Photography Project: Studio Portraits

 Yesterday we went to the photographic studio to take studio portraits. In the studio we used continuous lighting with a four light set up.  We took black and white and colour photographs and we used a black backdrop and a white backdrop.

We used the model Billie and a variety of poses for different composition.  Once I complete the shoot I created contact sheet on Photoshop.

We started with a high key set up on a white background.  The model was wearing colourful clothes and this should have been bright and sharp images. The first image I has chosen to show is this medium shot below

In this image the F-Stop is F4.5 so the aperture is wide open and the image should be clear and sharp.  With the lighting here the shutter is only 1/80 which is quite slow and actually the image is soft and really more light was needed to make this much sharper. I could have improved this image by over exposing slightly and this would have also increased the shutter speed or I could have added extra physical lighting or changed the ISO to 800 (however this would have added more noise, so not a good solution). 

We looked at lots of poses prior to the shoot and this shot by David Bailey has some similar ideas 

It is also a medium shot and uses rule of thirds, Bailey's image uses natural light and the hallway to frame the model.  In my shot there is a clean white background and the colour lifts the image to make it bright and clean.  In Baileys shot the domestic environment is more low key and the black and white changes the mood and feel of the image with the woman alone in the house.  My own image is very much like a classic fashion shot, the model's identity is unimportant.  Baileys shot is obviously far more compelling.   

The next shots I chose were these two sitting poses one in black and white and one in colour - this is partially so I can decide which works better as a shot and to think about the sharpness and lighting in the shots.  

The setting were exactly the same and again these images are soft and the shutter speed slow.  The exposure compensation is overexposing slightly and I think this really needed to be slightly less over exposed and more light added through physical lighting or I needed to be closer to the model to ensure that the shutter speed was higher.  I preferred the black and white but this does need work as I explained here. 

I looked at these shots by Bailey and the sitting pose here uses the bend of the leg and the arm to create the triangle shapes that really make this shot work.  The image is sharp and if my shot over less over exposed and had deeper shades and tones it would have looked more like this in terms of the look of the image. 
 

The next photograph was a seated pose on a box, this pose worked quite well and filled the frame with the triangular shapes and rule of thirds.

On the photograph the shutter was a little slow at 1/30 but there is no blur but it is a little soft.  It is slightly overexposed at +1 exposure compensation but overall this is okay - I would have changed the settings slightly to ensure the shutter speed was higher if I did this again  - I could have changed to Shutter priority.

The image above has some similarities in poses in the  seated position with her hand touching her hair and similar shapes to fill the frame 

The last one I will share here is another seated position , I liked the elegance of this pose, again a little soft but the positioning of the models arms and legs worked well to create a rule of thirds low key shot

The setting here are again a slow shutter making the image softer than I would like.  It was on -2 exposure compensation to ensure the blacks came out black and the shot was low key.  The high contrast of black and white is good and works well here.

Similar idea in this pose however this one is grey shades so the contrast is less stark but the full body shot with the legs taking centre stage and rule of thirds is what we were aiming for in our own shot. 

Reflection

As I was teaching, again I was just doing test shots so these all need adjustments and in a real shoot I would taken far more images and adjusted the setting further to ensure crisper cleaner shots overall. There is a good mixture of poses and low and high key shots here and as a practice it is satisfactory.  In my own work I will be taking far more time and care over the process as this will ensure better shots.

Photography Project: Natural Light Portraits

 Today we were looking at the portrait in class and different compositional techniques and different ideas about the portrait and what it means.  We looked at shots by David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson, shots from Life Magazine, Bill Brandt, David Bailey and Annie Leibovitz.  I was most interested in the Life magazine images and so i went to the archive online and found this from 17th March 1972.  The article was titled 'Dropout Wife'  so I couldn't resist and this was about a woman who left her family to pursue her career and left the children with their Dad. This was at the time of the second wave of feminism and the story was about her life and attitudes.  The Photographs here by Michael Mauney.  I really liked the images and the story and i shows the importance of expressing different point of view of the time.  the photographs make this stronger and more relatable.  

'Drop Out Wife' (17th March 1972) Life Magazine

In class we then went out to take natural light portraits with our model Billie. I took around 300 shots and I started with e the setting of aperture priority F4.5, ISO 200.  These are the contacts from the shoot. 

I completed all the contact sheets both on Photoshop and on Contact sheet generator above - Photoshop contact are superior as it is much easier to read the numbers and check the images.  

In this shot the light was really good in the image with the gentle shadows of the trees on the stone and model.  This gave a kind of mottled look to the image. The aperture was wide open so this is sharp throughout and the shutter speed perfectly balanced for this shot.  I chose this shot as it uses good rule of thirds and the movement of the model as se moves her hair work well as she looks down and the sunlight hits her hair.  

I chose this shot for the low key look, its moody and sultry and this works really well with the rule of thirds landscape composition and triangle of the arm leading the viewer to the models face.  The light hitting right side of face contrasts really well the dark left side and textured stone works well as a backdrop as it does not distract from the models face.  the setting here was a wide aperture at F5.6 and fast shutter so the image again very sharp.  I have underexposed with a -1 exposure bias so create the low key look. 

I chose this image for the depth of the colours, the sun was very bright and so by underexposing by -1 I deepened the colour  as otherwise it may have looked over saturated or over exposed and detail would have been lost. Liked the pose and the angle, good sharp, clear shot

In this image again I underexposed slightly as the sun was bright and I wanted to deepen the shades and tones in black and white.  Really liked the angle and with body as leading line through the shot.  good focal length so the background drops out and the focus on the model  is perfect. 

This one I chose as it is a good rule of thirds and I wanted the river in the background, this again is nicely dropped out and softened so the focus is the models face.  In this shot she has a slight Mono Lisa smile and her look into the distance works well. 

I will finish with the shot, this has a really iconic model look to it the pose really works well and in a medium shot it is perfectly balanaced.  Again the aperture is wide and the image is sharp, with a fast shutter as it was bright sunlight I underexposed this time by -1.3, this bought out the darker shades and tones and worked very well to create a great shot. 

Reflection

I am very pleased overall with this shoot, the sunny day really helps and we managed to get some great shots.  I think the adjustments worked well.  i could have dropped my ISO to 100 but as we moved to lighter and darker areas I thought the exposure compensation would be easier to adjust and it meant more control over each shot.  We did have issues with the sun and angles so it was not directly into the camera or directly into the model's eyes!  However we worked round and changed positions as necessary.  As always some poses worked better that others but I really thought there were some great ones here.  very pleased with shots. 

Photography Project: Above & Below

 For this quick photography practice we began by looking at the work of Corrine Day and Terry O'Neill.  We were looking at the composition and framing of images by these photographers and we were particularly looking at the high and low angle shots and using rule of thirds in images and how this works. I choose this image of Kate Moss by Corrine Day as it is a high angle shots looking down on the subject.  I like this image as the background has a dilapidated wall behind which is quite neutral.  The image is in three thirds, the ground is the first third and then the model and the last third the wall.  The shot works as the subject, Kate moss, is young, and there is a naivety and natural exposure that has the spontaneity and carefree nature of youth encapsulated within the frame. 

Kate Moss (circa 1991) By Corrine Day

I then went out with group and created high and low angle shots.  I was using a Canon 700D, I set the settings to Aperture Priority and so the lens was wide open I set this to F4.  I then set my ISO to 100 as it was a bright sunny day and I checked my exposure compensation was on '0' to begin the shoot. 

Once I completed the shoot I made contact sheets on Photoshop File-Automate-Contact Sheets).

I am just to look at a couple of the shots and how they were taken to discuss whether they worked and what could be improved.

I really like the rule of thirds, the low angle and the lines from the roof.  The shot is good in composition however it is slightly soft.  This is because ths shutter speed was only at 1/50 and I needed to add more light by probably adjusting the ISO to 400.  I chose to do these shots in black and white and colour so I had different choices for curation.

This colour shot was at a high angle and the F stop was nice and wide open and this is a crisp, clean shot with lots of detail, good close up with fast shutter speed and no exposure compensation.  

I then went Photoshop and just put the two shots together on a black canvas at 300dpi.  This was to exemplify the high and low angles used in the shoot.

Reflection

I did not get many shots for this as I was teaching, and if I was doing this with a little more time I would have set up the location and subjects better and considered better composition aspects for the shots.  The final piece is okay for a practice. 

Creative Media: Object Lesson

 In the first week of Creative Media Production, we are doing an object lesson.  This is our first project for assessment and is a one week project.  I have chosen for my object a postcard called 'From Pretty Woman, Tokyo, 2017 by Daido Moriyama.

I was drawn to this object as I loved the reflections of life in the glasses lens, the distorted people and the photographer taking the shot inside the lens of the glasses. The image is striking of the mannequin's head with bright red lipstick.  The shop dummy, the plastic doll these drew me to this image.  The plasticity and materiality of the image - what could I do that is about perhaps materiality. Or maybe it is about the post-modern portrait and the photographer within the image.  The passersby look up into the reflection and see themselves within the mannequins 'eyes'.

I created 20 ideas in 20 minutes, and this is the result

I actually have lots of ideas here that I really liked and would love to make.  However the ones I enjoyed the most were 'Artist in the Image' as I really like this idea of appearing in art in a subtle or interesting way.  I also liked the idea of 'Strangers through the Looking Glass/Alice in Wonderland (through the looking glass)'  Stranger reflections in glass could be really interesting and also a wall of reflection could have great impact as a final piece.  The last one I liked was materiality and making something highly reflective as a 3D sculpture, I love making 3D objects - it is whether this one is possible within a week.

I will start with artist within the image, the first thing that comes to mind is Édouard Manet's Bar at the Folies Bergère (1882).  The artist appears in the mirror at the corner of the image, some say it is the artist, there are other sources that state he was too ill to be there and worked from his studio; 'Manet was too ill to paint this picture in the Folies-Bergère itself. Instead, most of it was completed in the studio, where he had an imitation bar installed. As a result, the details in the foreground were painted with careful precision. Manet even added his signature to the wine bottle on the left' (Zaczek, 2011)  However, The Aesthetics of Photography state; 'A mirror behind her reflects her image, as well as the image of the public, and also that of the artist on the other side of the counter, to the right of the picture.' (Aesthetics of Photography, 2020).  I believe that the man is the artist and that he wanted to appear as soon he would not be there at all, all artists want to be present in some way in their images. 

A Bar at the Folies Bergère (1882) by Édouard Manet

The Jeff Wall's post-modern recreation 'Picture for Women' (1979) is interesting as much is written on teh creation of this image, is it a montage? The people, although they are by a mirror, are not reflected.  The Aesthetics of Photography states; 'More likely, one can think that the totality of the image, including the young woman and the counter, is composed of the reflection coming from the mirror. We would therefore be faced with an entirely specular image, in which all the objects and characters would have been captured indirectly by the camera, according to the reflections coming from the mirror.' (Aesthetics of Photography, 2020).  This was a carefully set up image and the idea that they are just the reflections I really like in this image.  The three panels do create separate spaces in the frame and these are distinct and all hold their own meaning.  I like the idea of using a triptych this could also work really well with differing stories and reflections.

Picture for Women, Jeff Wall, 1979

I also like the idea of strangers in images and capturing strangers (an area many photographers have been in trouble for doing).  Philip Lorca Di Corcia was taken to court for taking images of strangers in Times Square, Di Corcia created these images with a hidden camera between 1999-2001 and then he exhibited these images and sold prints from the exhibition.  It was not until 'March 2005 that the man, Erno Nussenzweig, learned about the photograph [of himself]. He sued, arguing that the artist had violated his privacy rights and that the use of his picture violated his ultra-orthodox Klausenberg sect’s prohibition on graven images.' (Chan, 2017).  The court dismissed the case and did skirt round the privacy issues involved, i.e. do we have a right to privacy when we are out in a public place? The court citred procedural grounds for tah case to be dismissed. Di Corcia took thousands of images in Times Square (he only ever chose a small selection for exhibtion) he took them by mounting, 'his flash unit on some scaffolding under which people constantly walked by. He marked a barely perceptible spot on the ground and mounted a camera with a strong telephoto lens some distance away. Each time someone who interested him walked over the spot, he released the shutter.' (Deutsche Boerse Foundation, 2025)

Philip Lorca-Dicorcia Head #23, 2000

The set and the images are stunning, the isolation of the 'Head' from the crowd to bring attention to that moment with that face, when they are completely unaware, these are striking images and Dicorcia chose when to press the shutter i.e. which people he selected for his images; 'diCorcia was not aiming to photograph types, but individuals who produce a certain effect by themselves, by dint of their character and charisma. “There are people who attract our attention more than others because they are something special,”' (Deutsche Boerse Foundation, 2025)

Philip Lorca-Di Corcia Head 2000 

I like the idea of picking strangers from the crowd, or walking alone in a street.  This could be possible and perhaps in reflection even more possible if it was just taking the reflection and my camera pointed to this. 

I think I have decided that I will take images, these will be more though in the manner of painting like a triptych or as I said in the original 20 ideas a wall of strangers as reflection.  This will be an interesting one to set up and probably will require some patience.  I will add my plan for these shots when I have worked out location and I may try to do a quick test shoot to see if it will work - with the longer days this will make this a lot easier and evening sun could good as it is a softer evening light.

After consideration I started to think further about reflection and I wanted to actually break the glass reflection, destroy it and so I began thinking about images of Man Ray and Moholy Nagy, the photograms of Moholy Nagy were fragmented pieces of things so I thought I could perhaps use this idea with my own face. 

László Moholy-Nagy, Untitled, c. 1940, gelatin silver photogram, 50.1 x 40.2 cm

I created this my fractured and broken face, I liked the effect I used Photoshop to fracture into the pieces that I wanted after I have overlayed the broken glass.  

I enjoyed this exploration of reflection and from the beginning postcard as object, I do think this idea has really evolved into something rather different.  I would do more of these if this were a longer project and I would experiment with images on glass and through glass as that would be really quite interesting dependent, of course, on the concept.  Overall, this gave me further ideas and questions about work I could do next, there is a spark of a greater idea here. 

References

Aesthetics of Photography (2020). Picture for Women, Jeff Wall. [online] Aesthetics of Photography. Available at: https://aestheticsofphotography.com/jeff-wall-picture-for-women/ [Accessed 1 Apr. 2025].

Chan, S. (2017). Case Over ‘Heads’ Photo Is Dismissed. [online] City Room. Available at: https://archive.nytimes.com/cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/16/case-over-heads-photo-is-dismissed/ [Accessed 1 Apr. 2025].

SINGULART (2024). Picture for Women by Jeff Wall: A Blend of Art and Critique. [online] Magazine. Available at: https://www.singulart.com/blog/en/2024/04/04/picture-for-women-by-jeff-wall/[Accessed 1 Apr. 2025].

Zaczek, I. (2011). A Bar at the Folies Bergère by Édouard Manet. [online] Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/A-Bar-at-the-Folies-Bergere [Accessed 1 Apr. 2025].