Specialist Photo Practice

Throughout the Specialist Photo Practice module I have been introduced to a variety of genres of photography through the given mini briefs which have allowed me to gain knowledge for future projects and has also helped me define a path for myself within photography. At first I was torn between two different briefs: Fashion – ‘Art/Life’ and Fine Art – ‘Evidence’. The reason for this being that I enjoy taking pictures of people however I am not too comfortable with magazine layouts. After much consideration my choice my choice of brief was ‘Evidence’ with the title of my project being ‘Evidence - The Human Body’. The aim of this project was to distort our views as a society of body image and how we want our bodies to be an image of perfection. One mini brief which really linked to my main project was the Fine Art mini brief, as I used a similar theme to focus my image around and I would probably say that my project was a big influence on the mini brief even though the image was completely different.

As a whole I have put as much effort into the mini briefs as I could, as working in a group it was vital that I contributed and therefore worked effectively within the team. One main thing which I have gained from all the mini briefs would be how to work professionally as we were given a client and a deadline to adhere to. At first this was difficult however over time it was easier to treat the brief as if it was actually going to presented to an actual client. The briefs could be challenging at times due to working with other creative people who each wanted their own input into the project however this is something which I have adjusted to over the module and I can now work in a group and compromise on the decisions we make as a group.  I have enjoyed the briefs as it has been good to explore other areas of photography, some such as the documentary brief have proven to be difficult to me as this is a genre which I am not particularly interested in, neither particularly good at. All in all I feel as if these mini briefs were given to us to give us an idea of how the industry works and to prepare us for working with different clients that want different things.

As for my main project, I drew a lot of inspiration from photographers such as Will Sherwood and Miguel Ribeiro as their work feature a lot of similar aesthetics to mine. While generating ideas for my project I knew that I wanted to focus on the human body and female nude however I wasn’t sure on how I was going to approach it visually until I started researching. I generated a few ideas which consisted of experimenting with digital projectors and the use of colour but after seeing Sherwood’s images and how simple but effective they were, I chose to opt for a simple use of monochrome combined with a heavy contrasted aesthetic similar to his. My aim for the images were to be of the female nude, however I wanted to abstract them so as a viewer you couldn’t really tell what part of the body the image was of. This is where the editing part of the project was really vital as this was how I was going to get my images to look how I wanted.

With this project I worked with one female model, and it was a first for me to be working with a nude model therefore this was something I had to take into consideration as well as being careful with what I did with my images. It has made it so much easier to communicate with a model after working on this project and has also increased the level of professionalism I have to have when working with one. The creative advertising mini brief also helped with this as there were a lot of people working together to get the work done, therefore I had to be organised and professional to get the brief done.

The technical aspects of the project came quite naturally to me as I was comfortable in using the studio equipment, however because I made a studio at home the shoot was even easier to organise because I had a larger time slot to work in. Through various workshops I was taught how to use the equipment effectively for what I wanted, for example the Phase One workshop was useful as it was something I hadn’t worked with before therefore it was good to gain some knowledge which will definitely be applied to projects in the future. As for the development of my project, I kept a mental image of how I wanted my work to look therefore I could make impulse decisions and experiment with lighting without worrying about how it would affect my work. Shooting digitally was also an advantage for me as I could instantly review my images and therefore make changes if I needed to.

Having gone through the images from all of my shoots, I picked which ones were the most aesthetically pleasing and worked best for the project and edited them. As for the editing in Photoshop I mainly corrected exposure and contrast settings on Adobe Camera RAW, then proceeded to look at the monochrome settings and lift the highlights of the images slightly. Below is a contact sheet of the images which I have initially chosen and will narrow down to 9.

Knowing that I wanted my images to be presented in square frames I had to crop my images into a square format, taking into consideration what part of the images I wanted to be included. Below is another contact sheet of the images after being cropped, there are more than the initial selection as I have cropped the same image twice in some cases to see which version looked the best.

This is the contact sheet for my fourth and final shoot and the main aims of this shoot was to basically ensure that I had a wide a range of images as possible, therefore using the knowledge I gained from my previous shoots, I was able to work quick and effectively and make the most out of my shoot as possible.

With this shoot I positioned the light directly above my model and put it on a low setting to just catch on the curves of the models body. This ensured that a lot of my images were to be in shadow but then I wanted to see how this would compare to the rest of my images. I also tried to take a range of close ups within the shoot in order to see what effect that would give, however I think I prefer the wider framed ones as these had a lot more shapes in them in order for the shadows to really be effective.

Title of the brief chosen: Fine Art – ‘Evidence’

The concept  for my project revolves around the visual documentation of the human body and  how it can be abstracted through lens based media. Looking closely at the  shapes and textures within the body this series of images will create images  of highly contrasted bodyscapes.

 The purpose  of this project is to hopefully change or distort the way in which we look at  body image and how we are all so obsessed with the idea of perfection, by  presenting the human form as an unrecognisable object, we are able to admire  it and look at it for what it is, instead of constantly critiquing it.

The main  influence throughout the body of work and ideology behind it is the work produced  by photographer, Will Sherwood. Through the use of high contrast monochrome  imagery, the project aims to create images which have a similar aesthetic  using the shadows within the image as a canvas.

This was the fine art mini brief we were given, the idea was to create a single image which communicated a narrative or story of some sort, whether that be a personal experience or something which related to the media.

The idea behind my image revolved around the idea of self-esteem and how we, as a society are constantly looking at ourselves in the mirror and criticising and picking things wrong with our physical appearance. Below is my single image for the brief:

The camera I used was a Nikon D3000, alongside the lights that were just in the bathroom I was shooting in. I didn’t really want to use any flash as I wanted it to look quite realistic and almost like a snapshot. I had to split the image into two different shoots; one where the model was in her dressing gown and towel and another with her dressed up, in order to get the effect that I wanted I then manipulated them together in Photoshop. This was a simple thing to do as I just had to select the mirror and copy the second image into the first. I also was torn between keeping the image in colour as below, or whether to make it black and white. However in the end I thought the black and white almost represented how there was no difference between the person in front of the mirror and the one in the reflection, they were both black and white therefore being the same person. The image itself looks quite eerie with the spotlight shining down on her but this just makes the audience focus on her more.

This is a contact sheet from the third part of my shoot, within this shoot I was able to develop my idea and experiment further in order to gain a variety of images. I felt like at this point it was very easy to direct my model, and she knew how to position herself which meant that the shoot was able to flow better. I had also printed out a guide of different poses to try in case we got stuck for ideas. This time I asked my model to lie on the floor and I took images from above to get a different perspective, this meant that I had to position my lights quite high and therefore had to adjust the ISO on the camera to make up for this. Again I used the same equipment as I wanted my images to be consistent throughout the shoots (Canon 5D, one studio light).

John Coplan

John Coplan is an English photographer, writer and curator. Although I have already started shooting and know how I want my images to look, it was suggested that I look at Coplans work as the theme recurring in his work was similar to mine and therefore could push my project in another direction. In 1984 Coplans began taking the photographs of his own body with which he is most famous for. These large-scale black-and-white images, enlarged from 4×5 inch Polaroid photographs and often presented in groups, are candid and sometimes humorous explorations of his own body. By cropping off the head, Coplans presents these depersonalised images of the body as a surprising, intriguing object, fascinating in detail and malleability. His work also rejects the cult of youth and beauty represented by commercial photography.

John Coplan, ‘Self Portrait (Hands Spread on Knees)’, 1985.

This is one of Coplans black and white images which depicts the artists’ hands over his knees, it is clear to see that the image has been taken from the level of the height of the knees. This image is similar to mine in the way in which it has been tightly cropped to fill the frame of the image with as little space as possible. Although I think it is interesting the way in which it contrasts the use of age with mine as it really brings up some interesting textures within the skin and plays on the idea of perfection, as the image looks nearly symmetrical however when this is juxtaposed with the imperfections of the wrinkled skin and hair it really makes an interesting image. Massively enlarged, the depicted body parts become like a landscape of skin texture and body contours.

“I decided to become a photographer because I wanted to go back to being an artist. I had had enough of art history, critics, museology ... I chose photography because I could not go back to painting ... photography ... is a medium to build an identity out of a composite personality, to find an artistic identity.”

(Quoted in John Coplans: Self Portrait: Hand/Foot, p.46.) "

John Coplan, ‘Self Portrait (Back with Arms Above)’, 1984.

Final Images

The first image was taken in the studio and, a lot of this scene is quite heavily photoshopped, as this was the only way we could get the image to look how we envisioned. Me and the other photographer arrived before the models in order to create the set and set up the lighting. We used a Canon 5D and three lights; one on the couple, one on the wife and one on the background, however we found it difficult to expose the image correctly for all three components. Sticking to the colour scheme of oranges and saturated tones, we originally were going to use gels to make the background orange however they were too dim to get the lights out the frame of the shot, therefore we decided to change the colour in post-production, as well as the colour of the floor.

We really wanted the image to look cheesy, as well as make it obvious as to what is happening in the photo which is why we decided to put the image of the couple on the wall. To do this we handed the two models the camera in order to make it look like they were taking a picture of themselves. We then cut around the image and placed it on top of a stock image of Paris and then into a stock image of a frame. The creative director then decided she wanted to add a grain effect onto the image, as this was something that previous adverts had included – therefore relating back to the product and how it is represented. Overall I’m quite happy with this image as I can understand what is happening in it, and I think it fits in with the house style of Old Jamaica Beer. 

The second image plays on the same sort of scenario as the first however with a different location. For this image, again we used a Canon 5D with an on camera flash gun and reflector. The main struggle of this shoot was getting the exposure right because it was such a grey and dull day, we didn’t really have much to work with. We wanted the lights on the washing line to show, however because it was in the middle of the day we struggled to make them look bright, however we did brighten them on Photoshop. In hindsight I think it would have been better to have waited until it got dark in order to get the shot. All of the other lights were photoshopped in to make it look more ‘tacky’ than it was, as this was the effect we were going for. In terms of representing the brand I think we could have made it look a bit more comical as this was the sort of look previous advertisements had. Although given the time we had I think we worked well as a team to complete the brief.

Research

The Creative Advertising brief which we were given, told us that we were to produce at least two different print advertisements for either Red Bull Cola or Old Jamaica Beer. We were to look at the brand essence and how the product represents itself relating to the target audience. Working in a group with one other photographer and one creative advertising student, we organised a time to look at some ideas.

After meeting with our creative advertising student, we had a good idea of what the creative director wanted us, the photographers, to do. With help from visual mock ups, we could then start to plan our shoots. The concept for these advertisements played off the slogan “The soft drink that isn’t soft”. Therefore in the first image we wanted to portray a married couple in their home, however their guest is trying to seduce the husband – resulting in the wife ruining the dinner for the both of them! We wanted to stick to a certain colour scheme when shooting, as we had researched previous advertisements for Old Jamaica Beer, and found that they have a particular house style. We decided that this photo would be done in the studio.

In the second image, the subjects neighbour has a lot of bad Christmas decorations up, and we can see the subject with a pair of scissors trying to cut the wires. We were told by the creative director that the images had to be quite humorous and over exaggerated, almost to look really tacky, therefore our plan was to heavily Photoshop the image.

Workshop

Phase one is the hardware (camera and equipment), whereas Capture one is the software using when processing the images. It can also be used for a live feed while shooting.

During the workshop we were shown how to set up the camera as well as working through the software and how it can be used to process images.

The camera is called Phase One 645 OF+ with IIQ160 digital back, with some features being: 12.5 stop dynamic range, full 16 bit RAW, tethered shooting, pre production, sessions/styles can be accessed later, 1/1600 max sync speed, f2.8 80mm lens.

To start you plug the camera in and open Capture One and then create a new session. This is where you can then rename a session.

There are then 4 different folders which allow you to work more efficiently when processing the images. The folders are named: Capture, Select, Output and Trash. Therefore while shooting you can sort the images from the session into different folders in order to make it easier when processing them.

In the Camera tab you can control the camera from the computer, make sure to look at the ICC Profile and select the device which you are using in order to make sure the settings are correct.

The colour tab is where you make most of your colour adjustments such as white balance. In order to gain a correct colour balance it is ideal to use a grey card when shooting, therefore you can expose for that.

Within the Exposure tab you can do most of the stuff you can do on Photoshop, in terms of basic exposure correction, e.g. exposure, contrast, brightness and saturation.

The Detail tab is where you can zoom in on your images in order to check if areas are exposed corrected as well as being sharp, the software shows unfocused areas in order to make it clearer.

When shooting it is also a good idea to author your pictures in order to retain the copyright and embed your personal information into the photo. To do this you need to go to the Info tab, IPTC and then Creator and Details.

These are the contact sheets from my first shoot for the brief ‘Evidence’. What I really wanted to achieve during this shoot was a good lighting setup which I could then apply to further shoots to develop my work. I have censored this contact sheet as I will actually be cropping the images into a square format, therefore it is likely that I will not be including those parts of the images in the final pieces.

In terms of the space I was working in, I borrowed a range of equipment including a Canon 5D, Elimchron light with a portable soft box, a gold and silver reflector and a black pop up background. I chose to shoot in the models room as I thought she would be able to compose herself comfortably in a familiar environment. I placed the pop up background behind the model and also placed a black sheet on the floor underneath her as I planned to take shots from above as well. The light was placed to the left hand side of the model, at a height looking down on her. This had a square soft box on it as I wanted the light to be quite soft and only highlight certain areas of her body. Because of this it meant that I couldn’t use studio flash as it just over exposed the image, and made it look brighter than what I intended. Therefore I decided to use the light without the flash.

While shooting I asked my model to position herself in ways which created interesting shapes and textures within the folds of the skin. Because I only had one light, sometimes the other side of her body was in complete shadow, therefore to fix this I used the gold reflector to bounce some light back onto her.

For my first shoot I want to book a studio out and try and create work similar to Will Sherwood’s, as I feel like if I manage to light my subject similar to this I can then add to the shots as I go along. By doing this I will know that I am confident in the lighting I want to use and I won’t be making the initial shoot too complicated for myself.

I have already found a model who has agreed to model nude, to a certain extent, for my project. Once I have my lighting sorted I then it would be interesting to experiment with various techniques, such as adding sheer material in as a prop in order to cover part of the subject and see what effect this creates as well as borrowing a digital projector in order to project various different patterns and textures onto the subject.

Alfred Hitchcock - Vice Parody

This was the brief we were given, and we were allowed to interpret it in any way in which we wanted, whether it be a pastiche for Vogue or a parody for Vice. As a group, (myself, Hannah, Laura and Ciaran), we immediately decided to create a Facebook group as this would allow us to contact each other easily and efficiently, it was also a good way to send quick images to let everyone know where we were with the project.

We all decided on creating a parody which would be featured in Vice. However at this moment in time we didn’t really know much about Hitchcock and his films. Therefore we all assigned ourselves a film to get an idea of what we wanted to do. We looked at a variety of films including, Vertigo, Psycho and Rear Window and we decided we wanted to focus our images around the film Vertigo and almost modernise it and portray it as if it was set in today’s time. Below are some stills from the film.

Before we could look at any locations and models, we had to look at Vice itself as we had to create images which would fit into the aesthetic of the magazine. We found that a lot of the images which were in the magazine were quite bold but also vague. The images relied heavily upon the article which was supporting it, and I think this was something we had to consider when it came to shooting.

Once we had completed research into not only the films themselves but the magazine as well, we had all discussed how we were going to modernise the film and represent it in a new way. Below is an image of the stills we were going to recreate and how we were going to put our creative flare on them.

As for the locations, we knew what sort of areas we would need due to the stills which we had collected before. Below are some of the locations which we used, Hannah’s Living Room and Ciarans bedroom. We also used other rooms within their houses in order to get a varied look to the editorial.

We used two different models for the editorial because there were two different characters who we were basing it on. Neither of the models have had modelling experience before, however this wasn’t necessarily a problem because we wanted our subjects to look disconnected from their background therefore it was quite easy for us to give them direction in terms of composing themselves.

We borrowed a range of equipment from the college which allowed us to be prepared when we were shooting. We used a Canon 5D, as we wanted the images to be of a high quality as well as it being a full frame camera. Shooting digitally was something we decided on as a group as we wanted to be as efficient as we could to ensure we reached the deadline on time. A lighting kit was used to ensure we could control the lighting, as we were shooting in a wide range of places and wanted even lighting across all our images. At the time we were shooting the weather was quite dull and grey which meant that by borrowing a handheld flash we could create more dramatic lighting set-ups, as well as making sure that when we were shooting outside that we had enough light to for the image to be exposed correctly. The final piece of equipment we borrowed was a range of coloured gels to see if we could use these to replicate some of the stills from the theme.

When it came to putting the images into the layout we used Adobe InDesign to give us a realistic idea of what it would look like in a magazine format. Although being photographers and not graphic designers, we weren’t really sure on where to place the images, however after looking at Vice again we realised there was quite a bit of text within some editorials therefore we added Lorem Ipsum to visualise it better. As for the title we picked “Falling for Hitchcock”. This title derived from looking at the definition of ‘Vertigo’ which was that it was the feeling of being unbalanced hence the feeling of falling. Below is the final editorial. 

Simple Lighting Set-up

One simple way to set up lighting would be to use one light behind and slightly above the subject. This gives a high contrast, low key feeling to the image.

Backlit – Silhouette With Some Spill

With this sort of lighting set up there is two lights placed on either side of a white seamless background.  Attached to the lights are shoot through umbrellas.  The shoot through umbrellas create a very broad yet diffused light that makes it very easy to light the white background evenly and by keeping them angled slightly inward, they also create enough spill to shed some highlights on the subject so that the image is not a complete silhouette.

Backlit – ‘Window Light’

In this arrangement all of the light is behind the subject. Generally using two lights with shoot through umbrellas placed on either side of a white seamless background.  The umbrellas are aimed directly at the background to eliminate any spill on the subject. In front of the subject place two large white reflectors to create a soft fill light which is what illuminates the subject.

One light Side Lighting

Place one light and a medium sized soft box to the side of the subject. 

Two Light Split Lighting

Place two lights with medium sized soft boxes at equal distances on either side of the subject.  Moving the subject forward or backwards between the lights will have a dramatic impact on the lighting effect, as will simply turning the model in one direction or the other.

Photographer Research

Frederic Fontenoy is a French photographer whose series of work, ‘Metamorphosis’ (1988), plays with the reference to reality due to this medium, and is heavily influenced by the distortions of Andre Kertesz and “The Anatomy of the image” of Hans Bellmer. Looking at his work it is clear to see that Fontenoy is fascinated with the human form. In the images he manipulates the photographic medium by producing images of bodies which are stretched, disfigured and distorted. 

“I always created erotic work, since I started taking pictures: first more intimate, then evolving into a more conceptual work, a photographic fiction, referring to our collective unconscious. The mindset of my photography is erotic, but a photo itself doesn’t have to arouse lust.” – Frederic Fontenoy

Photographer Research

Miguel Ribeiro is a fine art photographer, based in Lisbon. His series ‘Abstract Body’ looks at the different ways in which he could photograph the human body. He was fascinated with the way in which the subject interacted with the background/landscape. With many close up photographs it is hard to distinguish what the image of and what part of the body it belongs to.

The images create almost a sculptural effect, in the way in which they don’t look flat yet instead almost come off the page. I like the fact that he has chosen to include minute details such as the texture of the skin as this makes it easier to tell what the image of therefore making it easier to relate to. One section of the series contain a number of images which look at how the body makes the landscape, they include parts of the body within the frame however the way in which this has been composed makes the image look more like a landscape photograph.

“During 1985 I had a short-lived interest in self-portraiture. In December 2000, again in South Africa for a vacation in Cape Town, this interest was revived, now lastingly and as the central theme in my photography. Until mid-2003 the selected body area was typically photographed in interaction with objects or landscapes. Thereafter I returned to the neutral backgrounds of 1985, and came closer to the more intimate spirit of that period. In general I sought to make a body part function as an autonomous subject and explore, in a more or less abstract way, its sculptural potential or its texture, to depict it as an object stripped of its human identity.” – Miguel Ribeiro