The third brief we were tasked with was a portraiture brief. The intention of this project was to create three images; one of a stranger, one of a person we knew and the last one was to be a self portrait. This project intimidated me quite a lot from the beginning, I felt really uncomfortable talking to strangers and I am also very uncomfortable being placed in front of the camera. Therefore, these images were difficult for me to achieve but I was still up for the challenge.
Research
I began to consider what sort of style I would use to approach my images and so started by looking at photographers such as David Bailey, Richard Avedon and Annie Leibovitz. What I liked in particular about the works of Bailey and Avedon was the use of a striking white background, consistent in both of their portraiture images.
I find the use of a white background to be very effective as it leaves no distractions from the face, the face is the subject, nothing else. This therefore means that the face is what is telling the story, everything you need to know about the image is expressed in the subject’s face. The white background also allows the photographer to focus on the details within the face. In both Bailey and Avedon’s work, the use of light in conjunction with the white background enhances the facial features to show their detail whilst retaining the ‘glamour’ of the subject in the frame. With reference to these two images in particular, neither one of them is an unattractive or unflattering image yet both are very striking images.
Both Bailey and Avedon appear to focus on the importance of facial expression in their photography which is also evident in Annie Leibovitz’s work. What is noticeable in Leibovitz’s work is not just the expression that the model is using but also the mode of address that they are using. This can completely change the tone of an image, whether a subject is looking off camera or directly down the camera can portray either empowerment or vulnerability as you can see in the two images of Anne Hathaway below:
Continuing my research, I looked into make up photography as my friend that I have chosen to use as my model for the ‘person I know’ photograph requested to have funky make up done. This perfectly matched her outgoing personality so it seemed like an appropriate idea.
Consistent with the other imagery I have been looking at, it is common in most make up photography to use a white backdrop in order to yet again highlight the facial features, expression and most importantly the content of the make up and style. Images like these are composed and constructed in order to advertise and sell the products and the artistry and so they are usually very high quality images. It’s also very effective how everything else within the competition is muted so that the sole focus is the make up.
As my three portraits would be in different styles, I decided to also look at movement and the use of a slow shutter speed. In particular, I looked at two artists; Bill Wadman and See- ming Lee.
Wadman’s project named ‘Dancers in motion’ uses slow shutter speed beautifully in order to demonstrate the fluidity and process of movement that the dancer undertakes. You can see every step and turn in the way he has photographed this and it’s made ever more elegant by it’s simplicity in colour, there is no distraction from the movement we are viewing. In fact, the use of the slow shutter speed almost brings the images to life.
Lee appears to use slow shutter speed in a very similar way but to a completely different end. Lee’s work connotes more of a concept with meaning rather than emphasising gracefulness with softer imagery. In the above image in particular, you are encouraged not to simply follow the movement but consider the meaning; this image I feel has connotations of refusal, denial, restlessness, stress… The image is also slightly off centre which portrays ideals of confusion and being lost in your own mental state. I aim to use this technique to also convey meaning in my work.
Final images
Stranger danger
For my first image, I tackled the task of engaging with and photographing a stranger. As mentioned previously, there is nothing I fear more than unnecessarily disturbing a stranger in the middle of town for the sake of the photo, almost definitely as I know it would be just as bad in the reverse, if I was the person being asked. That being said, I wanted to progress and went and did it anyway; you could say I cheated a little as I asked a volunteer helping around the Brayford. I used a Canon 700D for this photo with an 85mm lens, this meant that I had incidentally restricted myself from being too close to the subject but it was lovely to use in terms of getting a shallow depth of field. I had the camera on fully manual using an aperture of f/2.8, 1/500s and an ISO 250 which was the most suitable for the cloudy weather on the day.
In terms of editing this image, I stuck to very simple and subtle enhancements in the photoshop RAW editor; I upped the vibrancy and the contrast a little and altered the temperature slightly just to bring the image a little more to life as it appeared quite flat to begin with.
This was my final image:
I took a couple of other photos this day of two more people but this was the best of three as my manual focussing wasn’t up to scratch. With this image in particular, I was disappointed to notice that the focus was sharp on the end of the nose rather than on the eyes. I do quite like the soft focus usually but as the nose is sharper it disrupts this. Upon improving this image in the future I would take more time to ensure the eyes are the sharpest part of the image and attempt to engage more with the stranger as I feel it is evident in this image that both he and I were uncomfortable with the situation. However, I am still encouraged by my progress in stopping and photographing strangers.
Hey there friend
For my ‘person you know’ portrait I decided to photograph my friend Kayleigh. I met her on this course and would now consider her one of my best friends and so she felt most appropriate to use for this image. Being in a comfortable environment and with a familiar face made the situation easier to engage with so that I could pull expression from Kayleigh to reflect my research with Leibovitz in particular. For this photograph I used my own camera, a Nikon D3100 with a kit lens (18-55mm) @40mm, with ISO 400, f/5.3 at 1/25s. My setup for this image was a white piece of paper placed at the end of my hallway in my university halls flat, the lighting is particularly bright in my accommodation and worked perfectly to achieve high key lighting.
The edits again for my chosen image were simple but to greater effect. I increased vibrancy, contrast, saturation and the highlights as well as increasing the luminance to give a softer appearance to the skin. I altered this so that there was a greater focus on the content of the make up and so the detail you were encouraged to focus on due to the white background wasn’t any imperfections on the face but the make up and the eyes instead.
This was my final image:
I got Kayleigh to look directly into the camera with a cold, blank stare to reinforce values of empowerment; she is not afraid of the camera, in fact a challenge is being made. As I wanted the viewer to notice the eyes and make up more than anything else, I framed the image so that the face is all we see, there is no distraction of hair or body. I think the depth of field works well here as naturally with a shorter distance lens I was unable to create a greater shallow DOF, that being said, it has worked as desired as it subtly yet effectively given the sharpest focus on only the facial features. If I were to do this image again, I would consider still using a different lens as even though I got the effect I wanted, by using the zoom I feel it has knocked the clarity of the image slightly. I think a 50mm lens would have produced the image how I wanted it but with clearer definition.
Me, myself and why?
My final image for this brief was my self portrait. Being placed in front of the camera is not something I am used to or by any means comfortable with at all. I usually shy away from cameras and try my best to be behind them. I chose to base the style of my photography on my research with the slow shutter speed and combine the concept of both meaning and movement within my final image. It took me a while to find a style I was happy with for my self portrait; before my research I experimented with a mirror shot whilst applying make up to portray my conscious attempt to cover up flaws in my skin. However, these were unsuccessful and I wasn’t inspired by the idea as a whole. I also had a rather difficult time focussing the image on the mirror and running back and forth using the timer.
It was then that I began to consider alternatives and when I came across the technique of slow shutter speed for portraiture, I found it a lot more intriguing and appealing. I attempted many different ways of moving within the time of the shutter speed, a few of which are below. For this I set up my camera on my tripod, yet again in my hallway as that had the most ‘studio-like’ lighting. I used my Nikon D3100 and kit lens for this also, set at 29mm with ISO200 and f/16, using a shutter speed of 2 seconds.
For my final image, I used two photos and composed them together by layering them on top of each other in photoshop. I cut out one side of the first layer and pieced them together like two seamless halves.
I wanted my image to reflect the whirlwind of what has been this past year and how many changes I have had to accept (and as a person who hates change this has been difficult sometimes). I’ve experienced the biggest change for me which was coming to University and being away from home for the first time at length, as well as moving house back home. The week after I left for University we moved house and so when I came back for the first time, I was coming back to a completely different house. My grandparents also moved at the same time so even their house was different as well! I have accepted the change now but what was most difficult was never being able to go back to the place where I felt most at ease and knew everything around me better than I know some people. This is implied in my photography by the repetitions of myself caused by the shutter speed and the purposeful blur between each movement. I’m moving about but am slowly accepting and feeling more comfortable with where I am, as you may interpret from the image, things are still on the go but appear to slowly be coming to a halt, settling.
David Bailey- http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/jul/05/david-bailey-stardust-exhibition-edinburgh-photographer-interview
Richard Avedon- http://www.famousphotographers.net/richard-avedon
Annie Leibovitz, Anne Hathaway- http://photovide.com/portraits-annie-leibovitz/
Annie Leibovitz, Anne Hathaway (2)-http://41.media.tumblr.com/3a6c340ac5256259671bdbe1453cb9b5/tumblr_nlevp7x2VG1ti9snpo2_1280.jpg
Make up portraiture- http://wordlesstech.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Digital-Make-Up-4.jpg
Make up portraiture- https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/423619908676407677/
Bill Wadman- http://www.billwadman.com/motion/
See Ming-Lee- www.flickr.com/photos/seeminglee/albums/72157603637558927
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