An environmental portrait is a portrait executed in the subject’s usual environment, such as in their home or workplace, and typically illuminates the subject’s life and surroundings. These surroundings often help us to get an insight into that person’s life, culture and status. In most environmental portraits, the subject is staring directly into the camera creating a more personal and intimate image between the viewer and the model.

From looking at these images, I have noticed that generally in the black and white pictures there is more of a sad, melancholy expression on the people’s faces. Whereas, in the coloured images the people seem to look happier and proud of their environment/ profession. This creates more of a positive tone around the images compared to the black and white ones which make me feel more sympathy towards them rather than joy.

Typology is a body of work with a consistent style. Often portrayed in many different forms, some being in a structured group with equal spacing in-between or a particular style in general like the style of environmental portraits. Environmental portraits are often associated with the style of typology as they are always structed images with the same idea of the subject looking into the camera and often centred.

Typology definition: a suite of images or related forms, shot in a consistent, repetitive manner; to be fully understood, the images must be viewed as a complete series.

Definition from: https://harveyalevelphoto.weebly.com/typologies.html#:~:text=Typology,viewed%20as%20a%20complete%20series.%22

For my project on objects, I first conducted some research on still life. I looked at a variety of different examples and learnt about objects and their symbolisms. From this research, I then created a photoshoot inspired by it. I used a variety of different objects from school and my own personal objects that gave me a sense of nostalgia. I experimented with different layouts of the objects and having only two objects then some with a group of objects together. These are some of my final images from my photoshoot:

When choosing which images to edit on Lightroom, I first imported all of my photographs into Lightroom and then gave them either a white flag (if I liked it) or a black flag (if I didn’t like it). Then I gave the photos with a white flag a rating out of 5 (5 being the best). Finally, I gave each of my images a colour eg green, yellow or red (green being the best of my images). From this, I then turned on filters and looked at images only with a 4 star rating or above and green, then edited those images. I then experimented with different exposure levels, highlights, shadows, clarities and textures until I had an image that I liked.

Overall, I like how this photoshoot came out as I got to experiment with different lighting types and camera settings. My favourite image is the one of the teddy as I like the warm tone of it and the reflection from the infinity curve. I feel this tone helps portray the theme of nostalgia as the objects are associated with warm memories which is reflected by the lighting. However, if I were to do this photoshoot again, I would try and take some pictures which a more cold and darker background as that was a common theme in the still life images I researched.

The next photoshoot I did was Inspired by Walker Evans and Darren Harvey-Regan. For this photoshoot, I took pictures of tools found in the studio, using a stool in order to get a birds eye view. I made sure to have a white, plain background as seen in the original artists. I also experimented with taking pictures of just singular objects and with multiple objects. Here are my final images:

In order to edit my photographs, I used Lightroom. I altered the exposure, shadows, whites, texture and clarity. I tried to minimise the harshness of the shadows cast by the objects as Walker Evan’s has no/ minimal shadows in his work. I also used the setting colour and altered the hue/ saturation of certain colours in order to enhance them and bring my images more to life and less dull.

Overall, I found this photoshoot to be successful as I feel it closely replicates the work of Walker Evans and Darren Harvey-Regan (which is what I was trying to accomplish). Additionally, I like the clarity and simplicity of my photographs. On the other hand, if I were to do this photoshoot again, I would add tape to the bottom of the tools in order to prop them up slightly and get rid of any shadows cast by them, as in Walker Evan’s work there are no visible shadows.

In order to make my photo gallery, I used photoshop. However, I first had to get my images from Lightroom into photoshop. I did this by exporting them into a document in which I could then open up on photoshop and access my photos. After I had exported them, I then opened up photoshop and pressed file new in order to get a blank, white page. I then went onto google and searched up ‘gallery space’, making sure to press tool, size and large in order to make sure the images had high resolution.

I chose to use this gallery space. I then copied and pasted it onto photoshop, making sure to use Ctrl t in order to make the image fill up the whole page. Next, I selected one of my photographs I had taken previously and opened it up on photoshop. Then, I dragged the image onto the gallery space and pressed Ctrl t to shrink it to a suitable size. However, when I wanted to place an image on the side walls I had to use the transform tool then select perspective in order to make it look like it is actually attached to the wall and make my final gallery look more realistic.

Finally, to complete my photo gallery I decided to add a drop shadow to each of my images to make them stand out compared to the wall and appear more three dimensional. I did this by going onto the layer with the tool I wanted to add a shadow to then right clicked on it and press blending options. I then experimented with different sizes, spreads and distances. These are the final sizes I chose:

Overall, I like how my photo gallery came out as I think it is a creative way to present my images and gives you a sort of sense of how it would look like in a real life setting. However, one improvement I would make to my photo gallery is I would add more of my still life images to the other side wall as at the moment there are a lot more tools than still life objects, giving my final gallery an unproportionate feel to it. Additionally, I could also make a photo gallery for only tools and only still life images.

This photoshoot was inspired by Walker Evans and Darren Harvey-Regan who are known for their images taken of tools. I tried to recreate their images closely by using a white background as seen in their images, helping to draw the focus onto the tool only. I used a stool in order to capture the tools from a birds eye view as seen in the photographer’s work. I used a variety of different tools in my photoshoot and experimented with using tape to prop up the tools and no tape to see the difference it made on the shadows cast by the tools.

I first put all my images into Lightroom and then began to narrow them down until I had my best set of images that I wanted to edit and use in my blog. I did this by first either putting a white flag or black flag to the image depending if I liked it or not. I then rated all of the images with a white flag out of five. Finally, I assigned each of the images a colour (green, yellow or red). I then used the filter option in order to get my best images.

Before and after images:

For the first tool I decided to photograph, I chose a hammer. I experimented with setting up the hammer in different ways as seen in my images in order to make it look more interesting rather than laying it flat down on the table. I then used Lightroom in order to change the exposure and clarity of the picture. Additionally, I decided that I would make the background more of a warmer tone like the wood seen on the handle. This made my image look more cosy and inviting despite the object having opposite connotations.

For these images, I decided to closely recreate the work of Walker Evans by using a white, negatively spaced background and taking the photographs of the tools from a bird’s eye view. I used a variety of different objects in my photoshoot and tried taking some pictures of just one tool and then taking pictures of a group of tools together.

I then used Lightroom to enhance my white background so my objects would stand more out and used the colour setting to brighten up any small bits of colours seen on the objects.

Overall, I like how this photoshoot came out as I feel it closely resembles the work of Walker Evans and Darren Harvey-Regan, which is what I was trying to aim for. However, if I were to further this photoshoot in the future, I would try and merge two objects together as seen in Darren Harvey-Regan’s work as I feel it creates a unique, creative final outcome.

For these photographs, I took a picture of multiple tools rather than just one singular one. I like these photographs as I feel they are more interesting to look at due to the viewer having multiple things to focus on rather than just one object which could become boring.

I decided to experiment on photoshop with this image. I first selected the image I wanted to use and then duplicated it. Next, I turned out of the images black and white and put it as my bottom layer. I then went onto the top, coloured layer and selected the quick selection tool. I then proceeded to outline the left and right tool. Once I had all the necessary parts outlined, I then right clicked and pressed layer via cut, exposing the black and white layer behind it. However, I kept the middle tool coloured which makes it stand out compared to the rest of the tools.

Finally, I tried to recreate Darren Harvey-Regan’s original image of two tools merged together using my own images I took in the studio. I first opened up a plain white page which was then used as my background. Next, I opened up one of my images of my tools and used the quick selection tool to go over half of the tool. I then right click on it and pressed layer via copy, making sure to get rid of the full image of the tool as I no longer needed it anymore. Some of my edges on my cut out were a bit raggedy and so I used the eraser tool to smooth it out more. I then chose another tool and completed the same process. Overall, I think this attempt was successful as it looks similar to Darren Harvey-Regan’s original image and furthered my photoshop abilities.

Walker Evans:

Walker Evans was an American photographer and photojournalist who was most well known for his work for the Security Administration, documenting the effects of The Great Depression; his most famous photo being a portrait of Allie Mae Burroughs. Evans was born November 3rd, 1903 and died April 10th, 1975.

Walker Evans took photographs of common tools that people are used to and familiar with seeing but turned them into something extraordinary as he isolates them by themselves against a dull, grey/white background.

By only having one tool in the photographs, it forces the person viewing them to take a greater appreciation for the tools, looking at the finer details of them.

Walker Evans captured the tools from a birds eye view, using natural lighting. He also managed to get no/ minimal shadows. Evans would slightly raise the tools which helps make them stand out compared to the equally dull background.

Darren Harvey-Regan:

Darren Harvey-Regan is a photographer who melds photography with sculpture. He is interested in the means of transition from one form of representation to another and in the overlaps that confuse and rephrase such movements. His works challenge the viewer to distinguish where representation ends and the object begins. Darren graduated from the Royal College of Art and has appeared in many exhibitions.

At first glance, this photograph looks quite dull and unenticing due to the lack of colour in the photograph. However, as you look more closely, you discover that the photograph is actually a combination of two tools collaged together to create one image. There are also no shadows seen in the image, causing the focus to be purely on the tools in front of you. By Darren Harvey-Regan using a white negative space in the background, it means that your attention immediately goes to the object and you can begin to appreciate the simple yet creative image he has made.

I think this image is a good depiction of how his work challenges the viewer to distinguish where representation ends and the objects begin as when I first looked at the picture, I saw mini statues of people. However, when I took a closer look at the image, I realised that these supposed statues were bread. Although I now knew they were bread, I could still see the statue like figures in the image, highlighting Darren’s ability to mix representation and objects smoothly.

Comparing Walker Evans and Darren Harvey-Regan’s art:

Although the two photographers photograph tools, they both do this very differently. For example, Walker Evans’ images have a vintage, old feel to them due to the majority of the tools he photographs looking quite used and the background being grainy. Whereas, with Darren Harvey-Regan’s images, the background is a bright, smooth, white colour, making the images look more modern. Walker Evans also tends to have more of a sepia tone in his photographs but Darren Harvey-Regan’s images have a more colder tone due to his subtle blue tones in his photographs.

Additionally, Walker Evans focusses on photographing only one tool whereas Darren Harvey-Regan merges multiple tools together to create one extraordinary image. Overall, I think both of the photographers manage to successfully capture the beauty of the simple yet useful tools. However, if I were to do a photoshoot in response to these artists, I would try and include more colour in my images as I feel it will help bring more attention to the photographs and make them more interesting and engaging to look at as in Walker Evan’s and Darren Harvey-Regan’s work, their images are quite dull due to it being black and white.

formalism:

Formalism describes the critical position that the most important aspect of a work of art is its form. The seven basic elements explored in formalism are:

1. Line
2. Shape
3. Form
4. Texture
5. Colour
6. Size
7. Depth

Line:

A straight or curved geometric element that is generated by a moving point and that has extension only along the path of the point. Lines can be: straight, curved, solid, dashed, implied, psychological, vertical, horizontal or somewhere in-between.

Vertical or horizontal lines convey a sense of stability or a static feel to an image. Horizontal lines can indicate distance and vertical lines can indicate height, balance, strength. Diagonal lines convey a more dynamic scene.

Shape:

Shapes are two-dimensional. They can be familiar or unfamiliar. A familiar shape can transform into an unfamiliar or unrecognisable shape based on the viewpoint of the photographer.

There are two basic types of shapes: geometric (regular) and organic. Geometric shapes include: circles, squares, triangles, dodecahedrons, and more. Organic shapes include: the outline of a bird, an elephant, a flower, a tree, etc. Fluids can create organic shapes that cannot be permanently defined eg. the shape of a cloud or a rain puddle.

Form:

Form is three-dimensional and has an overall height, width and depth. The two types of form are: geometric (eg cylinder, cone, sphere and cube) and organic (eg objects that surround us in our three-dimensional world).

Forms create negative and positive space. In a photograph, positive space is basically that which is occupied by forms and negative space is what remains.

Texture:

Texture is the visual or tactile surface characteristics and appearance of something. It can be felt with both the fingers (the print) and virtually (with the viewer’s eye). Some examples of textures are: rough, smooth, soft, wet, slimy, bumpy and shiny. In a photograph, smooth objects might have reflections or specular highlights. Rough objects might have aggressive areas of light and shadow without reflections.

Colour:

Colour can be defined as:

1. A phenomenon of light (such as red, brown, pink, or grey) or visual perception that enables one to differentiate otherwise identical objects
2. The aspect of the appearance of objects and light sources that may be described in terms of hue, lightness, and saturation for objects and hue, brightness, and saturation for light.

Light itself has no perceived colour. But, send light through a prism or a drop of water and we can see that it is comprised of a literal rainbow of colours.

Colour has three properties: hue (the description of colour), value (the relative brightness/ darkness of a colour), and saturation (the intensity or purity of a colour. Bold/ bright colours tend to capture people’s eyes more which is why commercials often use brighter colours in order to engage the public.

Size:

 Size can be defined as: physical magnitude, extent, or bulk : relative or proportionate dimensions.

Size in a photograph is relative and can be an illusion.

When a familiar object appears in the frame of a photograph (car, basketball, streetlamp, etc.) we immediately get a feel for the scope of the entire scene. Without a familiar object in the image, we struggle to determine the scale shown in the photograph.

The size of common objects in the photograph gives the scene a sense of scale. But a single object in space might not accomplish this since there is no means for comparison. There are times when another object, maybe sitting atop our subject, serves to confirm the scale in the image—eliminating the possibility of confusion.

In order to emphasize the size of an object in a photograph in relation to its surroundings, you should get closer to the object.

Depth:

Depth is the direct linear measurement from front to back.

We are given a sense of depth due to various visual cues, to which most people rarely give much thought to. However, by learning what those cues are, photographers can use them to create more compelling images.

Depending on the quality of the surrounding air or atmosphere, distant objects in a photograph will have less clarity and contrast than objects in the foreground. This aerial perspective is indicative of depth in a photograph.

Texture gradient shows depth in a photograph as relatively distinct foreground textures. Whether it’s the surface of a road, sand on the beach, leaves or needles on a tree, crashing waves, and even clouds overhead, texture gradients in a photograph smooth out as they recede into the distance.

For this photoshoot, I was inspired by my previous research on Still Life and so decided to take some pictures of old/ vintage looking objects that I found in a box in the studio. I also used some of my own objects that bought up feelings of nostalgia to me. I chose to use old looking objects as a common theme in the still life images I looked at is that most of the objects looked old and expensive, so I thought I would try and recreate that tone in my photographs too.

Whilst in the studio, I used a variety of the setups such as the infinity curve. I then tested out using different lighting eg a warmer toned light and cooler toned light. There was also a light that I put on underneath the objects in some of the photographs.

Once I had taken the photographs, I put them into my media folder and imported them into Lightroom. I then gave them either a white flag (if I liked the picture) or a black flag (if I didn’t like it). Once I had decided what pictures I liked I rated them out of 5 and gave them a colour (green=good, yellow=alright and red=bad). By doing this, it allowed me to narrow down my selection and make it easier to see what images I wanted to use as my final images and edit.

For this photograph, I decided to use more of a warm tone as that is what I associated those objects and memories with. I like the clarity of the photograph and the reflection of the objects on the infinity curve. When editing it on Lightroom, I went onto the develop tab and then experimented with different settings eg bringing the contrast and highlights down and trying different levels or clarity/ texture.

For this image, I decided to attempt to create a cool toned image utilising an abstract approach in the style of Daniel Sigg recreating the monochromatic effect of his photography. I did this by going onto the colour setting and enhancing the blue in the image. I then changed the exposure and contrast of the image too.

In this picture, I decided to add a light underneath my objects. I think this helped to bring more of a soft, comfy feel to image. However, if I were to edit this again, I would make the clarity of the image more clear as the objects look a bit blurry making it look less professional.

Overall, I like how this photoshoot came out as a first attempt of recreating still life images because I managed to grasp and understand the essence of still life photography as shown in my earlier blog post on still life. I really enjoyed using the infinity curve and will remember that for future projects, as well as beginning to experiment with other setups and attempting to refine my images further.

Still life is a painting/ drawing of an arrangement of objects. These typically include fruits and flowers and other objects that contrast with those textures e.g. bowls and glassware. Still life pictures are often rich with symbolic depth and meaning. It first emerged as an independent genre in the early 1600s in Dutch and Northern European paintings.

Image analysis:

I think this photograph is interesting but also intimidating to look at due to the dark colours and skull, potentially symbolising death.

The various gold objects, book and guitar give me the impression that whoever owned these items was potentially rich and might have passed away (hence the random placement of the objects suggesting to me that the owner didn’t have time to arrange them properly). The objects being unorganised may also represent how we take for granted time and let things pile up until you realise you don’t have enough time to organise them and leave it for others to clean up. This idea can also be seen by the candle which has been blown out, implying the person who owned these objects time was up sooner than they expected.

I think the photograph was potentially taken in natural lighting coming from a window due to the light hitting the objects from the left in a non overbearing way. Most of the objects and table have a smooth like texture furthering the idea of wealth as it is like the objects are perfect and unflawed.

Overall, I like this photograph as I think it allows the person who’s viewing it to interpret it in their own way and come up with a story behind the picture and its meaning. The clarity and quality of the photograph is also very good.

Still Life photography Timeline:

Still-life art has existed from the 17th century until the modern-day, but in the 19th century, artists adopted photography as a new medium for still life art, to express their concepts in a novel format, and thus the still-life photo was born.

What is Vanitas?

Vanitas is a still life painting of a 17th-century Dutch genre containing symbols of death or change as a reminder of their inevitability. 

What is Memento Mori?

Memento Mori is an artistic or symbolic trope acting as a reminder of the inevitability of death. It is a Latin phrase that translates to ‘remember you must die’.

Metaphors and symbols used in still life:

Many of the objects depicted in still life images are symbolic of some quality of the Virgin Mary or another religious figure (for example, the lily stands for purity), while other objects may remind the viewer of an edifying concept such as worldly vanity or temperance.

Some common symbols in Still Life paintings include:

• Fruit: Varying Symbolism In Still Life Paintings.
• Skulls: The Certainty Of Mortality.
• Candles: The Passing Of Time.
• Flowers: Symbols Of Life And Growth.
• Seashells: Birth, Purity, And Fertility.
• Mirrors: The Soul In Reflection.
• Insects: Transformation And Decay.

Exposure:

Exposure is the amount of light a digital camera’s sensor captures when a photo is taken. Too much light results in a washed out photo (overexposed). Too little light and the photo will be too dark (underexposed).

Aperture:

The aperture setting controls the size of the lens opening that allows light into your camera. You can blur the foreground and background that bracket your subject (known as shallow depth of field) by opening up the aperture with a low f-stop number; alternatively, you can keep your photo sharp from the foreground through to the background (known as wide depth of field) by closing the aperture down with a high f-stop number.

Shutter Speed:
The shutter speed setting controls how long the shutter opens to expose the image sensor to that light. Open it for just a millisecond and you can freeze a fast moving subject. Alternatively, you can show the movement of a fast moving subject by keeping it open longer with a slow shutter speed.

ISO:

The ISO setting a camera’s image sensor can be adjusted to detect more, or less light as needed for a good exposure. On a bright sunny day too much light hitting the sensor can cause an overexposure so make it less sensitive with a low ISO number. If your shooting conditions are dark the sensor needs to detect more light so increase its sensitivity with a higher ISO. High ISO will cause graininess so as a rule use the lowest ISO possible. 

Exposure Meter:

The Exposure Meter is your final check before you snap a shot. At a glance it tells you how your exposure will turn out based on the Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO settings. A well exposed shot lines up right down the centre at zero. An underexposed shot (too little light) falls left of centre and an overexposed shot (too much light) falls right of centre.