Environmental Portraits are photographs of people in their natural environment like: a workplace, a hobby or their home something that captures that person as they are.

Mood Board

I’ve decided to look at two different portrait photographers (Arnold Newman and Michelle Sank), this is because I wanted to create a variety of images for my final pieces.

Artists Research

Arnold Newman was born in 1938 in New York City and studied at the University of Miami however, he died in 2006. He was considered as the pioneer of the environmental portrait, he was the most influential photographers in the 20th Century. He started by working at chain portrait studios in Philadelphia and immediately began creating his own abstract and documentary style photography. Normally, his style of photography is black and white however, in some photos he has chose to use colour to show the contrast or how the light is captured. He also uses a low angle to capture the person eye to eye and most of the time the person getting photographed is looking directly into the camera.

Michelle Sank was born in South Africa and settled in the UK in 1987. She cites this background as informing her interest in sub-cultures and the exploration of contemporary social issues and challenges. Her crafted portraits and landscapes meld place and person creating sociological, visual and psychological narratives. She normally uses colour for her images as she uses vibrant colours throughout her pictures. She usually take pictures of young people which to me captures youth and the personality they have which is why she might use bright colours as it represents young people. She uses a range of angles as some of her pictures are full body whilst some are three quarter length. She doesn’t have a specific way she wants them to look at the camera as there is a mix of direct eye contact and an averted gaze.

I’ve decided to base my project on home photography and capturing people in their bedrooms which to me show what type of person they are and what they are interested in. This gives me lots of creative freedom because every room is different giving me a different result each time. I will also try and get pictures of people in the place of work or doing a hobby this would link with the artist Arnold Newman. To do this I would go to the market and ask people there if I could take a picture in their workplace. This would get me a good positioning of the person and it would be better.

For my homework I decided to use my house as my textural theme. I was able to find items with lots of texture which was good as it made the shadows look crisp.

For one of my images I took inspiration from Guy Bourdin. Bourdin was a French artist and photographer he was well known for his highly stylized and provocative images. From 1955, Bourdin worked mostly with Vogue as well as other publications including Harper’s Bazaar. He shot ad campaigns for Chanel, Charles Jourdan, Pentax and Bloomingdale’s.

My Contact Sheet

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I added my images on Lightroom to see how they looks on a computer screen. Through this I then starred which photos I preferred, this helped me decide what photos to flag/reject and what photos to edit. However, most photos didn’t have enough texture or they looked too blurry, so this helped choosing.

This allowed me to choose my final images to edit.

Original Photos:

Edited Photos:

Technical:

I used the flash to take the photos as the lighting that day wasn’t the best this meant I used artificial lighting to achieve all my images. For the first image I took the picture head on meaning the flash was just straight on the item, this created less shadows and more reflection. However, with the second image I took it more on an angle which gave it more shadows and more depth. The two last images were also taken head on which meant there wasn’t a lot of shadows just more light. I used a fast shutter speed to take the images so the photos wouldn’t end up blurry and the texture would be crisp.

Visual:

I used a range of colourful and shaped items to show the different textures on each item. Tone was used in the second image to show the contrast of the wood and the shadows. The white juxtaposes with the dark shadows giving the image a sleek look. I showed a range of textures through all four images this gave me a good variety to edit. Most lines were curved as that gave the best shadows or pattern like image 1 and 2. This is good because it made the image look more interesting and more unique.

Contextual:

I wanted to use my house as the topic of this photoshoot as I thought it showed the best texture. This also allowed me to follow an artists image in my own way by using an object that looked most to the concept. I chose to take the images in the late afternoon to use the artificial light instead of the natural light this was because I was able to use the flash and create deeper shadows.

I created a virtual gallery to show off the pictures I thought were the best. This also allowed me to arrange them how I would like and choose different borders for each image, interchanging the black and white frames. I chose images with different lighting and texture to show my range of skills, I made sure to put three images of each subject: paperballs and ripped ripped paper. I also made two perspectives to show the different colours and how lighting can affect how the shadows can look.

Overall, I think I interpreted the paper balls theme well as i showed texture and a range of different backgrounds which allowed me to use different ISO’s and shutter speed. However, I wish I used different lighting instead of white or red as it would of been good to see other colours and how the shadows would be.

James Welling began taking pictures in 1976 using a 4×5 view camera. In 1978, he moved to New York and started a sequence of abstract photographs like: Aluminium Foil, Drapes and Gelatine Photography. He has become known for a relentlessly evolving body of images that considers both the history and technical specificities of photography.

I decided to focus my photoshoot and take the black an white tone aspect to my photos as the light shows a strong contrast between the two colours. I also chose to take the pictures in natural and artificial light to see the difference it makes to the shot. Furthermore, I took pictures in front of a black and white background to see how the paper ball would contrast with a different background.

My Contact Sheet:

Original Photos:

Edited Photos:

Technical:

I started this photoshoot by working out how the light would have the specific effect I wanted on the paper ball. I used a mix of artificial and natural light to see how big the difference would be. I used a range of different ISO’s to see what it would look like how big the contrast would be and how the shadows would lay out.

Visual:

I preferred using a black background instead of a white one as it showed no shadows behind the paper ball. I chose to do the paper ball to show the texture of it scrunched up and how every fold has a different look to them. The use of the black background and the 3D ball makes an illusion as the paper looks like is floating when in reality its just the effect of the lighting.

Contextual:

When choosing the paper ball envisioned the artists (James Welling) work and the paper ball which is the cover of the ‘Core Skills + The Formal Elements’. I liked the cover because it shows a range of different tones like: black grey and white. This inspired me to create my own to see how it would compare against it. I chose this photo as my favourite one:

Artist Research

Paul Jackson is a specialist in origami and the folded arts. He was one of the pioneers of folding/origami as Fine Art lots oh his work has been put in galleries and museums.  He has also curated several ground-breaking exhibitions of origami, undertaken many commercial commissions for print, screen-based media, festivals and more, and has been a consultant for companies such as Siemens, Nike, Tetra-Pak and Tata.

I took the inspiration from the origami and decided to make a white paper crane. I did this because I would be able to play around with the colour of it in Adobe Lightroom. I also chose to create a landscape with torn paper. This is because the torn area gives the photo good texture and I worked with different lighting to see how that would effect the shadows.

My Contact Sheet:

Original Photos:

Edited Photos:

Technical:

I started by taking photos in the photography class using the artificial light. I tried using the flash however, with the white background the paper crane got washed out. I also used an F-stop of 4.5-5.2 to see how it would differ from each image.

Visual:

I used a red light to give the paper crane a colourful effect, this is because the light would be able to emphasise the shadows on the paper crane. The light was sometimes put closer and further away to see how opaque the colour would be, like the third and fourth image. I used shape when taking pictures of the paper to make it seem like mountains or sand which was my main idea for this photoshoot. Adding on, the form of the paper crane allowed for shadows to appear in other areas because of its 3D shape.

Contextual:

When taking these images my inspiration was Paul Jackson an origami artist and photographer. The mountain and sand pictures followed a different artist however they weren’t as detailed as those specific images. Jackson used colourful animals whilst I decided to do colourful background and animal to make my work different from his. The picture I chose reminded me of is photography the most:

ISO is a number that represents how sensitive your camera sensor is to light. The higher the ISO number, the higher your camera’s sensitivity, and the less light you need to take a picture. The trade-off is that higher ISOs can lead to degraded image quality and cause your photos to be grainy or “noisy.”

High ISO Pictures

You’d want to use a high ISO when wanting an image that looks ‘noisy’ or ‘grainy’. You’d use it when in a low light situation.

Low ISO Pictures

Artist Research: Edward Weston

One of the most influential American photographers of the 20th century, Edward Weston has had a significant impact on the history of photography. His work was first published in 1906, and his career continued until his death in 1958.

My Contact Sheet:

Original Photos

I chose to go into the music studio where there was low light to achieve the results I needed. I then took the same picture in with different ISO’s to see the how it would look.

Edited Photos

A shutter speed and exposure photoshoot was taken to understand how each skill is done

Through Adobe Lightroom I used ‘P’ and ‘X’ which allowed me to flag the photos I think looked best and which show a clear understanding of each skill

Original Images

These are my edited photos

Shutter speed works with the aperture to allow light in to the camera lens whilst also effecting movement.

Harold Edgerton – fast shutter speed – in 1931 worked with a stroboscope. By matching strobe flashes with the motion being examined he would take many photos through an open shutter at the rate of lots of flashes per second. This led to Edgerton inventing ultra-high-speed and stop-action photography.

Fast Shutter Speed

Francesca Woodman – slow shutter speed – was an American photographer best known for her black and white pictures featuring either herself or female models. Many of her photographs show women, naked or clothed, blurred, merging with their surroundings, or whose faces are obscured

slow shutter speed

Aperture is the amount of light let into the lens which is measured in F/Stops. The F/Stops allow to control how much is going in – 1.4mm F/Stops lets a lot of light in while 50mm F/Stops will make it a pinhole shape.

Depth of Field is what’s in focus, in front and behind the subject. Deep depth of focus means everything is in focus however there is a small aperture. A shallow depth of field is only one thing in focus with a large aperture. If you want more focus you need a higher F number, but if you want a less focused image use a lower F number.