An environmental portrait is a portrait typically done in a usual environment of the subject, such as in their home or workplace, and typically illuminates the subject’s life and surroundings.

By photographing a person in their natural surroundings, it shows more of their character, and therefore portrays the essence of their personality, rather than merely a likeness of their physical features. Also, by photographing a person in their natural surroundings the subject will be more at ease, and so be more conducive to expressing themselves – as opposed to in a studio, which can be a rather intimidating and artificial experience.

Artist References/Case Studies

Arnold Newman (March 3, 1918 – June 6, 2006) was a Jewish American photographer credited with being the photographer who most contributed to the rise of the photographic style of environmental portraits. Some of his most famous portrait photographs include celebrities such as John F. Kennedy, Pablo Picasso and Marilyn Monroe.

A well known example of one of his portraits is of Igor Stravinsky in which the lid of his grand piano forms a musical note representative of the melodic structure of the composer’s work. Newman normally captured his subjects in their most familiar surroundings with representative visual elements showing their professions and personalities. A musician for instance might be photographed in their recording studio or on stage, a Senator or other politician in their office or a representative building.

“I didn’t just want to make a photograph with some things in the background,” Newman once told American Photo magazine in an interview. “The surroundings had to add to the composition and the understanding of the person. No matter who the subject was, it had to be an interesting photograph. Just to simply do a portrait of a famous person doesn’t mean a thing.”

Alfred Krupp by Arnold Newman, 1963

Image Analysis

Initial Emotional Response – Krupp comes off as sinister and villainous due to his facial expression, pose and placement in the image creating an uncomfortable atmosphere, with Krupp having somewhat of a look of superiority to him.

Technical – Dim, artificial lighting creates a cold mood to the image further reinforcing the serious tone of the image initially introduced by Krupp and his sinister appearance. A cold colour scheme is present throughout the image which emphasises this uncomfortable atmosphere, contrasting with the trains in the background which are the only real warm-toned objects present in the image which lead to them standing out to viewers of the image (which has been done intentionally, linking to context). Finally, a shallow depth of field has been used to maintain most of the image’s focus on Krupp to highlight his importance and appearance of superiority.

Visual – There is clearly use of texture in the image, primarily in Krupp himself with a subtle emphasis on the wrinkles seen in his face and hands, showing how he experience with life itself which when combined with his egotistical and superior manner implies he has used this against those he deems inferior to him. Moreover, the pattern of the lights on the ceiling as well as the leading lines they create which bring attention inevitably towards Krupp once more creates a sense of ever looming dread and no escape (linking to the context of past of the photographer and his people, especially what they have suffered).

Contextual – Arnold Newman (a Jewish photographer) was commissioned by Newsweek to take a portrait of Alfred Krupp, who was a convicted Nazi war criminal. Initially, Newman refused, but eventually he decided to take the assignment as a form of personal revenge.

Conceptual – The idea behind the image was a form of personal revenge on Krupp for his crimes against Jews during WW2, exploiting them and working them until death, which Newman has done with his presentation of Krupp as sinister and evil. After seeing the photograph, Krupp was outraged, but Newman was satisfied saying after the photograph was taken he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

Photoshoot Plan

Subjects: Family (mum dad and sister), Katie, friends.

Environments: Around home, hobbies, outside environments (places that I associate with them).

Poses: Natural/relaxed, central/on a third of the image with a neutral position, clothes and objects in image relate to person. Trying to capture them like they are doing their normal activities in their usual environments.

Home environments: Sister in her bedroom/living room.

Gaze: Directly at camera to create relation between viewer and image, although I will experiment with subject not facing camera to create a more authentic effect.

Composition: I will try use a central framing to highlight my subject, but I will also try use rule of thirds to try and have more focus on elements of the background showing personality and life of the person being photographed.

Framing/orientation: I will take full body images, and in editing avoid over cropping to keep the subject and their environment in full view to tell a story. I will also take images in landscape to show more of the subject’s environment.

Initial ideas: Sister in fancy dress in bedroom with dolls, friends in typical environments etc.

Camera settings: High f/stop to capture more of the background in focus since the environments will play a significant part in the intention behind my images and help to tell a story about the person, adjust ISO according to lighting (e.g. outside/inside images).

My Photoshoot

After importing my photos into Lightroom, I went through them all and flagged them as either an X (ones I wasn’t pleased with and wasn’t going to use) or a yes (photos I was satisfied with and would go over further to see if I would use them for my finals). Once I had filtered images by the unsuccessful and successful ones, I went through the ones flagged as good and colour coded them (yellow being good images but with improvements that could be made with editing, and green being images I found really successful and I will consider editing for my final images) – finally, I star rated each colour coded image to show what I thought of each one, giving yellow ones 3 stars and green ones 4 or 5 stars.

Selected Final Photos

I chose this image as one of my finals because I really like the composition and how so much of the environment has been captured which tells more of a story about the subject. Furthermore, I am pleased with the lighting since it helps illuminate the environment making it seem more vibrant which reflects the subject’s bubbly personality.

I chose this image as one of my finals because I found the rule of thirds to be really effective as it still clearly highlights the subject whilst still allowing the viewer to explore the natural background and environment she is placed in. Moreover, I have used leading lines which direct the viewer’s gaze from the environment back down to the subject which I find to be very effective.

I decided to choose this one as one of my finals because I like how although the environment is different the subject is in a similar pose to the previous image so I can juxtapose the two images’ environments by displaying them side by side in my final presentation, and I also found the colour contrast between the subject’s clothing and the surrounding environment to be extremely effective since it creates a clear contrast while still keeping both as focus points – however, I feel like there is too much negative space near the bottom so when editing I will adjust the composition by cropping out some of the bottom.

I selected this image for my final because I was experimenting with natural lighting and found it really effective since it creates more of a cooler colour scheme which I find really suits the environment and the clothing of the subject. I also like the use of rule of thirds again since it allows the viewer to explore more of the environment without the subject being the full focus of the image due to them being off centre.

I chose this image for my final presentation because I find the composition really effective, showing the subject on one half of the image and the environment in the background on the other split clearly in the middle by the white concrete wall. I also like how the environment colour contrasts with the subject and his surroundings, telling more of a story to the viewer about the subject’s personality and interests. For editing, I will experiment with slightly cropping out the left part of the image since I think there is an excess of negative space and I want to create more of a focus on the subject.

Finally, I have selected this image because I like how in contrast to the other images the subject fills up more of the frame so I can juxtapose it to other photos. I also found the subject’s gaze towards the camera really effective since it creates a clear sense of connection between the viewer and the photo and I think the clothes of the subject match really well with the environment she’s placed in which tells more of a story of her character.

Editing/Experimentation

I decided to keep editing for this image simple since I like the original iteration, so I cropped the image to remove distracting negative space on the right and frame the subject more towards the left third which draws more attention from the view towards them as well as still displaying lots of items in the background which tells a story about her personality and hobbies. I also adjusted the colours and toning of the image since I felt the lighting was significantly warmer than I wanted it to be which was distracting since the vibrant colours of the walls would immediately draw attention of the viewer.

For this image, I cropped a bit off the top to remove excess negative space I found took focus away from the subject’s environment and adjusted the colours and tones to be slightly colder since the lighting was too warm. I think this edit really improved the image overall since initially there were too many distractions taking away focus from the subject, but now with less negative space and slightly less vibrant colours it allows other techniques such as the leading lines going from the top of the photo down to the subject to maintain her as the focal point of the image whilst still having the surrounding environment be colourful and full enough to showcase parts of her personality and life.

For this photo, I first cropped out the bottom to remove excess negative space to direct more focus onto the subject as well as the surrounding environment – I then adjusted the colour and brightness slightly since I found the lighting in the original image to be too warm which contrasted poorly with the colder natural lighting coming in from the skylight, and I think this edit was very successful because now there’s less distractions which direct more focus towards the subject and the environment whilst again still clearly telling a story about her personality and hobbies with the toys shown in the background.

I decided to not experiment too much with this image since I thought the original iteration was already very effective with the subject positioned on the right third allowing focus to be distributed between her as well as the environment and the natural lighting not being too warm meaning there was little distractions – however, I did crop the image slightly to remove some negative space which again helps to clear unintentional distractions and improve the photo overall. I will experiment more with colours and different compositions in my second edit but if that doesn’t help highlight the subject or the surroundings better then I will use this photo as one of my finals since I am pleased with how it is simple but still clearly shows a lot about the subject and her daily environments/activities.

For my edits of this image, I cropped to remove the sign in the top left which stood out in the negative space behind the subject which was distracting and made the image split in half, with one half showing the subject and the other colour contrasting and showing his usual environments. I also decreased brightness and increased highlights to reduce the strength of the natural lighting coming from the top right so more details are visible in the surroundings, which helps to paint a clearer picture of the subject’s typical hobbies and surroundings and overall creates more focus and intrigue from the viewer towards the subject.

For this image, I cropped it so the subject is perfectly centred which combined with the subject’s gaze directly towards the camera creates a personal connection between her and the viewer. I also increased highlights so more details are visible in the surroundings which when combined with the subject’s clothes being appropriate for the environment she is pictured in starts telling a story about her hobbies and usual environments – furthermore, I adjusted tone and colour to ensure the colours used are colder which goes well with the surroundings and overall helps create a clearer sense of the background the subject is placed in and why she’s been pictured there.

Final Images and Evaluation

Overall, I think my photoshoot was very successful since each photo clearly meets my intention of capturing people in their usual environments as well as telling stories about them and their personality/hobbies with details and objects in the surrounding environment – I did minimal editing for each one because I felt each photo was already effective and just needed small tweaks to reduce distractions and improve composition to highlight the subject further. I also found each image makes great use of formal elements and other techniques, with every image making effective use of lines, colour, space and composition techniques such as rule of thirds to highlight/contrast certain aspects of the photos to help tell more of a story about each individual subject and their respective environments.

Presentation of Final Images

My final images presented in artsteps – I decided to arrange from warmer colours/tones and indoor environments on the left leading to cooler colours/tones and outdoor environments on the right since I like how there is a clear contrast between the first half and the second half of the images, whilst still making each one catch attention from the viewer.

August Sander

August Sander (17 November 1876 – 20 April 1964) was a German portrait and documentary photographer. His work includes landscape, nature, architecture, and street photography, but he is most well known for his portraits.

His most recognised series is titled People of the 20th century, and aims to show a cross-section of society during the Weimar Republic.

The picture shown above belongs to ‘The Skilled Tradesman’, which is one of the seven chapters in his ‘People of the 20th Century’ project. The title and focus of this image represent a typical example of Sander’s work documenting individuals from different jobs and social backgrounds. In terms of style, the way the portrait is centered, the plain background, and the traditional framing show Sander’s belief in photography as a way to reveal the truth; it captures reality as it is, without any fancy techniques, sticking to the established norms of portrait photography. Sander mentioned in his important lecture ‘Photography as a Universal Language’ that photography is the best medium to show the ‘physical path to demonstrable truth and understand physiognomy’.

Sander later expanded his project, People of the 20th Century, to feature a group called ‘The Woman’ (shown above). One of the subjects is ‘Sekretärin beim Westdeutschen Rundfunk in Köln’ (Secretary at West German Radio in Cologne), which he captured while working for the German public broadcasting organization ‘Westdeutscher Rundfunk’. This portrait can be compared to Otto Dix’s ‘Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden’, created five years earlier. Both artworks showcase a new wave of women in the workforce during that era—balancing both androgynous and feminine traits, and breaking free from traditional domestic roles. These portraits play a significant role in the emergence of the New Objectivity movement in German art, which was a response to the prevailing expressionist style, aiming for a more realistic and straightforward representation of the human form.

Typologies

A photographic typology is a study of “types”, typically a photographic series that prioritizes “collecting” rather than stand-alone images. By extracting visual elements and presenting them in a similarly consistent series, we can create a visual analysis of objects and the larger environment and its inhabitants – often without featuring the occupants themselves.

Examples of Typologies:

In photography, texture is the visual quality of the surface of an object, revealed through variances in shape, tone and colour depth. Texture can add vibrance and create intrigue in images which otherwise would be bland and uninspiring – it is also one of the formal elements.

The Formal Elements

The formal elements are characteristics or information displayed in photographs which creates interest in photographs, and including these in your work typically increases quality and leads to production of better images overall. These are as follows:

Light: This is used in images to highlight certain areas of an image to create a sense of importance on certain aspects, whereas a lack of light can be used creatively to create intrigue in photos. Whether or not the light is natural or artificial can also be used to show clear artistic intent in images.

Line: Objects or parts of an image that act as lines can create direction in a photograph to highlight certain areas, or they can be used to outline and highlight important parts as well as showing movement or energy.

Repetition: Objects, shapes or lines in a photo can be repeated to create rhythms or patterns in an image.

Shape: Geometric or organic shapes can be used in an image which will stand out due to being easily identifiable, which can be used in conjunction with repetition to create simple but effective photos.

Space: Negative (empty) space can be used alongside positive (full) space to add depth to a photograph or make it more shallow, which could be used to highlight objects in the foreground or background.

Tone: A range of tones (light to black) can be used similarly to light to highlight parts of an image as well as affecting the mood or atmosphere as an image; for example, darker tones create a dull mood which when intentional can be used to capture a strong effect in photographs.

Colour: Colours can be used to add life to images and create vibrant moods, and can also be used to highlight certain aspects due to some colours being more dominant than others.

Photographer Research – Francis Bruguière

Francis Bruguière (15 October 1879 – 8 May 1945) was an American photographer who experimented with multiple-exposure, solarization, original processes, abstracts, photograms, and the response of commercially available film to light of various wavelengths. Some of his most famous photos are experimenting with light and the texture of paper to manipulate the image into being abstract.

Above are two of Bruguière’s images which I find to be effective. He has created shapes with paper and experimented with different levels/angles of light onto the paper to explore how it will affect the presentation of the images in terms of its texture – these images also make very effective use of the formal elements, for example there is a wide variety of dark and light tones which blend together nicely alongside the low aperture softening the focus on the background to create an abstract effect as well as a sense of intrigue to the image. Furthermore, there is clear use of lines but they are slightly out of focus and instead of directing focus or highlighting certain regions of the image they are present all over the image whilst simultaneously not being overused which helps strengthen the abstract effect further as everything mixes together smoothly to make it hard to pinpoint one clear subject in both of these photographs.

Photoshoot Plan:

I decided to focus my photoshoot on the texture of paper, taking inspiration from Bruguière’s work to try and create paper shapes and using the lighting of the photography studio to explore how manipulating the light will affect the quality as well as the degree of abstraction in the image produced. I also wanted to try include aspects of the formal elements into my images to try and produce more effective and fascinating final images.

Post-Photoshoot Refining and Selecting

After the photoshoot, I imported my images into Adobe Lightroom so I could begin my review and selection process to identify poor photos (flagged as X), good photos with improvements to be made (yellow and 3 stars) and photos which I found were most effective and wanted to edit and refine for my final piece (green, 4 or 5 stars).

Above are 3 images I found weren’t effective and flagged as X. I feel these photos aren’t great since I didn’t properly adjust aperture the way I planned to in order to highlight texture, and it turned out to be out of focus too – furthermore, I feel these don’t use the formal elements effectively since for example the texture which was my main focus of this photoshoot hasn’t been shown clearly and the lines of the paper don’t highlight some regions and instead are just present without really contributing to the mood these images are trying to build.

Above are 3 images I found were improvements compared to others, but at the same time weren’t my best images – after experimenting with settings and identifying weaknesses in previous photos, I adjusted settings further and found that it was producing more of the effect I wanted it to (the 3 photos above were all taken at ISO 200, f/stop 4 and shutter speed 1/20 sec) and also managed to capture these images more in focus which improves the overall quality. I also found the formal elements were being displayed more clearly here, since in the first and last image displayed I used a light from a phone to manipulate the shadows and dark tones into highlighting the texture and in the middle image I experimented more with lighting to try and achieve an abstract effect and although it was semi-successful I found it to be too underexposed and out of focus to use it as one of my final best images.

Above are 3 images I found to be some of my most effective and selected to edit and present in my final piece. By this point I had done lots of experimenting with the settings and lighting so I was able to capture these images exactly how I wanted to in my pre-photoshoot plan, and also captured them in focus (except for the middle one which has some intentional line blurring to highlight texture in the background). I believe these images are ones that use the formal elements most effectively out of all my images.

In the first image, I decided to use my phone light rather than the studio light after some experimentation to cast a shadow of the paper onto the wall as well as using this light to highlight the texture of the paper itself, and I also captured the paper in a way where it acts as a leading line to the part of paper sticking up which acts as the subject of the photograph due to most of the photograph being 2D and flat whereas this aspect of it is sideways to show dimension and depth. In editing I will crop the image to focus more on the right half since that’s where the subject and main focus of the photo is as well as adjusting shadows and brightness to explore the effect this will have on the lighting and texture.

In the second image, I used a line of paper in the foreground but also intentionally captured it out of focus so the main subject of the image is still on the texture of paper in the background, which stands out due to me positioning the lighting in a certain way to clearly highlight it. In editing I will crop the image to focus further on the texture as well as experimenting with gradient overlays and contrast to see what effect this will have on my photo and the intention behind it.

In the third image, I aimed to focus more on capturing the formal element of lighting effectively by positioning my artificial lights and paper in a way where there would be a range of light and dark tones due to the projection of the paper’s shadow. I also found there was effective display of texture on the paper as well as lines from the bottom right towards the top left which lead to the shadow, clearly contrasting the dark and light tones. In editing I will experiment with cropping, because even though I like the raw photo as presented above I want to see if manipulation of the image in terms of cropping and composition will strengthen the atmosphere created by the other formal elements.

Image Editing and Manipulation

Below is the first set of my edited images after experimenting:

After this, I decided to manipulate my images taking an alternative approach with gradients to see what effect it would have on the photos, the formal elements as well as the ideas behind each photo.

Below is my second set of edited images:

Final Images – Creation

Below is my final set of edited images:

Final Presentation

Evaluation

On the left is a photo from Francis Bruguière and on the right is one of my final images. I think I was able to replicate Bruguière’s use of the formal elements, most notably the visible differences between dark and light tones and subtle lines which create space and contribute to the composition – however, unlike Bruguière, I have used mostly negative space to present my dark tones which means the paper doesn’t fully fill the frame and therefore it does take away from the abstract effect.

Artist Research – Mark Duffy

Mark Duffy is a commercial photographer who brings over a decade of graphic design experience to his photography work.

Some of his work involves close up macro photography of fruit, using effective compositions to highlight different textures on different fruits.

My Photoshoot

For my photoshoot on texture, I decided to photograph a wide variety of fruit and experiment with their different textures to create a range of unique, interesting images. By taking straight-on, zoomed in images similarly to Mark Duffy I aimed to highlight texture using specific compositions as well as creating clear differences in tones between different fruits.

Overall, some photos were underexposed whilst I was trying to adjust the settings manually to cope with the room’s artificial lighting but for the majority of the photos I feel I successfully captured effective images focusing and highlighting the unique textures of each individual fruit. I also used straight on shots to focus solely on the textures presented in each image, making use of formal elements such as lines and space to make them stand out further.

Some of my better photos:

The raw photos shown above I believe have captured texture very effectively, occasionally using a soft focus to highlight certain textures as well as most textures being in the foreground combined with a low aperture to make the textures stand out even further as the image’s main focal point.

Image Editing/Experimentation:

First editing phase:

Second editing phase:

Final fruit photos:

Above are my final 3 photos, presented in a triptych. I decided to crop each one similarly to the point where it removes most unnecessary negative space to focus solely on texture, as well as making them all black and white to remove colours in order to further develop the focus on texture since this was my main intention behind the photoshoot. Finally, after editing each image in Photoshop, I used Lightroom’s develop mode to manually increase presence of texture which I found extremely effective since now all my photos have a strong resemblance to Mark Duffy’s work with their minimal negative space and strong focus on textures.

Evaluation and Comparison:

Above is one of my final images compared to an image from my inspiration, Mark Duffy. I think I managed to successfully take inspiration from his work and implement it into my own photos, seen clearly by both images being straight-on shots of fruit highlighting texture – however, mine has some negative space around the subject (in contrast to Duffy) and is also in black and white which I did since I think the removal of colours cuts down on distractions to focus solely on texture. Both photos also demonstrate clear use of formal elements, with both having subtle lines to highlight the textures as well as a clear range of light and dark tones to create intrigue in the photo.

What is ISO?

ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) is a number you can change on your camera which adjusts how sensitive your camera sensor is to light.

How does changing ISO affect images?

A lower ISO value means there is less sensitivity to light, so you will need more light to take a good photo, whereas a higher ISO value increases sensitivity to light meaning less light is needed for a photo. However, if ISO is set too high, visual noise can start being introduced into the image which is a grainy effect that if unintentional can lower the quality and effectiveness of your photo.

Despite this drawback, higher ISO values are still useful for taking photos where there are low levels of light. If you have ideal lighting conditions, your ISO number should be kept low to avoid introducing visual noise into your photographs. Unlike aperture and shutter speed, ISO is adjusted by pressing the ISO button and then selecting your desired number.

My ISO photos:

For my photoshoot, I took pictures of the same subjects while adjusting the shutter speed and ISO numbers to explore how they affect images.

Below are two images of a scrunched up paper ball, both taken at the same shutter speed but with different ISO numbers.

The first photo is significantly darker than the second because the ISO number is extremely low, which has reduced light sensitivity and caused a darker image. The second photo is much brighter due to a higher ISO number which has increased light sensitivity, as well as beginning to introduce visual noise into the image.

When taking photos, you need to adjust shutter speed, aperture and ISO all together to ensure the lighting is optimal for the effect you are trying to achieve. Fast shutter speeds which let in less light alongside low ISO levels to decrease light sensitivity can cause extremely dark photos, such as the one below.

If you over-adjust one aspect while not adjusting another, you can fix the lighting problem but introduce other issues into your photos. For example, in the image below, the shutter speed is still fast (1/100 sec) but the ISO has increased drastically to 6400, which has improved the lighting significantly but also introduced visual noise which has affect the quality of the image.

However, with the right amount of adjustment for each aspect (aperture, shutter speed and ISO), you can achieve your desired lighting without harming the image too much in other ways such as visual noise.

Conclusion:

Aperture, shutter speed and ISO all affect the brightness of your image so it is important to adjust each one to make sure your photos are your desired brightness whilst minimising other consequences like visual noise. For example, if you use a low ISO number, you might want to compensate by using a slower shutter speed and larger aperture to achieve optimal lighting.

Purpose of Lightroom

Lightroom is typically used for selection, rating and editing of many images, contrary to Photoshop which is typically only used for high levels of editing on one or few images. After a photoshoot, you could use Lightroom to organise your photos into a collection and rate them based off numerous factors (e.g. what you photographed, quality of photograph) to pinpoint your best photos, after which you can edit them all at once on Lightroom and/or select the best few to edit thoroughly using Photoshop.

Creation of Catalogues

When I first opened Lightroom, I had to create a personal catalogue – I named this catalogue my name and saved it in the video data drive.

Importing Images

I then had to import some of my images into Lightroom, using the import button on the bottom left of the interface.

Once I selected import, I then had to choose a path to import my images from, which in my case was from the media drive.

Once I had selected this path, all my images appeared and I could choose which ones to import into Lightroom.

Creation of Collections

Next, I made a collection specifically for my shutter speed photography. To do this, I clicked the plus sign next to collections to create a new collection, titled it Shutter Speed and dragged and dropped the images I had imported into this collection.

By doing this, I can sort my large gallery of photographs into smaller groups, for example instead of having all my photographs in one area making it hard to differentiate and identify them I can split them into unique collections (e.g. a collection for aperture, another for shutter speed etc.)

Selection Functions

I then had the option to select and rate my images in different ways – one thing you can do is flag your images as good or bad using either the P key (for good) or the X key (for bad), allowing you to then filter out which images you want to see using the flagged filter which removes the images you marked as bad from view. You can also rate your pictures from 1-5 stars and then filter them by these star ratings.

Develop Mode

After learning how to import images, create collections and rate/filter images in library mode I then learnt how to use develop mode. This mode is used when you need to do major editing on one particular image (similar to Photoshop), unlike library mode which can be used to make small quick adjustments to multiple images.

At the bottom, there is a before and after view option which I could use to compare my edited image to its original version and identify strengths and weaknesses of both images, then make further adjustments if needed.

Develop mode has many presets which can be used to make quick edits of your images (an example is above where I have used the black and white PB02 preset), or you can make lots of adjustments manually to really transform the image into a successful one you like. I spent a while using the manual developing features, and then produced an edited version of my image which I am satisfied with.

Contact Sheets

A contact sheet is like a photo gallery of all your raw (unedited) images – using a contact sheet, you can colour code and organise your images to highlight the successful/unsuccessful ones as well as grouping your images to show the intention and thought process behind your work.

William Klein

William Klein was a photographer well known for his unique contact sheets where he drew over and colour coded images to identify and group them, showing his thought process behind his pictures and clearly identifying what he considered his strongest work. This unique, almost artistic approach to contact sheets and photographer was ultimately what made him stand out and be unique compared to other photographers of his time.

What is Shutter Speed?

Shutter speed refers to the duration for which the camera’s shutter remains open, determining the period during which the sensor is exposed to light. A longer exposure time allows more light to reach the sensor, resulting in a brighter image – controlling and adapting shutter speed is crucial for capturing either sharp images of moving things or exploring creative blurring in moving objects.

Examples of Slow Shutter Speed Images:

Using a slower shutter speed means more light hits the camera due to the shutter being open for longer, which can create these motion blurs when photographing fast movement (such as cars). These blurs can be intentional, but if unintentional the shutter speed should be increased to remove them. In these two examples a slow shutter speed was used when photographing cars which led to these blurs, making it seem like the cars are driving past at extremely high speeds.

Examples of Fast Shutter Speed Images:

Faster shutter speeds mean the shutter is open for smaller amounts of time which consequently limits the amount of light that can hit the camera – this reduces blurs and increases sharpness of an image, which is good for capturing sharp images of movement (such as athletes running). In these two examples a fast shutter speed was used to take sharp images of fast movement, such as the bird’s wings flapping or the shattered glass flying in all directions.

Key Figures of Fast Shutter Speed – Muybridge and Edgerton

Eadweard Muybridge is known for his groundbreaking photographic investigations into motion, which significantly contributed to the development and rise of cinema. He was commissioned to capture the movement of a horse in order to demonstrate that a horse’s hooves are elevated from the ground during a trot.

Muybridge is also famous for his work in chronophotography, where he studied how animals move from 1878 to 1886. He used several cameras to take pictures of animals at different stages of their movement. He also created the zoopraxiscope, a machine that projected painted moving images from glass discs, which came before the flexible film strips we use in movies today.

Harold Eugene Edgerton (April 6, 1903 – January 4, 1990) was an American scientist and researcher who taught electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is well-known for turning the stroboscope from a little-known lab tool into a widely used device. Additionally, he played a significant role in creating sonar technology and deep-sea photography. His inventions were used alongside Jacques Cousteau in efforts to find shipwrecks and even the Loch Ness Monster.

Key Figures of Slow Shutter Speed – Sugimoto and Woodman

Marcel Duchamp, a key figure in early 20th-century Cubism and Dadaism, had a significant impact on Sugimoto’s ideas about art and the concept of time. Sugimoto frequently uses large format cameras and long exposure techniques to photograph light as it acts in predictable yet controlled manners.

Francesca Woodman’s family would spend their summers at their farmhouse in the countryside close to Florence, Italy, where she took many of her photographs. The rich European culture and art greatly influenced her artistic growth. You can see the impact of surrealist artists like Man Ray and Claude Cahun in her work, especially in the themes and style she chose. She honed her ideas and skills while studying at the Rhode Island School of Design; her role as an innovator is really important, especially in the 1970s when photography was often seen as less valuable than painting and sculpture. She paved the way for future American artists, like Cindy Sherman and Nan Goldin, who used photography to delve into themes of identity.

My Shutter Speed Photoshoot, 24/09/24

Above is a photo I took inspired by Francesca Woodman – I have used a slow shutter speed on a passing car to achieve the ghostly and abstract atmosphere of her work, where the car is hardly recognisable and just a blur. I then edited it in Photoshop to make it black and white similar to Woodman’s work, and corrected the photo as it was slightly overexposed.

This is a similar photo I took, however I think this one wasn’t as great since you can still clearly recognise it is a car, so I think it hasn’t successfully captured the abstract feeling of Woodman’s work. I also didn’t have the camera mounted on a tripod in this photo which resulting in a lot of unintentional motion blur in the surroundings.

Class Photoshoot

Above are a few most successful images from the class photoshoot, using a low shutter speed to create an abstract and almost ghostly image (edited in Photoshop by me to be black and white). These are the four most successful pictures in my opinion since none of them were too over/underexposed and each one intentionally used a long exposure time to successfully capture the abstract atmosphere of images by photographers such as Francesca Woodman.

Aperture and Depth of Field

Aperture (measured in f/stop) 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. Depth of field is defined as being the distance between the nearest and the furthest objects giving a focused image – a small depth of field comes with a lower aperture value, and leads to very little being in focus whereas a larger depth of field comes with higher aperture values and makes more of an image be in focus.

Focal Length

Focal length (usually measured in mm) is defined as being the optical distance from the centre of a lens and its focus. This determines what you see when using the camera, for example a shorter focal length captures more due to a wider angle.

Auto vs Manual Focus

Auto focus is typically general use due to its simplicity, whereas manual focus is used more when close ups and fine detail are needed in an image. When using manual focus, you should use the focus ring on the end of the lens and adjust for each shot as necessary.

Example photos using aperture:

Aperture of 2.8:

In this photograph, the toy plane is noticeably much more in focus compared to other objects in the background, highlighting it as the main subject of the image. This low aperture creates a very shallow depth of field, creating this low focus effect on the background.

Aperture of 5.6:

When compared to the previous image, this one is very similar in terms of the plane still clearly standing out as the subject/main focus – however, a slightly higher aperture value has enlarged the depth of field which consequently has made the other objects captured in frame more in focus.

Aperture of 11:

As the aperture value continues to increase, the depth of field clearly becomes larger which as a result makes even more of the objects captured be in focus. Due to the depth of field not highlighting one particular aspect of this image, there is no singular main focus which implies everything captured in this image is of equal importance.

Aperture of 22:

Finally, with a very high aperture value, the depth of field is very large leading to every object being completely in focus which further emphasises the effect of equal importance first noticed at an aperture value of 22. Blurs are also minimised, which can be useful for capturing images where you want everything to be in focus (such as landscapes, nature etc.)

Artist Research: Uta Barth

Over the last twenty years, Uta Barth has focused her art on how we perceive visuals. Known for her “empty” images that focus on painterly abstraction, she skillfully creates blurred backgrounds, cropped compositions, and plays with natural light to seize those quick, almost unnoticed moments that usually linger at the edges of our vision. By intentionally stepping away from traditional photography and the typical use of a camera, Barth’s work thoughtfully breaks down the norms of visual representation, highlighting the boundaries of what we can actually see.

Some of my work, inspired by Barth:

To achieve the soft focus effect Barth uses, I used a low aperture value as well as manual focus. However, I feel like this wasn’t very successful at capturing the abstract nature of Barth’s work since my image’s focus was slightly too sharp to achieve this – furthermore, I believe the scene I have captured was a poor choice for trying to achieve an abstract effect due to a large variety of things present in the image (chairs, blank walls, door with a light that clearly stands out). To improve next time, I will adjust the f/stop value to be even lower to really try and strive for a shallow depth of field and I will photograph a less vibrant scene with less objects and things to look at to maximise the chances of me capturing the abstract effect used by Barth.

Above is the same image but edited using Photoshop – I found the original image to be too vibrant and colourful to qualify as abstract, so I toned down the saturation to better achieve an abstract effect. Furthermore, I cropped out most of the image to reduce the amount of things present to try work towards more of an abstract effect; overall, I think I could definitely do better if I had adjusted my aperture values properly to achieve a low focus effect.

My work compared to Barth’s:

My work against a picture taken by Uta Barth. My work is clearly not very abstract since the objects captured can be clearly identified and the colours are vibrant which makes the scene even less abstract; in comparison, Barth’s image uses softer colours which blend together naturally as well as a much shallower depth of field, successfully creating an abstract effect.

Camera Obscura

Nicephore Niepce

Henry Fox Talbot

Daguerreotype

Richard Maddox

George Eastman

Kodak (Brownie)

Digital Photography

Artist Research – Henry Mullins