Low key lighting - Work diary

Evaluation
I found this shoot interesting and largely successful due to fact that I enjoy the effect which can be created from the partial lighting and directed shadows with this effect.  I particularly enjoyed editing the images as I was able to use duotone effects in order to create a differently coloured effect with the same tonal contrast as a black and white image, I also enjoyed creating the tonal contrast by editing the images to a black and white state.

Favourite image

1/125, F16, ISO 200

This is my favourite image from this shoot as I enjoyed the way in which the purple duotone effect on the image created an interesting tonal range as well as adding a surreal effect to the subjects appearance and skin tone.  I also feel that the fact that parts of the subjects face cannot be seen as a result of the 3/4 pose and heavy shadows as a result of the low-key lighting which adds a sense of mystery to the image.

Least favourite image

1/125, F16, ISO 200

This is my least favourite image due to the fact that I feel that the tonal range in this image is too low and that the image does not have a large sense of contrast.  The lack of contrast in the image makes it appear somewhat dull.

Progression
If I were to revisit this topic I would consider experimenting with a wider range of duo tone colours as well as creating black and white images with a stronger sense of contrast.

Aspirations 
Below are a selection of images using low-key lighting which is find interesting and would aspire to recreate if I returned to this topic.

Depth of field- Technical exercise

I experimented with depth of field in the studio using the following camera and lighting set up.  I used two soft boxes one on either side of the subject and positioned my camera on a tripod.

I used camera settings with a high f-stop in order to gain the desired shallow depth of field in my images.

Below is an example of a shallow depth of field studio image.

Studio Portrait Thomas Ruff- Technical Exercises

Thomas Ruff's photography style is distinctive due to the fact that the majority of his stylised images are all shot against a solid coloured background with the subject dead panning the camera.  

Below is an example of his work.

To recreate this image I used an orange backdrop and positioned my subject facing the camera head on with two box lights poisoned on either side of him (this can be seen below).

I then placed my camera on a tripod and set my camera to 1/125, F9, ISO 200.

Below is one of the images that I shot.

As I personally find Ruff's style to be somewhat dull I decided to add multiple imagery to my photos as this was an area which I wished to explore.

Below is the final image which I created.

Joiners- Mind map

Composite- Mind map

Documentary- Mind map

Movement- Mind map

Richard Avedon

D.O.B- 15/05/1953
Place of birth- New York, America
Occupation- Photographer

• Of Jewish decent.
• His interest in photography began when he joined a Hebrew boys photography club at 12.
• His muse and sister was schizophrenic which lead him to work largely in the field of tragic beauty when he was older.
• Worked as an advertising photographer for a department store in 1944.
• Joined the photography staff of Vogue in 1962.
• Worked extensively with Brooke Shields in both TV advertisement and print advertisement.
• In the 1960's Alvedon branched into the photography of civil rights workers as well as politicians whilst continuing his fashion career.

This portrait of Marilyn Monroe shows the Avedon's recognised talent amongst the photography community due to the fact that Monroe was a big name celebrity at this time.  The tonal range between the dark dress and Monroe's light skin and hair creates an interesting contrast in the image, shadows on Monroe's face also give the image a sense of depth and form.

The eccentricity of the outfit photographed in this image means that it must have been a part of Alvedon's high fashion work.  The intriguing and fluid composition of the subjects is extremely eye catching and the various levels of form guide the viewers eye from the top to the bottom of the image.

This image be Alvedon is interesting to me as the costuming of the subject through the use of makeup to enlarge the eyes, the short hair cut and knitted sweated creates an image of youthfulness and innocence.  The close up shot of the face also provides a detailed view of the subjects face and the shadows help to give definition to the subjects face and create a tonal range and contrast throughout the image.

Influence on my work 

Avedon's use of stark tonal contrast in his portraiture has lead me to explore this element in several of my pieces in areas including portraiture.

Martin Parr

D.O.B- 23/05/1952

Place of birth- Surrey, England

Occupation- Photographer

• Parr has been a member of Magnum photography since 1994.
• Parr's series "The Last Resort" has been criticised by some as creating a negative caricature of the British working class.
• Parr has been featured in over 80 exhibits across the world and has had 40 photo books published.
• Parr also had a tour called "ParrWorld".
• His main projects include "Rural communities" (1975-82), "The Last Resort" (1983-85), "The Cost of Living" (1987-1989), "Small World" (1987-1994) and "Common sense" (1995-1999).

The following images are all part of Martin Parr's documentary series "The Last Resort" which focuses around the British working class holiday experience at New Brighton beach.

The saturated tones of this image convey the theme of summer and holidays whilst the unpolished appearance of the beach fits the idea that the beach is in a poorer area of England opposed to a more wealthy area which may have had better facilities.

This unhappy expression of the female waitress conveys the idea that teenagers are always grumpy and do not wish to work as they are lazy.  The fact that the youngest boy is transfixed by the ice-cream conveys the simplicity of youth whilst the fact that the teenage boy is starring at the women's breasts highlights the sexualisation of women by men.

The beach imagery in this imagery conveys the idea that the area in which the image was taken is a holiday destination however the waste in the water carries of connotations of pollution and poverty which contrasts heavily with the idealised white sand beaches and blue seas of foreign holidays.

Influence on my work

My work has been influenced through Parr's work as I chose to shoot my documentary series "Family" whilst I was on holiday and sought to employ the saturated and bright colours which make Parr's work so distinctive.

Visit report

Landscape- Work diary

Evaluation
This series took part over two separate shoots one of which took place in Harlow and another of which took place in London and was inspired by Luxemburg.  I feel that the conditions of the Harlow shoot were undesirable as the extremely windy conditions meant that it was hard to focus the camera however I have come to enjoy the grain effect.

Favourite image

1/50, F/5.0, ISO 2000

This is my favourite image due to the composition of the image in which the London Eye appears to peek around the side of the building.  I also like the way that the iconography of the London eye means that the images location is immediately recognisable.  I also find the lighting interesting as this creates an eye-catching pop of colour in an otherwise dull image.

Least favourite image

1/50, F/5.0, ISO 2000

This is my least favourite image as I feel that it conveys landscape in the least interesting way.  I also feel that the lack of lighting in the image makes it overly dark and obscures the landscape which is being photographed.

Progression 
If I were to repeat these shoots I would bring a tripod to the shoot which took place in London and I would make sure that I am not shooting outside on a windy day as this produces unsatisfying images.

Composite images- Work diary

Evaluation 
I did not enjoy the unit of composite images I do not particularly enjoy this area of photography and would rather explore it in my own time to create fun images for comedy opposed to more seriously edited pieces to be examined.

Favourite image

This is my favourite image as I enjoy the simplicity of it.  The image is formed of two parts, the sky which is made from the backing of a picture which I took of Nelson's column and a picture of a fellow student sitting in a toy plan from the colour unit of the project.

Least favourite image

Whilst I do not particularly dislike this image I feel that the chicken is poorly blended into the road meaning that the two image elements to do fit together well.  To improve this I could have used the burn tool to create a shadow around the base of the chicken.

Progression
If I were to revisit this topic I would explore the more comical side of the genre opposed to the more serious side as this is the area which i enjoy.

Documentary- Work diary

Evaluation
These images were all shot in Florida whilst I was on holiday which lead to an intriguing set of images from a varied location.  I found that the bright lighting from the sun provided a good level of lighting which was more effective than the cloudy skies and rain in England.

Favourite image

1/50, F/5.0, ISO 200

This dismay favourite image due to the way it's vibrant coloration which carries connotations of happiness, excitement and holidays.  I also feel that this image is an interesting comparison to Martin Parr's project "Last Resort".

Least favourite image 

1/125, F/5.0, ISO 200

This is my least favourite image as I don't feel that it is a valuable image in my documentary series.  I also find the image's colouration dull and uninteresting.

Progression
If I were to repeat this shoot I would consider bringing a tripod as I struggled to capture the movement of the lights in a number of my nighttime images.

Final evaluation

My work has been largely influenced by a number of photographers over the course of this unit, some of the most influential include Martin Parr who's work influenced my documentary series and Ruut Blees Luxembourg who's work influenced my landscape series and lead me to explore a variety of options such as inner city landscapes where I could take advantage of the variety of tones created by street lights.

My use of equipment has greatly improved over the course of this unit as before taking part in this assessment I had never used a camera to shoot high quality images.  I have since learned how to manipulate depth of field to create intriguing images as well as how to alter my camera manually to allow for high quality images in a number of lighting scenarios.  The most challenging tool for me to learn was Photoshop CC 2014 and as can be seen from my images it took time to gain the image quality that I desired and time to grasp how the editing software worked.  Over time I began to experiment more and more using colour select features as well as inserting effects such as duotone to create intriguing and surreal images.  I have also learnt how to set up the studio and can now set up box lights, change backdrop, set up table top photography and shoot using low-key lighting through the means of a snoot.  I have also learnt composition techniques such as the rule of thirds which describes the best way in which a image can be composed to make sure that it captures the viewers attention and draws the eye in.

I feel that the quality of my work has improved vastly over the course of the unit due to the fact that I have begun to familiarise myself with the tools that I must use every lesson.  I am also looking into learning more advanced techniques for my second unit such as gif making.  I have found that I am more able to tell if something I see on the street will be a good image after I have photographed it, this has enabled me to create a higher volume of high quality images.  I have also discovered that my images are developing into a distinct style and that I particularly enjoy the use of low saturated images with a somewhat surreal effect to them however I am interested in branching into more socio-political photography in component 2.

I have experimentation through the means of physical experiments and have found that I do not particularly enjoy creating them but feel that they could be useful tool for self expression opposed to simply image adjustment.  I far prefer to manipulate my images using Photoshop CC 2014 as I feel that this gives me the cleanest appearances and allows for me to experiment with more surreal aspects in my images.

I have discovered over the course of component 1 that the areas which I am most interested in are documentary photography (particularly candid portraiture) as well as studio portraiture with my own personal twist as I am not a big fan of the somewhat stiff and dull work of Thomas Ruff.  I would much prefer to branch into the more controversial world of David LaChapelle.   I believe that this unit was largely successful due to the way in which my style developed over the course of the unit and my knowledge of the subject of photography increased along with my skill set.

Electronic portfolio

Connecting essay 5- Rut Blees Luxemburg, London landscape

Rut Blees Luxemburg

My Image

Both my image and Luxemburg's focus on nighttime inner city landscape photography and whilst the images are not of a pastiche style they bare some similarities.

In both images urban inner city life is featured with Luxemburg's image featuring an inner city tower block and my image featuring a pub near Trafalgar square.  These images both represent life in a busy city in an effective and engaging way.

The colour scheme of both images is also similar with both images featuring a palette largely comprised of highly saturated red, oranges and yellows (these colours represent the vitality of city life) as well as dark black tones which provide an interesting contrast.  The fact that each of the images features light even though they occur at night time demonstrates the fact that the city never truly sleeps.

These images also have a similar appearance due to the fact that they have been taken in a similar time period and have therefore had access to the same equipment such as editing software.  I implement Photoshop CC 2014 to my image in order to increase it's saturation which I feel has given it a far warmer feeling.

The composition of both images varies with Luxemburg's image featuring a head on image of a tower block providing neat squares a geometric pattern whereas my images is a side on angled image.  Another difference in composition is that my image features people whereas none of Luxemburg's work does, this helps to convey the isolation that some can feel in the city.

If I were to create a pastiche of Luxemburg's work I would focus more on finding true isolation in my images as well as attempting to take more head on images with interesting composition such as geometric patterns or reflection of signs in puddles.

Connecting essay 4- Vivian Meyer, Reflection

Vivian Meyer

My Image

Both myself and Meyer have implemented reflection in our images in order to focus on the photographic medium of self portraiture.

I feel that my image has aesthetic similarities to that of Meyer's work such as the way in which the images are both in black and white and the way in which multiple subject's are visible in the images.  The largest similarity between both pieces is the use of reflection in order to create a self portrait and I find this effect intriguing.

Meyer's work also has a great deal of differences to my work which are largely a result of the fact that our images were taken with different available resources.  Meyer's photography options were limited due to the fact that she was a photographer from the 1900's this meant that her images had to undergo the rigorous process of dark room photography which was both time consuming and expense as she has to rely on film.  On the other hand I as a modern day photographer am free to experiment with a multitude of different techniques such as post shoot editing which is where I was able to add my black and white filter opposed to it occurring in development like Meyer.

If I were to revisit my pastiche of Meyer's work I may look into using a film camera and developing the images in a dark room in order to better grasp the process in which she undertook to achieve her images.  I would also consider attempting to remove my camera from the image through positioning as this is something which she has done.

Connecting essay 3- Richard Avedon, Portraiture

Richard Avedon

My Image

The above images by both myself and Richard Avedom (who specialises in fashion portrait photography) both incorporate similar elements of photography and an therefore be easily discussed.

To begin with both images are similar in their technical methods as both have been shot in a studio under controlled conditions with lights and a backdrop.  These conditions are particularly important for fashion portraiture to avoid any of the pieces being photographed by damaged by the elements.  A controlled studio also provides aseptically pleasing and balanced lighting as well as a varied option of backdrop.

The images have both been edited to give them a black and white high contrast appearance in order to make the faces of the subjects more striking and bold in order to catch the viewer's eye.

Avedon's image employs a gradient effect on the backdrop of the image whereas my image has a solid coloured backdrop, personally I feel that the solid colour used in the images backdrop provides a greater tone of contrast in my image.  The composition of both images is similar as they both feature the images subjects in profile view, profile view images often create a bold and striking appearance as well as an aesthetically pleasing image.  The images however do not contain the same amount's of the subjects face with Alvedon's image portraying the subjects upper torso to top of head and my image merely showing the subjects forehead to chin.  I feel that both images are appealing and feel that the larger image of Avedon is appealing in his style because of the subjects intriguing styling my subject however has the most detailing around the eyes which is why this is where the image focuses.

If I were resist Alvedon's style I may consider look into styling my subjects in a way which is more in keeping with the the high fashion model appearance of Alvedon's work.

Connecting essay 2- Martin Parr, Documentary - Family

Martin Parr- The Last Resort

My Image

I have chosen to discuss and compare the above two images despite their difference due to the fact that they also contain s number of similarities and are both part of the photo genre of documentary photography.

Martin Parr's image has a saturated tone as well as a number of colours which can also be found in my image such as the vast amounts of blue which make up the background of both my image and Parr's as well as the use of red which draws the eye into each image.  I feel that the saturated tone of these images helps to create the idea of an atmosphere of fun due to the fact that both pieces are part of documentary pieces which feature holidays.

Another similarity between both images is the fact that they both document family life on holiday opposed to other holiday groups such as youth and partygoers.  I feel that the focus on family in both images helps to link both pieces together.

The first obvious differences between the work of Parr and myself is the location which both images were taken and the time in which they were taken.  Parr's image's were shot at New Brighton in England between 1983 and 1935 in the middle of summer whereas my images were taken in Orlando, Florida in 2015 on New Years Eve.  This difference between date of photography has created a difference in quality whilst the difference between location has created a difference in image appearance.

The other difference between both images is the socio-economic classes featured in both images.  Martin Parr's work is largely a documentary series featuring working class families in the 1980's however it is also in parts a characicature of these families as many of the images taken are some of the most extreme examples.  My images however feature a more reserved family conducting themselves in a manner more acceptable for the time period.

If I were to further replicate Parr's work I may consider taking photographs at a beach in England in order to gain a more similar subject group as well as to recreate a bit of the aesthetic of Parr's images.  I could also look into finding a camera which is more typical of what would have been available at the time in order to create a similar quality images.

Connecting essay 1- David Hockney, Joiners

David Hockney

My image

The first photograph is the work of the UK artist David Hockney, Hockney's style of photography is referred as on his website as a "photo collage" however this style is more commonly known as a photo joiner.  My image is a photo joiner and has been largely inspired by Hockney's work.

Similarities between the work of myself and Hockney include the principal and aesthetic appearance of the images, this is displayed through the joiner effect present in both images.  The two images are not completely the same however as the technical process varies between images.  In Hockney's image the photos were taken outside and stuck together physically; in my image however the photo's which join together to make the main piece were shot in the studio with regular lighting and controlled conditions also my images were compiled using editing software.

The editing software that I used was Photoshop CC 2014, I feel that the use of photoshop opposed to a more natural method of joining such as glueing the image's down as Hockney does has created a far smoother and cleaner appearance for my image.  I believe however that the more weathered appearance of Hockey's work gives it a far more personal appearance which may make it more appealing to viewers.

The camera angles and final image aesthetic also vary between my image and Hockney's.  My image focuses on the entire body of the seated subject whereas Hockney's work focuses on the subjects head, Hockney also uses a wider variety of camera angles than are  seen in my work as I opted to shoot all of the images head on.  Aesthetic is also similar in the way in which both myself and Hockney have chosen to back our images with a background of single colour (Hockney using black and myself using white) in order to tie the image composition together effectively.

I feel that my image differs from Hockney's in the fact that it has a more surreal and sinister appearance.  Examples of my surreal imagery can be found in the employment of the gas mask which covers half of the subjects face. This appearance was created by photographing the subjects head wearing the gas mask and not wearing the mask and then joining the two halves of the subjects face together.  The use of the gas mask carries connotations of death war time which may unsettle the viewer.  I feel that through choosing to incorporate aspects of surrealism (an area of photography which interests me) I was able to make the joiner style my own and break away slightly from external influences.

I feel that if I were to more closely recreate Hockney's work in the future that exploring the possibility of incorporating physical composition techniques may be something which I should explore further.  If I were to revisit this project I would also like to further experiment with surrealism and perhaps look into the work of Hannah Hock.

Landscape- Luxemburg

This series of images were taken on a night trip to London.  I choose to take them in London due to the fact that I had been inspired by Luxemburg's style and whilst these images are not a pastiche of her work I feel that it is obvious in several areas that my work was inspired by hers.  Examples of this include the fact that the images are all in London which is where she has taken her city photos and all feature the use of lights which is something that Luxemburg always employs in her photography.  If I wished to create a true pastiche to her work then I could attempt to create a series of long exposure images to light my images from natural sources in the same way that she does.

Physical experiments

I have used chalk in the above images to create images of aliens and the night sky.

I have implemented felt tip pend in this image to create a larger contrast between the black and white photography and the coloured light than would have been possible whilst using chalk.

I have used orange chalk in this image to create the effect of a sepia toned image.

Evaluation

I do not particularly enjoy physical photography however I would be interested in using it as a form of self expression in the future as I feel that physical manipulation creates a personal effect for an image.

Documentary- Straight images

Disney at night
This documentary series focuses on the lights of Disney on New years eve in Florida.  I felt that this was an interesting thing to document due to the fact that the lights are only up over the winter season and are extremely pretty. 

I choose to increase the saturation and contrast of these images in order to increase the effect go the lights on the image and make them as impressive as they appear in real life.

Family

This documentary series focuses on my family at Disney land.  I felt that this was an interesting topic to photograph due to the fact that the Disney franchise is linked with the idea of family due to the fact that it caters to people of all ages.  

I feel that these images were somewhat influenced by Martin Parr's series the last resort and due to this I have chosen to increase the saturation of the images in order to to convey the feeling of summer and holidays whilst also attempting to recreate elements of Parr's style such as candid photography.