AD4803 Studio
Working with Studio lighting
6 Practitioner In-Depth Research
Analyzing practitioner's images.
Zhang Jingna
Zhang Jingna is a famous fashion photographer. The thing I like about her work is the fact that throughout her work she always tries to match the outfit that the model is wearing to the background of the image. This helps complement the model and the outfit and makes the picture stand out more
This is something I will try to do in my on-location shoot in order to make the images more interesting. I will need to be careful not to make the background overpower the subject or the subject blend into the background, but I can do this by changing the placement of the model and changing my aperture.
Tim Walker is a fashion photographer known for paying a lot of attention to the scene/background and the props he uses in the studio, he usually even creates big scenes that give a whole new meaning to images. He also at times uses props to enhance the image by adding extra detail to keep the image more interesting.
What I will take away from Tim Walker is the use of props. I will try and use props in my images to both tell a story about the subject and to make the scene more intriguing.
Arnold Newman
Arnold Newman, a fashion and portrait photographer; is known for capturing subjects in their homes or in the workplace. This makes it so that the photos show more about the person than just their face and explore the subject more.
I am going to be trying to do the same thing in m photography by using props or changing the outfits of the subjects to explore their personality more and express them to the viewer through the image.
Brandon Stanton
Brandon Stanton is a portrait photographer who captures normal people in his photos instead of famous models or celebrities, in his book his images are always next to a written paragraph explaining the subjects story or something that they've said. His images show that when it comes to fashion photography celebrities and known models are not the only people you can photograph.
After looking at Brandon's photos I've decided to try and capture different types of people in my photography rather than keeping a theme or only photographing specific people since I also believe that everyone can be interesting and has a story worth sharing.
Diane Arbus
Diane Arbus is an American photographer who captured unique characters and personalities. She would show marginalized groups, people who were mentally ill, and transgender people. Her work helped show people who were not widely seen and showed them to the world through her work. Seeing Arbus's work shows that the characteristics of people are an important part of the person and should be seen in the photographs.
In my work, I am going to try and capture the subject's characteristics similar to how Diane Arbus did.
Irene Rudnyk
Irene Rudnyk Is a fashion photographer who uses studio lighting outdoors. This allows her to creat studio-quality lighting for the subjects but keeps the background aspect of outdoor photography. By doing this she is always able to keep the subject's face lit and does not focus on details.
I am going to be doing a similar thing in my outdoor shoot by using studio lighting and an umbrella, allowing me to bring consistent light to my photographs.
Magazine Research
Choosing Magazines for the studio shoot.
GQ
GQ is an American monthly magazine based in NY focusing on fashion, style, and culture for men.
Since one of their focuses is fashion I decided that it would be a good choice to keep in mind when taking the images in Studio.
Even though GQ is a men's magazine I will not only focus on having male models but I will try and use some of the other techniques they use like using props to express the personality of the subject or simply to tell more about that subject like using a basketball for a basketball player.
This is the main magazine I will be focusing on when taking the photos for this assignment.
Vogue
Vogue is a monthly fashion magazine based in America that focuses on many topics like fashion, beauty, culture, living, and the runway. Since one of their main focus is on fashion they were the first magazine I looked at when it came to studio photography.
They are well known for having a certain focus on fashion and seven of the poses are very unique. But most importantly they keep a fashiony theme when it comes to outfits, poses, and backgroud which is something I will try to do.
Studio practice and weekly tasks
These are some of the photos of the studio practice sessions.
Studio shoot planning
Plans for the different studio shoots.
1.
For the first shoot, I will go to the studio and take photos of my first subject (Elliott) the first shoot will be more of a test run as well as trying different ideas. I will first try and take some normal portraits and then will move on to focusing more on fashion. This will be a mixture of different poses and different outfits, I will be taking a leather jacket, leather gloves, and a scarf with me to help with that. I will also try and use props to explore the personality of the subject like weights, headphones, and a newspaper. Since the focus is on the fashion I will try and keep the focus on the clothing and the props rather than a face, this is something I haven't tried before but I would like to see how it will look, the face will still be in focus just not as much as the outfit in some small instances.
When it comes to lighting I am going to try and keep most of the scene lit and so I will be using a softbox and a minimum of 2 lights and a reflector. the main softbox will be at a 45-degree angle to create a rampant lighting effect and the second light and the reflector will bring light to the shadows and fill in the parts that need more light, this will make it so that the subject will be fully lit but I wouldn't have flat lighting that'll take away from the perspective of the subject and will in fact give it more depth.
2.
For the second shoot, I will do something similar to the first one since I think it went well. I will be shooting a different subject (Kit) and the main thing I'll change is using the props and the outfits that he decides to bring instead of choosing them myself I will ask him to try and express himself through his clothing and the props he brings. After the first shoot, I realized that it is better to keep the focus on the face since I think that'll work better even though the main focus in these shoots is fashion.
The lighting from the first shoot was very well so I will try and keep similar lighting for this shoot as well, the only difference is that I will bring up the value of the fill-in light since I still had some shadows in the first shoot that I will wasn't to try and avoid.
3.
The third shoot is with a different subject (Kai). this time I will do mostly the same things I did with the first two shots but focus a bit more on the fashion and in order to do that I am trying to pay extra attention to textures, I will be using the leather gloves again and try to take some close-ups. Unlike what I decided on the first shoot I will try and focus on the clothing again for the close-ups since I am trying to capture the texture.
Lighting will again be similar with softboxes and reflectors.
4.
For the fourth shoot, I will again be shooting the same subject as the 3rd shoot (Kai). I will also try and use a trans flag for my subject since he is part of that community and in order to focus on that, I will also ask him to wear only the binder for one of the photos with the flag on the background.
I will also try and use backlighting for this since I think it will help with the message I'm going for. I will however try and still keep the face well lit since that is still the focus, this can be done by using either a 3rd light or another reflector.
5.
For the fifth shoot, I will be shooting outdoors, I am going to shoot my subject (Denni) at the park and try and match the clothing with the background, I will try some different locations and choose whichever works best with what my model is wearing.
For the lighting, I will try and use a studio light which I will need to carry with me when going to the location of the shoot. I will only use one light but focus mainly on trying to keep the face of the subject lit without losing perspective so something similar to the studio shoots but this time with natural lighting as fill in instead of the reflector.
6.
For the sixth shoot, I will again be shooting a different subject (Holly) outdoors. This time I will keep multiple locations in mind like the park and street and a car park but will decide on where to go after seeing what my subject will choose to wear since I am leaving it up to them to choose the outfit keeping in mind the focus on fashion.
The lighting will also be similar to the last shoot with me taking a studio light to the location with me and trying to use it to keep the subject fully lit.
Something else that I'll also try and do in this shoot is to try and capture some landscapes since all of my previous photos have been portraits.
Contact sheet
Contact sheet of all the images taken in the 6 shoots.
Final images
Final images chosen for the assignment.
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F-stop: f/5.6
Exposure: 1/500
ISO: 400
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F-stop: f/5.6
Exposure: 1/800
ISO: 400
.jpg)
F-stop: f/5.6
Exposure: 1/800
ISO: 400
.jpg)
F-stop: f/5.6
Exposure: 1/1000
ISO: 400
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F-stop: f/4.5
Exposure: 1/250
ISO: 400
.jpg)
F-stop: f/5.6
Exposure: 1/1000
ISO: 400
Evaluation
Reflective evaluation.
The goal of these shoots was to take portraits of at least 3 different people using studio lights with a magazine in mind. After doing my research I discovered that there are always way more things that need to be considered when taking a photograph intended for publication. The main problem was when it came to landscapes since I had to keep in mind the layout of the magazine so, in the end, I decided to go with mainly portrait shots.
Another problem I came across was deciding where to have my focus, there were times when I wanted to sacrifice the subject's faces to bring more focus to the textures and the outfits they were wearing since the magazine I had in mind was a fashion magazine.
I have learned a lot in this shoot including, how to use studio lighting, how to focus on posing, and the importance of trying to keep pictures in a series including a constant theme.
I am mainly happy with how the different photoshoots went and my main problem was the layout and trying to have landscape photographs so if I were to do this again I would pay more attention to that.
My main focus here was to try and use lighting that will keep the face lit and emphasize the mood and the feeling of the scene without overpowering the other elements and being distracting; I believe I was able to mostly do this by using more than one light source and reflectors.
The best photoshoot out of the 6 was the last one and I believe it was because of the experience I gained from the other shoots. I am happy since this means that moving forward I can keep in mind all the mistakes and improvements I made throughout the different photoshoots to improve my work further.
Something I will keep in mind going forward if I were to do something similar is to focus more on the individual subjects but also try and keep a more consistent theme throughout the different photoshoots and the different subjects.