and then yellow was for the ones I thought were ok and possibly would use and red for the ones that I definitely wouldn’t use.

this is the original photo before editing

for this image I did some basic editing so I cropped the image slightly and when changed the temperature of the image slightly because I thought the originally was a little bit too warm. Then I changed exposure and contrast. I also dulled down some of the highlights because they looked too bright making the image look really overly bright.

Overall I do really like the image I think the gold objects really stand out because of the colour contrast as everything in the image is black and white so the gold and even the read on the ashtray really stands out in the image.

When looking at the image I really like how I have the old fashioned camera in focus and then everything else like the photo and the vintage lighter not in focus. It makes the camera really stand out which I wanted to do originally but you can still see the other objects which corelate to the camera.

I think the contrast between the black and white works really well compared to the gold objects but also it matches quite well with the vintage camera. I think I maybe could have arranged my objects better I think they look kind of awkward in the way they are positioned at the moment.

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Introduction to still life

27 September 2023 Hannah Bridle 1 Comment

what is still life?

usually still life can be described as an arrangement of objects usually including fruits, flowers and then normally some sort of silverware/glassware.

still life originally started during the early 1600’s predominately in Dutch and European paintings.

Something that has majorly effected and impacted still life was colonialism because it meant that they could have new and exotic objects that normally they would not be able to access.

Something you often spot in still life paintings would be skulls, fruit, flowers, hourglasses and candles. You often have skulls because they suggest things such as death similar with hourglasses suggesting time and maybe lack there of. Then fruit and flowers contrast with that because they can suggest things like new life. However certain flowers actually can mean different things for example poppies represent sleep or death and yet daisies represent innocence and rose love and seduction.

Image analysis- Richard Kuiper

In this image you are drawn to the fruit in the middle of the photo as it is the lightest part of the image so the dark objects around it are almost framing it.

When using the rule of thirds you can see that the image is sitting along the top left on the lines.

I think the composition of the fruit basket makes it look like a very chaotic photo as it is just piled on top on the table with other objects underneath with actually giving the image more levels and depth.

Image analysis 

I think the lemons in the image are really bright with vivid colours and because it is the brightest part of the photo, so it stands out compared to the rest and has the darker background and table framing the fruit .Using the rule of thirds you can see that the fruit is centred straight in the middle hitting each line on the graph

Vanitas

Vanitas is a type of still life painting from the 1700’s where they would use symbols and objects to suggest things such as death and fatality.

This style of art would be like a reminder to everyone that you will die and you cant stop that.

Lots of the common objects have certain symbolic meanings for example a mirror can suggest self reflection and an lamp can often suggest the human soul.

In still life artwork there is something very closely related too it called Memento Mori. Its basically an object or symbol used as a reminder its usually depicted/represented by a skull. Its practically used/thought about in every still life piece of work.

The actual phrase translate from Latin to “remember you must die”. The phrase was often used by Catholics on things like graves and tombstones and memorial plaques.

This was an image analysis did in class where we were looking at both the technical aspects and the visual aspects.

We were focusing on the visual and technical aspects of the image so things like the focus on the camera and how everything is in focus.

We looked at the rule of thirds and how the darker parts of the image would be centring/surrounding the middle.

We also had to look at the image and figure out it we thought it was natural lighting or lighting done with tools like ring lights.

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Camera settings and understanding

25 September 2023 Hannah Bridle Leave a comment

Camera settings

For the first image I made the aperture quite low and then changed the exposure to a lot lower so it wouldn’t make the image too exposed like it is here where I had the exposure a lot higher again.

For this image I changed the shutter speed which effects how blurry the image is basically so the propeller on the plane when the shutter speed is really high so 1/4000 of a second means it’s not blurry at all but if it was 1 second you wouldn’t really even be able to see it because of how blurry it would be.

The main idea that you want is for the exposure meter to be around the middle on the 0 because that checks that your image won’t be too under or over exposed

So as you can see here the white arrow is pointing at the 0 meaning everything is balanced and it even says above “good exposure” so this is something you will want to check whenever you change some of the camera settings.

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