Work Record 5

Plans for Shoot

For this shoot, I plan to further my incorporation of people and the topic writing. The last shoot I focused on the clothes and body of a person, now I want to look more into direct portraiture and see how this will appear when including writing directly.

Research

Looking further into portraiture and writing, I found the artist Peter Strain, who paints portraits and incorporates writing to reveal the skin of the face typically.
I have further analysed his work in my blog post 'Photographer Research - Peter Strain'.

Image bank

All these pieces are created from my research photographer Peter Strain, I selected these photos because I feel they best present the style I want to experiment with and recreate. Strain uses the words to reveal the face of the subject or identify them. The words link to the subject and reveal their history or story. This use of writing is a technique of imagery, what the words present is physically presented by having the words make what they present.

Contact sheet

These are all the raw photos captured for this shoot.

Best Photos
These are my best selected raw photos from the shoot.

Photos that require improvement

These two photos do not fit the standards that are expected in this shoot. For the first photo, the shutter speed is at 1/160, aperture at F5.3, and exposure at ISO 100. With my style of photography, I tend to enjoy taking candid shots, since I feel these present the best authenticity in portraiture, especially when I theme the photos on identity. With this photo, I attempted to take a candid shot but was poorly timed, the subject was still in motion, shown by the blur on his hand and his eyes closed as the camera captured him. This removes professionalism in the photo and presents poor quality. If I were to retake this photo, I would capture the subject either a few seconds earlier or later, at a time when the subject is more still but it is still a candid shot.

For the second photo, the shutter speed is at 1/160, aperture at F5, and exposure at ISO 100. This photo also is a candid shot, but I was once again poorly timed in my shot. The facial expression made by the model midsentence is unflattering and he appears uncomfortable, something a viewer would not be comfortable viewing. If I were to retake this photo, I would capture the subject either a few seconds earlier or later, at a time when the subject is presenting a more flattering expression but it is still a candid shot.

AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.

My Ideas

My intentions for this shoot was to recreate the artist Peter Strain's portraiture style of using writing to reveal a subject. Since I want to incorporate writing with portraiture since I believe I excel in portraiture, Strain seems the best fit for this goal. After making the edits that will be revealed later, I feel I wasn't able to successfully recreate Strain's work the way I wanted. The edits are lack-lustre and you cannot tell they are recreations of his work. I believe I need to be more complex in my editing in order to meet my intentions.

Reference to best photos

I feel there is intimidation that is being given by the model in this photo. The viewpoint being slightly below the model, having him look down on the viewer creates a dominance over the viewer. The model's expression seems broad and powerful, furthering his presentation of power and intimidation.

This photo appears candid as if the photographer has quickly captured the model from a distance, and the model notices just as the photo is captured. The model's expression appears unimpressed and quite tired, presents a typical youthful attitude.

I feel there is intimidation that is being given by the model in this photo. The viewpoint being slightly below the model, having him look down on the viewer creates a dominance over the viewer. The model's expression seems powerful and also disgusted with the viewer, thus making the viewer feel self-conscious and uncomfortable from the model's power over them.

AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.

Use of Camera

I used my Nikon D3400 DSLR camera for every photo taken. The camera was set to manual mode, shutter speed at 1/160, aperture at F4.5, and exposure at ISO 100; flash was not necessary since we were outside and the natural light was able to capture fine details on the model. These were the settings since the exposure around us was high, so I needed to the camera to capture less light for the photo to be detailed and focused.

Shoot Process

I had the model stand and perform various poses that felt comfortable with him, thus making the photos appear more natural. I decided to not use a tripod since I wanted to be able to move around and get a larger variety of angles when capturing the subject. I made sure his face was clear and visible so my edits would come out clear and not difficult to make out.

Experimenting

I feel with this shoots intentions on edit, black and white photos would better fit the heavy appearance I want, but I thought I would experiment and see how the photos would appear if I attempted to make their appearance heavy but still be saturated.

Firstly, I pressed CTRL+SHIFT+A to open up the 'camera raw' edit box, this helped me improve the exposure in the photo and overall deepen the contrast and details.

After this, I felt the lighter areas of the models face were still not defined enough, so I opened an adjustment layer of 'levels' to only bring up the lighter tones in the photo.

This is the before and after results.

Overall, I feel this is an efficient way of making a photo heavier in appearance while still keeping the saturation, but with the further editing intended, I feel this will not suit this specific shoot. This edit will definitely be used though for a shoot that it is better suited to.

Final Pieces

Firstly, I used the 'spot healing tool' to remove any blemishes or unflattering features to the face so it is smooth.

Secondly, I pressed CTRL+SHIFT+A to open up the 'camera raw' edit box, changed the treatment to 'black & white' since the photos will be colourless. Then editing the exposure and overall contrast settings to create a deeper toned photo.

Then I moved onto the focal point of this edit. I used my edited photos from my third shoot where I captured book introductions, choosing ones that I felt best fit each photo based on the model's expression and overall composition.

I placed the photo over the face of the model, making sure the words I wanted to be revealed would be. Then adding a layer mask to this photo layer, lowering the exposure so I can see where to keep the photo. Using a black soft paintbrush on the layer mask, I painted where I wanted to remove the leftover text, so only the face of the model has the text over it.

After this, I changed the writing layer's blend setting to 'darken' since after experimenting with all the options, darken best created the intensity and revealing of skin I wanted. I also changed the opacity so it better flattered the appearance of the photo. After this the photo is complete.

AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

My research into Peter Strain has helped me to further my creativity into using writing in portraiture, with Strain's style being abstract and complex. Allowing the words to create what they hold internally, similar to what Idris Khan did, but with portraiture/people instead. Strain's style is a direct way of incorporating the two topics of writing and portraiture.

AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realizes intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements. 

I do not believe I was successful in my intentions for this shoot, I was unable to create the complexity and abstract appearance of Strain's work. These are my final pieces.

Progression

Overall, I feel this shoot was unsuccessful, I wasn't able to recreate the work of my research photographer Peter Strain, and the presentation is overall lack-luster. I want to further into this photographer as I feel Strain's work is a perfect way of incorporating writing with portraiture. For my next shoot, I plan to continue attempting to recreate Strain's work and further my skills in editing for this.