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Portfolio

What genres arein your portfolio?

-Landscape

-Portraiture

-Documentary

How will you develop them further regards editing and images you introduce?

I will develop my images further by producing more in genre. I also want to broaden my portfolio by adding more genres. I’m interested in developing skills in Wedding photography as I have only shot 1. I would also like to explore in live music photography.

What type of physical portfolio will you consider?

I will consider a box folder for my portfolio because that way I can change the images I put in it. This is because I may need to alter the genres in my portfolio to suit a client that I may have an interview with. I will mount my images onto foam board so they are sturdy and cannot bend.

How many images will you have in your portfolio?

I will have 15-20 images in my portfolio. I wouldn’t have many more that 20 because an prospective interviewer may start to get bored if I have too many. At the same time I would have any less that 15 because I need to portray the genres I have and that will equate to more than 15.

-For my online portfolio I may have a few more because I can make different pages for each genre and include more images per genre. For example I could have 5 genres and maybe 10-15 images for each genre.

For the online portfolio will you be using Portfolio Box or Wix?

For my online portfolio I will look into Portfolio Box because I have an account on Wix but I don’t particularly like the layout so I am going to look into Portfolio Box as it may allow me to present my images better.

Nick Pickles Case Study

Nick Pickles is a London-based freelance photographer. He is currently the house music photographer at Wembley Arena. In the past year he has been commissioned by clients including Red Bull, the BBC, EMI, Disney, The Fly and more.

Pickles’ previous works have included being the house photographer at the O2 Academy Leeds for 2 years. He also contributes to several major agencies including Getty Images, WireImage, Retna and WENN.

As well as specialising in live music photography, he has also done a range of corporate work, portraiture, reportage and commercial photography for a number of different clients.

Some of his achievements include his work being use in a host of national and international publications, by bands for artwork and marketing and for private exhibitions.

Nick also won the 2011 Rock Archive Glastonbury photo competition.

This image is one of Nick’s portraits. This photo has a very nice composition as it has a shallow depth of field. This is good inspiration for when I come to do my shoots. I like the location because it compliments the artist as the guitar suggests he could be into folk music or maybe indie, therefore the backdrop of trees etc. sets a good scene for the photo.

This photo portrays a very stereotypical image. This genre of music could be rock or rap, even heavy metal. The tattoos cast a certain image over the person as in reality; people with tattoos are quite often stereotyped by others.

When I come to shoot my rap, indie/rock and heavy metal/screamo genres, I will take into account what he’s wearing. For example the leather jacket/waistcoat is a good piece of clothing to portray what I want due to the themes associated with wearing leather.

Ami Barwell Case Study

Ami Barwell is a world renowned Rock ‘n’ Roll photographer. She has been shooting within the music industry for 14 years.

She has recently worked with big companies like Converse, Ben Sherman, Ray-Ban, Wella Shockwaves and EA Games.

Barwell has photographed some of music’s biggest artists, some of which include: Ian Brown, Iggy Pop, Blur, Motörhead, Kings of Leon, Foo Fighters, REM, Lenny Kravitz and Iron Maiden.

During her time in the profession she has worked with all major record labels and her work has featured in Mojo, Rolling Stone, I-D, Elle Magazine, NME, GQ, Uncut, The Sunday Times, Kerrang!, Vogue, Metal Hammer, Total Guitar, Wonderland and Guitarist Magazine.

These 2 images have influenced me for this project because it’s given me an idea of how I can shoot my ‘Heavy metal/Rock/Screamo’ category. Dressing in predominantly black with heavy make up that will stand out. I like the idea of fish net tights because they are quite unique. Using black/dark make up, in particular black lipstick will stand out a lot. Stereotypically, ‘Screamo’ sort of music involves a lot of black, in both make up and clothes. I will also try and shoot on a white background so that my model will stand out and my image will be eye-catching.

Carlotta Luke Case Study

Carlotta Luke was born in New England but moved to the UK to complete a BA in Fine Art at Wesleyan University. Among her accomplishments she also has an MA in Urban Design

Luke’s photographic work includes a wide range of genres: architecture, working environments, weddings, reportage, portraits, landscapes etc.

Luke has had the opportunity to photograph HRH Queen Elizabeth when she visited Harvey’s Brewery in Lewes.

Carlotta Luke inspires me because she has photographed bands and artists, which could help me with ideas for this project. This is because she has photographed a range of artists and bands that can help with my idea because I’m photographing how teens dress based on the music they listen to so using her images as inspiration so I can get an idea of different genres of music and how they might dress.

Her portraits also help me because I can use it as inspiration in order to know how to shoot my images, in the way of angles and composition etc.

This image shows one of the musicians from Mumford and Sons. Even though the image is slightly blurred and in black and white, you can still tell the type of music it is by what he’s wearing. This will help me with my project, as I need to make sure my models are wearing the right clothes for what music they listen to. This particular image will help me with the ‘country’ genre of my work. I will make sure to use of some kind and either a hat or a flower headband.

This image is of a member from a group called ‘So Last Century’. This violin is the main thing that defines what type music it is. This image gives me an idea of what to do for my ‘classical’ genre. Both positioning of the image (composition) and what to wear. I am going to make sure my model is wearing a variety of colours to make it stand out and make for an interesting image.

For both my images I may not include any instruments because it may detract from my actual idea of the clothes representing their music taste.

After scanning and editing my negative I made a colourisation of it. The way I did this was by using the blend tool on Photoshop.

Firstly I opened the picture and added a new layer so that the pixels on the original aren’t affected.

Next I used the brush tool with a soft edged brush and chose the colour I wanted (I started with the green of the trees).

Starting with full opacity I coloured in the areas that I wanted that colour. Once I’d filled in the areas I wanted, I pressed the ‘normal’ button next to the layers that brought up a drop down list and pressed ‘colour’ which blended the colours to make it less opaque in order to be able to see the image underneath to make it look filled in rather than coloured on top of.

I then played around with the opacity to make it more natural and make the blend more subtle.

Colourisation

Film colourisation is the process of adding colour to a black and white, sepia or any other monochrome film image. The first film colourisations were done by hand. Computerised colourisation begun in the 1970s. During the 1960s and the 1970s, black and white Betty Boop, Mickey Mouse and Looney Tunes cartoons were rereleased in colour. The process of colourisation was done by tracing the original black and white frames onto new animation cells and then adding colour to the new cells. With computer technology, colour could be added to black and white films by digitally tinting single objects in each frame of the film. Computerised colourisation began in the 1970s after the process was developed by Wilson Markle in order to add colour to monochrome images of the moon from the Apollo program missions. Movies were colourised using early techniques and have soft contrast, and fairly pale, flat, washed out colour. Since the 1980s technology has improved so images of better quality can be produced.

Wilson Markle

Wilson Markle is a Canadian engineer who invented the film colourisation process in 1970. The first company he created was Image Transform. This company coloured pictures from the Apollo space program to make a full-colour television presentation for NASA.

Ingrid Pollard

Ingrid Pollard is a photographer, media artist and researcher. Pollard has developed a social practice related to representation to race, difference and the importance of lens-based media.

This image was shot by Ingrid Pollard. It has been colourised from the original black and white image. Pollard’s ‘Pastoral Interlude’ explores the experience of black people living in the English countryside. She colourised it by hand. Her interest in the layers of history is echoed in her use of 19th Century photographic techniques.

This is the image that I chose to scan from my negatives. I shot this in my local park in Orpington. After developing the film and making my contact sheet I chose this image to scan.

When scanning I had to make sure that the scanner settings were appropriate for scanning my negative. Firstly I placed the film in the holder on the scanner, glossy side down. The resolution has to be 300dpi and the target size 7x5. Making sure the scanner and the film is clean and free of dust and fingerprints I previewed my scan and cropped the image that I wanted and scanned it.

Next was editing it. First of all I had to change the image size measurements to inches rather than centimetres. I then adjusted the curves of the image to give it more contrast as my original is pastey. This made it darker and more defined. Next I added a layer and changed the mode to overlay and ticked fill with overlay - neutral colour. After the layer was created I used the brush tool to darken certain areas of my image e.g. the sky because it is quite bright in the original, so using a soft edge and taking down the opacity I darkened the sky and the reflection in the pond.

I then created another layer and using the healing brush tool and selecting 'current & below' I edited out scratches and unwanted parts of my image.

The last thing I did was sharpen my image slightly. The way I did this was by firstly made sure the background was highlighted rather than a layer and selecting Filter in the top bar and then the drop down menu next to 'sharpen' and I selected 'unsharp mask', this then brought up a box with a preview of an area of my image. I had to make sure that the Radius was 2.0 and the threshold was 3. This added a slight sharpness to my image but not too much so as not to make it look unrealistic.

Rineke Dijkstra Case Study

Rineke Dijkstra is a Dutch photographer and video artist. In the early 1990s she branched out from formal portraiture to take her own style of portraits. She gained international success after her series "The Beaches" from 1992-6. She photographed youths in their swimming costumes on beaches from Ukraine to the USA. She works in series and captures her subjects at times they are self conscious and unintentionally revealing. Dijkstras first solo exhibition was at de Moor in Amsterdam, 1984. Some other international exhibitions that her work has been featured in include: The 1997 and 2002 Venice Biennale The 1998 Bienal de Sao Paulo Turin's Biennale Internationale di Fotografia in 1999 The 2003 International Centre for Photography's Triennial of Photography and Video in New York.

Rineke has won numerous awards, some of which include: The Kodak Award Nederland (1987) The Art Encouragement Award Amstelveen (1993) The Werner Mantz Award (1994) The Citibank Private Bank Photography Prize (1998)

These images show adolescents on beaches wearing swimming costumes which are revealing. Due to the fact Dijkstra liked to photograph their self consciousness, these photos definitely portray that. The 2 girls in particular are standing in very awkward positions showing the fact they are shy and insecure. This doesn't just reflect what teenagers may feel in swimming costumes, but all the time. Many young people are self conscious of the way they look and so they dress accordingly, i.e. oversized jumpers etc. This is very common among teens, in particular girls, but many boys are too. Rineke portrays this message clearly through her images by photographing them in revealing clothes. These images could be seen as inspirational, in that it shouldn't matter what you look like, you should have the confidence to dress in clothes that you like, as well as feel comfortable in. To be confident in the way you look which is something few teenagers have these days, due to media etc.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rineke_Dijkstra http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/rineke-dijkstra-2666

Danielle Levitt - Case Study

Danielle Levitt is an American photographer. At the age of ten, Levitt was given a camera as a birthday gift and from then she knew photography was the thing for her. In 1993, she dropped out of University and moved to New York City to pursue a career in photography. Levitt is known for her ability to capture the “alternative crowd” and in 2008 released her first photography book, “We Are Experienced”. The book captured teenage youth across America and included everyone from beauty queens to bikers. Levitt has shot for numerous publications including Wonderland, GQ, Dazed & Confused, and Arena Homme Plus, but is most known for her ongoing work with Nylon.

Danielle Levitt got her distinctive photographic style capturing street fashion, pop culture, and celebrity for countless publications. While producing this commercial work, Levitt also pursued her passion for documenting American youth. Her book entitled 'We Are Experienced', Levitt's first monograph, a series of portraits portraying teens in a variety of urban, suburban, and rural settings, as individuals and in groups.

We Are Experienced includes football stars, anorexics, wiccans, punks, prom dates, snowboarders, and baton twirlers.

These are a few of her images that were published in QVEST Magazine:

This image shows another publication of Levitt's in Arena magazine. It's showing "teen spirit". The 3 images show groups of youngsters which shows the bond between them. The photograph of the cheerleaders shows them working as a team which is something that could come across inspirationally as a lot of teenagers and young people struggle to work together and become very independent, which in some aspect is a good thing but when you go into the work place, even if you work individually on certain items, in the end you are all working for the same company or firm etc which is like working as a team and not being a team worker in youth could cause problems later. The image of the boys on bikes shows them 'hanging out' and also shows a hobby. This is also influential because many many teenagers spend their free time at home on their phones, or game consoles etc. using technology to entertain themselves, whereas this pictures shows teens outside communicating with each other and enjoying each other's company along with doing exercise as well as cycling is a very good way of exercising and being with friends at the same time. The picture on the left could portray both good and bad. Firstly good because it shows a boy and girl together who could quite easily be a couple which shows a relationship which at a young age is good for support and for confidence. However it could portray a bad image as the boy is smoking and young people may look at this photo in the magazine and be wrongly influenced by it, taking up smoking which is a bad habit to have as it has many drawbacks, including bad health, stereotypes, and building up problems for the future. These 3 images convey very simply, youth and what teens do in their free time with their friends.

Man Ray's Works

This is one of Man Ray's images in which he used his lover as his model and transformed the female body into a musical instrument by painting sound-holes on her back. This image is one of many of Man Ray's photographs that have gone on to be very well known in popular culture. F-holes have become a popular tattoo design amongst musicians, and fashion designers.

This photograph of Ray's partner, Kiki de Montparnasse's head next to an African ceremonial mask portrays both black and white photography as well as skin color. It was created at a time when African art and culture was popular in Vogue. Both faces look almost identical in their peaceful expressions, but he contrasts her soft pale face with the shiny black mask.

To be able to shoot the images on location using studio lighting we had to use a Bowens travel pack which enable the lights to be plugged in using the battery power.

When setting it up on location we had to make sure there were no trailing wires and that the battery pack was safely underneath the tripod holding the light so it is not a trip hazard.

Location Flash Photography

This is the first image I shot with movement. I was not very successful with this because I cut out her leg and arms and also it is not in focus. I didn’t use a fast enough shutter speed as I use 1/200. I also used ISO 320 and f/11. To get the picture in focus and in frame I would use a much faster shutter speed using a tripod and I would stand further back from the subject so that I can get her in frame even once she’s jumped in the air.

This second image is a lot more effective as I used a tripod and lighting. I used a shutter speed of 1/1600 which captured the movement a lot better than the slow shutter therefore all of the subject is in focus and using a tripod helped to make the image level and I stood far enough away to get the whole subject in the frame. I used ISO 320 and f/4. Using a light on location helped to make the lighting more even as it was sunny but the building behind me was casting a shadow across the ground so it was a bit darker than in the sun so the light brightened up the shot.

Making a Contact Sheet

When making a contact sheet the equipment you need includes: -film strips -film holder -enlarger -timer -photo sensitive paper -black card -developer -stop bath -fixer -water -dryer First of all you need to load your film strips into the holder which secures them in place at either end. Next you have to create test strips, so cut the photosensitive paper into narrow strips and place one of them under the film and set the timer to 3 seconds. Using a piece of black card, cover the entire holder of film, exposing just 1 image. Once exposed for the 3 seconds, move the card along the strip slowly exposing more film each time until the whole film has been exposed. By doing this, the first image will have been exposed for 18 seconds and the last will only be 3 so you can tell what time is the best to use for the type of film shot on as some film is darker than others so will need more exposure. Now you can decide what time to use so using another test strip, put it under the film and set the timer to your chosen time. When I was creating my contact sheet, I found that 14 seconds was a good time to use as my film was quite dark. When you are happy with your exposures, use a whole sheet of paper and put under all your negatives. Expose the film for your chosen time and then put it in the developer for 1 minute, the stop bath for 30 seconds, fixer for 5 minutes and rinse in the water for 10 minutes. Once this process is done put it through the dryer. When I developed my first one I discovered that 3 of my negative strips were dark and 3 were light so I had to use 2 different exposure times. The darker negatives I exposed for 14 seconds and the lighter negs for 6 seconds using the black card to cover the ones that weren't exposed each time.

Who is the person in the photograph?

Megan Fox

What has been done in Photoshop?

Her second tattoo has been edited out, in order to make the cover more appealing to the reader, however it has not been removed in the article image. The background and colouring is a lot different as well, the article is quite unsaturated as the colours are quite pale, whereas the cover is a lot more in colour and the backdrop is blue.

Has this changed the meaning of the image?

Yes because the editors decided that making both of her tattoos visible would complicate the cover. However they have not kept continuity because the page spread of her inside the magazine has kept both tattoos visible so the cover does not match the article inside.

What are the ethical issues relating to this digital manipulation?

People could think that tattoos reflect badly on a person so should have edited out both tattoos in both images.

However some people like tattoos and have some themselves so could get offended by having one edited out. That one being on the cover so everyone will see it, whereas not everyone will look at the article inside where it has not been edited out.

Editors may have done this because not everyone buys magazines but they may see the cover on a stand in a shop, therefore will see the cover with the edited image but won’t necessarily see the article inside.

When magazine editors and publishers manipulate photos for articles, they can be found libel for it because it is publishing something that isn't reflecting the truth. It makes the person magazine open to a lawsuit for damages by the person who can prove it is a lie.

Man Ray

Man Ray was primarily known for his photography, which spanned both the Dada and Surrealism movements. his experiments with photography included rediscovering how to make "camera-less" pictures, which he called rayographs.

Ray showed artistic ability from a young age. After finishing high school in 1908 he followed his passion for art. He later realised that he had been influenced by Alfred Stieglitz's photographs, whose gallery he often visited. He took on a similar style, snapping images that provided an unvarnished look at the subject.

After experimenting with a Cubist style of painting, he moved towards abstraction. Along with Duchamp and Francis Picabia, Ray became a leading figure in the Dada movement in New York. One of Ray's famous works from this time was "The Gift", a sculpture that incorporated two found objects. He glued tacks to the surface of an iron to create his piece.

In 1921, Ray moved to Paris. There, he became famous for his portraits of his artistic and literary associates. He also developed a thriving career as a fashion photographer, taking pictures for magazines such as Vogue. Ray discovered a new way to create interesting images by accident in his darkroom. Called 'Rayographs". These photos were made by placing and manipulating objects on pieces of photosensitive paper.

One of Ray's other famous pieces from this time was 1924's "Violon d'Ingres". This modified photograph feature his lover's bare back. In a humorous twist he added 2 black shapes to make her back look like a musical instrument. Around the time, Ray also experimented with a technique called the Sabatier effect, or Solarisation, which adds a silvery ghostly quality to the image.

Solarisation

Solarisation is an aspect in photography in which the image recorded on a negative or on a photographic print is fully or partially reversed in tone. Dark areas appear light and light areas appear dark.

As a guide, an exposure on 1 second to a 25Watt lamp at 2 metres distant towards the end of the first minute of a 2 minute development can produce a decent result.

Solarising colour prints is more difficult because of the more careful control of temperature and timing that is required.

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