PORTRAITURE
Portrait photography or portraiture in photography is a photograph of a person or group of people that captures the personality of the subject by using effective lighting, backdrops, and poses. A portrait picture might be artistic, or it might be clinical, as part of a medical study.
Types of Portraiture-
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Traditional Portraits.
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Lifestyle Portraits.
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Environmental Portraits.
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Candid and Street Portraits.
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Glamour & Boudoir Photography
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Fine Art Portraits.
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Conceptual Portraits.
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Surreal Portraits
This photo represents Winston Churchill as it is quite a famous photo of him however with being a war hero you wouldn't expect him to be smiling, him being quite serious is what he's known for in terms of photography. The background works well with the mood as it reflects how he is feeling and the kind of vibe that surrounds him and what he has been through in his life with be a soldier a part time journalist and leading up to him becoming the prime minister in 1940-1945 when he helped Britain to victory and again in 1951-1955.
This shows his serious side which he uses to remain professional and keep within his job as a image of him smiling would ruin the reputation and outlook he has been building up and has produced.
This photo is of Amanda Lepore and the journey she went through to become who she is today, which relates to a lot of people in the sense that it is difficult and you have a lot of people with traditional beliefs who may not want this to happen to either their children because to them it makes them look bad however as times changed people are more comfortable with it. From Amanda "Ever since I can first remember, I knew I was a girl. I couldn't understand why my parents were dressing me up in boys' clothing. I thought they were insane." She started modelling for companies such as play boy etc, which her makeup is glamorous is shown with the background leading to the stuff that she has done and wants to do.. The photographer usually works with celebrity photos and he takes into consideration with how the picture was being portrayed from him being gay himself.
Hard and Soft Lighting-
Hard light has an abrupt transition between the light and the shadows. There's an easily discernible line between the brightest portions of the image and the shadows. Hard light is high contrast lighting. There's often bright highlights and dark shadows in the same image. In "hard" light sources, the parallelism of the rays is an important factor in determining shadow behaviour.
Equipment- Snoots ( Tunnel of Light), Reflector (Everywhere ),Honey Comb
Light source creates more shadows, hot spots
Soft light refers to light that tends to "wrap" around objects, casting diffuse shadows with soft edges. Soft light is when a light source is large relative to the subject; hard light is when the light source is small relative to the subject. The softness of a light source can also be determined by the angle between the illuminated object and the 'length' of the light source (the longest dimension that is perpendicular to the object being lit). The larger this angle is, the softer the light source.
Equipment- Soft box, reflectors
It diffuses lighting
Soft Lighting
Hard Lighting
Portraits convey emotions an insight to a persons mood, identity.
Choice of lighting will influence the viewers perception of the subjects mood.
High Key and Low -Key lighting are typical examples of how a photographer can use lights to influence the viewers emotions/describe character/stature.
High Key
Low Key
High Key Lighting an image with predominantly light tones.
used in beauty images
light hearted
fun
Low Key Lighting an image with predominantly dark tones.
creates a mood
mystery
detailed skin texture adds character
Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon (1923–2004) was born and lived in New York City. His interest in photography began at an early age, and he joined the Young Men’s Hebrew Association (YMHA) camera club when he was twelve years old. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, where he co-edited the school’s literary magazine, The Magpie, with James Baldwin. He was named Poet Laureate of New York City High Schools in 1941.
Avedon joined the armed forces in 1942 during World War II, serving as Photographer’s Mate Second Class in the U.S. Merchant Marine. As he described it, “My job was to do identity photographs. I must have taken pictures of one hundred thousand faces before it occurred to me I was becoming a photographer."
After two years of service, he left the Merchant Marine to work as a professional photographer, initially creating fashion images and studying with art director Alexey Brodovitch at the Design Laboratory of the New School for Social Research.
This photographer uses black and white photography to portray the elements of portraiture and it kind of links to the Zone System as many elements are used.
We have many different shades and tones presented each representing the highlight points of each part of the photo, and there is a contrast showing the difference between the background and the photo.
Contact Sheet-
AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.
My intentions for this shoot were to take photos in response to Richard Avedon who took photos of a variety of shots from head and shoulder to fully body shots, I took more half body shots so I could include some different poses to relate to his work more. In editing I'm going to change the photos to black and white and add some detail and definition to them. I like how there is a variation so I can mix up the edits. I dislike how they are quite far out, next time I could zoom in or crop the image as there is a lot of space around the person which could be negative space but in this case there is only a little bit.
Five Best Photos-
I chose these as my five best images because the are all different poses and they are all quite sharp in comparison to the other photos, The main focus in these photos is the person being photographed, in editing I am going to change them to black and white but I'm going to change up the colours. Next time I'm going to go a bit more close up so there is not as much space around and I will make them face more at the camera as their body positioning is to the side in a few of these images.
5 Photos that need Improvement-
I chose these photos as needing improvement because I feel that they are not as sharp as the other ones and not really in focus however it shows the difference between how little changes can affect a photo and not make it as good as the others, next time I do this I'm going to make sure the person getting photographed doesn't move till I'm over with that certain pose and not taking images when they are moving to keep the focus still.
Edit of Richard Avedon-
Editing Process-
AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.
Final Photos-
Irving Penn-
I feel with this photo I didn't really need to edit it much because the photos are quite natural and I wanted to keep that aspect. I just wanted to highlight and deepen the most important parts in which is the ones that stand out and make there be a bright line surrounding the subject.
Irving Penn was an American photographer known for his fashion photography, portraits, and still lifes. Penn's career included work at Vogue magazine, and independent advertising work for clients including Issey Miyake and Clinique. Using both large format and 35mm cameras, he regularly turned his lens on street debris, animal skulls, and flowers, in addition to his glamorous images of celebrities. “I share with many people the feeling that there is a sweetness and constancy to light that falls into a studio from the north sky that sets it beyond any other illumination,” he once reflected. “It is a light of such penetrating clarity that even a simple object lying by chance in such a light takes on an inner glow, almost a voluptuousness.” Born on June 16, 1917 in Plainfield, NJ, he studied art and design under Alexey Brodovitch at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art in Philadelphia before moving to New York in 1938. These images are mostly close up shots they use a black background to make the model stand out, which highlights their features. I like how you can really focus on what he was trying to portray/do and it's very clear. I dislike that on some of them its very dark do you can't see their hair or their outfit which could of added some uniqueness to it however it's very professional.
Contact Sheet-
My intentions for this shoot were to take photos in the style of Irving Penn in which the background is quite dark and the face is quite lit up making it stand out in the photo. I tried to do different poses and angles to see how the light would turn out and where it would place on the picture, so this is why the light is so bright on some pictures than others. I wanted to focus on trying to incorporate space into my work around the model to show more of the background. I think it helped that the model was wearing dark colours with aspects of white. I like how the shadow transfers on one side of her face and the light being on the other to show a contrast.
AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.
One Best Photo-
I chose this photo as my best photo because she is looking at the camera and it gives off a serious look to show emotions/expressions, in editing I'm going to make her face darker as the light is focusing on there.
One that need Improvement-
I chose this photo as needing improvement because i feel that the best photos need to be when they are looking at the camera and this is the one facing away
Edit of Irving Penn-
I edited my photo like this to represent the work of Irving Penn but decided to put my own kind of style on it with adding blue to contrast her red hair.
Editing Process-
AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.
Firstly I took the photo into Photoshop this is where I used the gradient tool and made it go from black to blue across that is why you have the added blue in the corner, I then moved onto the brightness and contrast and made some elements darker than others so make the light on her face create a shadow on that half and on the other half make it lighter.
Final Photo-
I chose this as my final photo because I feel that its quite a different approach to the artist by adding elements of colour at the bottoms and I made the face more on the shadowy side to show the comparison between the background and the model it also makes her stand out, and that's what I really wanted to include in the photo, it helps with the red hair as well adding another primary colour.
A deadpan photograph is devoid of emotion. It simply exists as a subject and photograph, yet it seems to be empty. There is no joy or sorrow, although some can argue that the deadpan itself is a mood of its own. Famous photographers who use this aesthetic seem to be completely detached from the subject that they are photographing, and the word ‘indifference’ seems to describe the photograph perfectly. Many famous deadpan photographers choose this aesthetic to capture changes in the world around them, to generate questions that the viewer keeps in mind, or to provide an image that allows a non-biased relationship between the viewer and the subject matter.
Thomas Ruff-
Thomas Ruff is a German photographer who lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany. He has been described as “a master of edited and re imagined images”. Ruff shares a studio on Düsseldorf's Hansaallee, with other German photographers Laurenz Berges, Andreas Gursky and Axel Hütte. He is a contemporary German photographer and prominent member of the Düsseldorf School. His broad oeuvre incorporates images of domestic interiors, austere portraits, blurred pornography, photograms, and found JPEGs which intend to spur the imagination rather than capture reality. The images make me feel quite serious and calm as these photos are used to represent what you would see in a passport to clarify your identity to go to a different country. These are a series of head and shoulder shots which he put over coloured backgrounds to compliment their skin tones and to make them stand out. I like how the photos get straight to the point in what they are trying to get across (the message behind it), I also like the backgrounds of the images because except for the first 4 in a college they are a simple background to focus your attention on them. I think this has been achieved by going to a studio and getting different backdrops to capture a series of head and shoulder images.
Contact Sheet-
AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.
The intentions for my shoot were to do a photo in the style of Thomas Ruff which is in the style of a 4 grid of close up shots which are quite serious in the way of the facial expressions and the colour representing the moods behind it. I like how I chose the right colours to go with the correct person because certain elements stand out for each one.
One Best Photo-
One that needs Improvement-
Edit of Thomas Ruff-
This is my edit and my final photo as well because I think that it still fits in with both categories, I enhanced the contrast to make the colours stand out and decreased the brightness so they both worked together quite well.