Caravaggio

Still Life oil painter from the 18th Century - Caravaggio, his paintings are so intense they could pass as photographs. It must of took a lot of time working on his Still Life paintings of fruit as the shadows and natural colours he used make them look so realistic and very photographic.

Irving Penn

Irving Penn - Cigarette No. 48, 1972.

Irving Penn - Broken Egg, New York 1959.

Irving Penn - Bread, Salt and Water, New York 1980.

Still Life

After reading into the meaning of Still Life photography I found that it gives the photographer more leeway in the arrangement of design elements within a composition; I am excited to experiment in the studio photographing items which hold personal significance to me. Personally I think photographing items which relate to me will have more of an impact to the viewer and it will be more interesting than an item with no relevance to myself.

Evaluation - Portraits

At the beginning of the project I felt uncomfortable with the brief, as I had little experience with the photographic studio, studio flash and also the history and context of the genre. The first time I booked out the studio I had two hours of shooting time; however it turned out to be half an hour, as it took me quite a while to set everything up and make sure everything was in its right place.

The first photo shoot I took of my friends, Emily and Harriet was quite difficult, as I felt quite unsure of if I was doing everything right; however, by the end I had several photographs so something must have been going in the right direction.

For my second photo shoot I took photographs of my friend Kristal which went quite well; It took  half an hour to set up and the photographs turned out successful - I think this was also down to Kristal's confidence - I felt comfortable working with her because she was comfortable with the camera.

During booking out the studio I have been researching using the internet looking at many different portrait styles and photographers not only because it's part of the project but because I find it vital to have knowledge of the historical context of a subject - even if its just a small amount of knowledge. I took particular interest in David Bailey and Jill Greenberg; mainly because I believe their portraits are striking and I really like the lighting techniques both photographers use; this is what I hope I have achieved in my final shots.

I have also read magazines and books such as Lighting for Portrait Photography (Steve Bavister), which really helped me as each portrait is accompanied by easy-to-follow diagrams and tips on how to achieve comparable results. Light Science & Magic (Hunter Biver Fuqua) which is three photographers Fil Hunter, Steven Biver and Paul Fuqua - This really did help me decide on lighting for my final shots as it tells you new information on how to work with ambient and flash lighting (and also a lot more!). 

After researching and experimenting I knew quite quickly what I wanted as an outcome for my final shots, I decided to use my sister Sherilyn and my friend Harriet. Both of them feel comfortable around me and therefore I found them a lot easier to work with. I wanted my final shots to look very natural with no strained pose and no over editing as I feel it ruins the shot. My final shots consist of four photographs of Sherilyn, two of which I feel are quite similar and if I had more time I would have changed one of them as I feel the expression is too alike. The other two photographs are of Harriet; one of these is my favourite where she is smiling - I think I have captured a natural, expressive shot that has quite an impact to the viewer and creates a positive mood - to me anyway the photograph makes me smile.
I used two lights for my final photographs - one light shining down onto the left side of the subjects face - creating a split lighting effect; which emphasises the shadows and enhances the definition of the subjects features. 

To me personally a portrait photograph is an image of a person as they are; not manipulated - and this is what I wanted to achieve; I do not believe a photograph can see into someone's soul, I believe that a portrait displays the expression or mood of a subject.

Overall, I feel that the project Portraits has went quite well and I am pleased with my six final shots when looking at them juxtaposed together; I feel the yellow tones I used to edit the photographs on Lightroom create a warm, happy mood - I am happy with the style of my photographs. However, one of my downfalls was being unknowledgeable about photographic studio work prior to the the project; I feel that if I knew more about the Hasselblad camera and how to set up a studio, I could have spent more time focusing on my portraits rather than spending quite a lot of time setting everything up - on the other hand this could be a good aspect taken from the project because I now feel confident whilst working in the studio alone.
Also if I was to restart the project I would have booked out more studio time, time management is a vital factor of this project as studio time is limited so all photography students can book it out.
My prints are landscape on portrait A3 gloss paper; I preferred this layout rather than full landscape A3 because I think the six photographs together stand out more this way but this is just my personal opinion.
I have really enjoyed the project and feel it has went really fast; I have learnt a lot in a small amount of time and feel confident about working in the studio in the future.

FINAL 6 PRINTS

Catch light

Catchlight is a light source in the subject/model's eye in a portrait/photograph which causes specular highlight - I found it hard at first to get the soft boxes and lights in the correct area; but when I did I felt the photographs looked 10x better than previous. Catchlight really does help to bring a portrait to life.

Here you can see more light in the right eye - this is due to the split lighting I have used - not enough light has been let into the left eye - but I don't think it makes a big different if the catchlight is the same on both eyes, just as long as it is there then I feel it brings the portrait to life.

Here is the same situation; catchlight is not perfect in both eyes; however still visible. 

Mark Guthrie

This portrait photograph of Nick Cave was taken by Mark Guthrie for the Time Out magazine. He used a 90mm lens with the exposure of 1/123sec at f/8 using an electronic flash. The cropping is tight and the frontal lighting emphasises his features and exaggerates shadows on his face.

"Nick Cave doesn't like being photographed at the best of times and for the first roll of film there was a bit of a stare-out."

Optical shots

Photographing people wearing glasses requires a high lighting position. Whilst gaining more knowledge about lighting whilst reading I come across Karen Parker - who I found I could relate too during one of my shoots. She took a series of images for Advertisements for opticians. For one of my shoots I took photographs of my friend Harriet; some photos with her glasses on and some with them off - I found that I had to place the lights higher than usual, to decrease the risk of having a reflection.

Fin Costello

Fin Costello was very interested in Richard Avedon, Bill Brandt and W. Eugene Smith. I first seen some of his work whilst researching Richard Avedon, Then I recognised his name again whilst reading 'Lighting for Portrait Photography' - Steve Bavister. I like his style - noticing he specialised in black and white for his portraits for many years.

Fin Costello

Fin Costello

Old portrait photographs I have taken

I took this photograph of my friend Lauryn in New York. I really like the composition of the shot, however, I now see Portrait photography in a very different light; when I first started doing portraits, I felt as though the model has to look flawless and pose. Whereas now I think a portrait image is a photograph of the person in there natural state; capturing a shot of the person doing a natural expression and looking comfortable.

I took this I edited it on Photoshop, experimenting with lense flares and desaturation. Having already had a bit of experience with photoshop previous to this project; it has helped me using lightroom and different tools to get the effect I am looking for.

This portrait was for a project named 'fashion', as I hope you can tell by the pose and the expression of the model; however I do like the black and white as I feel it exaggerates the model from the grey background.

Out of these images I believe this is my favourite, mainly because of the model's expression looking very comfortable with the camera (probably because she's my sister) - this is why I have decided to use her as one of my two final model's for this project.

I don't really like this photograph - however I found experimenting with different cameras and lenses in the past has shown me how portraits are so different.

Photographs

This photograph of my friend Harriet was taken during one of my first photo shoots using the Hasselblad camera. I now feel unhappy with the lighting I used, however, I felt satisfied with it at the time, probably mainly because I took the photograph successfully and I hadn't experienced using any lighting equipment and the Hasselblad camera itself prior. It was only after experiencing with the Hasselblad and lighting I realised I do not like the dark lighting; I feel it portrays a negative mood towards the image. However I do like the natural facial expression of the model.
Below is how I edited the image using Lightroom, in stages, however, I don't think this will be a possible image for my final shot as I want to change the lighting;

Increased exposure - instantly lift from the original shot, brightens up the portrait, making the subject look healthier and draws more attention to the subjects eyes.

Increased clarity - defining the models features.

Increased vibrance - Personally, I feel it gives a little more life to a portrait.

Emily Dickinson

A face devoid of love or grace,
A hateful, hard, successful face,
   A face with which a stone
Would feel as thoroughly at ease
As were they old acquaintances,--
   First time together thrown.
-- "A Portrait" by Emily Dickinson

Lighting

Glossary of Lighting terms - Took from Lighting for Portrait Photography (Steve Bavister), which I am taking in/ trying to remember, and using them in my own photography and researching each individual piece of equipment, and finding/experimenting what lighting I want for my final shots - portraying portraiture through my own eyes.

Acetate/ Ambient light/ Back-projection/ Barn doors/ Boom/ Brolly/ CC filters/ Continuous lighting/ Cross-processing/ Diffuser/ Effects light/ Fill light/ Fish Fryer/ Flash head/ Flag/ Fluorescent light/ Fresnel/ Giraffe/ Gobo/ HMI/ Honeycomb/ Incident reading/ Joule/ Kelvin/ Key light /Kill spill /Lightbrush/ Mirror/ Mixed lighting/ Modeling light/ Monobloc/ Multiple flash/ Perspex/ Ratio/ Reflector/ Ringflash/ Scrim/ Slave/ Snoot/ Softbox/ Spill/ Spot/ Spotmeter/ Stand/ Swimming pool/ Tungsten/ Umbrella

Fotografie - David Bailey

Throughout researching I also found photo magazines a casual, informal way to research. The Forografie magazine talks about David Bailey's love and passion for his models and how Jean Shrimpton was his first female model. After looking through this particular magazine I feel as though his portraits of famous people don't just show them as a person what they look like, but also I feel like I can grasp an understanding of what sort of personality they have - if that makes sense. Although not literally but a lot of emotions and opinions can stem from a photograph.