Assignment 5 – Personal Project

I was thinking for a long time how to approach this last assignment, what I always wanted is to have my own distinctive style which instantly separates me from other photographers, but I felt I was never really consciously working towards it. So my personal project became to find how I want to feel when I look at my images, how the images make me feel. Of course it always will be a work in progress, I do like this set of images because of the harmony of the colours, I like natural and warm tones when almost everything matches with the skin, I cannot tell exactly my feelings just yet but these images made the selection for the same reason: soft, fine art facial expressions.

Final Images

The preparation

Initially I was only looking for matching coloured images, but I began to refine my selection when it came to expressions and how the images made me feel, also changed my philosophy on matching crops to different ones, because I was just bored seeing the same headshots over and over again. I wanted a wider selection of portraits, not just close ups, but including props and demonstrating different angles and different lighting patterns.

These images were shot on different backdrops with different lighting but I applied similar settings in the post production process with Adobe Photoshop:

• First, I applied custom white balance to suit each image because no skin tone the same, I pushed the temperature slider to the right to warm up and added little tint again by pushing to the right
• Softened bags under the eyes as well as skin blemishes, very subtly
• Gentle “dodging” on the forehead, top of the nose, under the eyes, middle of the bottom lip and top of the chin, where the light is naturally hitting the face, I just highlighted a little bit more, subtle “burning” around the cheekbones, corners of the forehead where are shadows appear naturally.
• I did little sharpening on the eyes with “High Pass” filter, also brightened them up a little bit using “Curves”
• Finally warm tone colour grading using “Gradient Map”, opacity around 50%.

Feedback and reflection

Overall I am pleased with the selection, but in the future I would like to shoot more working on my “style” consciously, creating sets with interesting details, props, playing with poses and expressions more to create soft and feminine but interesting and edgy compositions, in studio and on location as well. I haven’t been able to spend much time with my studies unfortunately, I have been working every single day for over two years now which led to problems with my health, I have a plan to get out of this situation but it won’t happen overnight, hopefully will be able to spend the right amount of time on my studies and complete the course on time.

As my tutor suggested, I looked into Angelica Dass’s work, which I found incredible, I had similar thoughts how would it look if I would change the background colour of each photograph for the subject’s skin colour, but the key again is consistency, her subjects are in the same position, crop is the same with each image, so even it is a simple concept, it is very powerful because of the message it coveys, also the power of simple headshot, only the skin shows, there are no distracting elements like clothing.

I will experiment with this type of colour matching in the future but will try and come up with something unique in the same time, maybe even beauty photography, perhaps my subjects have something common painted on their face? Or maybe the same makeup but different ladies as subject? This beautiful series of images got me thinking.

 

 

Assignment 4 – Real or Fake?

I have been enjoying experimenting with Photoshop, creating something different, more than just enhancing features on the photograph, creating digital art by adding extra textures and elements.

This part of the course is about reality and intervention, whether a photograph should be kept as close to the original – as seen at the time of releasing the shutter –  or could the image be elevated by changing colours, tones, textures in order to perfect the composition. Personally I think it will depend on the purpose of the photograph, where and what will it be used. Lately I have been doing many portrait shoots, where I would generally perfect the skin but keeping its natural texture, for example I remove blemishes, scars or hair if it’s in the eyes or somewhere it is distracting from the image, but I would only soften moles, bags/wrinkles under and around the eyes to keep it realistic and natural, I would never fully remove them which would quite likely alter the face. This is for the purpose of selling to the client in forms of prints to hang on the wall or digital images to share on social media or sending to model agencies. The key here is to perfect but keep it not too perfect to stay on the realistic ground.

For the purpose of this assignment, I had to go beyond this, manipulating in a way that would make the image successful as a cover.

I loved the idea shooting for something specific that later on in the editing process will look its best, adding a little magic will make all the difference! Speaking of magic, I decided to shoot with kids, little girls dressed up as fairies, and a boy who had a Harry Potter outfit as well as the perfect hair! I tried to pose and light them with the finished image in my head, what will I add to the image to create the desired effect.

Thinking about potential book cover, I was debating between a fairy tale book or a Harry Potter cover with a little twist. I settled with the latter.

Final Image

The original image was with a plain grey-green background with Toby posing dressed up as Harry with a large soft box placed on his left quite high up, head point downwards.

Will post all original images and elements I used for this cover, unfortunately I edited on a different computer which I don’t have access to until Wednesday.

First thing I added was the sparkles which was on a black background, I pulled into Photoshop, changed the blending mode to screen which got rid of the black and only the sparkles left, I resized and twisted it to get the right direction and masked out the unwanted parts like between fingers as it was covering his thumb as well as the whole arm so I got rid of it creating a more “realistic” 3D effect.

Next step was sorting out the background as it was a plain wall and I knew I needed some sort of brick texture to make it more “Hogwarts like”. After importing the wall image as a layer, I only lowered the opacity and again, masked out the unwanted parts as it was covering the boy’s face and body.

Luckily I found all these textures for free, as well as the Harry Potter font which was surprising but I had lots of fun styling it to make it look like a real book cover, adding different textures to the text and placing them carefully.

I was thinking for a long time what would be the book about, I had everyday magic in mind but couldn’t work out how to work this into the title and then suddenly it’s just clicked… It would be truly magical having zero hour workweeks! Is it imaginary or not? Of course, everything is possible…

Feedback

As my tutor suggested, I came up with a different idea on this subject, as with my original work, there is no ambiguity between real life and constructed imagery and thanks to his support, I understood why as it’s being obviously edited in Photoshop. My idea was the relation between magic and real life, but I should have created something which equally could be done in camera or in Photoshop. He further suggested to look at the work of Kyle Thompson and explore the idea of surrealism within portraiture photography. I was absolutely stunned by his work, it moved me and genuinely got me thinking with the artist’s brain, figuring out the message he is conveying through his images.

He also suggested to look into image manipulation, in particular the moral and ethical considerations, when people are stealing other photographers’ work and presenting as their own. I was surprised how obvious plagiarism is in the following two cases what he recommended me to look at: Souvid Datta credibility as a photojournalist was questioned when his photo “In the Shadows of Kolkata” got accused of plagiarism and rightly so, he appears to “steal” a person from Mary Ellen Mark’s photograph of  “Transvestites getting dressed in a courtyard” from 1978. The person’s face, expression, clothing and body language appears to be exactly the same, there is no way he could recreate this in camera so many years after with a different person. The second case was about “stealing” an entire image by a Swiss photographer and entering a contest after she finds them on a public domain. She even wrote a passage about how she felt when she was taking these images, can’t believe people can just lie like this. We should only look at artists’ work to be inspired by, not to steal some part or the whole image for selfish reasons.

As I have been struggling with depression for a long time which effected me at work as well in private life, I thought I could do something to illustrate how I feel when I’m down, just feeling trapped in my own body and unable to reach for help. It is particularly difficult as I live alone and I have been working almost every day in the last two years now just to survive and being able to pay the bills, not seeing any friends or making attempt to make any friends at all because of work, also not being able to spend enough time on my coursework because of busy schedule, being creative on demand is just doesn’t work.

Assignment rework

People with depression and anxiety are making life even harder for themselves than it is already by just unable to focus on anything and get it done, also feeling down for no particular reason. Most times I find myself just sitting in my room, don’t want to get out or even chat anyone on social media or on the phone, completely detaching myself from anything. The idea was to describe this feeling through a photograph.

Original image – the idea was to create a window to the right of the girl with shutters on in Photoshop representing the feeling of being alone in a room in the dark and only a little light shines above giving a sense of little hope so it’s more positive rather than suicidal. I couldn’t find a way to shoot it in camera nor managed to find a realistic looking window so it was the time for plan B.

Resized and extended background – Plan B was to “put the girl in a jar” literally, while I’ve seen this done in camera in terms of two photographs blending together, I didn’t have the jar photographed the same time as the girl so it left me with one choice: Photoshop. Obviously I need to make sure it will look realistic.

 

Found a realistic jar image and dragged onto my photo in Photoshop. It looked perfect as it’s only been lit from the left, so the other side is dark enough to be realistic.

Positioning and masking – Re-positioned the jar align with the floor and starting masking out the girl by adding a layer mask and painting with a black brush on it.

 

Magic – Simply by changing the blending modes, “multiply” mode gave me the perfect effect I wanted. Although it was quite strong, I just lowered the opacity of the layer to find the ideal intensity.

 

Final image

Simple text – I didn’t want to make it look too busy, so I settled down with my book title “ALONE” which I felt was enough to convey the message of my imaginary book. The ratio of the image wasn’t quite right for a book in my previous work, so I made sure this time will be the right size too.

 

Reflection

Overall I’m much happier with the latter image, although I’m still frustrated about my coursework not spending enough time on it, which was simply impossible with my current lifestyle. I’m very grateful for the pointers given by my tutor, first time I was struggling to understand what needs to be done with this assignment, surrealistic portraits are now on my list for further exploration.

Assignment 3 – Monochrome

Recently I heard a professional photographer using this phrase, “blinded by styling”  as she referred to a portrait, where there was so much going on, but made it to be published in a magazine anyway even though it wasn’t necessarily well composed or lit. When I was planning this assignment, these words were replaying in my head but in sense of colour is being distracting sometimes, or even when that particular composition looks well in colour, it conveys a different story when it’s processed into a black and white image.

Taking the advantage of working in a studio access to all equipment, I decided to experiment with portraits again, as well as high and low key photography. I always shoot in RAW format in colour.

RAW file

Tonal contrast – The only image I shot on location, I am obsessed with shadow patterns, loved how the sunlight hits her face through the hat, definitely worked better in black and white, surroundings were too distracting in colour. Natural light only.

RAW file

Tonal contrast – Almost the complete opposite of the first image, the background and her jumper are almost the same colour, only different textures, but it really makes her stand out more especially in black and white, such beautiful freckles. Only one large soft box been used, fairly close to the model and the wall.

RAW file

Texture – While this works well in colour, I prefer the black and white again as colour isn’t distracting, love how the different textures work well together (chunky knit jumper, brick wall against a soft facial expression. Same 150 cm soft box but almost 90 degrees to the right of the model facing away from the background.

RAW file

Texture – I loved the fairy tale look created by soft curtains, curly hair and her expression, prefer black and white as the bright orange brick would have been too distracting, but as a texture it’s a nice contrasting element.

RAW file

High key – One of my first attempts to achieve this look, I admit I probably should have used more lights.

RAW file

High key – Second attempt, I think looks much better, I placed the light directly in front of the model raising to same height as the models face and there is me standing in the middle of it as you can see it in her eyes. Her skin was very tanned so it was pretty much dominating the image, but in black and white the attention draws straight to the eyes.

RAW file

Low key – I love how this turned out, although I love it in colour, I think being monochromatic just adds so much more drama to the image. I loved the fact that I was able to create it with the same light I used for the previous images, the only thing I did differently was placing only the edge of the soft box towards the face of the model, although it was facing directly towards her, only small amount was actually hitting her body as the rest was passing right in front of her.

RAW file

Low key – Similar set up again but this time I used a 70cm soft box placed higher above her head but facing it the same way as before, and I also added a grid for more control achieving no light spill. I love this look and again, definitely more dramatic than a colour version.

 

Feedback and reflection

I really enjoyed playing with light differently than I did before, also trying to see in black and white and it was interesting to see why certain images just wouldn’t work as well in colour as it does in black and white and how the story changes simply just by taking away colour. I love the dramatic feel of monochrome and how certain qualities appeal and how focus shifts.

As the tutor suggested, I readjusted couple images as they were almost overexposed, I didn’t notice my computer went to default setting rather than the calibrated one, so the images I produced were slightly too bright, I calibrated the monitor again and sorted the images out.

Research and Reflection

Michael Freeman: The Photographer’s Eye

I found this book very helpful to gain understanding of the basics, even though I already used most of it probably unconsciously, and I also read about them online like the golden ratio and rule of thirds, it helped me clarify and organise my existing knowledge which made me feel more confident. I understood and kept reminding me the importance of eye travelling in a certain pattern across the image when it’s well composed.  I found “diagonal tension” exciting, creating tension and sense of movement in a still image; how to frame the subject – even framing within the frame – or reworking the photograph by stitching, extending or cropping; or when to fill the frame and where to place the subject. I have read many different articles online about the the golden section proportions, the Fibonacci divisions before taking this course, how it appears to be everywhere, from plant to animal and human proportions, but it was still fascinating when I read about it in this book.

Learning to create interesting images with contrasts, different obvious shapes and implied ones were challenging but also very interesting, how our eyes translates the image for us it’s just fascinating. When I looked at a photograph I could obviously tell if I liked it or not but not necessarily know why, as I learned our eyes seek for balance and symmetry, these compositions are pleasing. I found it hard to achieve a good silhouette composition such as the “Burmese Monk” , it has to have a message to convey of course, otherwise it just looks like a badly exposed image. What I did like is rhythm and patterns, filling the frame with similar patterns or organising them in a certain order is very entertaining. Finding the right angle for my portraits is one of my weaknesses, I could be over thinking but I never truly satisfied with the results, but I found useful information for landscapes and street photography.

I think this book is a great beginner’s guide in a digestible form or a visual reminder for self taught photographers like myself before taking this course, I definitely got lot more confidence, and perhaps better eye for composition too.

 

 

Charlotte Cotton: The Photograph as Contemporary Art

I really enjoyed this book, it was refreshing to read something unexpected and provoking. I was looking forward to read each chapter as they have been divided into groups of photographers who share similar ideas and motivation, it is fascinating to read about how other people think and create.

The first chapter is about the stereotypical photographers trying to capture daily moments challenging the question “If This Is Art” or just every day documentary photography. I loved Philip-Lorca diCorcia’s idea setting up a flash on a scaffold in New York letting people to trigger as they walk by creating portraits unconsciously, or creating food art like Sophie CalIe,  or be daring like Gillian Wearing and ask strangers to write something about themselves on a piece of paper, I would like to come up with ideas like these.

The second chapter is about storytelling within the contemporary art category, looks like something just happened organically but in reality, it has been carefully staged and composed. This is what I have been trying to do with self portraiture, but creating something captivating from an everyday looking event is quite challenging,  this chapter was perfect for inspiration though.

The third chapter is about deadpan photography, as the name suggests, there is no expression or mood, the subject is simply exists on the photograph. This isn’t something I was particularly interested in, it feels sad and depressed to me even though it doesn’t meant to have any feel to it.

The forth chapter is about simply things, everyday objects made interested and quirky, I really enjoyed looking at these images and working out how it was done, also a realisation to appreciate everything around us as we often take things granted.

 

I haven’t finished this one just yet as I have been struggling to get free time while working almost every day, I found it extremely motivating so far, a real eye opener to different perspectives, almost like looking into these artist’s mind.

Assignment 2 – Seeing like your camera

Seeing like the camera sees the scene, and the ability to create images exactly how I saw them is exciting. I noticed that the eye creates a less contrasty image, while the camera’s sensor tend to exaggerate the differences between light and dark, the human eye’s dynamic range is just incredible.

For this assignment I needed to choose four different high-contrast situations and see how the camera will render these scenes, the aim is to produce higher quality images which will need less post-processing, in fact for this particular task I had to shoot in JPEG format and post the images straight out of camera without any adjustments.

Street scenes

 

 

 

I tried to shoot with different metering modes, f stops and shutter speeds and see what happens, I kept the ISO low as it was already bright with the sun out, and used small aperture with slower shutter speed to get more details in the shadows. I usually shoot with evaluative metering mode as I like to choose the focus point, I took a picture with each of the other metering modes; spot, partial, center-weighted average as well, and I didn’t notice much difference while I kept the focus point the same. All three images turned out only a little darker in the shadows than it appeared to my eye at the time, the bright areas were pretty much spot on.

I feel like I have to experiment more of this in the future, changing the focal point (if I can) to achieve the same result. I don’t usually shoot in these harsh conditions as it’s never a flattering light on anyone but I suppose there are scenes where it works, indoor spaces for example.

Indoor spaces

   

This is pretty much the opposite to the first situation where it was overall bright with dark areas, indoors will always be darker, and having a relatively small light source such a window will make the camera struggle to get a good exposure.

I actually liked these images being so contrasty, however I tried to get as much details in the shadows as possible. The first one I found to be a little dark compare to the actual scene, I should have done that less contrasty but I’m happy with the second, and the third is a bit bright, as the focal point was on the bride, non of the metering modes did a good job determine the exposure, they pretty much looked the same.

People in shade

 

 

 

Primary focus was to expose the image correctly to the faces but of course, needed to get the overall exposure right too. I usually turn on the highlight clipping function in camera so I see if there is a part of the image overexposed but of course, I forgot this time resulting the first and second image having a tiny patch overexposed, however overall they are pretty close to what I saw on the day. The second is maybe a little dark on the face, I could have added some fill flash to brighten it up but then, it wouldn’t look as natural as it was. The best of all three is probably the last one, probably because there is no sky in the background, but the midday sun still makes the trees and pebbles bright. The bride and bridesmaids are standing under arch which just beautifully softened the harsh light.

Landscapes in low-angle incident light

 

 

 

Incident light is the light that falls on a subject, whether it comes from a direct or indirect source. In this case it is coming from the sun directly. The first image was the most challenging of all as the sky was just too bright, a little hazy as the see was just right behind the mountains, I was struggling to bring back the shaded areas without blowing the sky out completely, this is the closest I could get to what I saw. I could probably done it better by changing the composition allowing less sky, less bright light. The second one was a lot easier to achieve as the sun was really close to the horizon, giving contrasty landscape but well exposed sky, the last, London landscape turned out the best I think, clouds are just making the job easier for the camera.

Feedback and reflection

I think for the best result, need to avoid harsh sunlight unless that’s the look to aim for.  I prefer interesting lighting situations over low contrast, dull lighting such as an overcast day can provide. I’m not sure if I used the metering options properly with the focusing areas as non of them made magical difference, I definitely need to do more research.

As by the tutor recommendation I will try to photograph indoors with “spot” or “centre weighted” mode to get more details in the highlights, I remembering trying all different types back then but for that situation it didn’t really change the image, perhaps I need to experiment with the composition as well accordingly. His other suggestion was to compose a high dynamic range “HDR” image by blending 3 different exposures of the same scene in post-production. I haven’t been successful with that so far in terms of assembling the images correctly, this is something I still need to practice.

Overall I know there is a lot of work to be done, still struggling having literally zero free time, which is very frustrating. I have been looking for a job so I don’t have to work two ways and I could have some days off too.

Assignment 1 – Workflow

This gallery contains 34 photos.

For the first assignment of the Digital Photographic Practice module I needed to shoot something I enjoy and feel comfortable with, since I’m pursuing portrait and fashion photography, I chose people. I originally planned to shoot with a model on a tfp basis, after a last minute cancellation, I managed to find a 9 year …

Assignment Five – Applying the techniques of illustration and narrative

For this last assignment I was advised by my tutor to create a story about a model shoot as it aligns my interest and it’s the quickest options since I’ve been working a lot. One of the reasons I’ve been busy so lately it’s because I got an apprenticeship in a photo studio, but I also have my other job resulting me working every single day. Being on a tight schedule didn’t leave me other choice but to record a day in the studio when apprentice Gary and I have a practice shoot. Luckily the boss said yes, Stephanie was pretty good at posing unconsciously.

Final Images

Stephanie is thinking about the concept of the practice shoot, what she will expect from us.

Sarah is getting ready.

Gary is chilled as usual, waiting for the model to be ready.

Steph is setting up for us, she’s determining the correct exposure by using a light meter.

Steph starts shooting, she explains what to look for when you’re directing a model.

Steph is talking about looking through the viewfinder helps to pose the model, you have to see through the lens how it will look.

It’s my turn, shot this using one small softbox. I just love how the light wraps around her, obsessed with the cheekbones!

The model changed outfit and Steph is showing a different light setup now using two strip softboxes.

Steph is demonstrating the different looks she can create with these two lights.

Watching Gary taking his turn on practicing, Steph also decided to take some “behind the scenes” shots.

Steph is showing how she got to this pose starting with a very simple one.

My turn again, this is one of the last images I finished the shoot with, although it’s a simple pose, it took me a while to get to this.

 

Stephanie is thinking about the concept of the practice shoot, what she will expect from us.

Sarah is getting ready.

Gary is chilled as usual, waiting for the model to be ready.

Steph is setting up for us, she’s determining the correct exposure by using a light meter.

Steph starts shooting, she explains what to look for when you’re directing a model.

Steph is talking about looking through the viewfinder helps to pose the model, you have to see through the lens how it will look.

It’s my turn, shot this using one small softbox. I just love how the light wraps around her, obsessed with the cheekbones!

The model changed outfit and Steph is showing a different light setup now using two strip softboxes.

Steph is demonstrating the different looks she can create with these two lights.

Watching Gary taking his turn on practicing, Steph also decided to take some “behind the scenes” shots.

Steph is showing how she got to this pose starting with a very simple one.

My turn again, this is one of the last images I finished the shoot with, although it’s a simple pose, it took me a while to get to this.

 

Reflection

I wanted to include more details about the getting ready part for the shoot but as I also needed to work, I had to concentrate on what I wanted to shoot with the model as well, not just my assignment, so I couldn’t quite do it the way I planned. I’m not sure how I did with this assignment but I will make sure I put things right before the final assessment.

 

Feedback and Reflection

Please find my tutor’s report here.

I am still struggling to find time as I have been working long days with only one day off per week, I have been ill too as a result of working too much, I’m changing job soon so hopefully I only have one instead of three and will have free time too. My tutor said given the tight deadline I have done very well, the B&W images or rather dark grey and light grey tones add interest and it is appropriate for a photographic studio where there is a lot of black and white. Learning from my mistakes from the previous assignments, I wanted to make sure I create a story line and a certain feel to these series of images, but they are also working on their own. My tutor liked the first three images being particularly successful in conveying something of the character of the people. Probably the first time I actually felt happy about the series of images I produced, I feel I’m making progress and I am more exciting than ever!

Update:

I’m pleased to say that I am a photographer apprentice now which is perfect and I’m over the moon, however the pay isn’t brilliant just yet so I continue to work in catering resulting working nearly every day again…  I love working in the studio and they did say they want me full time which will happen soon, they will also provide support for my studies which is even better, finally I will have only one job and will be able to spend more time on studies as well. It is all going in the right direction now.

Update:

I’m very frustrated that I couldn’t finish all my exercises for this course, there are also many books left to read, however I feel I understood what have been asked for each assignments and completed as best as I could in the given circumstances. I genuinely wanted to do the best job I can possibly do despite of language barriers and lack of free time. I think I progressed so much since I started this course in terms of composing an image as well as writing in English, I am determined to finish Digital Photographic Practice and People and Place module side by side this year completing every single task and assignment.

I got confused how the assessment dates work as I have received three possible dates in an email not realising I have to make the first or the second, I tried to apply for extension for the third assessment due to work commitments and ongoing mental health problems but it was rejected just 5 days before the final assessment deadline. I don’t want to seem like I making excuses, I have been struggling for a long time now on my own, hopefully all this will be taken into consideration as well. Thank you.

 

Assignment Four – Applying lighting techniques

For this assignment my tutor suggested couple things, firstly that my subject should be three dimensional, should have an area of colour, need to have an area of texture which isn’t shiny like chrome surfaces. Although he suggested that I don’t need to be creative for this, I decided to go with portraits of an actual person in different light situations rather than a boring still life composition.

Planning and research

Yes, I wrote it down properly this time and actually followed the plan, which was to create 8 photographs depicting shape, form, texture and colour.

Shape

I planned to photograph my subject against a dark background while she’s illuminated from the back, just like Philip-Lorca diCorcia [1] did with one of the images of the Heads series when he placed a flash above people and as they were walking pass on the street, he pressed the shutter. For daylight situation I was thinking I could create the inverse version of this, very light background with underexposed subject creating a black silhouette.

Form

Another way of showing the shape of the subject is using light and shadows to create three dimensional effect. I had two locations in mind; one is a coffee shop or restaurant with large windows, shooting the subject from outside including some foreground element, the subject is in focus lit by soft light coming from above, and show some detail in the background, creating a layered composition, similar to William Eggleston’s [2] Untitled image from 1970 of a kid bicycle; and an open field an hour before sunset using the golden hour light as a backdrop for a backlit portrait, filling some shadows with a reflector.

Texture

The quality of the surface detail, such as skin. To be able to show most of the skin detail, I was planning to shoot in harsh light conditions beware of overexposing the image. As diCorcia’s [3] other image from the Heads series, the idea is to shoot in daylight (or in his case it was a flash from above) against a dark background and the sun is only hitting one side of the face from above resulting harsh shadow on the other side of the face or the light is directly above the head creating very unflattering shadows under the eyes and nose. A different way to show texture is to shoot the subject under harsh light but there is something else between the light source and the subject causing interesting shadows, patterns and textures, I was inspired by this photograph  Light and shadow by Arseniy Semyonov.

Colour

To show true colour quality, the subject should be evenly lit, my idea is to shoot in the golden hour again but this time the subject is facing into the light, since it is coming from the side, there are no shadows just even golden light on the face. A good example I found is Thomas Ruff’s passport like Portrait [4] even though it wasn’t taken outside, he created a nice, almost completely even and warm light. Another idea is to shoot on an overcast day when the sky is a giant soft box, distributing light evenly, also using cloudy white balance setting is ideal as the skin would look blueish otherwise. Joel Sternfeld [5] and Jitka Hanzlova [6] photographs of strangers were probably taken on a cloudy day too as there are only tiny shadows around the subjects’ faces.

In terms of unusual and attractive lighting, I was thinking to add a flash or a battery operated LED light to add interest to the images, hopefully I will have the time to play with them.

Final images

Shape

I managed to create only the inverse version of what I originally planned, however it didn’t quite turned out the way I wanted, It was a very cloudy day so there wasn’t any harsh light coming in so I processed into a black and white image to strengthen contrast.

Form

I was close to put this image into the previous section but I think the model isn’t isolated enough from the dark background, but she is lit from the side, the composition has the foreground element, the background out of focus, there is also a reflection of a man where the model is gazing adding more depth and interest to the photograph.

Golden hour portrait as planned, the sun is illuminating the model’s hair, I used a gold reflector on the right side to fill some shadows and creating highlights, giving dimensions to the face.

Similar set up but this time the sun is on the left side highlighting the hair, shadows on the right slightly filled with a gold reflector.

Texture

 

It was a cloudy day so there was no chance for harsh sunlight, but bringing the model closer to the window and shooting from above is a recipe for highlighting skin imperfections.

Colour

This time the model is facing to the sun, I didn’t use reflector so I’m not sure why the face and the neck is warmer the shoulder and hand, could be make up or tan, I didn’t notice it at the time of the shoot, could it be the fact that this kind of flat light is showing the true colour of the skin? I hope that’s the case.

The last image was taken in a shaded area, I exposed for the model’s face using shade white balance setting. It was fairly good straight out of camera, I only made small adjustments to achieve the closest match to her skin colour.

Reflection

Sadly we didn’t have time to play with different lights, I really wanted to try to shoot through some lace materials to create patterns on the face or create something similar to Arseniy Semyonov’s photograph, but there was no direct sun, we were lucky to get about 15 minutes of it before sunset. All in all I enjoyed preparing for this assignment the best so far, it really does make a difference when there is a clearly written plan to follow. I feel I gained better understanding of the light behavior, I particularly enjoyed shooting through a large window creating interesting reflections and incorporating these into my compositions.

[1] Charlotte Cotton – The photograph as contemporary art, page 20.

[2] Charlotte Cotton – The photograph as contemporary art, page 11.

[3] Charlotte Cotton – The photograph as contemporary art, page 46.

[4] Charlotte Cotton – The photograph as contemporary art, page 106.

[5] Charlotte Cotton – The photograph as contemporary art, page 108.

[6] Charlotte Cotton – The photograph as contemporary art, page 109.

 

Feedback and Reflection

Please find my tutor’s report here.

I didn’t choose the best subject for this assignment but I wanted to continue working with people as this is the area i’m aiming for, my tutor appreciated the fact that I didn’t have much gear to work with either, I could have taken an easier route but I wanted to follow my interest and progress in portrait photography. The research is improving every time, I still need to add a Research and Reflection page which I will do once I wrote articles to publish about the books I have read so far. I love to read and I’m really enjoying the books, sadly I had to start them many times as over time I have forgotten even though I took notes, just too much time passed as still struggling because of my work commitments.

 

Assignment Three – Colour

I recently bought my first full frame camera, I was instantly blown away by the sharpness and incredible amount of detail. I have been looking at various photographers’ work, I love the way the Russian photographer, Anastasia Volkova [1] and the London based photographer, Marc Hayden [2] colour their images, not just getting it right in camera, but the retouching skills, how distinctive their style is, they are just admirable. Anastasia is the main reason I became very interested in photography the first place, I have been following her beautiful work at least 5 years now, she’s also the inspiration behind my camera choice. But having a great camera does not equal breathtaking images, now I gained better understanding behind the meaning of colour, I can truly appreciate their hard work put into each photograph. I hope I can achieve the same one day, develop my own unique style.

Following my passion, I decided to take some portraits of a friend for this assignment but I also included few images I took as I was walking in town for a greater variation of subjects. I asked her to bring colourful clothes so we can create different colour harmonies as required for this task, since my retouching skills are nowhere near as the artists mentioned above (I only started experimenting in Photoshop), I made all the adjustments in Lightroom, following the ratios suggested by Goethe [3], indicating the brightness of each colour with a number: yellow 9, orange 8, red and green 6, blue 4, violet 3.

Colour harmony through complementary colours

Red: Green 1:1 – Equally bright

Orange: Blue 1:2 – Orange two times bright as Blue

Yellow: Violet 1:3 – Yellow three times bright as Violet

Red: Green 1:1 – Equally bright

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Complementary colours are the hues found opposite of each other on the colour wheel. For this set of images I tried to make sure that the amount of colours are the closest to the ideal proportions as well as they are equally intense. Although it seems to be a lazy choice, it wasn’t that easy, I also wanted to achieve pleasing images overall in terms of composition to avoid taking pictures for the sake of colour harmonies. I’m aware that I included other colours too such as the skin and hair tones, the green leaves in the background in some cases, I brought down the saturation and brightness a little to direct the attention to the colour pairs.

 

Colour harmony through similar colours

Orange: Red

Yellow: Green

Blue: Green

Green: Blue

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Similar colours are the ones close to each other on the colour wheel in terms of cool and warm range. I swapped the last photo in this set to a multiple exposure image of a british tennis player, Liam Broady after looking at the blue-green comparison, I realised I already shot the “opposite” and this is way more interesting than another green scene including the sky. I really like orange and red together, again I pulled the greens back a little the make these colours pop. The next image perhaps not that obvious yellow, I tried to compare the skin next to the green leaves which I think worked well.

 

Colour contrast through contrasting colours

Green: Orange

Yellow: Red

Green: Violet

Blue: Red

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contrasting colours are spaced in between, they aren’t close to each other, nor on the opposite sides on the colour wheel. My favorite is green an orange together, I love the way the sun peeking through the leaves painting them gold, the yellow top works well with the green leaves, it doesn’t feel disharmonious at all. I like the splash of yellow with a greater amount of red together; although green is twice as bright as violet, adding a bit of brightness and saturation to the violet here balances the proportions. In spite of the fact that red (6) is brighter than blue (4), by increasing the brightness and saturation of the blue and decreasing a little of the red, the ideal balance between the two colours seem to be restored.

 

Colour accent

Red as accent

Blue as spot

Red as accent

Red and Green as spot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first time I came across colour accent in photography when I was looking at black-and-white images with a splash of colour, only a small detail left out of the conversion. For this set of images I needed to find similar colour relationships as mentioned above and frame them to create this effect without black-and-white conversion. For the first image I stepped pretty far away from my friend, trying to exaggerate the background, like she’s lost in the woods and only can be noticed by her red top. The second photo features a little blue, small amount of cool in contrast with warm colours, also I liked the way the leaves are creating a natural frame around the door. The third photograph features red against green again in a different way, ideally I would have captured this much more far away making the bench look tiny, but I had no space, nor wider lens. The last one is red and green in equal amounts but this time only very little part of the image, since most of my image backgrounds are solid colours, I found this to be a good example putting this colour pair against white, grey and black.

As I was researching for more in terms of retouching portraits just by changing colour, I came across this brilliant article featuring a high end retoucher, Natalia Taffarel [4], how she’s editing and correcting images with different hues, and a colour harmony tool [5] to help determining the desired colours. This is beyond amazing!

The power of colour (retouch by Natalia Taffarel)

What did I learn from this part of the course? I’m very much aware of harmonising colours now, I can see them just looking through my window and able to find them instead of intentional arrangements and I’m looking forward to put this knowledge into retouching like Natalia does. Completing this assignment was a lot harder than I anticipated but it also feels incredibly rewarding, knowing this will definitely make me a better photographer.

References

[1] http://www.anastasiavolkova.com

[2] http://www.marchayden.co.uk

[3] Michael Freeman – The photographer’s eye – Page 121.

[4] http://www.diyphotography.net/the-power-of-color-and-color-harmonies-in-composition/

[5] http://www.colorschemedesigner.com/csd-3.5/

 

Feedback and reflection

Please find my tutor’s report here.

I kind of fallen into the trap of worrying about colour ratios too much, but I began to understand the importance of creating a set of images that work well separately as well as a set, creating a scene which is already interesting and colour relationships will only strengthen the composition as oppose to letting colours to take control. I was looking for inspiration and came across David LaChapelle’s work, as he’s known for his unique, hyper-realistic aesthetic and colourful imaginary.  I was blown away, could not stop looking at the images, trying to understand what’s going on, what is the message what he’s trying to say and I realise how boring my images are and where I’ve gone wrong. “Make love not walls” has a clear message, feels like there isn’t much going on but there is with the colourful tank, the naked man facing towards it in the heart shaped light punched in the wall and the sun comes through. I was wondering of the colour choice of the tank, why these colours and why so many in a particular shape as well, I would like to know what he was thinking when he composed this image. Clearly I should have done this before the assignment, sadly I was rushed to finish it due to work commitments which I am trying to resolve as I have been working most days, only getting couple days off in a month, not having a life nor much time to spend on the course which is very frustrating.

Exercise 4. – Colours into tones in black-and-white

Before this exercise I didn’t know much about black-and-white photography, I didn’t understand why some images stand out over others, I assumed the secret was contrasting colours but didn’t think about tones, how colours turn into different shades of grey. I guess I never really experimented with this.

I chose to shoot a still life photo as advised in the course notes, I used the grey card to determine the white balance, made sure it stays the same shade during the filtering process than cropped it out as it was disturbing the composition.

Original

No filter

Green filter

Blue filter

Red filter

Yellow filter

 

 

It’s interesting to see that the normal black and white conversion lightened the dark colour (blue) and darkened all lighter colours (red, green, yellow). Reviewing these images I learned that each filter makes its tone very light and makes other colours darker and it appears to me that the effect depends on each colour’s brightness, for example there isn’t much difference between red filter changing red and green, and yellow changing red and green, there is only slight difference, probably the same as between red and yellow colours. However on this chart the differences are more significant, but they aren’t the exact shade though. I hope I got this right, I feel I’m on the right way to understand how this works.

Since I’m shooting with my DSLR, I always take images in colour, I tried to convert some of my photos to black and white but I didn’t get pleasing results most of the time, but when I did, the message of the image was something emotional. I was thinking, how can I decide when to convert (or shoot) in black and white, Freeman [1] validates my opinion when I see the picture of the lioness, there are no distracting colours, the attention is on the animal rather than the surroundings. He also mentions texture and form, how this format enhances lines and shapes giving a different overall feel to the image, absolutely amazed by Ansel Adams’ work [2], incredible amount detail and contrast.

Looking for more practical advice, I came across an article [3] on this subject showing what filters do to different images and also found this brilliant chart which really helped me understand how this work.

 

(from photographymad.com)

I really like how the red filter enhanced the sky on a beautiful landscape, how orange filter gives smooth skin tone, how green filter separates objects from nature’s green, the way blue filter gives smooth, calming feeling by reducing contrast as it darkens most colours. On that account I will definitely experiment more with black and white photography.

 

References

[1] Michael Freeman – The photographer’s eye, Page 126.

[2] http://www.anseladams.com

[3] http://www.photographymad.com/pages/view/using-coloured-filters-in-black-and-white-photography