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.

David Bailey