Fine Art Portrait.

The Human Condition.
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.

Lindsay Dobson

Nicole Boenig McGrade

Ruth Bernhard

Fine Art Portrait.

Images in Fine art or Art photography are carefully arranged and are a result of inventive vision. Many images of the fine art photography are like a work of art in itself. Photography in itself is an art but in fine art photography I will need to execute more thought and visualisation skills to author a work of art. I have looked at several fine art photographers such as Lindsay Dobson, Nicole Boenig McGrade and Ruth Bernhard. I noticed when looking through these photographers’ images they all captured emotion in their photographs whether it being through body language or facial expression. It has also come to my attention that a lot of fine art photographs are in black and white I think this is because it gives the photograph simplicity. I feel this simplicity helps to focus on the main subject of an image. Although I have looked at the work of Lindsay Dobson and I feel her colour portraits are classy and have a nice simplicity to them as well. I will consider using black and white or colour when I come to edit my own fine art portraits.


Julia Margaret Cameron

Julia Margaret Cameron focused on two main things in her photography, women and allegorical lessons. Although some of her most well known photos are of famous men, most of her work focused on the women in her life. She tried to reveal her sitter's natural beauty, having them pose with their hair down and flowing free to reveal a position not usually seen. Cameron's photos are romantic. They use subdued lighting and dark backgrounds to create a dreamy setting. Cameron often left the lens of her camera purposely out of focus so as to add to this dreaminess.

Cameron worked with large glass plate negatives. She used a negative plate that was so large in size, something that was usually used to shoot the landscape, making her images required her sitters to sit still for long periods of time. As this was difficult to do, her images often came out soft and out of focus. Cameron liked the soft focus portraits and the streak marks on her negatives. Although her photographs lacked the sharpness that other photographers at the time aspired towards, they succeeded in conveying the emotional and spiritual aura of the sitter.

Cameron’s subject matter and her technique were here tools for creating emotions, spirituality and symbolism in her photographs just like a fine art painting.

I think Cameron’s portraits are charming and natural. I adore the way her subjects are portrayed by flourishing their natural beauty. For my fine art portraits I wish to photograph some of the females in my life that I am close to. I desire that my model's will be completely natural without any make up on and without their hair done to expose what they look like underneath. As well as doing this I am additionally envisaging about using a macro lens and photographing the models eyes, lips, ears, hands ETC to capture all the detail of that individual.

I cherish vintage/old style photographs and Cameron’s work displays this from the way she blossoms her images. I am contemplating using my film camera as well as a DSLR because then I can develop my own photographs in the dark room. This may be good for achieving the classic characteristics that I love and think will suit these photographs. Another way of attaining this style for my digital photographs would be to edit them on special effects software named ‘Vintage scene’ which grants me to turn a new photograph into one that looks like it was taken many years ago.

Not only will I try out this style of editing but I will use other software such as Aperture and Light room to create clean cut images to see which genre of editing suits the photographs and which suits the brief best.

Nick Knight

Another Photographer that I find inspiring and refreshing is Nick Knight. He is a British fashion, art and documentary photographer, creating iconic fashion images since the 80’s. I chose to look at the two photographs below because of Knight’s use of lighting and shapes he’s created within these photographs.

I regard the dark shadows and patterns created on the forms of the subject. I feel that these bold contrasting shapes hide the models identity almost because I consider our facial features depict who we are as individuals. The lighting in this photograph is striking and is inspirational to me for when I come to decide what lighting and equipment to use in the studio when doing shoots for my fine art portraits. As I’ve already discussed I would admire to focus closely on facial features, this could possibly be an advantageous opportunity to produce obscure contrasting shadows upon my models face for the dramatic effect which is shown in some of Knight’s works.

Details of form, light and shapes of the model’s body are a classic way of shooting fine art images. By cropping in close I could form more abstract results than shooting the whole body of a traditional nude or glamour image. The shadows and shapes constituted by high contrast lighting are particularly suited to this type of image, as it emphasises the shapes to present dramatic results. Fine art shots are known to work best in black and white. I am also going to work with colour images even though working in colour makes it more difficult to achieve the abstract and tonal effects of a black and white portrait, but it gives the results a more real and natural appearance, which is style and embodiment I am presenting in my models appearance.

Edward Weston

I have been exploring into the work of Edward Weston, as he was renowned as one of the masters of 20^th century photography. He has thousands of carefully composed, superbly printed photographs that have influenced many people and photographers. His sensuously precise images rise to the level of poetry because of the subtle use of tones and the sculptural formal design of his works. Weston’s idea was that through form there could be an expression whether the form was a rock or a naked body.  Weston’s photographs always have a heavy contrast, dynamic composition and undulating curves.

I love the simple shapes and tones in his photographs. The use of black and white has been used perfectly and expands on the simplicity of his images. I have found Weston's work to be quite inspiring because of his simple compositions and tones. When taking photographs for my own fine art portraits I will carefully consider the composition of my image and the pose/facial expression I want my model to display. Weston's photographs have a soft light on them which makes the model appear soft and fair. I am going to use a beauty dish as part of my set up in the studio as I want the light to be soft on my models face. Another idea is to use an over head light to illuminate my models features. I am going to experiment with these ideas in the studio.

Contact sheets

I have produced eight contact sheets and annotated the images. This allowed me to choose and really review my best images and which ones to edit.

Editing

When editing my fine art portrait photographs I used software called ‘Vintage Scene’ I thought this software would be perfect for creating a similar look to Julia Margaret Cameron’s images. Cameron has been my main inspiration for these photographs so when editing I tried to convey emotion through the colours and textures I used. Vintage scene allows me to use a range of colours and textures to give my photographs a 'Vintage feel' it also makes them appear as they've been taken on film.

I also edited some images in Photoshop and Light room as this type of software allowed me to sharpen the main focus of my images. I didn't want to edit all my images in Vintage Scene as Photoshop and Light room allow me to edit my photographs professionally. I used a range of tools when editing my photographs which I will illustrate below with screen shots I have taken during the editing process.

Vintage Scene

This is a screen shot of when I was editing my photographs in Vintage scene. The tool shown allows me to add different effects and colours to my photographs. I went for a sepia tone as it gave the image age and the classic feel I want. I also could choose other effects such as darkened edges, grain, distressed paper and a black & white fade and many others. These allow me to create a unique look for each photo I edit.

I can adjust the image to my liking when using Vintage scene. This allows me to change the colour of the image, how powerful the image is and the texture. I am striving towards having an ‘Old style’ feel to my photographs but I also want the subject and her features to shine through the editing which is why I have put the ‘image strength’ tool up quite high. These tools are key for when editing on this soft ware as it can make all the difference to the strength and power of my photographs as demonstrated below.

The image on the left's strength has been put down and the texture has been put up. The one on the right is the complete opposite as the strength has been increased. I think it is important when using this software to find the correct balance of these tools to create an interesting good photograph.

This is the Overlay tool that allows me to choose textures to go over my photographs. I have used this tool in many of my photographs because it gives more impact and detail and adds to the vintage feel. Sometimes when editing busy photographs I do not feel a texture is needed but when editing quite simple images with a lot of negative space some of these textures work well. I have used several of these over lays when editing my fine art portraits, these will be visible below when displaying my best shots from this shoot.


Photoshop and Light room.

I have also edited my images in Photoshop. I used the sharpen tool to bring out the detail in my subjects features. This was useful as when I put my photographs in vintage scene the areas that I had sharpened stood out more. My aim was to show my model for who she is underneath so this tool was good for bringing out her features more and putting them into focus. 

I have used the brightness and contrast tool when editing and increased the contrast fully as I was inspired by the heavy contrast of tones in Edward Weston's work. By doing this more detail was brought out and it drew more attention to the main focus of my photographs. This was also useful after editing in software Vintage Scene because when using Vintage Scene I found it lowered the contrast in colours.

I have used the quick develop tools when putting my images in Light room. I found the 'Saved presets' tool quite creative as there was many to choose from to add to the Vintage look I was aspiring too. I have often used Bleach bypass, Aged photo, Antique greyscale and cream tone. I am going to show some of these with screen shots below. This tool is also helpful as it lets me take control of how high/low I want my exposure and vibrance and how much detail I want to be brought out.

Best Shots

These are what I feel were my most successful portraits. I feel I have fulfilled my aims with these photographs.

However I do not think I captured real and true emotion in these photographs. So I am going to do another photo shoot focusing on real human emotions. My idea is to get several different models to come in the studio and when I’m ready to photograph I am going to ask them to display an emotion. I have chose to depict Anger, Happiness, Sadness, Worry, Embarrassment, Envy, Guilt and Desire. I chose these emotions as I feel they relate to my own personal state at times. I am not going to tell my subjects what I am photographing until they are sat down and I’m ready to shoot. I think this idea will work a lot better than my first as I can capture these different emotions through my models facial expressions and body language straight away. I am going to look at other photographers work for more ideas and inspiration before taking my photographs.
I have found several images by different photographers displaying a range of emotions. I am going to display these and discuss them below. Although these images may not be classed as 'Fine art' they do capture emotion which is my main aim for my next set of fine art photographs.


Emotion

This is an image taken by a photographer named 'Gunnisal' I have found quite a few inspiring images of his on the internet. I decided to look at this photograph above because of the genuine smile and emotion portrayed on the models face. The use of the rule of thirds and shallow depth of field have added to the focusing of the facial expression. Also the fact that the photograph is in black and white creates a higher contrast and gives the photograph more simplicity than it would have been in colour. When taking my own photographs it is important that before shooting I place my camera exactly where I want it then I can capture my models emotion straight away. I am going to continue looking at Gunnisal's work and other photographers works as well and then decide what lighting will be best for these shots.

I found the photograph above fantastic and hilarious just because of the models facial expression. After seeing this image I realised how important it is to feel emotion's when looking at an emotional portrait. If I looked at this image and didn't have any type of reaction to it then this photograph wouldn't have fulfilled the photographers aims. When photographing my own emotional fine art portraits I am going to have to be quick to capture the emotion displayed by my model. This photograph has not only made me think about how I want the viewer of my photographs to re act but also has showed me another great use of black and white tones and a high contrast.


James Nachtwey

I have been looking at the work of photojournalist and war photographer James Nachtwey. I decided to research this photographer because of the true human emotions captured in his images. He has devoted himself to documenting wars, conflicts and critical social issues, working in India, Thailand, Afghanistan, Russia, Bosnia, United States, South Africa, Romania and Brazil to name a few. I have found some of his photographs quite disturbing as the subjects he has photographs are horrifying. The photograph above is of wounded soldier in Bosnia in 1993. I feel this image and all of Nachtwey's photographs are very strong and show us the truth. Whilst viewing his photographs I felt a mix of emotions myself because his images are upsetting and disturbing. Not only does Nachtwey capture real human emotion but he also makes the viewers of his photographs feel emotion too because his photographs are so strong. I think his images are very important and important that they are tough because they raise awareness and help prevent history from repeating itself.

Some of Nachtwey's work is almost to painful to look at. In my own fine art images I want to capture emotion and make the viewer of my photographs feel some sort of emotions when seeing them. Nachtwey's work displays pain, sadness, fear and suffering and in my photographs I want to show Anger, Happiness, Sadness, Worry, Embarrassment, Envy, Guilt and Desire. 

I have also been thinking about how to edit my photographs. Most of the photographers work I have been looking at and researching into have been in black and white, also the majority of James Nachtwey's photographs are all in black and white. I have been thinking about using different coloured filters for my next set of photographs, perhaps I could use a red filter when taking photographs for anger, embarrassment or desire and I could use a blue filter when I'm photographing sadness and worry. I am going to experiment with these filters when taking photographs to see if this idea works. 

Dorothea Lange

I have chosen to look at the work of Dorothea Lange because of the emotions depicted in he portraits from the great depression. Migrant mother shows me a woman fearing for the lives of her children, this communicates the paralysing fear that was acknowledged as a characteristic of the great depression. Lange has captured real true worry, fear and sadness in this photograph, it is her best known photograph and was distributed by the government to show the worst affected. The composition and pose work perfectly for this photograph as two of her children are turned away not facing the camera, we cannot see their facial expressions but I think their body language says it all. Florence Thompson the woman pictured in this photograph told Lange that her and her family had been living off frozen vegetables and birds that her children had killed. Thompson claims that Lange said these photographs would not be published but she sent them to San Francisco news. By the end of the decade they were still 4 million migrants on the road. Knowing the story behind this photograph I think helps to understand the true emotions of that individual. 

I am depicting a range of different emotions in my fine art so perhaps I could use black and white in the photos were i'm depicting the more negative emotions. I will try this out during the editing process.

Contact sheets
Below I am going to present contact sheets from my emotions shoot at the UCBC studio. I have reviewed and annotated these images and decided which would be best to edit.

Editing

I used the brightness and contrast tool when editing most of my black and white images. I wanted the face of my model to stand out and be the main focus so by brightening up my image a little, this allowed the models face to be illuminated. I didn't want a strong contrast in my photographs as that took away the sharpness and detailing in the face so I decreased the contrast slider just a little to smooth out the tones. I found this tool to be essential when editing my black and white photographs because it allowed me to control the tonal range in my photographs.

I used this Black and White tool in Photoshop to convert my photographs from colour. I found this tool useful as I could choose the tones and the amount of grey, black and whites I wanted in my images. This was quick and easy for turning my photographs into black and white ones.

I often used the sharpen tool during the editing process using a small sized brush to emphasise the detailing of the facial features. I used it on the eyes, lips and lines on the face, this was useful as it gave my models more depth and I feel brought out the facial expressions more.

I used the burn tool for darkening the background, even though the background was already black there were a few speckles of white showing up in my photographs which were distracting. By using a large sized brush I was able to get rid of these marks, the photograph underneath shows the marks from the reflector board.

I managed to get rid of these marks easily by using the burn tool.

A vital part of my editing process was using a vignette. I used a vignette in every photograph as it helped to put the face into the main focus of the image, It centred my images perfectly and helped the improve the darkness of the background. This tool worked very well for these images.

I have decided to experiment a little with my editing. I have put three photographs of the different models displaying the same emotion into one photograph. I thought this idea may emphasise the emotion more by having it repeated three times in one photograph. I made a new A4 page changed the width to 50cm so I would have enough room to fit all three photographs on. 

I put one of my images on the new page and it then allows me to choose where about I want my image to go. I did this with all three photographs and placed them carefully to get the right amount of spacing in between each image. I think this experiment turned out quite well and I am going to show the following out comes below.

I am over all happy with these photographs as I thought I captured emotion well. I only ended up using four emotions as my models found it difficult to display embarrassment, envy and guilt. So I am showing the emotions sad, angry, desire and happiness. I think some of the photographs also look good on there own instead of being in a multiple image so I will also display my best images on their own below too.

Best shots

Anger.

Happiness.

Sadness.

Desire.

Here are more of what I think are my best shots that work well on their own.