Photography A1:
Portraiture
Definition and Theory:
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(Definition) A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person.
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Capturing portraits is to capture the mood and soul of a person.
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There are lots of different types of portraiture... traditional portraits, lifestyle portraits, environmental portraits, candid and street portraits, glamour and boudoir photography, fine art portraits, conceptual portraits, surreal portraits.
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There are a number of elements that effect ways in taking portraits... props and backgrounds being used, experimenting with light, focusing upon one body part or facial feature, breaking the rules of composition, changing the eye contact and using focus in different angles.
This portrait of Winston Churchill has quite a clear representation of what the man was like. He has a very serious expression upon his face indicating how serious his personality was. The photograph being on black and white suggests not a very bright and colourful personality within Churchill. He has been dressed in a smart suit to present him almost as a 'gentlemen' who is very sharply dressed, also suggesting the amount of money and power he holds. His body language in the image also indicates as if Churchill appears to be very grumpy and almost arrogant.
This portrait of Amanda Lepore has quite a range of different colours within the image, such as her bright red lipstick; suggesting a theme of danger and fierceness within her personality. Due to the leopard background it may indicate that Lepore has a 'wild side' and once again highlighting the fierceness within her personality. This photograph has quite a lot of light exposure that once again tells us about her personality being very bright and positive, especially compared to the darkness within the portrait of Winston Churchill.
Soft Lighting VS Hard Lighting:
Soft and Hard light are different types of lighting that are commonly used in photography and film making. Soft light refers to light that tends to "wrap" around objects, casting diffuse shadows with soft edges. Soft light is when a light source is large relative to the subject; hard light is when the light source is small relative to the subject. Size of light source. The larger the source, the softer it becomes.
Here’s the list of most commonly used mounting accessories that allow to get diffused and directional soft lighting:
Softbox — the most widespread lighting modifiers of square and rectangular forms. Basically, it’s a frame made of tubes covered with a special material. The front of a softbox is covered with the cloth that diffuses the light to make it soft. The inner surface of the softbox is reflecti??. Commonly, the inner surface is coated with metallized silvering material or a white cloth, while the outer part is usually black.
Oktobox — circular octagonal modifier. Very similar to a softbox. Produces diffused soft light. It is often used by fashion photographers for its uniform illumination across the entire scene and very slight shadows.
Stripbox — soft directed source of light. Resembles design of a softbox, but with more stretched proportions (30–40 cm wide). It is commonly used for the production of full body portraits.
Umbrellas — accessories used for soft light distribution. Very slight shadows. Umbrellas come in two types: the reflected umbrella and the optical white shoot-through umbrella. Shoot-through umbrellas have small reflectivity due to the semi-transparency of the fabric and are used to reduce the intensiveness of a strobe light creating nice fill light. Reflected umbrellas have dense surface that is highly reflective. They are the most easy-to-use type of a lighting modifier. Probably, the only demerit is inability to create an intense focused beam of light.
High Key Lighting an image with predominantly light tones...
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used in beauty images
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light hearted
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fun
Low Key Lighting an image with predominantly dark tones...
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creates a mood
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mystery
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detailed skin texture adds character
There are two kinds of stroboscopic lamps:
Monolights- strobe lights in which the flash and all the controls are consolidated inside one device. They are extremely easy to carry around, relatively compact and powered by AC or internal battery.
Generators- consist of two components: a generator (control unit) and a lamp block. The generator can be set on the floor and mounted on a tripod. The advantages of generators pair with compromises in compactness and lightness.
Soft Lighting Equipment- soft box, reflectors, etc
Hard Lighting Equipment- snoots, reflector disk, honeycomb, etc
My Image Bank:
My Tasks:
Task 1...
Produce AT LEAST two half body photographs of DIFFERENT SUBJECTS within the studio
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Must take into consideration
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Pose
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Personality
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Work with light set ups
Task 2...
Produce AT LEAST two head shot photographs within the studio
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Must take into consideration
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Pose
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Personality
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Work with light set ups based on photographer Thomas Ruff
Task 3...
Produce at least 4 Location photographs
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Use shallow depth of field (low aperture value)
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Use a tripod where possible
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Ensure there is a reasonable separation between the subject and the background to throw the background out of focus
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Carefully select the background
Task 4...
Following the inspiration of Renee Magritte, produce a surreal portrait whose meaning is an enigma (mystery)
To achieve this you will either need to
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Combine images from a variety of sources using (physical cutouts)
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Combine images through using Photoshop’s selection, cut and paste tools
Photographer Researches:
AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.
Richard Avedon-
Richard Avedon, one of the leading mid-20th-century photographers, noted for his portraits and fashion photographs. Avedon began to explore photography on his own at age 10 and was immediately drawn to portraiture. His style of portraiture is mainly focused on the black and white range of tones within the portraits of people, mostly posed in a number of different positions, all exploring different moods and feelings. I enjoy the range of tones within his work and plan to attempt creating my own version of black and white portraits representing different moods and emotions.
Thomas Ruff-
Thomas Ruff is a German photographer who lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany. He has been described as “a master of edited and reimagined images”. Ruff shares a studio on Düsseldorf's Hansaallee, with other German photographers. His work consists of closer portraits of people, usually pulling quite serious faces and no emotion within their facial expressions. I enjoy the natural, yet slightly saturated colours within his work and will take those elements into perspective when editing my own portrait photographs.
Alec Soth-
Alec Soth is an American photographer, based in Minneapolis. Soth makes "large-scale American projects" featuring the mid-western United States. New York Times art critic Hilarie M. Sheets wrote that he has made a "photographic career out of finding chemistry with strangers" and photographs "loners and dreamers". This photographer links to one of the following tasks that requires taking portrait photographs with a different location being presented in the background of the photo. Allowing me to imitate his style of work in a certain location whilst photographing a person and a portrait of themselves.
René Magritte-
René François Ghislain Magritte was a Belgian Surrealist artist. He became well known for creating a number of witty and thought-provoking images. Often depicting ordinary objects in an unusual context, his work is known for challenging observers' preconditioned perceptions of reality. Magritte's imagery came from the real world but he used it in unexpected ways. I enjoy the elements of surrealism within his work but I believe this effect may be hard for me to capture in my own portrait photographs.
Task 1
My Contact Sheets:
Throughout my contact sheets, I circled in green the images I think to be my best within the whole sheet. Whereas, I also created a red circle around the images in this sheet that I considered to be the worst of them. Overall, I believe I produced enough photographs to produce a number of appropriate portraits that link to one of my previously researched photographers.
When proceeding with this shoot I set my camera settings to having an F stop of 8, the ISO of 200 and the shutter speed of 1/125.
My Best Images (Non-Edits):
These images are the blown up versions of the images I considered to the best in my contact sheet. I liked the idea of creating both portraits of just one person as well as a couple people in a frame. I used two young girls to create a nice portrait of them both to represent a close friendship between them two.
Images that need Improvements:
AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.
However, these image I believe my models lost their focus and therefore didn't create the best portraits for me to capture. These photographs would be the ones that I think to be the ones that I could change when following my next portraiture shoots. I could improve by making sure that my models I use to keep their focus and proceed in doing the correct poses that I planned to capture.
My Editing Process:
AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.
During my editing process, I turned all photos to black and white to follow the photographer I previously researched; Richard Avedon. His portraits were famous for the different range of black and white tones in the image. Also, in my process I enhanced the contrast using the curves tool in the adjustments section, as well changing the exposure within some of the photos.
My Edited Images:
AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements.
Task 2
My Contact Sheets:
Throughout my contact sheets, I circled in green the images I think to be my best within the whole sheet. Whereas, I also created a red circle around the images in this sheet that I considered to be the worst of them. I completed two different shoots in this task, with a number of different models and settings. In the first shoot, I focused on more of a darker setting, using a young girl, in front of a black background, whilst constantly rearranging the light upon her face. On the other hand, in my second shoot I created more of a lighter setting, using a range of different young girls as my models, in front of a much lighter background, keeping the lighting the same throughout the images.
My camera setting changed a bit more throughout both of these shoots; an F stop of 8-6.3, a shutter speed of 1/125 and the ISO of 200.
My Best Images (Non-Edits):
These photographs are larger versions of the ones I believe to be of my best ability and creating a different mood and effect within each photo. Once again, I decided to produces individual portraits with just one person, as well as using a number of people, to capture different effects and create more of a unique style of portraiture.
Images that need Improvements:
AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.
On the other hand, these photographs are the ones I consider to be of a worse condition compared to my others. For example, one image I believe I captured it too soon after another, which didn't allow the lighting to re-focus and adjust. Hence the darker and non-visible image to the left. Whereas, my other photograph it appears the models were still moving whilst capturing the shot, causing a blur within the frame.
My Editing Process:
AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.
During my editing process I didn't actually want to adjust the photographs too much as I liked the effect the lighting had already given in my first shoot. In the photograph edits of my second shoot I enhanced the saturation by a small amount, as well as increasing the exposure by a small amount again. In all of the edits I cropped the image to ensure that all of them appeared as portraits within the orientation.
My Edited Images:
AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements.
Task 2
Due to my first attempt of my second portraiture task not linking to the photographer Thomas Ruff I have decided to have another attempt at this task, but focusing more on achieving the first assessment objective. I decided to take another shoot of four different girls, standing in front of different colour backgrounds. All these girls pulling the same expression, known as dead-pan, linking back his style of portraiture.
My Contact Sheets:
Similar to my other contact sheets, I circled in green the images I think to be my best within the whole sheet. Whereas, I also created a red circle around the images in this sheet that I considered to be the worst of them. I used both an orange and blue background as they are analogous colours; opposite to one another on the colour wheel, which I feel would allow the overall photos to stand out.
My Best Images:
These images were the ones I considered to be the best, even though most images were very similar in the poses that the girls placed as well as their facial expressions.
Images that need Improvement:
I found it difficult to choose or analyse the images that I thought to be the worst within my contact sheet. Due to all the images being very similar and actually difficult to tell the difference between them. The image to the right is almost too similar to my others, so I could improve on my directing skills during my shoots. Whilst the image to the left, my model changed her expression to a less serious facial expression changing the mood, which doesn't link to the photographers style.
AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.
My Editing Process:
AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.
During my editing process I enhanced the contrast slightly as well as the saturation, to increase the colour definition in coloured backgrounds. I also placed the four photographs close together in the shape of a four-squared grid, similar to what the photographer Thomas Ruff does.
My Edited Images:
AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements.
Task 3
My Contact Sheets:
In these contact sheets, I circled in green the images I think to be my best within the whole sheet. Whereas, I also created a red circle around the images in this sheet that I considered to be the worst of them. Although my project is portraiture, following the inspiration of Alec Soth, I focused on the image being taken in a number of different locations.
My Best Images:
Images that need Improvements:
AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.
These images were the chosen ones that I found needed more improvements and helped me to realise what aspects I need to focus on when following through with my next shoots. For example, the lighting was completely off in both, as well as a shadow being captured within the frame.
My Editing Process:
AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.
Throughout my editing process, I played around with the colour and saturation within the images. One in black and white, another the colours being under saturated and others having a much higher saturation level.
My Edited Images:
AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements.
Task 4
My Contact Sheets:
In these contact sheets, I circled in green the images I think to be my best within the whole sheet. Whereas, I also created a red circle around the images in this sheet that I considered to be the worst of them. In these photographs I attempted to follow the style of René Magritte and the concept of covering the faces within his portraits.
My Best Images:
ANNOTATION
Images that need Improvements:
AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.
ANNOTATION
My Editing Process:
AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.
ANNOTATION
My Edited Images:
AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements.
My Overall Portraiture Project Analysis:
Throughout my portraiture project I believe that the influence from photographers was very helpful in the process of capturing a wide range of different portraits and a use of different styles within them. Following through with four different shoots really helped me to express different forms of portraiture and to discover the type/style of portraiture that I prefer to capture. In this project I found that my favourite styles of portraiture is following the inspiration of the photographers Richard Avedon and Alec Soth. I also found that my editing skills are slowly starting to improve after the large amounts of editing that I completed. As well as my improvement in attention and focus on detail within peoples skin colour, facial features and lighting.