4th Plinth / Composition Work Diary

Description of shoot:

In this shoot, we used our own pictures to create a 4th plinth photo. I used a picture that I took from my landscape shoot as the background. The object I used to place onto the landscape was a marble ring holder. I took the pictures of the object in a studio to ensure lighting was efficient for this task. My idea was to have a landscape with a contrasting object placed onto it. This shows an abstract and unrealistic portrayal. This idea was inspired by Storm Thorgerson, in how it's placing random objects into a location to produce an abstract situation in the picture.

Editing:

 To create the objects that would be placed onto the background, I used two pictures that I took both with the hand placed in slightly different places to create a variation in my picture. I used the quick selection tool in photoshop to highlight the hand and then I deleted the background and copy and pasted them onto the background picture. I found this quite quick and easy to complete, this may have been because the hand didn't have any very small details, this made it easy to see the outline and therefore easy to select.

Final Outcome:

I made my background picture slightly darker by editing the levels and curves in photoshop. I did this to emphasis the dark tones, this made the white hands stand out more against the dark background, I think this also made the picture more abstract as the hands are more defined. 

I added three different versions of the hand onto the image as I wanted my final outcome to seem like the hands were an abstract portrayal of sculptures that have been placed there. I made them three different sizes and moved them on the photo so they seemed more randomly placed. 

I think my outcome was more dark and mysterious because of the dark background, than Storm's work. His work has a more happy and joyful atmosphere because of the backgrounds he uses and colours.

Progression:

I think next time I take a 4th plinth picture, I will use an object that relates to the picture a bit more, so there is a relationship between the object and background. In addition, I will focus on making the lighting of the objects. This is to make the lighting more realistic and more fitting with the background. This would make the objects look more like they belong to the picture and the picture would look more like an entirety.

Low Key Lighting Image Bank

I like how in this image, the centre of the face is over powered by negative space that also makes up the background. Therefore we can only see the highlighted outline and hair line of the subject. I think this has a very strong sense of mystery as we can't see any of the facial features so we don't actually know what the subject looks like. I think this is also quite abstract as facial features are usually a very important factor in portraiture as they define the person but this picture goes against that so it is not a typical portrait.

I really like this image, epecially how the subject is looking directly to the side and that outline of her face is very clear and distinct because of the fact that it is very highlighted and it's against the negative space. I also like the back of the head fades into negative space and we can't see the rest of their head, body or hair. This gives an illusion that she is 'floating' as it appears like she is only a face. This has a mysterious connotation.

I think this picture emphasizes the idea that low key lighting has a connotation of mystery. This is because of the way half the face is negative space so we only see the right half. Also I like the way the subject is looking straight into the camera lens so when looking at the picture it seems like he is looking at us. This adds to the mystery as he has a very serious facial expression.

This picture is a bit different as some of the body is highlighted as well as the face. I like how the light has been manipulated so only certain parts of the subject are seen and the rest is negative space. This has quite an abstract look as we can only see the face and arm. I also like the angle that this was taken at, it seems from quite low down and I like the way the subject is then looking down at the lens. I think this has a connotation of power because it appears like she is above everyone else.

I like how in this picture, the contours of the face and body have been very defined by the contrast in highlights and shadows. When researching and shooting for form I found that this was an important factor that helped contribute to the emphasis of the form of the subject. Also I like the way the hair at the top shows that the light is coming from above her.

Portraiture Studio Images Low Key Lighting Straight images

The camera settings for all these photos:

Shutter Speed: 1/125

F-stop: 16

ISO: 200

Tone Studio Work Diary

Description of shoot:

For this shoot I was in the studio and I photographed objects and people. My aim was to achieve pictures that showed a high contrast in tones within the picture. I used the black backdrop in some pictures, this made the picture have negative space, this helped the highlighted tones of the person more highlighted and emphasised.

With this picture I liked the contrast between the negative space and the highlighted tones. To emphasis this even more when I edited this picture, I increased the contrast and adjusted the levels and curves to make the highlights lighter and the dark tones more solid.

I like how this one, in the background, it starts as negative space, then fades into a highlighted area, in the top left hand corner. I also like how her arms are very highlighted and they catch the most light. The different tones vary amongst her, as just above her arm there is a lot of dark shadows, it shows a real tonal contrast. This gives a connotation of mystery and suspense, with quite a 'horror' based atmosphere to it. I think this is because of how the negative space takes up quite a lot of the picture, it's quite overpowering, so it makes the over all picture seem very dark. I think the fact that she is covering her face, builds this connotation. 

I made this picture black and white to keep the focus on the tones on the hat. I think the most important part that shows tone in this picture is on the ribbon as you can clearly see the shine/reflection creating the lightest tones of this picture. This then gradually transitions into the darker shadows around the edges, especially focused on the left side of the hat.

Portraiture Studio Low Key Lighting Work Diary

Description of shoot:

For this shoot I was in the studio so I could artificially manipulate and adjust the lighting to make it suitable for the effect I want for the certain picture. We used a honey comb grid in this shoot over the light. This made the light beam defined on one side of someones face. This created that dramatic lighting effect that created a high contrast in tones. These pictures usually have a mysterious connotation because not all of the face is lit and this made some of the face blend in with the negative space.

I really enjoyed doing this task as I think it is a quick and easy way to create dramatic portraits just by adjusting the lighting. I think this captures a lot of emotion and this goes hand in hand with the general idea of portraiture. Most of my shots had a dead pan expression, I think this adds to the mystery and depth of emotion to the picture.

Studio Set up:
To set up the studio to make it suitable for the shoot, I  used the plain white backdrop to create the negative space in the picture around the picture, this is to ensure all the focus is on the face. We put the honey comb over the light. I also used a plain white screen at the other side of the person, parallel to the light so that the light does't bounce back into the picture.

Below is a picture of the studio when I photographed:

Examples of Images:

Below are some pictures that I took that show the emphasis the light and the negative space has on the portrait.

I really liked how this one looks very mysterious and dramatic. I think this is because of the way I took the picture from a straight angle and she is looking straight into the camera. I liked the way half her face is dark and this blends in with the background/negative space. I think the effect this gives a serious effect as there is more darkness than light.

This image was taken from a close up angle with a landscape view. I liked how she was looking away from the camera but still with quite a serious facial expression. I like the clear definition between the highlighted side of her face (left) and the darker side (left).

Both these images have a very similar look as it has the same angle and facial expression, however one I took in landscape and one I took in portrait. I prefer the one that is portrait as I like how the studio light has effected the contours on her upper body as well as her face, eg. her collar bones.

With these pictures, I like how the highlighted areas are very highlighted making the contrast of tones very high, this makes her contours and facial features very defined and emphasised.

For all of these pictures, my camera settings were on 1/125, the ISO was 200 and the F stop was 16.

Studio Portraiture Work Diary

Description of the shoot:

This shoot involved two sections. Both of which were taken in the studio. The first involved taking head shots on a coloured pictures. This was inspired by  . The idea was to focusing on the facial expressions as there is no background so all the focus is on the face and the angle from which it was shot was important. I then took some pictures that included the head and the top of the body, everything besides the legs. This looked more at the position of the person being shot.

Here is an example of a head shot:

This was one of my favourite images as I like how her hand is on her face I think it looks like quite a natural position but because it's been captured from the front it still gives a structured look.

I edited this picture in photoshop. I chose this one because I wanted to edit it so that the face and the eyes had more highlight and definition so I chose this one as I liked how her eyes were looking straight into the camera. I think these edits make her eyes look very piercing and they draw our attention towards them.

This shows the different layers I used to create the effect of the picture above. The vignette helped darken the edges so the picture seems to be getting lighter as it goes in. You can see here that I also sharpened a layer and I did her eyes which helped to define them even further.

Picture I liked:

F/9    ISO 200    SS 1/125

Over all my pictures I think this was my favourite as I think her eyes strand out a lot. I also like how her expression is in dead pan however there is still so much emotion to this picture. I also like the contrasting tones as there is the negative space in the background and theres highlighted tones on the left side of her face and there's also some darker shadows to create a nice contrast. I made it black and white to create a dismal mood to match her dead pan expression. The fact that she is playing with her scarf in this picture also build this connotation.

This shows what layers I did to edit the picture above.

Progression and image I disliked:

I didn't really like this picture as I think I took it from too far away so I got too much negative background space above her head which isn't necessary and also the negative space cuts out at the top and it is slightly slanted so it makes the whole image look quite distorted rather than straight and well measured like this head shot  was supposed to be. Also her face is not entirely in focus which disregards the point of portraiture as her face is the most important part so if it is slightly blurred like this, the image lacks definition and depth as there is no foreground so she is not separated from the background.

If I had a chance to re do this shoot I would try to experiment with angles more to get more of a variety, especially in my head shot pictures. I think this is important as different angles can completely change the perspective of the whole picture so by having more of a range of angles my pictures may be more interesting.

Images from the internet:

This image is a good example of very a head shot portrait that has very piercing and defined eyes. This is the kind of thing I was trying to create by editing and sharpening the eyes in some of my head shot pictures. 

Depth Work Diary

To apply my knowledge of depth to taking some example photos, I used the same model who held out different objects and I shifted the focus and changed the apeture and F stop to make it suitable for the picture to get the right exposure. I did this for shallow and wide depth of field.

Shallow depth of field:

I liked this image as it is a very clear example of shallow depth of field. This is as the focus is only on the shoe and the model in the background is blurred, this emphasises the definition of the shoe. To take this I had an F stop of 5.6 to create the blurred background. I had the shutter speed in 1/125 and to help get the perfect exposure on the image I put my camera on manual mode.

The two images above both have the same shutter speed and F stop as the first picture however I shifted the focus to be on the model rather than the camera. I think the first one didn't work so well as the models face is not entirely in the shot as it's covered a lot by the camera she is holding. I think this makes the difference in focus a lot less obvious this could make it more difficult to differentiate the layers in the picture.

I really liked the second picture as  the whole of her face can be seen this makes it easy to make her the focus of the picture. The camera is slightly blurred as it isn't in focus. I liked how sharp her eyes are as she is looking directly into the camera and I think this draws even more attention to her as the focus point of the picture.

Progression

I was not to keen on this picture as it shows no focus as all of the picture is blurred. I think this makes the picture lack any sort of depth and it means there is no focus point. Therefore the whole image is quite bland and seems as if theres not much to it. To improve the quality of this shoot I would have made sure I had a focus point to all my images to show the shallow depth of field.

Wide Depth of field:

To show this wide depth of field I changed my camera to have a F stop of 21. This allowed the whole frame of the image to be in focus. To show this technique I shot photos of a model holding a hat to show how they are both in focus. 

I wasn't to keen on this one as I think I took the photo from to far away so it's difficult to see the effect of the wide depth of field.

I think this image worked better to show this technique as we can clearly see both the hat and face is in focus.

More Examples: 

After practising these techniques and camera settings in the studio I went outside to see the effect that background has on depth of field.

This image shows quite a wide depth of field as the background and the model is in focus.

I really liked this image as it shows a shallower depth of field as the backgound is slightly blurred but the model is in focus. I think this depth of field works best with pictures like this where there is a portrait of someone against quite a plain background. I think this is because it then draws more attention to the person and makes them stand out more.

This image shows the use of a vingette, I made this quite a strong vignette to make her face seem really illuminative.

This shows the processes that I put in the image above.

I also used a vignette on this picture. Considering its a shallow depth of field picture, I liked how the background was therefore slightly blurred so I think the vignette made her stand out from the background even more which creates a defined background and foreground.

This shows the editing processes that I put on the image above.

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