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.

http://www.varialstudio.com/#/visual-art/jokers/clowns_0001__1_

After using and experimenting with tobacco products on myself  i decided to look more into different ways to create a similar image yet which held the same meaning. As my idea when using the tobacco was to create a funny and almost joke mask appearance i decided to look into relating photography such as funny and surreal portraiture. Here you can see i came across a series of clown portraiture by the company varialstudio which personally i find to be really interesting, i love the contrast between the background and the foreground as well as the overall lighting and heightened details on the face.

Been experimenting with placing objects on face, such as tobacco leaves and other products. Personally i didnt feel that this had the effect i wanted, the tobacco leaves as a whole were very difficult to work with as i found that after sticking them to the face it became increasingly difficult to then move or rework them which resulted in either falling if the face or becoming displaced..

The photos above show some experiments i did using different shutter speeds on a car park roof overlooking Manchester. Similar to the train photographs seen before i am still struggling with getting the correct effects due to settings as i seemed to again end up with completely white images, loosing not only the context of the photo but also detail and colour. 

Jill Greenberg

While researching Alexander Trinitav i came across the photographer Jill Greenberg and her famous portrait works. I found her realism and detail factor something which i would love to use within my own practice. Again similar to that of Alexander Trinitiov she seems to capture an almost wet and greasy look of her subjects which i feel works perfectly when trying to capture great detail, yet do feel it can sometimes when over worked result in a cartoon like effect loosing the overall realism within the photo. I feel her use of a dark and dull background contrasting with a brightly detailed foreground image allows the forefront to become the main focal point of the photograph drawing attention away from the rest of the photo, alongside this she also seems to choose colors which compliment each other for example the blue against white and grey against brown, I feel this is a cleaver way of creating a much more brightened foreground image as well as creating an overall aesthetically pleasing photograph without the worry of a bad background ruining the photo. The lighting she uses for these shots seems to be similar to that of a halo lighting effect which works best with dark or duller backgrounds as the subjects seems to be lit from the back again adding to the shiny wet like appearance.

http://www.jillgreenberg.com/

I also found Alexander Trinitatovs portraiture work to be really interesting. I love the way in which he captures detail within his photos almost giving the subjects a wet, greasy look. This is something which i would love to use within my personal practice especially in my final portrait assignment photographs but am unaware of how to create this effect correctly.

Alexander Trinitatov

I really like the works of Photographer Alexander Triniriatov, Here you can i see i came across a series of smoking photographs he did. I found the way in which he captured the smoke within these photos to be extremely interesting using it almost as an extension of the photograph as without it they would lack in meaning. It seems to pad out the photograph making it more insisting to the viewer leaving the main subjects of the pieces fading into the background as though they are being overpowered by the smoke itself which seems to shine in its own limelight. 

Experimenting with aperture speeds again foreground to background

As i cant use smoke in the actual studio environment i need to think of something else to use as a replacement. A main idea which i was thinking of using would be to continue with the theme of distortion of the models face but in this case with the tobacco products itself still keeping an advertisement appearance for example, placing tobacco leaves over someones face to resemble that of glasses or a mustache, placing cigarettes in someones mouth as long front teeth or placing a pink lighter on someones tongue.

As the images will resemble that of a joke like context i want to then juxtaposition this next to a meaningful and serious quote, as though this somehow makes the viewer reflect upon what they on first glance saw as a funny uplifting advert to now a serious, meaningful and quite dark image. Due to the contrast between the two i feel this will make the viewer reflect upon their own first impressions and how serious they do in fact see smoking.

  "If you could see what others saw, you wouldn't smoke." "If smoking was a joke, you'd be the clown."  "Don't let smoking become who you are."  "Don't let smoking make you someone your not" 

If you could see yourself, you wouldn't smoke.

I also did i few photographs mainly concentrating on using reflection and mirrors. In these photographs i wanted to capture myself looking in the mirror while smoking yet have myself
reflected back somewhat worried or angry as though i was trying to stop myself from smoking, making me see what i was doing was wrong. A true reflection of if i could truly see the damage i was doing to myself i would stop smoking.

In the end i decided that these photo's weren't the best out of all i took. They didn't really show what i wanted and were more experimentation pieces before i moved onto my jumping photographs. I also found it difficult to get the correct camera angle of the mirror as my tripod was too small. If i was to do these again i would want more of a higher angle as though the photographs were being taken from looking into the mirror capturing more of my body.

If addiction was a person, he'd be a silent killer.

(Mainly used Tungsten light setting as i wanted to create an unflattering cold light, something that held no colour to it, resembling that of death + Tripod.)

My ideas surrounding these photographs were to create something which made people see that the act of smoking was the same no matter where or when its done,same effect same process, same appearance. I wanted to do this by using uncommon locations ones which are not usually associated with smoking for example a bathroom and a bedroom. When taking the photographs i decided to reenact being a dead and lifeless state as though the viewer was seeing through the normality and into a surreal and blurred reality behind the act of smoking. I also wanted to capture smoking and addiction as a whole, something similar to a bully, a monster and a murderer, a force that has complete power over you. I feel i captured this better in the hanging and floating photographs as they seemed to capture an unidentified invisible presence due to positioning of my jumping body.

Overall i wanted these photographs to represent how smoking itself basically kills you, slowly but surely. The ropes which i added later on Photoshop were made to look depicted of that of the overflowing cigarette smoke as though the person themselves was killed by the smoke, yet raises the question that if the cigarette was never lit and the addiction was never there would this mean she wouldn't have died?, Was it the cigarette that killed her or was it in fact herself?.
I feel the photos put into context the power an addition has over someone and the little control you as a smoker have on the situation.

I've been brainstorming different ideas for photographs in which i want to capture smoking yet still keeping an anti-advert appearance.  I've also been thinking up different quotes and statements which i want to put in my previous photos working alongside the image. For example "If you could see what others see, you wouldn't smoke." "Smoking looks the same no matter where you do it." "If you could see yourself, you wouldn't smoke."  These then lead me onto thinking about creating a range of photographs somehow incorporating a mirror or some sort of reflection. Such as taking a photograph in the bathroom mirror or using Photoshop to have the same person but looking at each other one smoking, one not. I would like the photos to somehow represent something out of the ordinary, something which wouldn't usually be seen to make people see the reality of smoking and of what there actually doing, as just because its not being done outside of a club or a pub area doesn't mean that your not doing the exact same thing just in a different location.

As my Portrait is about smoking, the effects of smoking and the way smoking looks to others for iv'e been thinking of different ways in which to portray this within my work.  I've also been looking in a range of different styles of advertising mostly aimed to discourage people from the act of smoking to help influence my own work. One in which i found in particular to be very interesting was "The hanging man" by the advertising company Mercury 360 and the photographer Ola bell. I love surreal and controversial photographs like this and would love to somehow incorporate or even rework this type of photography into my own work. I think  not only the way in which the man is portrayed to be hanging without a noose to be seen along with the dark and almost tungsten colour effect topped with the slogan "Its called suicide because its your choice." referencing the choice that every smoker takes on a daily basis to that of someone purposely taking there own life not only creates a dark and intising image but also something which is very shocking and meaningful.