TD -PH1200 - Visualising Ideas Blog - Book review on Nadav Kander

I have chose to do my book review on Nadav Kander, this book shows different elements of his work but I have focused on his portraiture work because I connect more with this style of photography and have taken a great interest in his work. Throughout the portrait section of the book  we can see that there isn’t an obvious theme as he experiments with various compositions, lightings and techniques such as we can see he uses coloured gels quite a lot to add a mixture of lighting to the shoot. In the past when experimenting with different sides of photography I came across Kander and took a shine to his work that used coloured gels, by using this technique I was able to show a persons personality or emotion threw not just there expression but by the colours that I projected onto them. 

Normally I analyse  images from the internet as its a lot quicker and easier then getting a book, but in fact I have found it easier to understand an image as I have a closer connection with them, seeing his work on a larger scale is helpful as I can see up close the colours and detail that make the photo. Seeing a photographers work up close made me appreciate the art of photograph and how simple lighting and certain techniques can make such a beautiful image. 

One of my favourite photos in the book is of Mark Rylance this image is of a simple stance with his body facing forward and his head turned to his left but what I love about the image is how the light catches his eyes making them glossy, this is what stands out the most in the image and I feel without the light catching his eyes this photo would be nothing, by having it black and white it washes away  the mixture of colours making it very calm and innocent the expression on his face Is blank and I get a sense of sadness from it but I feel that I only get this because of it being black and white. 

My least favourite image from the book is Dream Girls where we can see a naked women in the background and a pot of flowers in the foreground, this type of portraiture photography does not appeal to me the photo is rather neutral and dull quite the opposite to the work I am inspired by and know Nadav Kander for, I love photography where the images are visually eye catching and are something special and where I can take time to look at it and build up thoughts. 

Nowadays everyone views images online but books are still important I found it a lot easier and beneficial analysing photos from a book, I have learnt that the internet isn't always the best option and I can get just as much insight into a photographers work by a book so in the future I will broaden my ways of researching.

TD - PH1200 - Visualising Ideas Blog - Website Review on Terry Richardson

I chose to do my website review on Terry Richardson as he is a well known portrait photographer I found his website at http://www.terryrichardson.com/ , at this moment in time I am starting to like portrait photography especially after a fashion photography assignment, I enjoyed the experience and learnt a lot such as making the models enjoy the shoot, by looking at Terry Richardson's images I could tell that the models enjoyed the Photoshoot and that would be because Terry engaged with them and relaxed them to make them comfortable and so he is able to produce natural and amazing images. 

His website is very minimalistic with a white background and black font, however this does not make it a plain and boring website because when you enter his website he has a slide-show of images which straight away catches your attention making you want to delve in further, his images are so strong both either black and white or in colour it draws the viewer to them and without any distracting colours in the background you're able to focus on the images more. The layout of his images are quite simply in the middle on the page vertically displayed with a brief caption under the images starting from his most recent work dating back to his older work, his photos are easily viewable on the screen but its very time consuming getting from say page 1 to 10 as you have to scroll down to the bottom and click older and do this repeatedly until you get to the page you want.

In today’s society we are surrounded by technology so its a lot quicker and easier to access photos of photographers work online,  but I do not think I would have the same feeling and connection with them as I would if I seen them in a book or at an exhibition just because of the scale they are at and the quality of them, I would love to see his photos printed up big or even in a book just so I can see the difference and get a more personal view on them.

This photograph of Rihanna as Terry Richardson is one of my favourites because I am a big fan of her but no only that I love the contrast of the black and white, the high exposure highlights a lot of the image which many people may think its too harsh but I disagree, by having a high exposure it has washed out the detail on her hand and features such as her nose and mouth, building a strong contrast with other features like her eyes, roots and the glasses which are all dark. 

The cropping of the shot makes the viewer focus on Rihanna's eyes because there is no distractions around her, the sharpness and bold contrast of her eyes immediately draw the viewer to them.

On the header of Terry Richardson's website are menu buttons which take you to different categories of photographs he has taken for example one menu button is named 01. Terry, this is simply photos of himself with the hundreds of clients he has photographed, I like the idea that it shows the people that he has met and he has a personal keep sake which in years to come he can look back on, Richardson is also known for putting his thumbs up in photos so a lot of clients have embraced that and again its great that he has a little personal trait that comes across in his photographs.

I don’t understand 02. Diary and the concept behind it as I just see it as random photos with captions that point out the obvious, I don’t feel any interest in any of his diary work and I prefer to see Richardson's portrait work which is seen in 03. People, 04. Models.

Richardson has always been one of my inspirations in photography and I will always be inspired by his work, I like how threw his photos you can tell he loves his job and that he has passion for photography by having confidence and enjoying what he does, he is able to produce photographs that people like myself look up to and are inspired by.  

TD PH1320 - Intro Digital Imaging

Part One - Composite Portraiture 

Sir Francis Galton invented composite portraiture also known as composite photographs in the late 1870’s, the process of this was thought to identify different types by appearances, composite photographs was hoped to aid medical diagnosis and criminology by identification of typical criminal faces. It concluded that such types were not attainable after a lot of exhausting experimentation.

Working in the borderland between art and science extending practise influenced by Galton, Nancy Burson uses morphology and genetic codes to digitally manipulate portrait photographs of the human face. This technique was used to update images of missing children at one point when the FBI enlisted Burson.

 

For this assignment I had to create two composite portraits using at least three existing photos to produce a new face, the portraits will come under the headings of Family, Fictitious, Killer, Celebrity or Gender.

I started by scanning in photos of my Grandad on a resolution of 4800 so that when I print the final image off on A4 the pixels wont look so pixelated.

Once I had the photos I needed I took them into Photoshop and began layering both photos of my Grandad on top of each other, it was very important to join up the eyes and nose so the faces fit together. By turning down the opacity on one of the images I was able to make good judgement when lining up the photos.

I added a third image, which was of myself to the layered photos on Photoshop and again played around with the layers and opacity until I was able to join all of them together. To merge the images together to make it look as realistic as possibly I played around with the layer effects such as overlay, hard light and multiply but I found that soft light worked the best as it gave the best natural looking complexion. However because I used old and small photographs they still showed up pixels but this adds to the outcome making it rough and dated. What is great about this style of portraits are you get a messy boarder around the image from each photo which adds to the final outcome making it artistic and graphic.

I am made up with the outcome of my first composite portrait and would not change anything about it, I have captured the resemblance between myself and my Grandad threw the photo and love how alike we are and have the same features I never really noticed this until after I produced the photo. I would in the future like to have another go at composite portraits using other members of my family because it’s fun, easy and a nice way to compare photos from different generations and ages.

 

My second portrait comes under the heading celebrity, I chose to firstly match my face up with Stephen Mulherns, (presenter) as I constantly get told we look alike, again using the same process as my first portrait I reduced the opacity of the top image so I was able to match up the faces. Our faces fitted surprisingly perfect together I just needed to now find a third image that would sit nicely with the others. 

After a lot of research and looking for celebrities that would compliment and add to the portrait I came across the actor Jim Parsons who is best known for playing the character Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory, I selected an image that had similar characteristics as the other two this way the final outcome would look realistic. 

I placed the image of Jim over the layers below and matched up his face, I noticed that his head needed to be flipped horizontally so that the shape fitted correctly, before I did this his features matched up right but unfortunately his head didn’t compliment the photo as it looked to messy and not as professional as I wanted.

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.