RESEARCH
With the Portraiture brief it was to take 4 portraits of people and then 2 more images of strangers. for research there are so many photographer who have looked and even specialize within portraiture. However there are some photographers who are well known for images in which had been taken. For the first Photographer you have Yousuf Karsh (1923-2004) who was known to have taken black and white photos of the Queen and Winston Churchill.
Reference:
Huff Post Politics United Kingdom(06/03/2015)’Winston Churchill’s bulldog Scowl The Story Behind Yousuf Karsh’s Iconic Photograph'[0-CNRT84-570.jpg]. Available from http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/03/06/winston-churchills-bulldog-scowl-yousuf-karshs-iconic-photograph_n_2818281.html[accessed 02/12/2015]
With Yousuf the images he create or captured i found that they where inspiring with the capturing the single emotion that was on the the subject face at that point in time. As and example the story of how he captured this photo of Winston Churchill; With being told he only had a set amount of time and taking the the famous cigar out of Winston mouth, straight after this image was taken. the powerful look that came over the subject. With the image I find that allowing the character of the person to come through the picture. This I find with Winston Churchill the facial features and also the facial lines that are created from the facial features that has be caused by simple taking an object away from the subject that makes them feel like themselves.
What I find that I would want to take from Yousuf work or work into my own work with the use of contrasting of light with the use on shadows and light that have been created within the frame. Also with my work I want to have a look at studying within black and white and grey.
SET ONE OF PORTRAITURE PHOTOS
With my first set of images I wanted to look at lighting and composition within the frame of the shot. Also I wanted to look at the how I could take a picture of my model.
Starting with the first image on the left you have the picture of model 1. For this image I was playing around with different light reflectors. Light reflector’s as known can be either White, Silver or Gold. These give different types of reflection onto the model/object. For the different type of reflector it can produce an enhancement onto the model such as using the gold reflector which can produce a warm gold light. This can change the hole feeling for the picture and can create I hole new meaning with in the frame. What i did was instead was use different colour sheets. I found the in some ways it does change the appearance of the face and pushes through the aspect of a cold feeling. However what i find doesn’t work about is that the colour that i am using would have to be more or a shine material instead of a mat colour. Also that with the back ground that it gets lost within the face of the model. To improve this i would more to a more plain background so that i might enhance the colour onto the model and also add more lighting into the image, this could either be with behind the sheet of paper or in front of the paper.
(Image one taken with a 600D with a 15- 80 mm lens)
The next three images I looked at composition and frame work with how much of my model I wanted to add into the frame. With the image that i captured i find that i like two which seemed to go from one extreme to another. These where the first man on the left in and the last man on the right. these two engage me more clearly with having on with a slight part of the back ground and has a more central look upon his face and that i feel when looking at it there is a story behind the face and the eyes of him. Where you have the man on the right which has object in the back ground which look help give a narrative to this man. The man on the right you looking at the image which has him all dressed up within his uniform with his medals this shows can put a meaning for the viewer that he has done something toward his country. However when a audience could look at this image I might give ask ‘Well what side did he fight for’ this is where I bring in the background where you can see a red telephone box which everyone who knows what England is shown for these iconic object. The problems that i find with this image is that there in case of a little yellow box that is in the corner which does take away some of the attention away from the model also the women that is also walking away out of frame. This I would have to take into and editing sweet and cut out and mask over so that i could bring the attention back onto my focus point.
(Images 2,3 and 4 where taken with a cannon 600D and a 50 mm lens)
SET TWO OF PORTRAITURE PHOTOS
IMAGE 1:
Looking at the what the photos I had taken before I looked into the use of lighting creating shadows within the face and also the composition that i wanted my model to be in within the frame. With in the brief was to look at passport photos, a passport photo has to have certain rules to follow with. Such as no smiling, no glasses, hair out of face and photo have to be taken oh shoulder to head. These are the aspects within my photo however to bring as aspect of using these components of a passport photo however using it for a artistic photo.
What I liked about this is image was the lighting and shadows that are cast on the model faces and shoulders. which you can see from the shadow which is cast along the face from the nose and hair on the models face also the collar bones. Taking this shot I was using a black back drop ( black bed sheet) a cannon 600D with a 50 mm prime lens and a soft-box. The angle of the image i took from a slight downwards tilt. For the image when downward tilts are used it is a case that the photographer wants to show the weakness/ vulnerability of the subject. However with this image i have taken with using the downwards tilt and having the model looking intensely at the camera gives the affect of over becoming the mark with taking control of the power that is being shown through the image. For the model in this image I wanted to shot a strong connection of the camera and model, however with the model taking the main control and attention for the audience.
With the image being in black and white i wanted to have a more defined contrast of black, white and grey. with editing the photos looking at the image are first with colour and using the tool ‘LEVELS’ I found that the image started to look to over worked with lighting and her skin tone is then lost through the lighting and contrast. However adding the setting ‘ HUE AND SATURATION’ and digressing the colour to a black and white image i found that i did not have the trouble of the skin tone and that in fact I could change the lighting to express the shadows on the face.
IMAGE 2:
Continuing with looking at the rules of a passport photo with I then chose this image as my second choice to show.
Taking this shot I was using a black back drop ( black bed sheet) a cannon 600D with a 18 – 55 mm stander lens and a soft-box. With this image i was looking at lighting but it was not the main focus like the other image. For this image i wanted to look at disrupting the angle of the the model with the frame. With common passport photos the subject is normally looking dead on towards the camera. With this i challenge the norm of the ‘PASSPORT PHOTO’ with having my model at a slight angle towards the camera and with the model looking of to where her shoulders where facing.
what i like about this shot is that i creates a sense on wonder with what would the image look like from the front is it was a ‘TRADITIONAL PASSPORT PHOTO’. Also what i also find interesting about this image is the though of what is she actually looking at within the. I find that it creates and interesting talk about the image with suggestion of what she might be looking at.