Example of portraits in settings that form part of the overall composition.
Tag Archives: portriat
Portrait Photography & Portraiture – background
The aim of a portrait is to capture and create a representation of a person, the face and its expression is predominant. A portrait is intended to capture the character or essence of a person, their personality as well as their likeness, a portrait can even tell a story about an individual. A portrait often shows a person looking directly out and at the viewer with the intention to connect and engage the subject with the viewer.
A search on the internet for images of photographic portraits finds mostly images of head shots or head and should shots. There are even less that are photographs from the waist up.
What I consider makes a good portrait.
The portrait of the person is the main subject, recognisable, and not too artistic, because then it ceases to be a portrait but becomes a photographic composition with a person. Portrait photography in my opinion is very different from informal candid photograph snaps of people doing things or attending events.
My intention with portrait photography is to create a good likeness, with something that the portrait sitter recognises about themselves and others recognise as that person. I hope that my portraits also say something about the individual, their character and mood at the time of sitting, have an artistic and creative element, but not too manufactured.
History of Portraits
The portrait has been around since man has been able to draw and paint. The portrait has been a method to remember people, what they look like. Through the ages portrait paintings became popular with the rich and famous, royalty, nobility, religious leaders or military leaders. Portraits were a means of immortalising themselves and a method to demonstrate their wealth power or importance, to others. Painting remained a skilled trade, and not something anyone could practice as a hobby. Only the rich could afford portraits by well established artists that produced paintings of quality likeness.
With the introduction of photography individual and family portraits were possible and affordable by many. The time taken to produce photographic portraits compared to paintings was considerably less. Photographic portraits was available for the majority of people. The high quality image and the relatively small size pictures also made portraits something that could be easily carried around or sent in a letter. The photographic medium made portraiture a popular subject and many photographic studios, shops business were set up. Many families had their portraits taken at to special times remember significant or occasions such as, religious festivities, birthdays, weddings, social events.
The First World War popularised portrait photography and many portrait studio businesses started up. They offered service men portrait photographs that would be given to wives, sweethearts and families as a keep sake, and the wives, sweethearts and families had their portraits taken to send to their ‘boys’. Also when troops were overseas photographic businesses set up to take portraits of the soldiers to send back to show how well they were getting on.
As photography developed, equipment became smaller, portable and more affordable more people could take their own photographs on holidays the formal family portrait photographs became less popular, the candid shots of family members having fun took over.
Portrait photography is still considered an important role in business and education. Schools regularly employ the services of photographic companies to take portraits of children for their school records and as a means of raising school funds. Businesses use portrait photographs for publicity material, press releases and photographic ID.
The government uses portrait photographs for photographic identity for passports, driving licences, and disabled car badges etc. These photographs are very prescriptive and have rules that have to be followed, they are designed for identification purposes, not artistic interpretation or quality.
Famous portrait photographers:
Richard Avedon (1923-2004), American photographer, born and lived in New York. http://www.avedonfoundation.org/ Plain white sometimes grey background studio portraits. High contrast that shows the subjects facial features, wrinkles and freckles. Some of the portraits the subjects are holding or carrying items such as a butcher wearing blood stained apron and cleaver, soldiers carrying guns. The majority are solo portraits of people Avedon though interesting to photograph, some of the subjects were famous and influential people such as Andy Warhol, Ronald Reagan. There portraits that have more than one person such as Duke & Duchess of Windsor (Edward & Mrs Simpson).
I like the style of clear backgrounds the sharp focusing in on the subject, for the individuals that I don’t recognise I wonder and want to know the story behind the photograph, why that person?
David Bailey (1938- ), http://www.davidbaileyphotography.com/ English photographer famous for photographing the swinging 60s, celebrities and pop stars of the 1960s and 1970s. These works were mostly black and white photographs with white backgrounds. His more recent portrait works are mostly colour, with backgrounds that set a scene or attempt to tell a story about the subject. The stark white backgrounds, B+W photos with high contrast are similar in style as Avedon.
http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person.php?LinkID=mp05044&role=art&wPage=0
Bert Stern. (1929-2013) American photographer, born and lived in New York. Self-taught commercial photographer. http://www.bertsternmadman.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_Stern
Inge Morath (1923-2002) Austrian-born, lived in Germany during the War years. 1951 moved to London, 1953 moved to France, joined the she joined the Magnum Photos Agency. 1962 moved to America http://www.magnumphotos.com/IngeMorath http://ingemorath.org/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inge_Morath
Philippe Halsman, (1906-1979) Born in Latvia, moved to France in 1930, after the War he emigrated to America. Halseman took many iconic photographs of Salvador Dali and Albert Einstein, some of his photographs were inspired by the surreal art movement and featured Dali. http://philippehalsman.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Halsman
Bill Brandt (1904-1983) German born, British photographer. His portraits are characterised by atmospheric lighting with backgrounds and props to help describe the person. http://www.billbrandt.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Brandt https://www.google.co.uk/images?q=bill+brandt+portraits
Mary Ellen Mark (1940-2015) American photographer known for her portraiture, photojournalism / documentary photography and commercial advertising photography http://www.maryellenmark.com/ https://www.google.co.uk/images?q=Mary+Ellen+Mark
Arnold Newman (1918-2006) American photographer, his style of portraiture is of individuals in their surroundings, not studio photographs. http://arnoldnewman.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Newman
Duane Michals (1932- ) Portraits are more experimental, series of portraits in sequences, multiple exposures and the use of mirrors that distort reflections. http://www.dcmooregallery.com/artists/duane-michals http://www.nga.gov.au/Exhibition/KarshShmith/Default.cfm https://www.google.co.uk/images?q=Duane+Michals
Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002) Canadian portrait photographer. A lot of his portraits were shot in the studio, with dark backgrounds and atmospheric lighting. In his career he photographed many political leaders such as Winston Churchill, Fidel Castro and personalities of the film industry including Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Humphry Bogart. http://www.karsh.org/ http://www.karsh.org/#/the_work/portraits https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yousuf_Karsh
Contemporary portrait photographers according to D&M Imaging include: http://dmimaging.net/top-modern-photographers/
Joe McNally http://portfolio.joemcnally.com/index
Martin Vrabko http://www.martinvrabko.com/
Joey Lawrence https://www.joeyl.com/overview/category/quick-portfolio
Michael Muller http://www.mullerphoto.com/#/
Jeremy Cowart http://jeremycowart.com/portfolio/featured/
Top according to the website top100 Photographers these are some of the leading current portrait photographers. http://top100photographers.org/index.html
Terry Richardson http://www.terryrichardson.com/archive/#/
Annie Leibovitz https://www.facebook.com/annieleibovitz , http://www.vogue.com/tag/photographer/annie-leibovitz/
Alasdair McLellan http://www.alasdairmclellan.com/
Iconic photograph by Arthur Sasse Einstein’s tongue
Other web resources:
https://www.google.co.uk/images?q=famous+portrait+photographs
Final Piece – Idea, Execution, Evaluation
The brief:
Produce a series of diptych portraits, the images must individually tell a story about the subject and be accompanied by a still life image of an object that links to the portrait. The subjects of the photographs to be of people from different generation other than students, either younger or older.
The photographs of objects to accompany the portraits should represent, reflect or symbolise something about the individual in the portrait photograph.
The photographs can be colour or B&W, any size film or digital image, studio or on location, using flash or studio lighting.
The prints to be printed to a minimum of A3 for exhibition
My Idea:
Portraits of the elderly generation. I want to try and capture their character, expression and joy. The intention is to photograph faces that have personality, wrinkles and blemishes that time has imposed. I wanted to take close cropped photographs of their faces so that the viewer focuses on their face. I considered taking portraits in a scene or environment that is a component of the composition but discounted the idea because I thought it would detract from the diptych, there would be a second image of an object to compliment the portrait, I did not want too much going on from the final compositions. The lighting effect I wanted to be bright and but not harsh or produce a flattening of features.
The second photograph of the diptych was of an object or item that symbolised and reflected the individual in the portrait and their time in life.
I wanted each photograph to work on its own, the portraits to be engaging, but also I wanted a theme, something to pull the series of photographs together. I used paper party crowns from crackers as a prop to do this. Each paper crown worn was a different colour rather than the same colour worn by all. The paper crowns were to give the idea that they are all enjoying themselves together as if at a party.
The photographs were to be in colour, but with muted tones, reduce the vibrancy. The change and fading of the colours to signify their twilight years.
Did I have to change any of my original idea?
My original idea was for B+W caricature portraits in the style of Lee Jeffries, (see Final Piece Ideas 1. Portrait Experiment in the style of Lee Jeffries). I was not happy with these photographs as portraits, I felt they were interesting photographs, but not portraits that captured anything about the person in the picture.
I revised my original idea and adapted to B+W photographs of elderly ladies, (see Final Piece Idea 2. Development of idea of Black & White photography). I performed some test shots of two elderly ladies. The photographs were missing a warmth or sense of story, they were cold and anonymous. I was also not sure how I could introduce a second photograph of an object that would work in with the B+W portraits.
How I created these images
I created these pictures using a digital SLR camera. The photographs were taken in RAW format so that I could easily pull them into Photoshop and manipulate the pictures in Photoshop.
I used a single studio lamp light bounced of an umbrella to act as the main light source. The brightness was turned down because I did not want to ‘bleach’ the flesh tones or blind the ladies with a strong intense light. The benefit of the studio lamp was that the illumination was constant to take the photos and similar to natural light. I also used a reflector to bounce light on to the face to reduce the shadows created by the studio lamp.
The camera settings for the portrait photographs were all different, details of each portrait photograph:
Orange Crown Canon EOS 450D, ISO-400, F-stop f/4.5, Exposure time 1/250 second, focal length 47mm.
Green Crown Canon EOS 450D, ISO-400, F-stop f/5, Exposure time 1/400 second, focal length 41mm.
Silver Crown Canon EOS 450D, ISO-400, F-stop f/5, Exposure time 1/250 second, focal length 43mm.
Yellow Crown Canon EOS 450D, ISO-400, F-stop f/4.5, Exposure time 1/250 second, focal length 36mm.
I photographed four ladies in turn. The ladies that were able sat in a positioned chair, for two ladies in wheel chairs they moved themselves into position. Each was asked if they were happy to wear a paper crown, and each agreed. I adjusted the lighting to shine where I wanted it strike their face. I worked around each lady taking photographs from various angles, trying to work as quickly as possible so that each person did not get tiered or bored because I took too long. I also chatted with the ladies to help put them at their ease and to try and distract them from being photographed.
For the objects I choose several items that I felt reflected the ladies characters and enhance the portraits. I created a white table and placed in turn a coloured paper crown, upon the crown I placed an object. I used a white table with the hope that some light would reflect up and through the paper crown to give texture and subtle shading to the flat coloured crown. I also used a bright LED beam of light to focus and shine down on the objects also positioned at a variety of angles to the object. The light was moved around and the intensity altered to see what effects it had on the object, create highlights on the objects, to try and make the glass marble sparkle. To illuminate the bright watch face, create light and shadows that emphasise the name tags. Highlights and creation of depth on the model boat.
The camera settings for the object photographs were all different:
Orange Crown and name tags. Canon EOS 450D, ISO-400, F-stop f/5.6, Exposure time 1/400 second, focal length 55mm.
Green crown and marble. Canon EOS 450D, ISO-400, F-stop f/5.6, Exposure time 1/100 second, focal length 55mm
Silver Crown and boat. Canon EOS 450D, ISO-400, F-stop f/5.6, Exposure time 1/640 second, focal length 55mm.
Yellow Crown and fob watch. Canon EOS 450D, ISO-400, F-stop f/5.6, Exposure time 1/400 second, focal length 55mm
The RAW format files for the portraits and the objects were taken into Photoshop and manipulated. The brightness, contrast and levels were adjusted for each image. The saturation was reduced to give the required pale and faded quality of light. The portrait and objects were paired up and each adjusted to be of similar shades and light and colour quality. Then all the paired images were adjusted to be of similar pallet of colours and vibrancy.
Photoshop method used.
- Open RAW file.
- Duplicate the background layer (Ctrl+J)
- Convert to B+W. Image, Adjustments, Black & White (Alt+Shift+Ctrl+B)
The window to convert the layer to B+W is displayed. Change the colour levels to the following
- Reds: 112%
- Yellows: 32%
- Greens: -82%
- Cyans: 123%
- Blues: 293%
- Magentas: 145%
- Check the box Tint
- Set the Hue 42o
- Saturation 19%
- Click on Background layer, layer 0 change the drop down from Normal to Soft Light, opacity 100%
- Click on layer 1, change the opacity using the slide bar and adjust until it looked right.
- Save the final image as a PDS.
- The process was repeated for all the portraits and photographs of objects.
A new image was created in Photoshop, the image twice the size of the portrait. The final portrait image was copied and pasted into the left hand side of the new image, the corresponding object image was copied and pasted to the right of the portrait to create the diptych.
The final images were re-sized to A2 (420 x 594 mm or 16.5 x 23.4 inches) then saved as PDFs.
Evaluation:
What worked well?
I believe that this series of pictures has worked well this is because I have managed to add character and warmth to the pictures using party crown hats. The crowns worn symbolise the rejoicing and celebration of their lives. The composition style and imagery is similar that also ties the photographs together.
There is a link between all the portraits of the paper crowns, it gives the group of portraits a cohesion. The reduced saturation of colour to all the photographs to give a vintage look and feel. The reduced saturation gives a lightness to the photographs, similar to a sepia tinted photograph. A less intense colouration of a ‘normal’ colour saturated photograph. This style complimented the aged nature of the subjects the fact these ladies were from an earlier generation. The images are in an old photographic style sympathetic for an elderly generation of people. The ladies are in their sunset years.
The ladies all were genuinely happy to have their photographs taken. It was a change for me and the ladies from our usual routines, we all had fun taking the photographs and talking. I think the enjoyment we had is captured in the portraits, you can see a mixture of expressions, reflective and happy. The paper crowns give the photographs a lift, a sense of fun and humour.
The second accompanying photographs were of carefully chosen objects that symbolised or reflected the ladies and the time in their life. The paper crowns symbolise rejoicing and celebrating their life. The paper crowns were used to connect the portraits to the objects. The paper crowns were laid on the table and acted as the backdrop to each of the objects.
The fob watch with no hands that symbolises the long lifetime, and like an old watch the body is starting to break down. The marble that contains bright speckles of light within it that shows they still have a sparkle within them. The name tags of signifies friends and family members that are not around or have passed away. The traditional fishing boat that symbolises traveling and journeys or adventures that they have undertaken in their past.
The overall collection of portraits I believe show a gentleness and warmth of the ladies, they are all still young at heart and enjoying life, this can be seen in the collection of images.
How can I improve these pictures?
I am really pleased with these pictures. I was conscious that I did not want to over stay the kindness and good will of the ladies. I would have liked more time with the ladies to try different lighting, possibly altering the studio lighting to enhance the contrast of light and shadow on their faces.
I would have also liked to try a black background in a darkened room and tried to create a more atmospheric or moody Rembrandt style portraits using studio lighting.
NOTE: The photographs ave been printed A3 for display and A4 copies in my course work folder. The details of each photograph have been included as part of a record of the work.
Final Piece Idea 2. Development of idea of Black & White photography
The idea and aim
I took photographs of more senior people, the texture and aging of their skin I hoped would lend itself to B+W photography. I wanted to take close cropped photographs of their faces so that the viewer focuses on the face and not distracted by their surroundings.
Method
I used only available lighting and a reflector to bounce an even light on the subjects faces. I experimented first with two ladies that volunteered. I positioned them inside, close to a pale wall where there was the least distraction of art work hanging on the wall and wall itself would reflect light on to the subjects.
The models were seated and I worked around them taking photographs. I used a digital SLR with 18-70mm zoom lens and adjusted the camera settings (ISO, shutter speed, and f-stop, manual focus) to try and get the best exposures and composition. I used as much as possible a shallow depth of field to throw out of focus the surroundings.
The dSLR automatically runs a white balance check when the camera is turned on. The white balance check is important because different lighting, especially when photographing inside where a mix of natural and artifical lighting may be used. The artifical light is influencing the overall lighting. This can effect the colour of the photographs, fluorescent and low energy bulbs can give a greenish hue to photographs, incadescent lighting produces a golden colouration to the picture.
I took many photographs, selected many of the photographs to take into Photoshop to experiment and convert from colour to black and white photographs. The RAW format photographs were adjusted on loading into Photoshop, many of the images were very dark because I used only available light. The import enables me to adjust and increase the exposure (I went up to maximum of +2), I also increased slightly the contrast to counter balance the lightening of the exposure, and also increased the vibrancy (up to 50%) and clarity (70%-90%) to make the images well defined. The changes could be seen immediately in the preview screen and each photograph was adjusted by eye.
The opened image file was then adjusted to convert to B+W, the process of conversion allows the intensity of colour levels of red, magenta, cyan, blue, yellow and green and how dark or light will affect the image when finally converted to B+W. These were adjusted and experimented with repeatedly to see how it influenced the final results.
My Opinion
The results were overall pleasing, but missing something. They were flat, they needed something to give them a lift, some character, make them more interesting, a theme that pulled the images together.
Note: The photographs ave been printed and displayed in my course work folder. The details of each photograph are here just as a record.
Figure 1 Canon EOS 450D, ISO-400, F-stop f/5.6, Exposure 1/60 second, Focal length 53mm
Figure 2 Canon EOS 450D, ISO-400, F-stop f/5.6, Exposure 1/60 second, Focal Length 55mm
Figure 3 Canon EOS 450D, ISO-400, F-stop f/5.6, Exposure 1/60 second, Focal length 55mm
Figure 4 Canon EOS 450D, ISO-400, F-stop f/5.6, Exposure 1/60 second, Focal length 55mm
Figure 5 Canon EOS 450D, ISO-400, F-stop f/5.6, Exposure 1/60 second, Focal length 51mm
Figure 6 Canon EOS 450D, ISO-400, F-stop f/5.6, Exposure 1/60 second, Focal length 55mm
Figure 7 Canon EOS 450D, ISO-400, F-stop f/5.6, Exposure 1/60 second, Focal length 55mm
Figure 8 Canon EOS 450D, ISO-400, F-stop f/5.6, Exposure 1/60 second, Focal length 55mm
Figure 9 Canon EOS 450D, ISO-400, F-stop f/4.5, Exposure 1/60 second, Focal length 33mm
Figure 10 Canon EOS 450D, ISO-400, F-stop f/4.5, Exposure 1/60 second, Focal length 35mm
Figure 11 Canon EOS 450D, ISO-400, F-stop f/5.6, Exposure 1/60 second, Focal length 49mm
Figure 12 Canon EOS 450D, ISO-400, F-stop f/5.6, Exposure 1/60 second, Focal length 55mm
Figure 13 Canon EOS 450D, ISO-400, F-stop f/5.6, Exposure 1/60 second, Focal length 55mm
Figure 14 Canon EOS 450D, ISO-400, F-stop f/5.6, Exposure 1/60 second, Focal length 55mm
Figure 15 Canon EOS 450D, ISO-400, F-stop f/5.6, Exposure 1/60 second, Focal length 55mm
Figure 16 Canon EOS 450D, ISO-400, F-stop f/5.6, Exposure 1/60 seconds, Focal Length 55mm
I reviewed some of my photographs and found an image that I liked and this helped formulate the idea for my final piece.
Final Piece Ideas 1. Portrait Experiment in the style of Lee Jeffries
How did I create these photographs.
The intention was to create human gargoyles, atmospheric partially illuminated grotesque and weird faces, or faces of unusual character.
The photographs were taken outside at night. The model was sat upon a stool, the face was illuminated with a bright torch and a red light, a reflector was used to help bounce light back on to the models face. The model pulled faces, moved their head. The lighting was moved around to create unnatural lighting.
The camera was mounted on a tripod to ensure stability for low light long exposure shots. The camera was moved and positioned on the tripod around the model to get strange angles to accentuate the peculiar nature of the portraits. The framing of the face was close to give a very tightly cropped subect of the head and face.
The photographs were taken with a Digital SLR, once the photographs were taken, they were manipulated in Photoshop.
How I manipulated the photographs.
The colour photographs were loaded into Photoshop. The clarity was increased to 100%, vibrance to 50%, the contrast increased to 50% or more.
The Photoshop image was adjusted to Black & White, the reds and magenta were reduced, this caused increase the reds on the face caused by veins, blushes or blotches on the skin to finally appear dark shades and black. The use of the red light when taking the photographs accentuated the skin and red facial imperfections. The blues and cyans were increased to lighten the blue colouration and the whites around the eyes. The colour photograph was then converted to B+W with very high contrast and strong shadows and darkened skin colouration.
The images were finally modified by using a variety of filters, Sharpen More and the filter, Smart Sharpen, the sharpen was adjusted to around 125%, radius approximately 32 pixels.
The brightness were modified and experimented with to create satisfactory images.
My Opinion
The images produced are the desired grotesque and slightly disturbing photographs.
The photographs where the model moved their face while the shutter was open are very effective, the light that is reflected in the eyes has created white streaks, the motion captured with the streaks from the face moving and the eyes of the models, the pictures look demonic.
The creative effects by the use of lighting, and editing in Photoshop have been very successful. However the images have been heavily manipulated that I have decided not to progress this idea. The images created are caricatures too artificial, modified, adapted and too far removed from the brief of portraits.
Emmi Outside
How did I create this picture?
I created this picture using a medium format film roll camera. I took the picture with the model sat on the wooden railing inside the Quadrangle at College.
I used a only natural light, I positioned myself below the model looking up towards the model.
Once I took the picture I developed the negative film using developer, stopper and fix in the darkroom. I then hung the film up to dry in the dryer.
Once the film was dry I put it in the negative holder in the enlarger. I then exposed the photographic paper for 3 seconds based on experience from previous test strips for similar exposures. The print was developed using developer, stopper and fix.
How can I improve the picture?
I could take into account the various lines that cross the through the composition. The camera was positioned so the horizontal was aligned with the grass that cuts mid-way across the photograph. On studying the final print this could have been raised slightly on the right hand side this would have increased the zig-zag lines across the photograph made by the building rooftop, the lines of the windows, the footpath and the wooden rail that the model is sitting on. The verticals of the lamps and windows would be vertical, and not at the slight angle as they appear in this print.
What worked well in the picture?
The exposure, tones and contrast combined with good lighting, the dark clothes of the model stand out from the pale walls of the building and grass. The depth of field used shows clearly where the model is sitting, but the background is not the obvious main subject of the photograph. The lines created across the photograph are all intersected by the model, drawing the eyes attention to the model, the main subject of the photograph.
The pose of the model with her hands clasped together in her lap, arms and shoulders close to her body compliment the pensive expression on the models face.
The lighting to the models face, there are highlights to the models left side that clearly defines the face, eyes, nose and mouth.
Girl in front of the window
How did I create this picture?
I created this picture using a medium format film roll camera. I took the picture with the model stood close to a wall and the window behind the model. The pale wall background plus the light from the window was to provide a light source and a contrast to the dark clothes worn by the model.
I used a reflector on the model reflecting the light under the models face making it brighter and reducing the dark shadows under the chin, and nose. It also illuminates the dark areas below the eyebrows. The reflector was positioned on the left side of the model to give an even light the face.
Once I took the picture I developed the negative film using developer, stopper and fix in the darkroom. I then hung the film up to dry in the dryer.
Once the film was dry I put it in the negative holder in the enlarger. I then exposed the photographic paper for 3 seconds based on experience from previous test strips for similar exposures. The print was developed using developer, stopper and fix.
How can I improve the picture?
I can improve this picture by making the model take a step to the left so that the window frame is out of shot, or I could have move the camera around slightly to the right and got the model to also move to face the camera.
I could have been more careful during the printing process, I have splashed some chemical that has shown up on the print, on the right sleeve of the model. This could be removed by guillotining the photograph to remove the blemish. There is also a mark on the top left hand corner of the print. This has occurred due to poor safe storage of the print.
What worked well in the picture?
The exposure, tones and contrast combined with good lighting, made the model stand out from the background, the use of a light background to contrast with the dark hair and clothes that frame the models face. The reflector bounced light effectively on to the model, if it had not worked the models face would have mostly been been a silhuette.
The face is very clear and positioned in the top middle third of the photograph, the eye is drawn to focus on the face. The overall photograph is crisp and shows subtle shades of grey.
The positioning of the model against the pale wall, the use of a shallow depth of field that focuses only the model, the background is deliberately blurred with strong natural light streaming in from the window makes the background featureless so that you focus on the face of the model.
The camera and the model is approximately at the same height of the camera so that as a viewer of the photograph you can make eye contact and connect with the model.
Girl with the stripped top
How did I create this picture?
I created this picture using a medium format film roll camera. I took the picture with the model stood against a wall. The use of the wall as the background removed any potential distracting elements and features that could appear in the background.
I used a reflector on the model reflecting the light under the models face making it brighter and reducing the dark shadows under the chin, and nose. It also illuminates the dark areas below the eyebrows. The reflector throws light on then the rest of the model’s clothing so it stands more in the composition and stands out more from the wall.
Once I took the picture I developed the negative film using developer, stopper and fix in the darkroom. I then hung the film up to dry in the dryer.
Once the film was dry I put it in the negative holder in the enlarger. I then exposed the photographic paper for 3 seconds based on experience from previous test strips for similar exposures. The print was developed using developer, stopper and fix.
How can I improve the picture?
I can improve this picture by making sure that that the reflector keeps out of the shot, this would get rid of any unintentional distractions I the picture.
I can also improve this picture by enlarging the image so that the reflector is not part of the final print, or cropping, guillotining the photograph so that the reflector is not shown on the print.
What worked well in the picture?
The exposure, tones and contrast combined with good lighting, made the model stand out from the background. The photograph is crisp and shows subtle shades of grey.
The positioning of the model against the dark wall to provide a blank background contrasts against the strong outlines created by striped top.
The smile of the model is engaging. The model is approximately at the same height of the camera so that the as a viewer of the model you are at the same level, in the same eye line opposed to looking up or down into the face of the model.
Emmi by the wall
How did I create this picture?
I took this picture using a medium format roll film camera. This was to experiment with the different affects you can create with the camera. Once the camera was set up I held a silver reflector to reflect the light under the model’s face to reduce the shadows under the chin, nose and eye sockets below the eye brows of the model.
I decided to pose the model in the picture against the wall, this was to eliminate any potential distracting features in the photograph.
Once I shot all of the pictures I developed the film using developer stopper and fix, I then gave the film negative a wash under clean water, and this made sure that there were no lingering chemicals left on the negative that would eventually degrade and damage the film after a while. I then hung the film negative up to dry in the dryer.
Once the film negative was dry I put in in the enlarger negative holder. I then turned the enlarger lamp on, this was to make sure that the picture was in focus before I put my photographic paper down. I ran a test strip creating a series exposure timings on a small bit of photographic paper increasing the exposure in 3 second intervals. I then developed the print test strip in developer, stopper and fix.
What worked well?
I have created a portrait picture with smooth tones, shadow and contrast and managed reduce the very dark shadows under the model’s by using a reflector, making the face, neck and jacket appear brighter.
The composition has interest with the texture of the panelling of the wall, but it is not busy or distracting from the main portrait subject. The pose of the model wearing the jacket and her arms thrust in to the jacket pockets. The model stance looks like she has ‘attitude’.
How can I improve this picture?
There are a couple of white specs visible on the models hair. They may be dust particles that have been trapped on the negative in the enlarger, or marks on the negative. I can use compressed air to gently blow air over the negative to remove any dust on the film or in the negative.
The angle of the camera to the wall is at an angle, if the camera framing aligned the horizontal lines of the wall with the horizontal of camera frame. This would align the panels of the wall with the edges of the final print. Or I could have angled the camera slightly more so the angles are more pronounced and give a greater perspective with the panels of the wall at a sharper angle to the edge of the print.
Molly stood in front of the camera
How did I create this picture?
I created this picture using a medium format roll film camera, I set the camera up making sure that the model in the picture was in focus. I then used a reflector and positioned it to enhance the lighting on the models face, the reflector made the face look brighter making it easier to see more facial details. I then took the photograph and exposed the film.
Once the picture was taken I developed the film in the darkroom using developer, stopper and fix. I then washed the negative film under clean water this was to remove any remaining chemicals left on the film negative. Once the film was developed I hung it up to dry in the dryer.
I put the dry negative film into the enlarger. I turned on the enlarger lamp, this was to allow me to focus the image on the enlarger base plate. I then ran a tester strip stating at 2 seconds, and increased the exposure time in 1 second increments. I used the test strip as my guide as to how long I should expose the photographic paper, which was 3 seconds. Once I exposed my photographic paper I developed the print using developer, stopper and fix.
How can I improve this picture?
I can improve this picture by making sure that the negative picture is kept safe this would prevent any scratches appearing on the side of the picture. This would also stop the negative from getting dirty over time. I can also improve this photograph by making sure that there is no dust on the film or in the enlarger because the dust is projected onto the print leaving white specs on the picture around Molly’s hair.
The composition of the portrait could be improved if I had elevated the camera angle or by moving the model closer to the wall so that the horizon between the wall and ceiling cannot be seen in the shot. The background is deliberately slightly out of focus so the eye concentrates on the portrait of the model. The ceiling line cuts through the background near the top of the model’s head. The change in grey tone between the wall and ceiling almost looks like there is a problem with the exposure.
How has the picture worked well?
I believe this picture has worked well this is because I have used good overall framing making sure that there is enough head room above and either side of the person, the portrait sits well within the photograph. The portrait would also work well because I managed to make the lighting brighter on the models face by using a silver reflector making her face and the texture of her hair stand out on the photograph.
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