TD PH1300 - Introduction to Photographic Practise

TD Part Six- Fashion

For this Fashion Photography assignment as a class we looked at a documentary on the photographer Rankin, we watched how he tried to recreate seven photographs that change photography these included photographers such as Cecil Beaton, Erwin Blumenfeld, Richard Avedon and David Bailey. Personally with a lot of the images he recreated I didn’t like; he missed a lot of the key elements that made the original photos like the compositions and framing.

With most things that are new to me it can be quite intimidating, and that is how I felt about fashion photography,  to be the one that controlled the models that I have never met before and having to communicate and to make a relationship with them did not seem possibly because I lacked confidence. What helped me to gain back confidence was when in a recent assignment I had to approach the public again people I didn’t no, so I knew it was not impossible and that once I got into something I would feel comfortable and relax more. Also I had to keep in mind that the models may also feel intimidated with the bright lights and everyone around then taking photos so this made me relax more.

I did not no what to expect and I got told that anything could happen and that using my own initiative and to improvise would be wise as not everything will go to plan as I found out with my first client, she was an older women and her stylist was inspired by an image that featured a younger model so there was my first problem of how to make her look similar to the image.

I used a simple light set up of a soft box and a black back drop to recreate the image, for this assignment I used a standard 50mm lens this lens is best for portrait photos, once I was happy with the photos I had taken I then had to edit one in Light room and Photo shop, on both software’s are a variety of tools and techniques that are great to edit images and make them look professional. Personally my opinion is the stylist did not do a great job on the make up so it was up to me to a least fix it up and make it look half decent.

I started by using the spot-healing tool to remove imperfections and wrinkles on her skin, then the clone and liquify tool to reshape her eyebrows and lips to the same shape as the photo they were inspired by. After reshaping her lips I then painted over the originals using colours that relate to the image then using highlights to create a realistic finish.

Dodge and Burn tools are nice to work with as they can add and change little aspects to the photo such as lightening up the eyes, I would use the dodge tool and click on highlights this would then brighten up any white areas such as teeth and eyes.

Burn tool would do the opposite and darken areas I wanted.

By turning down the clarify tool on Light Room to -100 then paint over the face were it may still be uneven, the clarify tool will smoothing out the skin washing out any detail this was one of the last steps to finishing my photo the last step was cropping the portrait to resemble the same shot as the photo I had be referring back to.

When retouching and editing my photos of the models I used basically the same techniques but I also was looking for other alternatives to use so I could widen my skills, Stephanie the model below was great to work with I found she was very photogenic, as the photographer I had to make her feel comfortable so by talking it doesn’t make the atmosphere awkward and then the photographs will happen naturally.

I noticed with the images of Steph the main focus were her eyes, the colourful makeup and her crimped hair these combined together tight would make the photo strong, so I cropped down the photo to a close shot of her face, instantly the photo was stronger and had no distractions. I then started to refine the image by using the clone and spot-healing tool to remove blemishes on the skin, as she has nice blue eyes I retouched them with the dodge tool to brighten them up slightly but not to harsh it looks unnatural. The photo was very warm so by turning down the temperature on light-room I was able to create an even realistic tone throughout the photo.

Photo-Shop has a tool in adjustments called replace colour using the pipette I was able to select a colour then increase or decrease the hues and saturation, as I wanted to make the makeup bold and striking I increased them some what until I was happy with the out come.

What drew me to this model was the makeup and how I could use coloured gels together to help enhance the makeup making it look more alien like, by placing two tungsten lights slightly behind her on either side with coloured gels over them I was able to project pink and purple to both sides of her head, this helped to light up her hair and define her cheek bones and jaw line.

Arranging a soft box directly in front of her face meant I was able to light the rest of her face up without washing out the colours from the tungsten lights.

I had to place myself right under the soft box to get close as possibly to the model as I was using a standard 50mm lens.

From the photos I had taken I chose to edit a side on portrait image because I liked the composition and how the coloured gels sat around her head and body. I started by using the healing brush tool to remove stray hairs from around her head, which are a distraction, to remove hair from her shoulder I used the patch tool, which replicates a selected area of the skin and removes the area I want. To remove imperfections I used the spot-healing tool, I liked using this tool as it cleans up small areas of the skin without a lot of effort. 

PH1300 - Introduction to Photographic Practise

Part Four- Still Life Photography

Still Life Flowers:

For my Still Life of flowers I wanted to produce very strong and vibrant images that show defined detail in all of the flowers but not too over powering that for the viewer its hard to focus and understand the images. So by using a black backdrop and soft lighting from a soft box I was able to project a subtle burst of light onto the flowers which meant I could control the flowers shape, character and colours.

I was inspired by Karl Blossfeldt I love how his photographs are very strong he uses the negative space around the still life subject to draw attention to it, the composition and symmetry make the images bold and structured. I took note of the little details from his work and my thoughts and used this to refer back to,to help me produce my own still life of flowers.

Yellow Rose: I love the composition of this flower and how it sits in the centre of the page surrounded by black negative space during the attention to it, the single petal that has wilted adds to the character of the flower creating a sense of sadness and loneliness. the flower contradicts itself by the fact its a vibrant flower but the character and mood is quite opposite.

Mollucella ( Bells of Ireland ) : The composition and textures in this image are very strong and bold and by projecting a soft light onto the plant it enlightens the features and details within the plant creating contrast. Even with little negative space compared to the other images it still draws attention to the plant because of the light and textures in the photo. 

Thistle: The soft lighting I used for this image works very well as it defines the detail of the flower especially using the black back drop it helps a lot as its not off putting and does not takes the focus of the subject,  unlike using a white back drop I believe that combined with lights can be harsh and over whelming. The framing  and composition  of the thistle works well, again with the excess negative space creates contrast with the subject making it stand out.                                                                                                     

Blue Rose:  Out of the four images i believe this is the weakest because it lacks texture unlike the others that have a lot going on, the negative space around the subject does nothing for it I chose to add this image to the finally set as it had a consistent theme and link throughout but personally its not my favourite. 

Found Still Life:

I took a trip to Poland and thought this would be a great opportunity to capture my found still life imagery whilst spending my time away I was always thinking of themes and constantly taking photos that were interesting and hoping I get the shots I am after as I am unable to go back to Poland to re-shoot.

I narrowed my photos down and was left with 5 images of items from the victims of world war two that I photographed at Auschwitz, I still had two images to cut down to make my final set of three. As the subject is quite grim I wanted to portray the imagery in a dark but sensitive way.

I chose not to use this photo as the composition doesn’t work unlike the final set of photos I have chose this is because it is a wide shot, it is very over whelming and powerful meaning you have to step back to view it to get an understanding of the photo, with the final three I chose to zoom into a section creating a personal relationship between the image and the viewer because you have to be up close to view it.

My final set of photos all have a consistent theme and an obvious visual link, for example they all have an item in the image that is red whilst the rest is dark. I believe it is quite similar to the film Schindler's List with the girl in a red coat and her surrounding black and white all of this ties in together with the theme. For this reason I never chose to use the image of the suitcases because it does not have any red in it.

This photo is the first of my final set of three found still life images, I chose to base my photos around this image because it has a strong frame and composition, I have been sensitive by focusing in on one part of the bigger image. The colours are warm and dark giving it a atmosphere which is necessary because of the subject that it is, My finally set of images are calm they're not too overwhelming  and do not have bold striking colours.

For the other two photographs I had to slightly edit areas to make them consistent with the first, by adding warm tones and decreasing the exposure I was able to achieve the effect I wanted. What draws me to the images are the single red items it adds to the photos giving it more mood and atmosphere. It shows not every image needs bright colours to draw viewers in but by having simple subtle features in the image it can create a hole different view on an image.