Statement of Intent
Project Theme : Portraits
What is my initial research?
For my initial research I am going to start with looking and researching about photographers who do close-up portraits. One of the artist is Martin Schoeller who captures amazing portraits of celebrities. He does hyper-detail close ups that show all the features on a celebrities face. You can find his work on magazine ranging from National Geographic Magazine to Vogue. I also looked at another photographer David LaChapelle who does portraits with a bit of a twist his photos that references social messages. His picture are unique from different portraits I have seen. Both of these photograph give me inspiration on how I could take my portrait pictures in a different way then other and it will still look good. It show me that there is not only one way to do portraits but many way you can do it. Sally Mann is also another photographer who looks at black and white images she takes pictures of children and many other things.
How are you going to choose your themes?
When I started doing portraits I was unsure what I wanted to do and how I was going to do it. But after seeing many different photographers who have done excellent photos I decide that I was going to do my best and try. I knew there were many possible routes I could do such as black and white, colour, close- ups and an eye portrait, but there are other things I could add to them to make them look more amazing, such as changing the lighting and changing the angle from where I shoot it from. There are different things I must take into consideration such as the lighting, do I want them wearing different clothes?, should the angle be changed?, do I want it to be close up?, should I change the white balance to get a warm tone or get a cold tone and what kind of props would I want to make the picture look more fascinating.
How are you going to show progress?
I am going to show my progress by deciding a place to go and take pictures from. Afterwards I would need to edit my pictures and further develop the picture by adding more of my ideas to them. Later on I hope to take more pictures using different like a sieve to create dots with the light it will make the picture look more gripping to the examiner with more ideas and plans in my mind I can't wait to make them a reality and show my ideas.
How are you going to experiment?
I am going to experiment with a lot of techniques like using a piece of lace and putting it in front of a light to show the lace design but I can only do that with black and white photos. It would be nice if I could get a piece of coloured filter to make the photo show unique effect. I will then want to try a sieve in front of a light just like the lace one but it will give a dotted look to my picture. With the pictures I would like to use a lot of props to make it more interesting to look at instead of it being just a person. The props will give the picture more dimension and make it more than a simple picture. Also I am going to add further detail with Photoshop to give more depth.
Time Line
This project will take me around about 2-3 months to complete, my goal is to get a model to come and take the photo and to complete my research on the photographers, reading how they make their work gorgeous with a lot of detail this will take me about 1 week or 2 at most. I want to take photo at least by the 3 week. After I have taken my photos I would go to photoshop to further develop them.
What will you do as your work progresses ?
As my project progresses I will show how it progressed from the start to the final product for example in Photoshop I will show this by using the snippet accessory to show how I got my finished product by doing this I can show what I did, it can also help me in the future if I want to create the same effect. By reflecting on what I did, next time I can make it better additionally I could get more ideas on what I want to improve or keep the same. This is not the only way I could use to improve with the advice from my peers and teacher I am going to improve my work. After I have finished with my final product I will have a detailed reflection on my whole project which will include the good and the bad along with the different ideas I had that I didn't use.
What is my initial research?
For my initial research I am going to start with looking and researching about photographers who do close-up portraits. One of the artist is Martin Schoeller who captures amazing portraits of celebrities. He does hyper-detail close ups that show all the features on a celebrities face. You can find his work on magazine ranging from National Geographic Magazine to Vogue. I also looked at another photographer David LaChapelle who does portraits with a bit of a twist his photos that references social messages. His picture are unique from different portraits I have seen. Both of these photograph give me inspiration on how I could take my portrait pictures in a different way then other and it will still look good. It show me that there is not only one way to do portraits but many way you can do it. Sally Mann is also another photographer who looks at black and white images she takes pictures of children and many other things.
How are you going to choose your themes?
When I started doing portraits I was unsure what I wanted to do and how I was going to do it. But after seeing many different photographers who have done excellent photos I decide that I was going to do my best and try. I knew there were many possible routes I could do such as black and white, colour, close- ups and an eye portrait, but there are other things I could add to them to make them look more amazing, such as changing the lighting and changing the angle from where I shoot it from. There are different things I must take into consideration such as the lighting, do I want them wearing different clothes?, should the angle be changed?, do I want it to be close up?, should I change the white balance to get a warm tone or get a cold tone and what kind of props would I want to make the picture look more fascinating.
How are you going to show progress?
I am going to show my progress by deciding a place to go and take pictures from. Afterwards I would need to edit my pictures and further develop the picture by adding more of my ideas to them. Later on I hope to take more pictures using different like a sieve to create dots with the light it will make the picture look more gripping to the examiner with more ideas and plans in my mind I can't wait to make them a reality and show my ideas.
How are you going to experiment?
I am going to experiment with a lot of techniques like using a piece of lace and putting it in front of a light to show the lace design but I can only do that with black and white photos. It would be nice if I could get a piece of coloured filter to make the photo show unique effect. I will then want to try a sieve in front of a light just like the lace one but it will give a dotted look to my picture. With the pictures I would like to use a lot of props to make it more interesting to look at instead of it being just a person. The props will give the picture more dimension and make it more than a simple picture. Also I am going to add further detail with Photoshop to give more depth.
Time Line
This project will take me around about 2-3 months to complete, my goal is to get a model to come and take the photo and to complete my research on the photographers, reading how they make their work gorgeous with a lot of detail this will take me about 1 week or 2 at most. I want to take photo at least by the 3 week. After I have taken my photos I would go to photoshop to further develop them.
What will you do as your work progresses ?
As my project progresses I will show how it progressed from the start to the final product for example in Photoshop I will show this by using the snippet accessory to show how I got my finished product by doing this I can show what I did, it can also help me in the future if I want to create the same effect. By reflecting on what I did, next time I can make it better additionally I could get more ideas on what I want to improve or keep the same. This is not the only way I could use to improve with the advice from my peers and teacher I am going to improve my work. After I have finished with my final product I will have a detailed reflection on my whole project which will include the good and the bad along with the different ideas I had that I didn't use.
Colour and flower portraits
I chose these pictures because I find that there is some contrast between the person and flowers. I want to take pictures like these because they look very nice to look at and that is what I aspire to achieve to do.
I choose these pictures because I liked how the black and white contrast with each other and the picture on the top right has a splash of colour that looks good.
Photography Research The 4 C's.
1. Composition
The picture is eye level it we are on the same level as the mother which makes us look at her entire face which shows signs of depression or that she is worried. In the picture the photographer has used composition (Rule of Third) and both of the mothers eyes are on the sweet spot which shows how troubled, anxious and distressed she is her eyebrows are furrowing showing that she is bothered. The colours that have been used are black and white, black and white contrast each other the black makes the white stand out. I think that the photographer has used a fast shutter speed to capture the mother and her children at around 1/4000th. I like the idea of the medium depth of field the background is blurred which is different to the women and her children. The focus point is on the mother because it uses composition and her eye is on the sweet spot. This whole picture is natural because in those times there was not any digital cameras. I feel very epithet for the mother as she is in a difficult place because there was a lot of poverty and must have been hard for her and her children to live in. In my opinion i like the way it looks however I would not do the black and white filter because i don't like it as much but it has nice look to it.
2. Context
In the picture you can see 4 people 1 adult 2 children and a baby that is covered by a child. You can see them suffering and you can also see the pain in the mother's eyes. It is an old image which was taken while the great depression was going on. It is in black and white which gives it more of a miserable tone. It was taken in Nipomo California in 1936 from an old camera. The people were in a tent which is as section of the photo.
3. Connection
The theme is the great depression and poverty but it is also black and white it does not go with what i'm going to do I chose to do colour. It does like to my work because it is a portrait however i may take some photos from eye view. In my opinion I think there is a messages behind the image it shows the audience the suffering and pain people who are migrant go through. I think the black and white make the image more melancholic and dismal tone/mood.
4. Comment
I like that the image because reflects The great depression and how it effected peoples living conditions and their lifestyles. One strength is that the crisp images makes it more dismal along with the blurry background. This inspires me to do images like this and make them want to show something just like Dorothea Lange how she captures the great depression perfectly this makes me want to grap a camera and take photos of what is going on in the world for example takes photos of the war in Syria or deforestation but I want I also want to take photos of good things like climate change. I like the image i wouldn't change it. There is a meaning to it and the message is that there is a lot of people that suffer and that we should help them.
The Plan
Planing my first photography shoot for my Portrait project
My starting point is taking creativity and inspiration from this picture from Agata Serge. This picture is a woman who is not showing any expression however there is sadness in her eyes. I like the way she uses black and white to display a lonely or sorrowful atmospheric on the image it also makes you look at the picture closely to see why she is showing no expression on her face then you notice the use of colour contrast the black contrasts to the white. I will start my with a series of images with people but instead of doing what most black and white portraits do i want to do a close up of peoples faces. I will be experimenting with the lighting and Photoshopto give it more definition.
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The EquipmentI will be using a canon DSLR camera that I will put on a tripod and get my model to come close to the tripod or have my model sit down to achieve the close up black and white image. I will have a neutral background that will be an infinity curve i don't want any background lines in my picture to show up when I am doing the photo shoot. However I will not only do close up shoots I will have a series that have the model body to the waist. I will use a studio light i think one will be enough i will have in the center and I have to make sure the lightening is soft not hard because i want it to have a soft look to reflect the sadness or vulnerability
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my first shoot
Best & Worst
The right one is better than the other one because it is more cleaner and shows the light better, it is not blurry as much and looks softer than the other picture.
The left one is not as good as the other one you can't see the rainbow properly by that I mean that all the colour don't show. The room wasn't as dark than the other picture and wasn't taken properly either. |