Level 5 photography
Portraits
Depth of field

 

I had a session with Tim and was put into groups to practice using the 5x4 field camera to understand the depth of field and know what the large, medium and small depth of field looks like and how far it is when measuring it all with a tape measure and label the sticky labels with the F stops of each standing of the model when in focused and not in focus. we place a minus - like this to show that a Fstop not worked out in focus on position on the ground and place a 0 to show it is successful. 

By using the tape measure we have found out that further away from the camera, the larger depth of field. Aperture can vary when using different lenses such as wide angle lens but if use 90mm lens will give you a wide angle and fit more of the setting  and give a shallow depth of field.

F.5.6-  large aperture, shallow depth of field, mostly the facial features but rest of the image like the background and rest of the body of the subject will be out of focus.

F11 - medium aperture, quick shutter. background will be out of focus

F16- larger aperture,  slow shutter, background and subject will be in focus

Level 5 photography
Portraits
Steve Pyke

Steve Pyke is a New york British photographer known for his dramatic take on portraiture, his early works was featured in publications  like 'The face' and 'NME' and his reputation grew through his personal projects series called 'PHILOSOPHERS'.




   


Steve Pyke is similar style to David Bailey  as Steve's work contains a mixture of colour and black and white film, square and large format and uses a clean cut edges for the frame or the frame of the numbering on the sides of the negative.

Level 5 photography
Portraits
Printing colour problems

Unfortunately the university has ran out of colour paper and couldn't order the paper in time and the company have ran out of stock which the tutors have informed us that when colour paper is restocked they can order in paper to university and produce the colour films finals and start to doing work in the colour dark room which I have not been in before as I have missed out on the colour printing sessions but I am sort of looking forward to but mainly excited to get my favourite colour negatives printed and place in sleeves and see if it is more enjoyable than printing black and white. The tutors has told us that we still have to hand every other work we have such as the 20x24 black and white final and 9x12 3 final print and all needs to be labelled so we learn to produce work professionally handed in and have to still hand in the colour negatives as I have scanned the final 6 colour negatives I have chosen to print when the paper is in university.

Level 5 photography
Portraits
Negatives Scanning


I had to complete this module further by going onto flexcolor to scan the black and white and colour negatives by resizing the images and fix the tones to face and backgrounds by correcting the curves and colour saturations then adjust the images into photoshop to remove any dust and fix up the meta dat like addobe 1998 for tiffs and SRGB for Jpegs then upload to the student workpool from a MAC computer in University or produce a Cd or just do both to be safe.

Level 5 photography
Portraits
David Bailey

    

In 1960 David Bailey began photographing for British Vogue, and his fashion work and celebrity portraiture, known for stark backgrounds and dramatic lighting, his pieces of work reflects the 1960s British cultural trends and breaking down old fashioned and class barriers by adding a punk look in clothing. His square format images are greatly recognised and often use a subtle composition to emphasize a relationship between his subjects  when photographing more than one person, when doing a group photo or just two people they wear similar clothing to show how close and how alike they are to each other.

Level 5 photography
Portraits
Using a Hasselblad

I have enjoyed using a Hasselblad as it was easier to use as the two rolls of colour film worked straight away without using a test shot. Think i have used the Hasselblad much easier because I understood the procedure much more than the 5x4 field camera as I could never grasp on getting light readings right from light meter then place operate it on camera. Hasselblad I did take a while to take in how I actually know that my image I am about to shoot is in focus but found out in the end that being in focus means that all the objects are in lined with each other inside the two segmented circles and if the bottom segment is black it is totally out of focus.

I have used the Hasselblad in my first shoot using a Metz flash attached to the camera which made the camera heavy but placed it on the tripod so when I take picture of my subjects they are not motion blurred because I might be shaking while shooting. The first shoot with Hasselblad they have worked really well but some of them there was lights bursts over the faces which made the faces not as in focus as the others, using the Flash has brightened out the subject more than the background to make the person in the image stand out and show they're the importance in the image and the main view.

Second shoot with Hasselblad I took picture in the studio with a grey backdrop and used a soft box and back light and told my subjects to sit. I got the subjects to sit so that there faces are more on target and not have too much figure and just aimed to photograph head to chest crop so then it shows I have experimented further on lighting my subjects and how the crop difference can benefit my images focus on the persons character and mood. I didn't use a tripod in this shoot which I surprisingly thought it turned out well even though I was worried that there be motion blur and make the eyes slightly out.


 
 Using the Metz flash to get the aperture right you use a light meter to the subject when happy on where your standing the model and happy with the setting and natural lighting hitting on the subject.

There is an iso dial on top of the flash which needs to be the same setting to the camera I am using for the flash to actually work and make sure your have adjusted aperture you have set to camera the same so it can use a sensor to adjust a lighting to suit the model.

Level 5 photography
Portraits
Richard Avedon

American photographer that is best known for his work in fashion and minimalist portraits. He worked with merchant marines to take identification photos then moved to fashion to shoot for Harper's Bazaar and Vogue, his models convey emotion and movement. His black and white portraits were capturing the essential humanity and vulnerability. Avedon gets lost on what's really there in front of him as he gets carried away from someones beauty or the subjects own idea of bringing out the best of them to seduce or pose to the camera.  Richard Avedon pictures capture immense detail and uses a long exposer to get depth of field, at the age of 22 he began working as a freelance photographer, primarily for Harpers Bazaar and denied the use of studio and wanted to photograph models on the streets, in night clubs, on the beach, he did this because he was fascinated to capture the personality and evoking the life of his subjects.


"sometimes I think all my picture are use picture of me. My concern is... the human predicament; only what i consider the human predicament may simply be y own."  Richard Avedon




  

Level 5 photography
Portraits
Artist: Rineke Dijkstra

    

Rineke works in series, creating groups of photographs and videos around a specific theme. In 1992, she started making portraits of adolescents posed on beaches from Hilton Head, South Carolina, to Poland and Ukraine. Her people appear from beaches, indefinable space, to haunt us with their imperfect beauty and their needed of existence.

Rineka Dijkstra's beach portraits stand alone appearing to be tall, skinny, short, round, squat, awkward, slouched, tanned, bashful and sometimes not knowing that they are beautiful, the ocean rolling behind them. Clothed in bathing suits, these young people are striking to behold clear and formally classical, each subject is frontally posed.

Level 5 photography
Portraits
Definition of portraits 'who are they'

Photographic portraiture  of an individual doesn't always give the true representation as emotions can be hidden, framework can be operated and people can hide their personality behind an awkward smile or body language which could lead to difficulty to capture a sense on the person's soul.

The aim of portraiture is to capture its subjects likeness on what they look like, their social standing and personality and even their mood. A portrait is a representation of an individual person and what aspect of the person is considered important to represent culturally reliant on, our view of identity of the dependability of a person different circumstances and throughout life, is to some extent culturally constructed and as accepted wisdom of identity change, so do portraits.


Traditionally, the ideal portraits both resembled the subjects physical appearance and captured the soul of that person. Contemporary portraits, however, are made within a cultural and artistic background with deep questions about the nature of identity, of representation and of realism.

Level 5 photography
Portraits
Shoot four with 5x4 black and white film field camera

This shoot I bought four films and took the photos at the Christ Church across uni but only one of my films worked and not my favourite but will do if comes to the end on handing finals in and ran out of money to pay for for films and paper, yes tutors say don't just hand in images that your not entirely happy about, where its not fully perfect and should take your time and thought into producing images but when your in too much stress because of being ill due to asthma and catching chest infections just because I have a low immune system and on a trial on seeing if my immunity is getting higher due to age, I have been a wreck during the winter term i just been going way behind. Plus I had ran out of money due to paying rent, berlin trip with uni which tutors practically begged all students to go saying 'Its one of a life time experience' and paying for food and the films and paper that not succeeding and possibly thought about when the good time it be to do trip when students are not half way through a project and not have two deadlines, pretty unfair, especially when tutor have given the students a weak extension and not give the students who are going to berlin an weak extension when back on trip so it's fair.

Level 5 photography
Portraits
Third shoot with 5x4 black and white film field camera


Third shoot me and Rachel borrowed a camera to take back to the student halls we both stay there and know people there to photograph and have confidence with and they more likely to be happy to be photographed, I know they know they not strangers but strangers to other students in the class and tutors don't know them. We set up the camera at the back of my flat where the smoking area is as I like the rough urban look for a background. When taking pictures of them there was no awkwardness and just get on with it, but was silly at first but would do because really confident with me and just want a laugh for a bit and then pull serious faces. Even though pulling strangers are more likely to hide emotion and the look of their faces can be manipulated as they won't know how to act around someone who they don't know and can be interesting in what the person emotion is portrayed in the picture when developed as it could show nervousness or impatience or on edge to leave as the waiting for camera to take picture could get person feel intense or agitated.

When developed the photos some have gone blurred or just overexposed or half the image is made on the negative which was very disapointing as we felt if we got these images done we be able to produce finals on 12x16 paper to produce 3 as we could use one of the first shoot for final and 2 from this shoot but wasn't the case and was just muddled on why it didn't work as we felt we done the set up right on aperature and shutter speed but think my negative which had half picture is because the dark slide, one thin black cover was not fully in right so light got to it.

Second shoot using 5x4 black and white field camera

Level 5 photography
Portraits
Second shoot using 5x4 black and white film field camera format

Second shoot was more of a success as me and friend 'Rachel' went to share the camera with someone in course who is confident in doing film and enjoys and finds film fascinating knew what she was doing and advising us on what to do and she made the film shooting look easy. We all bought 4 films in case something goes wrong or just a chance to catch up with others on producing films and actually print a contact sheet to show that we are going somewhere and not stress out. Me and Rachel were shy to ask but was able to communicate with them when partner asked them which all mainly became all CCAD students we do not know as we were shooting outside the uni getting strangers to stand and pull serious faces against the wall which the strangers didn't seem to mind. It was hard to pull strangers as they are in a rush or insecure about their looks and not entirely sure where the images are going and probably don't trust us, sometimes is was easy to get the old aged couples either being interested in knowing the camera or finds that taking pictures is a laugh and just likes bantering on with young students.

When we developed the film we were all very pleased and feel good about themselves and stress free and able to push on to printing contact sheet and if there's an image on contact sheet that feels right to print out as a final we can do so but I didn't feel the need to with the negatives i have produced but are good just feel I should be able to get better.

Level 5 photography
Portraits
First shoot using field black and white film camera 5x4 format

This shot was not an success as tutors put students into groups of 3 or 4 which would make the shooting easier but my group I was in are not fully confident in shooting 5x4 field camera but are not as shy to ask strangers permission to photograph their face. Uni workshop has given us each one free film as a try out and when we all developed the film we all found that our film has gone all black and I just binned mine because when am I going to use it, what got the film not come out right is because we had set the shutter speed wrong and too much light may have gone to the film when loading the film into the camera.

Level 5 photography
Portraits
Costing

£40 for 10 sheets of paper sized 20x24

£10 for 10 sheets of paper about A4 sized 9.5x12

£45 for 50 sheets of colour paper

£2 a black and white film which will produce one negative film if works out, I usually aim to get 4 black and white films so I can be a bit more lucky as couple of them has to work and if not just have to do it again which is annoying.

£5.50 for a roll of 12 colour films

£5 to send colour negatives to digital lab

£3 for 20x24 sleeve (off a friend)

Silver print 9.5x12 sleeves 10 pack £9.95 plus

Silver print 12x16 sleeves  10 pack £13.45 plus

Deliver = £5.94
Vat = £15.98

money I owe £28.40 as a friend helped out to order print sleeves as friend had to order print sleeves for herself and me and other friend.

Level 5 photography
Portraits

The Brief

A portrait is not a likeness. The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no lonnger a fact but an opinion.... All photographers are accurate. None of them is the truth. - Richard Avedon, in the American West: photographs, 1979-1984 by Richard Avedon

Second brief given for second year titled 'portraits' is to introduce students to traditional portraiture and modern genres, the brief shall engage to practical equipment like colour darkroom and be back to the dark room using deveer to print black and white and learn to use medium colour format in the studio using a colour 12 roll film into a Hasselblad. Students have to produce prints black and white darkroom made from 5x4 negatives that explore shallow, mid and long depth of 3 final images sized 9.5x12 final field portraits in stranger public place.

Level 5 photography
Portraits

Environmental Portraiture

5x4 large format environmental portraiture, I wasn't looking forward to this at all as I dislike the 5x4 camera as I have had struggles with it last year and still not grasping it and it just stresses me out. The fact that we have to take pictures of strangers which makes this project even more difficult as I don't like putting myself in an awkward situation to ask and dont take the rejection too seriously and down to heart. When I eventually have courage to ask you feel rushed to do it quick so that the person don't lose interest and be in a mood with you but when I started to pull in CCAD students they don't mind to help and enjoy taking their photos taken.

Strangers
                 
                  'A person who is not a member of the family, group,  community or a                      visitor guest'

                  ' A person with whom one has had no personal acquaintance'

                                                                                                                    

                                                                                                            -dictionary.com