Need to do some more shallow and all in focus shots

Out of all the photographs taken i decided to use this one as my final. I felt that Natalie's face within this photo not only worked perfectly along with her body language but also with the cigertte. This image was exactly what i had in mind for this shoot, both lighting and aesthetics. I feel the image alone creates a conversational and quite shocking view on smoking, it takes something which is commonly known and associated with fun, laughter and happiness and juxtapositions it with something dark  deathly and serious. I feel that this creates a bold and interesting contrast hopefully resulting in the audience to take a step back and review their own views on smoking as a whole.

Studio Portrait session examples

 

The photos above are a few edited examples taken from my studio portrait session of Natalie. To begin the session i firstly began by setting up the lighting, For this i wanted to create a spotlight effect leaving the background lit yet with a graduated darkness around the edges of the shot. To begin with i found this really difficult to create as the photos were either too light on the face loosing detail or too bright on the backdrop resulting in no contrast of foreground to background. This was mainly resolved by either adding or removing certain lighting features such as the umbrella off the back light to create a halo effect and moving the front light to the right side of Natalie alongside a reflector placed on her left side which i felt balanced out the lighting creating less of a darker shadow to the face.

After this i instructed Natalie to portray an array of different emotions alongside poses and body language working with and in relationship to the cigarette. Surprisingly i found this harder than i thought as i have little experience with working with other people as models. The main difficulties i found were trying to explain to Natalie what i wanted of her as yet she did what i told her but not in the exact way in which i would have wanted if id done it myself. To aid this i brought in some samples of previous photographs as examples which i felt really helped the situation and understanding between me and Natalie within certain aspects of the shoot. As a tripod was used throughout the majority of the shoot i also decided to experiment freehand but didn't feel that this worked as well, it resulted in me getting a lot of unwanted background features in my shot as well as blurred and unclear images leading me back to continuing the shoot with the use of a tripod.

When i began editing the photos i found that due to finding the correct lighting in the studio i could create the exact colour background in which i wanted, somewhat similar to that commonly seen on a smoking advertisement, blue hue with a well lit foreground image. I also wanted to exaggerate the colours within the makeup creating a much more surreal and detailed appearance to the face. For my final i would like to add some form of text something similar to an advert involving a quote or statement reinforcing stopping smoking. I will be looking more into smoking adverts for influence on this.  Overall i feel that this went really well and i have achieved what i wanted to in the time frame i was allotted i also feel much happier with using and understanding equipment and over all studio practice aiding me in any future assignments.

Decided to experiment more with shutter, wanted to try and create something different, experimenting with something which i hadn't used before which differed form my other photographs. After researching a lot of shutter photography i decided to test out using liquids as i found that when done correctly it can result in really interesting and almost time stopping photography.  To begin with i wanted to use somewhere in which i could store a lot of water in one place which i could then reuse over and over again somewhat like a blank canvas. I also wanted to differnt colours and luquids as i felt that this would give the photographs much more contrast and clarity than just working with clear water. After choosing my area i placed a tripod in front of the sink and placed it on self timer i then used a spoon to take a small amount of liquid which i then dropped in relation to the flash on the camera. To get such clear effects i also had no lighting only the flash, i think this worked better as by doing so it seemed to capture the waters movement perfectly as the flash seemed to only capture what was in front leaving the rest of the surrounding photograph in darkness.

I think the best liquid i used was milk as this was thick and bright creating a very detailed and obvious contrast between the already diluted sink water. If i was to do this again i would probably use a higher macro lense or even change it to a macro setting as i found that even though i could manually focus on the water i felt that when reviewing the photographs while editing a few still came out blurry and lacked in the fine detail i wanted.

Did a few more Foreground to Background photos, i really like these, thinking of using a few for my final submission.

Need to experiment more with falling or moving objects for shutter speed

If smoking was a joke, you'd be the clown

After researching into clowns and clown portraiture i wanted to experiment with recreating this within my own practice. I wanted to produce a set of clever and controversial images surrounding the ways in which i felt best represented the idiocy which comes from smoking. As these pieces were experiments i decided to test out a number of different poses, angles, distance, facial expressions and body language as by doing would give me a good idea of both the best and the worst to use in my final shoot. To begin this process i set up a tripod along with placing a chair in front of a white background as i found that this would allow greater colour contrast when editing than that of black which would both restrict me with colours as well as lighting.

When shooting i began by wanting to capture the actual process of smoking as though i was unaware the camera was there yet still keeping a portraiture like appearance. I wanted to capture a daily and common process such as the lighting of a cigarette, something which is commonly seen. With the addition of a clowns face i wanted to symbolize the joker or clown in which the act of smoking makes someone appear even in a regular or common situation. After this i decided to experiment with using different facial expressions attempting to interact with the viewer creating over exaggerated poses playing on portraying a mindless and ignorant notion still with the inclusion of the cigarette in shot. I wanted the cigarette to be the main attraction of the photos, something in which i couldn't keep my eyes off  like a prized possession meaning more to me than anything else in that photo. Doing so i felt would automatically lead the viewers attention to this, turning it into the main focal point of the photo. I then began by altering the shutter speed  as i wanted to capture the flame and smoke coming from the cigarette and lighter but on an unrealistic surreal level. Although this did work on certain photos unfortunately it didn't seem to work the way i wanted mainly resulting in blurred and unclear images taking away the detail in the photos. I also wanted the photos to display an over colourful appearance working in contrast with the childish clown like feel, this was best done when edited as the white background alongside using tungsten lighting resulted in a green bluey hue which i feel worked brilliantly next to the red and whites of the makeup, forcing the foreground to become a much more brighter and attention centered aspect of the photo. This will defiantly be something which i will be using in my final shots yet i do feel that the lighting may change this slightly depending on the angle and distance.

Overall the main aim behind these photos are to show how smokers on a a daily basis are the clowns of the smoking industry  they themselves are the jokers, the ones who yet alone know that what they do is killing them yet they still persist on the act leaving behind the trail of failed attempts and ignorance which only others can see. Personally i feel that i have achieved this and am happy with the photos produced, i think if i was to do this again i would change the clothing to something more relatable such as business wear or club wear as well as changing the background to somewhere commonly associated with smoking such as a pub, club or building walls, as by doing so i feel would again add a personal level to the photos working in relationship to that of the viewers past and personal experiences of smoking. I also feel that this worked dramatically better than that of the sticking tobacco to my face idea, as i feel it not only got the same point across but with a more visual entertaining and aesthetically pleasing factor.