People and Place - Reading ahead!

Playing with the light

 

 

I positioned my daughter near the window for this shot, it is not the desired effect that I was going for, as I wanted a more filtered light to appear through the venetian blinds, however as it was late afternoon the sun disappeared quicker than I anticipated, but I feel I still obtained a nice image of her using the light that was available!  NB: Note to self, we cant control natural light and this is one of the effects of that...

People and Place - Exercise 1 - Portrait - Scale and setting

The Brief:

Complete 4 scales of portrait in this one session:-

• Face, cropped in close
• Head and shoulders
• Torso, taking into account arms and hands
• Full figure

First things first, a willing volunteer! Easier said than done, most people tend to say "No way" and very few shout "me, me, me"!

 

I started with my 3 year old Son with this one, but all he wanted to do was pull silly faces!  Which surprises me as he is usually a real poser.  The cute kids with the silly expression!  Well they do say "Never work with Children or Pets"

I decided that my husband Nick would be the best candidate for the job as he would be alot more sensible about the brief.

 

I decided to have him sit on the stairs as there are no real distractions in the background.  There is natural window light to the front from the door and side window.  I set my camera to the AV setting, my husband is naturally relaxed so this wasnt a problem for him to pose and I think he looks casual and relaxed.

I believe these to be the best, as some of his facial expressions were rather goofy, whereas the following 4 that I choose show a casual smile, although the head and shoulders shot shows a slightly "what you looking at" expression!

 

Face, cropped in close

 

Head and shoulders

Torso, taking into account arms and hands

 

Full figure

 

 

Hopefully the work over the next few exercises will turn my future portrait images into something really special.

 



 

People and Place - Natural light - Black and white portrait

Precious Memories ...

 

As I write this, I have learned about the sudden death of my children's Great Grandad! 

 

This was taken a couple of years ago using natural window light, as they both sat embraced in a cuddle. I got their attention and I love how natural and comfortable they both look.

 

Tutors comments

 

The double portrait that you have in your natural light section is superb. Both sitters are natural and relaxed, the lighting is uncontrived and the background is an interesting array of out of focus shapes which throw the light and dark areas of the sitters faces into relief – light against dark and dark against light. :-)

People and Place - Natural light

Using natural light

Using a large window is a fantastic way of using natural light and net curtains are an excellent way to diffuse natural light making it less harsh, much the same way as a softbox works with studio lighting. A silver reflector will also help bounce the light back to the shadow side of the face.

Natural lighting is all around us and is completely free, there are however some draw backs to it, that being that we cannot control it like studio lighting, and on dull days or in low light you need to work with higher ISOs which start causing graininess.

 

Alfred Stieglitz, Sun rays image entitled - Paula 1889 scanned from Richter PC, Prestel Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz 2006

 

 

People and Place - Studio Lighting - Research

Studio lighting - guide

Scanned from 50 Lighting setups for Portrait Photographers

I found this lighting guide in a book I got from the library "50 Lighting setups for Portrait Photographers". Lighting effects different faces in different ways and it is vital to get the right pose and lighting otherwise the subject will look wrong!

Side lighting:
The main light is placed at the side of the subject (level with the face) and pointed towards their nose. This light illuminates half of the face, shadowing the other side.

Paramount (butterfly) lighting:
Placing a butterfly shadow under the subjects nose, the main light is placed with the camera about 2 or 3 feet above the subjects head. This was popular in Hollywood in the 30s and 40s, accentuates the cheekbones, chin and shape of the nose.

Rembrandt lighting:
Characterised by a triangular highlight on the cheek. The main light being placed to the side and angled down from about 2 feet above the head, a classic style but not suitable for all faces.

Side light modified:
Adding a second light opposite the main light illuminates the shadow areas, creating 2 highlights on the nose and on the outside edge of the eyes.

Rembrandt lighting modified:
For this a softbox was used for the main light, a reflector was placed opposite the light to open up the shadow side a white reflector used on the table to bounce the light back up to the face. Adding reflectors helps open up the shadows!

Begleiter S.H, (2008), 50 Lighting setups for Portrait Photographers, Amherst Media Inc, Page 9
 

People and Place - Research - Other photographers

My reading has taken me to various books from the reading list, some of which I have struggled to get hold of as local library copies have been lost over the years!  I have purchased a couple and I am currently looking at magazines, newspapers etc to see how people have been posed in various printed material.

 

A few posing and lighting techniques that I have taken from magazines

 

Torso and full body poses

 

Torso with arms

Relatively close face crop

 

Lighting – side lights, showing half face/body in shadow

 

 

another technique is having some empty space on the left of the image with the subject on the right, a closer crop of this would have improved this image, by having the eye closest to the camera on the dividing line (rule of 3rds)!

 

~

 

A lot of people associate portrait photography with women and young women, because those are the images that are most likely to be seen on advertising campaigns within the media.  Budding photographers lean towards using this strategy to build their portfolio of beautiful woman, however by doing so, they ignore other possibilities, such as young children and older subjects.

 

Julia Margaret Cameron (a British Photographer from the Isle of Wight - 1815–1879) was frowned upon for her style of photography in her time, however, the image she took of Sir John Herschel (1867) was characteristic of her style, the Scientist had freshly washed hair and was drapped in black - a simplistic image emerging from the dark, with great side lighting to one side capturing the texture of his weathered skin, whilst leaving half the face in shadow!

 

 

 [Online image] http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/L.1997.84.6 [accessed on 08-03-13]

 

 

People and Place

My new parcel - love how they package the new materials

 

New Folder and notes book

 

People and place, looking forward to getting to grips with this!

DPP - Tutor Feedback - Assignment 5

DPP - Tutor Feedback - Assignment 5

CLICK link to view

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-TICHIX137FbXdyMEE2X1Q4cWc/edit

I was always a little worried about this Assignment and from the start I was only about 95% sure what direction to go, having read my tutors comments, I should have gone with instinct and gone along the abstract route, which most of the work is, however there are 2 or 3 that would need to be replaced as they are of objects.  So a little more work required before submission for marking, but all in all happy with the outcome. :-)

 

 

DPP 5 - Assignment 5 Personal project - Behind the Glass

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EDITED

 

My tutor thought it would be an idea to stick with a theme, and he was just clarifying my own thoughts on this so here I have taken a few more photos to go with the original few that I wanted to keep.  So the theme is Behind the glass (which are abstract and non descript images), I have also decided that they will all be in colour for this.

 

Here is my new selection:-

 

 

 

 

I am really happy with my selection now, which were taken at different times of the day and during heavy and light rainfall.  I have edited my selection and also some production work has taken place.  I have tried to be as creative with these as possible and also played with WB within post production.

 

DPP 5 - Assignment 5 Personal project Reflective Account

DPP 5 - Assignment 5 Personal project Reflective Account

Most of my journey through Digital Photographic Practice, saw me struggling with the weather or more importantly the "Rain".  If I needed to get out and shoot in the sunshine, then it would be most definately be raining and vice a versa.  So I figured that this could be a poignent subject for my personal project.

 

There are a few avenues to this that I could take

• through the rain (images being taken through glass) or
• reflections in puddles

I have done some research and drawn out some thoughts that might help with this (see diagram below).

 

 

Here I have included things that I would like to try and include within my final 10 images, but would also like to have some sort of theme to go along with it.

After a lot of thought and research :-

I have decided to go with the idea of images being taken from behind glass and subsequently this will be called "Behind the Glass".  This Assignment has also had me reported for taking images from within my own car; of lights at night, as I was sitting in a layby (apparently belonging to MoD), where I was swiftly moved on!  Apology given and a move to another destination was called for!

Its not the first time I have been in trouble for taking photos - and on both occasions I was actually shooting for an assignment, and not doing anything I shouldnt have been - just some people are so weary of a camera (student ID doesnt help much as it has no photographic image on it).

Selection of image deamed unsuitable and sent to recycling

 

Screen shot of a selection of images shoot to date 

 

 

I have been out during different parts of the day for this assignment, whilst it has been raining.

 

~

 

Anyhow, I have gone with the theme behind the glass, as I like the look of the liquid image almost running down the glass. Most of the images have been taken from within the car or literally behind a glass window somewhere, and the aim is to make the viewer want to wipe at the glass to view beyond the rain!

 

I have enjoyed this assignment, although I have struggled a little with regards to what my images should be like, I have tried to capture day and night, I also struggled with the rain!  With lights in the evening and also desertion due to the rain, I have also picked out bright colours and focused on them.