AD8403-Studio Research

UNABLE TO PUT PICTURES ON THE ONLINE BLOG REFAIR TO PRINTED COPY OR WORD DOCUMENT ON PENDRIVE FOR PICTURES.

After looking and researching more into studio portraiture as well as looking at past studio and portraiture, I feel the better the connection with the model and subject, the better the pictures will come out. To help me feel this engagement with my subject I will make sure they bring their own props that they themselves can engage with. This will make them feel more engaged as well as give myself something to engage with getting them more in tune to the photography and the camera as well as myself.

My idea is to photograph a man named Derek I met while I was out doing some street photography, after speaking to him for a while he explained to me how he is an actor and would be interested in a portrait shoot in the studio.

Idea Development

Idea 1:

My first Idea is inspired after doing a street portrait of a man called Derek, who is an actor with 100s of costumes mainly around the 1800s. I feel that a professional shoot of Derek and his costumes would be a great project he has also confirmed that he would love to.

Idea 2

Unfortunately, I can no longer get in contact with Derek as he won’t respond from my emails. I have planned to take photographs of my new baby Nephew Jude. I will be going up to photograph him in a couple of days this is a really fast shoot after just being born a few hours ago.

I will be using my MEsuper and Pentax 67 due to them wanting black and white shots.

I managed to shoot him twice once when he was 2 days old and once when he was 3 days. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get much time with him and his mum and dad. They also only wanted black and white photographs so Black and White will have to do for the Project.

Idea 3

I am planning to shoot a roll of colour just on my friends looking for an Alec Soth approach to my photography. I shot using a Mamiya RB67 and a Graphlex Crown. I have been looking at a magazine called The Fix which focusses on the use of analogue photography techniques.

I will shoot in black and white during the test shoots to pull together an idea and shooting style before switching to colour this is to help save money on film processing as due to our university not having access to C-41 processing this makes it very expensive so not much can be shot for this project which is a shame. Although I will shoot on black and white and keep most for personal work and evidence towards this project.

I personally dislike colour photography I am not a big fan and feel it doesn’t add much to a portrait I like to focus on the details of people which I find I am able to do without the use of colour. So I feel that my black and white photography may be stronger than my colour ones.

My target Magazine being The Fix my pictures can be very broad which I feel is perfect for me as I don’t know the a direct plan on what and how I want to shoot.

I have decided upon doing a mix of quite soft portraits relying on shallow depth from both wide apertures and the bellows of the camera. I will also take flash pictures using creative flash techniques as well as fill in flash to try and help the colours pop.

I have also decided to shoot my idea outside rather than in the studio as this is what I have learnt I strongly prefer to do over shooting in the studio. I find that shooting portraits outside there is so much more you can include in the shots as well as lots of colour, textures and shapes that I can shoot around.

Steve McCurry is an amazing photographer who’s work mainly focuses on the colour within his photography. Look through McCurry’s work you can see that all the portraits are sharp on there eyes.

This is something I always think about when taking a portrait to make the eyes in sharp focus. Although I will not always pull focus to the eye if I feel the shot will be stronger with focus somewhere else in the image.

An example of me pulling focus is with my Pipe series although this is a street portrait series. My main pull of focus towards my subjects is because of their pipe.

Alec Soth

Alec Soth is a photographer that I have a lot of interest in at the moment I will probably be doing my final project on a large format camera with a 120mm back to give myself more control with the focus of the image.

I have decided to have a go at some Alec Soth style portraits here are 2 portraits I shot on a Graphlex Crown with a 120mm back.

I feel that these 2 portraits were quite well shot for the first time I was using this camera I may shoot again although my idea is changing I will focus of 2 main projects.

The fix is a magazine that I have found after researching further on the negative feedback magazine. I feel that this is the magazine that I will choose as the images all show off a photographer’s certain style and just a story and collection all taken using analogue techniques. The magazine says that its audience is not only thoughs who like to use film but for everyone who has an interest in photography. Although it is to inspire, help and promote analogue photography. Although I feel that the magazine is more for analogue fans as the magazine is completely analogue although the work may show interests with digital photographers.

Set Task 1:

These are some examples of the types of layouts in the fix magazine they are very basic and go straight to the point of presenting the Artists works although it can change in the magazine as the artists vary although most are basic like this.

Each shoots are radically different styles and ways of shooting and from all over the world although all of the shoots are shot on film. the camera formats change between the photographers the first photographer Magdelena Szczoczarz looks likes she may have used either a TLR or an SLR 120 6X6 format camera. The images show that she’s using a large aperture for the shallow depth and a shutter speed over 60 as the shops are froze and sharp. The second photographer Julian Achoa will probably use a range finder 35mm camera but may use a smaller SLR camera. He varies in camera settings although sticks to a quite low shutter speeds around 60-125 and a mid-aperture of around f4-f8.

Set Task 2:

The image I have selected is by playton on Barack Obama and was recreated using my friend rob. Playton uses flash coming in from the top right creating quite harsh shadows. The shoes are also brought into the shot as Playton has chosen to use quite a qide angle lens. I used a Pentax 67 with a 55mm lens to recreate the shot.

Set Task 3:

This shot of Me, My Grandma and my Mum when I read this set task I wanted to experiment and do something different instead of a straight on portrait of 3 people. So I decided to use my love of reflections and create this portrait using my Graphlex crown.

Work Analysis and Tasks

After reading the brief I am very happy to see that we will be using film I usually use black and white so I am planning to research both colour and black and white photographers. I will also do all my test shoots and practice using black and white film.

I would like to first start of my Studio blog by showing a separate portrait series focused on men with the pipes. The top left shot is digital although the rest are film and I intend to shoot the rest of this project using analogue techniques. I will also mix between candid and posed shots as well as mix and test different backgrounds based upon my time and space and light as well as the subject and scene I find myself in. This is a project I intend to shoot over a few more years yet.

I have also started a street portraits series on vapers taking the same style shot of them blowing a cloud of smoke while posing for a portraits I prefer to shoot this project on black and white 120mm film in an rb67 OR Pentax 67.

I also take candid portraits of people while doing street photography. This can be with using an array of different cameras and lenses.

When out shooting street some people catch my eye and I will not have enough time to grab the shot so I will ask their permission and get the shot that way.

Looking through past work I have found some portraits that I would like to talk about. The first portrait Is an example of work I like to do using natural lighting. I love the use of natural lighting rather than alter and manipulate the light to get what you want. You use the light that I provided and work around that. I feel that this is quite a successful portrait with a very sharp focus on the eye and great exposure.

The second portrait is from a body of work I shot inside of a Barbers I was using a hand-held flash unit to create the harsh shadows a on his face. I do feel that this is a nice portrait using a different lighting technique to create different look. The shot also uses a wide-angle lens takin inspiration from platon.

The final portrait is of my baby cousin the shot being one of the first I shot on a Mamiya RB67 I feel is a very successful shot using natural light and the reflection from a curved mirror on a desk.

My third Idea that I am doing due to my first idea not taking place due to not being able to contact my model. My second project I had to use black and white as this is what they wanted. I have decided to shoot my friends on Graphlex crown with a 120mm back looking mainly at the portrait photographer Alec Soth. Here are some black and white shots I have taken over 5 different shoots.

In these shoots I decided to shoot both on 120mm and 35mm I tested around different ideas, lights and scenarios but I feel that a softer approach more in the style of soth will be a more successful shoot.

Here are a few old shots I took a few months ago during the first few months of meeting these guys all are taken on black and white film on both 35mm and 120 film.

Here are some more recent shots on test shoots for this module. I have included all my favourite shots that are mainly black and white to save on money while testing out the Graphlex crown and also to test lighting.

Conclusion

The project has been an eye opener to portrait photography where I once sat inside the studio where I don’t feel comfortable I have now started to shoot out and about where I have now started to fall in love with staged portraiture.

When on location I find that working with unexpected lighting ads more to the shots as well as giving you more to shoot around with different backgrounds, textures, colours, shapes and objects to shoot around.

I think that I have shot a fair amount for this project and experimented a lot around different techniques and styles of shooting portraiture. I have also started a few extra projects during or before this project which I have noted which I feel shows how much I have pushed myself with my shooting.

I have also used this project to strengthen my analogue techniques especially around camera techniques and using large format cameras. I have also experimented a lot more with flash photography.

I also feel that my final 4 images have turned out very well and I am happy with the final presentation of the prints.