Artist Research - Henri Cartier-Bresson

This photo is an example of the decisive moment. It catches someone at a moment where they are doing something, but with these photos, if it was taken a moment before or after it would either be a bad photo or he wouldn't even be in it. I think that the decisive moment is really good as it looks like it wasn't framed, I can't know if this was or not but with some of his others you can tell, like the one below this, you can't get the pigeons to fly back to where they were previously.

This is another example of the decisive moment by Henri Cartier-Bresson. I really like this because if it was taken a moment later or earlier it would be quite a plain photo. When comparing to Sally Mann, I would say they are only similar in that they both contain people and they are both black and white. In my opinion although Henri's photographs are framed very well and are taken perfectly, I prefer Sally's work.

This is an example of Sally Mann's work, it is from the collection 'Family Pictures'. These photographers aren't very similar in styles, I personally think that Sally Mann's work is better because there is more emotion in them. I also like the depth of field more in Sally Mann's photographs. Henri Cartier-Bressons photographs are good because of the decisive moment, but I am personally drawn to Sally Mann's work more.

This photograph is by Don McCullin, This photograph is quite morbid and it is an example of the decisive moment. I think this is a very well taken photograph that was framed well  and I really enjoy his work, it shows a very powerful message because we don't get to know what happened for him to be in this position and what happened after. If this photograph was taken a few seconds after the man with the gun to his head could've been on the floor.

Straight Images - Form

Best five - Form

Work Diary - Portraiture

Work Diary - Portraiture

I thoroughly enjoyed portraiture, I found it a very interesting subject because you can take portraits in a huge number of ways, you can take them dead pan, which isn't very popular because it shows no meaning, however I think that it can have a lovely underlying meaning. You can also take them mid activity, which I also quite like because it catches people naturally, before they put on a face or an act. Portraiture is a very wide term and I don't think it limits you at all. 

Progression - Next time I will take more photos outside, because although I spent time outside taking photos, I took more in the studio, however in the studio it is easier to take photographs because you have more control over the light which makes the photo better.

In my opinion this is my best photograph, I love that this photo has been caught mid activity because it shows that people usually put on a face for photos and in this photo that hasn't happened.

This is my worst photo because it is not centred properly, it also looks very awkward to be honest. I think that the photo shows no emotion and not in a good way.

Lights - Photography

    

Lights - Photography 

Honeycomb light - When we took portraits we used a honeycomb on our light, this meant that the light was a lot more controlled than it would usually be, it also meant that the light wasn't hitting the entire face, this meant that it would cause the effect that we wanted to happen in our photos. We connected the light to the camera so that when we took a photograph it would flash, this meant that the background would be dark whilst the part of the face the light was hitting would be bright. This created a lot of contrast. A honeycomb light is an example of a hard light.

This is an example of a honeycomb light =

 

Soft Lights - A soft light is a light cover that spreads the light out so that none of the subject is in darkness. It also creates a softer effect that seems calmer. A soft light is large compared to the subject, whilst the hard light is small relative to the subject. A light that is closer to the subject tends to be a soft light. 

This is an example of a soft light = 

Editing on Photoshop - Portraiture

 Editing on photoshop - Portraiture

This is the edited photo, I think this looks worse than the first one because she looks way too pale like she has too much light on her face. The unedited photo, I really think it looked better and could've just done with some editing of the imperfections.

I edited this photograph on photoshop to make it less imperfect, I think this looks good, however, it does look more paler which I'm not sure if I like, however the skin does look smoother. 

To make this effect I firstly got the photograph up, I then went onto image and then mode and then CMYK colour, then I chose the yellow channel and copied it, then I pasted it over the original. after that I inverted it and changed the settings from normal to soft light, then I added a vector mask. Once I had added the vector mask I clicked the paint brush and changed the colour to white, I started painting over the face which made it a little bit more nicer looking.

Vector Mask =

Straight Images - Portraiture

Straight Images - Portraiture

Contact Sheet - Portraiture

Contact Sheet - Portraiture

Straight Images - Motion

Best 5 - Motion 

Best 5

Best overall 5

Image Bank - Portraiture

Image Bank - Portraiture

 Source

This photo is a portrait of Jude Law by David Bailey, I think its really well taken and I especially like the contrast of the sides of his face, one side is completely lit and the other side is quite dark, it shows both sides of his personality which looks really good.

 Source

This photo was taken by Alec Soth, it is really good in my opinion because it has caught the subject in the middle of doing something, this means it's a lot more natural than a photo like David Baileys because the subject didn't pose for it. I also like that it was taken outdoors because it shows all of the natural clutter that is in people's lives.

 Source

This photo is of Angelina Jolie by Annie Leibovitz and it has a huge amount of negative space, this means that your eye is dragged towards her face. I think this photo looks really nice because her face is in a lot of detail.

 Source

Photos by Thomas Ruff like this one, are typically deadpan. I think this looks good because it is so simple, although these photos could be taken in someplace like a Photo Booth for example, I think the lighting would probably be better in this photo as it is changed specifically for the person. For example, we can tell that in this photo the light was above him a bit because there are shadows from his eyebrow bone, you might not get that effect in a photo booth.

 Source

This photograph of John Lennon and Paul McCartney was taken by David Bailey, I really like his work and I think this piece is good, however I do prefer the one of Jude Law because I think the lighting is more interesting in that one. However this is also good in my opinion because it portrays them as very positive people - there aren't many shadows on their face's unlike Jude Laws portrait. 

Artist Research - Thomas Ruff

This photograph is lovely in my opinion, the subject has a very interesting face, as it isn't symmetrical, Thomas Ruff's photos are similar in that they are all deadpan, however, they are very different because each person is different. the colours they have chosen to wear may show an underlying emotion that isn't shown through facial expressions or body language in the photo.

In this photograph I think that the model is showing emotion, I think that he is almost smiling and part of me seeing this may be the fact that he is wearing yellow, yellow is a colour that signifies happiness for most people and I think Ruff knew this when he took the photograph.

I love his photographs, although they are very similar in that they all show no facial expression, however in some ways this is better, you can choose to see any emotion you want in these people, they are easy to relate to because you have no definite idea what they are feeling. Furthermore, I really like the colours in this photograph, the hair and shirt are the same colour and they are very plain dull colours, so as not to show any connotations towards emotions.

I chose to study Thomas Ruff's portraits for Portraiture, I really like his work because I think it's very simple. It is similar to how a photo would be taken in a Photo Booth, the lighting isn't inventive and I think it's just very direct and face on. I like his photos because it shows us that even though you can see peoples emotions in other photographs, it doesn't mean we actually know how they're feeling.

Editing - Depth of Field

Editing - Depth of Field

This photograph was over exposed in the first photograph I think. It didn't have the effect I wanted it too so I changed it by using these filters and effects:

Unsharp mask - to make everything a lot more focused.

Curves - to make the picture darker.

Hue/saturation - I made the saturation a bit higher (+4) and I made the picture a little bit darker (-13).

I loved this photograph so I didn't want to edit it too much, however I thought that little changes would make a lot of difference in this case, rather than over-editing a bad photo to try and improve it.

I used the filters/effects:

Levels - I used this to do white balance which improves the photographs a lot and makes the colours more realistic.

Hue/Saturation - I used this to make the colour "pop" a bit more as I was worried it looked a bit too muted. I made it more saturated (+18) and a bit darker (-9).

Contact Sheet - Depth of Field

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