Portraiture
Portraiture photography has always been a keen interest of mine. In particular I have wanted to look at portraiture in the outside world rather than sticking to indoor studio photography. My mood boar below shows my first response to this topic as an attempt to fully discover what I am keen on developing.
1st Response - My Mood Board
My mood board shows my personal interests and shows my personality through a collage of picture cut outs and magazine clippings. My mood board shows images that represent activities that I enjoy taking part in such as the snowy mountains that represents my enjoyment in skiing and the face of Nadal that represents my interest in playing as well as watching tennis. The image of Nadal shows a very small moment of Nadal looking down with sweat dropping from his hair as if he is about to face a big stage of his life or career. This is were my interest lies in portraiture - capturing a moment from the expressions on the face of a person and then being able to decide what they represent. My mood board also shows other interests of mine for example the grand canyon which is placed in the middle as I have recently travelled there and very much enjoyed the view as well as the mountains which together represent my interest in landscape photo's. My moon board shows in the centre an image of a F1 car of the Formula 1 team that I support. This is also another hobby of mine as well as listening to music which is represented in the top left handside of the frame via the image of headphones. The images are cut specifically to fit around the edges of the canyon image and meet the border of the paper straight. The only image that doesn't follow this pattern is the image of the headphones as its shape is very different to the other images. My current biggest interest is in natural and scenic backgrounds. This includes backgrounds such as water and forests or trees and in particular leaves. I am also interested in creating a style of pic motion video. For this reason within portraiture I am more interested in taking portrait images that are setup with unfamiliar positions for my subject to develop different attitudes and expressions.
National Portrait Gallery - Kate Peters
Mo Farah Victoria Pendleton (a bit of research!)
Before starting my portraiture project I decided to visit the Taylor Wessing Exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery. This helped me develop my understanding of the different available types of portraiture that have been created by different artists. Below are two of my favourite images from the gallery. The image of Mo Farah particularly stood out for me as the photographer used low level lighting, yet managed to keep strong focus on the face and body. In contrast the image of Victoria Pendleton uses stronger lighting emphasizing the blue coloured top, while the darker corners keep the attention on her face.
Studying these images has been helpful towards furthering my portraiture project. Especially as these images illustrate the effects of lighting which is essential to creating different moods in portrait images.
Before starting my portraiture project I decided to visit the Taylor Wessing Exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery. This helped me develop my understanding of the different available types of portraiture that have been created by different artists. Below are two of my favourite images from the gallery. The image of Mo Farah particularly stood out for me as the photographer used low level lighting, yet managed to keep strong focus on the face and body. In contrast the image of Victoria Pendleton uses stronger lighting emphasizing the blue coloured top, while the darker corners keep the attention on her face.
Studying these images has been helpful towards furthering my portraiture project. Especially as these images illustrate the effects of lighting which is essential to creating different moods in portrait images.
After visiting the National Portrait Gallery I had been able to examine many different types of portraiture photography. I noticed different themes including studio backgrounds, natural backgrounds, derelict backgrounds as well as backgrounds that include different ranges in depth of field such as gardens, and woods. These different scenic areas in which to position my subject really interest me and I believe I am most keen on investigating.
Andy Goldsworthy - Artist Analysis
Below show some images by Andy Goldsworthy - a nature portrait photographer. Having been set the task of a portraiture project, I referred back to my mood board which showed my particular interests in nature and decided to incorporate nature or natural settings into my portraiture project. Andy Goldsworthy is a creative photographer who uses natural elements that he has created art forms from. He places these elements in scenic backgrounds related to these artifacts.
The image in the middle is the one that interests me most. It shows a ball of leaves which, while it has natural elements, has obviously been made by the artist. This image has a nice portraiture styled composition. The ball is placed in the centre blending into its surroundings whilst the scenery in front of and behind the ball shows different depths and changes in perspective. The colour scheme in this photo is limited to green, brown and yellow. This creates a very simple colour scheme and yet there is a real sense of artistry and attention to detail. The image is very busy which is something I am hoping to bring across in my portraiture project.
2nd Response First Nature Images
2nd Response Results- First Nature Images
These are the first nature images I took to begin the development of my naturalistic portraiture project. I chose Cherry Tree Woods and Highgate Woods as my destinations in which to capture my naturalistic images. Here I captured images of details and backgrounds which I could use for the basis of my Portraiture project. The images which particularly interested me were those that showed specific details of bright yellow/green leaves. These are the types of details which I would like to use alongside my human subject in later portraiture images. Whilst I have been inspired by Andy Goldsworthy's work I have tried to create even busier backgrounds that include more colours. This is represented in my images below.
Here shows my investigations into different areas in which I could use to enhance my portraiture photography. However this it is important that i find a way to merge these ideas together. Below shows an artist named Wendy Carrig who has approached this taking images of people with natural backgrounds.
Artist Analysis - Wendy Carrig
Wendy Carrig is a portrait photographer who uses many different types of backgrounds ranging from studio to outdoor themes. Above shows her work using an outdoor background and is something I am trying to investigate to be able to merge my portrait photography with the outdoors. Most noticeably the second image intrigues me the most. It shows a women walking through long grassy woodland. This shows the women in a moment as her stance represents movement as if she is walking however noticeably this makes the viewer think about were and what she is doing in the woods. This photographer seems to place her subjects into these backgrounds however doesn't appear to position them too close to particular areas. This is something I am going to develop further through my photography.
3rd Response - Portraiture Project
3rd Response - Experimentation Analysis
This was an experiment I tried after looking at Wendy Carrig and her use of nature. I instructed my subject to come closer to the camera with every image taken which worked relatively well in creating a pic-motion style piece. This sequence above in particular uses the areas of dense trees, leaves and plants. This helped to create a nice setting to be able to perform this picture sequence as well as learn how best to place my subject amongst a scenic background and is very similar to the work of Wendy Carrig who's work consist of individuals strolling through these types of backgrounds.
Erwin Blumenfeld
After taking my initial images I decided my main focus would be the detail from the trees and the leaves in particular. I looked at the work of Erwin Blumenfeld who merged portraiture and camouflage. Erwin Blumenfeld placed subjects in front of or around items. These items worked to disguise or hide parts of the subject. In the image on the left Blumenfeld has used leaves to disguise the face of the subject which particularly relates to my project that involves nature.
This image in particular looked at a woman who is disguised by leaves. This is related to my current project and I am very interested in using natural elements to disguise the people within my project. Blumenfeld uses leaves as her naturalistic 'disguise' and I have used this idea to further my portraiture project. Firstly I decided to set this within the woods and like Blumenfeld I have used leaves as my disguise of choice. Blumenfeld's composition in her photo intrigues me. The layout exploits the positioning of the leaves to create extremes in contrast. There are very dark and very bright areas and the border of the image appears pitch black. The light enhances the key features of the subjects face. This brings attention to details especially the eyes and eyebrows. In developing my project, I would like to focus on the details of a person's face or body such as eyes, nose, ears, fingers, whilst disguising less relevant areas of the body.
Response Erwin Blumenfield
Results 1
Here is my response to Erwin Blumenfeld. Above shows my subject surrounded by leaves that I found before my initial shoot. I think the first two images worked best as here my subject was truly surrounded by the leaves in every corner of the frame. The colours in this image stand out, and, like the colours in Andy Goldsworthy's work, the colour scheme is limited to greens and natural tones. Both the framing and perspective in this image is very strong due to the high aperture. This depth of field is due to the leaves shown at the front and back of the image with the subject in between. The details of the leaves are very strong in the top left showing each individual leaf hanging off the branches however in the bottom right the lack of focus on the leaves results in the subject being able to maintain a superior position in the photo - not creating to much distraction from the subject. This experiment proved to be a success, however this I have decided that I would like to place my subject deeper into the leaves - although this image does use the naturalistic surroundings I would like to merge the subject and nature even more.
5th Response - Final
Success!
This is my third shoot showing my new subject having been buried in leaves in the woods. I used the original idea and then looked at Erwin Blumenfield who disguised a person using leaves. From this I decided to fully bury my subject in leaves and then go low down and close to the subject to take my photos. I used the morning sunrise to my advantage gaining some light streaks across the subject which seemed to work very well. My favourite is the image right at the end which shows the face and the nails in one whilst the light comes down and across the subject from the top left of the frame. The light in this image is really exceptional and therefore brings out the colours in the leaves and the nails of the person whilst lighting up the face nicely too. This project really seemed reflect the work of Erwin Blumenfield using the leaves however to a higher level which involved burial. I did however decided to change this a little from Blumenfield's work. I chose to show less of the face therefore representing disguise further and i decided to shoot in colour and therefore used the sunrise to my advantage.
Final Piece
1This photo is part of my third and final photo shoot and I have decided to place it within my final piece. This photo was taken at sunrise and therefore the light is very strong in this image streaking down and across the image from above. This creates really vibrant light upon the hands of the subject meaning the nails a very bright and bring a nice balance of colour to the image.The detail of the leaves also stands out in this image as a result of the light whilst the face of the subject is hidden/disguised amongst the leaves. The different shades of colour in the leaves is really brought out by the light and the perspective in this image is also very strong with the nails foreground and face background. In reference to Erwin Blumenfield this image is very similar however I have decided to extend the amount in which the subject is shown and therefore how far the subject is covered by the leaves. This left me with the opportunity to uncover very particular parts that are the most interesting and can contribute best to the image.
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2This photo is also part of my final third shoot which I have placed in my final piece. This photo was also taken at sunrise therefore creating the same streak of light across the image bringing out the colours and details of the leaves. However this the angle is from the oppositie end focusing mainly on the face of the subject. The light therefore brings out the details in the subjects face on the nose and mouth in particular however I have managed to keep the disguise theme going by disallowing the viewer to see the eyes of the subject. Perspective is once again very strong in this image purposely using the aperture to blur out the coloured nails in the background. the light is strongest amongst the left hand side of the image however I purposely placed the face on the right to create balance. Referring back to Erwin Blumenfield this image does show the main focus the face of the person. However this like the first one I decided to use this idea to my advantage using the leaves to cover more than just the face. This as well as the early morning light allowed me really to take advantage of all the details including that of the hands of the subject.
3This is the final photo in my final piece. This image unlike the other two focuses mainly on the face in a close up composition. Before taking this image I refereed back to Blumenfields work who showed a women surrounded very closely by leaves however in her image she represented very dark areas. This image is also totally shaded around the edges and therefore brings all attention to the detail of the face of the subject. The slight parting in the lips shows the colours and shape of the lips very nicely however is still able to keep that shaded out affect. This works the same for the blue eyes that are very detailed and colourful as surrounded by the eyelashes yet this is played down by the lack of bright light. The leaves at the top of the photo start just before the hairline therefore these as well as the leaves either side of the face create a sort of mask around the subject. This therefor equals the detail of the face with its surroundings (the leaves) which are shown in the same light creating the same level of detail and attention. This image worked very well as a close up as the face fades into darkness under the beginning of the leaves creating total balance and therefore really implying that the subject is being taken/overwhelmed by the leaves.
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