The Plan:

• I will take photos of my subjects facing towards the camera either straight or slightly tilted, and then go into photoshop and use the select tool to select either a triangle shape or square shape on the subjects face and move it to another part of their face like their hair or forehead and the two shapes should swap. For example, if I moved a part of the cheek to the hair then that part of hair would be where the cheek is.

For this photo I used, soft lighting with the body tilted slightly off centre frame, but his head facing directly towards the camera with eyes focus into the lens with only a subtle smile but no other emotions and no other gestures.

For this photo I used a model but I pasted the same picture 3 times and with the middle photo, I made it black and white and just cropped it to the eyes then copped the final photo just from the eyes and below to create this photo montage triple eye image.

Diamond Cameo
Diamond Cameo is when four small oval portraits were placed in background in the shape of a diamond with each portrait being of the same person photographed in a different position.

Henry Mullins moved to Jersey in July 1848, setting up a studio known as the Royal Saloon, at 7 Royal Square. Here he would photograph Jersey political elite (The Bailiff, Lt Governor, Jurats, Deputies etc), mercantile families (Robin, Janvrin, Hemery, Nicolle ect.) military officers and professional classes (advocates, bankers, clergy, doctors etc).

My take on Diamond Cameo:

Started by taking a few photos of each other with different face angles to recreate the diamond cameo look.

I really liked these 4 pictures of myself looking in different directions, so I used them in photoshop by copy and pasting them in, moving each photo to the correct position, creating oval shapes to go behind the photos with bevels and shadows on. Old, tea-stained paper for the overall background to give it an old look and then with the dodge tool, I lightened up parts on my neck/face.

Here is my photoshoot from studio portraits where I took a total of 164 photos.

What I did in this photograph was Rembrandt, which is when you create a little triangle shape below the eye on the shaded side, (right eye). Also, I edited the photo by making him warmer using brighter saturated colours and using these edits:

Another Rembrandt example I edited was this photo, but I didn’t need to edit it as much as it’s already good lighting and just had to lighten him up a little and bring out the triangle a little more.

Rembrandt Lighting: Rembrandt lighting is a technique for portrait photography. It refers to a way of lighting a face so that an upside-down light triangle appears under the eyes of the subject.

Why is Rembrandt Lighting Used?
Rembrandt lighting instantly creates shadows and contrast and with the triangle light beneath the models eye. Which is the main focal point of the image.

This is how you would setup your camera, light and person if you were trying to do Rembrandt lighting. Because the camera is at an angle facing the person, with the light at the opposite side, so half of the face gets shadowed but because of the angles of each object it creates a triangle underneath the persons eye depending what side each of the objects are on.

Rembrandt lighting is created by the single light source being at a 40 to 45-degree angle and higher than the subject. Use cans use both flashlights and continuous lights.

Butterfly Lighting: Butterfly lighting is a type of portrait lighting technique used primarily in a studio setting. Its name comes from the butterfly-shaped shadow that forms under the nose because the light comes from above the camera.

Why is Butterfly lighting used?
It is used for taking flattering, glamorous portrait photos. The lighting is soft on the face. It forms a butterfly-shaped shadow under the subject’s nose, which is the source of the name. It is ideal for portraits as it highlights the subject’s main features, like the nose and cheekbones.

To do this setup, position the reflector under the subject’s face. Start at waist level and see how it looks. If the shadows are still strong, move it closer to the face and so on.

Chiaroscuro Lighting: Chiaroscuro refers to the way light and shadow are used to create realistic three-dimensional images on flat two-dimensional surfaces. Chiaroscuro uses the contrast between light and dark to spotlight images for dramatic effect.

In this photo of our studio setup, we were trying to use Chiaroscuro by putting the flash light directly on one side of the model, the camera facing the model straight on and in the middle and with the reflector to try get a small brighter reflection on his left side of his face.

Why is Chiaroscuro Lighting used?
The effect uses light and shadow to highlight a subject and create additional depth in the background. It can be used to add shadow to make an object rise off the page, or side lighting to create a painterly effect. To create realistic three-dimensional images on flat two-dimensional surfaces. 

Chiaroscuro is using one key light and a variation using a reflector that reflects light from the key light back onto the sitter.

Studio lighting consists of 2 main categories. Continuous and Flashlight. Continuous is light that’s on all the time never flashing. These types of studio lights are similar to a house lamp. Turn the switch on and the light comes on. Turn it off and the light goes off.

Flashlight light is a sudden bright artificial light used when taking photographic pictures. They have umbrellas, or a softbox can be attached to diffuse the light.

Other objects and tools you can use are reflectors. A reflector is a photography tool used to redirect light to a subject or scene. It doesn’t create light; rather, it redirects light that is already there.

Hard light is harsh and creates strong shadows, while soft light is more diffused and creates softer shadows. Photographers would use hard light to create dramatic effect with lots of contrast. It’s more natural-looking and makes your subject appear warm, welcoming, and friendly. A lot of wedding pictures would use soft light!

High Key: Very important when taking photos because High Key is a style of photography that uses unusually bright lighting to reduce or completely blow out dark shadows in the image. Upbeat and positive photos are made from using high key.

Low Key: Low-key lighting has greater contrast between the dark and light areas of the image with a majority of the scene in shadow.

My Top 3 Environmental edited Photos.

In this photoshoot, my classmate and I, went into St Helier town and walked around asking different members of the public if we could photoshoot them in their working environment. It started hard as we didn’t plan anything. But we quickly started asking lot’s of different people if we could photograph them and explained it was for our A-Level photography. A lot of workers actually really wanted us to photograph them and got excited when we asked them, especially the construction worker and the Ice cream cabin lady.

These are my 3 favourite photos I have taken. These 3 are really good because they all show the engagement towards the camera even with hand gestures in the first.

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. It also should resemble if they like their job by facial expressions or how hygienic the workspace is by using effects such as B/W.

It isn’t made in a studio with a simple background. Instead, the subject is photographed in a particular environment, perhaps the place where they work, their home, or anywhere that relates to who they are. Done well, the environmental portrait should give us further insight into the life or character of the subject.

In this photo it shows how the man is working in these poor, hot conditions, where his clothes look dirty and used, and he’s also wearing sandals which means he could damage his feet easily. The use of black and white makes him look sad or old wheres the image below doesn’t.

Whereas this image shows the man looking happy with all the colours popping with the two knife/metal sticks as the main subject but the shaper knife has been blurred. This photo shows how he is happy and enjoys his workspace as it looks like he is cutting meat and other animals in a market which is outdoor, talkative, and friendly to customers.

In 1963, Jewish photographer Arnold Newman was commissioned by Newsweek to take a portrait of Alfred Krupp, a convicted Nazi war criminal. At first, Newman refused, but eventually, he decided to take the assignment as a form of personal revenge. The resulting portrait became one of the most controversial and significant images of its time.

Alfred Krupp by Arnold Newman

Alfred Krupp was a German industrialist who ran the Krupp empire, a major arms manufacturer during World War II. Convicted as a war criminal for his company’s use of slave labour, he was later pardoned. Despite his pardon, Krupp remained a controversial figure, and his reputation as a ruthless businessman and war profiteer followed him.

To capture the image he envisioned, Newman had a platform erected, positioning Krupp against an industrial backdrop. He asked Krupp to lean forward slightly and clasp his fingers under his chin, creating an unsettling and sinister appearance. The portrait captured the essence of Krupp’s character, making him look like the embodiment of evil.

Newman wanted to take this photograph as a way or revenge for what Krupp had done in his past especially to Newman’s own race. Which Newman executed perfectly capturing his pure evil and upsetting Krupp.

Arnold Newman. Igor Stravinsky

This picture is dominated by a grand piano silhouetted against a white wall with the composer confined to the corner.

His black and white portrait of Igor Stravinsky seated at a grand piano became his signature image, even though it was rejected by the magazine that gave the assignment to Newman. Taken during a rehearsal in New York (December 1, 1946), the image juxtaposes Stravinsky with the piano, and together they form the shape of a musical note. 

The image is almost monotone, dominated by the stark geometric contrast between the white wall and the black piano. Newman deliberately used the open lid of the piano because he felt “It is like the shape of a musical flat symbol—strong, linear, and beautiful, just like Stravinsky’s work.”

His dramatic cropping of the composition was a key technique that Newman often utilised to make for more immediate impact. He would routinely experiment with aggressive crops of his original picture, intending to maximise the overall effect.

Emotional

The effect of this image makes me feel uncomforted because it is dark, looks cold, gloomy, rough, creates a male stereotype look and how the walls haven’t been cleaned shows unhygienic which also leads to uncomforting. He also has no emotion in his face which makes us feel like he is stopping us from entering.

Visual

Their is a dark, abandoned look to the photograph by having the bottom of the photo really dark an the overall photo dark with the man staring straight at the camera in the middle and the only light source being the sunlight through the windows above. Everything in the background looks old, industrial, rusty, stained or has graffiti on.

Technical

The two pillars and the perspective help create symmetry on the photo because it keeps the man in the middle with equal objects on each side. The light is used from different side angles, (left and right of his body), with one coming in from behind showing us that he is the main subject in the photograph.

Conceptual

The portrait captured the essence of Krupp’s character, making him look like the embodiment of evil. He took this photo because he was Jewish and Krupp was a convicted Nazi war criminal. But eventually after many refuses, Newman agreed as a form of personal revenge. It then later became one of the most controversial and significant images of it’s time.

Contextual

Newman was very popular for using his skillful techniques such as natural light. His work was influenced by the work of the Cubists, including Picasso, influenced the way he structures a photograph. He is mostly important for pioneering and popularizing the environmental portrait.