In my photographs for ‘The Human Condition’ portraits I am going to investigate in what I believe makes us human. From the way we look and act. I want to explore every detail of what forms us as humans. My initial ideas for my photographs are to focus closely on facial features and facial expressions to depict human emotion as everybody has feelings and emotions. When I come to portray the way humans act I think this will be best to display in my candid shots as every human is inevitable to attend certain events in they’re lives from shopping to attending a party. These busy places will allow me to be innovative with my candid shots as I can shoot a range of contrasting individuals trustfully without them acknowledging my presence, as I want these portraits to be completely natural. My goal is to produce honest photographs as I am aiming to photograph humans in they're general state. All Humans have feelings and emotions so my aim for these photographs is to show a range of different mental states. I am going to explore works of several photographers for more inspiration and ideas.
Candid Portrait.
Candid shots introduce an element of mild, un-posed refinement and are best captured when the subject is engaged or in conversation. Some commendable locations for candid portraits could be on the streets or in crowded places. I want to bring new perspective to my candid portraits perhaps by using an array of quirky angles, natural framing and shallow/long depth of field. I want to capture my subjects when they are completely unaware i'm taking a photograph because then I will be able to capture a range of different facial expressions and different body language. I am attending a christening and a 'house party' and I am going to photograph at more events as this brief goes on to get a large amount of photographs to choose out of for when I come to choose my best shots.
Places to take my candid portraits - Busy places, cafe/restaurant/shopping centre/town centre/railway station/bus station/supermarkets/beach etc.
Locations - Blackburn/AccringtonBurnley/Lytham/Blackpool/Manchester/Preston/York etc.
Photo Trouvée
I came across a book when in the library named ‘Photo Trouvée’ which is A unique collection of 285 'found' amateur photographs, discovered and collected over a period of more than twenty years in flea markets and antique shops by the highly respected French photo historian Michel Frizot and Cédric de Veigy, professor of photography and film. Carefully sequenced, the pictures are placed according to their atmosphere and rhythm to create a beautiful and thought-provoking book. The photographs above and below are taken from this book. I loved this book and all the photographs were so different and interesting, I think if i want to create a number of quirky shots like these images in Photo
I consider some of the photographs displayed in this book capture humans when they’re completely natural and un-posed in some unflattering positions. They display humans for who they are which I think shows the human condition in an unconventional way through these candid shots. Some of the photographs displayed in this book I found to be quite humorous, so I am hoping to capture humans in a funny position or with a funny facial expression as I feel laughter is important in life I want to show this through my photographs. For my own candid shots I have decided to create my own collection of photographs from a range of contrasting events. I have taken some photographs already at a christening and at a party, capturing people when they’re none the wiser. I am going to continue to photograph using this technique at different events until the end of the brief so I will have a variety of images to choose from when deciding on my final images.
Matt Stuart
Matt Stuart
Matt Stuart’s work features opportune street scenes that are taken of crowds, on the tube, in the park and in cars. His photographs reflect the absurd and passing nature of life. Stuart captures those moments that are rare and spur of the moment using a small Leica camera. Perhaps to make my own captivating and unconventional candid images I could use my film fisheye camera or my Diana F Edelweiss film camera to give a contrastive outlook on my photographs. By using a range of different cameras and photographing at mismatched events I am confident I can produce compelling candid shots that fit the brief well.
Martin Parr
Martin Parr's photography allows us to see the world from his unique perspective. I think that his photographs are original, understandable and entertaining and they show us the lives that we live and how we present ourselves to the world and our values. Martin Parr enables us to see things that seem familiar to us but in a completely new way and in this way he creates his own image of society. I chose to present the photograph above of Parr's work because of the body language and facial expressions being displayed. In my shots I want to capture humorous body language and facial expressions, I think this aim would suit the images being bright coloured just like Parr's work.
Parr's photographs are always very bright and have a varied mix of colours. I have already taken some candid shots at events inside and I will present them in contact sheets below. Now I have decided to take more images perhaps somewhere that is busier and brighter. I am going to visit Blackpool as I think I will be able to photograph interesting characters and create some of the tackiness that is shown in Parr's work. I think this will be a good location for my photographs during the day because there will be a lot of people about to photograph. Blackpool is bright and I think will be the perfect location for my humorous candid shots I want to create.
When I am out on location taking these photographs I am going to think about using a range of quirky different angles to get some innovative shots. I am going to photograph a mix of different people and hopefully then I will have a lot of interesting, bright and fun shots to choose from. Martin Parr has been a great influence on my candid shots as he has inspired me to think about using different locations and new ways of editing my photographs.
Contact Sheets
Below are my contact sheets from the party and the christening. These images did not fulfill my aims as they didn't capture the real human emotion that I wanted. I have annotated them and will edit these photographs. Some shots I am quite happy with but I don't think they will work for my candid shots. Also I had to work with what lighting was available and I think this affected the quality of my photographs. For my next shoot in Blackpool I think will work better as I can take advantage of the natural day light.
Editing
When editing these images I found it hard to create the bright colourful effect I wanted as the lighting on some of the photographs is not great, when editing it over exposed my images too much and some of the original images were quite dark. I have edited these photographs on Photoshop and tried to bring out the brightness and the colour, however I do not feel these photographs have been successful and I don't think I will be using them for my final best shots. I didn't do a lot of heavy editing to these photographs as I was aiming for natural un posed photographs I thought the simple editing would suit the simpleness of the images.
I wanted to brighten up my images as they came out to be quite dark. On Photoshop I decided to increase the brightness to improve the quality of my photographs. I tried editing the photograph several times with different balances of brightness, too much brightness over exposed my photographs as the screen shot below will demonstrate.
I felt by increasing the brightness this immediately improved my photographs.
I found the Vibrance/saturation tool quite useful as it added a lot more brightness and colour to my photographs which is the effect I wanted. This simple editing really improved my photographs.
These are some of the 'Presets' on Light room. I experimented with these during the editing process because I wanted to enhance the colours in my photographs. I used 'Bleach Bypass' preset in several photographs and some of the other colour creative presets.
I am not pleased with these shots as they don't fulfil my aims and I also found them quite difficult to edit because of the lighting. I am going to present what I think are my most successful shots from this shoot.
Best shots
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer who was considered to be the father of modern photojournalism. He was a master of candid photography which is why I have chosen to look at his work. I feel his work has a deep insight to human emotion and character as I feel the above photograph displays. Cartier-Bresson only photographed in black and white, this choice reflects the factual, objective tone of his work. Henri Cartier-Bresson was without a doubt one of the greatest photographers the world has ever seen. His unfailing empathy and understanding allowed him to create some of the most beautiful candid portraits ever. I love the photograph shown above because of the real true human emotions portrayed, Cartier-Bresson has carefully composed this photograph and thoughtfully analysed the scene. I think Cartier-Bressons photographs are perfectly composed because he begun his early artistic life as a painter and not a photographer, he sees the connection between painting and photography.
Henri Cartier-Bresson understands and knows what moments are significant in terms of the human being. He had an interesting point of view and he was able to capture the 'immediacy of life' in this decisive moment, a singular photograph that releases great excitement and enthusiasm. When taking my next set of photographs for my candid portraits I am going to carefully consider who to photograph and try to capture 'scenes' as Cartier-Bresson has done in his works. I want my work to have an element of Cartier-Bressons beautiful compositions and Martin Parr's quirky characters and bright colours.
Humphrey Spender
I decided to look at Humphrey Spender's work as he documented the lives of people living in northern towns. Spender was first recognised for his candid photography whilst studying in germany in the late 1920's. This photograph was taken in Blackpool in the 1930's so I thought it would be interesting to look at candid images taken in the same location as I am going to take mine but from eighty years ago. I loved the above image because of the people portrayed in the photograph and how different everything looks to nowadays. This was a ride in the 1930's so perhaps I could take some photographs of people on the rides in Blackpool nowadays. I could take photographs at the pleasure beach and on the pier to capture people on rides, I think this would be good as I will be able to capture a range of characters and a range of facial expressions and body language without the subjects knowing.
The above image I think is a perfect example of how I should be taking my images in Blackpool. The subjects are filling the frame and are un-aware of they're photograph being taken. When I'm in Blackpool taking my candid images I should look for different interesting characters as then I will have a range of final images to choose from. I want my photographs to be funny, quirky and interesting so I will have to be focused on looking for characters and facial expressions that will make my photographs.
Contact sheets
Below are my contact sheets from my visit to Blackpool. I have reviewed and annotated each image therefore I could then decide which photographs fit the brief and my aims best.
Below are my contact sheets from my visit to Blackpool. I have reviewed and annotated each image therefore I could then decide which photographs fit the brief and my aims best.
Editing
Some photographs that I have taken in Blackpool I feel are bright, colourful and funny which reflects the town itself and the community, this is what I wanted my editing to reflect. Below I am presenting a few screen shots taken during the editing process of these candid shots.
I edited my photographs in Camera Raw to begin with, which opens up before Photoshop for RAW files. I have increased the clarity slider because I wanted the midtones of my photograph to appear sharper. This tool was also helpful for editing images that were slightly hazy. I have also increased the vibrancy in my photographs, as it is an essential tool for creating the bold, bright and colourful effect I wanted my candid portraits to achieve.
This sharpening tool is also in Camera raw. In most of my photographs I have always put the 'Amount' slider up quite high. I have also done the same for the 'Detail' slider because that controls how much detail can be seen, but having the detail slider increased fully then shows some sharpening. So I have then used the 'Masking' slider to control the sharpness. I have experimented with this tool in several photographs and I have found it useful for adding or enhancing the images detail.
I found the brightness tool quite helpful when editing. I have only increased the slider slightly as it helped to bring out the natural radiance because I didn't want my images being over powered. Sometimes I also used the contrast slider sometimes just to tweak my images slightly as I already adjusted the contrast in Camera raw before entering Photoshop.
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| Before and After |
The photographs shown above are the before and after editing. I have changed the settings that are illustrated above. My photograph now appears to be more brighter and colourful, which is what I wanted to achieve.
Overall I am happy and pleased with my candid photographs from Blackpool as I think I have captured a range of human emotions shown by facial expressions and body language and have undergone this without the subjects knowledge. I also think some of my images are quite funny and that they are all filled with colour. Blackpool was a perfect choice for taking candid photographs because it was packed full on quirky characters that were perfect for my photographs. Below I am going to present what I think are my best shots from the day.
Best shots
