Mind mapping

In this blog I will write about mind mapping and the idea behind using a mind map for the street photography slide show unit 1.

Using examtime.com to create a mind map. Simply just register or just log in with your facebook account.

Here I can just get my ideas together and build the concept and helping me to keep more organised.

Unit 1 Gantt chart

Using Gantt chart for the street photography slide show. We had to record voice with a sound recording device or using different effects during the slide show. I recorded some while I was shooting on the streets.

Using iCal again to show my planning and preparation for the work.

GANTT CHART

A GANTT chart is a kind of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule. A GANTT chart illustrates the start and the end date of a developing project. We also have to do Gantt charts for our on-going briefs. Here is one of them.

We can use any type of programs or calendars to excel. I used iCal on the college computer.

Prezi CV

We used Prezi to create a more creative kind of CV. Using Prezi is a little bit difficult but also fun and once you get the grip of it, it's easy. My CV looks like this in the mentioned form.

It is just a screenshot of one of the articles in my CV. At the end of the session we can download our presentation or CV and we can save it on our computer. Mine was pretty big it is about 60 Mb-s. So using different CV techniques to stand out the crowd. Prezi is one of them.

Mood board

Mood boards are usually a selection of images or a montage of what describes the creator. My mood board is starting with a picture of the capital city of my birth country and carries on with my actual job and my interest in photography. My influents and types of photography what I am interested in. Let's have a look at it

1000 word essay Portrait

Portraiture photography for me in a 1000 words

Portrait photography for me is a very special and kind type of photography. The ability to capture someone’s personality in one image is unique. I think the greatness of a portraiture is in the feelings what it generates. There is an old quote that says “If you want to shoot portraiture, shoot in colour, but if you want to shoot emotion, shoot in black and white.” In my essay I would like to discover the different portrait photographers and different type of methods and techniques. I would like to show some, for me inspirational photographers and their works. I would also like to explain some studio and natural lighting techniques, and how different photographers used it.

Introduction to portraiture photography:

Portraits have been made since the invention of the camera. Daguerreotypes (which is a historical method in photography) have been made since the early 19^th century. The reduced sitting time for the subject what led to a more general use of daguerreotype, than painting portraits. The style of these early works reflected the technical challenges associated with long exposure times. The lighting in these years for portraits was very rudimentary, by using one light source mainly the sun through the window, because that was powerful enough to light the photographing subject, and used mirrors to reflect the light. The subject were seated against a plain background and lit with soft light. When portraits are made and composed in the studio, the photographer has full control over the light, and able to control the light and manage the subject. There are three key-point lighting in portraiture photography. The purpose of the three types –sometimes four- of lighting is to bring out the shadows, details and three-dimensionality of the subject.

Key-light:    Also called the main light. Usually been placed to one side of the subject’s face in 30- 60 degrees off centre but a little bit higher than the eye level. The main purpose of the light is to add a character, a shape to the photographing model. Also the depth of shadow can be controlled by adding fill-light.

Fill light:      Fill light is used to bring out details by lifting the shadows up, by the difference between ratio with the main light source. The amount of light is always less than the main light. The light is always placed above the lens axis. A 2 stop reduction in intensity for the fill-light would be a typical start point to maintain dimensionality (modelling) in a portrait or a head and shoulder shot.

Accent light:            This type is used for accentuating the subject, to separate it from the background. Examples would be a light shining into the subject’s hair giving it a rim effect or shining on the background to lift the tones. When using it for separating it should be more powerful than the main light source.

There are also two different type of lighting what I personally like. One is the Rembrandt lighting, named after the painter because he used this kind of lighting for his paintings. The other one is called the Butterfly lighting.

Rembrandt lighting typically falling to the object slightly above its head and leaves a slightly triangle of shadow on its cheek. It is a dramatic split lighting technique, creates more mood and a darker feel to your image.

Butterfly lighting is named for the butterfly shaped shadow that is created under the nose by placing the main light above and directly behind the camera. Used mainly to glamour style shots and to create shadows under the cheeks and chin.

For me portrait photography most of the times come along with fashion photography itself. Many portrait photographers worked for fashion companies and magazines as well.

Photographers:

The photographers who I did my research on are also fashion photographers and well known worldwide.

One of them would be the British born David Bailey. Bailey was a photographer for the big name in fashion magazine’s world, Vogue. The career of David Bailey’s started in the 60’s, when he began photographing to British Vogue magazine. His work for fashion magazines and celebrity portraitures characterized by stark backgrounds and dramatic lighting effects, transformed British fashion and celebrity photography from chic stylization to something more youthful. His works reflects the 1960s British cultural trend by breaking down barriers by injecting a working-class or “punk” style into his clothing and artistic products.

Bailey’s portrait work for me is really straight forward and simple. He said it once “I try to simplify things by just having a white background and no distractions. I don’t care about ‘composition’ or anything like that. I just want the emotion of the person in the picture to come across… to get something from that person, even if I have to force it out of them by being rude’. When he did his series of Michael Caine and Man Ray, he used a medium format camera, plain background and a strong flash to bring out the details. That’s why inspirational his work for me, the skills of catching the subject’s personality. In that time his style was pioneer and quickly made a name to himself.

Terry Richardson who is another controversial and world famous portrait, celebrity portrait and fashion photographer of our times. Richardson was born in New York and began photography in high school. Raised in Hollywood. He has shot campaigns for Marc Jacobs, Aldo, Yves Saint Laurent and also worked for magazines such as Vogue, GQ, Harper’s Bazaar.

Richardson’s style is well known and controversial at the same time. He uses small cameras and photographing high-profile celebrities in mundane situations. It is called the snapshot aesthetic in photography. Many of his work shot before a white background such as David Bailey’s. Terry’s work more “bolder” than Bailey’s, but I think in our age it is similar to what Bailey has created in fashion and portrait photography and cut through some borders with his photography in the 60s. Photographing with a one-flash setup harsh strobe on the subject and simple composition what describes his work. Often uses a point and shoot film camera.

The style “snapshot aesthetic” what I mentioned before is another style from the 60s, what Nan Goldin and many other photographers promoted. In our age snapshot photography is a contemporary art and me personally I like it in fashion, or portrait photography such as Richardson’s work. From the early nineties becomes the predominant mode in fashion photography, especially youth magazines such as Face. Photography from this era is often called ‘heroin chic’ look, a look often having been influenced by Nan Goldin.

Conclusion

Since I got into my research about the topic, it helped me a lot to understand and learn more about lighting for portraits and techniques and also different styles in on genre of photography. What makes a good portrait is to capture the subject’s personality and show it to other viewers, and I think the above written ideas and photographers gave me more inspiration towards my own project and helps me generates more ideas.

Bibliography and referencing:

The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. (2010). David Bailey Biography.Available: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1255819/David-Bailey. Last accessed 14/03/14.

Photographing People

roger hicks, frances schultz, alex larg (2006). Photographing peple. Switzerland: rotovision. 256.

David Bailey

David Bailey (2014). Bailey exposed. London: National Portrait Gallery. 160.

Planning and outline for the 1000 word essay and research for the study skills

The Brief:

To produce a 1000 word assignment on an appropriate topic relating to my studies.

• This needs a time management plan
• An outline plan for my investigation
• Research and identify my sources for information
• Extract the relevant information from the source material
• Produce a visual interpretation (poster)
• 1000 word assignment
• Include bibliography

Portrait photography is my chosen subject for the essay and my research. To start out with, my interest is always been in documentary photography and documentary style photography, and the chance to work and connect with people. Since I started college I been introduced to a lot more photography style what made me more interested about image making. Because I like to work with people and connect them, I choose portrait photography to the subject of my essay and research. I will be looking at different techniques and photographers in my research. How they photographed people and what techniques they used.

My outline

I start out using my computer to discover more and more inspirational portrait photographers such as David Bailey and Richard Avedon.

I will start out with my theme and interest about the subject. Introduce the subject by discussing the techniques styles and photographers.

In the middle part of my essay I will pick on 2 photographers each a different style then compare them find the contrast between their work.

Ending or the conclusion will be my evaluation and interpretation of the research. 

Researches will be based on books from library and internet. Found some vogue articles about David Bailey so I will use that as a journal source.